This time of year we are all recovering from over indulging over the Christmas/New Year period. It’s not just all the food, there were probably a few extra celebratory drinks in there as well. So I thought that this post on Alcohol and how it effects your body might help you get back on track. Not that there is anything wrong with a couple of drinks with your friends, but over consuming can put some real stress on your body.
The Australian Dietary Guidelines and the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) recommends no more than 2 standard drinks in any one day. There is no level of alcohol consumption that can be guaranteed as being totally safe, but by sticking to this recommendation you will significantly decrease any risk. The more alcohol you drink the greater the risk! Although drinking alcohol in moderation may reduce some health risks, there are no benefits for people under 35 years old, and for people over 35 the possible benefits need to be weighed against the many known harmful effects of consuming alcohol. It has been estimated that at least one teenager aged between 14 and 17 years dies each week from alcohol related events and over 60 are hospitalised in Australia. Alcohol is also a major contributor to premature deaths in older Australians costing the health care system millions of dollars each year. So why is over consumption of Alcohol bad for your health? The type of alcohol in alcoholic drinks is ethyl alcohol (ethanol). Although it’s less toxic than other forms of alcohol, it still acts as a lipid solvent which means that it dissolves lipids (fats). Cell membranes are made from proteins and a type of fat called phospholipids. Alcohol can dissolve the lipids out of cell membranes allowing the alcohol to pass quickly into the cell, destroying the cell in the process. This is the reason that alcohol is such an effective disinfectant. In your body alcohol is treated differently than carbohydrates, protein and fat. Carbs, protein and fat require time to be digested and absorbed whereas alcohol can be absorbed across the walls of an empty stomach to reach the brain in just a few minutes. It is less quickly absorbed when the stomach is full of food. Women produce less of the enzyme that breaks down alcohol in the stomach than men, so more alcohol reaches the small intestine to be absorbed in women, for this reason, women will absorb more alcohol than men and will be more effected by the same amount of alcohol than a man of the same size. Because alcohol is toxic to the body it’s given priority and metabolised before most other nutrients. The cells in your liver are able to produce more of the enzyme needed to break down alcohol than any of the other type of cell in your body, so your liver gets the job of disposing of as much alcohol as it can as soon as it enters your blood stream. Your liver likes to get its energy from fatty acids, any excess fatty acids are then packaged into triglycerides and sent off to other parts of the body to either be used as energy or to be stored as body fat. When alcohol is present the fatty acids accumulate in your liver while the liver cells deal with the alcohol. Alcohol can also permanently alter liver cell structure reducing the cells ability to metabolise fats. In heavy drinkers this can lead to the condition known as fatty liver. Many of the damaging effects of alcohol abuse are caused by the chemical produced in the first stage of breaking down alcohol (acetaldehyde). This is then broken down further to acetate which is converted to acetyl CoA, a compound that is used to produce energy. In the process a lot of the B group vitamin niacin is used. Without enough niacin, the energy pathways cannot function which causes other problems. One problem it causes is that it can shift the bodies acid balance toward acid, another problem is that acetyl CoA builds up and can be used to synthesis more fatty acids, which as I mentioned before is a problem because the liver is already busy dealing with the alcohol. A liver clogged with fat is less able to perform all its tasks. After a single night of heavy drinking, fat accumulation can already be seen in the liver. Because the liver gives priority to metabolising alcohol, it can interfere with how your body handles prescribed drugs, as well as other nutrients. Alcohol alters or modifies body functions and so is classified as a drug. Like all drugs it has side effects. To help minimise these side effects or hazards the NHMRC has developed this set of guidelines. Guideline 1: For healthy men and women, drinking no more than two standard drinks on any day reduces the lifetime risk of harm from alcohol related disease and injury. Guideline 2: For healthy men and women, drinking no more than four standard drinks on a single occasion reduces the risk of alcohol related injury from that occasion. Guideline 3: Parents and carers should be advised that children under 15 years of age are at the greatest risk of harm from drinking and for this age group, not drinking alcohol is especially important. For young people 15 – 17 years, the safest option is to delay the initiation of drinking for as long as possible. Guideline 4: For women who are pregnant or planning pregnancy, not drinking is the safest option. For women who are breastfeeding, not drinking is the safest option. In case you aren’t sure what a standard drink is: any drink that provides you with 10g of alcohol is considered a standard drink. Following is a list standard drink serves,
I’m definitely not saying you shouldn’t have a social drink with friends, but it’s a good idea to stick as close to the NHMRC guidelines as you can, because the risks increase sharply when go above these recommendations. As always if you have found this post helpful please share it with your friends on Facebook or share the link to the Astute Fitness Blog www.astutefitness.com.au/blog to help use get our message out, Thanks, Daryl
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There are some foods that don’t fit into any of the 5 food groups. This is because they’re not required for good health and when over eaten can actually contribute to a number of health risk factors. These foods are commonly too high in saturated fats and trans fats, processed sugar, salt or alcohol and low in fibre. They are usually high in kilojoules, and low in nutrients so are considered “energy dense and nutrient poor”. Foods from this category are usually highly processed packaged foods like potato chips or sweet biscuits or bottled or canned beverages. The following list gives you an idea of the types of things that would be considered discretionary foods.
