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The Health Compass hot tips on healthy eating and weight loss

● BMI calculator

● The Glycaemic Index

● Weight loss tips for men

● Healthy eating during pregnancy

● Breast feeding; The benefits of breast feeding to you and your baby

For more help and information on healthy eating and how to lose weight, take a look at The Health Compass book

BMI calculator

Body Mass Index (BMI) is a calculation that is a measure of body fat. It is an indicator of possible weight problems. While not a replacement for more extensive diagnostics, it can nevertheless give a reliable indication of how someone compares to the rest of the population in terms of weight.

Calculated the same way for people of all ages and both genders, BMI does not take into account muscle mass. As a result, some athletes may have a high BMI but nevertheless be in great physical condition.

To calculate your BMI simply click the small icon below and then enter your details in the pop-up box.

Body Mass Index (BMI) is a calculation based on a person’s height and weight. This calculator should not be used to calculate the BMI of children or pregnant women.

Even though it does not measure body fat directly, research shows that BMI correlates to methods that do measure fat directly. It short, BMI is an easy method of screen for weight problems that could lead to significant health concerns.

The Glycaemic Index (GI)

What is the Glycaemic Index?

You will possibly recognise the term GI in connection with the GI diet. The glycaemic index is a measure of the impact of sugar on the body. It is measured by testing the blood sugar after eating a particular food.

GI foods have to contain carbohydrate to be included on the GI scale. Low GI foods raise the blood sugar more slowly over a sustained period of hours whereas high GI foods raise the blood sugar more rapidly over a period of minutes.

All foods are ranked against glucose (sugar) which has a GI of 100

Low< 55

Medium 55-69

High>70

What is the relevance of the Glycaemic Index

to the way that I eat?

Foods with a high GI are very quickly absorbed into the blood and provide the body with a quick “hit” of sugar energy. This has implications in two areas:

1)      A quick “hit” of sugar in the blood causes the body to produce a hormone insulin. Insulin’s job is to allow sugar to be utilised by the cells of the body. In response to insulin, blood sugar levels quickly drop and this sudden fall in blood sugar causes the sensation of hunger. Food with a high GI, tend to be higher in calories. The net result is that you eat more calories but feel more, rather than less hungry.

2)      Sugar is much more easily utilised than fat by the body. If you have high blood sugar levels as a result of eating foods with a high GI, the body will use the sugar for energy in preference to tapping into your fat stores. This will slow down your attempt to lose weight.

3)      Eating foods with a low GI will allow a more sustained release of carbohydrate into the blood. This satisfies the body and prevents hunger pangs and is a good way to control cravings for food, whilst eating foods of a lower calorie content. This is beneficial for losing weight, if you use it to eat sensibly and healthily in a balanced way.

What foods are contained in the GI?

All foods that contain carbohydrate (sugar) in some form are part of the GI. There are two types of carbohydrate.

1. Complex (good) carbohydrates such as bread, potatoes, pasta, rice and cereals. These   foods tend to have a low GI.

2. Simple (bad) carbohydrates such as sugar, chocolate, sweets. These foods tend to have a .high GI.

Foods with a low GI are usually inherently healthy, but not always (for example sponge cake has a low GI but is unhealthy as it contains lots of fat.)

Conversely foods with a high GI are usually inherently unhealthy but not always (for example watermelon).

Foods such as meat and cheese which have no carbohydrate are 0 GI. These should be included in your diet but chose low fat varieties or lean cuts if you can.

Can I measure the GI content of a meal?

Yes, but only if your meal contains a single food. Mixing foods alters the GI content of a meal. For instance adding a high GI food such as a pie made with white pastry to a low GI food such as carrots would give you a medium GI meal.

The GI is also influenced eating protein or fat as part of the meal, by cooking, processing, ripeness and variety.

What foods should I eat to be healthy?

A healthy diet should ideally be low GI, low fat and high fibre with plenty of variety, whilst keeping an eye on portion sizes. You should not eat exclusively GI foods as this would not give you a balanced diet.

For more information about eating healthily, have a look at the Health Compass book.

What are the benefits of a low GI, high fibre diet?

1. It can help with weight loss

2.  It can improve insulin sensitivity, helping conditions such as diabetes and metabolic syndrome X (a condition characterised by high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, obesity, and insulin sensitivity)

Show me some examples of GI foods

Health Compass weight loss

hot tips for men

The good news for the boys is that men tend to be able to lose weight more easily than women. This is because men have a higher muscle to fat ratio. Muscle burns more calories than fat as it is more metabolically active.

The not so good news, is that 1 in 2 men in the UK are overweight.

