Portion Sizes

So you now know what you are eating but what is a Portion Size?

So far we have learnt in great detail about the food we are eating and what an Optimal Healthy Pyramid looks like alongside the simple balanced plate.   No matter how healthy the food you eat, you can still be at risk of serious health problems if you eat too much or too little for your energy needs. If you’re overweight despite sticking to a healthy, balanced diet, and chances are you need to cut down your portion sizes.
Here are outlined recommended portion sizes and amounts for an average adult aiming to maintain his or her weight. If you’re aiming to lose excess weight, you will need to eat fewer portions than this.

Starchy foods

Eight to 10 portions per day (to maintain weight for an average adult, depending on activity level – we have learnt that starchy foods are our main source of energy and should form the basis of every meal.  Here are some examples of starchy foods and portion size guidelines:

A day’s amount may include nine tablespoons of cereal for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch and six tablespoons of rice with dinner.  Remember try to go for wholegrain or wholemeal versions of starchy foods as they are likely to keep you feeling fuller for longer.

And if you decide to include most of your day’s quota of starchy foods in one meal, cut down throughout the rest of the day.

Meat, fish and other proteins

Three portions per day – with at least one portion of oily fish a week

This group includes non-dairy sources of protein, which is important for growth and repair. Try to include one portion in at least two of your daily meals. One portion counts as the following.

A day’s worth from this group might mean two eggs with breakfast and a piece of fish for dinner; or a chicken salad for lunch and half a tin of baked beans with dinner. Try to limit your intake of red and processed meat.

Dairy 

Three portions a day

Dairy foods contain calcium for healthy bones and teeth, and are also a good source of protein. Try to include one portion with every meal, and go for lower-fat options when you can however do remember that sometimes in low fat yoghurts there can be higher in sugar so you could have a full fat yoghurt in a smaller portion or in moderation!

 A portion includes the following.

The milk on your cereal and in your tea all counts. Go for lower-fat cheese and yoghurts, and skimmed or semi-skimmed milk. These contain just as much calcium as full-fat versions.

Fruit and vegetables

At least five portions a day this is just the recommended minimum amount that was agreed in war time to ensure people kept off scurvy and some nutrition experts actually say it should be nearer 8-10!

One portion is 80g of any fruit or vegetable. Examples include:

Have a glass of fruit juice with your breakfast and snack on fruit throughout the day. If you have a sandwich at lunchtime, including some salad will contribute towards another of your five a day.

Fat and sugar

Limit your intake of these foods

Foods high in fat include butter, cream, chocolate and cakes. Foods and drinks high in sugar include soft drinks, sweets and biscuits. You should only eat foods from this group sparingly unless as we discussed in the weeks before it is a good fat for example seeds, avocado’s, tbsp. olive oil on salads etc.

Tips for cutting down portions sizes

Many people are surprised when they realise what a typical portion size should look like. If you’re used to piling your plate high with pasta or filling your bowl to the brim with cereal, it can come as quite a shock. But once you cut down, you’ll soon get used to eating less.

Here are some general pointers if you think you need to cut down portion sizes.

• Use smaller plates or bowls for your meals. A small plate full of food is much less disheartening than a large plate that’s half empty.
• You don’t need to cut down on your fruit and vegetables if you’re trying to lose weight. So if your plate is looking a bit sparse, fill it up with vegetables up to 50% of the plate could be vegetables to really ensure you are running your body at its healthiest!  And if you’re craving a mid-morning snack, go for a piece of fruit.
• Think about everything you eat during the day. It’s easy to forget the biscuit you had with your tea at work or extra slice of cheese in your sandwich.
• Counting calories and weighing food is no fun and hard to keep up. Instead, compare what you usually eat against this guide for a week or so and you can start to identify areas where you’re eating more than you should.

