Thursday, 20 October 2011
Wednesday, 19 October 2011
I'm going to Rome!
I normally book trips spontaneously.. This spring/summer, I woke up one day and thought; I'm going to Dallas. I booked those tickets the same day.
This time my friend asked me last friday if I wanted to go to Rome with her and a few other girls in January. I decided 3 days ago and today we booked our tickets.
We (6 of us) are going 1st thru 5th of January so it will be a perfect way to start the new year :)
My sugar free year will also end the day before we go so I will need to get some italian ice cream when I'm there.
This time my friend asked me last friday if I wanted to go to Rome with her and a few other girls in January. I decided 3 days ago and today we booked our tickets.
We (6 of us) are going 1st thru 5th of January so it will be a perfect way to start the new year :)
My sugar free year will also end the day before we go so I will need to get some italian ice cream when I'm there.
What the world eats
Our teacher showed us a few pictures yesterday of families in different countries and their food intake in one week. I thought it was really interesting so I googled it and found them..
They also show how much the food expenses are in the different countries.
You can find the pictures here: http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1626519,00.html
They also show how much the food expenses are in the different countries.
You can find the pictures here: http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1626519,00.html
Tuesday, 18 October 2011
Vitamin D
This vitamin has recieved a lot of attention lately. The recommendations we have for it today are probably too low and especially here in Sweden and other northern countries.
There are different types of this vitamin. We can only get D2 from the food. The D-vitamin we get from the sun (and food) is called D3. The vitamin is a prohormone; which mean that it will turn into a hormone in the body. The hormone is called calcitriol and it participates in the regulation of the calcium and phosphate levels in our body - which is obviously very important for our bones.
Due to the phosphate regulation, Vitamin D also has an indirect effect on the blood sugar. And ofcourse many other things.
You can find vitamin D in oily fish and some lean fish, egg yolk and in sweden they add vitamin D to the milk products with lower fat. That is because this is a fat-soluble vitamin so if they take away the fat, the already existing D-vitamin will also go away, so they need to add what they lost.
You never get enough through the food though and it's important to be in the sun so your body can store what it needs. If you shower and wash yourself with soap before sunbathing, then you have taken away some of the fat on your skin which means that you won't get as much vitamin D as if you didn't.
They are coming with new recommendations next summer so it will be very interesting to see if they will change the recommendations or not. It seems like a lot of doctors think they should higher it and especielly here in Sweden where we don't get enough sun during the fall/winter/spring. I personally take supplements of D3 during the winter and I feel a big difference when I do that.
There are different types of this vitamin. We can only get D2 from the food. The D-vitamin we get from the sun (and food) is called D3. The vitamin is a prohormone; which mean that it will turn into a hormone in the body. The hormone is called calcitriol and it participates in the regulation of the calcium and phosphate levels in our body - which is obviously very important for our bones.
Due to the phosphate regulation, Vitamin D also has an indirect effect on the blood sugar. And ofcourse many other things.
You can find vitamin D in oily fish and some lean fish, egg yolk and in sweden they add vitamin D to the milk products with lower fat. That is because this is a fat-soluble vitamin so if they take away the fat, the already existing D-vitamin will also go away, so they need to add what they lost.
You never get enough through the food though and it's important to be in the sun so your body can store what it needs. If you shower and wash yourself with soap before sunbathing, then you have taken away some of the fat on your skin which means that you won't get as much vitamin D as if you didn't.
They are coming with new recommendations next summer so it will be very interesting to see if they will change the recommendations or not. It seems like a lot of doctors think they should higher it and especielly here in Sweden where we don't get enough sun during the fall/winter/spring. I personally take supplements of D3 during the winter and I feel a big difference when I do that.
Sunday, 16 October 2011
Vitamin A facts
Vitamin A is one of the fat-soluble vitamins, which means that you will absorb it better if you eat it with some fat. It also means that your body stores it in a different way than the non fat-solubles so there is a risk for overdose which wouldn't good. It can for example give birth defects so pregnant women should stay away from (example) liver as that contains a lot of this vitamin.
