Should trans fats be banned?
19/04/2010 at 08:19pm by Rich Leigh, weight loss expert, Fat Free Fitness
An entire ban on trans fats in food has been called for, with health experts claiming this would prevent thousands of heart attacks and deaths.
A team from Harvard Medical School published a report in the British Medical Journal predicting that cutting overall consumption in England alone by just 1 per cent would lead to 11,000 fewer heart attacks each year and 7,000 fewer deaths – one of the reasons this campaign should have the full backing of every single health and fitness professional in the country.
Despite campaigns that have resulted in Mars, McVitie’s and McDonald’s changing their recipes with regards to trans fats, they can still be found in some cakes, pastries, pies, chips and fast foods.
The warning about the killer fats, from Harvard Medical School, will raise questions about whether Britain's Food Standards Agency is giving sufficient priority to reducing trans fats in the diet.
The British Food Standards Agency takes the view that consumption of trans fat is so low in the UK that it is not a problem, but I believe this to be short sighted – it’s like saying that a drug, no matter how powerful, should be classified purely based on the number of people that take it.
'This risk [of heart disease] is far higher per calorie consumed than for any other dietary macronutrient, including saturated fat,' the Harvard team said.
In developed nations, the average consumption of trans fats is often 2-4 per cent of total calorie intake.
'Removing industrial trans fatty acids [trans fats are chemically altered vegetable oils which prolong the shelf life of many foods] is one of the most straightforward public health strategies for rapid improvements in health,' the U.S. researchers said.
The teams said there was no evidence that removing the ingredient affected taste or price, and argued that a legal ban would not lead manufacturers to switch to harmful saturated fat.
Barbara Gallani, director of food safety and science at the Food and Drink Federation, said the report from the U.S. experts failed to take account of industry efforts to remove trans fats.
As a result, she said, it 'creates an unbalanced picture that could give rise to unnecessary health concerns'.
She added: 'We agree that it is important to maintain a healthily balanced diet in which trans fats are consumed within the safe levels recommended by the FSA and that is why artificial trans fats have been virtually eliminated from processed foods in the UK, due to a significant focus on reformulation by UK food manufacturers.'
So, what do you think? Is banning trans fat the best move forward for nutrition in the UK?
A fantastic £10 off at Maximuscle
17/04/2010 at 09:35am by Rich Leigh, weight loss expert, Fat Free Fitness
Good morning! I've just been sent an awesome discount that I thought I'd share with you:
The discount is available until midnight April 21st 2010, so if you've recently bought your fitness supplements, but know you'll need some more soon, don't miss out!
All you need to do to get this £10 off (minimum spend £60) is:
1. Click here: Maximuscle £10 discount and
2. Paste this code into checkout when you're done: MMAPR10Happy saving :)
Brits failing to hit 5 a day target
11/04/2010 at 07:57am by Rich Leigh, weight loss expert, Fat Free Fitness
We Brits are eating fewer vegetables despite millions of pounds being spent on the five-a-day campaign, according to a report.
New figures from the fresh produce organisation Freshfel Europe reveal British consumers ate 1% more fruit in 2008 compared with the previous five-year average but vegetable consumption plummeted by 11%, The Grocer reported.
Overall European fruit consumption fell 1% in that period, with vegetable consumption dropping by 14%.
Europeans ate an average of 439lb (199kg) of fruit and vegetables per person in 2008, an 8% drop.
The figures follow several years of Government-promoted healthy eating campaigns including 5-a-day, Change4Life and the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme.
The Department of Health has spent £3.3 million on the five-a-day campaign alone in the past four years, a spokeswoman told the trade magazine.
Today's figures follow a study released earlier this week casting doubt on the cancer-preventing benefits of eating five portions of fruit and vegetables a day.
Fresh Produce Consortium chief executive Nigel Jenney told The Grocer: "It's disappointing to see further confirmation that we continue to fail as a nation to enjoy a healthy diet.
"The fresh produce industry recognises the challenges it faces and it's vital that we focus efforts on generic campaigns to encourage people of all ages to eat fresh fruit and vegetables, irrespective of origin. The UK Government's five-a-day programme needs to put greater emphasis on eating fresh rather than suggesting that highly processed food can be an acceptable alternative for healthy eating."
