The Food Remedy meets Jools Oliver

Jools Oliver, is not just a pretty face, the former model more commonly know as Jamie Olivers other half. Is a published author and children’s fashion designer, Jools is a down to earth, friendly, hands on mum to her brood of four adorable children Poppy, Daisy, Petal and Buddy.

Kirsten - Hi  Jools thank you so much for taking the time out to talk with me today.

With so much going on in your life how important is it to you that your children eat healthy foods?

Jools - It’s very important that our children eat healthy.  I was very strict in the beginning. When I first had poppy I am not sure she even knew what a chocolate digestive was till she was about 8! I have now managed to strike what I believe is a good balance they always have to have at least 2 sorts of veg a day and always must have fruit before they have a pudding . I think they all eat brilliantly my next step is to get them eating a little bit more exotically!

Kirsten – very sensible!  what’s your favourite meal, what would be your last supper?

Jools - My favourite meal is a dish with plenty of veg especially green brown rice and roasted butternut squash it’s normally my Monday night meal I am obsessed with cloves and they taste amazing cooked in the rice with plenty of natural yogurt.

Kirsten – Yum that sounds really delicious! Do you take any supplements?

Jools - I do take supplements always an omega and I have just started taking a probiotic formula as I think it’s really important to keep the digestive system in good order!!

Kirsten – You are absolutely correct 80% of your immunity is located in your gut too!! I see a lovely vegetable patch in your garden What’s your favourite vegetable?

My favourite veg is a real dark green one like cavalo nero or spinach

Yum good choices, Cavolo nero is a great source of lutein, vitamins K, A and C as well as significant amounts of manganese, copper, fibre, calcium, iron, the B vitamins and spinach Spinach is an excellent source of vitamin K, vitamin A (in the form of carotenoids), manganese, folate, magnesium, iron, copper, vitamin B2, vitamin B6, vitamin E, calcium, potassium, and vitamin C.

Do you eat organic food?

I do try to or the next best thing of locally produced.  But our ultimate is picking it from our very own veg garden nothing on earth tastes better

I always have preferred healthy clean food as opposed to the opposite I just don’t like the taste of junk food. I do work out a lot so I am very conscious that I eat enough to sustain my energy levels to get through the day but I would love to  eat less chocolate and puds but frankly that’s my only vice so why not!!!!

Turns out jools is not only the mum I one day aspire to be but a woman after my own heart chocolate for pudding yes please!! Thanks Jools.

what a professional rugby player eats

Ever wondered  eats? Well I caught up with Liam Williams a Wales international who is currently playing for the Scarlets. To find out!

Hi Liam thanks for having a chat with me today, as a professional rugby player how important is your diet?

It is pretty important to have a healthy diet being a professional sports man. It helps me to stay in shape, keep my weight up and work harder in the gym.

Has being a rugby player influenced your diet in anyway?

It has influenced a little, i ate pretty well when i wasn't a rugby player but now that its my job I work hard to eat well and stay in shape.

Whats a typical days food like for you?

Breakfast - Scrambled egg on 2 toast, ham and beans. protein shake. ( At training Meal 1 )

( Meal 2 )  roast beef with lots of veg.

Tea would have another full meal after i get home from training something like a home made lasagna and vegetables.

I’d also probably have poached egg on toast before bed too.

What’s your Favorite food?

 To be honest its pretty hard to pick my favorite food, I like abit of everything. If i 'had' to choose i would pick fajita's.

Do you take any supplements?

 Take a supplement called PAS at scarlets training.

VERDICT

Liam has a great range of healthy whole foods in his diet, life as a professional player is physically demanding. During training their body is pushed beyond normal limits. Nutrition is a key foundation upon which sports performance is built, without a clean nutrient rich diet they won’t be getting maximum results on the pitch.

