Fabulous Nutrition - London based nutritional therapy clinic. » Food Facts

The one pot, 10 minute healthy, nutritious supper

Ange — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 19:15:10 +0000

Fast and healthy supper

This literally takes 10 minutes from start to finish, in fact, it’s taken longer to photograph, write up and post. It’s delicious, a slow release of energy and packed full of fibre & nutrients. It can be recreated with any mixture of vegetables and beans:

Heat olive oil in a pan, add some cumin seeds, saute half a diced onion, add a sliced leek, and a chunk of diced or grated fresh ginger. Cook until soft and then add a handful of chopped spinach leaves and some cooked (or tinned) sweetcorn & black beans from a carton (any other beans or lentils will do). Add a little water and heat through. To season, pour a little of the water from the pan into a dish, mix in with a teaspoon of miso paste and put back in the pan to stir through. Serve.

Fabulous Nutrition is a London based Nutritional Therapy Clinic. For more information contact Angela Walker at Fabulous Nutrition. www.fabulousnutrition.co.uk.

How to Choose Olive Oil

Ange — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 10:16:15 +0000

Lovely piece from Dr Weil with tips on how to choose a good olive oil. I especially like the insight on taste, smell and colour, although appreciate you can’t always smell it!

How to Choose Olive Oil – Dr. Weil’s Daily Tip

Pesticides in Fruit & Vegetables

Ange — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 09:30:22 +0000

Lower your pesticide exposure by 80%

Pesticide residues in foods is one reason for switching to organic produce. Each year the Environmental Working Group, a not-for-profit US organisation who have a mission to “use the power of public information to protect public health and the environment” publish a shoppers guide to pesticides in food.

Through their calculations they estimate that we can lower our pesticide exposure by almost 80 percent by avoiding the twelve most contaminated fruits and vegetables and eating the least contaminated instead. Eating the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables will expose a person to about 10 pesticides per day, on average. Whereas eating the 15 least contaminated will expose a person to less than 2 pesticides per day.

Their evaluation ranks pesticide contamination for 47 popular fruits and vegetables based on an analysis of 87,000 tests for pesticides on these foods, conducted from 2000 to 2007 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration. Nearly all the studies used to create the list test produce after it has been rinsed or peeled. Although the list is compiled using US data, given the similarity of farming methods and the number of food miles in the supermarket, it’s reasonable to assume that it will be relevant for British food.

So if you want to lower your pesticide exposure by 80% then avoid the Dirty Dozen:

1. Peach

2. Apple

3. Sweet Bell Pepper

4. Celery

5. Nectarine

6. Strawberries

7. Cherries

8. Kale

9. Lettuce

10. Grapes

11. Carrot

12. Pear

Top of the ‘Clean 15′ list, those fruits and vegetables with least pesticide residues are onion, avocado and sweetcorn. While the non-organic versions of these aren’t pesticide free, they are found in lower levels. I recommend that you use this list to make an informed decision about which fruit and vegetables to buy organic only.

There is now an even easier way to remember this information if your and iPhone user. EWG have produced a free iPhone app which you can download and check each time you’re in the Supermarket – Genius!

For more information on the Shoppers Guide and to download the list and the iPhone app click here

Fabulous Nutrition is a London based Nutritional Therapy Clinic, addressing functional imbalance in the body with bespoke nutrition programmes. www.fabulousnutrition.co.uk.

For more information please contact Angela Walker at Fabulous Nutrition on 07775 582 332 or ange@fabulousnutrition.co.uk.

Sustainable Seafood Restaurant Guide

Ange — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 08:05:04 +0000

This is a great new website from the people who made “The End of the Line”, the documentary about the effects of overfishing. You can search restaurants by region and by name and find a rating on their fish sustainability policy from the people who know. There is also a section to add your own review on restaurants.

