Family Nutrition Q&A with Dr Sarah Brewer‏

One of the hot topics of conversation when I get together with my mummy-mates is food. What will the kids eat, what won’t they eat? Are they eating enough, what will stop them and us getting stinking colds, all of that and more. So when Nurture Drinks gave me the opportunity to have a chat with top nutritionist Dr Sarah Brewer, I saw my chance to answer all our questions and more.

What are the main concerns about family nutrition at the moment?
Lack of vitamin D is a concern, a study in Southampton found that a third of children seen in an orthopaedic clinic had low levels of vitamin D and were at risk of developing rickets, 15 minutes of sensible sun exposure is a healthy way to top up vitamin D levels.

Are supplements for children worth it?
Up to the age of 5 the government currently recommend children take supplements of vitamins A, C and D, a good children’s multivitamin should cover it. Over the age of 5 it depends on how well they eat and how good their diet is. The Imune Nurture drink is a great way for children to top up their vitamin levels too.

Does vitamin C help with colds?
If you’re stressed or have an active lifestyle then it can help, but a balanced, healthy diet is key. Zinc lozenges can reduce the length of cold symptoms too. Olbas oil is excellent to helping with snuffly noses.

What can we do to look after ourselves as parents and boost our immune health?
Take a good multivitamin, don’t skip meals. Taking a rhodiola supplement may help reduce stress. Getting plenty of sleep is the key, but it’s not always easy as a parent. Try meditating before bed, aroma baths and power naps can help too.

How important are Omega 3 oils?
Omega 3 fish oils are really important and key for brain and eye function. There is evidence that omega 3 deficiency can contribute to ADHD, poor attention and behavioural problems. If you can incorporate oily fish in to your families’ diet that will help, so eating homemade salmon fish fingers and nuts are a great way to add omega 3 to diets. Two to four servings of oily fish a week is the current recommendation, though this is less if you are pregnant or trying to conceive.

Omega 3 is now added to some follow on milks and if you’re concerned about your family getting enough omega 3, then fish oil supplements are available and there’s an algae supplement for vegetarians. Omega 3 is a brilliant brain booster, and if you take it with evening primrose it can also reduce wrinkles and scaly skin.

Family Nutrition Q&A with Dr Sarah Brewer‏

We like cooking together as a family. What’s good to make together?
Things like homemade chicken nuggets or fish fingers are good, dip in egg and roll in breadcrumbs; make your fish fingers from salmon and that’s a great way to get some oily fish into your diet. Pizzas made with your own sauce and fresh toppings are fun to make too.

Should you hide veg in food, or it best to be upfront?
I hide veg, when I make a bolognaise for example I grate veg into the sauce and cook it out, chopped mushrooms are good because they can taste quite meaty, maybe add some soy protein or lentils too. All veg, hidden or not is good.

How should we deal with picky eating phases?
Keep offering healthy options and they’ll eventually eat them, try saying eat half and leave half, some is better than none. Kids won’t go hungry so keep offering them good things.

Fruit and veg. Is it 5 or 7 a day now?
It’s still 5 a day as a minimum, most people average about 4 a day, in America they recommend 10 portions a day. I have an “open fruit” policy at home, I have a large fruit bowl and the family can eat as much fruit from it as they want, variety is important.

Is diluted squash better than pure juices?
Squash is a good option for getting then to drink water, it’s best to dilute more than the bottle recommends, dilute as far as you can get away with. I prefer squash with natural sweeteners. Again with pure juices you should dilute them down, so half juice, half water. Like the Nurture drinks which are half juice and half water.

Is it true you shouldn’t eat after 8pm?
If you do it regularly it’s not great for you, but every so often won’t hurt. It can slow down your metabolism if you consistently eat late at night.

What’s good for strengthening hair and nails?
Nail strength is largely genetic, but biotin, silica and fish oils can help with your nails. Poor hair strength and condition can be a sign that your diet is poor or you’re under stress, a good multivitamin can help, as can eating more protein and taking a protein supplement. Stress causes constriction to the scalp so stimulating the scalp can help as can caffeine shampoo. Nourkrin supplements and treatments are expensive, but can help with hair growth too.

