The government’s ‘five a day’ campaign was launched nearly a decade ago but a recent survey shows only a small minority of us are getting the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables a day. 

The Department of Health is today urging the British public to eat ‘just one more portion’ of fruit or vegetables every day to increase protection against cancer.

The likelihood of a person getting their five a day is thought to depend on a number of factors, including how much they earn and what part of the country they come from.

Only 17% of people with low household incomes got their five a day, compared with a significantly higher 27% of those with higher incomes.

The highest levels of consumption of fruit and vegetables were reported in the south, where over a quarter claimed to eat their five a day. For those living in the north of England, the amount was much lower at 18%, revealing a significant geographical divide.

Kate Mendoza, head of education for the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF), said: ”A diet based on plant foods, such as wholegrains and pulses as well as fruit and vegetables, can reduce cancer risk as research shows they protect against a range of cancers. Recent research has confirmed that foods containing fibre reduce the risk of bowel cancer.”

People today are more aware of the importance of eating healthily than they were a decade ago, however there still seem to be barriers preventing some of us from incorporating enough fruit and vegetables into our diets.

The WCRF is holding an awareness day in light of the recent results. ‘Fruity Friday’ will be held on 18 May as part of Cancer Prevention Week.

You are advised to eat two portions of fruit and at least three portions of vegetables every day. To find out what ‘portion’ means and how you can incorporate your five a day easily into your daily regime, please visit our Balanced Diet page.

Consulting a nutritionist is a fantastic way of educating yourself and your family on the benefits of healthy eating. If you have specific health problems or dietary requirements, your nutritionist will try to tailor your food plan to accommodate for and help treat these problems.

View and comment on the original BBC article. 

 Over 60% of Brits are overweight and this is mainly down to the fact that most of us consume more calories throughout the day than we burn.

This is due to two possible causes:

• lack of exercise
• overeating.

More often than not, it’s a mixture of the two.

Of all the millions of pounds worth of special weight-loss books and radical diet plans out there, the real secret to weight loss is absurdly simple and doesn’t even have to involve foul-smelling smoothies or meat-only diets. The secret of weight loss is this: eat less.

Simple.

Of course, simple is one thing, easy is quite another. Now experts claim that modern living isn’t doing us any favours. Daily life is just an obstacle course full of food-traps designed to make us eat more than we really need.

Here are some tips for avoiding the food-traps you might not even have known existed:

Open the curtains, let in some light

It’s true, something as simple as opening the curtains could end up making you slimmer. Of course, opening the curtains then opening the fridge for a slice of cheesecake isn’t going to work, but scientists at the University of California reckon dieters are more likely to want to eat in a dimmer room, so take down those net curtains and let some natural light into your life.

Tidy your kitchen

Walking past an open packet of donuts on the kitchen table is no easy task for a dieter. According to the Professor Wansink, author of ‘Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think’, where we choose to store our food has a big impact on how much of it we eat. Leaving packets of crisps and sweets on the sides makes us snack even when we’re not hungry. If those foods were out of sight, it might not even occur to us that we fancy a snack. The advice here is to store biscuits and other fattening foods inside cupboards and keep things like fresh fruit and bottled water on the kitchen table at all times.

Buy something blue

Scientists at the University of Winnipeg found that the colour blue reduces our appetites. One study showed that eating in a blue-painted room reduces calories intake by as much as a third. So head down to the shops and bag yourself some blue crockery to stave off hunger pangs!

Turn off the TV

Something as simple as turning off the TV can help us lose up to 2lbs a month, even without dieting. Scientists at Cornell University found that watching TV while eating distracted participants from the brain signals telling them they were full, causing them to continue eating even after they’d had enough.

As well as trying the above techniques, why not attempt the tried and tested method of eating a healthy, balanced diet? Healthy food is diverse and delicious. With the right support and guidance, you could lose enough weight to significantly reduce your risk of dying prematurely of Heart Disease and other weight-related problems. Visit our page on Healthy Eating to find out more. 