Fish are a fabulously healthy addition to any diet, but we have to take the sourcing seriously, for our own health (do you want to eat fish that eat rubbish?) and to preserve stocks for the future. So when you are eating out, use this website to check out the restaurants credentials:

Fish 2 Fork – the restaurant guide for people who love to eat fish sustainably

If you’re staying in to cook yourself, then check these previous articles for good fish dishes, using sustainable healthy fish:

Good Fish Dish

Baked Sea Bass

And for more information on levels of mercury in tuna

Fabulous Nutrition is a London based Nutritional Therapy Clinic, addressing functional imbalance in the body with bespoke nutrition programmes. www.fabulousnutrition.co.uk.

For more information please contact Angela Walker at Fabulous Nutrition on 07775 582 332 or ange@fabulousnutrition.co.uk.

Should you be worried about Mercury in Tuna?

Ange — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 13:11:31 +0000

A recent report found that more than half of samples of brand-name canned tuna contained more mercury than deemed safe by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). However, the same report found that only 5 percent of canned tuna samples contained mercury levels that exceeded the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) standards for safety, which are less stringent than the EPA’s. In other words there seems to be a large discrepancy over what constitutes ’safe’ levels of mercury.

We are exposed to different types of mercury: elemental, inorganic and organic mercury. Organic mercury is considered the most toxic and most common form and is the type found in Fish [1]. This form of mercury can be easily absorbed in the gut and can cross the blood brain barrier.

Once in the body, mercury can inhibit other important minerals such as zinc and selenium. It can cause problems with digestion, the heart, kidneys & nervous system. It can inhibit white and red blood cell formation and cause dysfunction in the immune system. In other words, we really don’t want any mercury in our bodies! We are able to detoxify and excrete mercury, but this in itself will use up the bodies antioxidant and detoxification resources. It is also very individual. If someone is already in a weakened state then their ability to detoxify and eliminate any mercury will be severely compromised.

So, if we are trying to avoid mercury, then should we avoid fish? It is the larger fish, such as tuna and swordfish, that are more likely to accumulate toxins such as mercury (it seems to be a simple case of the longer they live and the more they eat then the more mercury they can accumulate). So the best advice is to avoid these fish if your health is at all compromised or if you are pregnant or trying to conceive (as organic mercury can cross the placenta). For everyone else, then I would suggest that limited amounts of these fish, say once a week or once a fortnight is absolutely fine. Fish, especially oily fish, are a great source of the very long chain fatty acids, which we can’t find in many other foods. So do try to include other, smaller types of oily fish, such as Mackerel and Sardines. There are some recipe ideas here: http://fabulousnutrition.co.uk/good-fish-dish/

If you are concerned about mercury toxicity then seek the advice of a nutritional therapist. If the signs and symptoms suggest that mercury or other heavy metal toxicity is an issue a functional laboratory test can confirm this and is important to do before undertaking a detox programme.

For more information please contact Angela Walker at Fabulous Nutrition.

Fabulous Nutrition is a London based Nutritional Therapy Clinic, addressing functional imbalance in the body with bespoke nutrition programmes. www.fabulousnutrition.co.uk

[1] Patrick (2002) Mercury Toxicity and Antioxidants. Alt Med Rev. 7(6):

What’s Really in Our Food?

Ange — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:40:37 +0000

Thankfully I’d finished my supper before watching last lights BBC1 show What’s Really in Our Food. Anyone fancy a lovely organic salad washed in anti-freeze? How about a tasty chicken that actually contains pork? No, doesn’t sound exactly appetising. There seem to be two main issues. One is that the marketing people are extremely talented at making food sound more authentic and appealing than it really is (I used to work in advertising so I can see both sides of this). And this is from the brands we think we can trust; M&S invented a Scottish loch for their salmon. Now while that may not mean there is anything wrong with the salmon from the mythical lochmuir, I just find it a bit fishy and feel rather deceived…..what else might they have fabricated? The second issue is that the authorities that are meant to be checking our food don’t seem to be as effective as they could be. The Soil Association approved a wash for lettuce as organic on the basis of a list of ingredients; it then turned out that the product contained anti-freeze, which funnily enough isn’t considered organic! That some chicken can contain protein from other animals has been known for years, yet it’s still apparently going on. One of the trading standards officers on the show admitted that food labels might not leave us very well informed. So what can we do if we care about what’s really in our food? Even if the labels on the front of the packet might not been as informative as they could be, it’s definitely worth reading the list of ingredients. I always tell my clients that if they don’t recognise the name of an ingredient, the chances are its not something you want in your food. The Laburnam Cottage Pie created on the show makes a good point; the front of the pack was artfully designed to make it look authentic and British, whereas reading the ingredients list on the back told a slightly different story (it was made with imported meat and meat by-products such as connective tissue). So it is always worth turning over the packet and reading the full list of ingredients. Of course buying from farmers markets or independent health food shops means you can ask pretty direct questions about the provenance and authenticity of your food; just to double check that it contains no anti-freeze or unwanted pig parts.

