Is Fat Necessary?

Fat is often thought of negatively in a diet, but your body could not survive without it. For one thing, it’s a valuable source of energy, but more importantly, we also need fat to absorb certain vitamins that are important for your health – such as A, D, E and K.

Fat is made up of individual ‘building blocks’ which are the fatty acids. Some of these are essential, in that they have vital functions in your body, and you can only get them from your diet, as your body cannot synthesise them. These essential fatty acids include omega-3 and omega-6, which are vitally important as they are used to make the outer layer (membrane) of the cells in your body, and are also involved in the production of substances that control the chemical reactions inside these cells.

Although it is undeniable that you need some fat in your diet, it is all too obvious what happens if we eat too much. Fat is the richest form of energy that we consume, which means it is very easy to eat more than we can burn off through activity, leading inevitably to weight gain. The rise in obesity levels is often blamed solely on eating too much fatty food, but it is a bit more complicated than that. The average intake of fat in the UK is not far off the recommended level, and as a population, people are eating less fat today than 20 years ago; so why is the population getting fatter, why are we not at our ideal weight? Fat is obviously not the main culprit.

The problem in our diets is not the total amount of fat we eat, but the types of fat. Naturally occurring fats can be classified as either saturated, monounsaturated or polyunsaturated, depending on the chemical structure of the fatty acids they contain. There are also trans-fats – which are produced artificially, turning a source of fat, such as vegetable oil, that is liquid at room temperature, into one that solidifies. Unfortunately, these trans-fats make excellent ingredients and greatly enhance the taste and texture of processed foods, but are disastrous for our bodies.

Saturated and trans-fats are the ‘baddies’ – the ones that are harmful to our health, by increasing cholesterol levels, which can lead to heart disease. Trans-fats are thought to be particularly unhealthy as they raise the levels of bad cholesterol (low-density lipoprotein) while lowering the good variety (high-density lipoprotein). Since their harmful effects have been exposed, the food industry in the UK has been pro-active towards cutting these fats out of processed foods; so fortunately, most of us are not consuming large quantities anymore, just dealing with the after affects. Nowadays it is saturated fats that are the main cause of problems because we are eat far too much, about 13 percent of people’s energy intake currently comes from saturated fats, with the recommended level being 11.

Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats meanwhile, are actually good for you, and most people don’t eat enough of them. Unsaturated fats help to lower cholesterol and also provide you with the essential fatty acids that your body needs. Omega-3 fatty acids that come from fish are thought to have specific benefits in helping to protect against coronary heart disease; and there is evidence to suggest numerous other health benefits as well.

So, what should we avoid?

Foods high in saturated fats include:

• fatty meat and meat products
• dairy products – such as butter, cheese and cream
• pastries
• cakes and biscuits
• chocolate
• coconut oil and palm oil

The average man should have no more than 30g of saturated fat a day, and the average woman no more than 20g.

Foods to look for:

Good sources of unsaturated fats include:

• Sunflower, rapeseed, olive and vegetable oils, and spreads made from these oils (so long as they have not been hydrogenated (trans-fats), not to be confused with emulsified, combined with water.)
• avocados
• nuts and seeds
• oily fish, such as mackerel, salmon or trout – these are a particularly good source of omega-3

So, yes, too much fat in a diet where it is not being burned off will lead to an increase in weight, but it is in fact sugar, in its numerous guises, that is really responsible for high levels of obesity. For a healthy diet, all most of us need to do is reduce our saturated fat intake, while some of us would actually benefit from an increase in unsaturated fats. As with most things, moderation is essential to maintain your ideal weight.

For more information on weight loss in South Wales contact Debbie Saunders, weight loss counsellor.

Find Your Ideal Weight

South East Wales is a good place to live, but especially so if you would like to lose some weight because that is where Debbie Saunders works. Debbie is a qualified, trained counsellor and coach, who uses the highly regarded techniques of cognitive behavioural therapy and transactional analysis to help people who have serious weight issues, or want to lose a little and maintain.  Our modern day relationship with food is very complicated; we have the same urges as our hunter gatherer ancestors, but have access to as much food as we could possibly want and more. Over time, our bodies are affected by this constant feast without famine and we lose the sensations that tell us to stop eating when we are full.

With a structured diet plan, group counselling sessions and lots of support, it is possible to get your body back on track.  Debbie has done this for hundreds of clients over the past six years and is an expert on the whole diet journey.  For example, even on a steady diet containing exactly the same calories each week, weight loss is not constant. There are times when the weight loss plateaus, and despite the diet, nothing happens for a week or two which is when people are tempted to give in, but Debbie helps clients understand what their body is doing and see this in a different way.  Sure enough, the body relents and the weight drops again, with a sudden big jump. It is this kind of insight that enables Debbie to help her clients reach their goals. An unexpected weight gain could be down to a stressful week, as high levels of cortisol released into your system will encourage water retention.  Talking through why your body is reacting the way it is can help you to stay focused.

