As we welcome November, we also mark the start of the holiday season, but the holidays are just that, holi-DAYS (not holi-WEEKS)
Statistics show that the number one reason for weight gain over the course of the year is holiday and vacation eating. What may happen is that some people could gain about 3lbs around Halloween time, then Thanksgiving rolls around and another 3 - 5lb gain. Before we know it, it's Christmas and well, there's another 3 - 5lbs and let's not forget about New Year's Eve AND Day and 'suddenly' we're seeing the scale top out at about 15lbs heavier than when we entered the holiday season. Some of us are left scratching our heads thinking "I'm not sure what happened, I didn’t change how I eat!" In many ways that’s true, you don’t have to change the way you eat, you just have to enjoy a few occasions and not manage the weight gain. If you're working with a PLT Nutrition Coach, or if you are someone that manages their weight pretty well, you will have seen how your weight can easily spike from an event…only to quickly come back down when you actively work it lower - this is the key If you feel you have experienced this in the past, why not make this the year you change?! The PLT ABC’s are the building blocks of our nutrition plan and can be applied to specific situations giving you a guideline to help you stay focused and working hard despite special occasions like holidays! ACCOUNTABILITY:
BALANCE:
CONSISTENCY:
The 3 basic approaches to holiday eating:
Tips & Tricks:
Weight spikes will happen, embrace them as it means you’re enjoying life, but know that you MUST manage your weight back down by tightening up your nutrition for 2,4,8,10 days afterwards - basically however long it takes until the gain has gone! Whether you have a PLT Coach or not, maybe weighing the same on Jan 2nd as you do today IS progress! You avoided the typical 15lb gain! This period isn’t always about losing weight as progress, it can 100% be about maintaining your weight. Don’t put off starting your journey just because of this challenging period. There’s EVERY value starting today, tomorrow - soon - the sooner the better. There is NO reason to put it off. Above all else, smile, have fun, love your family, cherish your friends but remember your goals. We wish you a healthy and happy holiday season and we wish you an epic scale reading on 1/1/223!
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~ Coach Maxine, Registered Dietitian
Blood cholesterol and dietary cholesterol, what’s the difference? Simply put, blood cholesterol is the cholesterol in your bloodstream. It’s made by your body and recycled by your liver. High blood cholesterol levels increase the risk of heart disease but cholesterol itself is not necessarily bad. The body uses cholesterol to make hormones (including oestrogen and testosterone) vitamin D, bile acids and other vital compounds. Your liver and intestines make around 80% of the cholesterol needed by your body which leaves only 20% from the foods you eat. Dietary cholesterol on the other hand is cholesterol that comes from eating animal products such as meat, eggs, shellfish, cheese and other full fat dairy products. If someone consumes foods high in cholesterol, their liver will respond by slowing down cholesterol production to balance out their levels. A small group of people are hyper-responders to cholesterol. These people are more sensitive to dietary cholesterol and consuming cholesterol-rich foods can significantly impact their blood cholesterol levels. Health professionals and dietary guidelines previously recommended that people should limit their dietary cholesterol intake to 300mg/day. It was later found that most of the old research supporting this recommendation was conducted on animals. Multiple studies have now shown that there is no direct correlation between cholesterol intake and blood cholesterol in humans. Dietary cholesterol has been found to positively influence the LDL-to- HDL ratio which is one of the best indicators of heart disease risk. More about eggs In the past, people were advised to limit the number of eggs they ate to 3 or less per week. The reasoning behind this guideline was that eggs (which are high in dietary cholesterol) would dangerously increase blood cholesterol. The guidance around eggs has now thankfully changed over the years and yet many people still feel a bit ‘scrambled’ on what to believe. Current research sheds a very positive light on eggs not only due to the effect they have on blood cholesterol but also due to their unique nutrient profile and impressive nutrient density. It was found that people who eat eggs are more likely to meet their daily requirements for several micronutrients without negatively impacting blood cholesterol. The science now continues to support the idea that saturated fat in food, not cholesterol, causes health concerns. The American Heart Association removed their recommendations to limit dietary cholesterol intake and the USDA’s Dietary Guidelines don’t specify a limit. For the general public it has been shown that regularly eating eggs is safe as long as they are consumed as part of a balanced diet, as with all foods. Hyper-responders are the ‘egg-ception’ to this as they need to be more careful of their cholesterol intake. In summary Dietary sources of cholesterol are no longer a concern but beware of cholesterol-rich foods that are also high in saturated fat which will negatively affect blood cholesterol levels. High-cholesterol foods to watch out for:
chicken fillets. Choose minimally processed sausage or deli meat that is lean.
oil.
selenium, lutein and others. Be sure to cook eggs with an oil spray and a non-stick frying pan.
References 1) Dietary Cholesterol and the Lack of Evidence in Cardiovascular Disease - PMC (nih.gov) 2) Nutrients | Free Full-Text | Is There a Correlation between Dietary and Blood Cholesterol? Evidence from Epidemiological Data and Clinical Interventions (mdpi.com) 3) Association of eggs with dietary nutrient adequacy and cardiovascular risk factors in US adults | Public Health Nutrition | Cambridge Core Weight Loss for Tweens and Teens?🍔🍟🍕🍦
~ Maxine, Registered Dietitian One of my clients kindly asked for some nutrition advice regarding her younger teenage son as he wants to lose weight and join her weight loss journey. Everyone needs an individualized approach to their nutritional goals but I wanted to share my general guidelines in case there are other parents here that are unsure on how to go about this. Firstly, I recommend staying away from the concept of "dieting" or calorie counting at the start. It can be very overwhelming for a tween/ younger teen and often ends up having a negative impact on their relationship with food well into adulthood. I would rather focus on making "health" their ultimate goal. Teaching them about macros and how to build a healthy meal instead is a great start. Here are a few healthy eating and lifestyle guidelines to support:
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AuthorI'm Paul Leonard, CEO & founder of PLT Nutrition. Categories
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