Meeting Theo

On Thursday 28th November I  had the privilege of travelling to Birmingham and meeting Theo Paphitis. I won his competition on Twitter for Small Businesses (SBS) where each week he picks 6 of the best. I have three words to sum up the day:

• Inspiring
• Exciting
• Amazing

Being in business is tough and although Theo is a very wealthy man, helping those of us who are starting out and still small businesses is top of his list. You couldn't ask to meet a more genuine man who has his feet firmly on the ground. Listening to Theo speak about the things he's got lined up for SBS winners excites me and inspires me.

Theo wants the SBS network to grow and be powerful enough to lobby in parliament. How exciting is that?! He talked about his businesses and probably the best of advice he gave is to "just f***ing do it" Stop wasting time thinking about the consequences because if you don't try something you won't know whether it works or not.

The SBS winners that were in Birmingham were those who are passionate and determined with their businesses. They want to make them succeed and are already successful regardless of income/size etc. These are the people I want to be around. They inspire you to keep going when things are tough and the community we're building is there for people if they just need a chat and virtual hug. The passion, dedication and enthusiasm in the room was infectious. Hearing how excited people are for next year and the plans they have was just amazing.

I am proud and honoured to be part of such a wonderful community and look forward to helping and hopefully inspiring those who have already won and future winners. You only get out what you put in and this is certainly true for SBS. The more you can network online and retweet other winners to help them get their messages heard, the more they do for you.

2014 is shaping up to be the most exciting year yet with some fantastic opportunities and new products coming your way so watch the blog and website (www.wisechoicenutrition.co.uk) for more information. Don't forget you can always get in touch with us via the website or call 07912 556470.

Hannah

Why are eating less but getting fatter?

It was reported yesterday that we're eating less but getting fatter. Researchers are blaming our sedentary lifestyles but those who watched "The Men Who Made Us Thin" on BBC2 earlier in the year will know that when the exercise and weight theory was discovered, they got it wrong!

Whilst we're not the most active country, what we eat is also a big contributory factor in our weight. It seems that a lack of exercise is being blamed because it's the easiest thing to blame. In actual fact, we as individuals are at fault. We control what we eat and how healthy our lifestyles are. However, the advice from the government may not be helping us to lose weight and maintain a healthy weight.

If the exercise theory was wrong and it is in fact slim people who do exercise rather than exercise helping with weight loss then it doesn't really matter how much exercise you do. There are dangers of recommending exercise to overweight people as the pressure it puts their joints under can cause a lot of damage. People should only start exercising after speaking to a qualified professional e.g. personal trainer. Ideally if they are wanting to lose weight, the personal trainer should have some experience of working with overweight people so they can give the best advice. This should then be combined with the advice of qualified nutritionist or dietitian.

The current Eatwell plate looks like this


You can see how much of our diet the government recommend is made up of carbohydrates and foods high in fat/sugar. Protein makes up a small portion of the plate and there is no distinction between how much fruit or veg we should have.

There is far too much carbohydrate on the plate especially of the white sugary kind and there is no direction on whether to eat low fat or full fat dairy products. Full fat are not only lower in sugar but also more filling and have less effect on blood sugar. Whilst fruit contains vitamins, it does also contain fructose which is natural sugar. Far too many people eat a lot of fruit and very little veg which also can cause blood sugars to rise. This is often the case for children too.

As far as I'm concerned, there should be no place for the purple segment. Yes, we all need a treat once in a while but certainly not the amount or frequency suggested by the plate. Sugary foods cause the body to release more insulin to deal with the rise in blood sugar which encourages the body to lay down fat stores especially around the middle.

We need to re-consider our dietary advice as it clearly isn't working if we are eating less and getting fatter. My suggestion would be to look at what happens when people eat a low carbohydrate diet with no processed food and see how much people lose then. We don't need to Calorie count or get obsessive about weight, we need to make people healthy.

Of course, another flaw with the article is that people often under or over estimate food intake. Those who underweight are more likely to over report whereas those who are overweight are most likely to over report and therefore food intake is not accurate. It also doesn't always account for what is eaten outside the home which can equate to an awful lots of food for many people!

Here's a link to the article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2486892/Couch-potato-lifestyle-means-Britons-obese-Europe.html

For more information, visit www.wisechoicenutrition.co.uk or email info@wisechoicenutrition.co.uk

Hannah on Radio Sheffield

This week I have had the privilege of being on Radio Sheffield twice in 3 days talking about different aspects of nutrition. On Monday, I was on Paulette Edwards' show as an expert nutritionist. I then got called in to Rony's show on Wednesday morning to give my comments on the new traffic light labelling system.

I love being on radio and have decided I want my own nutrition show. For now though, I'll be on Paulette's show once a month talking about the latest nutrition news and answering your questions. There were some great stories coming in. One that particularly stood out was a man who lost 7 stone by cutting out beer, bread and butter. Whilst I recommended he put butter back in but spread thinly, that's a fantastic achievement!

We focussed a lot on retraining your brain and what that means. I argue that it isn't just the food we eat but our attitude towards it. food should be seen as fuel for our body but also more than that. There is the social enjoyment and the fulfilment of eating good quality food you enjoy. You wouldn't put substandard fuel in the car yet we quite happily fill our bodies up and expect them to work.They won't! We need to view food and our relationship with it as a much more important part of life.

I also went on Rony's show to talk about the new food labelling system coming into force. I'll blog more about that in a separate post but personally, I can't see it working. It comes back to the point I make above, our attitudes need to change. We need to change the amount of convenience food we eat and the reasons why. 

If you would like to listen to my chat with Paulette, you can listen here from 1:07 http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p019b0rp/Paulette_Edwards_Walking_Festival/

To listen to Ron'y show click here and listen from 17:30 http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p019fn36/Rony_Robinson_Hendersons_Relish_art/