A Sweet Treat

I really don’t like the snow and after a few days of not being able to get out running, I’m literally climbing the walls.  The treadmill at the gym suffices for a few days, the turbo trainer at home is tolerable and I’ve enjoyed walking much more than I normally would, but I miss the way running makes me feel; the wonderful feeling of movement, the abundance of fresh air, the soreness of hard-worked muscles afterwards, the stress relief it provides and the positive outlook it instills; for me, there really is no substitute.  So today, I’m feeling very excited as I see the white stuff melting away and feel the temperature rising; with a week of milder weather forecast, I’m determined to get out as much as I possibly can, making up for the last week.


Mary Berry eat your heart out!

I get very hungry when I up the miles and often feel like something sweet, particularly during the evening or after a long run, but avoid reaching for energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods to quickly satisfy the hunger, not wanting to undo all the hard work & discipline I’ve invested.  All week I’ve been thinking about fruit cake, but when I’ve visited the supermarkets I’ve not fancied the mass-produced slabs on offer, so today, I decided to make my own.  The recipe was given to me by a friend who is an amazing cake-maker, so I don’t expect my version to be quite as good as hers, but I’m pretty pleased with the results.  I chose to include a dried fruit mix of sultanas, raisins, cranberries, blueberries & cherries, so it’s packed with nutrients and fibre and will help provide me with some of the extra energy I’m going to need.

The friend I mentioned above invited me to tea before Christmas and it was a fabulously civilised and elegant affair; the best china and the most amazing cakes, including meringues, mince pies, lemon cakes & fruit cake. It was a wonderful treat, pure indulgence and I hope I get invited again – perhaps for a summer version!  You see, I don’t believe in diets, they are synonymous with deprivation; a period of time spent feeling miserable & hungry and although I don’t advocate eating copious amounts of cake, the odd treat alongside a predominantly healthy lifestyle, won’t do any harm at all.

A very elegant afternoon tea!

So, as I sit typing, I’m waiting for the fruit loafs to cool to be able to sample same and then I’ll wrap them in foil in readiness for a powerful week of daily discipline in preparation for spring.

Le Fruity Cake

450g Dried fruit (I used sultanas, raisins, cranberries, blueberries & cherries)
225g Butter
340g Sugar
340g Plain flour
3 eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder

2 x 1lb loaf tins

 

·         Put dried fruit in pan & cover with water – boil for 5 minutes
·         Put butter in a large bowl
·         In a separate bowl whisk the eggs & sugar together
·         Drain the dried fruit and pour over the butter
·         When the butter has melted add the egg/sugar mix to the fruit & butter
·         Fold in the flour & baking powder
·         Mix well (do not beat)

Cook on gas mark 3 (150°c) for approximately 50 minutes – 1 hour

Thank you G!

 

Cathy x

Food & Mood

I’ve long been fascinated and spent many years studying the connection between food & mood; how our moods affect our eating habits and how the nutrients contained within our diet can influence the way we think and feel. 

Life events, either good or bad, influence the way we feel, we rarely remain feeling neutral during either, but often it’s the way we’re feeling that determines how we react to the event. Fear is endemic in our society, maybe not the Freddy Kruger at the window sort of fear, but the underlying, chronic and pervasive fear of a loss of security; fear that we may lose our jobs, fear that life will change and throw us a curve ball, fear for the future, for our health and for the health of loved ones.  These fears are often unfounded, but built upon wanting everything to be secure and stay the same and when it doesn’t and we feel we’re not in control of what may happen, it’s then that we may turn to food or alcohol to comfort, distract, numb and self-medicate our path to try to achieve peace of mind.  Foods high in fat and sugar make us feel better, if only for a very short while, maybe because they were the foods we were given as children to comfort and reassure or because we feel that the adverse life-event, albeit resolved, has earned us some kind of reward and we deserve a treat.

As Robert E Thayer discusses in his book, Calm Energy, “bad moods are characterised by low energy and good moods with high energy”.  When we’re feeling low, depressed or battered by some adverse life-event we have little energy, but when something positive happens to us, i.e. we win £100 on a scratch card, we’re excited, we have high energy and our mood is positive.  It therefore makes perfect sense that during the low energy, low mood period, in an effort to raise our energy levels as quickly as possible, because we all want quick fixes and don’t like feeling low, we reach for high calorie and energy-dense foods.  It’s a vicious cycle, underlying thoughts and feelings of fear and negativity lead to a bad mood and low energy which encourages us to make dietary choices depleted in nutrients that positively affect our mood; we reach for foods high in fat & sugar which only makes us feel worse long-term, promoting feelings of guilt and inevitably leading to weight gain, dissatisfaction with ourselves, a lack of control and back to a low mood and negative thoughts.

 

There are a spectrum of nutrients that affect mood, even vitamin C deficiency, more commonly associated with scurvy, has demonstrated an increase in fatigue and depression and according to Dr David Benton, a leader in the field of research exploring the impact of diet upon behaviour, vitamin C influences the functioning of dopamine, a neurotransmitter in the brain that plays an important role in controlling mood & motivation.  A diet containing foods rich in vitamin C, is also a diet that is rich in other vitamins, minerals and antioxidants and one which contains a plethora of nutrients which have demonstrated a positive effect on our mood, but during times of low mood, our conditioning unfortunately doesn’t tell us to reach for the fruit bowl it tells us to head for the biscuit tin instead; spiralling levels of obesity provide us with a “weight of evidence” to support this.
 

