What should I do if I overeat or undereat one day?
The post How to Handle Overeating appeared first on Under Armour.
November 03, 2020 at 10:30PM https://ift.tt/3jT0SDG https://ift.tt/1ilzca6
How Becoming a Single Dad Prompted Jacob to Focus on His Health
How Becoming a Single Dad Prompted Jacob to Focus on His Health 
When Jacob’s wife was diagnosed with terminal cancer, he knew his health needed to take first priority for the sake of their two children.
The post How Becoming a Single Dad Prompted Jacob to Focus on His Health appeared first on Under Armour.
November 02, 2020 at 10:30PM https://ift.tt/2YmAnf8 https://ift.tt/1ilzca6Ultimate vegan mac and cheese
We believe that everyone should be able to enjoy the comfort of a creamy, cheesy pasta dish, which is why we love this vegan mac and cheese recipe! The sauce swaps dairy milk for an unsweetened almond substitute mixed with blended cashew nuts, which provide a dose of dietary fibre and heart-healthy fats. Traditional cheese is replaced with a vegan alternative in the recipe, plus a few tablespoons of nutritional yeast for an extra hit of savoury flavour and a plant-based source of vitamin B12. Topped with crispy breadcrumbs, it’s the ultimate comfort meal for cosy nights in.
Serves 4-6
300g macaroni
750ml unsweetened almond milk
50g cashew nuts
40ml olive oil
1 garlic clove
40g flour
100g vegan cheese
3 tbsp nutritional yeast
2 tsp Dijon mustard
50g fresh breadcrumbs
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt and black pepper
1 Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Add the macaroni and cook for 1 minute less than stated on the packet instructions. Drain the pasta and set to one side.
2 Meanwhile, put the almond milk and cashews into a medium saucepan, heat on medium-high and bring to the boil. Transfer the mixture to a blender and blitz until smooth
3 Heat the olive oil in a frying pan on a medium heat. Peel the garlic clove and grate it straight into the pan. Fry the garlic until just starting to brown, then add the flour to the pan and whisk until it combines with the garlicky oil to make a paste. Cook for 1 minute, reduce the heat to low and slowly pour in a little of the nut milk mixture in at a time, whisking until completely combined and all the nut milk is incorporated. Cook for a further 2 minutes, then grate the vegan cheese and add it to the pan with the nutritional yeast and mustard. Stir everything together, adding a splash more almond milk if the mixture is too thick.
4 Season the sauce with salt and pepper, take the pan off the heat and tip in the drained pasta. Stir to coat the pasta in the sauce. Preheat the grill on high.
5 To make the topping, put the breadcrumbs, olive oil and a big pinch of salt and pepper into a bowl and stir to mix. Scatter the crumbs over the pasta.
6 Place the pan under the grill for 2–3 minutes, keeping a close eye on it, until the topping is crispy. Divide your vegan mac and cheese between pasta bowls and serve immediately.
Recipe from Speedy BOSH! by Henry Firth and Ian Theasby (HQ, HarperCollins, £22)
The post Ultimate vegan mac and cheese appeared first on Healthy Magazine | Food | Fitness | Beauty | Health.
Beauty balms, decoded
FACE
The colder months can leave even the hardiest of skin sensitive and crying out for moisture.
THE FIX: Support your moisturiser with a gentle balm cleanser – cleansing is an important step that can help maintain the integrity of the skin barrier. ‘Try something with vitamin C, so plant extracts and phenols, which includes essential oils like orange and lemon,’ says aesthetics and dermatology nurse Emma Coleman. They have high detoxifying properties and give pores a deep cleanse. Pair with anti-inflammatories such as amaranth or arnica to relieve puffiness. Dark berries like cranberry and blackcurrant are a good option as they’re rich in antioxidant vitamins C and E.’
TRY: Green People Age Defy+ Ultimate Wonder Balm (£32, 50ml). Loaded with orange peel, cranberry seed oil and vitamin E, this multi-purpose beauty balm melts away make-up while replenishing skin.
HANDS
Gloved or not, hands are likely to be plagued by peeling cuticles and persistent cracking during winter.
THE FIX: Tackle extra-rough patches with a rich, emollient hand cream, says Coleman. ‘Look for coconut oil and shea butter, natural extracts that help skin hold onto moisture. Others that can help include rose, rosehip and sunflower oil.’ For an extra-moisturising treatment that helps repair dry hands, apply hand cream before bed, slip on cotton gloves and wear overnight.
TRY: Balmonds Intensive Hand Cream (£10.99, 50ml). More than an ordinary hand cream, this rich, shea butter-based formula is enhanced with sunflower oil and chamomile to soothe hardworking hands.