It’s very easy to over consume these types of food and drinks. All these types of food tend to be very energy dense with little nutrient value, so people who consume food from this category on a daily basis will be displacing good nutritious food. This can lead to deficiencies in essential nutrients. The higher levels of kilojoules, saturated fat, added sugars, added salt and/or alcohol that these foods contain are associated with increased risk of obesity and chronic disease such as heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and some forms of cancer. That’s a good enough reason to limit the amount of food from this category. I like to call these foods “sometimes foods”! The saying “save party foods for parties” sums it up! In other words, I’m not saying not to eat these foods but limiting them to special occasions is definitely a good idea. As always if you have found this post helpful please share it with your friends on Facebook or share the link to the Astute Fitness Blog www.astutefitness.com.au/blog to help use get our message out, Thanks, Daryl
Over the last month or so we’ve talked about the 5 food groups and how much we need from each group. In this post we’ll talk about processed foods and how they fit into a healthy diet.
There are some good processed foods and some not so good ones. Technically any food that has been altered from its natural state is a processed food. But some processing isn’t a bad thing depending on what it is. Cooking is a process, but that doesn’t mean we need to eat all our food uncooked. In some foods, processing is a good thing. A couple of examples of this are reduced fat milk where some of the saturated fats have been removed, or whole grains that have been milled to make wholemeal flour. In some cases, more nutrients are introduced during processing. Examples of this are milk with added vitamin D, or bread flour with added iodine and folate. Some processing even allows us to add variety to our diet. For instance, frozen vegetables or berries, or canned foods (look for varieties with no added salt) can be a good way of including these foods in your diet when fresh varieties aren’t available. The not so good processed foods are foods where some of the good parts of the food have been removed. An example of this would be white flour, where most of the fibre has been removed leaving mainly carbohydrate. Don’t get me wrong, there isn’t anything wrong with carbohydrates, but people with a diet high in processed carbs tend to displace a lot of nutritious foods, leaving a less than ideal diet. In some cases, it can be easy to over consume on highly processed foods, which can lead to weight gain and all of the problems associated with that. There is also a tendency towards higher sodium and lower potassium content with some types of processed foods. This can cause problems with fluid balance and is associated with high blood pressure. Dried fruit is another example of processed food. Dried fruit can be nutrient dense, but be careful because it can also be energy dense, so can quickly add a lot of extra kJs to your diet. There is a bit of a trend towards making nutritious “superfood” snacks from dried fruits, nuts and seeds. These types of snacks definitely are full of nutrients, but they are also high in kJs so I would consider them “sometimes foods” or special treats, not foods that you should include as a part of your everyday food intake. My advice for snacks would be to stick to a piece of fresh fruit. Fresh fruit is not only nutritious but tends to be high in fibre to help keep you feeling full, while being not so energy dense so they won’t add too many kJs to your day. Try to keep away from packaged foods in the isles of the supermarket. They tend to be highly processed and can contain a lot of preservatives and flavour enhancers (salt, MSG and a variety of other chemicals). Nearly all of the breakfast cereals found in the isles of your local supermarket are examples highly processed foods. With most of these you would have trouble identifying what they are made from. Without even reading what additives are in these foods the fact that you can’t identify what they are made from is a good indication of a high degree of processing. If you stick as close as you can to the Australian Dietary Guidelines, you’ll be eating a healthy diet that doesn’t contain to many highly processed foods anyway. The benefits you’ll get from having a healthy diet will make the few small sacrifices well worth it. As always if you have found this post helpful please share it with your friends on Facebook or share the link to the Astute Fitness Blog www.astutefitness.com.au/blog to help use get our message out. Thanks, Daryl The Barbell Back Squat is one of the best exercises for developing functional strength. Like the deadlift, the squat, not only works all the big driver muscles of the lower body, it’s also one of the best way to develop great core strength. Always have someone spot you whenever you squat with heavy weights. I'll be adding more instructional videos to the Astute Fitness you tube channel from now on. To subscribe to our channel, click the you tube link at the bottom right hand corner of our home page then click subscribe when you get to our you tube channel. Share this info with your friends if you think they will find it useful Thanks Daryl |
AuthorDaryl Maddern Archives
July 2019
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