Men tend to work longer hours and so have less time to exercise. If you work at a sedentary job such as in an office or spending long hours driving, it can be harder to lose weight. Often there is temptation to snack, which exacerbates weight gain.

It has become common to work through lunch breaks. It is easy if eating while working to not notice what you are eating in both quantity and in terms of calories. In addition, it is difficult not to rush your food if pushed for time.

Many jobs can be really stressful. Stress causes the release of a chemical in the body called cortisol. This hormone causes an increase in fat deposition in the body.

Heavy drinking has become the normal way for many adults to socialise, both men and women. Alcohol is full of calories (take a look at Health Compass hot tips on alcohol) and has no nutritional value.

In addition male heavy drinkers tend to carry their excess fat around their waist (beer belly). Having a large waist measurement is itself a risk factor for developing heart disease and stroke.

How can the chaps lose weight?

Before moving onto the specifics, it’s worth starting with the bottom line. In order to lose weight, the balance must be to decrease your calorie intake and to increase your energy expenditure. That is, to eat less and to exercise more, preferably in combination.

For more information on healthy eating, general advice on weight loss and exercise plus all the lifestyle tools that you need to help you incorporate it into your life, have a look at The Health Compass book.

Now let’s look at each issue in turn, specific to losing weight in the man’s world in order to find some solutions.

• Long hours/sedentary job. Well these unfortunately aren’t going to go away, so in order to eat less/ exercise more, you need to a bit of planning. This involves some time management and sorting out of priorities in order to “make time” (take a look in the Health Compass for some ideas). It also involves recognising opportunities when they arise and taking them. A half an hour spent waiting for a train or bus, could be half an hour spent walking part of the way home. An hour at lunch time could be spent going for a walk or run with a colleague; great for team building. Get your exercise in before you sit down at home. Once you're on the sofa, you'll never get off. Standing up uses double the calories to sitting down. Make your phone calls standing. If you can’t manage to get your recommended level of exercise in during the week (30 minutes 5 times a week), not to worry; doing as little as this 3 times a week is still beneficial. Pushing your sessions together and doing more at the weekend would also work well. Have you considered that many of the DIY jobs around the house could count towards your recommended daily exercise. Get out in the garden. Wash the car rather than taking it through a car wash.

• Snacking on the job. Eat 3 meals a day so you lessen the need to snack. Take a break for your meal so that you recognise that you’ve had one. Constant grazing means you tend to eat more in the end. When you eat, always eat slowly, as it fills you up more. While eating, don’t do anything else at the same time. Tasks become associated with eating and become a trigger for food. In the end you won’t be able to do that activity without eating.

• Stressful workplace. Put some stress busting measures in place. Take a break at lunch time. Go and do some exercise in it. Some workplaces offer flexible working which could allow you to cycle or walk to work or to take a slightly longer lunch hour in exchange for working later.

• Workplace drinking. Start a healthy living group at work and rather than drinking after work. Exchange going for a drink while the rush hour settles for going as a group to the local sports club to work out or play 5 a side footie together. If you do go for a drink, chose light beer or a slim-line mixer. Play a game such as pool or snooker so that there is less opportunity for drinking.

The Health Compass hot tips on healthy eating during pregnancy

Eating during pregnancy is mostly about eating a healthy balanced diet. There are however a few extra things that you do need to know.

If you have a well balanced diet prior to pregnancy you should have good stores of most of the vitamins and minerals needed for a healthy baby, in which case there will only be a few minor adjustments that you need to make.

If however your diet has been poor in the lead up to pregnancy, you will need to be a bit more careful in order to avoid anaemia or other vitamin deficiencies.

Many women put on a huge amount of weight during pregnancy as they feel the need to “eat for two.” The growing baby is only small and requires feeding in proportion to its size. In addition to this, the mother’s gut absorbs nutrients more efficiently during pregnancy. It is quality of food, not quantity that is important

You may be surprised to hear that the optimum weight gain during pregnancy is only 12.5kg (27lb). During the first trimester (the first 3 months) there should be little or no weight gain, and thereafter a pound a week is what you should aim for.

You should avoid dieting; healthy eating is your goal.

Your energy requirements are exactly the same as pre-pregnancy until the last trimester (the last 3 months) at which point your calorie requirement only increases by about 200 calories.

What precautions should I take with food

during my pregnancy?

Food preparation

• Prepare all food from fresh if you can, avoiding pre-packaged foods such as pate, prepackaged cooked meats and pre-packaged salads or coleslaw as they can cause an infection called listeria that can harm your unborn child.

