Iron is one of the most commonly deficient nutrients in the world, particularly amongst women, and something we frequently see in clinic.  A 2001 dietary survey showed that 48% of Irish women have inadequate iron intakes, with 1 in 30 having iron deficiency anaemia.  Even more alarmingly, the IUNA National Children’s Food Survey in 2006 showed that up to 74% of teenage girls are not getting enough iron in their diet at a crucial time in their development.

While we generally think of red meat as the best source of iron, other foods such as spinach, tofu, shiitake mushrooms, green beans and parsley also contain iron.  For optimal absorption, eat iron-rich foods together with foods containing vitamin C, such as most fresh fruit and vegetables.  

Symptoms of iron deficiency include fatigue, poor concentration, decreased immune function, depression, hair loss, headaches and dizziness.  However too much iron can be damaging to health and fertility.  Ireland has one of the highest instances in the world of hemochromatosis, a condition where excess iron is stored in the body.  Many of the symptoms of this condition are similar to those of iron deficiency.  If you suspect that you are iron deficient then have your levels of iron and ferritin (stored iron) tested by your GP, particularly if you have had low iron levels in the past, have coeliac disease, suffer from heavy periods or are following a strict vegetarian or vegan diet. 

The forms of iron in many widely available iron supplements can be hard for the body to absorb and can cause constipation and black stools.  If your iron levels are low then take a gentle iron supplement such as Spatone, or an iron complex such as Biocare Iron EAP or Viridian Balanced Iron Complex.  Take your iron together with some vitamin C-rich foods for optimal absorption.  Try supplementing for 2 – 3 months and then have your levels rechecked to ensure that they have come back into the normal range.  At the same time, try to identify the reason for your low iron levels and tackle this problem e.g. by getting treatment for heavy periods or increasing your dietary iron intake.

When talking about achieving a balanced diet, we really mean eating a wide variety of foods across the major food groups. Eating many different foods helps maintain a healthy and interesting diet, providing optimum nutrition, which can help prevent diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Your body requires over 50 vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, and amino acids every day to operate efficiently and keep you healthy.  Eating many different foods not only provides an abundance of individual nutrients but also the variety necessary for optimal health.  Fresh natural whole foods tend to be nutrient-dense, rather than calorie-dense.  In refined or processed foods, many of these ingredients are removed or destroyed in the production, leaving sugar- or saturated fat-rich foods and these types of foods can lead to weight gain and nutrient deficiencies.

Other important ingredients may also be destroyed in the processing too.  For example compared with wholewheat, white pasta and bread are missing 62% of zinc, 72% of magnesium, 95% of vitamin E, 78% vitamin of B6 and 78% of fibre.

Scientists now understand there are other dietary factors called phytonutrients which are compounds that are neither vitamins nor minerals but are biologically active within the plant & the human body.  These phytonutrients modify the body’s reaction to invaders such as allergens, bacteria, viruses, and carcinogens. In the last 30 years, over 3000 phytochemicals with cell protective effects have been identified and some researchers estimate up to 40,000 phytonutrients will be fully catalogued and understood one day.  Cancer research groups across the world recognize many of the plant foods containing these substances as essential dietary factors to reduce the risk of chronic health problems.

These phytonutrients are what give plants their colour, flavour and smell and include

• Carotenoids in red, orange and yellow fruits and vegetables
• Limenoids from citrus fruits and herbs like rosemary, peppermint and thyme
• Phytosterols found in nuts, seeds, grains and their oils
• Flavonoids found in berries, herbs and spices and many fruits and vegetables.

We generally eat 3 – 5 times a day, that’s up to 1800 opportunities each year to positively affect our health and energy.

If you find yourself shopping from the same places, down the same supermarket aisles, filling your trolley each week with the same foods…the chances are that you are excluding some very important nutrients in the long term.

So to eat the healthiest way, simply choose a wide variety of whole natural foods, across the main food groups.

• Make slightly different selections each week to broaden your intake.
• Include a fruit and vegetable you haven’t tried for a long while in each weekly shop.
• Try something new in your salads, soups and stir-fries each week.

