Health kick-start for 2013

As part of this year's Healthy Living Week, nutritionist Martin MacDonald visited Imperial to give a seminar on healthy eating.

Caroline Prew and Amna Siddiq (both Communications and Development) reviewed the seminar.

Why did you attend?

A: To increase my awareness of nutrition and healthy living as a whole.

C: This January I am trying to make a healthy start by cutting out alcohol and by going swimming regularly, a habit I tend to fall out of during the winter. I attended the seminar to find out if my diet needed an overhaul too.

What did you expect to find out?

C: I expected to discover that I had a pretty good understanding of what it meant to have a balanced diet. How wrong I was! According to Martin, red meat does not promote heart disease, salt does not significantly affect blood pressure, you can consume as many eggs as you like, there’s not much wrong with your morning cup of tea, you should cook with olive oil instead of sunflower and vegetable oils, and in general, if the label says low-fat – avoid! This last is because the products are usually packed with sugar, whereas a little fat is actually fine.

A: Same as above!

Did you pick up any general tips for healthy eating?

C: Yes – in general we were asked to try to eat like people did two generations ago. This means more single-ingredient foods, less processed items.

Were you surprised by any of the advice?

Martin MacDonald in the Read Lecture Theatre

A: Definitely! To find out that essentially a low fat diet is bad for you. We all require 15–30 per cent of fat in our daily diets.

C: Biggest revelation? The one about snacking between meals: Martin gave the example of someone who gets hungry two hours after eating breakfast. He said, “How often you eat depends on the individual. But a person who gets hungry every two hours is probably someone who thinks a banana is a healthy snack. It isn’t – it’s too full of simple sugars.” He explained that by adding more fat and protein to your breakfast, that way you can last through until lunchtime and avoid loading up on snacks.;

Are you going to make any changes to your regular eating regime as a result of the seminar?

A: Yes, increase my intake of fruit and veggies and not focus too much on the ‘low fat’ and ‘organic’ items. I will continue to have the occasional chocolate I’m afraid – I suffer from a sweet tooth!

C: I’m going to try to cut down on eating too much sugar, except occasionally as a treat after going swimming. This means I’m saying goodbye to sweet chilli, fruit smoothies and pain au chocolat. However, according to Martin, I can still happily have plenty of delicious meats, fish, avocado and, my favourite, coconut.

Read more of Martin’s health tips.

Healthy Living activities are taking place throughout the week. See the full programme.