LIPS
The skin on the lips is thinner and more delicate than elsewhere, making chapping commonplace.
THE FIX: ‘This is all about protecting from pollutants, as well as the wind and cold air,’ says Coleman. ‘You want something high in vitamin E – almond and soya bean oils are great options. Mango butter is good, too, as it’s highly emollient.’
TRY: Burt’s Bees 100% Natural Lip Balm Mango (£3.99, 4.25g). Infused with mango butter and supercharged with soya bean and sunflower oils, this handy lip balm nourishes even the most parched pouts.
OTHER BITS
Dry elbows, cracked heels, you name it – thirsty winter skin can crop up anywhere.
THE FIX: ‘The skin in these areas can get quite crusty, so we want to encourage cell renewal and desquamation, which is essentially getting rid of dead skin,’ says Coleman. ‘To help our skin replenish, apply something high in lipids, so natural ceramides. Cedarwood and kiwi seed oils encourage lipid transport – helping to keep the skin barrier impermeable and strong.’
TRY: Beauty Kitchen Abyssinian Oil Handbag Beauty Balm (£12.50, 30ml). A powerhouse of a balm, this boasts shea butter, coconut, rose and renewing cedarwood, plus omegas -3, -6 and -9.
The post Beauty balms, decoded appeared first on Healthy Magazine | Food | Fitness | Beauty | Health.
Why is CBT not working any more?
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) has been around since the 1970s, and it’s the talking therapy you’re most likely to be referred for if you go to the GP with a mental health issue like depression or anxiety. The chances are you know someone who’s been helped by it – perhaps that includes you. While the older, psychoanalytic forms of psychotherapy are rooted in delving into your past, exploring your deepest fears and examining childhood damage, CBT works mainly in the here and now. Rather than taking time to burrow into the deep-seated childhood causes of mental health issues, it addresses the way you think, feel and behave, encouraging you to challenge unhelpful beliefs so you feel more positive and in control, and make different decisions.
‘Whereas someone could be in psychotherapy in the long-term, CBT can often make a difference quickly, meaning it’s cheap, which is one of the reasons the NHS loves it – after all, it has to offer cost-effective treatments,’ says psychologist Dr Meg Arroll. ‘And it can be very effective. There’s a strong evidence base for CBT for certain conditions, chiefly anxiety and depression, both very common mental health issues.’
But some research suggests it might not work as well as was once thought – in fact, strangely, it seems CBT has actually become less effective. A review of studies published in the journal Psychological Bulletin looked at research into CBT from 1977 to 2014, and found in that time, it became 50% less effective for treating depression. So, does CBT still work?
The therapist theory
The study identified inexperienced therapists as the chief factor. ‘It’s always about the therapist,’ says Arroll. ‘When you look at meta-analyses across different types of therapy, they all show about the same effectiveness – it’s the skill of the therapist that matters more than the type of therapy.’ And that’s key to the drop in CBT’s effectiveness, she says. ‘Originally, trained psychologists were the only ones who offered CBT,’ says Arroll. ‘That means you’ve done an undergraduate degree in psychology plus three years’ more training for a doctorate, at a minimum – and through all this time, you’ve been in continual therapy yourself.
‘A psychologist will also be experienced in other types of therapy, not just CBT. But in 2008, the NHS introduced a scheme called Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT), which meant a lot more therapists were needed. So they set up one-year postgraduate courses to train people purely in CBT. What this means is that now, you could potentially be referred to a therapist in their early 20s, only trained in one type of therapy, with little life experience – in fact, many people having CBT on the NHS are probably not referred to a very skilled therapist. Interestingly, when I was teaching on doctorates, I sometimes saw those therapists who did the shorter training boomerang back into study when they realised they just didn’t have the skills to see people with complex issues.’
Part of the issue may be not just lack of experience, but also the pure focus on CBT can actually limit the extent to which it works. ‘It’s great for certain conditions, but often cases are complex,’ says Arroll. ‘For example, you may be referred for it if you have a condition such as IBS or fibromyalgia. While CBT can play a role here, you’ll often need other therapies, too – for example, gut-centred hypnotherapy has been shown to be very helpful for IBS. Someone who’s only trained in CBT won’t be able to offer this.
Other factors
The study also highlighted a possible placebo connection. There was a lot of fanfare about CBT in its early years. When you believe in something, it’s much more likely to work. But as time went by, and studies emerged showing CBT wasn’t quite the magic bullet it had been portrayed as, the placebo effect may have slipped. Now, people go for CBT believing it may not work for them – and so it isn’t.
