Healthy diet helps cut food bill

Planning ahead about what you are going to eat in a week helps increase savings by up to 1500 pounds a year, a survey has shown.

The survey asked 20 households to record what they ate and drank over a two-week period, first eating and shopping as usual then using recipes and tips from the Government’s Change4Life campaign in Britain.

During this second week, those who took part notched up average savings of 29 pounds a week.

They also spent 15 pounds less on takeaways each week and ate fewer snacks. Some of the five single adults, five couples and 10 families questioned even said they had skipped fewer meals and eaten more fruit and vegetables.

“Some people might think that eating a balanced diet is more expensive but that does not have to be the case”, a newspaper quoted Public Health Minister Anne Milton as saying.

If we plan ahead we can make better choices and save money too,” she said.

The findings come ahead of a new Change4Life campaign that will encourage affordable healthy eating in the new year.

Poor diet ups health risks for the elderly

Millions of older people in Britain are at risk of chronic health conditions like osteoporosis, heart disease and stroke because of a bad diet, experts have warned.

According to doctors, a health time-bomb is being stored up for many who face a future blighted by a poor quality of life simply because they are not eating the right foods.

Diet is one of the most important risk factors in the development of chronic conditions and is something we can all easily change for the better.

Yet an increasing ageing population means millions are risking an old age blighted by illnesses that could be prevented if they simply maintained a healthy, balanced diet.

In an independent research carried out by Carrie Ruxton, diets of older people were analysed for nutritional content to gauge their likely health status now and in the future.

Ruxton evaluated data from 71 previously published reports, studies and trials to establish the health risks that people aged 50 or over could be facing.

According to her, while ageing was inevitable, the goal was to age healthily, with an absence of chronic disease and a slower decline in cognitive and physical function.
She found that in too many cases older people failed to get enough vital nutrients for optimal health, in particular vitamin A, vitamin B2, vitamin B6, vitamin D, folic acid, iron, calcium, magnesium, zinc and iodine.

Vitamin D is vital for bone health, while research suggests it can help combat other serious illnesses including cancer.

She found that 97 percent of people aged 65 and over fail to meet the recommended vitamin intake, but more than 40 percent of that age group and 47 percent of over-75s have a long-standing illness that limits their ability to perform everyday tasks.

“Those most at risk include people in their 80s and the elderly in institutions. This has led to calls for more older people to take multi-nutrient supplements. Healthy eating advice should be combined with information on the beneficial role of dietary supplements,” the Daily Express quoted Ruxton as saying.

The study has been published in the journal Nutrition & Food Science.

3 Meals a day, a better way to diet

A new US study has revealed that eating three meals a day is a better strategy to burn some fat rather than grazing on several mini meals.

Researchers from Purdue University in Indiana revealed that obese men on low-calorie, high-protein diets felt more satisfied and less hungry when they ate three times a day in comparison to six times a day.

There is a widespread perception that it`s better to eat little meals more often.

"These mini-meals everyone is talking about don`t seem to be as beneficial as far as appetite control," the Daily Mail quoted Heather Leidy, lead researcher, as saying.

The researchers randomly assigned 27 overweight men to eat either a high-protein diet or a normal-protein diet for 12 weeks.

The men either ate their assigned diet in three meals spaced five hours apart, or in six meals eaten every two hours, for three days in a row. The study participants then switched to the other eating pattern for an additional three consecutive days.

While eating frequency didn`t influence appetite in the men on the normal-protein diet, the researchers did find that men in the high protein group felt fuller in the evening and late at night after eating just three meals a day.

"We very clearly want people to know that this is not an Atkins-style diet. You`re still getting an adequate amount of fibre and fruits and vegetables with these diets," Leidy informed further.

The study is published in the journal Obesity.

Low carb diet may land you in depression

A very low carbohydrate diet, seen as a sure shot way to shed weight, may not be good for your mental health, warn researchers.

An Australian study published in prestigious medical journal, Archives of Internal Medicine, a journal of America Medical Association, shows that compared to low fat diets the very low carbohydrate diets can cause depression, anxiety and mood swings in the patients. The study says that very low carbohydrate diet takes away all the joys of weight loss.

The researchers from University of South Australia and Flinders and University Adelaide, Australia, studied about 106 overweight and obese individuals who were either given a low carbohydrate or a low fat diet for about a year. The people were allowed to consume only 1433-1672 kcal. The researchers observed the changes in body weight, psychological mood and well being.

It was observed that both diets achieved a similar reduction in body weight of approximately 14 kg. Compared with the low carb diet, the low fat diet had greater improvements in psychological mood state. Both diets had similar effects on cognitive functioning (working memory and speed of processing information).

"These findings suggest that although dietary macronutrient composition may have little influence on long-term weight loss, some aspects of the low carb diet may have detrimental effects on mood that may negate any positive mood effects following weight loss," the researchers wrote.

Renowned clinical nutritionist and Director of health food chain in Delhi, Whole Foods, Ishi Kosla says carbohydrates are important for brain and taking them out of food completely can cause depression.

