When you hear comments and statements like this – the foods you should never eat. Immediately your thinking goes to all the foods you hold dear like crisps, sweeties, chocolates, biscuits, and of course alcohol. It isn’t difficult to figure it out but the headline implies that there are specific foods you can avoid that will help you cunningly, lose the pounds and gain a svelte look and maybe even the life you have always wanted if only, you avoided eating tangerines! Yup that this the reason you have put on a few pounds under lockdown it is all those tangerines
Foods you should never eat
Headlines like ‘6 foods you should never eat’ click bate, encouraging you to open the email, works doesn’t it 😉 You have this feeling that there may just be one simple thing you can easily avoid, in the hope that we didn’t like that particular food in the first place. Then the job of looking after yourself would be easy. Take out some food we don’t even like and we have the easy solution to weight loss and getting to grips with our health. If this were true, what food would you happily give up? What food do you eat because it is healthy but secretly hate?
I have a pet hate for carrots, I don’t mind raw ones but cooked ones are yuck. With 3 kids who I am encouraged to eat all veg, I pretend that I love carrots, they only found out during lockdown that I only eat them under protest. That is 51 years of pretending.
So what if the headline was going to tell me that carrots are one of the six things I needed to avoid to get rid of my Covid tummy? Now I am interested. Now I will open the email and find out if carrots are on the list, then I can justifiably not eat them ever again. Oh, the joy.
Carrots weren’t on the list 🙁
Obvious ‘eye rolling’ comments like ‘6 foods to avoid’ are a little easier to see that they can’t be true but some other food marketing is a little harder to pull apart. Some food marketing has become part of our culture, it is now ingrained into the way we think, our psyche. Our food culture is dominated by food manufacturers and one of the most interesting is around breakfast and it feels like the most difficult to navigate. So I wrote a blog on it 😉
I love to investigate, you’ve read my book Gorgeous! and I love pulling apart what is really being said.
“you have an inquisitive mind Adele” I was once told but someone who was really trying to tell me I was jolly well nosy!
After spending considerable time investigating I understand what is a food myth and what is science. Let’s start with the most important meal of the day – breakfast – or is it?
How can you make a healthier breakfast?
It may not be the click bate you want but it is well researched and may even change the way you look at your breakfast. Is the only thing that makes cereal healthy milk? Any products that claim it is fortified with vitamins is the warning bell. If a product is fortified for any reason then it in simple terms all the ‘real’ food has been processed out and vitamins and minerals are added to fortify the product, and cereals are the worse culprit of this. Cereals are processed and full of sugar. This blog will outline why you should avoid cereal and how you can make your breakfast healthier.
The truth about cereal
Marketing makes cereal sound very healthy. Cereal has added banana, blueberries, strawberries. The packaging looks great, the claims are amazing and what about the idea that ‘breakfast is the most important part of your day?’ It is all marketing from big brands to entice you into an easy, on the go, healthy start to the day. The clever ‘fresh’ looking packaging and the use of energetic, fit images lead you to believe that your cereal product is good for you. When sadly it really isn’t.
Kelloggs himself made up the phrase ‘breakfast is the most important part of your day’.
Marketing and strategising come into all big brands, there are government guidelines of course, but these can be sidestepped. When Kellogg’s announced that they were going to add the ‘traffic light’ labelling to ‘some’ of their packets the reasoning was to let consumers know how much sugar was in each serving, it was a step in the right direction. This came about from pressure from consumers.
However, there can be up 6 different types of sugar in some packets of cereal. Cereal manufacturers easily work around the ‘traffic light’ labelling by simply reducing their recommendations. If the sugar content is too high, brands simply reduce their ‘serving size suggestion’ to fit the sugar recommendations.
Based on the W.H.O. (World Health Organisation) you should be consuming no more than 6 teaspoons of sugar a day. And yet here are some scary statistics:
- – Frosties contains 37g sugar per 100g which is equivalent of 9.5 teaspoons
- – Crunchy Nut cornflakes 35g sugar per 100g which is the same as 9 teaspoons
- – Cornflakes have 8g sugar and Sainsbury’s own brand have less at 7.2g
- – Weetabix is 4.4g of sugar which is one teaspoon
One teaspoon a daily Weetabix may sound okay, but if you add a sugary drink to your breakfast like freshly squeezed orange or apple juice that is another two teaspoons PLUS a healthy snack of an apple adds a further two teaspoons. At lunch, a brown bread sandwich will add another 1 or 2 teaspoons. Or how about a Go Ahead apple bake? That is 27.7g and 2 teaspoons of sugar.
