Posts Tagged ‘nutrition’
Monday, November 15th, 2010
Breakfast means “breaking the fast”. After a nights rest, eating gives you energy to spark the body into life again.
Breakfast also cuts down on mid morning ‘snack attacks’.
No time for breakfast?
- Set the alarm 5 minutes earlier.
- Make the sandwich the night before, pop it in the fridge, and eat it when you get to school / work with a carton of orange juice.
- A glass of milk and a banana are very quick and easy to eat.
- Fruit can be eaten on the way to school / work. Try bananas, apples, pears, peaches, etc.
Cereal and Milk
- Healthy choices – Shredded Wheat, Weetabix, Shreddies, Puffed Wheat, Fruit ‘n’ fibre, Porridge, Ready Brek, Rice Krispies, Cornflakes.
- Try not to add sugar, have sliced banana or sprinkle raisins instead. If you can’t do without, sprinkle less sugar or try an artificial sweetener instead.
- Sugar coated cereals may damage your teeth, so have these only as an occasional treat.
Toast, bread or muffins
- Choose wholegrain, high fibre white or malted grain varieties.
- Try peanut butter, sliced banana or just a thin scrape of jam or marmalade.
- Easy to eat on the move or on the way to school / work.
- Use only a thin scraping of butter, margarine or a low fat spread.
Cooked breakfast
- Can be healthy, but choose wisely.
- Try grilled tomatoes and mushrooms or baked beans on toast.
- Don’t fry your breakfast – try grilling bacon or low fat sausages and scrambling the egg.
Tags: breakfast, carlow, energy, fruit, healthy eating, kilkenny, nutrition, nutritional concepts, portion, snack, sugar
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Monday, November 1st, 2010
Water makes up about two-thirds of our body weight. Water is essential for the body to grow and maintain itself, as well as being involved in a number of bodily processes e.g. it helps get rid of waste and regulates temperature.
Water is lost from the body through urine and sweat. To stay healthy, you need to replace the fluids you lose by consuming them through your diet. If you don’t consume enough you can become dehydrated.
One of the first signs of dehydration is feeling thirsty. If you think you might not be getting enough fluids, check if you are showing any of these other common signs of dehydration:
- headaches
- confusion and irritability
- lack of concentration and tiredness
- dark coloured urine and not passing much when you go to the toilet
In climates such as Ireland, we should drink approximately 6 to 8 glasses of fluid every day to stop us getting dehydrated. In hotter climates the body needs more than this.
How to maintain fluid levels –
- Have a glass of water when you wake.
- Regular drinks during the day – don’t forget that tea, coffee and juices can count.
- Keep a bottle of water in your bag for convenience.
- Get into the habit of having a glass of water with every meal.
- The sensation of thirst is not triggered until you’re already dehydrated, so it’s important to drink before you get thirsty.
- Increase your intake of fresh fruit and vegetables, as they too have a high water content.
Tags: carlow, diet, drinking, fluid, nutrition, nutritional concepts, Sport, water
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Monday, October 18th, 2010
Halloween Treats
Ingredients
- 100g unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
- 100g caster sugar
- 1 free-range egg, lightly beaten
- 275g plain flour
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
To decorate
- 400g icing sugar
- 3-4 tbsp water
- 2-3 drops food colouring
Preparation time: less than 30 minutes
Cooking time: 10 to 30 minutes
Preparation method
1. Preheat the oven to 190°C. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
2. Beat the butter and sugar together in a bowl until combined.
3. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract, a little at a time, until well combined.
4. Stir in the flour until the mixture comes together as a dough.
5. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured work surface to a thickness of 1cm.
6. Using Halloween-style biscuit cutters, cut biscuits out of the dough and carefully place onto the baking tray.
7. Bake the biscuits for 8-10 minutes, or until pale golden-brown. Set aside to harden for 5 minutes, then cool on a wire rack.
8. For the icing, sift the icing sugar into a large mixing bowl and stir in enough water to create a smooth mixture. Stir in the food colouring.
9. Carefully spread the icing onto the biscuits using a knife and set aside until the icing hardens.
Tags: carlow, fun, halloween, kids, kilkenny, nutrition, nutritional concepts, treats
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Monday, October 4th, 2010
An easy, super healthy stew full of vitamin C.
Ingredients:
- 1 onion, sliced
- 1 garlic clove, sliced
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 300g pack beef stir fry strips, or use beef steak, thinly sliced
- 1 yellow pepper, deseeded and thinly sliced
- 400g can chopped tomatoes
- Sprig rosemary, chopped
- Handful pitted olives
Preparation and cooking times
Prep 10 mins Cook 20 mins
Method
1. In a large saucepan, cook onion and garlic in olive oil for 5 mins until softened and turning golden.
2. Tip in the beef strips, pepper, tomatoes and rosemary, then bring to the boil.
3. Simmer for 15 mins until the meat is cooked through, adding some boiling water if needed. Stir through the olives and serve with mash.