And there could be a wider social issue at play, says Professor Ronald Purser, author of McMindfulness. He believes CBT, like mindfulness – which shares an emphasis on observing and changing your thinking, and is sometimes prescribed together with CBT – both put excessive emphasis on our responsibility as individuals for our own mental health, when the true root cause of anxiety and depression may be wider issues, particularly at the moment, as we face huge problems such as the global pandemic, climate crisis and growing economic inequality. ‘The approach tells us it’s the individual who needs to learn to adapt to changing social, political and economic conditions,’ says Purser. ‘We’re told our culture is suffering from a “thinking disease” – that it’s not the capitalist economy or the mass marketing of digital distraction by tech companies, it’s your own mind that’s the problem. And you need to retrain it. This is all wrong.’ Instead, he believes, the answer lies partly in connecting with your community, and in pushing back against the policies that cause misery.
All that said, it’s important to remember that CBT does have some important uses and does work for certain individuals. ‘It really can be very effective, particularly for depression, anxiety, OCD and insomnia,’ says Arroll. ‘So don’t be put off seeking it if you need help. It does require some commitment – you have to do “homework” in between sessions to make the most of it. But it helps a lot of people.’ And despite some doubts around it, CBT looks set to be the talking therapy of choice for the foreseeable future.
The post Why is CBT not working any more? appeared first on Healthy Magazine | Food | Fitness | Beauty | Health.
The truth about sweeteners
Xylitol, aspartame, sucralose – their names are suited to lifeforms found on Uranus. But sweeteners aren’t as bad as they sound. ‘Often having no or low calories and/or being metabolised significantly slower than sugars, they may help to stabilise blood glucose levels while contributing zilch to energy intake,’ explains Dr Warren Bradley, sports nutrition specialist.
In fact, speak to many health experts and they’ll argue that sugar alternatives are at least part of the antidote for our sugar-ridden culture. Public Health England advises that we should not consume more than 5% of our daily dietary energy from sugar – but we’re currently consuming 12-15%. ‘This is where the use of low-calorie sweeteners comes in,’ suggests Dr Bradley.
GP Dr Dawn Harper says that low- or no-calorie sweeteners can be the simple solution to managing sugar levels while helping to maintain taste. ‘Some of my patients worry that using sweeteners might increase their cravings for sweet foods, or that sweeteners are not recognised by their appetite sensations and could therefore lead to an overall increase in calorie intake,’ says Dr Harper. ‘However, research over three decades has shown that this is not the case.’
And sugar is worth substituting. For a start, it can lead to us consuming extra calories that our bodies aren’t as good at sensing, which then encourages the body to store more fat. Sugar also damages our teeth and as it makes food more palatable, many of us can be tempted to eat sugary foods in excess. Alongside weight gain, sugar can contribute to increased risk of cardiovascular diseases, too. But don’t just take our word for it. ‘It is widely accepted that consuming a high-sugar/high-fat diet can exacerbate weight gain and associated health conditions such as type 2 diabetes,’ says Dr Bradley.
Which sugar swap?
The alternatives are looking pretty sweet. Here are some key players:
SUCRALOSE An artificial sweetener made from sucrose, this is about 600 times sweeter than table sugar, so you only need tiny amounts, and smaller amounts means fewer calories. It’s popular in baked products as it’s heat-stable – whereas many other artificial sweeteners lose their flavour at high temperatures. This means you don’t need much of it to make something tasty.
ASPARTAME Around 200 times sweeter than sugar, this common sweetener features in a variety of food products including some BCAA drinks. Despite rumours claiming that it increases risk of cancer, human epidemiological studies (which look at disease occurrence at population level) have shown no such link.
SACCHARIN This zero-calorie sweetener that has been around for decades is 200-700 times sweeter than table sugar. It pops up in everything from medicines to jams.
XYLITOL Derived from the fibres of plants including berries, mushrooms, birch bark and corn husks, this natural polyol is used as a sugar alternative as it has two-thirds the calories of sugar. However, as it is not well absorbed, it can have a laxative effect if consumed in large quantities.
STEVIA This new-generation sweetener is made from the leaves of Stevia rebaudiana, a herb that grows in South America. It’s 300 times sweeter than sugar, but classed as zero-calorie despite having a calorie content, as you don’t need to use a lot of it, and it has no effect on blood sugar.
