Flesh & Plastic
Healthy Eating - Diet & Fitness

#GlitterBox Beauty Blog

Diet & Nutrition

One of the most important things that you can do to look beautiful, if not the most important thing, is to be healthy. By eating right, having proper nutrition and regular exercise you can be slim, toned, have healthy glowing skin, nicer teeth and greatly slow the ageing process, as well as of course feeling fitter, healthier, less tired and reducing your risk of illnesses. 

 

Large printable version:

http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/8559/dietflowchart3lines.jpg

Dieting/ healthy eating is a lot more about what you eat and when you eat than how much you eat.

What

Vegetables, fruit, protein, fibre, natural fats are all good for your body. Excess sugars, trans-fats, ‘bad carbs’ are not.

When

Ideally, you should be eating 5 to 7 times per day to help your metabolism. This may not always be possible if you have a demanding job, but regular small snacks are better for your body than a few large meals.

You should be eating very little after 6pm and virtually nothing after 8pm (assuming you wake up sometime between 7-9am and go to sleep sometime between 10pm-midnight).

How much

Dieting is not about eating tiny bits of food, it’s about cutting out bad foods and enjoying healthy, low calorie foods. For example, a huge plate of mashed up sewed and carrots would be a lot better for you than a small bar of chocolate, and keep you fuller for longer.

 

Calories

I’ve heard from several female fitness models that the minimum calories you can eat per day is 1200 calories (assuming you’re a female of an average height). But remember, it’s more important to think about what food you eat than how many calories it contains (100 calorie banana, good, 60 calorie toffee sweet, bad). CALORIES ARE JUST A GUIDELINE.

 

Carbohydrates

Frequently just referred to as ‘carbs’, these, some would say, are your absolute enemy when it comes to weight loss, and I agree, but if you’re not trying to crash diet, then cutting carbs out completely is not a healthy move.

To my mind there are two types of carbs:

Bad carbs:

(Which contain trans-fats and/or bad sugars like fructose or sucrose)

  • White bread
  • Pasta
  • Noodles
  • White rice
  • Chips (fries US)
  • Crisps (chips US)/ nachos
  • Cake
  • Cookies
  • Pies
  • Pastries
  • Pizza
  • Wraps/ Tortillas 
  • Doughnuts (donuts US)
  • Ice cream
  • Chocolate

Good carbs:

(Do not contain trans-fats and are high in fibre)

  • Whole grain bread
  • Brown rice
  • Riveta
  • Potato
  • Fruit 

Sugar

Cut it down… or cut it out completely!

There are different sugars; “glucose is the energy of life… fructose is poison” - Robert H. Lustig, MD.

Reasons why sugar sucks:

  • Diabetes
  • Obesity
  • Acne
  • Wrinkles (speeds up the breakdown of collagen and elastin in your skin)
  • Tooth decay and dental problems
  • Spikes and drops in your energy levels are detrimental to weight loss, energy and hunger satisfaction.
  • Links with depression
  • Damage to immune system (as white blood cells absorb your excess sugar rather than vitamin C)
  • Joint pain in later life (due to excess insulin)
  • Damage to your heart
  • Can cause yeast infections (thrush)

Fructose is technically a poison (also known as ‘High Fructose Corn Syrup’ and ‘sucrose’ which is a combination of glucose and fructose). Fructose is in a lot of our foods because it is cheap and a lot sweeter than glucose and other sugars. Fructose is in most breads, sauces, fizzy drinks and fruit juices. (However, wherever fructose (“poison”) is found naturally, such as in fruit, it comes with an even greater amount of fibre (“antidote”) so should not be a concern. Fruit is very healthy and contains a lot of nutrients).

When excess fats were removed from Westerns foods due to obesity concerns, obesity continued to rise. Why? Because the fat was replaced with excess fructose to make up for the loss of flavour. In Japan and Italy obesity is a lot less of a problem. They eat a lot of carbs (rice, pasta) and oil (fish oil, olive oil), but they have a very low fructose diet, and that is why they are healthier.

  •  Fructose does not suppress the hunger hormone, so you eat more.
  •  Fructose does not stimulate insulin, therefore your brain does not realise that you’ve eaten so doesn’t tell you to stop eating.
  • Fructose changes the way your brain recognises energy.

 

If you consumed 120 calories of glucose, your body would store almost none of that as fat.

If you consumed 120 calories of fructose, your body would store almost 30% of that as fat.

A CALORIE IS NOT A CALORIE. You body deals with food differently.

Fructose is metabolised the same way that alcohol is, and contains a lot of the same negative health effects.

 

Sweeteners

They’re not the answer to cutting out sugar!

Although they are a preference over sugar when it comes to obesity and tooth decay, there have been suggestions of sweeteners, such as Aspartame, having links with diabetes, brain tumours and mental health problems, but no studies have been conclusive.

 

Solution to Carbs and Sugars?

  • Avoid fructose (except for in fruit)
  • Drink only water and milk (fruit juices are bad)
  • Eat only high-fibre carbs

 

Fibre

  • Reduces rate of intestinal carb absorbsion
  • Increases the speed at which your brain signals that you are full
  • Inhibits the absorbsion of some fatty acids

 

Fats

Bad Fats:

  • Trans-fats
  • Animal fats
  • Lard

 

Good Fats:

  • Avacardo
  • Nuts
  • Fish
  • Olive oil

 

Here is a “diet timetable” that I made (again, calories are just a guideline). This timetable promotes healthy eating (and vegetarian) and emphasises avoiding “bad carbs” and junk food. The photos are just for inspiration, but are all foods that I like.

Larger printable version:

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/4003/eatingtimetable.jpg

I saw this on Twitter and thought it was great: