10 minute read
Health
health The Sugar RideRollercoaster
I HAVE BEEN DEALING WITH WEIGHT LOSS FOR MANY YEARS NOW AND ONE OF THE THINGS THAT REALLY ANNOYS ME IS THE FOOD INDUSTRY
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They are able to get away with suspect food labelling and their television advertising is misleading at best. I turn into ‘Victoria Meldrew’ on a regular basis! Take Kellogg’s Special K and Cheerios. One provides the family with a balanced breakfast or in the case of Special K it helps you lose weight, but what they really are is a processed food that is loaded with sugar. Don’t get me on Coco Pops and muesli, the editors would not be able to print what I think of them. So how do they get away with this? Let us start with Cheerios. The plain one is low in fat, not too bad on calories and they are high in vitamins and minerals. If you choose one of the other varieties, say the honey nut version, it is 12 times higher in sugar per 28g portion, increasing the calorie intake from 100 to 140. This does not include the milk which contains natural sugar in the form of lactose. Special K has about 5 times as much as plain Cheerios, yet is branded to help you lose weight. John Kellogg developed Cornflakes as a plain breakfast cereal as he believed it stopped impure sexual desires. So, if you have ever noticed that your thoughts are particularly wholesome while having your morning cereal, then you have Mr Kellogg to thank. The next hidden sugar is my other pet hate – British baked beans. This store cupboard favourite of many is branded as ‘one of your five a day’. True, they contain beans, happy days, but a large tin of British baked beans contains 4 teaspoons of sugar! Newsflash, Haricot Blanc a la Sauce Tomate, the French version, does not. They contain less that 1 teaspoon. Disliked by many due to this low sugar content. Other hidden sugars can be found in bread, ‘low fat’ products, smoothies and fruit juices. Reading food labels is really important and not just taking what the ‘strap line’ tells us. We all know that chocolate and fizzy drinks are high in sugar, so why do we have to worry about sugar? The recommended daily intake of added sugar is 9 teaspoons for men and 6 teaspoons for women. − There are 5.2 teaspoons of sugar in a standard Mars bar. (36g) − There are 9 teaspoons of sugar in a can of coke. (330ml) I have been researching the effect of how what you eat affects our bodies, specifically the first meal of the day. When we break our overnight fast, (commonly known to us as breakfast), at whatever time this maybe, I am now a great believer that the first thing we eat sets the tone for our body for the rest of the day.
When we eat foods that are high in sugar our blood sugar levels go up and our body produces insulin to bring it back down. Some of this sugar is used as energy, some is discharged by the body and anything that we do not use is then sent to fat cells – weight gain. For those of you with a science background – I am keeping it simple here! Eating highly processed, sugary foods gives our bodies tremendous highs. The subsequent downs makes us feel worse and we reach for more food and find ourselves on the sugar roller coaster. This is a new 20th century ride. Breakfast cereals, such as the ones mentioned above, low fat yogurts, (code for high sugar) and fruit juices are your ticket to ride and I believe that they make you hungry for the rest of the day. By changing the first meal of the day to a protein-based meal stops the body from having its initial high. There is no correspondingBy changing the first meal low and no need for of the day to a protein- another high and the cycle based meal stops the body is broken. from having its initial high There is a lot to be said for poached eggs and bacon for your first meal. An omelette with a small amount of cheese or a vegetable frittata. Smoked salmon, scrambled eggs and avocado. A continental breakfast of cheese, cold meats, olives and full fat yogurt is also a good option. As always you just have to be mindful of your portions. Many of us have given up the good old English breakfast as we were told in the 1970s that the saturated fat would kill us, but all we have done is exchange it for the new enemy of sugar. So please be sure to check the ingredients on breakfast cereals, and don’t be fooled by the slogans! Research material – Dr A Jenkinson –Why we Eat (Too Much) –The New Science of Appetite) Magazine pictures kindly provided by Alice Yarrington.
