Category: Food

What Happens When You Eat Cake For Breakfast

On By queeenvkIn Food, Health, Help, Inspiration, self helpLeave a comment

Photo by Larissa Farber

Watch me explain this blog post on YouTube

You don’t eat while you’re sleeping, and a period of not eating is called a fast. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day because you’re breaking your fast (hence the name). What you choose to break your fast with is quite important for the optimal function of different organs in your body.

One scientific study has shown the best time to eat cake is WITH breakfast but it should not be the only thing you consume to break your fast at the beginning of a new day. For optimal health, consume a mixture of healthy fats and protein to feed your body and brain after a fast.

The Brain Consumes Sugar

Your brain uses sugar for energy to do its important work: constantly firing neurons to transfer signals between different organs throughout the body. The brain needs a lot of glucose (fancy chemistry word for a simple sugar molecule) to function and those sugar molecules come from what we eat. What you choose to feed your body and your brain does affect the way your body functions. However, the brain doesn’t need you to feed it simple sugar molecules directly, no! That is the last thing it needs. It might want sweet, sweet simple sugars but our body needs complex sugar molecules. Craving sugar is a want verses a need. Build the foundation properly so that you won’t crumble and fall with disease. All of the organs in your digestive system work together to convert the complex sugars (such as carbohydrates) into simple sugars (glucose) and then distribute them around the body as required. So you don’t really need to eat simple sugars, they are just a rare treat. Sweets are a sometimes food, as Cookie Monster says. (If you have a psychological attachment to certain foods then it is important to also do some other types of brain training for your mental health and understand the why behind your food addiction. The brain is powerful on so many levels and we can harness it whichever way we want: towards health or away from health).

A healthy habit to start with

If you’re not yet in the habit of eating food within the first hour of waking then listen up! Here are a couple of reasons WHY you want to eat breakfast (to start your motivation and mindset for this new habit): Firstly, your brain is impaired when it’s hungry (think of how “hangry” you act if you skip a meal) and your decision-making skills are different, even without you noticing This applies to both food and non-food related decisions. My favourite example is the Hungry judge effect: The judge grants parole for more people right after morning tea and lunchtime, but no parole for people right before lunch. Imagine, you don’t even know that you’re making bad decisions while driving to work or selecting a snack before lunch. Secondly, you want to avoid blood sugar spikes because this puts extra wear and tear on your poor little pancreas. Your pancreas regulates the concentration of sugar in your blood so that the sugar does not harm your organs. When you eat too much sugar, especially first thing in the morning, you’re overloading your pancreas with hard work. Eventually, the pancreas can fail which leads to the disease we all know as diabetes.

How to start a new healthy habit: Hack your brain by doing the same thing consistently. The important part is the consistency because your brain likes to follow the same path. It’s easier to travel the same known path over and over. Think of your brain as a muscle that you’re going to train. Your brain training every morning is to select an optimal breakfast that will set you up for the day. Picture yourself in the future, it is tomorrow morning. You want to make good decisions for your life and your health. The night before, you arranged your breakfast ingredients front and centre in the fridge to remind your sleepy morning brain. The ham, cheese and tomato are ready and waiting. (Now, don’t forget to pre-heat the grill!) Slice the ingredients fresh for optimal flavour, or slice the night before and seal in a container so they don’t dry out, then layer the bread with the ingredients, popping the cheese on top. Slide the open sandwich under the warm grill and set the kettle to boil as you prepare a mug with honey or sugar and a teabag or coffee. By visualising the tasks beforehand, you begin making those pathways in your brain, boosting the ease at which your brain moves along the path. If you do some steps the night before when you have more willpower and energy, then your tired morning-self has less resistance through the pathway. Set yourself up for success. Mindset is everything.

Blood Sugar Concentration Spikes Make You Feel Exhausted

As I mentioned above, your pancreas controls the level of sugar in your blood after you eat food so that the sugar does not damage your organs. When the pancreas is broken or diseased then it can cause negative health effects such as Prediabetes that will quickly get much worse if left untreated. If the pancreas is not regulating the amount of sugar in your blood, the sugar concentration can build up to high levels which makes you feel very tired and sluggish, even when you get enough sleep. Speak to your doctor for more advice on the symptoms of prediabetes because our bodies are so different, each person can have a varied experience.

For a more consistent level of blood sugar, without making your pancreas work for it, you want to select foods that will release sugar more slowly. These are called low GI foods.

What About Fruit For Breakfast?

As with cake, fruit shouldn’t be eaten alone for breakfast. Fruits contain simple sugars called fructose which can cause a rapid increase in your blood sugar concentration. Fruit by itself is not a complete meal. It’s more of a snack or a side dish alone, or a great ingredient with yoghurt and pumpkin seeds. Eat a variety of different coloured foods to ensure you’re consuming a larger range of vitamins and minerals which are important for all of your organs.

Your turn to share

Have you experienced bad decision making when you’re hungry or hangry? Would you like to share your morning breakfast routine? Feel free to comment below and share with The Full Cup Wellness community. Let’s help each other. 🙂

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Why Do I Have A Carbon Footprint And Why Does It Matter?

On By queeenvkIn Environment, Food, Health, InspirationLeave a comment

With all of the discussion around the climate crisis and environmental health, you may have heard the term Carbon Footprint. Your personal carbon footprint is the amount of carbon dioxide, and other greenhouse gases, that you produce through your actions.

The release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere from human activity is a measurable impact of our effect on the environment. As mentioned in the satirical movie Don’t Look Up, all of the data is there in front of our face. We cannot ignore it. Now is the time for action.

All of us can do our part for our future and the preservation of our gorgeous world. Small actions put together make huge progress.

Be Aware Of Your Environmental Impact

Often there is an indirect environmental impact when you are buying particular clothing or a more direct impact like choosing to travel by plane or train.

Transportation:

This one might be the most obvious but every time we fly a plane it produces massive amounts of greenhouse gases and other pollutants that are released into the atmosphere. Choosing to take a train or carpool for shorter distances is a better option for the environment.

Ditch the car for a walk up to the shops if they’re only a few blocks away. Enjoy your walk outside and make it part of your self-care routine. Instead of setting aside time to exercise or go to the gym, you’ll find this incidental exercise much more enjoyable and it doesn’t cost money to put on your walking shoes and a backpack with your shopping bags. Don’t forget your reusable drink bottle!

Clothing:

This one is surprising… the clothing industry accounts for 10% of all global carbon emissions annually. That is more than the flying and shipping industries emit each year. When you purchase an item of clothing you are accepting all of the steps involved in producing that t-shirt or pair of socks. Some companies may offset their carbon emissions by purchasing “Carbon Credits” however, there is a lot of controversy around carbon credits as this can be seen as an excuse to continue with less environmentally-friendly practices. This is also sometimes referred to as “Greenwashing” or making something seem better for the environment than it really is.

To reduce your environmental impact when purchasing clothing, you can choose to support companies that are transparent with their business practices and environmental considerations. Purchasing less clothing is also very important. If you select higher quality items that last longer, then you will spend less money in the long run because you won’t be buying more items to replace your torn t-shirt or jeans. In-turn, you reduce the amount of resources used around the world, many of which are in limited supply.

Additional Environmental Note: A massive amount of water is used in the production of denim jeans. The best place to purchase denim (and other clothing) is at a second-hand shop.

Purchasing Power:

Where you spend your money is one of the most important decisions you can make when considering your impact on the world. Many of the banks and superannuation funds that hold your money are using the money to invest in particular companies and projects, including those that pollute the environment, such as coal mines and oil companies. You can research the investments of each of the companies and make your decision to put your money where you would like it to be used best.

The main place where you’d put your money, other than the bank, is at the shops! Buying lower quality items from companies that use unsustainable practices to produce their products means that you support the actions of these companies. The cheap knock offs might seem okay but look behind the price and cheap materials to see the real priorities of the people who are taking your money and using it to continue their unethical practices.

Food Waste:

When you compost food properly then the right bacteria breaks the food down and it is converted into a nutrient-rich fertilizer containing the forms of nitrogen and carbon necessary for plants to grow. When food waste is sent to landfill the lack of oxygen and the right types of bacteria prevent the composting process from occurring as normal. Huge amounts of greenhouse gases are produced when food rots in the rubbish dump instead of being composted under the correct conditions.

