Weekly Family Meals

It’s the weekend yet again and time to think about what I am going to eat for the next week. Normally it is not a problem as I have a four week menu system that I designed. It is flexible enough to slip new recipes in and to take some recipes out depending on how I am feeling.

I get very easily bored by eating the same things all the time and need to regularly change our dinners. I have very wide tastes in food and like just about everything. During the last three years my tastes have changed too and I find that I now eat things I would never have considered eating three years ago. For example, I now eat sardines fairly often whereas before I would never have even thought of having them.

Anyway, I have been thinking this week that I would like to try some new recipes but the overall menu for the week must be healthy and follow the following healthy eating guidelines:

• At least 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day. I love all kinds of vegetables so do not find this difficult. I have to be careful with fruit because they contain more natural sugars. However, if you do not have diabetes then this will not be a problem for you. I keep telling my family that they should eat a rainbow meaning they should eat a wide variety of colours as each colour provides different nutrients. They seem to like this idea and it helps to encourage them to eat up their fruit and veg.

• 3 portions of whole grains a day such as wholewheat pitta bread, wholewheat bread, brown basmati rice, wholewheat pasta, oats, bran etc. I normally have oats for breakfast, pitta bread for lunch and then basmati rice or pasta for dinner.

• 4 portions of fish per week. Two oily types of fish such as mackerel and salmon and two non-oily fish such as haddock and canned tuna. For lunch I will often have mackerel, salmon, sardines or tuna in pitta bread and then for dinner have cod, haddock, fresh tuna, fresh salmon etc.

• Lean meats with visible fat removed such as extra lean minced beef and poultry such as chicken breasts without the skin. I always have two dinners which include chicken, one dinner which includes extra lean minced beef or other lean meat such as pork steaks. On a Sunday we always have a roast but I try to choose the leanest meat I can and cook it without adding any extra fat.

• Skimmed milk, no fat/low fat yoghurt, low fat cheese. I do not eat much cheese although I love it as I have found that even low fat cheese is quite high in fat. I love fat free natural yoghurt (with no added sugar) and will often have it on strawberries in the summer. I always have skimmed milk on my cereal or in my cups of tea. I do not often drink coffee any more as I have totally gone off it even though three years ago I was a coffee addict.

• Beans, nuts, seeds, pulses. I almost always have butter beans on a Sunday and have red kidney beans once a week in a healthy chilli con carne or a totilla. I have a few walnuts and seeds with my breakfast cereal. I also like lentils but other family members are not very keen on them. I am always on the lookout for recipes with lentils that I think they might eat. Pine nuts are very nice sprinkled on fruit.

• A small treat – I like my two squares of 70% cocoa chocolate in the evening!

This picture from the Foods Standards Agency, the Eatwell Plate, is a very good visual guide to what we should be eating and in what proportions.

Take Care in this Heatwave

The UK is experiencing a heatwave this week and it is particularly hot where I live. Today is especially hot and sticky and I am doing all I can to keep cool.

Heatwaves like this can be dangerous for us because we are not used to dealing with these high temperatures.

Risks Associated with Hot Weather

1. Dehydration
2. Heat stroke or exhaustion
3. Sunburn

Strategies to Avoid Problems

1. Keep out of the sun between 11am and 3pm.
2. When outdoors keep in the shade, apply sunscreen and wear a hat.
3. Wear light, loose fitting cotton clothing.
4. If the sun is streaming in through the windows close the blinds or curtains to block it out.
5. Drink plenty of water to keep hydrated.
6. Relax. Avoid too much physical exercise during the hottest part of the day.

This video covers some very important points:

Get Fit From the Inside Out

After writing the article, A Few Extra Pounds May Help You Live Longer, I was worried that people would take this as an excuse to not lose weight or even gain weight. However, my article was not intended for this purpose.

What I was trying to stress is that people who are a few pounds overweight who eat healthily and take regular exercise can be healthier than skinnier people who take very little exercise and do not take care with the food they are putting inside of their bodies.

A figure on the bathroom scales or a BMI chart is far too simplistic in regards to health. Although most doctors believe that BMI is a good indicator of a person’s health it is not foolproof. Exceptions occur especially in regards to athletes who have built up more muscle mass than average and so have a BMI score which puts them in the obese category.

Real obesity does have negative consequences on a person’s health. It has been identified as a cause for many different diseases but having a healthy BMI score does not guarantee one is healthy either.

People who do not look fat on the outside can be hiding internal fat which surrounds vital organs like the heart, liver and pancreas and doctors now think this internal fat could be as dangerous as the more obvious visible fat.

Dr. Jimmy Bell, a professor of molecular imaging at Imperial College, London has undertaken research funded by Britain’s Medical Research Council. He and his team scanned nearly 800 people with MRI machines to find out where they were storing fat. They discovered that as many as 45 percent of women and nearly 60 percent of men with normal BMI scores had excessive levels of internal fat. This has lead doctors to worry that thin people may falsely assume they are healthy because they are not overweight.

There is much more to being healthy than just being a healthy weight. As I stated in my previous article, it is also important to make good food choices, take regular exercise and keep blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar under control.

It is interesting that Dr. Steven Blair, an obesity expert at the University of South Carolina is quoted as saying. “Normal-weight persons who are sedentary and unfit are at much higher risk for mortality than obese persons who are active and fit.”

Therefore, when attempting to be healthy it is not enough to just watch how much you are eating to maintain a BMI score in the healthy weight range. It is also important to watch what you are eating and, arguably even more important, to take regular exercise in order to maximise your health.

Start your week off healthily by making sure you do some form of exercise today.

Further Reading

1. Internal fat deposits may endanger people who look thin externally
2. Thin people can be fat on the inside
3. Exercise critical to melt internal fat
4. Abdominal and Total Body Fat Loss Linked to Regular Exercise, Researcher at Yale Finds