Are there any links between diet and asthma?
I’ve written a book about that subject, Overcoming Asthma: The Complete Complementary Health Program. Sensitivity to certain foods can trigger asthma, for example sulphites such as those found in wine and tartrazine in drinks can have an impact. Coffee, an apple a day, oily fish and a whole food diet can help.

Why do you recommend Nurture drinks?
It’s an exciting new development, Nurture have no added sugar and the no spill cap is great. The flavours are interesting and they can really help boost immune health. They contain beta glucans which can help reduce the chance of catching a cold and can reduce the length of the cold too.

Thank you to Dr Sarah Brewer for kindly giving her time to speak to me. This is not a sponsored post.

Review: Immune boosting Nurture drinks for children

We were asked to try Nurture drinks, which have been designed to boost children’s immune systems. The drinks come in two flavours, Strawberry & Cherry and Orange & Pineapple. Both flavours are 100% natural with no added sugar or sweeteners and are made up of 50% juice and 50% water.

Nurture drinks

The juices are endorsed by Dr Sarah Brewer, the UK’s leading medical nutritionist who says “Many children miss days from school due to coughs and colds. While it’s important to avoid spreading infection when kids are unwell, it’s also important to boost their immunity so they recover quickly and are less likely to succumb to the next wave of infection going round”.

Each 200ml pouch is packed with optimum daily amounts of vitamins for children aged two to five years. Including Wellmune WGP 100% natural beta glucan is a clever ingredient designed to strengthen key immune cells. Vitamins B6, B9, B12, C, D, and zinc contribute to the normal function of the immune system, Calcium and Vitamin D provide power for the normal growth and development of strong bones, and Vitamin B5 supports brain development.

Come September the small boy will toddle off to the nursery at our local primary school. We’ve been busy getting his uniform and things ready, but having worked in education in a previous life, one of my biggest worries is just how many colds and bugs he’ll pick up once he starts in September. Whilst he’s a pretty good eater and loves his fruit and veg, it can’t hurt to give him and his immune system a boost. Nurture seemed just the thing to try to help this.

So, how did we get on? The small boy is 3 and we have so far limited his juice intake, generally preferring to give him water or milk. Juice is a rare treat because it’s quite sweet and it’s not something we have in the house for ourselves. We decided to limit him to the recommended one pouch per day, and of course I had a little sip or two just to check it out for myself.

Nurture drinks

Firstly we tried the strawberry and cherry flavour. I think this was his favourite as all he asks for now is the “red juice”. To me it tasted quite sweet and I can see why it appeals. It was a nice balance of the two fruits. He was very happy to drink the pouch in one go. If you were drinking this at home I’d be tempted to decant it into a glass and dilute it with a bit more water.

We then tried the orange and pineapple flavour. I personally preferred this flavour as I’m a bit of a pineapple junkie, the small boy liked it too. It was sweet enough, but not overly so, but could be diluted down further if you wanted to.

Each pouch comes with a special spill-proof spout. We’d never encountered a spout in that design and it took a few minutes to get the hang of. If you depress the cap with your mouth and suck the juice it comes out quite easily.

I think the Nurture drinks are a great addition to lunch-boxes and as part of children’s’ daily diets. The pouches are a definite improvement on other pouched juice drinks which offer negligible nutritional benefits. I’d happily pick Nurture drinks over other drinks for their immune boosting benefits, even if they are slightly more expensive. I think in this instance you get what you pay for. This is clearly innovative and useful, not to mention delicious and popular with the small boy. This is a winner.

You may also like to read my interview about family health and nutrition with leading nutritionist Dr Sarah Brewer.

Nurture is available now in Tesco stores across the UK, at RRP £2.99 for a pack of four 200ml pouches.

Note: we were sent two boxes of Nurture drinks for review purposes. All opinions and images are my own.

Swimming for Fitness – Speedo Pinnacle Review

A little while ago I wrote about my upgrade from a shoddy high street swimming costume to one more suited to my rediscovered love of swimming. I got myself a swanky and much admired Speedo one.

Since then I’ve fallen back in love with the Speedo brand and couldn’t resist getting a proper, full-on training costume. My eye was drawn to the Speedo Pinnacle Body Positioning Kickback costume.

Regular readers will know I had two lots of spinal surgery last year and most of my core stability was lost, plus I’ve got a long rehab road ahead of me. A costume that will help re-balance me and strengthen me in the water could only ever be a good thing.