Here are some ideas to include in your daily selections across each major food group:

• Vegetables and legumes (including beans, seeds and nuts) – raw or cooked, can be used as part of a healthy a snack or in main meals.
  • Leafy greens, allium, and cruciferous vegetables are key components of a healthy diet
  • Think beyond spuds, carrots and peas and include a number of different vegetables each day
  • Raw sticks of pepper and celery or mangetout dipped in hummus (made from chickpeas) as a snack
  • Salad vegetables in a sandwich or as a main course
  • Roast mixed veg with meat and fish or used in soups and stews
  • Lightly steamed veg or stir-fried, sautéd onions and garlic as a base to most pasta sauces
  • Aim for 5 helpings a day
• Fruit –easy to carry as a snack or to include as part of a meal.
  • Try berries on your breakfast cereal
  • Eat a piece of fruit with a small handful of nuts as a morning or afternoon snack.
  • Mix chopped fruit with natural yoghurt –has much less sugar than many flavoured yoghurts
  • Fresh whole fruit is recommended over fruit juices because juice concentrates the sugar and removes the fibre.
  • Eat bananas, grapes, melons and other tropical fruit in moderation as they are high in sugar.
  • Aim for 3 helpings a day
• Lean meat, fish, poultry, eggs, nuts, legumes and tofu –  these provide protein and essential fats omega 3s and 6s
  • Vary your protein selections – try vegetarian sources of protein every day– it doesn’t always have to be meat, fish, dairy or eggs.
  • Try to limit red meat to 3 times per week and avoid processed meats, which are linked to many health problems including cancer
  • Aim for a little protein with all meals and snacks. 
• Wholemeal bread, cereals, rice, pasta and noodles
  • We tend to over eat wheat but there are many other wholemeal grains available
  • Try oats, brown rice, quinoa, buckwheat, corn and millet, available in breakfast cereals, breads and varieties of pasta.
  • Aim for 4-6 servings daily.

• Milk, yoghurt and cheese – eat in moderation
  • natural unprocessed varieties of cheese are best
  • natural, unsweetened, probiotic yoghurts are a source of good bacteria essential for healthy digestion.

  To see what a healthy balanced meal should look like, click here for one recommended by Harvard School of Public Health.

As the symptoms can be wide ranging, and vary from person to person, diagnosis and treatment can be hard to pin down. Something is making your bowel ‘irritable’, and it is a question of trying to find out what that is while at the same time finding ways to help calm things down. There are practical steps you can take to help you eliminate symptoms such as bloating, flatulence, constipation, diarrhoea and many more.

It’s very important for overall health to establish good digestive function, because when your digestive system is working well you will reap a number of benefits, including
• better absorption of nutrients from your food
• boosting energy and improved general wellbeing
• stronger immune function to fight off infections, and
• more efficient detoxification to eliminate all the waste products and toxins

You will feel lighter, healthier and symptom-free.

Here are some practical ideas that can help you to identify what is triggering your digestive dysfunction, and what you might do to help restore digestive balance:

1. Keep a food diary – you may identify if there are particular trigger foods, or eating patterns e.g. at a particular time of day when symptoms are more prevalent.

2. Try excluding wheat or dairy foods for 2 weeks – these have been shown to be among the biggest culprits as they are so prevalent in our diet. If symptoms improve, reintroduce foods one by one with a couple of days gap in between to see if you get a flare up. It may be you don’t have to give up these foods altogether, but after a period of healing the gut, you made able to eat the ‘trigger’ foods again, rotating them in your diet.

3. Don’t eat cooked food that has cooled down – in particular starchy food like pasta, beans or rice, also toasting frozen bread The cooling process creates resistant starch – it’s harder for the gut to break this down so it ferments in the digestive tract and in IBS sufferers can cause bloating, abdominal discomfort, flatulence, trapped wind and diarrhoea.

4. Eat flaxseeds (also called linseeds) as they have a very soothing affect on the digestive system. They can be used whole and soaked in water to help with constipation but if used as ground seeds then they can be helpful for IBS in general (constipation or diarrhoea). They’re a good source of protein, essential omega 3 fatty acids, minerals and vitamins too.
5. Chew your foods well – your stomach doesn’t have teeth. Eating more slowly and mindfully improves digestion and takes the pressure off the stomach – and has weight loss benefits too.
6. Avoid caffeine particularly coffee. It stimulates peristalsis, the wave-like muscle contractions that move food through the digestive tract, and can trigger rapid response in an irritable bowel.

7. Avoid high fat foods that may also trigger IBS symptoms. It is thought that high fat causes the stomach to either empty quicker or slower than it should do and this can increase muscle spasms.

8. Be aware of stress in your life and try to manage it better. Scientists talk about the ‘brain-gut axis’ because it is like there is a direct line between the two and the messages can go either way, brain to gut or gut to brain. The nervous system in the digestive system responds to emotions and stress in the same way as the brain and its tissue is filled with the same neurotransmitters found in the brain.