Nutrition - Body Fat

Body Fat and Your Ideal Weight

All diets and healthy eating plans usually focus on weight loss, and there is a general acceptance that the closer you are to your ideal weight, the healthier you will be, the less risk of life-threatening and dehabilitating diseases.  However, weight is only a small part of the picture.  Your lean muscle tissue is important as well hence along this learning journey we have stressed the importance of not just making healthier tweaks to the way you see and eat food but you make time to exercise .* Vital body organs, such as your heart, liver and kidneys, need to be supported by lean tissue, as does your whole body and that is why fitness is so important.  When we exercise we shape up on the inside as well as the outside.

Muscles use up more glucose, and therefore calories than fat meaning that lean muscle burns fat.  This means that if you are heavy but fit; your weight may not be as much as a problem as you think.  On the other hand if you are thin, but lightweight and lacking in muscle tone you may not be as fit as you think!  That is why today when we take your measurements and weight/body fat  you can use your body fat percentage to make a more accurate score of your health than the weight.

Body Fat Guidelines

Visceral Fat Guidelines

(1-9% = good, 10-14% = Risk, 15-59% = High Risk) 

Eat Good Fats, Avoid Bad Fats

Some fats are essential to health, which is why we have an instinct to eat fat.  The body’s ‘fat sensors’ are in your mouth – and we are instinctively drawn towards the creamy textures of fat, sauces, cheese and cream hence fat-free diets being a struggle for us.  There are good fats and bad fats in food and only when you start to eat “good fats” does your body stop craving bad fats.

Good Fats

The good fats are essential fats listed on packets as polyunsaturated and are found in seeds, flaxseeds, grains and oily fish.  They include the essential fatty acids (EFA’s) such as omega-3 and omega-6.  These fats are essential to health and can help you lose weight.  There are two reasons for this – firstly your body craves essential fats and secondly they help your metabolism top work properly; improve the effectiveness of the brain and the nervous system, they boost immunity, balance hormones and create healthy skin.

Your body and brain depend on Omega-3 and Omega-6 essential fats.  One quarter of your brain is made up of Omega-3’s and a lack of essential fats can lead to lower IQ, poor memory and a tendency to depression.  Your hormone balances changes, possibly leading to mood swings, PMS, sugar cravings and weight gain.  Your skin dries and your heart and arteries suffer and that’s why these fats are called essential.  The Omega- 3’s not only boosts your metabolism they reduce the risk of heart disease and sudden heart attack and halve your risk of ever suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.

Good Food Sources

Fat Family                           Good Dietary Sources

Omega 3   Fish, especially salmon, mackerel, herring, tuna and sardines, flaxseeds, pumpkin seeds, walnuts and there oils.

Omega 6                  Sunflower, sesame and pumpkin seeds and their oils; also sunflower oil, corn oil and soya oil

Omega and 9                  Olive Oil, almonds walnuts

Bad Fats

The “bad fats” are non-essential fats listed on packets as saturated fats, trans-fats and hydronated fats and can be found in meat, dairy products, processed, fried and junk foods.  Eating bad fats leaves you unsatisfied, so you’ll find yourself craving more fats as your body as received the good fats that it needs.

Bad fats feature heavily in the average Western Diet and are bad news for your heart, your weight and arteries.  They contribute to diseases such as cancer, diabetes and coronary heart diseases as well as heavy weight gain.  If you eat all these fats and don’t burn them off immediately, all your body can do is store them as unhealthy fat.  Worst of all are the trans-fats and hydronated fats as these are the real ugliest - these have been processed, fried or damaged.  When the molecules of essential fats are altered by food processing or frying they set up a reaction in the body that can damage the cells most commonly seen when using margarine or olive oil in cooking and that is why they as well as crisps, biscuits, ready-meals and fried foods are bad for you.

There is also an in-between fat (mono-unsaturated); omega-9.  Olive Oil is a good source of this when drizzled in small quantities onto food whereas this is nowhere as good for you as the essential good fats, neither as bad for you as essential bad fats.