The best way to reduce food waste going to landfill is to be more conscious of your purchasing, take stock of the food you already have and use it up before it goes bad and is thrown in the bin. Use a shopping list when doing the grocery shop for the household. Don’t buy more than you will use up before it expires. Freeze extra food before it goes bad. Use up leftovers! Share your food saving tips in the comments.

Repair, Reduce and Reuse before you Recycle:

When recycling materials such as plastic bottles there are a lot of resources used up in the recycling process, such as water and electricity. The recycled plastic then loses its integrity and can only be used for certain applications. Recycled plastic can’t be recycled back into the same strong plastic it was before. Even with plastic recycling programs available, only a small percentage of all plastic is recycled. The best option for the environment is to refuse plastic and other types of low quality items, rather than trying to recycle all of the plastic that is produced.

When you purchase clothing and footwear of good quality you will find that they not only last longer but you can often repair them to extend the life and prevent more waste going to landfill. This is also true for some larger items like furniture and appliances.

Thank you so much for joining me today in learning more about our carbon footprint and why it matters.

Have a read of my previous post on reducing the waste you produce in your home and some simple swaps you can make to help the environment. Visit my online store for some handmade environmentally friendly, low carbon-footprint products.

Comment below with your tips on reducing your environmental impact!

Featured Image credit: Shutterstock

Healthy Caffeine Consumption And How To Reduce Caffeine Intake

On By queeenvkIn Food, Health, HelpLeave a comment

What caffeine does to the body

Caffeine is classed as a stimulant drug which means it increases the activity of the brain and nervous system. It also binds to adenosine receptors, preventing you from feeling sleepy and if you do fall asleep it will prevent you from experiencing a deep restful sleep.

Caffeine also keeps the dopamine in our brain, which makes us feel good, but can also lead to addiction.

Caffeine chemistry

The average adult can safely consume up to 400 mg of caffeine per day. The maximum dose for adolescents is much lower at 100 mg, but anyone under the age of 18 should avoid caffeine consumption where possible. This is because of the potential negative effect of caffeine during brain development. You want to give your developing brain the best chance it can get to reach its full potential.

The half life of caffeine is approximately 6 hours. So if you have a big 200 mg dose of caffeine at midday you’ll still have 100 mg in your system at 6 pm.

Why should I reduce caffeine intake? How much is too much caffeine?

Caffeine is a legal drug and is so ingrained into our society that it often doesn’t occur to us that it could have negative impacts on our health. There are many positive effects of caffeine, and like most things, it is beneficial in small doses. But if you consume too much then you are putting extra pressure on your body. Caffeine is in a lot of our food and drinks so it pays to be aware of any negative side effects in your body that could be caused by excessive caffeine.

The negative side effects of excessive caffeine include; insomnia, feeling nervous/jittery/anxious, stomach aches, headaches, muscle cramps and spasms.

Metabolism varies based on genetics. Some people have a stronger response to caffeine than others and it is actually caused by the genes you inherited through your ancestry. For example, some of my relatives can drink coffee right before bed and it doesn’t have an impact on their sleep. However, I have inherited genes that make me very susceptible to the effects of caffeine. Only one cup of coffee before midday is enough for me!

It is important to note that caffeine also has a diuretic effect so it will cause you to urinate more frequently as your body is receiving signals to rid the body of extra water and salts. However, various studies have shown that this mild diuretic effect will not cause dehydration, especially if you exercise after consuming caffeine.

How To Reduce Caffeine Intake:

Remember, caffeine is a drug so you want to reduce your intake slowly to avoid experiencing withdrawal symptoms.

Start by tracking the amount of caffeine you consume per day. Include all of the sources of caffeine in your diet such as tea, energy drinks, soft drinks and chocolate. You can keep a tally of your caffeine consumption any way that works for you, such as in your phone, a physical journal or a spreadsheet on your computer.