Dr Marilyn Glenville will be in Ireland next week to talk about her new book “Natural Solutions To Digestive Problems And IBS”. She will be explaining the latest research on IBS and giving practical advice to help support the digestive system and eliminate the many of the unpleasant symptoms – whether it’s bloating, flatulence, constipation, diarrhoea – or both – and many other common effects.

Click here for full details http://positivenutrition.ie/987/

As the symptoms can be wide ranging, and vary from person to person, diagnosis and treatment can be hard to pin down. Something is making your bowel ‘irritable’, and it is a question of trying to find out what that is while at the same time finding ways to help calm things down. There are practical steps you can take to help you eliminate symptoms such as bloating, flatulence, constipation, diarrhoea and many more.

It’s very important for overall health to establish good digestive function, because when your digestive system is working well you will reap a number of benefits, including
• better absorption of nutrients from your food
• boosting energy and improved general wellbeing
• stronger immune function to fight off infections, and
• more efficient detoxification to eliminate all the waste products and toxins

You will feel lighter, healthier and symptom-free.

Here are some practical ideas that can help you to identify what is triggering your digestive dysfunction, and what you might do to help restore digestive balance:

1. Keep a food diary – you may identify if there are particular trigger foods, or eating patterns e.g. at a particular time of day when symptoms are more prevalent.

2. Try excluding wheat or dairy foods for 2 weeks – these have been shown to be among the biggest culprits as they are so prevalent in our diet. If symptoms improve, reintroduce foods one by one with a couple of days gap in between to see if you get a flare up. It may be you don’t have to give up these foods altogether, but after a period of healing the gut, you made able to eat the ‘trigger’ foods again, rotating them in your diet.

3. Don’t eat cooked food that has cooled down – in particular starchy food like pasta, beans or rice, also toasting frozen bread The cooling process creates resistant starch – it’s harder for the gut to break this down so it ferments in the digestive tract and in IBS sufferers can cause bloating, abdominal discomfort, flatulence, trapped wind and diarrhoea.

4. Eat flaxseeds (also called linseeds) as they have a very soothing affect on the digestive system. They can be used whole and soaked in water to help with constipation but if used as ground seeds then they can be helpful for IBS in general (constipation or diarrhoea). They’re a good source of protein, essential omega 3 fatty acids, minerals and vitamins too.
5. Chew your foods well – your stomach doesn’t have teeth. Eating more slowly and mindfully improves digestion and takes the pressure off the stomach – and has weight loss benefits too.
6. Avoid caffeine particularly coffee. It stimulates peristalsis, the wave-like muscle contractions that move food through the digestive tract, and can trigger rapid response in an irritable bowel.

7. Avoid high fat foods that may also trigger IBS symptoms. It is thought that high fat causes the stomach to either empty quicker or slower than it should do and this can increase muscle spasms.

8. Be aware of stress in your life and try to manage it better. Scientists talk about the ‘brain-gut axis’ because it is like there is a direct line between the two and the messages can go either way, brain to gut or gut to brain. The nervous system in the digestive system responds to emotions and stress in the same way as the brain and its tissue is filled with the same neurotransmitters found in the brain.

Dr Marilyn Glenville will be in Ireland next week to talk about her new book “Natural Solutions To Digestive Problems And IBS”. She will be explaining the latest research on IBS and giving practical advice to help support the digestive system and eliminate the many of the unpleasant symptoms – whether it’s bloating, flatulence, constipation, diarrhoea – or both – and many other common effects.

Click here for full details

 Natural Solutions to IBS and Digestive Problems

Find out how you can heal your digestive system naturally by following Dr Marilyn Glenville’s practical advice. Marilyn will show you how you can eliminate symptoms such as bloating, flatulence, constipation, diarrhoea and many more…

Fat Around the Middle – and how to lose it 

• Find out why, for many people of all ages, fat tends to settle round the middle.  Learn how to get rid of that for good.  Find out why it is not all down to diet and what supplements and herbs can help you lose that apple shape faster.
• How being fat around the middle increases the risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, hypertension and Alzheimer’s and how you can reduce the risk.

Dr Glenville will be holding seminars on Natural Solutions to IBS and digestive issues and Fat Around the Middle in Dublin and other locations around Ireland – see below for booking details:

• Cavan, Galway and Cork – only €15 for both talks
• Dublin – €15 per talk or go to both for only €25 – saving €5

PLUS

• Body fat %age and BMI testing*
• Bone scan to assess osteoporosis risk*

    *Available on the day for a small extra charge

LIMITED SPACES – BOOK YOUR PLACE TODAY

There are many gentle detoxification programmes you can follow, all based on supporting and stimulating the liver. Your body rids itself of unwanted toxins by breaking them down in your liver into less harmful substances and excreting them. That’s why a properly functioning liver has a profound importance for our general health.

