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Tuesday 4 December 2012

Essential Foods for the Body

Have there been times when you’ve been sleeping early and getting your 8 hours sleep yet you still feel dead beat?
Well, that’s cos sleep is not the only component in making you feel energised. A large part has also got to do with your diet. A diet rich in protein and fibre will make you feel lively and tire out less easily as opposed to a diet rich in carbohydrates.
Despite coffee being the most common option to wake yourself up, an excess of it will actually do the opposite, it will make you feel lethargic and lacklustre. I know this from my own experience as I used to be taking 3-4 cups of coffee a day to keep myself awake and I woke every morning feeling like I hadn’t slept a wink. It’s been a month now that I’ve quit coffee and I honestly feel much better. I don’t feel as tired as I used to be although I’ve been sleeping later (which isn’t good tho)
In addition, the below foods can be added to your diet to help you function better:
Fruit
Fiber is a natural energizer and apples are packed full of it so if you’re feeling sleepy at mid day, grab an apple instead of that cup of coffee, the amount of vitamins in it will also help promote great skin and keep flu’s at bay!

Nuts

Keep a pack of roasted almonds (without the sugar) on your desk. They’re full of protein and fat free so grab a handful for an instant energy boost.

Water

Even if you don’t feel thirsty, drink water. The body gets dehydrated especially in air con rooms which we all are stuck in for 8 hours a day so try as much as you can to get 4 litres down a day.

Chocolate

By chocolate, I don’t mean a Kit Kat or Snickers Bar, I’m referring to dark chocolate like Lindt Dark Chocolate 70%. Dark chocolate is full of antioxidants as well and makes you feel happy too, so 2 squares a day is highly recommended!

Oatmeal

It’s easiest to eat oatmeal as a breakfast item, so start the morning by eating clean. You can refer to my recipe here

Veggies

In our bodies, fiber acts a bit like a sponge—it can grab things that are passing through our digestive tract and help to whisk them away, that’s why you hear about fiber lowering bad cholesterol levels. It latches on to some of the building blocks of cholesterol, ultimately helping to reduce its levels. As veggies have the highest level of fiber, it’s really important to incorporate them as part of our daily diet. Have a salad for lunch or steam some veggies for dinner but make sure at some point in the day, you DO get veggies. The below are 5 of the veggies with the highest fiber and the great thing, you can actually have them all in one serving if you chuck them into a salad
1.       Peas
2.       Potatoes
3.       Brussel Sprouts (steamed)
4.       Parsnips
5.       Baby Spinach (love this as the base in my salad!)
I love to add broccoli to my salad as well which is also really healthy!

Whole Grains

To eat more whole grains, substitute a whole-grain product for a refined product – such as eating whole-wheat bread instead of white bread or brown rice instead of white rice. It’s important to substitute the whole-grain product for the refined one, rather than adding the whole-grain product.
ü  brown rice
ü  buckwheat
ü  bulgur
ü  millet
ü  oatmeal
ü  quinoa
ü  rolled oats
ü  whole-grain barley
ü  whole-grain corn
ü  whole-grain sorghum
ü  whole-grain triticale
ü  whole oats
ü  whole rye
ü  whole wheat
ü  wild rice

Omega

Sardines, salmon, flax seeds and walnuts are excellent food sources of omega-3 fatty acids. Flax seeds can be added to oatmeal, walnuts and salmon to a salad and sardines to a sandwich so it’s really easy to get your dose of omega daily. Omega is really important as it helps to reduce inflammation in the body, lowers cholesterol and also reduces the risk of obesity.
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With that, I end my mid week post on clean eating and the kind of foods we should have in our diets on a daily basis to help us feel good naturally!

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