Lincs Nutrition - Blog

If you want to lose weight, you’re more likely to succeed if you set yourself a suitable goal. But how do you do this?

Use the ‘SMART‘ acronym (which stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-constrained) will make this much easier.

Specific – instead of thinking “I’d like to lose some weight“, be specific about how much – half a stone, a stone? After this, work out how much you’d like to weigh and think in terms of this, rather than in terms of loss e.g. “I’d like to weigh 9 and a half stone” rather than “I’d like to lose half a stone“. Doing this will positively reinforce the ‘new you’ in your subconscious and make it easier to make lifestyle changes you need to reach your target weight.

Measurable – choose an actual amount of weight and keep a diary of your change in weight over time. That way, you can measure your exact weight change rather than trying to remember.

Achievable/Realistic – use a body mass index calculator to find the ideal weight range for your height. Is you weight loss achievable? Can you make the lifestyle changes required to reach your goal? Can you do it in the time-frame you set (see the next point for this one!)?

Time-constrained – set a time limit for the weight loss – that makes it a better goal to work towards. You might think of this in terms of time, or an upcoming holiday. Losing half a stone in weight suddenly becomes easier when you set a realistic time – assuming a weight loss of 1-2lbs a week, you can lose half a stone in 3.5-7 weeks. Can you make the changes required to do it in 3.5 weeks, or do you want to achieve it at a slower steady pace and manage it in seven weeks?

According to BBC news today, 18 businesses have agreed to display calorie information on their menus. On the surface of things, this sounds like good news, but will it really make a difference, and does it go far enough?

As well as the legal minimum information that needs to be displayed on food items, some manufacturers go further. On many foods, there are labels to show the calories, sugars, fat, saturates and salt per serving, in both grams and percentage of an adult’s guideline daily amount. Some labelling uses a traffic light colour coding to show whether the amounts of these per serving is healthy or not (see here for more information on both these methods).

This certainly gives people more information about their food, and as long as their portion sizes are realistic, can help as part of a diet or lifestyle change.

The voluntary calorie labelling of foods reported today is obviously a good start, but there is no unified approach. This means that different food outlets will display the information differently, which is a potential source of confusion for customers.

A far better system would be similar to one of the labelling guidelines above – knowing calories is a good start but knowing salt, sugar and saturated fat content is far more useful information. It also helps people understand whether their diet is balanced.

A chicken salad from one of the fast food chains can be a healthy option – most of the calories are in the dressing, which normally comes in a separate sachet. Will the restaurant label each salad component seperately so you can make an informed choice, or will the salad suddenly look like a frighteningly-calorific option because they assume you’ll use all the dressing? (And decide a burger looks like a better choice!!)

It also depends on how often you eat calorie dense food (food that provides a lot of calories in a small amount). If you eat fast food every day of the week, cutting down on calorie intake will be very beneficial. However, if you eat it once every few months, you won’t really see much change if you do opt for a lower-calorie option.

However, having to show calories may force ‘healthy’ competition – fast food outlets vying for more business by reducing the calorie content of their foods to below that of their competitors whilst retaining flavour, and keeping the price down.

Last week, there was a BBC report on how “effective” the UK’s response to swine flu was. However, did it get blown out of proportion? As well as each vaccine containing substances such as mercury and squalene (to be discussed another day), perhaps there never was a pandemic?

Millions of pounds were given to the pharmaceutical companies, with inflexible contracts which means that these vaccines and medications are sitting unused and can’t be returned. The World Health Organisation is facing claims of corruption, and manufacturing the pandemic – so-called neutral scientists sitting on WHO advisory committees were actually being paid for the very companies that manufactured the vaccines. Just Google for more information if you think this is the stuff of conspiracies…

The BBC’s article quoted 457 reported and confirmed swine flu-related deaths in the UK. In any given year however, 3,000-4,000 deaths are attributed to influenza (“flu”) in the UK. That’s nearly ten times as many. The government seemed to create a whole culture of fear, almost emotionally blackmailing people into getting the swine flu jab. Pregnant women were told they should have the jab, but it hadn’t even been tested for safety in pregnancy. In fact, safety tests were only conducted to check that no-one suffered ill effects from the jab within a few weeks of receiving it. No-one yet knows the longer term effects.

