Fatty Foods
A thick, juicy burger and a mountain of fries seemed like a good idea at the time, eh? Now you’ve got all the grease and fat working its way through your digestive system you, no doubt, feel tired and bloated. Well if this is the case then you should make sure that the very next meal you eat is chock full of fibre. The fibre will bind with the fat and speed up the trip through the digestive system. You can find fibre in all types of food: fruit, veg, cereals, wholemeal pasta and rice. Walnuts make a good snack after a fatty meal as they protect the arteries from fat deposits and help maintain a healthy heart. Salty Foods
Salted snack treats, soups, takeaways all contain a whole lot of salt. Order a Chinese from the local takeaway and there’s a very good chance that, in that one meal, you’ll be digesting more than the 6g’s of salt that is recommended per day! The dangers of eating too much salt include raised blood pressure, hardened arteries and osteoporosis. Now, when possible, you should try to eliminate adding salt to any meal you make. If you must flavour your food try using pepper, lemon juice, herbs or spices. When you have eaten a particularly salty snack or meal make sure you wash it down with plenty of water to flush out the excess salt. Celery is a great snack for getting rid of excess salt and has the added benefit of being a great weight loss food. Its calorie count is so low you actually burn more calories eating it than you take in! Sugary Foods
All those fizzy drinks, sweets, candy and biscuits carry a price. They’ll leave you feeling bloated and, after the initial “sugar rush*, your energy levels will completely crash. Much like salt it can be hard to cut back on sugar because it’s hidden in so many foods. However, unlike salt, sugar offers no health benefits at all. It’s solely a source of calories. Again, like salt, the answer lies in drinking plenty of water to flush out your system. Cinnamon is known to help reduce blood sugar levels so try sprinkling it on your coffee, cereal or yoghurt. Alcohol
“Binge drinking” is more prevalent at Christmas than any other time of the year. It damages organs, provides empty calories and increases the risk of several different kinds of cancer. There’s a reason that a fry-up is a much touted hangover cure and one of the reasons is that eggs effectively mop up toxins in your liver and keep blood sugar levels on an even keel. However a fry-up covers both the fatty and salty food groups so instead of that try having some scrambled eggs on wholemeal toast. Finally, and I hate to say this, but sprouts are an excellent food full of anti-toxins which greatly reduce the risk of getting cancer. Still, I’ll only eat them once a year though.
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