Top Ten Christmas Healthy Eating Tips

Avoid bread and pastries at parties!!!

Paula Gilbert, Dietitian now available in Henfield

Breakfast and Weight Loss

A recent research study amongst 280 obese and 100 healthy weight adults found that having a big breakfast adds to your daily calorie intake and doesn’t mean you eat less for lunch – so not good news if you are trying to lose weight. They found that having a smaller breakfast helped to keep daily calories down. So nothing particularly surprising really and emphasises the importance of understanding portion sizes.

An important study carried out in 2003 from Harvard business school found that people who eat breakfast every day were a third less likely to be obese than those who skipped breakfast. On the topic, another American large scale study from the National Control Registry of Weight loss Maintainers showed that people who lose weight and keep it off tend to eat breakfast.

So a healthy sized breakfast is an important start to the day for everyone including people who are trying to lose weight. There are plenty of choices which won’t pile on the calories especially if you watch portion sizes such as low sugar wholegrain cereal like porridge or weetabix or poached or boiled eggs, fruit and yogurt or grilled mushrooms or tomatoes on wholegrain toast, smoothies or a banana.

Our new leaflet

We proudly announce the launch of our new leaflet.. you can download it by clicking on the picture below.

Download the PDF leaflet here

Why is diet advice important?

Most individuals would admit to needing dietary advice. Today’s life-style means that what we eat is often compromised, leading to poor dietary choices. Society’s poor eating habits have led to a change in disease patterns: no longer is the communicable disease of dominance, but the non-communicable disease has emerged (cardiovascular disease, obesity, cancer, and digestive disorders) which are mainly the result of poor diet and lack of exercise.

There is a strong link between diet, disease and health. The types of diet therapy used by the dietitian can be divided into two categories:

1. Diet used to reduce or prevent symptoms, for example, reducing saturated fat and increasing the use of soluble fibre and stanols and sterols within the diet to treat raised cholesterol levels

2. Diet can be used to promote recovery and repair, such as implementing nutritional support (dietary supplementation) to meet the increased nutritional needs of the client following surgery or conditions where weight-loss is occurring such as in cancer and digestive disorders where food is poorly absorbed by the body.

Visit our services page to see how your consultation is structured.

General Healthy eating

Most individuals would admit to needing dietary advice: people often do not know what they should be eating – it is complex. Today’s life-style means that what we eat is often compromised, leading to poor dietary choices. Society’s poor eating habits have led to a change in disease patterns: no longer is the communicable disease of dominance, but the non-communicable disease has emerged (cardiovascular disease, obesity, cancer, and digestive disorders) which is mainly the result of poor diet and lack of exercise.

This link to the British Nutrition Foundation gives a clear outline to what is acknowledged as a healthy diet:

How does your diet match up? Most people would admit to their diet failing to meet these guidelines. ‘But how do I achieve these recommendations’ I hear you say. This is where I can help – a detailed analysis of your diet will tell me where problems are, and together we can work out practical solutions to create a healthy and balanced diet that ensures you and your family are incorporating all nutrients within your diet in a balance to optimise your health. Visit our services page to see how your consultation is structured.

Thanks to NHS choices for this video:-