THE CRONIN NUTRITIONAL EATING PLAN FOR WEIGHT LOSS AND HEALTH.

PART FIVE

ORANGES / OATS

What Is A Superfood?

For any food to qualify as a Superfood – they must follow a certain criteria. Some people may feel that chocolate, cheese and ice-cream are Superfoods because they taste so good, but in fact whilst each in its own way has some nutritional value, they fall short of a true Superfood because they are very limited and have a too higher concentration of negative nutritional values such as sugars and fat to make them nutritionally special.

To qualify they must be nutrient dense. In other words have more than one thing going for them. They are natural – unprocessed and if possible organic. They also have to be readily available and known to us. Food also has to be within an average budget. It is no good promoting caviar as a Superfood that everyone should eat because it is simply far too expensive. Finally, the food has to taste good. Whilst we may put up with eating a certain amount of ‘good for you but tastes like cardboard’ for a short period like six weeks – we soon become bored and disinterested in continuing with it.

With this in mind I have chosen a list of foods that are nutritionally superior – taste good – are very reasonably priced, are readily available here in any supermarket and finally are flexible and can be used throughout the day to provide a balanced and nutritional diet for anyone.

This is not to say that other foods are excluded – to give you variety of course you must eat other foods but if you are eating these twelve foods on a regular basis, the occasional chocolate, ice-cream or piece of cheddar is going to complement rather than dominate your diet.

We are going to start at the beginning of the day.  I don’t need to remind everyone that water is the supreme Superfood and should be drunk throughout the day. However I am going to start with Breakfast.

ORANGES – Apart from the obvious of being juicy and sweet, oranges have a number of healthy benefits – primarily their high Vitamin C concentration. Just one orange supplies over 100% of your daily requirement of vitamin C.

Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin – the main one. It is a powerful anti-oxidant that makes war on the free radicals that damage your cells. This includes damage to the digestive system – particularly the colon, joints and other connective tissue. So it can prevent inflammation in arthritis conditions and asthma where the bronchial tissues are inflamed. Free radicals will also cause cholesterol to oxidise, allowing it to stick to the walls of arteries. Vitamin C prevents this and has been shown to help lower cholesterol.

Vitamin C is also vitally important for our immune system – particularly as we get older and it is this vitamin, more than any other that has become associated with reduced risk of heart disease, strokes and most cancers.

The orange’s high level of fibre also helps with the cholesterol. It obviously helps with digestion but can also affect and lower blood sugar levels. This means that even diabetics can eat them. The fibre in oranges has also been shown to stabilise intestinal problems such as constipation and diarrhoea and is great for people suffering from chronic problems such as IBS.

Along with apple juice and grapefruit juice – drinking orange juice can help prevent kidney stones from forming as it increases urinary ph value and citric acid excretion which is necessary to prevent the forming of calcium deposits that become kidney stones.

Other areas that oranges have been shown to benefit us are with ulcers. Apart from vitamin C, oranges also contain folic acid, potassium as well as calcium and magnesium.

You can eat whole; part of a fruit salad or as freshly squeezed juice.

OATS -Of all the grains – oats are one of the most versatile – from porridge to sugar free muesli and also baked in bread and biscuits. You can also buy an oat drink, which is very like milk, and you can use this as an alternative to dairy.

Their Latin name is Avena Sativa and if you go into a health food shop you will find quite a few medicinal products labelled this way.

When oats are harvested they are cleaned and then roasted which is what gives them their flavour. Their bran and their germ are not affected by this process which means that they are a wholegrain and have a high concentration of nutrients.

Particularly high in Manganese which if you remember from last week is a very important anti-oxidant in cell health and the prevention of anaemia. It also has selenium – tryptophan (a precursor or project manager for serotonin which we will talk about in a minute) Phosphorus – Vit B-1 – magnesium and some protein.

Oats contain a special fibre called beta-glucan – this particular fibre is very good for lowering cholesterol and can help prevent blood disorders that are prone to high cholesterol, particularly something like diabetes. Therefore this is great for preventing heart disease and strokes as the plaque in your bloodstream will not be blocking the arteries and allowing free flow of oxygenated blood. It is what is called a low glycemic food. This is good because instead of sending your blood sugars very high and then dropping them like a stone a little while later as many carbohydrates can do – oats are a slow releasing fuel that means your sugar levels are taken to a moderate level. This provides you with energy and then maintains those levels over a longer period of time. This is why porridge will give you more energy for longer.

Apart from helping maintain stable blood sugar levels – the fibre in oats has also been shown to be anti-bacterial and helps your immune system with wound healing.

Selenium is another great anti-oxidant – primarily used in the repair of the DNA of cells, especially in the colon – it also works with vitamin C in the lungs and if you are an asthma sufferer you may find that a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast will help your condition.

Oats are also important for sufferers from wheat intolerances as long as you make sure that they come from an uncontaminated mill that does process any other grain. 

SEROTONIN -Tryptophan is an amino acid, which is associated with an increase in serotonin levels in the brain. Higher serotonin levels have a calming affect and you will often see that natural sleeping products contain tryptophan to stimulate both serotonin and melatonin another calming hormone. Serotonin can not be passed to the brain via oral supplements – it cannot be synthesised or manufactured. However tryptophan is a precursor or project manager that increases the production of serotonin.  Serotonin plays a vital role in how we feel – depression – anxiousness and stress are some of the areas that this hormone governs. This is why it is often called the ‘feel good hormone’ and is what we get after eating chocolate. Eating oats not only makes us feel better throughout the day it is one of the only grains that raises our serotonin levels and maintains them longer in the day. Although tryptophan also stimulates an increase in melatonin – that hormone cannot be activated before night as it is regulated by light – therefore eating oats is not going to make you sleepy but taking a hot oat drink at night might help you sleep.

So, to summarise – oats provide you with fibre and anti-oxidants and are easily tolerable. They help put you into a good mood and feel better longer throughout the day. They have been shown to help prevent high cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease and cancers.

Next time we are going to look at the benefits of tea, in particular green tea and also take a look at the first snack of the day.

For more information on nutrients and superfoods visit www.justfoodforhealth.com and if you have any questions that you would like included in the Health and Vitality mailbag send them in strict confidence to sally@moyhill.com