References

• BBC – Swine flu response ‘effective’
• Patient UK – Influenza
• The Guardian – Report condemns swine flu experts’ ties to big pharma
• Daily Express – Gulf War Toxins in Swine Flu Vaccine

• Tags: flu jab • world health organisation • influenza flu • swine flu • flu related deaths • bbc report • culture of fear • advisory committees • squalene • safety tests • ill effects • pandemic • conspiracies • pharmaceutical companies • vaccines • influenza • pregnant women • flu • corruption •

This guest article promotes the benefits of making bread at home. Have a look at my recipes section for some ideas. Yum.

An earth friendly loaf

Bread is a simple, staple food we’ve made unnecessarily complex and somewhat unhealthy in modern times. Added to questionable ingredients found in some loaves these days are commercial production processes that are often downright environmentally unfriendly. I’ve made mention of some of these issues in my article on brown bread vs. white bread.

I spent part of my childhood and early adulthood behind the scenes of bakeries and I can tell you that some of the ingredients we used were terrible and the amount of energy used in creating our products was incredible. We were somewhat ignorant then, but even though bakers are more aware now, many commercial bakeries large and small tend to continue in old habits.

We recently started baking our own bread at home and unlike days of old, home bread making is a lot simpler, faster, resource friendly and less messier thanks to the availability of cheap domestic breadmakers and a wide variety of mixes. It’s so simple; place the pre-mix ingredients into the breadmaker hopper, add water (but avoiding wetting the yeast granules), set the program and that’s about it – the breadmaker does the rest.

A decent breadmaker will cost you around $100, but if you switch totally to baking your own loaves; the average family can recoup that money in a few months through cost savings over store-bought bread. We calculate that making a loaf of bread costs 50% less than buying one – including electricity.

Being small enclosed units, modern breadmakers are quite efficient in terms of electricity consumption. Our unit is rated at 700 watts – far less than a standard oven. After you start the mixing/baking cycle; you never have to open the lid again until the bread is ready – which greatly reduces the potential loss of heat. If you offset your electricity usage or your home is renewable energy powered, it makes your bread even more earth friendly!

There’s also less plastic involved – bags can be reused and there’s less plastic in the bread mix packaging.

Suppliers of bread mixes for home baking seem to be growing increasingly savvy to the fact that many people are making their own bread not only for economic reasons, but also due to health and environmental concerns. Consequently, there’s an amazing range of organic bread mixes now available. I do suggest you start out with a pre-mix while familiarizing yourself with home bread making; but after a while you may choose to select all the ingredients separately based on your tastes and concerns. It’s a fantastic aspect of baking your own bread – the opportunity to be creative.

One of the other great advantages of baking your own bread using pre-mixes is the shelf life of the mix; it will keep for months. By stocking up on mix, you’ll never run out of bread again! Fewer trips to the supermarket equals less fuel used or you can save electricity by not needing to freeze a supply of store bought bread.

Just to dispel a myth – even though many home bread mixes don’t have all the nasties such as artificial preservatives or extra fat to help keep them soft and “fresh”, the loaves do keep quite well. We find the bread we bake is still tastes fresh a couple of days after it’s been baked; but it rarely lasts that long :).

How to stop bread from sticking in breadmaker pan

Bread sticking to the pan in a breadmaker is a common problem; one that we began experiencing ourselves recently; particularly on the mixer blade. It doesn’t matter whether your pan is teflon coated (brr) – it will likely happen in your bread maker over time also. We tried oiling the pan prior placing ingredients in – it was messy and didn’t work.

We were debating whether to get rid of our bread making machine and buy a new one. That didn’t sit well with us from an economical or environmental standpoint.

The solution that worked beautifully for us was a spoonful or two of extra light olive oil in with the mix. The amount of oil you’ll need to prevent your bread from sticking will vary as it depends on the type of bread you’re making. Start off with a single dessert spoon and up it from there if need be. The extra oil has the added side effect of helping to keep the bread fresher for longer!