Make it vegetarian – Leave out the beef and cook 1 chopped aubergine and 1 chopped courgette along with the pepper. Finish by sprinkling over some feta cheese.
Per serving: 225 kcals, Protein – 25g, Carbohydrate – 7g, Fat – 11 g, Saturated fat – 3g, Fibre – 2g, Sugar – 6g, Salt – 0.87 g
Tags: beef, carlow, healthy eating, kilkenny, nutrition, nutritious, portion, stew, tasty, vegetables, vegetarian, vitamins and minerals
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Monday, September 20th, 2010
In Ireland, one in four of us is taking a nutritional supplement (Food Safety Authority of Ireland, 2008), often to make
up for what we feel is a lack in our normal diet, or because we feel generally run down, or to help fight off colds in the winter. But can they really make a difference?
Vitamins, minerals and trace elements are needed for your body to work properly. However, that does not mean that taking a supplement is necessarily going to be beneficial.
There is a variety of reasons why taking supplements is not as effective as you have been lead to believe, these include the following:
- Intakes of vitamins and minerals can be taken in much larger amounts in pill form than would ever be managed from food alone, potentially leading to an ‘over-dose’ of a particular vitamin or mineral.
- In general supplements do not work as well as nutrients obtained from food as they are not as biologically active; that means the body cannot use them as efficiently.
So as much as certain companies would like you to believe the bottom line is….
If you have a balanced diet, for most of us it shouldn’t be necessary to have vitamin and mineral supplements.
However if you really want to take a supplement keep to a one-a-day vitamin and mineral that provides no more than the daily recommended amounts and avoid taking supplements of single vitamins or minerals.
There are as ever some exceptions where due to pregnancy, certain medical conditions, gut surgery or restricted diets that a supplement will be recommended.
Tags: carlow, cold, diet, healthy eating, kilkenny, nutrition, nutritional concepts, nutritional supplements, vitamins and minerals, winter
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Monday, August 23rd, 2010
Carbohydrate is the most important fuel for energy, so you should eat lots of foods that are rich in starchy carbohydrates.
Many different foods contain carbohydrate. The richest sources of carbohydrate are bread, rice, pasta, cereals and potatoes, but other foods also contain useful amounts, such as: fruit, vegetables, beans, pulses, yoghurt and milk.
Carbohydrate is stored in the liver and muscles as glycogen, and if you get tired during your sport or activity, this might be because your glycogen stores are running low.
The more you exercise, the more carbohydrate you need. The actual amount you need depends upon the type of exercise you’re doing, the intensity, duration and frequency of the exercise, and your fitness level.
The bigger the glycogen stores in your muscles, the longer you can perform. So this is particularly important if you do an endurance sport such as marathon running or long distance cycling.
After exercise, your muscles can refuel their glycogen stores twice as fast as normal, so it’s important to eat foods containing carbohydrate soon after you have finished exercising.
Tags: activity, carbohydrate, carlow, energy, glycogen, healthy eating, kilkenny, nutrition, nutritional concepts, Sport, starchy
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Monday, July 12th, 2010
Colourful, fun and a great way to give fresh fruit to your children.
Ingredients
250g strawberries
4½ tbsp runny honey
3 large ripe peaches or nectarines, peeled, stoned and sliced
5 large kiwi fruit, peeled and sliced
Method
1. Puree the strawberries with a hand blender. Sieve the puree to get rid of the seeds.
2. Stir 1 ½ tbsp of the honey into the puree. Then pour the strawberry puree into each of the ice lolly moulds until each mould is ⅓ full.
3. Freeze until firm – this should take 1 ½ hours.
4. Repeat this process with the peaches and 1 ½ tbsp of the honey, then the kiwi fruit with the rest of the honey, freezing between each fruit.
Prep time: 10 min, plus several hours freezing
Cook time: 0 min
Serves: 8
Tags: 5 a day, carlow, fruit, kilkenny, nutrition, nutritional concepts, portion, tasty
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Monday, June 28th, 2010
Dietitians may well encourage you to drink as little as possible, after all alcoholic drinks are usually full of calories, once you have one you tend to drink another and you can very quickly pile on the pounds!
However the official guidelines are -
Men are advised to drink no more than 3 to 4 units a day.
Women are advised to drink no more than 2 to 3 units a day.