There are a number of reasons why group counselling is so effective; firstly there is the support that comes from the other members. Everyone has good and bad weeks, so it is great to be able to pool experiences and strategies to cope with the down times but also to celebrate successes together.  There is nothing as motivating as a group member hitting an 11 stone weight loss target!  Groups also mean that costs are kept down, although Debbie is happy to provide 1:1 sessions if that is what you would prefer. So if you are lucky enough to live around the Abergavenny, Monmouth areas and need some help to reach your ideal weight, why not give Debbie a call and find out how she can help.

Gourmet food at an unbelievable value

 

 

I’m a bit loath to spread this about as the price is bound to go up but the more of the animal we eat the less I have to stress about being a carnivore.

 

Tesco Beef Liver £1.70Kg

Waitrose Calves liver £34.99Kg

The gory facts are that beef cattle are generally slaughtered just before 30 months, so still quite young. Beef liver is almost undistinguishable from calf’s liver, a fraction of the price, and we are eating more of the animal.

So, a gourmet meal for two for 70p (yes that’s for two people!)

I was brought up on liver but if you have never tried it you must. Hunters will kill a deer and cut out the liver & eat it raw, still warm. Bit extreme for me but liver cooked properly is nothing to be scared of. It is better than the best fillet steak. Tender and tasty, once you try it you won’t go back. It’s not gamey or offally and at this price you would be a fool not to at least try it.

If you have tried pigs and lambs liver (especially in casseroles) and not enjoyed the experience, forget all that. Beef liver, flash fried, is something else.

Traditionally I would go for liver, bacon and onion gravy. So start with some onions and butter in a small saucepan with a lid. Let them stew on the stove on a low heat.  When the onion starts to caramelise add enough water to make gravy, a bay leaf, thyme & sage and warm through to let the herbs infuse.

The meat is vac packed so empty it into a bowl of cold water, this gets rid of any blood and it soon gets much more pleasant. Place in a sieve or colander to drain.

Now make up some seasoned flour. Plain flour, salt and pepper, don’t get fancy, the liver is the star. The easiest way is to put this in a sandwich bag. The liver is probably in slices a few mm thick but might need cutting into manageable pieces to fry. Dry the liver on kitchen roll, both sides, drop into the bag of flour and shake until coated. take the coated meat out of the bag and place on a plate, ready to fry.

Then place some dry cure bacon in a frying pan, two rashers per person.  Cook until crispy and all the fat runs out. Remove the bacon and keep warm in an oven at 100C.

Use the pan and fat to fry the liver, a couple of pieces at a time. Then keep warm with the bacon until it is all ready. The liver only needs a couple of minutes on each side, it should melt in the mouth, not be like leather.

With the liver keeping warm it’s time to make the gravy. Put a large knob of butter in the same frying pan and as it melts use a wooden spoon to loosen all the crispy bits in the bottom. Then add a couple of table spoons of left over seasoned flour and cook through to form rue. Now, SLOWLY add the water from the onions, make sure the flour absorbs all the liquid before adding more. Discard the bay leaf. As the gravy cooks it will thicken, give it a taste and if it needs extra flavour crumble in some of a beef stock cube, it probably won’t need a whole one so add and taste until you are happy. Finally add the onions and heat through.

Everything is now ready to serve. My choice would be to have it with buttery mashed potato and lightly cooked white cabbage. The sweetness of the cabbage, onions and liver is perfect with the saltiness of the bacon, mash & gravy.

Just make sure there is plenty of gravy.





Joined Up Thinking

Are you still struggling with food going out of date in your fridge? Do you buy food on the way home just in case & find you already had more than enough already?

Here is a way of keeping control of your perishable foods with your phone.

There are now a number of apps that will track what is in your fridge and give you a count down of what needs using up first. They do vary in quality & some are quite pricey for apps, but compared to what they can save you in wasted food it’s a no brainer.

Some come with bar code scanners, date opened (for long life products) and all sorts of other bells and whistles.

In no particular order of merit here are some to check out:

Food Expiration Date Alarm

Fridge Police

Best Before

So now you will know what is in your fridge , about to go past eating, so what do you do with it?

Here is a useful website that takes your list of ingredients and suggests recipes that best incorporate them - Super Cook. Simply add each ingredient and the website will ask you what else you have available and what your options are. So, just check this out on the commute home, pick up any last minute ingredients and you are all set for a delicious home cooked meal when you get back.

And if all your good intentions go by the wayside and you are still faced with a fridge load of out of date food check out Still Tasty  which lets you know what is still safe to eat or freeze, and what needs to be binned.

So, no more excuses for turning your fridge into a gruesome science experiment.

Surviving A Fuel Strike

Driving smarter can greatly reduce your fuel use, saves money and reduces your carbon footprint. Faced with a fuel strike it will also help you last longer between top ups.

For someone spending roughly £50 a week on fuel, an equivalent 20% efficiency increase would save around £500 a year. So how much was your pay rise this year?

It is possible to drive the same distance in the same time, yet use considerably less fuel, chopping up to 30% OFF your fuel costs without cutting your top speed. It's simply about driving more smoothly to boost your fuel efficiency. Driving smoothly will also significantly cut your CO2 emissions.

·         Accelerate gradually without over-revving.

Speed up smoothly. When you press harder on the pedal more fuel flows, but you could get to the same speed using much less power. A good rule is to stay under 3,000 revs.