View and comment on the original Yahoo News article here.  

England footballer Steven Gerrard and celebrity chef Jamie Oliver are calling for the government to introduce compulsory cookery classes across all UK schools as part of the fight against obesity.

A letter from the two high profile campaigners highlights the ‘shameful fact’ that the 2012 Olympic host is also the fattest nation in Europe.

The chair of the National Obesity Forum Professor David Haslam also signed the letter. He said: “The 2012 Olympics provide a unique opportunity to improve the nation’s health and reduce the burden of obesity. However, sitting in front of the television, cheering our elite athletes on, while eating crisps and chocolates, drinking sugar-sweetened beverages is entirely counter-productive.”

Oliver and Gerrard place blame on the education system and call for compulsory cookery classes for all four to 14 year olds in the UK. If healthy eating were to be made part of the national curriculum, children could learn how to prepare their own tasty, well-balanced meals from scratch – vital skills they can take with them into adulthood and eventually teach their own children.

Tackling obesity is as much about prevention as it is about encouraging Britons to lose weight. Teaching children early-on about the detrimental effects of eating fatty junk-food could prevent a whole generation from becoming obese and putting extra strain on a disintegrating NHS.

Along with the call for a curriculum change, the celebrity campaigners have also highlighted the need for more sporting role models to encourage children to get active and participate in sporting activities.

One in three children in the UK are now overweight or obese by the age of nine. This is an extremely troubling statistic and one that our health service cannot sustain. Parents and teachers need to take matters into their own hands and help young children become healthier.

If you would like to find out how hiring a nutritionist could help, please visit our Nutrition Topics section, or contact a policy-approved nutritionist or dietitian right now using our search tool.

View and comment on the original BBC News article here.  

 The smell of sizzling bacon on Monday morning isn’t as mouth-watering to some as it is to others. In fact – many people find it distinctly off-putting.

Now researchers from Duke University Medical Centre claim that people who don’t like meat are actually genetically predisposed to smell and taste it more intensely.

The scientists, who worked closely with researchers in Norway, found that 70% of people have two copies of a gene linked with a particular odour receptor believed to detect the compound found in male mammals known as androstenone, common in pork.

Results showed that people with one or no functional copies of this particular gene were able to tolerate the scent of androstenone more than those who had two copies.

Dr Hiroaki Matsunami, professor of molecular genetics and microbiology, said: “I would also like to know about odour receptor variants in indigenous populations, such as people who live near the Arctic Circle and who never eat these meats. What is their genotype?”

The evidence does suggest that vegetarianism may be genetic but Dr Matsunami believes this idea needs more scientific study.

Vegetarians choose to avoid meat for a number of reasons besides not liking it, including being against the killing of animals for consumption for moral and environmental reasons, as well as believing eating meat is bad for health.

Meat is a fantastic source of protein but there are many good alternatives, including nuts, fish and meat-substitutes such as macro-protein and tofu. Explore our page on Healthy Eating and learn about Eco-nutrition here.

View and comment on the original Telegraph article or begin your search for a nutritionist now. 

Many children are confused about what ‘five a day’ means, according to results from a new poll.

One in six young people interviewed as part of the Dolmio’s Papa’s Big Tomato Challenge believed a blueberry muffin would count as one of their ‘five a day’.

The ‘five a day’ government incentive recommends we consume 2 portions of fruit and 3 portions of vegetables every day as part of a healthy, balanced diet.  This does not include jam, milk, cereal or water as many of the young participants believed.

The poll questioned parents and children from over 500 families across the UK and found that although most children were generally clued-up about healthy eating, there was still a lot of confusion around what ‘five a day’ should constitute.

95% of the children understood the importance of eating five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, however 16% thought that included jam, 15% thought a blueberry muffin would count and 12% thought cereal with milk would make up one portion of the five a day.

Nutritionist Juliette Kellow said: “Parents have busy lives but something as simple as preparing healthy meals together or even growing tomatoes on the kitchen windowsill will make a huge difference to their children’s understanding of the origins of natural foods.”

