Tuesday Tip: Are Seed oils bad? 🛢️

Apparently seed oils are the latest food to demonise. Rapeseed/canola, sunflower, sesame oil etc are apparently toxic, inflammatory and the worst thing you can eat. But does the evidence actually support this?

Some of the fear has a fairly logical origin. For decades, partially hydrogenated oils containing trans fats were widely used in margarines, processed foods and commercial frying. Trans fats genuinely are harmful, particularly for cardiovascular health. However at some point hydrogenated oils = bad morphed into seed oils = bad, but they’re not the same thing.

In addition lots of ‘junk’ foods such as chips, doughnuts, fried fast food, crisps, biscuits and other ultra-processed foods also contain seed oils. People who eat a lot of junk food may have poorer health , junk food often contains seed oils so it must be the seed oils that are bad. In reality these foods are just energy-dense combinations of refined flour, sugar and fat that’s very easy to overeat.

The major scientific warnings against seed oils come from studies tracking commercial fryer oil that has been heated for hours or days at a time (which causes it to breakdown producing potentially toxic by products) . Critics online took these findings and misapplied them to ordinary home cooking. In reality, using fresh seed oil at home for standard cooking, baking, or light frying produces negligible breakdown products and is entirely safe. Regularly eating deep-fried takeaway food is rather different from using some rapeseed oil to cook your stir fry .

There’s also the myth that omega-6 causes inflammation. Human research doesn’t support this; normal consumption of linoleic acid, the main omega-6 in many seed oils, doesn’t increase inflammatory markers. In fact, when unsaturated vegetable oils replace saturated fats, LDL cholesterol generally drops which helps cardiovascular health.

So don’t panic over a teaspoon of seed oil in your dinner or as an ingredient in the food you enjoy. As usual, the boring stuff matters far more: overall diet, fibre, fruit and veg, protein, calorie balance, exercise and sleep.

Happy Tuesday 🤗

Xx

Tuesday Tip: are you eating enough fibre? 🌱

Fibre is often overlooks it’s one of those things that has a surprisingly big impact on our health and most of us aren’t getting enough. In the UK, adults are advised to aim for around 30g of fibre a day, but average intakes are considerably lower.

So what are the benefits and why does it matter?

1. It’s good for your gut.
Fibre helps keep things moving and prevent constipation, while certain types feed the beneficial bacteria living in our gut.

2. It can help keep you fuller for longer.
Higher-fibre foods generally take longer to eat and digest and can increase feelings of fullness — useful if you’re trying to manage your weight without feeling permanently hungry!

3. It can help with blood sugar control.
Soluble fibre can slow digestion and the absorption of carbohydrate, helping reduce rapid rises in blood glucose after eating.

4. It can help lower cholesterol.
Certain soluble fibres can help lower LDL (“bad”) cholesterol.

5. It’s associated with better long-term health.
Higher fibre intake is linked with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and colorectal cancer.

There’s also another interesting benefit . You may actually absorb very slightly fewer calories from a high-fibre diet. The calories contained in food and the calories our bodies actually extract aren’t always identical. In one study, people eating a high-fibre diet excreted more energy in their stools; equivalent to around 116 calories a day. That doesn’t mean eating 50g of fibre magically gives you 116 ‘free calories’ but it’s certainly an interesting potential benefit. Fibre, resistant starch and the physical structure of less processed foods can all affect how much energy we extract.

Wholegrains, beans, lentils, chickpeas, fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds are all great sources of fibre. If you currently eat very little fibre, increase it gradually and drink plenty of fluid, suddenly doubling your intake may give your digestive system rather more excitement than you bargained for!

Happy Tuesday 🤗

xx

Tuesday Tip: Lunch Tips 🥪

Lunch is one of the meals I’m definitely worst at and many of my clients are the same. Here are some lunchtime mistakes and how to prevent them.

#1 Eating out every day

Do you just end up buying lunch instead of bringing it? If you’re making yourself dinner each night why not make a bit extra for lunch too. Or if you’re buying lunch choose options you can easily scan and track the calories for so you can stay on track like a sandwich, pre-packaged salad etc .

#2 Eating too fast

I get it, you’re racing around, back to back meetings, no time to stop, stuffing your lunch in on the go, but this is when we tend to over eat. A recent study found a direct relationship between faster eating and weight gain. Try to take at least 20 mins over your lunch.

#3 Eating too little

I often hear clients saying they only have a small salad for lunch and they wonder why they end up craving snacks at 4pm or after dinner. Salad is a great lunch but it needs to be more than just leaves and a bit of cucumber, ensure to add a protein (chicken, egg, feta, chickpeas, tofu etc) and then add some complex carbs (quinoa, brown rice, beans etc).

#4 Choice of drink

Going for a juice or soft drink at lunch in your meal deal is just extra empty calories. Ditch it and go for water (add lemon, cucumber or zero cal squash for flavour if you need) and save the calories for your food.

#5 You’re too hungry

You rush to work, skipping breakfast and by lunchtime you’re so hungry you end up making bad choices. Avoid this by either having breakfast or having a 100 – 200 cal mid morning snack (yoghurt and berries, apple and nut butter etc). This will help you make better choices at lunch.

#6 Grazing

You’re trying to avoid eating too much so just end up grazing instead – a snack bar here, maybe some fruit, half a biscuit, another bar.. before your know it you’ve actually eaten more cals than a standard sandwich lunch but you won’t feel like you’re have. It’s easy to kid yourself that you’re not really eaten lunch, you’ll still be hungry and more likely to overeat later. So either make sure you track the snacks or have a proper lunch instead.

Happy lunching! 🤗

xx