Health Blog - World of Wellness

Low-Carb Bread Recipe

19/9/2021

Just tried out a low carb bread recipe.

Lovely and soft like standard bread made with flour.

This is made with 2 eggs, butter, water, almond flour, chia seeds, erythritol, baking powder and a pinch of salt.

Will definitely make it again.

I’ve made it in a conventional oven.
https://youtu.be/wmp1vJsrx-U

Here’s why I follow a low/no carb lifestyle:
https://youtu.be/tzhp2QSmOhQ

H is for Health

15/8/2021

What is health?

Health is generally defined as the absence of disease. It is also a state of inner joyfulness and positive wellbeing.

We are the creators of our own health or disease. Our body is the most priceless possession, and we should learn to take care of it as best as we can. It is a daily duty we should indulge in, otherwise, we shall not be able to keep our minds strong and clear.

Good health is not something we can buy. It can be an extremely valuable savings account. Our health must be treated as an investment, not an expense. Health is the real wealth, not the pieces of gold and silver. All the money in the world can’t buy you back good health. It costs money to stay healthy, but it’s even more expensive to get sick. Health is like money. We never have a true idea of its value until we lose it.

Take care of your body - it’s the only place you have to live. If your body’s not right, the rest of your day will go all wrong. No matter how much it gets abused, the body can restore balance. The first rule is to stop interfering with nature. The food we eat can either be the safest and the most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison. The preservation of health is easier than the cure. Take care of yourself by being aware of what you consume. It’s not just what you put in your mouth, but also what you take in through your other senses of sight, sound, touch, and smell.

Love yourself enough to live a healthy lifestyle. A healthy lifestyle not only changes your body. It changes your mind, your attitudes, and your moods. Self-care is how you take your power back. When you have your health, you have everything. Those who think they have no time for healthy eating will sooner or later have to find time for illness.

Being fit and healthy isn’t a fad or a trend. It is a lifestyle. True health infuses positive energy in the mind, body, and spirit. Motivate the mind and the body will follow.

“Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners.” William Shakespeare - The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice.
Gardening is not easy; it involves a large amount of dirt, sweat, and failure. But the rewards, which go beyond the final results each year, are well worth the effort. And the effort itself is often a pleasure, especially as experience teaches us the most efficient and successful methods.

As with gardening, it is surprisingly easy to train one’s tastes away from harmful treats and toward more nourishing ones. I know. I’ve been there and done it. I never would have believed that I would be able to do without chocolate - I hardly eat chocolate these days! I eat only real food when I'm hungry and that's usually once a day. I am fit and healthy and I have a good immune system I can depend on.

There's a wealth of resources that can help with improving and maintaining your health. Here's one of them:
https://phcuk.org/

Many conditions are reversible by changing one's diet. It's been too easy to use medical intervention to treat the symptoms than to look at dealing with what caused the condition in the first place, which more often than not, is due to what we consume.

Day 24 Press Up Challenge | The Benefits Of Fasting

14/12/2020

Fasting is not starvation. It is the voluntary avoidance of food. Food is available, but you choose not to eat.

Fasting allows the body to use its stored energy by burning off excess body fat.

Body fat is food energy that has been stored away. If you don't eat, the body will consume its own fat for energy.

When we eat, there is usually more energy generated than can be immediately consumed. The excess is stored away as fat for later use. Insulin is a hormone that is involved in the storage of food energy.

When we eat, insulin rises to help to store the excess energy as glucose in the liver as well as produce fat in the liver.

When we do not eat, insulin levels fall to signal the body to start burning stored fat because there is no more coming through food.

Some possible benefits of fasting include:

weight and fat loss
improved metabolic health
increased growth hormones
increased energy
improved mental clarity and concentration

Eat Real Food
Eat Less Frequently
Get & Stay Healthy

Day 22 Press Up Challenge | Carbohydrates & Sugar Equivalent

10/12/2020

How do you know how much carbohydrate to consume safely if you want to follow a low-carbohydrate lifestyle?

Dr David Unwin in the UK has successfully helped a large proportion of his patients reverse Type 2 Diabetes and lose fat by following a low-carb lifestyle. Many GPs in the UK are also recommending this lifestyle approach to deal with weight loss and diabetes.

To make it easier to identify which starchy carbs to limit or avoid, Dr Unwin produced a chart with sugar equivalents for these foods. This link will take you to a variety of downloadable charts, which are available in other languages as well. https://phcuk.org/sugar/

This article reported on Dr Unwin’s success and contains testimonies of several people who have followed the low carb lifestyle. http://dailym.ai/3gASBEq

What we often think is healthy is not. Take skimmed milk for instance, it has a higher sugar content compared to full fat milk. A breakfast of a 200 ml serving of apple juice has 8 teaspoons of sugar. A serving of 30g of Special K cereal has 4 teaspoons of sugar. That is why when you have cereals and juice for breakfast, you will find that you’re usually hungry before lunch and have to reach for a snack to tide you over until lunchtime, like for example, a 120g banana, which has the equivalent of nearly 6 teaspoons of sugar.