Sugar coated probiotics

Ange — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 09:06:05 +0000

When I suggest adding probiotics, lots of clients ask ‘oh do you mean like Actimel?’ Probiotic is from Greek and means ‘for life’. The definition of a probiotic is a live microorganism that gives health benefit when taken in adequate amounts. Numerous robust studies have shown how probiotics interact with our immune and digestive systems in a positive way. I’m not going to go into those studies now, as frankly there are others far more talented at reviewing all the science papers and summarising what they say; but I have read lots of papers and have no doubt in my mind that firstly we need healthy bacteria in our guts and secondly good probiotics provide those. The purpose of this article is to look at the commercial probiotic yogurts in the supermarket, such as Actimel. You see, we Nutritional Therapists will generally recommend a therapeutic probiotic, in a powder or a capsule. There are a few different products that I use, selecting a specific strain depending on the clients’ conditions. They are specifically designed to pass through the stomach without being destroyed by gastric juices and they come in a high dose, containing billions of live microorganisms. I had always been under the impression that the commercial probiotic yogurts contains far fewer live bacteria that were unlikely to successfully pass through the stomach AND that they contained sugar. I recently attended a conference (Primary Care 2009) and listened to a talk by two researchers into the immune benefits of probiotics, specifically Actimel. Of course, a lot of the research studies they talked about were funded by DANONE, the makers of Actimel, so it all has to be taken in context. I was however, surprised to hear about robust clinical trials, which demonstrated the health benefits of the product; they have also shown that the live organisms do make it into the digestive tract. So has this made me re-think and am I going to recommend Actimel for my clients? Going back to my original list of objections, these products do contain 10 billion micoorganisms, which is comparable to the therapeutic probiotics from companies such as Nutri-Link. They also have the research to demonstrate that successfully pass through the stomach, although they are demonstrating this in laboratory or test conditions, after the product has hung around on a supermarket shelf will it contain so many live and active bacteria? My biggest concern however is in the list of ingredients, specifically the sugars or sugar substitutes. Improving health and well being starts with the foods that we eat, and ALL of us, I’m sure, will do better by eating less sugar. So having a health-promoting product, which contains sugar just doesn’t make sense. So that’s the Actimel Original ruled out, what about the low-fat version? That’s even worse; it still contains a sugar (dextrose, anything ending in an ose is usually a sugar) and also contains the sweetener aspartame. Yuck, yuck yuck! There is controversy over the use of aspartame because it may be a neurotoxin, that means toxic to the brain and that it can lead to brain tumours. The Food Standards Agency have continued to give it the green light, on the basis that the average level of intake is unlikely to cause a problem, but do you want to take that sort of risk? I don’t think I want to put a product that is a brain toxin at high levels anywhere near my body. Each of us is biochemically unique, so what constitutes a high level of aspartame for one might not for another, but frankly that’s a game of chance I just don’t think is worth playing. So, the bottom line is that, yes, the evidence would suggest that commercial probiotic yogurts such as Actimel have health benefits, but they are far BETTER ways to have those health benefits, with no added sugar or brain toxins. I would suggest that you take a good quality probiotic (go to your local health food shop or Nutri-Centre and ask) or of course speak to a nutritional therapist. In the supermarket, buy a simple, plain live yogurt, I like Yeo Valley. You’re bowel will thank you for it.

Links

Sweet Talking – Research shows potential health risks of aspartame

Food Standards Agency – Aspartame

The Nutri Centre

Nutri-Link