The Food Remedy for Polycystic ovary syndrome

Polycystic ovary syndrome is a condition where at least two of the following occur, and often all three: -At least 12 follicles (tiny cysts) develop in your ovaries. (Polycystic means many cysts.)

-The balance of hormones that you make in the ovaries is altered. In particular, your ovaries make more testosterone (male hormone) than normal.

-You do not ovulate each month. Some women do not ovulate at all. In PCOS, although the ovaries usually have many follicles, they do not develop fully and so ovulation often does not occur. If you do not ovulate then you do not have a period.

Therefore, it is possible to have polycystic ovaries without the typical symptoms that are in the syndrome. It is also possible to have PCOS without multiple cysts in the ovary!

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is one of the most common female endocrine disorders. According to Verity, the UK charity for women whose lives are affected by PCOS, polycystic ovaries  affects around 20% of women, while the actual ‘syndrome’ affects 5–10% of women.

The exact cause of polycystic ovary syndrome is currently unknown, there is a growing debate between whether the condition is genetic or an auto immune disease. Research in to PCOS shows there is a strong link with insulin resistance and is often found in women with diabetes, this making it likely to be in part a result of changes in our diet, lifestyle and environment.

There is an overwhelming evidence to suggest that diet plays a substantial role in the management of PCOS.

Research has shown that when women with PCOS lose excess weight, their hormone levels start to return to normal. Testosterone levels fall, serum insulin levels go down, Sex hormone-binding globulin levels go up and the symptoms of PCOS diminish, with significant reduction in the growth of excess hair as the women lose weight.

A 1994 study focused on a diet of low glycemic index (GI) carbohydrates. The diet reduced insulin levels and weight in obese hyperinsulinaemic women significantly more than a conventional diet with the same energy. The study supports the idea that a low GI diet may provide the greatest benefits for women with PCOS and insulin resistance.

The glycemic index is the rate at which different foods cause the sugar levels in your blood to rise following a meal.

High GI foods (such as refined bread, pasta and rice) cause high levels of sugar and therefore high levels of insulin.

Low GI foods (such as wholegrains, meat, eggs and pulses) stimulate much lower levels of insulin.

Choosing foods that have a low GI can help you keep your blood sugar levels balanced. This is very important as imbalanced blood sugar levles overstimulates your adrenal glands which produce the stress hormone adrenaline and too much androgen, the male hormone which interferes with ovulation!

Eating food such as chickpeas, lentils and peas could also be beneficial as these food are known as phytoestrogens which could help control levels of testosterone in the blood.

A typical day could look like this

Breakfast 2 Poached eggs on one slice of wholegrain toast with a little butter

Snack- hummus and 2 oatcakes

Lunch-Homemade vegetable and lentil soup

Snack- smoothie blend 2 tsps of live natural yogurt, 2tsps mixed ground seeds (linewoods sell some great varieties), small punnet of berries blueberries/strawberries/blackberries, juice of half a lemon plus a small glass of water to give it a easy to drink consistency

Dinner- chicken breast with roasted Mediterranean vegetables (courgettes/ peppers/ onions/cherry tomatoes/basil ) with a small cup of basmati rice

Almond Pancakes with blueberries

Almond pancakes with blueberries

• 1 cup ground almonds (also called almond meal/almond flour)
• 2 eggs (organic and free range preferably)
• 1/4 cup water
• 2  Teaspoons of coconut butter we used Lucy bees (http://www.lucybee.co )
• 2 cups of blueberries (fresh or frozen will work)
• cinnamon
• vanilla essence

Mix almonds, eggs water and oil together  to make a batter

Grease a frying pan with coconut butter get the pan really hot, then turn the heat down to medium

 It should take a few minutes or so to cook; you can lift the edge with a palette knife to see if it's tinged gold as it should be. Flip the pancake over with a pan slice or palette knife - the other side will need a few seconds only - then simply slide it out of the pan onto a plate.

