Articles #Dietician

Activated charcoal has been popping up in all sorts of foods and drinks lately. The most common at the moment is the black bread bun. Although the black bun does not look appealing, there is the belief that the activated charcoal found in these foods and drinks can ‘detox’ the body. Is this true?

Our society has become far too focused on being ‘thin’ rather than being healthy. And there will always be those that will rebel against this and say that you can be healthy, beautiful and happy even if you are overweight. Can this be true? The answer is however not as simple as ‘yes’ or ‘no’, but is rather a combination of the two.

Detox diets are popular diets that claim to make you feel younger, healthier, and more energized. So is this something we should be doing on a regular basis? Let's take a look.

What’s happening with your cravings? Are you managing to keep yourself busy and not needing food to combat the boredom, or is it so bad that you’re stopping by the kitchen every few minutes?

How many times have you found yourself going to the kitchen to look into the fridge or cupboards in these last few days of lockdown?

Did you see the headline: ‘Bad diets are responsible for more deaths than smoking’? Say what? Really, are we seriously eating so badly that smoking is seen as the lesser of two evils?

There has been a lot of negative publicity for sugar. It didn’t help matters that a study was published indicating that the sugar industry had funded research years ago to swing the blame for heart disease away from sugar and onto saturated fat. So does that mean that fat is good?

Do you feel that December will ruin your hard work this year? Are there just too many parties, dinners and family gatherings that weight gain seems inevitable? It is possible to survive the Christmas season without gaining weight. Don’t fall for the myths of unavoidable holiday weight gain. You can enjoy you holiday favourites and still start the year looking slim and trim.

The festive season is upon us and with it comes the challenge of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. It’s a time of lots of eating opportunities with delicious meals, desserts and drinks and a time of less exercise. So how can you continue the healthy habits you have established and not let the bad habits creep in? For me, the holidays are no different than any other time of the year! It can be this easy for you too.

As we all know, good nutrition is an important component of a balanced healthy life, but we sometimes get lost as to what good nutrition is! The basics are easy, eat lots of fruit and vegetables, choose mostly low fat dairy and lean meat, don’t eat junk food excessively, but is that getting you where you want to go with your weight goals?

‘Weight loss’ New Year’s resolutions are all too common, and unfortunately are often also broken by the first week of January! I think that it is great that people are trying to be healthier but I believe how many try to do it is what is causing the high ‘failure’ rate. When people go ‘on’ a (quick fix) diet they have often not made effective goals for their journey. Goals are the groundwork for the journey to health and often I find that when it is just based on a number it is easy for life to take over and old habits to creep back.

Do you love food, but also want to lose weight? You CAN eat delicious, satisfying food AND lose weight. Your meals do not need to be boring and you certainly can eat a decent amount of food. Most people will lose weight on a 1500kcal diet. Do you know how much food that is? Let’s take a look at a simple sample meal plan: