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    Eat Healthy, Live Well
    Eat Healthy, Live Well
    Eat Healthy, Live Well
    Ebook153 pages1 hour

    Eat Healthy, Live Well

    By Alice Custard

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    About this ebook

    :
    Our health is influenced by many factors – age, lifestyle, exercise, stress levels and many others. However, the most significant factor governing our health is what we eat; our diet controls our general health and wellness. This book explains the components of a healthy diet to help you make the right food choices because if you look after your body, your body will look after you. Many people battle with their weight for years, trying different weight-loss (or weight-gain) regimes, most of which fail in the long run. This is not a weight-loss book; instead, try focusing solely on what your body needs, right down to the micronutrients, the vitamins and minerals that are essential for your body to function. Find out why your body needs calories, fats, proteins and carbohydrates, as well as the vitamins and minerals that your body cannot function without; how much you need of each and the effect of too much or too little.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAlice Custard
    Release dateOct 12, 2012
    ISBN9780991714711
    Eat Healthy, Live Well
    Author

    Alice Custard

    Alice Custard was born in Oxford, England but has lived in Toronto, Canada for twelve years. She has a Bachelor in Chemical Engineering and Biosciences, and a lifetime of study when it comes to nutrients and diet. Knowledge is her most powerful tool, helping her eat right and take care of her body. She loves yoga and chocolate and hopes one day there will be a way to combine the two, not that chocolate could cope with hot yoga. She is currently working towards her Master of Chemical Engineering and a healthy body weight.

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      Book preview

      Eat Healthy, Live Well - Alice Custard

      The food industry is saturated with information, fad diets and miracle pills. We have to wade through a lot of nonsense to get to the real deal about food. There is no overnight cure that miraculously makes you into a supermodel; it is up to you, and only you, to sort out your diet and feel happy and healthy. The aim of this book (and associated application) is to provide the information you need to make an informed decision about the food you consume, what your body needs and how your body processes food. It is important to understand the relationship you have with food, from the familiar calories and macronutrients: fat, carbohydrates, protein and water, down to the micronutrients: vitamins and minerals often overlooked because they are required in comparatively small quantities, but can have deadly consequences if not accounted for in your diet. The information provided in this book can help you make these choices Now, take this information and think about what you eat, really look at what you are putting in your mouth. Knowledge and determination is the path to healthy eating, and it’s all up to you.

      As a Chemical and Bio-Engineer, I have a lifetime of study in the pursuit of my own healthy body and education in the biochemistry of vitamins and minerals. I know how difficult it is to eat healthily; I would much rather drown my sorrows in a bar of chocolate. While eating the chocolate bar, I feel much better, but afterwards the feeling of shame and guilt for what I have done to my own body always makes me feel worse. I have come to understand the negative cycle of feeling inadequate and rewarding myself with a quick, potentially lethal dose of chocolate. I know there is a genetic element to my negative relationship because it has all happened before. My mom battles the same demons that are invading my life. Our feelings towards chocolate are identical, but my mom has had thirty years of fighting and losing this battle. You are worth more than that she always tells me, do not use food to validate your existence, you have so much to offer the world, do not turn out like me. She has three months to sort out her eating habits; if she is unsuccessful, the slippery slope of diabetes will have won. Only after she was told how serious her condition was, did she do anything about it. The change and determination I have seen in her is my inspiration to look after myself, and I want to imbue this determination in you. I know how difficult it is. I am proposing to give you the tools to look after and understand your own body, as I have come to understand mine. Chocolate is my vice, and I’m sure you know what yours is; identifying and coming to terms with it is part of the solution. You are worth more than that.

      I have tried a wide range of diet programs, but they all eliminate a vital nutrient like carbohydrates or fats. The reason these diets work, albeit for a short time, is that not eating carbohydrate or fats forces your body to make them using a different, inefficient set of chemical reactions. It was difficult for me to completely remove them from my diet for a prolonged period of time. It is not healthy to depend on these chemical reactions because they are meant for use in an emergency. I have turned my back on dieting and decided to focus on exactly what my body needs to be healthy. The following pages are the culmination of my research and experience in learning how to eat healthy and live well.

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      Energy

      The dreaded calorie; there is always more lurking in your favourite food than you expect. Nevertheless, it is a good measure of the energy content in food, and can be broken down into calories from fat, protein and carbohydrates, with a small proportion coming from alcohol. To state the obvious: you will gain weight if you take in more calories than you burn! You can lose weight if this balance is tipped in the other direction, but if you don’t take in enough calories it can have the opposite effect - you will force your body to store fat because it thinks food is in short supply. Calories are the fuel of your body. You need them to function, like getting out of bed in the morning, sitting at your computer, even while sleeping your body is using energy. It is the calories that give you the energy to carry out these tasks. Energy is required for less observable processes too, like growing new skin and keeping our warm-blooded body warm. The amount of energy your body needs to keep these basic functions going is based on age, gender, height and weight, and is calculated for you in the Eat Healthy iPhone Application. If you have a physically demanding job or partake in discretionary exercise, you will need more calories, because you are using calories to do these activities. The older you get, sadly, the fewer calories you need. Read the labels on foods, but don’t get confused by the information: the calories labelled on foods have units of kilocalories, but are often referred to as just calories. If you consume too many calories they will be stored as fat, but your body needs a base amount to function properly, which is also based on your activity level.

      Anyone trying to lose weight is acutely aware that celery requires more energy to digest than it provides, and wishes the same were true for the hamburger they wish they were eating. Getting nutrients out of the food we eat also takes energy, but our body is, usually, very efficient at this. Who wants to eat celery at every meal? Sure, we might be losing weight, but we are forgetting about all the other nutrients that we need, which is more important than losing weight and

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