Foods to Avoid

Foods rich in bad fats include:  French fries, hamburgers, deep fried goods, nuggets, confectionery, chocolate bars, potato and corn chips. Crisps, biscuits cakes, margarine, mayonnaise and most salad dressings.  Unfortunately, many vegetarian processed foods are also high in these hydrogenated fats.  Check the label – if it stated “hydrogenated vegetable oils” do not buy it!

Foods to Enjoy

The omega-3 essential fats, found in flax and pumpkin seeds, and oily cold water fish such as mackerel, herring, salmon and tuna help keep weight at bay in a number of ways.  They help make hormone-like substances called prostaglands, which help control metabolism and fat burning.  They also help to limit the potential damage to arteries caused when eating too many bad fats or sugary bursts of high glucose into the blood.  Good sources of fats also include avocados although limit to ½ per day as with all fats they are calorific too and should be eaten in moderation.

The omega-6 essential fats, found in hot climate seeds such as sunflower and sesame, have similar health benefits to the omega 3’s and are especially good for the skin and maintaining hormone balance, for example combating pms.

What is Nutrition

What is Nutrition?

Optimum Nutrition or put simply Healthy Eating means giving your body the best possible intake of nutrients to allow it to be as healthy as possible and to work as well as it can. 

Why is Nutrition /Healthy Heating Important?

·         Provides the body with the necessary nutrients to carry out basic functions of the body

·         Improve your clarity and concentration

·         Increase your IQ

·         Enhance your physical performance

·         Improves your quality of sleep

·         Increase your resistance to infection

·         Protect you from Disease

·         Slows down the ageing process

·         More than halves your risk of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, stroke, osteoporosis and arthritis

·         Reduce obesity and manage normal weight

Knowing what you are eating?

Every morsel of food provides dozen of active ingredients that can promote or damage your health.  The most important of these ingredients are the essential ones – the ones you need to survive and be healthy.  These nutrients include:

·         Water

·         Carbohydrates

·         Proteins

·         Essential Fats

·         Vitamins

·         Minerals

Water, Carbohydrates, Protein and essential fats are classified as “macronutrients” because we need a lot of them.  We need vitamins and minerals in relatively smaller amounts, so they are called the “micronutrients”.

Vitamins in Food

Although vitamins are needed in much smaller amounts than fat, protein or carbohydrate, they are no less important  Vitamins balance hormones, produce energy, boost the immune system, make healthy skin, protect the arteries, and keep the brain and the nervous system (just about every part of the body) working well.

Minerals in Food

Minerals, like vitamins, are essential for just about every bodily process.  Calcium, Magnesium and phosphorous help build our bones and teeth.  Nerve signals (vital for communication between the brain and muscles) depend on calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium.  Zinc is vital for all physical repair, renewal and development.  Selenium and Zinc help boost the immune system.

Knowing what You’re Eating

Achieving an optimal intake of each vitamins and minerals is a big step in being healthy:

·         Fruits and vegetables provide most of your vitamins and minerals (except vit D and B12)

·         Meat, Fish, Eggs and dairy products provide vitamin D and B12, among other nutrients

·         Dairy Products are good for calcium, but poor for other minerals

·         Seeds and nuts are great sources of minerals (and essential fats)

·         Processed and refined foods are low in nutrients – Understanding Clean and Lean

Another important element of your diet is fibre.  Fibre isn’t classed as a nutrient, but it’s essential to keep your digestive system healthy and certain types of fibre can help to control your blood cholesterol levels.

Defining the Perfect Diet

You need to eat a range of foods to get all of the nutrients and fibre your body needs.  The five main groups are:

Fat

Your body needs some fat to survive and function properly.  Fat provides many essential functions such as supporting cell growth, providing the body of energy, maintaining body temperature, protecting organs, producing hormones and absorbing certain nutrients.

