Nigel Week Five
Thursday 15 May 2008
Food myths busted
The super-foods that aren’t so super
Super foods are big business and there’s a new one every week claiming to be the secret to eternal health and well being. While a lot of foods have higher than usual levels of certain health promoting nutrients like antioxidant vitamins and minerals there really are no super foods for weight loss- celery, grapefruit and herbal teas have all hit the headlines as the weight loss heros but their best dieting attribute is that they are just naturally very low in calories.
Of course these foods are perfectly healthy but they are not a magic wand and you can’t survive by eating any of them on their own. If you want to include super foods in your diet that’s fine- but never forget they are only super when they are part of a varied balanced diet and one super food can never make an otherwise bad diet good.
Eating after 6pm
We’ve all heard that if we eat anything, especially carbs after 6pm we’ll blow up like a balloon but is there any truth in it? In fact a calorie is a calorie no matter what time of the day you eat it and egg and chips at 3 o’clock in the morning cannot make you any fatter than egg and chips at 3 o'clock in the afternoon- the only thing it might do is give you indigestion!
It can take up to 36 hours to completely digest a meal and the time you eat it will make no difference. If you need to eat late occasionally it’s better to eat a light meal than try and starve- you’ll be far more likely to end up grazing on high calorie snacks if you miss your meal.
The thing which really makes a difference to how you burn up calories is how active you are. By becoming more active every day you will burn more calories all day- even when you are asleep!
Read Nigel's advice from week four here