Putting the focus on You.

Leave a comment
beautiful beautiful flowers bouquet color

Photo by Rosie Ann on Pexels.com

Thank you for being here.

I am very grateful for your patience with me, I have been writing a great deal and will be sharing more with you very soon.

But first  a bit about me and why I need your help to get to know You and Your Needs better.

Me.

A nerd at heart.  I have a deep fascination with the human body and what makes us the incredible beings we are.  I have gone back to university to become qualified in Functional and Lifestyle Medicine and Integrative care to work alongside  GPs and Physicians.

I’m  passionate about giving back the knowledge that I have learned over the last three years and share what I’ve read about this brave new world of nutritional science that we are entering.

 

You.

I would like to turn the spotlight on the most important aspect of why I write, why I continue to study and why I am here now – YOU.

I’m thinking about writing a practical program on the science behind achieving a healthy lifestyle and a HOW-TO type guide to help you achieve your health and weight goals.

 

Why this is needed right now.

Research has repeatedly shown that ‘No One Size Fits All’.

This is why following the latest fashionable diet to become that lean/ripped/curvaceous model you see in magazines or on Instagram is seriously flawed and NOT sustainable.  This may sound like a romantic notion, but we are individuals, we are unique and there is most certainly no-one out there quite like you.

My mission with this program is to help empower you with tools to reconnect you with your body and your food choices.  Helping you find your best health and weight along the way.

This program will take you through:

  • The science behind health and weight  in a way that will help you understand the inner workings of the body; the why and how we put on and lose weight.
  • The health implications associated with weight and how we can make a difference with simple steps to make sustainable change.
  • We talk about food and lifestyle strategies that you can tailor to yourself to find the right weight and body shape for you.
  • Perhaps the most important outcome I want to achieve is reconnecting YOU with your body and your optimal health… starting where you are now.

QUESTIONS FOR YOU:

What has been your No.1 health or weight challenge?

Do you spend a good part of your day worrying about your weight or health?

-If yes what do you worry about ?

-What have you tried already ?

Do you feel that a program like this would be of value to you?

I’m super curious, love talking and hearing about the challenges we face.

I read every email and look forward to hearing from you.

vaishalimehmi@yahoo.co.uk

 

 

Medical Disclaimer:
The information on this website is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. 
All advice should be discussed with your GP/ healthcare provider if you  are unsure or have a medical condition. 

 

 

What’s so fabulous about fibre?

Leave a comment
Photo by Magda Ehlers on Pexels.com

We are only just beginning to explore the intricacies of how the food we eat interacts with our bodies and in particular, our gut microbiota (the incredible 100 trillion bacteria that live in our digestive system). Fibre is a vital part of what can be called your ‘way of life’ or your daily normal diet (click here to see my previous post on ‘Which diet is best for me?’). The aim of this article is to share the evidence on the benefits of fibre, where we can get it from and how we can apply this to our everyday. 

The WHY of FIBRE.

Looking into the importance and benefits of fibre will hopefully encourage you to welcome it into your day wherever and however you can.

FIRST BENEFIT: Fibre has hormonal effects.

What is a hormone and how does it relate to fibre?

The word Hormone is Greek for ‘set in motion’. If you imagine a hormone like a parent on a mission, intent on getting things done; hormones are chemicals that travel to certain organs and exert a specific effect in order to make things happen.

An example is the fascinating hormone Insulin which is remarkably designed to allow the body to utilise sugar/glucose from the food we eat to be used as fuel (sugar is essential for our survival, click here to read more on why). Insulin is able to unlock cells, in effect telling the body to absorb this energy source for immediate use or to store it for later.

Photo by Lukas on Pexels.com

How is insulin linked to fibre?

The fibre in your meal adds bulk to your food, which means it takes longer to chew and travel through the body, slowing down the digestive process. This slowing down means that food takes longer to leave the stomach and longer for the digested food to be absorbed into the bloodstream. This results in a delayed release of sugar into the blood and a delayed release of the hormone Insulin.

Why is this so important?

Dr Jason Fung, Canadian kidney specialist describes the action of Insulin similar to the railway guards in Japan called ‘pushers’. The job of these ‘pushers’ is to cram as many people onto the subway trains as they can during peak time. Similarly, Insulin is released by the body after eating highly refined carbohydrates, for example,  to ‘push’ the sugar efficiently into our cells. With the sugar now being taken up by the cells, there can be a sudden drop in blood sugar which if persists in some people can cause feelings of hunger, tiredness, fatigue and dizziness- symptoms of what we may call a ‘sugar crash’.

Read More

Why are we so addicted to sugar?

1 Comment

chocolate cupcakes on tray

Photo by Josh Sorenson on Pexels.com

We are fundamentally wired for survival.

Designed primarily to hunt and gather in times of scarcity, we are built to seek out sugar. With no guarantee of the size, timing or even certainty of the next meal, we became finely tuned to search for sugar and instinctively wired to gain pleasure from consuming it. The body, as a result, has become highly efficient at utilising sugar and storing the excess to fuel a future famine.

Aligned with this evolutionary drive to eat, we have been gifted with a ‘Hunger Management System’ policed by our old friends’ the hunger hormone Ghrelin which signals hunger and counterbalanced by the anti-hunger hormone Leptin which signals satiety by disrupting our natural desire to eat.

Fast forward to the present time.

Sugar and calories now plentiful and equipped with a finely tuned Hunger Management System: Why is portion control, calorie intake and our ability to say no to that second or third piece of cake so difficult?

Food availability has changed. How we choose our food sources and the ease with which we are able to sustain our energy needs has been hugely transformed. Our physiology has yet to catch up with this transition that we see from food scarcity to food abundance.

Whilst we wait for that 4.0 systems upgrade by Mother Nature or further research to give us answers and possibly an external solution; we need to find a strategy to deal with this desire to consume more than we need.

STRATEGIES TO HELP CURB CRAVINGS AND PROMOTE FEELINGS OF BEING SATISFIED.

Read More

The SCIENCE behind the headlines: “HIGH CARB vs LOW CARB diets results in early death”

2 Comments
hamburger cheeseburger burger french fries

Photo by Alicia Zinn on Pexels.com

There is so much conflicting information in the nutritional world. Studying functional medicine has opened up a whole world of science that is both intensely fascinating and constantly evolving as we are starting to learn more and more about our incredible bodies.

Chris Kresser is a world-renowned leader in the fields of functional, integrative medicine and ancestral health. He has also been named as one of the 100 most influential people in health and fitness. Author of ‘Unconventional Medicine’, he has written extensively on the controversy around carbs in our diet.

Headline news and scientific research are not always the best bedfellows. Sensational news creates clicks and often leaves behind the key science.

As discussed in my recent post- Paleo, Keto, Low Carb, High Fat, Atkins…Which one really is the BEST diet for me to achieve Optimum Health? (click here to read ) let’s start with the bottom line that remains despite every diet related headline:

Read More