Then once you are aware of all of the ways you add caffeine to your diet, you can make the conscious decision to reduce your intake. An easy way to reduce your intake is by watering down your caffeinated drinks so that you are diluting the amount of caffeine in your cup. Steeping your caffeinated tea for longer will also make for a stronger cup of tea so try taking the tea leaves out of the water after just a few minutes. Or if you normally have 3 cups of coffee in the morning try reducing it to 2 cups to start with then make your way to one cup in the morning if that is your goal. And perhaps substitute that 3rd cup of coffee for a caffeine-free herbal tea or fruit juice so that you can still have your late morning treat or self care. Take that time for yourself, don’t feel like you’re missing out on anything.

The more you use your willpower, every time you refuse that extra dose of coffee, your willpower grows like a muscle. Also your mindset will help you on your way towards your goal, be gentle on yourself and remember to treat yourself as your friend when you fall off the bandwagon and drink that energy drink. Don’t think about the energy drink as a failure or a reason to give up, but flip it around and instead look at how long you went without an energy drink. Use that positive confidence to keep moving towards your goal, tell yourself “now is not the time to give up!”. (Hint: this same mindset can help you quit smoking or begin a new healthy habit).

I hope this information is helpful for you to move confidently towards your goals, and don’t forget to keep your cup full of positivi-tea! Or positivi-coffee, if that is your preference.

Regulating Calories-In Is More Important Than Calories-Out

On By queeenvkIn Food, Health, Help, self helpLeave a comment

The idea of Calories-In versus Calories-Out involves the calories you consume through your mouth versus how much you consume through basic metabolism and physical exercise. Your basic metabolism is the energy (in calories) that your body needs to function, eg. keep your heart beating, your lungs breathing and your cells functioning. The amount of energy your body needs to stay alive will depend on your age, gender and weight. But overall, the amount and type of energy you feed your body is more important than how much energy your body is expending.

If you eat more than your body requires then you will put on weight in the form of fat, which is the way the body stores extra energy. If you overeat by 500 calories every day you will slowly notice your waistline increase over the space of only a few years and your clothes will no longer fit you the same way.

Portion sizes have been slowly getting larger and larger over the years. I find that I can only eat half a serving from a restaurant, then I take the leftovers home to enjoy later. Remember, your stomach is about the size of your closed fist. You don’t want to keep forcing more and more food in there even after it is full.

When we do get physically active, we often overestimate the amount of calories burned from exercise. A walk around the block won’t burn off that Mars Bar. Either eat the Mars Bar or don’t. But whatever your choice, do it mindfully.

We also forget how many calories are provided by the alcohol you drink and the empty calories in the store-bought snack foods that are designed to make us keep eating. These are called Ultra-processed foods and I have written about them previously in my post: Food For Life: The Best Way To Feed Your Body

However the type of calories you provide your body will also affect the function of your organs.

For example, when you overload your bloodstream with sugar your pancreas will work overtime to bring your blood sugar levels back to a stable concentration. If your pancreas has to work so hard that it becomes impaired and breaks down, then you get Type 2 Diabetes. Diabetes is the inability to regulate your blood sugar levels from within your own body.

The brain requires sugar for it to function. When you’re hungry your brain is low on sugar and it’s screaming for a quick fix. But you must use your common sense. Feed your brain foods that will break down slowly into sugars. These are called Low GI foods. The GI stands for glycemic index, which is the relative amount of time it takes for the food to raise your blood sugar levels. Low GI foods are those made of complex carbohydrates because carbohydrate molecules are just long chains of sugars stuck together. The body uses energy to break the molecules down in to sugars. High GI foods are made of sugars that are easily broken down by the body and will quickly increase the level of sugar in your blood.

To avoid overloading your organs with high concentrations of sugar you have to be mindful of what you feed your body.

You know what they say, “You are what you eat”.

Your diet can be whatever you want it to be. But be aware that what you consume will be processed by your organs.

The diet that is most suited for humans is one made up of mostly plants, some meat, and very small amounts of everything else. You want to make sure you have a diet containing various sources of fibre. The body requires a range of vitamin and trace minerals which are present in different food types. So eating the exact same meals day in and day out is not a good idea, even if they are healthy meals.

A study of a remote South American tribe indicates that a diet low in salt and fat, but rich in multiple sources of fibre, protects the heart from increased blood pressure. The study compared the blood pressure of the members from a nearby tribe that has been influenced by western foods and found that blood pressure increased with age.

Calorie deficit diet for weight loss

There’s nothing wrong with a curvy figure, but you do want to reduce the toll on your bones and joints by reducing the load they have to carry. More strain on your bones and joints will lead to osteoarthritis which will cause pain for you when you walk and try to get about your day. A calorie deficit diet basically means you’re eating less than the amount your body needs to function. If you do this in a healthy way, as directed by your doctor, then it will lead to weight loss. You will stop losing weight when you stop restricting the number of calories that you consume.

Calorie restriction diet to extend lifespan

There is some contention in the scientific community as to whether this calorie restriction diet extends lifespan as the controls of the experiments are difficult to, well, control and a lot of the experiments were done on mice instead of humans. The basic idea is that overall you want to consume less than the amount your body usually needs to live but you don’t need to restrict your consumption every day in a row. Some people like to do short fasts for their health, other people fast for religion. Either way, it appears that short lengths of fasting have a beneficial effect on our health. Sometimes you might have a day where you treat yourself and consume all of the calories in sight. But these calorific days can be balanced out with a more modest intake on the other days of the week. If that suits your personality type of course!

Some people are unable to moderate their intake due to their personality and relationship with food.

Your own mental health can have a huge impact on how you interact with food. Be mindful of this so that you can have awareness and control over your health.

If you are unable to open a block of chocolate without finishing the entire packet then, for your health, it’s safer not to have that block of chocolate in the house unless you’re allowing yourself a rare treat.

If you are consuming a 6 pack of beer every night after work then you are basically eating an extra meal every day. But those calories aren’t keeping your body healthy.

Recognise your feelings towards food and why you are making the food choices that you are making. Think first before feeding yourself, your health is at stake…..mmmmmm steak.

Thank you so much for reading. I hope this post is helpful to you and your family.

Please visit my Youtube Channel for more health and science from me, Queeenvk.

Food For Life: The Best Way To Feed Your Body

On By queeenvkIn Food, Health, Help2 Comments

What you choose to feed your body is one of the most important things that you do to it every day. Are you consistently choosing the right foods to keep your body running happily and healthily? The benefits of a healthy diet are far reaching throughout the body as the old adage says, you are what you eat. The food that you regularly feed your body can affect your organs, immune system, lifespan and your risk of developing chronic illnesses such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Feed Your Microbes Right

You may have heard about the microbes (microorganisms) in your gut and how a balance of good bacteria can counteract the bad bacteria. Our gut microbes control the amounts of fat and nutrients that are processed from our food and eventually absorbed into the body. A recent study has revealed that ultra-processed foods such as lollies and chips feed the bad bacteria in our gut and encourage them to take over the population, pushing the good bacteria out of a home.

A healthy diet involves a range of fibre sources to feed your gut bacteria and provide you with the full range of nutrients that your body requires. So you will need to make sure you consume different foods with different types of fibre including vegetables, fruits, grains and nuts.

Ultra processed foods are defined as containing at least one ingredient that isn’t normally used in a regular kitchen. These extra ingredients are often emulsifiers and flavour enhancers that are added to increase palatability of the food. Ultra processed foods have low nutritional value, are less filling and have been designed to have a better mouth-feel and flavour than the competition on the shelves. This makes you eat more and buy more because your body won’t feel satisfied with just one square of chocolate or one Pringle. Once you pop…

Not only are ultra processed foods designed to make you eat more but they help to feed the bad bacteria in your gut. When you feed your body a range of different foods you introduce both soluble and insoluble fibre into your gut. Both forms of fibre are considered to be good but they affect the population of human gut bacteria differently. More research is required on how they each affect the gut, but what we do know is that a diet low in fibre produces an inflammatory response in the gut. This is because good bacteria break the fibre molecules into short-chain fatty acids which provide an anti-inflammatory effect on the body. When you aren’t eating enough fibre, your gut isn’t protected from inflammation which can kill off the good bacteria. That’s when the bad bacteria can take over. Now you’re in trouble, the bad bacteria don’t produce anti-inflammatory compounds and can make your gut even more inflamed. Over time the low level inflammation causes health issues throughout the body including reducing the strength of your immune system and increasing your risk of chronic inflammatory illness in the gut.