A typical modern lifestyle, with all its high stress, pollution, alcohol, cigarettes and fast foods, means the liver has to work overtime to deal with the toxins. Eventually, our body’s ability to detoxify is reduced and your liver function may be compromised. This can leave us feeling generally run down with a range of symptoms such as headaches, itchy, watery eyes, dark circles under the eyes, ear problems, blocked or runny nose, acne or skin rashes, excessive sweating, joint pains, or slow metabolism, allergies, mood swings and hormonal imbalances.

Many people adopt an excessively radical approach to detoxifying which can be at best ineffective and, at worst, actively dangerous to health. However, a gentle detoxification programme can be highly beneficial.  Where possible this should be supervised by a qualified nutritionist. If toxins are released too quickly this can cause headaches, fatigue, constipation or diarrhoea, irritability and lightheadedness.

So where do you start? Eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, natural produce such as whole grains and pulses, choose chicken and fish over red & processed meats, and drink a minimum of 1.5 litres of water daily.  Avoid sugar, processed foods and refined carbohydrates, dairy, alcohol and other stimulants.  Reduce caffeine gradually to avoid caffeine withdrawal headaches.

Key supplements to support detoxification include

• Vitamin B Complex – to support hormone production and metabolism
• Antioxidants A,C,E, Selenium, Zinc – protect cells from ‘free radicals’
• Milk Thistle – helps liver cell renewal
• Probiotic Bacteria  – supports gut function

For a 6 week supervised programme tailored to your individual requirements, call us on 01 402 0777 to book an appointment.  Or why not join us for our 12 week ‘Fat Around The Middle’ healthy eating programme and find out how to make sustainable changes to diet and lifestyle to achieve long term optimal weight and health.

Come into Positive Nutrition on World Osteoporosis Day on Saturday 20th October for an ultrasound heel bone scan. The bone scan assesses bone health and fracture risk, and can indicate your risk of osteoporosis.

• 20 minute individual consultation with Dr Marilyn Glenville trained nutritionist
• Includes bone density measurement
• Tailored dietary and lifestyle advice
• Special offer for just €75
• By appointment only, call us on 402 0777 to book your place at our clinic in Rathgar and find out what you can do straightaway to improve your bone density.

Conclusions drawn from a paper on calcium supplementation published in the journal Heart are based on flawed research, says Dr Marilyn Glenville PhD.
This study has linked calcium supplementation to an increased risk of heart attacks. However, this is not a randomised controlled trial but an epidemiological study which looks at patterns of health problems following people over time. This kind of study cannot show cause and effect.

Importantly, the way calcium intakes were assessed is under question. No information was collected on the dosage of calcium they were taking and dietary information relied on the participants remembering what they had eaten using a food frequency questionnaire. Researchers also agree that this research has ‘several important limitations’.

Taking Vitamin D3 with calcium can help protect your bones without increasing your risk of heart disease

In regard to other research into calcium, we know that calcium is crucial for bone health and in the UK & Ireland, 1 in 2 women over the age 50 of will get osteoporosis (compared to 1 in 8 for breast cancer). Calcium is often lacking in people’s diets.

Taking vitamin D in the form of D3 or cholecalciferol, which is more efficient in correcting low levels of vitamin D in the body, plays a crucial role in the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis. It transports calcium from both food and supplements across the intestinal wall, and helps move calcium into the bones. Other research shows that comparing calcium and vitamin D supplements with a placebo has shown no effect on the risk of heart disease or stroke.

Professor Moira O’Brien, president of the Irish Osteoporosis Society, has urged caution regarding this study linking calcium supplementation to increased risk of heart attacks. She states that calcium should not be taken on its own but with vitamin D supplements to help absorption.

Eat a diet rich in foods containing calcium, including cabbage, kale, broccoli, nuts & seeds as well as dairy foods. For Vitamin D eat fish such as sardines and mackerel and other oily fish, together with briefly exposing skin to the sun’s vitamin-D producing ultraviolet light. And include plenty of magnesium-rich green leafy vegetables, wholegrains, nuts, avocados, apples and apricots for optimal bone protection.

Dr Marilyn Glenville recommends avoiding supplements containing calcium in the form of calcium carbonate, which is chalk and could possibly cause calcification in arteries if it is not properly absorbed into bone. Dr Glenville suggests taking calcium citrate together with other nutrients including Vitamin D, magnesium, zinc and boron – all important nutrients for optimal bone health.