There are two main kinds:  Saturated (hard) fat and unsaturated fat.  Saturated fat is not essential – we should eat it in moderation.  Saturated fat is typically solid at room temperature and occurs naturally in many foods but the majority come from mainly animal sources, including meat and dairy products, clear examples are fatty beef, lamb, pork, lard and cream, butter and cheese.  

There are also two kinds of unsaturated fats: monounsaturated fats, high in olive oil; polyunsaturated fats, found in nut and seed oils and fish such as salmon/mackerel/pilchards.  The optimal diet provides a balance of these essential fats, also known as Omega 3 and Omega 6 oils.  Pumpkin and flax seeds are rich in Omega 3 whilst sesame and sunflower seeds or even avocado are rich in Omega 6.  These essential fats are easily damaged by heating a good example of that is Olive Oil.

Processed foods often contained hardened or hygdronated polyunsaturated fats these are unhealthy and best avoided.  A surprising example of processed food is margarine – Did you know about the butter and margarine outdoor overnight experiment?  Pre-packaged processed foods also usually have a long list of artificial ingredients and food additives such as: artificial sweeteners, high fructose corn syrup, Hydrogenated Oils. 

Try to eat less fat overall but remember from above the type of fat is important try to replace foods that are high in saturated (bad) fats such as margarine, pastries and cheese with foods that are rich in unsaturated (good) fats, such as avocado and fish.    

Protein

Protein is made out of amino acids which are the building blocks of the body.  As well as being vital for growth and repair of body tissue, they are used to make hormones.  Meat, fish and alternatives such as beans, pulse, eggs and nuts are all important non-dairy sources of protein.  The best quality protein foods are eggs, quinoa (pronounced Keen-Wah and is a grain that cooks like rice), soya, meat, fish, beans and lentils.

Animal protein sources tend to contain a lot of undesirable saturated fat and it is best to limit your meat intake to 3 times a week, occasionally replace with fish, free range eggs and beans/lentils/tofu.  Many vegetables, especially seed foods like runner beans, peas and broccoli contain levels of protein.  They also help to neutralise excess acidity which can lead to loss of minerals including calcium – hence the higher risk of osteoporosis among meat-eaters. 

Carbohydrate

Carbohydrate is the body’s main fuel as starchy foods comes in two forms:  fast-releasing (as in sugar, honey, malt, sweets and most refined food) and slow releasing (as in whole grains, vegetables and fresh fruit).  The slow releasing carbohydrates contain more fibre, which helps slow down the release of sugar.  Fast releasing carbohydrates are best avoided as constant eating of fast releasing can increased the rise health problems such as diabetes.    Some fruits like bananas, dates and raisins contain faster releasing sugars are best kept to a minimum by people with glucose relate health problems.   

Slow releasing carbohydrates – fresh fruit, vegetables, pulses and wholegrain should make up about 65% of your total calorie intake.  Eating these kinds of foods in such quantities will also give you at least 25g of fibre which is an ideal daily intake.  Fibre absorbs water in the digestive tract, making the food contents bulkier and easier to pass through the body and slowing absorption of sugar into the blood maintaining good energy levels.  Where possible wholegrain or wholemeal varieties where possible and brown rice as these contain lots of fibre.

The Perfect Diet - What does that look like on your plate?

Well Balanced Diet

Based on the Eat Well Plate this would mean your day would look like:

I serving of essential fats – such as 1 heaped tablespoon for ground seeds or olive oil

3 servings of Protein – such as beans, lentils, quinoa, fish, tofu, seed vegetables or lean meat

4 servings of complex carbohydrate foods – whole grains such as brown rice, wholemeal bread, pasta, quinoa, oats and baked potatoes with skins on.

6 servings of fresh fruit, such as apples, pears, bananas (no more than one), berries, melons or citrus fruit and dark green, leafy root vegetables such as watercress, carrots, sweet potatoes, broccoli, spinach, green beans, peas and peppers.