The Healthy Eating Pyramid as of July 2021 https://nutritionaustralia.org/fact-sheets/healthy-eating-pyramid/

Let’s Get Nutritional

As omnivores, humans require a certain percentage of protein to keep our body running. Therefore the body will feel hungry until you feed it the right portion of protein. Protein is relatively expensive so ultra processed foods are often low in protein and instead are filled with high levels of fats, carbohydrates sugars and salt. When we eat a diet consisting of a mainly processed foods we wind up eating more because the body will feel hungrier despite the large number of calories consumed.

A diet high in ultra processed foods is a diet that is low in nutritional value and eventually leads to low quality health. Be aware that these processed foods are “high GI” or have a High Glycemic Index. When you induce a high glycemic response in the body, over and over again, you overwork the organs and cells that are responsible for balancing the sugar levels in the blood. Eventually they stop working as well as they should and this leads to pre-diabetes, then if you let it go further out of control the disease can develop into diabetes. Diabetes is a serious chronic illness that, although common, does require specific care to ensure quality of life.

Due to the lack of nutritional value in packaged junk foods and ready meals, as well as the ultra processed ingredients, people who consume too much can become obese and malnourished. The best way to feed your body is to provide a large variety of food types, sticking to the ratios outlined in the Food Pyramid. Basically the idea is to have everything in moderation but eat mostly plants.

Everything in moderation but eat mostly plants

A diet that contains various sources of fibre is the ideal option for your organs and therefore your overall health.

I hope you enjoyed reading this post as much as I have enjoyed writing it. Please follow this blog and subscribe to my YouTube Channel for more health knowledge based in science.

Prevent Hemorrhoids And Reduce Constipation

On By queeenvkIn Food, Health, Help, self helpLeave a comment

Hemorrhoids, also known as piles, normally show up as painful bumps around the outside of the anus. They are actually veins that have become swollen and inflamed and are often caused by straining when you’re on the toilet. So the first thing you can do to avoid causing yourself the discomfort and inconvenience of having piles is to avoid straining and constipation.

How do I avoid straining while sitting on the toilet?

In western culture we only have sitting toilets available for us to do our number twos. In Eastern countries they use squatting toilets more commonly than the sitting down type. Squatting toilets allow the bowel movement to pass more quickly due to the shape of the anal passage. When sitting, you constrict the flow of this passage so that the waste product (your poop) has a harder time travelling out of your colon and into the toilet. This is what causes us to strain more, creating pressure on the blood vessels, and therefore potentially cause ourselves to form hemorrhoids in and around the anal passage.

To improve your posture when on a sitting toilet you can elevate your knees with a small step or rock forward when pushing out. This will reduce the time you need to spend on the toilet straining as the waste will flow out more readily.

Another massive health tip you should always remember:

Don’t try to force out your poop. Wait until it is ready to come out. Remember Cardi B’s catchy chorus: If it’s up, then it’s up, then it’s up, then it’s stuck.

How Regular Is “Regular”?

You don’t need to do a poop every day. Your body doesn’t work that way!! A normal number of poops for humans is about 3 per day to 1 every 3 days. If you’re doing more than 3 a day you have diarrhea, and less than once every 3 days you might have constipation. But you definitely DON’T need to force it once a day. Let your body process the different types and amounts of food that you feed it. Let it do its thing and you’ll be fine.

How do I prevent constipation?

  • Move all stool in one go to avoid compaction.
  • Eat prunes and obtain fibre from multiple food sources so that you have various fibre types cleaning out your bowels. And remember to drink water too!
  • Walking helps mobilise your bowels. Go for a gentle stroll or a nice brisk powerwalk.
  • While lying down massage belly a clockwise motion. This is the direction that your intestines work so you don’t want to massage it the wrong direction and push the waste back up. You want to gentle push it in the right direction, so that it is excreted out of your body.

Thanks so much for reading. I hope this helps you in your day to day life so that you feel less stress and have more control over your health.

Please subscribe to my YouTube Channel for more Full Cup Wellness from me, Queeenvk with 3 e’s.

The Science Behind Food Poisoning From Leftovers

On By queeenvkIn Environment, Food, Health, HelpLeave a comment

Bacteria are an important part of life on Earth. They use enzymes to break down dead matter and convert it back into a form that can be used to create new life. For example, manure and composted food waste are used to feed farm crops or plants in the garden. You might recall the nitrogen cycle and the carbon cycle from chemistry class in high school. Bacteria are vital for these life cycles to continue to work.