"Lot of neurotransmitters are carbohydrate dependant and taking carbs out of food can not only cause depression but also manifest in things like lack of stamina. Brain requires a minimum of 100 gm of carbs daily and some crash diets like atkins and others reduce carbs to less than 30 to 40 grams per day which has bad impact on the brain," she said.

Even the psychiatrists agree. "We see a lot of such cases were eliminating or giving less carbs than what the body requires is causing severe reaction in people and the reactions manifest more in the physical functions like in chronic fatigue syndrome, mixed anxiety, restlessness, palpitations and panic attacks," said Dr Jitendra Nagpal, Delhi based clinical Psychiatrist.

"Carbs are fuel of the body and eliminating them can effect the emotion regulating centers of the brain. It is wrong on part of dieticians or weight loss management experts to even suggest taking carbohydrates out of the diet," he added.

There however are some for whom the study warrants more study. A number of factors have to be considered.

In context of diabetes management low carbohydrates have been seen to have positive impact on disease management but the new study needs to be further evaluated as if the patients gets depressed not only will it affect diet control but taking medicines as well," said Dr Anoop Misra, HoD, department of diabetes and metabolism at Fortis Hospitals Noida and Delhi.

Mediterranean diet can beat the blues

People who follow Mediterranean diet, an eating regimen which is rich in vegetables, fruits, nuts, whole grains and fish, are less likely to be depressed, says a new Foodreport.

To reach the conclusion, Almudena Sánchez-Villegas, B.Pharm., Ph.D., of University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Clinic of the University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain, and colleagues studied 10,094 healthy Spanish participants who completed an initial questionnaire between 1999 and 2005.

Participants reported their dietary intake on a food frequency questionnaire and the researchers calculated their adherence to the Mediterranean diet based on nine components (high ratio of monounsaturated fatty acids to saturated fatty acids; moderate intake of alcohol and dairy products; low intake of meat; and high intake of legumes, fruit and nuts, cereals, vegetables and fish).

After a median (midpoint) of 4.4 years of follow-up, 480 new cases of depression were identified, including 156 in men and 324 in women. Individuals who followed the Mediterranean diet most closely had a greater than 30 per cent reduction in the risk of depression than whose who had the lowest Mediterranean diet scores.

The association did not change when the results were adjusted for other markers of a healthy lifestyle, including marital status and use of seatbelts.

"The specific mechanisms by which a better adherence to the Mediterranean dietary pattern could help to prevent the occurrence of depression are not well known," the authors write.

Components of the diet may improve blood vessel function, fight inflammation, reduce risk for heart disease and repair oxygen-related cell damage, all of which may decrease the chances of developing depression.

"However, the role of the overall dietary pattern may be more important than the effect of single components. It is plausible that the synergistic combination of a sufficient provision of omega-three fatty acids together with other natural unsaturated fatty acids and antioxidants from olive oil and nuts, flavonoids and other phytochemicals from fruit and other plant foods and large amounts of natural folates and other B vitamins in the overall Mediterranean dietary pattern may exert a fair degree of protection against depression," the authors write.

Tips to Choose Pet Diet

As a pet owner, no doubt you want to give your dog or cat the best care possible. And caring for your pet means feeding him the best diet you can. By making your own pet foods, you'll be saving money, up to 80%. And to top it off, it's easy; making pet food at home is probably a lot less time-consuming than you may have thought. With hundreds of websites offering free pet food recipes online, it's now easier than ever to make your own pet food.

It is best that you read and re-read any and all labels found on the product of pet foods. It is not enough to just read them though, one should also try - as much as possible - to understand what a particular product description means. When a product label reads chicken-cat food, this description basically means that the food in the can consists ninety five percent of chicken.

Simultaneously, this same regulatory agency prohibits the use of many proven beneficial natural ingredients that one can find readily available for human consumption such as bee pollen, glucosamine, L-carnitine, spirulina and many other nutraceuticals. It would be easy to conclude that reason does not rule when it comes to what officially can or cannot be used in pet foods.

The vet declined to work on Tippy citing poor health possibly diabetes as the reason. Making a long story short, we strongly suspect that Tippy was fed some of the recalled dog food while at the vets. She got progressively lethargic over the week following the vet visit and began vomiting blood the last couple of days. She died a week after her visit to the vets on March 10 2007.

The consequences have been devastating! It is believed that thousands of dogs and cats have developed kidney dysfunction or died after eating the contaminated pet food. This serious dilemma has been extremely aggravating and scary for veterinarians and pet lovers nationwide.

Now with the on-going pet food recall pet owners have questions such as 'Has this food been recalled?' or 'Is this food the next one to be recalled?'...'Is my pet safe?' Wow this is confusing! And scary too! What exactly is a pet owner to do? How about learning a few secrets! Equipped with the knowledge of a few secrets of pet food, it's not nearly as confusing.

Now with a good quality pet food – feeding about 1/3 less – a 20 pound bag will provide you about 80 servings. If the better food costs $30.00 for a 20 pound bag – that breaks down to a little less than .38 cents a meal.

The problem in the pet food industry – is that most pet owners don't think in the same terms when it comes to pet food. They don't think in terms that there are fast food types of pet foods and there are sit down restaurant more nutritious types of pet foods. Now, imagine your pet eating this fast food type of food its' entire lifetime.

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