So what is a unit? 1 unit is equal to -
- ½ pint beer
- 1 glass wine
- 1 measure of spirits
The government recommended safe limits are:
- Men 21 units per week
- Women 14 units per week
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The list below shows the number of units of alcohol in common drinks –
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A pint of ordinary strength lager
(e.g. Heineken, Fosters)
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2 units
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A pint of strong lager
(e.g. Stella Artois, Kronenbourg 1664)
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3 units
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A pint of ordinary strength cider
(e.g. Bulmers, Cashels)
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2 units
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A pint of ordinary strength stout
(e.g. Guiness, Murphys)
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2 units
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A 175ml glass of red or white wine
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Around 2 units
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A pub measure of spirits
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1 unit
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An alcopop
(e.g. Smirnoff Ice, Bacardi Breezer, WKD)
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Around 1.5 units
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How do you change your drinking habits?
- Try to eat before you drink, so you won’t miss out on essential nutrients.
- Try non-alcoholic drinks instead of alcohol.
- Dilute alcoholic drinks with low calorie mixers or water.
- Try drinking more slowly – take smaller sips and pace your drinking.
- Refrain from drinking for 48 hours after a heavy drinking occasion.
- Don’t snack while drinking alcohol, remember that eating crisps and nuts will add to the calories and fat you consume. Salty foods will make you thirstier.
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Tags: alcohol, carlow, drinking, kilkenny, nutrition, nutritional concepts, unit
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Monday, June 14th, 2010
Eating a variety of fruit and vegetables will give you plenty of vitamins and mi
nerals. For example, many are naturally high in folic acid, vitamin C and potassium. Fruit and vegetables are also a good source of fibre and other substances, such as antioxidants. All these nutrients are important for your health. Fruit and vegetables are generally low fat and low calorie foods. So eating fruit and vegetables instead of foods that are high in fat and added sugars may help you achieve or keep to a healthy weight.
Fruit and vegetables can help protect you from diseases such as cancer and heart disease. Try to have at least 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day. In fact, the more you eat the better! Fresh, frozen, chilled, canned in juice (not syrup), 100% fruit juice, and dried fruit and vegetables all count.
Check the table below to find out what counts as one portion. How many do you eat a day?
If you are not yet eating 5 a day, then build up to this amount (or more!).
Try to choose 5 different fruits and vegetables.
But what is a portion?
| ONE portion = 80g = any of these |
| 1 apple, banana, pear, orange or other similar sized fruit |
| 2 plums or similar sized fruit |
| ½ a grapefruit or avocado |
| 1 slice of large fruit, such as melon or pineapple |
| 3 heaped tablespoons of vegetables (raw, cooked, frozen or tinned) |
| 3 heaped tablespoons of beans and pulses (however much you eat, beans and pulses count as a maximum of one portion a day) |
| 3 heaped tablespoons of fruit salad (fresh or tinned in fruit juice) or stewed fruit |
| 1 heaped tablespoon of dried fruit (such as raisins and apricots) |
| 1 handful of grapes, cherries or berries |
| a dessert bowl of salad |
| a glass (150ml) of fruit juice (however much you drink, fruit juice counts as a maximum of one portion a day) |
Tips: a day’s worth might be: a banana and a glass of fruit juice with breakfast, salad and an apple with lunch, and carrots with your dinner.
Tags: 5 a day, carlow, fruit, healthy eating, kilkenny, nutrition, nutritional concepts, portion, vegetables, vitamins and minerals
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Monday, May 31st, 2010
 Eat enough calories but not too many. Maintain a balance between your calorie intake and calorie expenditure—that is, don’t eat more food than your body uses. The average recommended daily allowance is 2,000 calories, but this depends on your age, sex, height, weight, and physical activity.
- Eat a wide variety of foods. Healthy eating is an opportunity to expand your range of choices by trying foods—especially vegetables, whole grains, or fruits—that you don’t normally eat.
- Keep portions moderate, especially high-calorie foods. In recent years serving sizes have ballooned, particularly in restaurants.
- Eat plenty of fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes. Foods high in complex carbohydrates, fibre, vitamins, and minerals, low in fat, and free of cholesterol. Try to get fresh, local produce.
- Drink more water. Our bodies are about 75% water. It is a vital part of a healthy diet. Water helps flush our systems, especially the kidneys and bladder, of waste products and toxins.
- Limit sugary foods, salt and refined-grain products.
- Don’t be the food police. You can enjoy your favourite sweets and fried foods in moderation, as long as they are an occasional part of your overall healthy diet. Food is a great source of pleasure, and pleasure is good for the heart – even if those cakes and biscuits are not!
- Get moving. A healthy diet improves your energy and feelings of well-being while reducing your risk of many diseases. Adding regular exercise will make any healthy eating plan work even better.
- One step at a time. Establishing new food habits is much easier if you focus on and take action on one food group or food fact at a time.
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Tags: calories, carlow, fruit, healthy eating, kilkenny, nutrition, nutritional concepts, vegetables
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