Nutritional Blog — Elizabeth Arden

 part 1

Tips for meal planning

1. Get organised –I recommend making a little calendar; this will make it easier for you to see what meals you need to bring on the go or to cook at home. You can make a weekly calendar or a monthly one. Leave notes on it for recipe ideas or groceries that need to be purchased.

2. Shopping day – I recommend picking a day in the week to do all the grocery shopping and bring your list this will reduce the chances of forgetting certain foods. If you shop every day you may be more inclined to pick up foods you don’t want or won’t eat (junk food that is on special offer e.g. BOGOF, 2 for 1). Obviously special offers are brilliant but if it’s on a packet of biscuits or crisps then it’s not going to benefit your waist line.

3. Variety is the spice of life – Try making all your meals different; for example, if you had fish at lunch then perhaps chicken might be more appealing at dinner time. There is no issue with having the same meal for lunch five days in a row as long as its balanced and keeps you full.

4. Make a plan for the leftovers – Leftovers can be a very convenient way to plan for the next day’s meals. Perhaps you make an extra portion of stir-fry so you can have it for lunch the next day. This will reduce cooking and save you some time at your next meal.

Part 2 

4 more Tips for meal planning Click int article to read more 

Whelehans Pharmacy hosted a Diabetes Information Event last Thursday June 30^th in the Greville Arms Hotel; one of the biggest questions on the night was, “which is worse, FATS or SUGARS?” I aim to answer this today!

Sugar and fat are the most talked about nutritional topics; they are always in the media and every scientist and professional has given their two cents on the sugar v fat conspiracy. Which is worse for you? How much of each can you have? These are questions I’m commonly so I in this article I want to break down both and identify what sugar and fat do to our bodies. 

Sugar

Many of our favourite confectionary foods and snacks are laced with sugar including cereals, fruit drinks, smoothies, fruit yoghurts, biscuits, granola etc. Sugar is not always so obvious, reading a food label is very important to discovering what sugar is present in. Hidden sugar can be one of the biggest causes of over consumption.

Limiting sugar intake is important for all, not just those with diabetes. Sugar comes in many forms and if not used up by the body, is turned into fat. If you ingest a high sugar food, your body can only metabolise so much of the sugar and the rest of it is converted and stored. Unfortunately, other than energy, sugar offers very little to the body and this is why it is referred to as “empty calories”.

Sugar in the diet, no matter what form it’s in is broken down into glucose; this in turn raises our blood sugar levels. I have spoken a number of times before on the relationship between glucose and insulin (glycaemic index notes) and for this reason individuals with diabetes are advised to limit their daily intake of sugar. They are not the only exception to this rule, the WHO has recommended that men have no more 70g or sugar a day for women no more than 50g.

Cutting back on refined food is recommended as sugar is used as a preservative as it’s a cheap commodity. The worst sugar containing foods are ones that are processed rapidly in the body like Lucozade, coke, red bull, glucose tablets etc. Ingesting these types of products over a long period of time can wreak havoc.

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Aisling Murray has a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition and offers a one to one specialist nutrition service at Whelehans Pharmacy. Call Whelehans at 04493 34591 for an appointment. Aisling’s Nutriton Clinic costs only €10 per week.