Some of these bacteria are able to produce toxins as a personal defence mechanism or they have special ways to avoid our immune system and make a home among our cells, causing an infection. When we have an infection in our gut we call it gastroenteritis, or gastro for short. Several different types of bacteria and viruses can infect the human gut but the term gastro applies to any infection of the gut. The symptoms of gastro normally involve diarrhoea, vomiting and nausea as the infection disrupts the normal function of our digestive system. Sometimes it takes a large amount of pathogen to overcome our immune system, and other bacteria only need to grow to a small population before they can cause harm. So it’s safest to reduce your risk of infection at every step of the food prep and storage process.

The bacteria that can infect our digestive system like to live at around the human core temperature of 37°C. They thrive at this temperature. So if you have a fever or localised inflammation warming up the infection, this is the body’s way of trying to overheat and kill the infecting object, also known as a pathogen. This part of the immune system is non-specific to the kind of pathogen that is infecting the body. The body also has other non-specific immune system mechanisms and some of these are exploited by specific bacteria so that the pathogens can avoid the immune system.

So if some of these bacteria can get past our immune system how do we protect ourselves from being infected with such bacteria that could cause us harm?

How To Prevent Food Poisoning From Leftovers

1. Reheat leftovers properly:

You must reheat your leftovers to above 70°C to ensure any present bacteria are killed. However, bacterial toxins are not destroyed by heat and can still make you sick if there is bacteria present that is generating a toxin.

Freezing does not kill bacteria it just slows the growth down to the point of hibernation. The bacteria will begin to grow normally again when they are brought back up to their optimal temperature for life.

2. Store food properly:

Leftovers are safe to stay at 4°C (your usual fridge temperature) for up to 3-4 days. When you are ready to eat some of the leftover food you should transfer it from the refrigerated storage container to another vessel to heat if you aren’t going to finish it all in this sitting. This will reduce the amount of contamination you introduce to the storage container. If you put your dirty spoon in the container then put it back in the fridge the bacteria from your mouth/the kitchen bench, that is now on your spoon, will slowly grow (because it’s cold in the fridge) over the next couple of days and you run the risk of growing enormous amounts potential pathogens inside the container. Like a petri dish of bacteria sitting in all that delicious food. Loving life. Compared to the small amount of bacteria that can survive temporarily on your teeth will have no trouble increasing their population in your container of food. Have you ever left a container too long in the fridge only to find it has turned into a science experiment?

3. Prepare food properly:

Washing your hands before preparing food will massively reduce the risk of introducing harmful bacteria to the dish. Every time you rub your nose on the back of your hand the bacteria from your nose can be introduced to the dish by accident. If you’re wearing gloves to protect yourself or the ingredients from bacteria, make sure the gloves don’t touch your phone or your hair or skin. That negates the reason for the gloves as they are meant to contain and control the contamination of your work or yourself.

Wash your fresh fruits and vegetables before you eat or cook with them to remove any harmful bacteria and fungi that may have been introduced to the crop during the fertilisation process. Fertiliser is great for plants but not so much for humans.

Ensure cooking times and temperatures allow the entire dish of food to be brought into the “safe zone” above 60°C, particularly for risky meats like chicken and pork. Pathogens can’t normally survive above this temperature but sometimes your microwave doesn’t heat the food evenly, so give it a stir about halfway through reheating leftovers. Or the sausages in the oven need to be turned over halfway through cooking to make sure each section of the sausage has reached above 60°C.

Regarding the dangers of raw chicken and eggs:

Salmonella poisoning can occur if poultry isn’t prepared properly or if poultry manure has touched the surface of the meat or eggs then it is ingested by humans. The bacteria lives normally in the gut of chickens and other poultry. So this means chicken manure contains Salmonella. Sometimes chicken poop gets on the outside of your eggs and not every country washes the eggs before sale in the supermarket. So please always wash your hands after handling eggshells, sincerely, this germophobe right here (me).