·         Drive in the correct gear.

Always drive in the highest gear possible without labouring the engine.

·         Slow naturally.

Rather than brake all the time, let your car slow naturally and use its stored momentum.

·         Think about your road position.

To do all this takes road awareness. The more alert you are, the better you can plan ahead and move gradually. Keep an eye on brake lights beyond the first car in front of you and decelerate before you have to apply the brake yourself.

Every time you put your foot on the accelerator, remember the harder you press, the more fuel you are burning. Braking is reducing the momentum that you have just burned fuel to achieve.

Just being conscious of this, and your road position, should massively increase how far you can drive on a tank of petrol. It's estimated someone who averages 35 miles per gallon could reach 40 mpg by driving better.

Generally, the faster you accelerate, the quicker you come to the next stop, and everyone else then catches you up. Fuel consumption shoots up when you travel above 55mph. An increase to 75mph raises fuel consumption by 20%.

If you are at a standstill for more than 30 seconds it is more efficient to turn your engine off and re-start it.

Additional savings can be made by addressing the following:

·         Keep your tyres inflated.

Lower tyre pressure increases the drag on a car, meaning you need more fuel, so regularly check the pressures are correct and your car needs less oomph to keep it moving.

·         De-Clutter your car.

The lighter your car is, the less effort it needs to accelerate. By de-cluttering, clearing out junk from the boot, and not carrying unnecessary weight, you can make extra savings.

·         Take your roof rack off.

A roof rack, even unused, adds massive wind resistance to a car, increasing drag and making the engine work harder. So if you don't need it, take it and anything else that's inefficient off. Even closing the windows will make the car run slightly more efficiently. If you have a bike rack on top you might as well be dragging a small parachute.

·         Don't fill it up.

In an ideal world you would run your tank to a safe minimum and top up regularly in small amounts. Fuel is heavy, so by filling the car up you're adding quite a weight. The less fuel your car has in it, the more efficiently it drives. As your fuel level decreases you get the benefits. Here’s hoping you can outlast the strike.

·         Keep your car tuned regularly.

A poorly tuned engine can use up to 50% more fuel.

And finally, do you need to drive?

Save 100% on your fuel costs by walking or cycling



Tweet your way off marketing lists

Slightly off message, but here we go.....

Tweet your way off marketing lists

As Google gets all the more pervasive & what we put online gets sold to the highest bidder here are some suggestions to tweet/facebook/blog to get you off the marketing lists:

Called to God, joining a silent order.

My power of attorney goes to (email of someone that deserves your spam)

My committal hearing is not going well, I may not be available for a while.

Farewell cruel world.

Won Euromillions, please contact me only via my lawyer .

My penis is too big, I need a reduction.

Doctor gave me three weeks to live, 20 days ago. Not feeling so good.

Didn’t realise that jury nobbling actually added to your sentence. Might be away for a while.

Hacked into Twitter/Google/FaceBook accounts, News of the World thought they had problems!!!!

If anyone else tries to sell something to my dead husband/wife I will accept the product as a gift in their memory.

My brother the dodgy pharmacologist, supplies all my needs.

Please deal direct with my relative Mr V Big, The President, Government Representative, Mucho Money Bank, Abuja, Nigeria. Who has access to all my bank account details.

Sueing Twitter/Google/FaceBook for invasion of privacy is even better than PPI, you didn’t even have to pay the money up-front.

My spam filter finds your ‘freepost’ address and is connected to my waste disposal.

My account automatically replies to spam with a copy of suggested terrorist targets & bomb making diagrams which will bury itself in your hard drive & any portable drives & will then email them to your client list.

I didn’t realise you cared, I’ve been watching you for weeks, I’ll upload my photos of you, might take a while.

Congratulations, you are the 9 billionth person to access these details.  

Please feel free to add.



Climate Change Threat to Oldest Living Organism

Ancient patches of a giant seagrass in the Mediterranean Sea are now considered to be the oldest living organism on Earth after scientists dated them at up to 200,000 years old.

Australian scientists sequenced the DNA of samples of the giant seagrass, Posidonia oceanic, from 40 underwater meadows in an area spanning more than 2,000 miles, from Spain to Cyprus.
The analysis, published in the journal PLos ONE, found the seagrass was between 12,000 and 200,000 years old and was most likely to be at least 100,000 years old. This is far older than the current known oldest species, a Tasmanian plant that is believed to be 43,000 years old.
Prof Carlos Duarte, from the University of Western Australia, said the seagrass has been able to reach such old age because it can reproduce asexually and generate clones of itself. Organisms that can only reproduce sexually are inevitably lost at each generation, he added.
But Prof Duarte said that while the seagrass is one of the world's most resilient organisms, it has begun to decline due to coastal development and global warming.
"The seagrass in the Mediterranean is already in clear decline due to shoreline construction and declining water quality and this decline has been exacerbated by climate change. As the water warms, the organisms move slowly to higher altitudes. The Mediterranean is locked to the north by the European continent. They cannot move. The outlook is very bad."

So, humans are in danger of destroying an organism that has survived for over 100,000 years with our actions over the past 100 years.