• Wash all your fruit well to remove insecticides. If you can, buy organic as the fruit or veg. will be chemical free.

• Cook chicken, fish and eggs well to avoid salmonella (eggs should be hard not soft boiled). Avoid food containing raw eggs such as home made mayonnaise. Generally shop bought mayonnaise, ice cream and salad dressing uses cooked eggs.

• To avoid food poisoning and a bug called toxoplasmosis, which can damage your unborn baby, all raw meat should be cooked until it is piping hot all the way through with no areas of pink, especially items like sausages and burgers.

• If re-using foods, make sure it cools quickly and that you re-use it within 24 hours and heat it through properly before use.

Foods to be careful with

 r

• Avoid eating shark steaks, marlin and swordfish as they contain high concentrations of mercury which can harm the baby. However make sure that you do include other fish which is good for the developing baby. You should however limit your oily fish intake (fresh tuna, mackerel, sardine, herring, trout) to no more than 2 portions a week.

• Avoid raw shell fish as it is a common source of food poisoning. Do include cooked shell fish, but make sure it is well cooked before eating and avoid eating shellfish that has been reheated.

• There is some debate as to whether peanuts and peanut products should be avoided during pregnancy and breast feeding, especially in those who have a history of asthma or eczema in themselves or a family history of peanut allergy. The current advice is to avoid, as you may increase your own baby’s chances of developing an allergy. There is however some research going on currently which suggests that avoiding peanuts could actually increase the risk of allergy in your baby…so watch this space.

• Take care with cheese. Avoid soft or blue cheeses as they are un-pasteurised and can cause an infection called listeria which may harm your unborn child. Some hard cheeses are also unpasteurised, however, these do not carry the risk of listeria infection that the soft cheeses do.

• Limit your caffeine intake to 4 cups of coffee or 6 cups of tea a day as high levels of caffeine have been linked to low birth weight babies and miscarriage. Remember many soft drinks, chocolate and medications contain caffeine. In theory you can consume 8 cans of coke or eight bars of chocolate a day before you go over the upper recommended limit of caffeine but it is best to limit your intake of these items for other reasons such as weight gain and dental caries which tend to be much more common during pregnancy. Make sure you drink plenty…at least 8 cups of fluid a day.

• There is still conflicting evidence that drinking alcohol during pregnancy can damage your unborn child. Until there is more evidence, probably the best thing to do is avoid it altogether.

Trouble shooting

• Morning sickness: make sure you eat little and often, as low blood sugar can worsen nausea. Avoid fizzy drinks and fatty foods. Ginger and peppermint are good natural anti-emetics. Try ginger or peppermint tea or ginger biscuits.

• Food craving: This is very common in pregnancy and may be your body telling you what it is that you need. My craving during my first pregnancy was steak (I ate beef nearly every day for 9 months and my iron levels hardly fell as they do normally) and during my second was mint ice cream (possibly as it helped with nausea). There is no harm in following your cravings, however make sure that you do not follow it to excess (to avoid weight gain) or to the exclusion of a balanced diet.

• Constipation: Make sure that you eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, drink at .least 8 cups of fluid a day and take regular gentle exercise. Dried fruits such as prunes and apricots are good and natural bran, 2 tablespoons sprinkled on your breakfast cereal in the morning can be a great natural way to keep things moving.

• Indigestion and heartburn: This is due to hormonal changes that relax the.muscles of the gut and also due to the pressure of the baby on the stomach in the later stages of pregnancy. Eating slowly, little and often can help, avoiding spicy foods and cooked fats. Blocks under the head of the bed are a good way to prevent symptoms during the night and are better than using a stack of pillows which can hurt your neck and which are easy to roll off during sleep.

What vitamins should I take?

• Folate (folic acid). All pregnant women should take a 400mcg supplement as soon as they start planning a pregnancy, which should be continued until the end of the first 12.weeks. This aids placental implantation and also helps prevent spina bifida (a congenital spinal cord defect) from developing in your baby. Other sources of folate in the diet might be wholegrain or wholemeal bread, leafy green vegetables, brown rice and pulses. If you have already had a baby with spina bifida, you will need to take the higher dose of 5mg.

• Iron. The blood becomes more dilute as the pregnancy progresses and it is very …common to become anaemic, especially in the final trimester. Your midwife or GP will check your haemoglobin level through your pregnancy and if you become anaemic will recommend that you take an iron supplement. Eating foods rich in iron can help prevent anaemia. Good sources of iron are lean red meat, eggs, baked beans, pulses and lentils, leafy green vegetables and apricots. Cooking with a balti can help as the food absorbs iron in the cooking process. Tea binds iron, so you should avoid drinking it within half an hour of a meal or limit your intake, if you are anaemic. Replace it with orange juice as Vitamin C encourages its absorption.