Dr Marilyn Glenville PhD is a leading nutritionist specialising in women’s health. She is the Former President of the Food and Health Forum at the Royal Society of Medicine and the author of a number of internationally best selling books including ‘Fat around the Middle’ and ‘Osteopoprosis – the silent epidemic’. Her clinic in Ireland is run by her two Irish nutritionists, Heather Leeson and Sally Milne, now based at Orwellness, a new clinic in Rathgar at 10 Orwell Road, D6. See www.marilynglenville.ie for more details.

Well then it may be you need to get moving.  But if weight loss alone isn’t the motivation you need to do a little more, then here’s some facts about the protective effects of exercise.

As we have become less active with easy transport, rising ‘screen time’ and desk not manual jobs, the once-rare diseases like type 2 diabetes and obesity have mushroomed.  A report published by Diabetes UK reveals that in 1935, when the world’s population was just over 2 billion, an estimated 15 million people globally had type 2 diabetes. By 2010 the world’s population had more than trebled and the number with diabetes had shot up to 220 million, with 300 million predicted for 2025.

The good news is you can do something about this to stop yourself becoming one of these statistics.

The Exercise is Medicine initiative in the States has revealed that a modest weekly dose of exercise lowers the chances of developing type 2 diabetes by 58%, that’s twice the preventive power of the most widely prescribed anti-diabetes medication, metformin.

The benefits of regular exercises cannot be exaggerated. Exercise helps to improve the function of the immune system, the lymphatic system and your body’s ability to keep blood sugar in balance. It stimulates thyroid gland secretion and helps to improve thyroid function, which has a direct effect on your metabolism.

Exercise releases brain chemicals called ‘endorphins’ which help us to feel happier, more alert and calmer. They can have a dramatic positive effect on women suffering from depression, stress and anxiety.

Regular exercise can help to reduce high blood pressure. Exercise increases the circulation and also seems to lower LDL (‘bad’ cholesterol) and increase HDL (‘good’ cholesterol).

Figures published in the Lancet this year underline that no action, other than abstaining from smoking, is as good for health as being physically active. The study also reveals that physical inactivity effectively kills 5 million people a year worldwide – that’s as many who die from smoking.

If you are still in need of a little more motivation to get moving, have a look at the excellent clip ’23 1/2 hours’ by Dr Mike Evans  on You Tube  Click here

While any exercise is good for your health, exercise for fat loss is more specific and not just a matter of doing more sit ups or spending longer on the treadmill. Cardiovascular exercise is important, but building muscle also plays a significant role.  1lb of muscle burns 75 calories a day, compared to the 8 calories burnt by 1lb of fat.  That’s why we include a session on the best fat burning exercises in our ‘Fat around the middle and how to lose it’ programme.  For more information see our weight loss section.

If you can, choose organic where it counts – especially fruit & vegetables with the largest surface area that can hold more pesticides e.g. spinach, lettuce, grapes, but others where high levels of pesticides are used in the crop production.

According to its latest survey of pesticides in non-organic foods, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) says that the most pesticide-laden produce is apples followed by celery and peppers.  Those with the least pesticides were found to be onions, sweetcorn and pineapples.

The EWG researchers say they discovered detectable pesticide residues in 68 per cent of the food they sampled, including chemicals that are banned for agricultural use.
The EWG’s Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce again lists its ‘Dirty Dozen’ (http://www.ewg.org/foodnews), but also includes a list of the least contaminated foods and vegetables, the ‘Clean 15’.  Also included in the Dirty Dozen are peaches, strawberries, nectarines, grapes, spinach, lettuce and cucumber, while the ‘cleanest’ also included avocado, cabbage, asparagus, mango, aubergine and kiwi fruit.

So here are some guidelines for making your food choices as free from chemicals as possible.

•    Wash your non organic fruit & veg well Washing helps remove pesticides and bacteria introduced during handling and shipping.

•    Steam leafy greens. This vastly reduces pesticides and E. coli and retains most nutrients than other cooking methods.

•    Peel carrots, cucumbers, etc. This won’t get at the pesticides that are inside, but it will remove any that are on or in the skin.

•    Choose low-fat organic or grass-fed meat and milk and dairy products. Toxins tend to accumulate in animal fat.

•    Buy local where you can – at least the nutrient content will be highest as shipping and storage methods destroy key micronutrients essential for health

•    Buy frozen. Flash-freezing at the site of harvest locks in nutrients.

•    Make more meals from scratch using fresh, whole, local ingredients. You’ll save money and avoid not only pesticides but also unhealthy additives like sugar, salt and fat as well as the chemical additives used to colour and stabilize food to extend shelf life.