Put Blueberries into a saucepan with enough water to cover them, add cinnamon and vanilla essence and poach for about 5 minutes until most of the water has evaporated and the blueberries are soft.

layer pancake and blueberries and you could serve with Greek/live natural yogurt for added protein.Makes about Six mini pancakes and serves two

Is your new years resolution to lose weight? If so Read on!

It’s that time of year again, when we look back at the past year and re-evaluate our life - what we have done or not done, we resolve to make changes and set goals for the coming year. Today I’m going to be talking to those of you who have weight loss related goals. So many people start of the new year full of excitement and anticipation of how fast they can get rid of the unwanted weight they have been carrying or maybe have recently gained. January is the time when gym memberships go up, health DVD can seem to fly off shop shelves and new diets seem to pop out of everywhere. How many times have you heard people say “Have you tried this 9 day detox? Sugar detox? Meal replacements? No carbs? No fat”? And so on and on I’m sure that when people set their resolution to lose weight, its not really truly about weight, what they really want is to be happy in their body, to feel full of energy to be able to eat tasty food and not food that seem like it’s punishment. I’m here today to tell you that is entirely possible.

You don’t need to live on juices for a month or stop eating carbohydrates or even cut fat from your diet, what you need is healthy sustainable advice based on REAL FOOD!! Yes you can have a bacon sandwich in the morning and lose weight you can even have a slice of pizza and a chocolate now and again too, food is a pleasure and should be enjoyed. Healthy food that is nourishing for the body will get you to your goal and the most importantly help remain that faster than any ‘weight loss diet’ will, be it meal replacements, juicing, patches, pill, potions. I only wish I could teach you all just simply HOW to eat for good health and pleasure, as it seems we have all lost the knowledge. We need to stop dieting and learn how to eat to be healthy and very often the side effect of being healthy is a healthy weight. By this I mean if you are over weight you will naturally find that the excess pounds fall off and if you are under weight, when you adopt a nourishing healthy diet your body will steadily increase to a healthy level. Now please do not interpret what I am saying as all those over or under weight aren’t healthy that is not my opinion at all. All I am saying is health should be the focus of any change in diet not weight. I could go on about why we don’t need special detox diets. I think sometimes we get so caught up in what we weigh we forget that weight really isn’t the most important factor at all.

So if your new years resolution is to lose weight, why not rephrase it to gain health instead? Weight loss isn’t a true reflection of all that much to be honest, as you can weigh less from muscle wastage, dehydration, carb depletion and fasting/starving. If your goal is to lose unwanted body fat that weight shouldn’t be your focal point. So many clients I see come to me and fixated on weight when how you feel how you look and your health is the true indication of health. I have a client who lost two dress sizes before Christmas she was seeing me once a week and a personal trainer three times a week, after the second week I had to stop weighing her because she was becoming very disheartened. Her weight you see didn’t change in the whole six weeks I saw her, and had she been focusing only on her weight she may have become disheartened and stopped. Yet at the end of the six weeks she was a comfortable size 12 not an uncomfortable size 16 and her body fat was now a healthy level. Instead of focusing on weight we focused on cravings, energy levels, skin and mood. So if fat loss is you aim, don’t fall pray to the marketing gimmicks - the fast quick fix ‘diets’ that don’t put your health first. Focus on eating REAL FOOD!! DON’T GIVE UP FAT – just eat them from nutritious sources, and yes that even includes a little bit of butter! Don’t shun carbohydrates – just pick slow releasing natural unrefined sources such as:- oats, sweet potatoes, basmarti rice, vegetables in abundance and low glycemic load fruit. Eat adequate protein with every meal. Go organic if money allows and buy grass fed beef as opposed to grain fed. If you would like a months diet plan to get you of to a good start for 7 days only you can have a one to one consultation and a one months diet plan for the reduce price of £50. Normal price is £75 for a consultation and a one week plan! Call 07780007361 to book your appointment or email Kirsten@thefoodremedy.co.uk