• Calcium. Your requirement doubles during pregnancy. This is partly offset by the fact that the body’s absorption of calcium is improved and its losses reduced. Not eating enough can lead to dental caries. Foods rich in calcium include dairy products such as milk, yoghurt and cheese and soya cheese (use low fat varieties if possible). Other sources include dried figs, dried apricots, brown rice, tofu, and tinned fish (the ones with the soft bones that you can eat). Vegetables such as spinach and broccoli are good sources of calcium, as are chick peas and baked beans. If you do take a calcium supplement, take one that is specially formulated for pregnancy.

• Vitamin A. Too much vitamin A can harm your baby so it is important to avoid vitamin A supplements, liver or liver products which are very rich in vitamin A, through your pregnancy. Other sources of vitamin A such as carrots and tomatoes and oily fish have vitamin A in much lower concentrations and are good to include in your diet.

As parents, we look for the best start in life that we can give to our children. Breast feeding is something that you can do from day one of your child's life that will give him or her a really good advantage.

However, not only will it benefit your baby, but it will also benefit you.

The short term advantages of breast feeding to your baby

It will decrease the chance of your child getting:

• an upset tummy (diarrhoea or vomiting)
• ear infections
• urine infections
• chest infections and asthma
• allergies
• eczema
• diabetes

Research has shown that a baby who is breast fed (even if only for a few weeks) has a much reduced chance of being overweight or obese

It will decrease the chance of your child developing the following conditions in adulthood:

• High blood pressure
• high cholesterol
• diabetes
• obesity
• osteoporosis (brittle bones)

Research has shown that babies who are breast fed do better at school

The advantages to you of breast feeding your baby

• It uses an extra 500 calories a day, which means that you will lose weight much more quickly following the birth of your child
• It will decrease the chance of you developing breast cancer
• It will decrease your chance of getting ovarian cancer
• It is cheaper
• It is portable; you have it wherever you go without having the hassle of sterilising bottles and preparing feeds

If you would like to breast feed your baby, speak to your midwife, health visitor or GP during your pregnancy.

For more information on breast feeding, including practical tips as to how to go about doing it successfully, have a look at www.babyfriendly.org.uk Click on: for parents and under the heading "Finding Information", click on "download and print these" and then "breastfeeding". This site provides the leaflets in many different languages.

Healthy Oaty Breakfast Cereal

The ideal pattern for eating is to eat three meals a day, with your largest meal at breakfast time. Eating a good breakfast is really important. If you eat sensibly at this time, it should carry you though until lunch time without the need to snack. You will have the energy you need to face the day with vigour and enthusiasm and your body has the time to digest it while you are up and about and active.

I love breakfast but I despair when I shop at the cereal counter. There is a huge array of breakfast cereals, but they are all either too sweet, too salty, or too boring. For some time now I have made my own muesli type breakfast cereal, using a base of a shop brought oat cluster cereal, mixed with Scots porridge oats and dried fruits because it was the only way I could find something that I liked that was tasty and healthy.

My essential ingredients are oats, not only because I love them, but because they are a really good source of slow release carbohydrates, so they fill you up for a really long time and because oats are a great way of soaking up cholesterol. I use dried fruit, because it’s a really good source of vitamin C and fibre, so counts towards my 5 portions of fruit and veg. a day and is also wonderful for keeping things regular! I find the shop brought oat cluster cereal too sweet on its own, but mixed with the other two, it’s just right.
 

Here are some recipe ideas:

The Fruity Nutty One

500g rolled Scots porridge oats
500g of Maple and Pecan oat cluster cereal
200g pecans
75g dried sour cherries
150g dried blueberries

Mix them all together and store in a large airtight container.

You can substitute the Maple and Pecan cereal for one with other flavours. There are all sorts on the market, for example four nuts, strawberry, raspberry, tropical. Take your pick, according to your taste.

If you are trying to lose weight, avoid adding nuts or using the cereals with nuts in them as nuts  are very high in calories because of their fat content. If you are not looking to lose weight, do include nuts, as they are a good source of monounsaturated fat which is helpful in lowering your cholesterol level (the exception is coconut which is high in saturated fat, so go easy on these).

You can use a combination of other dried fruits and nuts. I really like to use dried sour cherries and flaked almonds (you can toast the flaked almonds for an extra nutty taste if you like), or dried cherries and desiccated coconut. Apricots and almond go really well together, as do figs and walnuts.

Have fun. Enjoy your breakfast.