The Speedo pinnacle is full of special panels to help with core stability. Because of this it can be a little tricky to get on, but it’s worth it. Once on it looks fantastic and got lots of very positive comments.

The Speedo Pinnacle is made from fabric which Speedo call Endurance+ and has been developed to be 100% chlorine-resistant, as well as quick drying. The fabric is 20 times more fade resistant than conventional swimwear and has been engineered to keep its shape, so it shouldn’t get baggy after a few months. There’s nothing worse than a baggy bottom!

Thankfully for someone rocking a sizeable pair of double Ds, it has decent bust support. I struggled with my old, non-Speedo costume and its slippy down straps, there’s none of that with this, the racer-style back which means you don’t have to worry about giving people an eyeful when you dive in, nor are there any hasty readjustments after every few lengths.

It was comfortable to wear and I felt it did support and improve my performance, not to mention increase my confidence in the water. When you’re exercising the last thing you need is to be worrying about what you’re wearing. This is stylish and performance enhancing.

Would I recommend the Speedo Pinnacle? Absolutely, if you’re a serious and regular swimmer or you do aqua-fitness, then this is a brilliant costume. It looks good, it feels good and it should last longer than other costumes.

Disclaimer: Speedo were kind enough to send me a new swimming costume for review, to help me on my road to post-surgery fitness and as a thank you for my (always honest) review.

Not a Diet… but a Lifestyle Change

In the New Year I wrote this blog post about body confidence, and with it a picture of me in my pants. It was I’ll admit a fairly brave thing to do. It’s taken a long time to love and accept me for the awesome, beautiful, imperfect creature I am. I love me. Of course there are things I’d like to change, make smaller, make bigger, make less wrinkly, but I’m 37 now and much of that isn’t going to magic itself perfect. Ever.

Around the same time I outlined my resolution for the year – in 2014 I resolve to become fitter and healthier in body and mind. Fair dos. It’s a goal, maybe a bit of an airyfairy one, but I knew then and I know now what I need to do to achieve that.

This week I’ve started the SlimPod programme with Thinking Slimmer. It’s not a faddy diet, it works by listening to a hypnosis recording every night for 3 weeks. It persuades your subconscious to make you make positive changes. Smaller portions, more exercise, whatever you know you need to do to turn yourself into the person and shape you want to be.

It doesn’t focus on actual weight loss, in fact I’m discouraged from getting the scales out every day or even every week. Success, or not, is measured in inches off rather than pounds lost. I’ve only listened to it twice, mainly because today is day two, so I can’t comment on how successful it will be.

I’ve taken my measurements, I’ve filled in my goal setting sheet and I’ve shared my ambitions for finding the new fitter, slimmer me on their Facebook group. It’s all systems go.

I’ll be on this for the next 12 weeks and I’ll be blogging my progress periodically. So stay tuned.

Oh and if you’re interested in my goals, if only to hold me accountable if you see me necking a pint and some mini cheddars in the pub, then these are they…

Exercise more often
Lose the muffin top before my holiday in June
Drink less alcohol

Disclaimer: Thinking Slimmer have given me free access to their SlimPod programme in return for me blogging about it. There’s no pressure to say it’s amazing, so whatever I write will be my honest thoughts, feelings and opinions of the process. Wish me luck!

Smoking & Young Children

I gave up smoking in 2004 long, long before we even contemplated having a baby. It was the right thing to do at the time. I missed it but didn’t go back to it until earlier this year. My son was 2 and a half when I started smoking again. I’d had 18 months of complex physical and mental health problems and I couldn’t deal with the stress anymore, so I started borrowing cigarettes from friends, then buying packets and then I was a smoker again.

When I started again, I promised that I wouldn’t smoke in the house or when my son was around. I never did smoke inside, but I’d smoke outside and my son, my beautiful, innocent, impressionable son would come to the window and watch me smoke. Then he figured out how to open the door and a few times he came outside to be with me. He’s seen me smoke and I’m horrified about that. It makes smoking seem normal and something nice, normal people like Mummy do. It isn’t.
I knew I had to give up and Stoptober gave me a focus and the motivation to do so. I still miss it, but I know it was the right thing to do both for me and for him. I grew up with parents who between them smoked 60 fags a day, in the house in front of us kids, in the car with the windows closed, that was the 1980’s for you, smoke filled cars and no seatbelts.