There are different types of vitamin A that I won't go to deep into here. We get most of our vitamin A in a form called esterified retinol and from the provitamin β –carotene.
Carotenoids (for example carotene) turns into vitamin A in the body. That is the red/yellow pigment you can find in green vegetables (they are hidden by the green chlorophyll) or for example carrots. You absorb about 10-20 % of β –carotene and it then helps if you heat it up a little bit - the chemical structure will then change so you will be able to absrob it (to put it simply). That means that some vegetables are better to heat up then eating raw when it comes to carotenoids.
We have a protein in us that our liver produces itself that transports the vitamin to the different cells that needs it. A lack of this specific protein would give us a vitamin A deficiency as the transport of the vitamin wouldn't work. We also need zinc for the release of the protein from the liver. When the protein has released the vitamin then it will go to our kidneys to be destroyed - the liver always have to continue produce this specific protein.
90 % of our vitamin A storage are in the liver.
We need it for our vision, reproduction, epithelial tissues normal differentiation (very simply translated - for the walls of our intestines) and our immunsystem.
You will find it in (examples) organs, fats, vegetables, root vegetables.
If you heat it up too strongly or a long time then the vitamin will be destroyed as the chemical structure changes so we won't be able to use it. The same thing happens in prolonged storage at room temperature. It is also affected by light, oxygen and low pH (in a bad way).
It has been shown in studies on animals that it has prevented cancer, but if you are a smoker and eat β –carotene supplements then there is a higher risk for lung cancer.
Source: Näringslära för högskolan (Nutrition for higher studies)
There are different types of vitamin A that I won't go to deep into here. We get most of our vitamin A in a form called esterified retinol and from the provitamin β –carotene.
Carotenoids (for example carotene) turns into vitamin A in the body. That is the red/yellow pigment you can find in green vegetables (they are hidden by the green chlorophyll) or for example carrots. You absorb about 10-20 % of β –carotene and it then helps if you heat it up a little bit - the chemical structure will then change so you will be able to absrob it (to put it simply). That means that some vegetables are better to heat up then eating raw when it comes to carotenoids.
We have a protein in us that our liver produces itself that transports the vitamin to the different cells that needs it. A lack of this specific protein would give us a vitamin A deficiency as the transport of the vitamin wouldn't work. We also need zinc for the release of the protein from the liver. When the protein has released the vitamin then it will go to our kidneys to be destroyed - the liver always have to continue produce this specific protein.
90 % of our vitamin A storage are in the liver.
We need it for our vision, reproduction, epithelial tissues normal differentiation (very simply translated - for the walls of our intestines) and our immunsystem.
You will find it in (examples) organs, fats, vegetables, root vegetables.
If you heat it up too strongly or a long time then the vitamin will be destroyed as the chemical structure changes so we won't be able to use it. The same thing happens in prolonged storage at room temperature. It is also affected by light, oxygen and low pH (in a bad way).
It has been shown in studies on animals that it has prevented cancer, but if you are a smoker and eat β –carotene supplements then there is a higher risk for lung cancer.
Source: Näringslära för högskolan (Nutrition for higher studies)
Friday, 14 October 2011
Superfoods - recommandations
We have a book called superfoods that is written by a doctor called Helena Nyblom. She talks about a few different things that is good to eat often. She also writes recommendations about how often and how much you should eat the different foods.
She talks about eating food from all colours;
About a year and a half ago, I wrote down all her recommandations and tried to eat like that. I can't remember for sure but I think that was when I started to get much more healthier and also started running alot.