We recommend that you take a look at our Healthy Eating page to discover more about balanced diets and how to incorporate your five a day into your daily routine. Remember that eating healthily doesn’t have to be expensive or difficult. We list a large database of policy-approved nutritionists so if you would like professional support, please use our search tool to contact a dietitian or nutritionist today.

View and comment on the original Independent article.

According to researchers, chowing down on strawberries and blueberries in our ripe old age could help to stave off mental decline by up to two and a half years. 

The study in question has been carried out by a US research team who used data from the Nurses’ Health Study – a health and lifestyle questionnaire completed by female nurses only.

Since 1980, the participants taking part in the study were surveyed every four years regarding the frequency of their food consumption.

Interestingly when all of this data was pooled together the findings seemed to suggest that women who had a higher than average strawberry and blueberry intake experienced slower cognitive decline than those who did not eat the fruits on a regular basis.

The authors of the study have said that they are unable to rule out the possibility that women who eat more of these kinds of fruits are more likely to have a healthier overall lifestyle, but as it stands the findings are still extremely positive as upping berry intake is a very simple dietary modification which would be easy to implement on a wide scale.

Director of Research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, Dr Eric Karran, said: ‘Population studies like this can provide useful clues about the effects of lifestyle and diet on cognition, but we must be sensible when interpreting the results. The study suggests a link between eating berries and slower cognitive decline, but there could be many factors at play.”

‘Further research will be needed to conclude whether antioxidants in berries are beneficial in the brain’, concluded Dr Karran.

View and comment on the original Daily Mail article.

Once upon a time, that photo of you taken at a bad angle in the wrong lighting would have been stuck in a family album and shoved at the back of a cabinet. Or, at the very worst, framed and placed on your mum’s dressing table.

Today, there are no hiding places for bad photographs. Today, bad photographs are published online, by your friends, to an audience of a mere 800 million people.

That place is of course social networking site Facebook.

According to the Centre for Eating Disorders in Maryland, USA, more than half of the 600 Facebook users interviewed reported feeling more self-conscious about their bodies and weight after logging into the site.

“People are now constantly aware of their appearance thanks to Facebook,” said Steven Crawford, associate director at the eating disorder centre. “A common reaction is, ‘I need to be thinner’ and it’s that kind of thinking that can lead to hazardous dieting.

Crawford believes Facebook is a big part of the reason why so many people develop eating disorders today. Before Facebook, avoiding our own image was easy- it was simply a case of not looking in the mirror. Now, we are expected to use Facebook for networking at work, keeping in touch with long distance friends and staying up-to-date with upcoming plans. It is becoming increasingly difficult to not be a part of Facebook.

Now it takes just a couple of clicks on the new timeline feature to compare yourself with the younger, slimmer image of you two years ago. According to the American survey, one third of people felt ‘sad’ after looking at pictures of themselves when they were younger, and 44% of users wished they had the same figure as a friend.

Even something as simple has lunch with friends can feel more like a photo-shoot than a social occasion, especially when every member of the group whips out their own camera for a slightly different version of the same photograph.

Finding yourself tagged in a particularly unflattering picture can leave you feeling self-conscious and down. According to Crawford, it can even prevent you from wanting to go out and socialise from fear of finding your face plastered all over the news feed the following morning.

The important thing to remember is not to panic – you are after all probably your biggest critic and other people may not see what you see. The second thing to do is adjust your Facebook settings so friends can no longer tag you in photographs.

If you would like to lose body fat then you are advised to seek help from your GP and a nutritionist. A nutritionist will help you develop a healthy relationship with food so that you can reach you goals safely and sustainably, without crash dieting or putting the weight back on afterwards.

To find out more, please visit our Healthy Eating page. 

View and comment on the original Health Today MSN article. 

Apparently the power of the curry spice comes from within it’s sunny yellow pigment, curcimin, known for its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.

Bypass surgery is an operation that is intended to improve the blood supply to the heart muscle, but can damage the heart during surgery subsequently increasing the patient’s risk of heart attack after the procedure.