There’s nothing quite like the aroma of baking bread, nor the satisfaction of making your own loaves – it puts you a little more in touch with times gone past when life was simpler. I highly recommend giving it a whirl!

Michael Bloch
Green Living Tips.com
Green Living Tips is an online resource powered by renewable energy offering a wide variety of earth friendly tips, green guides, advice and environment related news to help consumers and business reduce costs, consumption and environmental impact.

• Tags: commercial bakeries • electricity consumption • questionable ingredients • home bread • breadmakers • mix ingredients • brown bread • staple food • loaf of bread • old habits • white bread • production processes • renewable energy • yeast • bakers •

Pass the Mustard, or Just Pass on the Hot Dog?

By Andrew W. Saul, Editor-In-Chief, Orthomolecular Medicine News Service

More hot dogs are eaten at the 4th of July holiday than at any other time of the year. The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council (yes, an all-too-real trade organization) says that “during the Independence Day weekend, 155 million will be gobbled up” and that Americans will consume more than seven billion hot dogs over the summer. “Every year,” they proudly proclaim, “Americans eat an average of 60 hot dogs each.” (1)

That looks to be a modest average of just over one hot dog per week per American. But there are at least 7 million vegetarians in the US, and another 20 million who would be inclined to avoid meat. (2)

This means that even if you do not eat any hot dogs at all, someone else is eating your share.

But a hot dog or two a week? Big deal!

Maybe it is. Children who eat one hot dog a week double their risk of a brain tumor; two per week triples the risk. Kids eating more than twelve hot dogs a month (three a week) have nearly ten times the risk of leukemia as children who eat none. (3)

And it is not just about kids. Of 190,000 adults studied for seven years, those eating the most processed meat such as deli meats and hot dogs had a 68 percent greater risk of pancreatic cancer than those who ate the least. (4) Pancreatic cancer is especially difficult to treat.

Think twice before you serve up your next tube steak. If your family is going to eat hot dogs, at least take your vitamins. Hot dog eating children taking supplemental vitamins were shown to have a reduced risk of cancer. (5) Vitamins C and E prevent the formation of nitrosamines. Emma: These are cancer causing chemicals formed when meat is cooked, particularly at high temperatures.(6,7)

It is curious that, while busy theorizing many “potential” dangers of vitamins, the news media have largely ignored this clear-cut cancer-prevention benefit from supplementation.

May I also suggest that you have your kids chew their hot dogs extra thoroughly. In landfills, “Whole hot dogs have been found, some of them in strata suggesting an age upwards of several decades.” (8)

Bon appetit.

References:

1. http://www.hot-dog.org
2. http://www.vegetariantimes.com/features/archive_of_editorial/667
3. Peters JM, Preston-Martin S, London SJ, Bowman JD, Buckley JD, Thomas DC. Processed meats and risk of childhood leukemia. Cancer Causes Control. 1994 Mar; 5(2):195-202
4. Nothlings U, Wilkens LR, Murphy SP, et al. 2005. Meat and fat intake as risk factors for pancreatic cancer: The Multiethnic Cohort Study. J Nat Cancer Inst 97:1458-65
5. Sarasua S, Savitz DA. Cured and broiled meat consumption in relation to childhood cancer: Denver, Colorado (United States). Cancer Causes Control. 1994 Mar; 5(2):141-8. Comment at http://www.ralphmoss.com/hotdog.html
6. Scanlan RA. Nitrosamines and cancer. http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/f-w00/nitrosamine.html
7. Cass H; English J. User’s guide to vitamin C. Basic Health Publications, 2002, p 64-67. ISBN-10: 1591200210; ISBN-13: 978-1591200215
8. Smithsonian, July 1992, p 5

• Tags: sausage council • supplemental vitamins • brain tumour • cancer prevention • hot dogs • tube steak • deli meats • processed meat • pancreatic cancer • hot dog • vegetarians • leukaemia •

For Further Reading:

Orthomolecular medicine describes the practice of preventing and treating disease by providing the body with optimal amounts of substances which are natural to the body. It uses safe, effective nutritional therapy to fight illness. This article comes from the Orthomolecular News Service – you can subscribe to their newsletter or view the archives.