I forgot about it for a year or so but now I will start with it again. Here are the recommandations:
She talks about eating food from all colours;
- Blue ( for example blueberries)
- Dark red (cherries)
- Red (tomatoes)
- Yellow (oranges)
- Green (broccoli)
- White (onion)
About a year and a half ago, I wrote down all her recommandations and tried to eat like that. I can't remember for sure but I think that was when I started to get much more healthier and also started running alot.
I forgot about it for a year or so but now I will start with it again. Here are the recommandations:
- Oranges/citrus fruits - One every day
- Avocado - A half 3-4 times a week
- Legumes (peas, beans, lentils etc) - 3 portions a week
- Blueberries - Some every day, but also other berries
- Broccoli - 3-4 times a week
- Dark chocolate (at least 70 % cocoa and one that hasn't been heated up) - 10-20 grams 4-5 times per week
- Pomegranate - Eat/drink one (not with added sugar) twice a week
- Oats - One portion a day + 1-2 more portions of something with whole grains/fiber
- Salmon - Eat fat fish 3 times a week (not farmed but wild)
- Flaxseeds - 2 tablespoons (30 ml) per day, crushed (but don't buy crushed, you need to crush them yourself and eat them within 20 minutes and non heated)
- Onion - Different types of onions 3 times a week
- Nuts and seeds - one handfull per day (walnuts are the "best" but variation is even better)
- Oliveoil - 2-3 tablespoons per day (30-45 ml)
- Green leafy vegetables - Daily
- Spinach - 3-4 times a week
- Tomatoes - eat fresh tomatoes twice a week and heated (but not overcooked ones) tomatoes daily about 2 tablespoons
- Red/blue/black grapes - twice a week (darker the better)
- Yoghurt - 2½ dl (a cup) per day (non sugar or sweetener!)
- Apples - one every second day
Wednesday, 12 October 2011
The mondays lecture - very interesting!
It was a great lecture two days ago with the nutritionist I always speak about. It was a pretty simple message but still good. He is one of the top swedish nutritionists and has done a lot of research himself so I know that he knows alot. He had two lectures with a total of 1400 people, Im guessing ours were around 900 ppl. Here are a few things he mentioned:
There are a lot of hidden nutrient shortage (is that how you say it?). Mainly because:
- We don't drink enough water
- We eat an unbalanced diet (mostly eating the same things all the time) with too little vegetables and fruits
- The diet is often not containing the vitamines and minerals it had before (im guessing around 50 years ago or so)
- Irregular meal times
- Bad function of the stomachic-intestinal canal
- Not enough knowledge about dietary supplements and wrong advices
- Good ingredients
- Avoid prefabricated food and white sugar (sucrose)
- Variated food with lots of fruit, vegetables and berries
- Chicken, turkey, fish and eggs are good protein sources
- Use cold-pressed vegetable oils
- Eat nuts - walnuts are the best
- Use salt, bought cookies/pastries etc with moderation
- Eat both raw food (vegetables) and cooked food
- And then there was something more that I missed...
- Don't skip meals!
- No chain is stronger than its weakest link - if you are lacking for example one vitamine (or something else your body need), then that will affect other parts of how your body function with other vitamines etc
- Our free radicals - should be between 200-300.. Oxygen is a double edged sword - both essential and toxic. Things that highers your free radicals are for example; smoking, alcohol, radiation, physical work out (temporarily, thats why we shouldnt overtrain as well but to do it with moderation so the body can recover between), sunlight, prolonged inflammation etc.. Things to get to number lower are things like antioxidants mainly. I have tested this 3 times and as I have had struggled with my health quite a lot in my years, the numbers has not been good.. I will do the test again very soon and that will be interesting to see if it has improved or not since I took it about 3 years ago.
- Maybe you already know this but he also mentioned about eggs and cholesterol.. It's all a myth that it will higher your bodies cholesteral so that is nothing to worry about and eggs are very good as they (mostly the egg yolk) contain so many vitamines and minerals.
- We need to eat more omega 3 fatty acids! It's very important with the balance between omega 3 and omega 6.
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