By Louise Cotton
Louise works with the Fit for Life Association as a Clinical Weight Loss Coach. She is also a Hypnotherapy Practitioner Specialising in Hypnotic Gastric Band Therapy
email: louise@fitforlife.one
The Importance of Self-esteem
HOW YOU THINK OF YOURSELF CAN HEAVILY INFLUENCE THE CHOICES AND DECISIONS YOU MAKE ON A DAY-TO-BASIS
Your self-esteem is the opinion you have of yourself and when it's at a healthy level, you tend to think positively about yourself and be optimistic about life in general. On the whole you feel able to navigate life's challenges and to value who you are and know your own worth. You are able to express your positive characteristics such as "I am kind", "I am a good friend" or "I am honest". Here are a few examples of someone with healthy self-esteem: 1. Being able to make choices, trust your own judgement and not feel guilty about choices if someone does not agree. 2. If after learning something new, the old values you hold don't fit any longer - individuals with positive self-esteem do not have any difficulty modifying their belief. 3. Resisting manipulation by others. 4. Believing in your capacity to solve problems, adjust to failures and ask for help if needed. 5. Considering yourself self-worthy and equal to others, regardless of differences in finances and personal success. When you have a low self-esteem, you tend to see yourself, the world and even your future more critically and negatively. When you encounter life challenges, you doubt that you are capable of and so might go out of your way to avoid them. You are likely to be talking to yourself in a negative way and telling yourself, "you can't manage this", "you're stupid" or "I don't amount to anything". This could leave you feeling sad, low, unmotivated and anxious. Often criticizing yourself too
By Simone Perryman
Simone Perryman moved to the Charente several years ago with her now grown up family. She is passionate about mental health and as a Person Centred Counsellor has a private practice here. Currently working online or by telephone
Facebook Simone Perryman Wellbeing Solutions Tel 0604409719 or 0545 893034 E.mail Simoneperryman@gmail.com
harshly and reducing your self-confidence even further. A few examples of someone with low self-esteem: 1. Chronic indecision due to fear of making mistakes 2. Excessive will to please out of fear of displeasing someone 3. Feelings of insignificance. 4. Exaggerating the magnitude of mistakes or behaviours and not being able to reach self forgiveness. As no one is born with low self-esteem, it means it is often developed as a result of the experiences we have throughout our lives. Often from childhood but not exclusively. At the core of low self-esteem is the beliefs and opinions we hold about ourselves, which often come from the stories we tell ourselves about who we are; we form conclusions from them about ourselves. These opinions get fixed as though they are "truths" for all time. This is often when we attach negative labels to ourselves which are very selfcritical about our abilities to do something or that we are for example "stupid", "ugly" or "boring" and produce feelings of worthlessness. The development of low self-esteem is often from our early negative life experiences which may include: ▪ Punishment, neglect or abuse including bullying. Negative childhood experiences of these kinds can often form beliefs that the child is bad and deserves this treatment. ▪ Failing to meet parent's or other people's expectations. This can leave a person feeling that they are not good enough even when the expectations are unfair and unrealistic in the first place. ▪ Not meeting the standards of your peer group. In adolescence, when you are developing your identity and being told “you are the odd one out”, it can be very damaging to self-esteem. ▪ Developing low self-esteem just through the deficit of not receiving enough love, warmth, affection, praise and encouragement. Without this reinforcement children can form a belief that they are not worthy or good enough. This results in us speaking to ourselves in a critical way which reinforces the negative thinking and feelings which can be very difficult to change. If we don’t see ourselves as competent and capable, then we often feel the world seems full of danger and this raises our anxiety levels. This leads us to use avoidance strategies meaning that if we think our flaws will be exposed then it makes sense to avoid a situation. For example, not attending a wedding reception because you will be asked to dance but you don’t want to go because as a child you may have been told “you have no coordination” and “that you are a bad dancer” and you don’t want to feel humiliated by being forced to get up and dance. By not going to the wedding it will give you a shortterm sense of relief but in the long term it will prove unhelpful as you don’t give yourself the opportunity to learn to cope more positively and so it remains a cycle of critical thinking and self-doubt. Treatments for low self-esteem are where talking therapies can be very helpful. Having a safe environment to gently explore without judgement. To question the basis of critical thinking and get curious as to why you hold negative beliefs and opinions and provide an opportunity to reframe them with compassion for ourselves. To learn how to improve our internal language and modify our assumptions that we make about ourselves and the world when we feel threatened, so that we don’t remain stuck in a negative cycle. So, challenging yourself to change your focus and learn some better thinking skills can boost your self-esteem almost immediately. Helping you to engage in life more fully with positive self-belief and an attitude of worthiness.
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