Join me for a 10-day Tummy challenge – 10 days for 10 minutes a day using Pilates exercises. Here is the link to find out more
Cereals are not only heavily loaded with sugar they are also highly processed which contributes to your rollercoaster hungry feeling that follows you around all day.
Your ‘hangry’ rollercoaster
Starting your day with a sugary cereal will set you up for a high and low energy flow all day. Being hungry all the time, or showing signs of ‘hangry’ are signs that you are burning glucose and/or not gaining enough nutrients. Adding fruit and milk is the only thing that makes cereal healthy. Full fat milk will reduce the GI of your ‘healthy’ looking cereal. Even granola needs a rethink…
The truth about granola
Whilst granola has oats with added fibre and iron, yet the total sugar content can be extremely high. Adding nuts, seeds and some protein helps but granola also contains added sugar with healthy-sounding names pushing it up to 29g which is the equivalent of 7 teaspoons of sugar!
How can you make a healthier breakfast?
The honest answer is don’t have any. Start extending your breakfast time and introducing a personalised Intermittent Fasting routine that works for you. If you want my help drop me a line. It isn’t complicated but it does have to start with an understanding of your own metabolism, your activity levels and your body type all need to go into the mix to get a good understanding of what will work for you easily. Would you like to get it right?
Have you ever considered working with a Health Coach!
It’s taken me years (and loads of mistakes) to work out how to fit in nourishing nutrition, fulfilling exercise around my life which includes my coaching business, my Pilates obsession and 3 kids!
And now I coach busy, successful woman over 40 to do the same – via my membership community: The Gentle Reset – and I’d like to invite you to join me see what it is like find out more: read the blog The Gentle Reset
Based on the latest science from the world of nutrition, neuroscience and exercise I’ve created a coaching programme that will create habits that will keep you energised for life.
Who is my Group Coaching Programme for?
- If you are over 40 and wondering what the next 50 years are going to look like for you, then my Group Coaching programme is a great way to reset your health.
- Busy, professional woman, successful in so many other aspects of your life but find it hard to find time for you then my Group Coaching Programme is perfect for you.
- Looking for nutrition, exercise and emotional wellbeing that is tailored to you, your life and your commitments.
- Move your health onto the next stage, and create a new lifestyle that supports and nurtures you rather than drains you. Then The Gentle Reset is perfect for you – Join here: The Gentle Reset
- If you know that you are looking to improve your nutrition and nourish your body through adding in great nutritional and exercise habits that will not lead to burnout instead you will feel energised and vital so that you can take on all those ‘life’ tasks that previously you found so draining.
- Or you are looking to increase your mental agility, enhance your creativity and problem-solving abilities. to tackle the next stage in your career and life then jump into the Group Programme
- If you want to feel emotionally and physically stronger so that the stress of life doesn’t send you into a spin of negative coping strategies and behaviours then join us for the next round.
If you are looking to read more before you decide then read more about my Group Coaching programme click here: The Gentle Reset
What results should you expect?
University lecturer and business owner Rachel explains “I am starving, therefore, I must be losing weight, but the scales were going the opposite way – I was confused…” Rachel is a busy professional, hardworking and successful who lives life at “100 miles an hour”. She fits a lot into her day and she was looking for some help with her health that could be “easily absorbed into her day” She noticed she was getting a lot of colds, feeling lethargic, she knew it was because she wasn’t putting the right nutrition in her body. You can hear Rachel talking about how she changed her life click here
Find out more about the success stories click here
How much does it cost?
Your investment is currently £415 but this is for a limited time, the price will be increasing soon.
If you are interested in finding out more about the costs of working with a Health Coach read my blog: How much do Health Coaches charge?
BE QUICK this programme, along with all my programmes will be increasing in price very soon > Click here to find out why I am raising my prices But you’ll also discover how you can grab a place before my prices go up, but you will need to be fast.
Gorgeous is your journey of discovery
PS. The next round of Gentle Reset begins soon, get started on your first habit Click here to join The Gentle Reset