How can we change the metabolic process and improve our health?

Essentially, we eat less often, which means we extend the time between each meal, and using something good in your body (fat) instead of putting something bad (sugar) into the body.

If you can work towards a fasting window of 17-18 hours, ie an eating window of between 6-7 hours, after 2-3 weeks you will find that your body will start to find the fat stores and use fat for fuel instead of sugar, and this is how fat loss starts and other metabolic issues begin to reverse.

Eat Real Food to get and Stay Healthy.

Day 20 Press Up Challenge | Sugar And Cancer Link

6/12/2020

The link between Sugar and Cancer

The body converts starchy carbohydrates & highly processed foods into sugar, which raises insulin levels. Too much insulin leads to obesity and other metabolic health issues including cancer. Insulin also supports the growth of cancer cells as it acts as a growth factor in the body (Insulin Growth Factor IGF 1). https://phenq.com/blog/what-is-igf-1/

What we eat and how often we eat affects cancer growth.

My husband, Bill, has had cancer since 2013 and has had several operations for different cancers during this time. He made a conscious decision to change his eating habits 6 months ago following the success I had and also the effect the current virus had on people with metabolic health issues. He has ample to eat, he is hardly hungry and he enjoys what he eats. He has lost 3 stones in weight/fat, dropped 2 dress sizes, improved his immunity and feels quite well.

Once again, the importance of following a low carbohydrate real food diet is emphasised. This way of eating helps you to eat less frequently and enables you to reverse most metabolic issues you may have, such as excess weight/fat, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart health, allergies, inflammation, poor immunity and more.

Dr Jason Fung is highly regarded in his studies on Intermittent Fasting and Metabolic Health. His interview on the sugar/cancer link is found at: https://youtu.be/UgUdBEXqE8E

Eat real food
Get & Stay Healthy

Day 17 Press Up Challenge | Fat Consumption & Weight Loss

30/11/2020

The consumption of fat in one's diet is key to maintaining body weight. However, a person who has an excess amount of fat in the body will need to modify the amount of fat to consume in a low carb high fat diet (Keto), to allow the body to find the fat stores to burn. This can be done by significantly reducing the consumption of starchy carbohydrates. Carbohydrates triggers the insulin response dramatically and prevents fat burning. Carbohydrates also do not keep you satiated causing you to eat frequently.

It is a fact that low fat diets do not help with weight loss. The consumption of more meat and a little more fat than previously, especially if you've been consuming a low fat diet, can help you feel fuller longer and therefore eating less frequently to allow the body to find the fat stores to use the fat for energy resulting in fat loss.

Doing some exercise, like walking for a start can help. Caffeine in moderation can also help as an appetite suppressant.

More information can be found at:
https://youtu.be/DEnQh-W0CO4

Day 16 Press Up Challenge | Embrace Eating Natural Fat

29/11/2020

Fat that are naturally present in food is good for you. You will find it in meat, fish, avocado, seeds & nuts. However, it is best to eat grass-fed or organically reared meat and wild smaller fish like salmon.

These fats can be categorised into saturated, poly-unsaturated, and mono-unsaturated fat. Saturated fat is the most stable of the fats meaning that it can keep for a long time. On the opposite end of the scale, mono-unsaturated fat has a short shelf life and can turn rancid quickly making it toxic.

Some examples of saturated fat include butter, lard, bacon fat.

If you choose to use cold pressed oil like avocado oil, flaxseed oil, walnut oil, do make sure they are cold pressed, not heated, not filtered, or refined. The heating process changes the molecular structure of the oil.

Oils from nuts and seeds contain a high proportion of Omega 6, which is inflammatory to the body. They are OK to eat in moderation and should not form a high proportion of the diet.

Keep carbs down, consume more fat to burn fat, eat less because fat keeps you satisfied.

Find out more about Fats from Dr Sten Ekberg
Best fats to eat:
https://youtu.be/wmPRKv1R25c

Saturated Fat vs Unsaturated Fat
https://youtu.be/tdSq-8-S3CM

Day 15 Press Up Challenge | Hunger 7 Weight Loss

28/11/2020

The common advice given for weight loss is to eat less and move more, burn more calories than you consume. Most of us have tried this and found that it may work for a while and is not sustainable.

How is it possible to eat well and lost weight? The key is in understanding how different types of food affect the hormones responsible for the feeling of hunger. When you're hungry, it is natural to want to eat. The key is in eating the right foods to keep the hunger at bay for longer periods of time.