The reality is that nothing and no-one is secure, everything changes; it’s learning to be in flow, not constantly buffered by the winds of change that’s the key.  It’s not easy to do, I’m my own work in progress, but by not buying into the emotion and not looking for short-term quick fixes to everything we deem to be “bad” in our lives, we can step back and take control of the one thing that only we can – the food we choose to eat, to help heal both body & mind.

 

If more of us valued food & cheer above hoarded gold, it would be a much merrier world - J.R.R Tolkien

Cathy x

 

Pro-Action -v- Re-Action!

One moment, whilst I step gingerly onto my soapbox …

 

 
Having missed the majority of the second episode, I’ve just caught up on ITV’s “Weight Loss Ward”; a two-part documentary about the specialist weight loss ward of the Sunderland Royal Hospital.  I watched with mixed feelings of empathy, anger and sadness as a “conveyor belt” of morbidly obese individuals struggle to reduce their body mass index to a level that they hope will then give them the opportunity to be added to the expanding list of those awaiting bariatric surgery.

The first question that comes to mind, and was actually voiced by one of those taking part, is how the hell did they get like that in the first place; those presenting at the clinic don’t just have a few pounds to lose, often they need to lose the weight equivalent to two “normal” sized individuals.  Before you answer this question … pause for a second and reserve judgement.   None of us are immune from this obesity-epidemic, although we like to think we are; the stone they effortlessly gained over six months, turned easily into two a year, became four in two years and so on and so forth – sound familiar?  I demonstrated the rapidity of how body composition can change with my own personal experience, detailed in the blog post of the 7th of December – it’s very easy and once control is lost, the downward spiral escalates and becomes increasingly difficult to resolve; 4 lbs to lose is achievable - 4+ stone can be daunting!

I do understand that when someone gains so much weight, they simply don’t know where to begin and surgery may be the only way to even get them mobile; it may well be the only choice they feel they have, their last chance before obesity-related diseases seriously affect or cut short their lives, but my anger rises when I know that education is undoubtedly the answer to prevent this from happening in the first place!   When will the powers that be realise that nutrition education needs to begin in schools to prevent future generations befalling the same fate and be available at other life stages through colleges, children's centres and adult education; with no disrespect, it’s a fact that the majority of people know absolutely nothing about nutrition – if they did, then the country wouldn’t be in this state in the first place – prevention, prevention, prevention!!  I’m sure that those featured on the programme would agree that if they had been given help, information and education about nutrition and exercise earlier in their lives, they would have been able to make more informed choices.  Help that includes demonstrating how to prepare quick and simple, nutritious food; we are inundated with TV cookery programmes, but we’re not all chefs (me included) and often don’t want, or have time, to spend hours in the kitchen; I can put a healthy, nutritious and inexpensive meal together for myself in very little time.  Information and education that explains why a diet high in saturated fat, salt and sugar will not only help pile on the pounds, year after year, but will also promote pro-inflammatory diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, arthritis and possibly even cancer – all delivered in a way people can understand and relate to - simple but effective guidance; the absence of which is leading to an obesity epidemic, with people literally becoming trapped within their own bodies, unable to enjoy the simple things in life and requiring a cocktail of drugs to manage the diseases that accompany it.    

One patient, having undergone surgery, failed to lose any weight whatsoever; why – because she simply carried on doing what she had always done – eating energy dense foods, only in smaller portions, more frequently!  The dieticians at the hospital obviously do their best to provide nutritional information, but you can’t change someone’s eating patterns and re-educate them in 15 minutes and there are simply too many people for them to deal with.  If the Government doesn’t begin to invest in those of us who are qualified and passionate about slowing the progression of this epidemic by supporting, financing and allowing us the opportunity to create programmes to educate the next generation, then this situation can’t and won’t change and specialist obesity wards will be needed in each and every hospital throughout the country; without action, the UK will undoubtedly reach and possibly exceed predictions that a staggering 55% of adults will be clinically obese in not too many years from now!   Since qualifying I've approached several schools with a view to providing nutritional education programmes, but the effort has come to nothing because there isn’t a provision within current curriculums and no funding is available – although I’m sure this has to be more economical than the estimated annual £5 billion cost of dealing with obesity, as quoted in the recent study published by the Royal College of Physicians; I’ve written and presented  sessions for free on several occasions which simply isn’t sustainable, but as Martha Stipanuk rightly states in her book on human nutrition, “the knowledge and science of nutrition is only of academic interest unless it can be applied to the improvement of the health and well-being of individuals and populations”. 

I notice that we are being bombarded with TV adverts about weight loss -as if that’s all that matters; I want to shout from the rooftops that is isn’t just about weight, it’s about body composition, it’s about eating nutritious food, abundant in vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, it’s about moving our bodies to work our cardiovascular system, which in turn promotes good mental health, optimum bone health and boosts self-esteem and gives us a sense of achievement.  Nutrition isn’t about deprivation and not being able to have the foods we consider “bad”, it’s about helping people to understand what a diet comprised mainly of these foods can do to our long-term health and armed with this knowledge they can then decide to make healthier alternative, empowering, informed choices.

 

OK, enough, I’ll step down now and pray that my passion persuades!

“There are, in effect, two things: to know and to believe one knows.  To know is science.  To believe one knows is ignorance” 

Hippocrates

Cathy x

 

New Beginnings

I wish for you a wonderful New Year filled with peace, joy, happiness & good health.

 

 

Cathy x