The facts about smoking in front of and near kids are that children are:
– at increased risk of developing asthma, and ear, nose and chest infections.
– at greater risk of dying from cot death (sudden infant death syndrome).
– more likely to become smokers themselves when older.
– are at increased risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cancer as adults.

Some studies have shown that on average, children of parents who smoke do less well at reading and reasoning skills compared to children in smoke-free homes, even at low levels of smoke exposure. That’s quite a sobering thought.

There are some people who think that parents who smoke near their children are committing some form of child abuse. I wouldn’t go that far, but it does potentially have serious health implications for the child. Both my brother and I developed asthma. I also had eczema and chronic ear infections which have now been linked to being in a smoke filled house.

My Dad has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and will likely live a shorter life for having that. He no longer smokes, but 40 plus years of heavy smoking have taken its toll on him. My son who adores his Grandpa will lose him sooner than he should because of smoking. My Mum still smokes and she stinks, she has health problems, she won’t give up.

Like with most things I have a live and let live attitude, do what you want as long as you don’t harm others. But the problem with smoking is it does harm others. You don’t have to be sat in the same room as them or even sat in a smoke filled car in the 1980’s; smoke will filter through, permeate, linger and harm.

If you’re pregnant or if you’ve got kids, you will have been lectured to the moon and back by GPs, Midwives, Health Visitors any healthcare professional who has crossed you path. Nothing I can say will make you quit. But if you’re thinking about it there is plenty of help and support out there if you need it. A good place to start is with your GP or pharmacy.

Quitting isn’t easy, but I guess seeing your beautiful child wheezing, struggling to breathe and puffing on an inhaler is much, much harder.

I was originally asked to write this article for a now defunct on-line magazine. It seemed a shame that it never saw the light of day – so I’m publishing it here on my blog instead.

Coffee Mourning – I Quit Coffee for a Month (and survived)

I can’t believe a month has passed since I had a cup of coffee, it’s gone so quickly.

I also quit tea and diet coke. I’ll admit that I cheated a little and had some jasmine tea, but as it’s not black tea I think I can just about get away with that. I was ill with a vomiting bug last week and the only thing I wanted to drink was flat diet coke, so I did allow myself a couple of glasses of that, but only because I was poorly sick sick.

Apart from those minor indiscretions I think I’ve done pretty well considering. The aim of it was to see of giving up dark coloured drinks would make a difference to the colour of my teeth. I think so, and while the change wasn’t massively dramatic I think it was enough to make it worthwhile. I’ve taken a before and after picture, which isn’t great, but in real life there is less staining and more of a sparkle.

teeth before and after — They don’t look much different, but in real life they are

I’m pretty impressed with the results after just a month and although I will be going back to having all the drinks I missed, I won’t be drinking as many of them as I used to. I do love coffee and diet coke but it’s been nice to make the change, even if it was only temporary.

For me the worst thing over the month was the lack of caffeine. I had a bad headache for the best part of a week and really struggled to stay awake and alert for most of the month. I don’t think I’ve been as productive and as sparky as usual either. To be honest, top of my agenda now is getting a really good brew inside me. Personally I think I’d rather be awake and alert and have slightly stained teeth than pearly whites and a constant need for a nap. But each to their own.

Coffee Mourning – Surviving a Caffeine Free month!

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about me quitting coffee, tea and diet coke for a month to see if it’ll make a difference to the colour of my teeth. Not only that, I wanted to try going caffeine free for a while. I thought it was about time for a catch up; so here’s how the last couple of weeks have gone.

I was a serious diet coke addict. I’d drink a couple of pints a day, easily. On top of that there were the four or so cups of coffee and the odd cup of tea when I fancied it. Looking at that written down, that’s quite a caffeine habit.

Coffee Mourning - Surviving a month Caffeine Free!

The first week was not easy at all. It was clear was addicted to caffeine and I suffered the usual headache that goes with going cold turkey and caffeine free. I had a stonking headache for 6 days. These kind of headaches are for some baffling reason (a Doctor told me) impervious to painkillers, so there was nothing I could do about them really.

