Nutritional Guidelines
I’ve spoken a lot in the past, about making sure you eat the correct ratios of carbohydrates, proteins and fats, but it suddenly occurred to me (I can be a little slow sometimes) that perhaps many people aren’t sure what constitutes a carb, protein or fat (let alone a good quality one)! So, to help, I’m going to break it down for you...
Cut The Sugar Craving
Many people have – at some point in their lives - experienced sugar cravings, and so understand just how difficult they can be to overcome. Well, the good news is that there’s a relatively simple way of dealing with them in a manner that won’t feel remotely like deprivation …
Your Body's Secret (Food) Language
Do you hear your body when it tells you how it feels after a meal? It’s become apparent to me that many people have lost the ability to interpret the signals their bodies give them in response to the food choices they make. In fact, I think it comes as a bit of a shock to realise that – assuming you can understand this sometimes subtle language – you’ll never need to question whether what you’re eating is appropriate for your own biochemistry.
Eating After Exercise
The question “What should I be eating post-training sessions?” pops up frequently in the context of athletes and weekend warriors alike. The answer lies in the type of exercise you’ve just performed, since different fuelling systems require different nutrient ‘refills’.
Firstly, you need to understand that any form of exercise increases or enhances insulin sensitivity. Let me explain the relevance of this effect. When you eat a meal that has carbs in it (fruits, vegetables or grains), the pancreas will be stimulated to produce insulin. Insulin is the hormone that ‘collects’ glucose (the end result of the breakdown of carbs) from the bloodstream and takes it to the cells, in effect, looking for a place to store this sugar. Enhanced insulin sensitivity means that it’s easier for your body to take up sugar from your bloodstream into tissues like muscles, where it can be stored or used as fuel.
Grains - Dangerous And Fattening?
Grains are a very prominent part of the modern diet, but you may be surprised to know that they’re also potentially health-harming in a number of ways.
Processed grains encompass foods such as breads, pasta, pies and confectionary (cake, biscuits, muffins, croissants etc.) as well as refined flours. Whole-grains consist of rice, millet, quinoa, amarinth, cornmeal, spelt, wild rice, barley, buckwheat, oats, rye and kamut, as well as any of these grains that have been stone ground into flour.
Traditionally, humans always soaked grains in an acidic medium in order to encourage a fermentation process (we’re speaking of whole-grains here, as this was the only type of grain type we had access to, back in the day).