The 3 main hunger hormones are Ghrelin, Leptin & Insulin. Ghrelin is the hormone responsible for the feeling of hunger and increases food intake. Leptin is the satiety hormone and insulin is the hormone that is responsible for the metabolism of carbohydrates, fats and protein by promoting the absorption of glucose from the blood into liver, fat and skeletal muscle cells.

The consumption of a high proportion of carbohydrates in the diet stimulate these hormones that bring on hunger, making you want to eat. You can control these hormones by reducing the consumption of carbohydrates and increasing the consumption of protein & fat. Ideally eat fatty meat like chicken thighs, chicken wings (with skin on), fatty cuts of beef, lamb, pork, fatty fish, eggs, full fat cream, and cheese.

Here is a list of studies that you may want to look at for further information:
Ghrelin is an orexigenic hormone that can increase body weight. Its circulating levels increase before meals and are suppressed after food ingestion. Understanding the effects of specific types of ingested macronutrients on ghrelin regulation could facilitate the design of weight-reducing diets.
https://bit.ly/2VdqGk2

Diet-induced weight loss is accompanied by compensatory changes, which increase appetite and encourage weight regain. There is some evidence that ketogenic diets suppress appetite.
https://bit.ly/2VdT710

Resistance at the brain receptors for leptin and insulin has been associated with increased feeding, obesity and cognitive impairments.
https://bit.ly/37eXHSf

The most satiating macronutrient appears to be dietary protein. Few studies have investigated the effects of dietary protein on ghrelin secretion in humans.
https://bit.ly/3o4oWWq

Obesity, leptin resistance, and the effects of insulin reduction
https://bit.ly/3fKVe6c

I am grateful to Dr Ken Berry for this information.
https://youtu.be/d9yVe0__pFs

Day 11 Press Up Challenge | Fruits, Fructose & The Liver

24/11/2020

Most of us believe that the consumption of Fruits & vegetables is an important part of our diet.

Since being on the Carnivore Diet, I’ve not missed eating fruits and vegetables. My system has got used to not consuming all that fibre you find in vegetables.

The danger with eating too much fruits is that you can consume too much sugar. The sugar in fruits is made up of sugar and fructose. Too much fructose can adversely affect the liver.

Fruits that are very high in sugar content are dried fruits especially raisins, dates, apricots, figs which have between 55 and 75 grams of sugar per 100 grams. These should really be avoided.

The fresh very sweet fruits such as bananas, figs, grapes, cherries, mangoes, Kiwi & pineapple should also be avoided if your body does not tolerate carbohydrates, ie you experience an insulin surge. These fruits contain between 12 and 20 grams of sugar per 100 grams of fruit. These days most of the fruit we get are engineered or manipulated to be sweet.

The next category of fruit that can be eaten in moderation are apples, blueberries, apricot, orange, grapefruit, which have between 9 and 11 grams of sugar per 100 grams of fruit. They are not as sweet as the previous category, but they are still sweet and can cause insulin spikes.

The low sugar fruits are raspberries, blackberries, strawberries and lemon are safe to eat on a regular basis.

Of course, age, metabolism, genetics, activity level and insulin sensitivity play a part in how the body deals with sugar.

More information can be found at: https://youtu.be/e3PWgMcoh7U

Day 10 Press Up Challenge | Calories & Weight Loss

23/11/2020

In the standard Low Calorie World that we live in, we are led to believe that calories are evil. However, a low calorie diet is not only non-satisfying, but is also not sustainable because you cannot stay full.

When looking at ways to lose weight, we really need to pay attention to 3 main hormones:

Leptin – influences satiety
Ghrelin – influences hunger
Insulin – influences fat storage, the metabolic hormone

Insulin has been given a bad rap recently, but it is not all bad when it is maintained in balance.

When you eat, insulin is released to move glucose to the cells and helps to store the excess fat that has not been used up. During the period when we don’t eat and if the insulin level is below 5, insulin will play a part in allowing the body to use the fat storage for energy. Insulin is really the key to weight loss, not calories. Insulin resistance is when the insulin remains high even without eating. When this is the case, the fat stores are hidden and unavailable and that is when the feeling of hunger is triggered because the body has a perception of lack and the metabolic rate slows down causing you to want to eat.

You can reduce insulin by

Following a low carb high fat diet or a carnivore diet
Doing Intermittent fasting from 17 hours up to 72 hours

You can see from the table the foods in the green boxes are the ones that should make up the bulk of your diet. Some of these foods, although high in calories, will keep you full and will help with intermittent fasting or eating one meal a day (OMAD), like I do.

So, the moral of the story today, DON’T count calories. Focus on the foods that keep you full and satisfied.