Fibre - what is it?

Fibre is essential to a healthy diet, and is known to play a role in decreasing the risk of bowel cancer, and heart disease. It is also important in healthy digestion.

Fibre is the term to describe any type of plant food that is not broken down by digestion. Fibre is therefore found in fruits and vegetables, and cereals. We don’t find fibre in dairy products or meat products. You will often find that some foods have added fibre in them, check the label if you are unsure of the fibre content of a manufactured food.
There are 3 major types of fibre in foods (most foods contain a mixture of these types)

Resistant starch – found in firm bananas, cooked and then cooled potatoes, roasted chickpeas, baked beans. This type helps to prevent constipation.

Insoluble fibre – found in wholegrain and whole wheat based products (such as cereals and pasta), apple skins, popcorn has a tough chewy texture and provides bulk to the diet.

Soluble fibre – found in fruit, vegetables, oats, rice and barley helps to produce softer bowel motions and aid in healthy bowel function.


Why wholegrains?

Wholegrains contain more nutrients and fibre as they have not been processed as much as refined grains. A whole grain contains; bran (a fibre rich outer area), a germ (a nutrient rich inner area), and an endosperm. We need to choose wholegrains at every opportunity

The 5 P's - Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance

Recently Ive been talking to a lot of athletes who are gearing up for big events like The Lake Taupo Challenge and 1/2 Ironman and it really makes me think about the 5 P's - PRIOR PLANNING PREVENTS POOR PERFORMANCE !! Nutrition, whether you are an athlete or not comes down to planning - you can have the best intentions but if you are not planned then chances are its not going to go to plan.

It is essential for athletes who are training for events to plan ahead - think about what your event entails - e.g. how long will you be competing for? what could go wrong in that time to extend that time? what foods and fluids will you have beforehand? what foods are suitable and work for you during the event? how do you carry your food and fluid needs? do you need support crew? will you take this food and fluid with you or will you rely on finding it in the event location? what do you need for recovery? how many times will you practice these strategies before the event? how will travelling to the event impact on your food choice?

As you can see there are a huge number of factors that need to be planned for an event. Sometimes it can seem like more work but two great examples can highlight the downside of this - one year that I did the full Taupo cycle challenge I actually saw a rider get off his bike and get a pie from a local store as he had run out of food - a pie as a good fuel source - NO WAY!, and another year a major supermarket ran out of bread - now if you had relied on finding toast at the location you would have been very disappointed! take what you need with you and then there's no risk of getting frustrated trying to find your 'normal event food'.

It is important to plan ahead, that way when you get to the start line you can relax and concentrate on your event - you have planned and practiced your strategies so you know they work! Prior planning prevents poor performance! For more info on how we can help you plan http://sportsnutritionist.co.nz/index.php?pr=Sports_Nutrition_

Perfect food for on the road - How I avoid mindless eating

In my last blog I wrote about my burger ring downfall on a car ride home, this time I'm letting you know what else I do when I'm eating on the run.

My favourite lunch when I'm away from home and I don't have a homemade lunch prepared is to nip into a supermarket. As I dash through I pick up a small amount of loose leaf lettuce (this usually costs about 20 cents!), a piece of fruit (also usually less than a dollar), a thin slice of edam cheese from the deli (still only 40c worth), a wholegrain roll (I really like the wholegrain Kaiser rolls), about 40g of chilli lime cashews and a bottle of water. When I get back into the car I fill my roll with the lettuce and cheese (you could also add a thin slice of 99% fat free ham or shredded chicken) and have this with my water. Then I also have the cashews and piece of fruit in case I get hungry later on in the trip. If I'm feeling a bit like a treat I'll pick up a calcixtra strawberry milk to have as well.

A really important thing to remember is if you are purchasing things like cashews or nuts, make sure you only get exactly what you need - if you get more you'll eat more, and if you can, stop to eat your meal - that way you'll enjoy it more and know when to stop.

Other great ideas for quick meals are sushi + a piece of fruit, or salads (I especially love Kapai salad's rocket, roasted kumara, and feta salad with thai chilli and lime dressing.

The dangers of eating while driving

Some of you will be aware that I spend a fair amount of time in the car travelling and I have to admit I'm not immune to the sweet treats that the petrol stations and supermarkets have along the way - but an overload of burger rings has reminded me of an important concept.


After a couple of long days it can be tempting to go for these sugar packed foods and I will also admit to a small pack of burger rings on one particular trip home (I'm human too!) What this really reminded me of is the concept of mindful eating- when I'd put my hand in the bag and realised I was out of burger rings I looked over in horror wondering who had consumed most of the packet! - It certainly wasn't me I thought!!! This can easily happen though, as I was focused on driving I hadn't even experienced those burger rings - I couldn't even recall what they really tasted like - sound familiar?


We all do it - its mindless eating. We should be thinking about, and concentrating on the food that we are consuming, savouring it as if it were a treat (which the burger rings were) and be able to tell if we are no longer hungry. This particular car ride re-taught me a valuable lesson - don't eat and drive (and don't buy treats if you aren't really going to experience them properly - its just a waste of calories!). Next time Ill tell you how Ive avoided mindless eating in the car ever since and how you can too!

The importance of setting healthy goals

We all like to think about getting healthier, losing a bit of weight and improving our fitness but what are the secrets behind actually getting to where you want to be?

Firstly, you need to know what you want achieve - if you think "ok I just want to lose some weight" - how do you define when you have done that - is it 1kg or is it 10kg? It needs to be measurable. When you are setting your lifestyle based goals you might think "well 1kg is pretty easy and if I set a big goal like 10kg I'll never make it!", but if you dream big, you'll get big. Start by having a great goal and then to make it more manageable set smaller goals along the way - for example your big goal might be to lose 10kg within 10 months, and your smaller stepping stone goals may be to lose 1kg in in month 1, lose 2kgs by the end of month 2, and so on. Having stepping stone goals will make it more manageable and motivating when you get to them. A great way to keep motivation up is to reward yourself when you get to each stepping stone. Avoid using food as reward as you are embarking on a new healthy relationship with food - instead you may like to have a spa treatment, buy a new pair of shoes, take a mini vacation or weekend away.

When you have your goals and stepping stones decided write them out and place them somewhere that you will see them each day so tat you are constantly reminded of them. Now you are ready to make changes in your lifestyle to achieve your goals - you can see more on how we can help you set and achieve your goals at www.sportsnutritionist.co.nz