The Optimise Health Blog

Putting the information on food packaging into context is important. Food producers are less keen on advertising the bad side of what is on sale and often the labelling is misleading. I have recently started looking at food labels to find out if the food I am eating is high in fat and sugar and salt, because in order to live longer I am trying to cut back on these three dietary components. Firstly I noticed that I often made a mistake in calculating the amount of fat in the actual whole packet rather than just "a portion", as I tend to eat the whole bag of crisps once open. For example I just had a camembert and chilli jam sandwich. Looking afterwards at the cheese packaging I was surprised to see that a portion was only 9% of my daily fat intake as an adult..which made me feel better, until I discovered that the portion was 30g! I had just eaten at least 90 g of the cheese in one doorstep sandwich and hence was shocked at the amount of fat I had just eaten in one me...

What ingredients are used to make beer? Water, hops and sugar. Alcohol as a chemical is closely related to sugar, so its no surprise that alcohol contains alot of energy in the form of carbohydrates. Alcohol also stimulates hunger so guess what - after a few beers we all need a large kebab! Alcohol is processed through the liver which is the main processing plant in the body for sugar and other vitamins and dietary breakdown products. If you are drinking alot you will usually gain weight and slow down the of other vital processes; when the liver gets damaged through excess alcohol or sugar it lays down fat. The recommended units per week for a man are 21. This means around 10-11 pints of medium strength beer, 21 shots of spirits, or about 2 bottles of wine - but hopefully spread over the week and not all at once! Take a look at your alcohol intake - if you are exercising you will find more stamina if you reduce alcohol. Generally you will lose weight faster if you reduce ...

So who told us it was OK to drink diet coke till it came out of our ears? Well unsurprisingly soft drinks manufacturers were the main culprits for mainstreaming fizzy pop into our homes and lives with their agenda of increased sales and profits at the expense of our health. Their marketing created iconic links between: Coke and Football / Father Christmas, Basketball with PepsiMax and 7UP/Sprite; Lucozade with any sport; finally Dr Peppers with general craziness! Recent research in the US has linked cola, pop and other fizzy drinks containing artificial sweeteners like Aspartame to a higher risk of developing diabetes, obesity, heart disease and high blood pressure amongst other ailments. On one level you should stop the pop to reduce unnecessary calories and caffeine and save your teeth. On another you should stop drinking stuff containing sweeteners becuase of aforementioned risks. On another - WHY DO YOU NEED TO DRINK IT ANYWAY? When I work an Emergency GP night shift I w...

You are a typical guy. You eat mainly meat and carbs and sometimes a few veg on the side. You eat cheese in a burger or sandwich and eggs in a fry up. You grab the odd piece of fruit and think you can get 5 a day from drinking a whole carton of orange juice.. So you like the idea of this BEATTHEBELLY thing and you're on a fitness drive so you start looking into diets: there is a bewildering variety of options out there from the Acai berry supplement diet with bowel cleanser (a.k.a caffeine fuelled vitamin C boost bowel explosion diet) to the Atkins "just eat meat and cheese" and get a neck like a bull diet. Diet is something we all have to intake every day of our life, so essentially we are all on a diet all the time , but sometimes we tighten up and focus on certain foods. How do you make sure you're getting a balanced diet? Lets focus on a typical Western or developed world diet. You need Protein to build muscles - from meat, fish, eggs, cheese...