I soon realised my life was essentially propped up by caffeine; within 48 hours of stopping I could hardly keep my eyes open. Annoyingly I kept nodding off, it was awful. Admittedly my pain medication which makes me sleepy at the best of times wasn’t helping, but that first week was nothing short of hell.

I’m at the end of week two now. I am sleepy but not nodding off like I was last week. I’m missing my favourite drinks. I’ve replaced them with lemon squash and hot chocolate when I need a hot drink. It’s not too bad really. I’m feeling ok about the next couple of weeks without coffee, tea and diet coke.

But, is it making my teeth whiter? I think so, not dramatically, not Hollywood white, but they are definitely less stained. I’m happy with how things are going and it’ll be interesting to properly compare my teeth once the month is up.

Could you go caffeine free for a month?

My New Speedo Kit for Getting Fit!

A few years ago we booked a holiday to Cyprus. I looked at my baggy, threadbare swimming costume and decided it was time to treat myself. I bought a cheap “fashion” one from a high street store. It was black with a suck-in-your-tummy panel, some rouching to disguise said tummy and some boob-tastic cleavage enhancers. It did the job, I looked decent enough in it and since I rediscovered swimming, it has had very regular outings.

Last week I finally got fed up with it. So what if my boobs look all kinds of awesome, it was no good if the straps kept falling down when I was swimming and it was starting to show its age. Time for an upgrade, I’ll keep the boob-tastic one for swanky spa days and the like; I needed something more appropriate, there was only one answer, I needed a Speedo costume, but one that still looked good poolside.

Speedo Swimming Costume — My new Speedo Get Fit Kit!

I went for the Premier Sculpt One-piece in a lovely blue; it has two lines of white piping under the bust and adjustable shoulder straps. The costume has control panels pretty much all over it to make wobbly bits less wobbly, there is some bust support but there’s no va-va-voom to speak of. The Speedo Sculpture range shapes and smooths the body to enhance and control your curvy bits.

I tried it on and it was comfy. For a lady of curves (euphemism alert) I have a small bottom and costumes are always, always baggy on the bum, so that was the first thing I noticed. But I do have an abnormally small bum, so don’t let that put you off.

The squishy middle bit of me was smoother and battened down for minimum wobble (and no doubt to make me more streamlined in the water), but the boobs, my pride and joy, my boobs were appropriately contained but not enhanced. I thought I looked quite fetching in it and it was rather stylish, much better than my boring black one I’d been wearing.

Did I swim better? Well I wasn’t bothered by the straps slipping because they didn’t. I did feel more streamlined and supported in the water which is kind of the point of a proper swimming costume. It was comfortable, I looked good in it, I felt good in it. I loved it. I’m glad I’ve now got a more appropriate costume so I can look good and feel more serious about my fitness.

I also treated myself to some goggles, after several weeks of sore eyes and getting splashed in the face by fellow swimmers, I decided that this was an essential piece of kit. I went for the Speedo Aquapure IQFit goggles which have been designed to be easily and securely adjusted to fit any head.

Apparently some clever boffin measured head-sizes from all over the world to find the right dimensions for the goggles, because of this they are easily adjusted just using the head strap or the strip across the nose. This means they’re more likely to be really comfortable and less likely to leak.

They were indeed comfortable, once I’d adjusted them to fit my head properly they fit beautifully, they didn’t leak or fog and they stopped me getting sore eyes. I really liked the look of them too, they matched my new costume a treat.

I’ve still got (but can’t fit into) my old competitive costume from when I was a teenager, I loved it, it’s got all my badges sewn onto it, but not the medals, that would’ve slowed me down. It’s a blue, Speedo costume, so I feel a little like I’m returning to the old, sporty me. It’s been too long.

So I’m starting to look good and feel good. I can see in the not too distant future that I’ll be adding the awesome looking Speedo Fit Pinnacle costume to my collection. It still looks good, but it’s designed for proper, full on fitness, which is my eventual aim. Let’s do this!

If you’re into swimming can I recommend the Speedo Pinterest boards. They’re brilliant, full of great advice and motivational stuff that’ll help you find or keep your swimming mojo.

Disclaimer: Speedo were kind enough to let me choose an new swimming costume and googles, to help me on my road to fitness as a thank you for my (always honest) review.