Artificial versus natural
‘Low-calorie sweeteners are considered safe, but there is limited conclusive evidence to encourage or discourage their use on a regular basis,’ says Dr Bradley. ‘Typically, sweeteners can be used as sugar alternatives in beverages such as teas or coffees, but their use can be extended to any food commonly enhanced by sugar – for example, Greek yoghurt, quark, milkshakes, porridge and mousse, to name just a few. It’s especially convenient for the calorie-conscious who have a sweet tooth.’
‘Natural sweeteners such as honey or maple syrup are rapidly digested, elevating blood sugar and contributing to overall energy intake,’ says Dr Bradley. ‘Conversely, some low-calorie sweeteners lack the vitamins and minerals found in their natural counterparts. Where calorie restriction is important, low-calorie sweeteners may be beneficial. Otherwise, natural sugars can be consumed as part of a healthy, balanced diet.’
The post The truth about sweeteners appeared first on Healthy Magazine | Food | Fitness | Beauty | Health.
Your type 2 diabetes prevention plan
In the UK, an estimated 4.5 million of us have diabetes, and the vast majority have type 2. Type 1 diabetes, which is less common, occurs when your pancreas can’t produce any insulin – the hormone that helps your cells use the glucose for energy – due to an autoimmune response. It’s most common in childhood, but can develop at any age. There are a range of other types of diabetes, including maturity onset diabetes of the young (MODY), which is caused by a gene mutation. These types are rare but all can lead to very serious health complications if you don’t manage them.
Type 2 diabetes, on the other hand, is linked to lifestyle and usually starts in adulthood. In this form, your body doesn’t make enough insulin, or it doesn’t work properly, leaving high levels of glucose in your bloodstream. Worryingly, an estimated 1 million of those with type 2 diabetes don’t realise that they’re affected. It’s possible to have had it for a decade by the time it is diagnosed. Unfortunately, if type 2 diabetes is undiagnosed or poorly managed, the high levels of glucose circulating in your blood can cause damage to your organs. This can lead to complications such as heart disease and kidney and eye damage. Type 2 diabetes also shares risk factors, such as being overweight, with certain forms of cancer, including breast cancer.
Know the signs
It’s important to be aware of the early symptoms of type 2 diabetes because of the risk of serious complications. If you know you have it, you can start treating it, usually with a mix of lifestyle changes and medicine, to manage blood glucose (also known as blood sugar) levels and avoid the complications. Symptoms include fatigue, increased thirst, blurred vision, slow healing of wounds and increased need to urinate, particularly at night. If you have any of these symptoms, see your GP. Your risk is also increased if a close family member has type 2 diabetes.
Can you reverse diabetes?
Emerging evidence suggests some people can put type 2 diabetes into remission through a very low-calorie diet or weight-loss surgery. These interventions both need the support of healthcare professionals. We also don’t yet know whether blood glucose levels rise again in the future in people who manage to reverse type 2 diabetes, but we are funding research into whether low-calorie diets can put it into remission long term. It’s important for people with type 2 diabetes to continue to get their diabetes health checks, even in remission.
Reduce your type 2 diabetes risk
Of course, it’s best to take every step to avoid developing diabetes in the first place. Currently, 11.9 million people are at increased risk of type 2 diabetes, but these people can still reduce their blood glucose levels and avoid going on to develop it. Even in the increased risk category, in three out of five cases type 2 diabetes can be prevented or at least delayed. The best way to reduce your type 2 diabetes risk is to lead a healthy lifestyle and maintain a healthy weight, which reduces your chances of developing other serious diseases as well. The following advice will help:
WHITTLE YOUR WAIST Being overweight or obese is one of the main risk factors for type 2 diabetes. Fat around the middle is particularly dangerous as it can build up around the internal organs, including the pancreas and liver, and reduces your sensitivity to insulin. Take steps to reduce your weight overall – the best way is to make small, manageable changes, such as monitoring portion sizes.
HAVE A HEALTHY DIET Sugar doesn’t directly cause type 2 diabetes. However, as sugary foods and drinks are high in calories, they can lead to weight gain. This is why it’s best to keep sweet things for a treat. Eat more fresh fruit and vegetables and wholegrains such as oats, and lean protein, like fish and tofu.
WORK IT OUT Exercise is important for helping to control your weight. It also reduces your risk by making your cells more efficient at using insulin. Do whatever you enjoy and can stick to. It may be a good idea to set small goals for yourself. For example, aim to take a brisk walk on your lunch break every day for a week. Reward yourself when you’ve ticked that off, then set another goal. Lots of people find having an exercise buddy can help.
For more information on preventing type 2 diabetes, visit diabetes.org.uk
The post Your type 2 diabetes prevention plan appeared first on Healthy Magazine | Food | Fitness | Beauty | Health.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Popular Posts
|