However, researchers from Chiang Mai University in Thailand have found that curcumins could actually help to reduce that risk.

According to the research, the anti-inflammatory properties of curcumin work to reduce the inflammation that plays a central role in the development of various diseases, helping to limit heart damage in patients.

Cardiologist Jawahar Mehta from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences said: ‘Curcumin has for many years now been shown to reduce inflammation and to reduce oxygen toxicity or damage caused by free radicals in a number of experimental settings,’.

Mehta went onto say that despite the positive effects of curcumin it should not be used as a substitute for medication, noting that drugs such as beta blockers and aspirin have also been found to benefit heart patients.

If you are recovering from surgery then you may find that consulting a nutritionist to construct a meal plan for you could be of benefit. Food plays an important role in helping us to stay energised and healthy, both of which are hugely important during any recovery period. To find out more about the role of nutrition in rehabilitation, please visit our fact-sheet, or to contact a nutritionist in your area, simply use the search tool located on the homepage of this site. 

View and comment on the original Daily Mail article.

A ground-breaking campaign led by organisations representing almost every doctor in the UK has been launched against the rising obesity pandemic.

Almost one quarter of adults in the UK today are obese and experts predict half of all children will be obese or overweight by 2020.

Phase one of the campaign is set to commence immediately and will involve research into possible solutions, including food taxation, evidence for certain diets and exercise, minimum prices, advertising legislation, food labelling and education.

Spokesman for the campaign, professor Terence Stephenson, has spoken against the recent sponsorship deals between fast-food chains and the upcoming Olympics.

Companies such as Coca Cola and McDonalds are using the Olympic logo to promote their products. McDonald’s has defended this partnership by claiming that the Olympics needed big sponsorship deals in order to go ahead, and as the ‘biggest catering operation in the world’, McDonald’s was the ideal sponsor. In response to this claim, Stephenson said: “They clearly wouldn’t be spending the money if they didn’t benefit from being associated with successful athletes.”

Obesity significantly increases the likelihood of serious health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and stroke. If people fail to change their eating habits, the NHS will soon be unable to care for the influx of patients admitted for weight-related diseases.

Learning about nutrition is the first step towards adopting a healthier lifestyle. All you have to do is head over to our Nutrition Topics section to browse a large range of health topics and evidence-backed nutritional advice.

To contact a professional nutritionist or dietitian, simply use our search tool.

View and comment on the original BBC article. 

Eating healthily is all very well but we all know that exercise is just as important in the battle to keep us healthy. So why then, are so many of us reluctant to don our trainers and work out? Well regardless of what the answer is to the nations laziness, would being chased by a group of zombies be enough to move you from the sofa?

New mobile phone app ‘Zombies, Run!’ intends to help reluctant joggers get into shape by introducing an exciting/scary story to their normal ‘same old’ running routine.

The app was created by novelist Naomi Alderman and game studio Six to Start, and though it was only launched last month it has already almost reached six figures worth of sales.

Alderman, who has already won the Orange Prize for New Writing, explained how the idea for the app came around when she became a member of a running course for beginners a couple of years ago.

“We were asked our reasons for joining, and most gave obvious answers like wanting to lose weight or get fitter; but one woman said she was doing it to ‘outrun the zombie horde’. I love action and horror films, and that joke stayed with me.” She said.

Alderman was working with Six to Start at that particular time, who had been toying with the idea of creating a running app. In light of this discovery, both parties decided to join forces in a bid to integrate the story of running to save a town from a zombie invasion with a ‘work-out’ app.

The app contains around 30 missions, all of which are recorded by professional actors who shout out questions, updates and instructions throughout. Depending on the speed at which you run the missions last between 20 minutes and one hour.

“Too many keep-fit ideas are designed for those who are already fit, and they’re just no fun,” Explained Alderman.

If you are keen to inject some fun into your fitness regime, Zombies, Run! can be downloaded from the iTunes store for £5.49

 View and comment on the original Telegraph article.