Coffee Mourning – Quitting Coffee for 30 Days

Hello, my name’s Jane and I’m a coffee addict. I’m also about to try quitting coffee for 30 days.

It’s not like I roll out of bed and my first thought is COFFEE, but it’s not far off that. I will drink instant, but my weakness is really good filter coffee. If I’m in the mood for a coffee with a bit of foamy frippery, then a cappuccino is the order of the day.

For the next 30 days I’m quitting coffee. I’m quitting to see if I can cope without it and I’m quitting to see if it’ll make a difference to the colour of my coffee stained teeth. I am also quitting because I’m utterly addicted to caffeine and need to stop, or at least cut down.

Coffee Mourning - Surviving a month Caffeine Free!

This is going to be a real test for me. I’ll be giving up coffee, tea and my precious diet coke too. It’s going to be a tough month; missing out on all my favourite drinks and going caffeine free and cold turkey for 30 days.

Drinks like coffee, tea, red wine and coke can really stain your teeth over time. Your tooth enamel contains tiny pits and ridges that can hold particles of food and drink. Pigments from these dark-colored drinks can become embedded in those pits and ridges and cause permanent, yellow stains on your teeth.

Obviously prevention is better than a cure. If you can stop your teeth yellowing in the first place; then you can reduce the need for expensive tooth whitening treatments later on. Cutting out caffeine will not only have a positive impact on my general health and well-being, it could also help my teeth stay whiter and brighter for longer.

I’m pretty excited (and slightly terrified) about this. I suspect giving up coffee, tea and diet coke will do more to me than make my teeth a slightly paler shade. So who knows what I’ll be like in 30 days, watch this space!

Coffee Mourning - Quitting Coffee for 30 Days — Will they get whiter?

Could you give up your favourite brew? How would you go about quitting coffee for a month?

Swimming – (hopefully) from Fatness to Fitness

After the hell that was 2013 and all the physical rehabilitation I had I’m very aware that I’ve got to maintain and improve my current level of fitness.

During the summer and into the autumn I would go on daily, long, fast-paced walks. Each week I would see an improvement in my time and my fitness. I’d noticed a reduction in the level of pain I was in and I felt good.

Autumn swung into winter and it became too parky for me and I stopped. A little bit of winter weight crept up and I started to miss my happy endorphins. So on the advice of my therapist I started swimming again.

As a child I was a brilliant competitive swimmer. I swam for several teams. I trained with people who went on to be Olympians and I was among the very best in the county. I usually swam backstroke or front crawl. I have strong, strong legs which made these the perfect strokes for me.

I stopped swimming when I hit puberty; I was very conscious of all my lady lumps and bumps and couldn’t face it anymore. In hindsight that was a massive shame because, you know, I could’ve been a contender.

So about a month or so ago I slipped into my swimming costume and literally took the plunge. I’d not swum properly for years but I found myself in a pool where I used to do some competitive swimming, Withington Baths. It’s an old Victorian pool, but the water is warm and it’s cheap and close by. I have clear and fond memories of swimming there and collecting my hard-swum for medals afterwards. Glory days.

The first time I swam, knowing how unfit I was I mentally set a target of 10 lengths. I’d bashed those out in no time so decided to continue, by the end of the session I’d done 25 lengths, but I was seriously sore and limping the next day. Undeterred I returned the following week and did another 25 lengths and I’ve been back every week since to do another 25 lengths each time. Each session I feel stronger and fitter and my time improves.

Over Christmas I went to Cheadle Baths a few times, another one of my competitive childhood haunts. Theirs is an Olympic size pool and a nice facility. I like that an area is roped off for those who want to swim lengths so it’s easier to swim without dodging people. There I swam 18 lengths, just short of a kilometre. I was pretty chuffed with that.

It’s too early to see how swimming weekly and now twice weekly is changing me. I feel stronger in my arms and shoulders. The bingo wings are fractionally less and there is more definition in my legs, the squishy middle bit could do with buggering off but it will do in time. But I feel better. I feel stronger and happier. It gives me a routine and a goal and I like it.

Next week I think I’ll up it to 30 lengths! Go me!

Withington baths — Withington Baths @lovewithybaths