Campaigns like the 'Change 4 Life' scheme don't seem to have encouraged Brits to eat more fruit and veg
Free exercise session this Sunday in Gloucestershire...
08/04/2010 at 11:05pm by Rich Leigh, weight loss expert, Fat Free Fitness
This Sunday, and every Sunday at 11am, free group exercise sessions will be happening at Gloucester Park to celebrate the return of (half) decent weather, with each hour long class taken by a professionally qualified personal trainer and weight loss expert – little old me!
If you fancy coming along and shaping up now it's getting sunnier, I’ll be there exercising regardless, and would like you and all other county residents to feel absolutely free to come along and join in.
There is absolutely no cost and no need to bring anything other than a pair of decent trainers – as everything you need will already be there, and no experience or level of fitness is necessary.
If you don’t fancy training alone, please do bring a friend, as I really hope that through offering free exercise sessions that I will be performing regardless, whether alone or with 100 people, I’ll be helping citizens of Gloucester and surrounding areas get fitter, leaner and healthier this Spring.
For more information, please join our Fat Free Fitness Facebook group here: www.facebook.com/fatfreefitness, and keep an eye on dates, times and more.
Please see the big green arrow on this map here thanks to Google to find directions to Gloucester Park, in the centre of Gloucester city:
View Larger Map
There is free parking on a Sunday along Park Road, right next to where we'll be training. Please see the map here.
I hope to see you Sunday.
Rich
Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson the new face of Weightwatchers
02/04/2010 at 08:54am by Rich Leigh, weight loss expert, Fat Free Fitness
Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson didn't gain a huge amount of weight when she was pregnant with her son, but it was enough to make her do a double-take when she saw a picture of herself, Associated Press reports.
"I didn't realize it was me," the singer and actress said. "I was like, 'Who? ... Oh, my God, this is me.' And now when I look back, wow, look at the difference from then to now."
Hudson, a former "American Idol" finalist who won a best supporting actress Academy Award for "Dreamgirls," has lost the baby weight and more, and she says it's because of Weight Watchers — for which she is the new spokeswoman.
Hudson said she has always been happy with her curves but after she gave birth to David Daniel Otunga Jr. last August she felt the need to take control of her body and her eating habits.
"How can I make a better me, or grow or do some changes, anything, just experiment, because I have me back now," she said. "And then at the same time, having the baby ... it's like, OK, this is a good way of how I would want my child to grow up, because so many times in growing up, you gain really bad habits ... so I want to make sure that he's going into this and I'm being a good example for him."
She said that her lifestyle change has even rubbed off on her fiancé, David Otunga, who has recently been wrestling for World Wrestling Entertainment.
"Now he's in the habit of writing down what he's eating," she said. "He's doing weigh-ins. He's super healthy, and he's a bodybuilder type, but he is inspired by it."
Let’s hope that Jennifer is keeping healthy through exercise too!
Jennifer decided to take control after the birth of her son
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Launched in 2009, fatfreefitness.co.uk is the UK's only weight loss specific personal training agency. Fat Free Fitness helps you stop dieting and counting calories, by teaching you how to improve your nutrition, increase your activity and exercise levels and lose weight. Fatfreefitness.co.uk is a great way to lose weight and save money. fatfreefitness provides you with expert diet, fitness, exercise, gym and personal training advice and support, similar to ivillage.co.uk, weightlossforall.com, thecolumn.org, weightlossforgood.co.uk, tescodiets.co.uk and weightlossresources.co.uk. Win diet, exercise and fitness products by entering fatfreefitness.co.uk competitions. Fatfreefitness.co.uk is not a weight loss support group like Weight Watchers weightwatchers.co.uk or Slimming World slimmingworld.com. Fat Free Fitness is updated regularly with new information. Fatfreefitness.co.uk and weight loss expert, personal trainer and fatfreefitness.co.uk founder Rich Leigh disagree with and discourage fat loss tablets, diet tablets and weight loss aid tablets, fad dieting and crash diets such as the Atkins diet, the Cambridge diet, the cabbage soup diet, the Beverley Hills diet, the baby food diet and all other carbohydrate and calorie restricting diets.