But knowledge is power so I feel powerful enough to avoid food poisoning and I hope now you do too. Honestly, all those years of studying microbiology and the immune system at university has helped me through my germophobia and empowered me to live more freely.

Thanks so much for reading! Stay safe and keep your cup full of positivi-tea.

Visit my YouTube channel for more Full Cup Wellness from me, Queeenvk with 3 e’s.

Everyday Hormones That We Experience Every Day

On By queeenvkIn Food, Health, Help, self helpLeave a comment

Hormones are signals that tell the organs in your body that it’s time to perform a particular action. For example, when to sleep, when to digest food, when to increase your heart rate and when to feel happy.

Notable hormones for your health throughout each day:

Insulin/Glucagon – Work together to regulate blood sugar concentration.

Leptin/ghrelin – regulate hunger signals. Leptin suppresses hunger signals and makes us feel full. This hormone is controlled by our circadian rhythm (daily cycle) so make sure you’re getting a decent 7 – 9 hours of sleep a night, otherwise your hunger signals will be out of whack. Ghrelin is the hormone that makes us feel hungry. Ghrelin levels increase before a meal to signal when our body requires more food then decrease after we eat so that we no longer feel that hungry feeling in our gut.

Endorphins – You may have heard that exercise brings on a rush of endorphins. This hormone is a natural pain killer and sedative which means it reduces anxiety too. And bonus, it signals your brain to increase serotonin too so you feel happy and calm.

Dopamine – Reward systems in the brain are controlled by dopamine. Repeated rewards lead to reinforcement of the behaviour which lead to the reward, for example when you train an animal with treats you reinforce a particular behaviour because the animal will continue to expect a reward each time. The same goes in our human brain. In this way, dopamine indirectly controls our behaviour and helps us to learn how to relate to the world around us.

Serotonin – Sometimes serotonin is called the happiness hormone because it is known to stabilise mood and make you feel happy. Serotonin is involved in many areas of our physical health including sleep regulation, appetite, communication between brain cells and improved memory and cognition. People with low levels of serotonin can be prescribed anti-depressants that involve keeping serotonin levels stable in the brain.

All of these hormone levels fluctuate throughout each day to keep your body functioning. Knowledge is power, the more you know about the hormones that create signals in the body, the more understanding you have of your own personal health.

Stay safe!

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Nutritious Delicious Fungi

On By queeenvkIn Environment, Food, Health, InspirationLeave a comment

Mushrooms are the meat of the vegetarian world. But they are neither meat nor vegetable. They are classified as fungi because of a few specific characteristics, for example, the cell walls are made of a material called chitin. This is why mushrooms are more nutritious when cooked because those chitin cell walls are too tough for us to digest to reach the goodness inside.

Fun fact: The mushroom part that pops out of the ground is actually the fruiting body of the fungus. You’re picking the fruit!

Types of mushrooms that you can eat:

Make sure you only eat mushrooms that have been picked by a professional. There are many mushrooms that contain toxins that they use to protect themselves from being eaten since they can’t run away from predators. Sometimes these poisonous mushrooms look very similar to safe mushrooms, which can prove fatal if you eat them. There have been recent reports of families being poisoned after they picked mushrooms in Australia that look almost exactly like the safe mushrooms from other countries. It is vital that you don’t go and harvest your own mushrooms without the proper knowledge.

There are so many types of good eating mushrooms all around the world. They all have different flavours so I encourage you to explore the exotic mushrooms at your grocery store. Some really delicious mushrooms you may have heard of are:

Enoki or enokitake

Shimeji

Shitake

Oyster mushroom

Vitamins, minerals and other benefits of eating cooked mushrooms:

Vitamins B1, B2, B12, C, D, E, folate,

Trace minerals such as potassium,

Amino acids,

Low calorie source of fibre and protein,

Antioxidants, especially when grilled or microwaved.

Best ways to cook mushrooms:

Grill or microwave mushrooms to get the most nutritional value out of them. These methods leave the antioxidant activity in tact (Source). You can also fry, boil or bake mushrooms to enjoy the beneficial vitamins and minerals.

Fun fact: The largest organism in the world is a fungus that spans a few km across in a forest in Oregon, USA.

What are your favourite ways to prepare mushrooms? Do you stuff them? Fry them with butter and garlic? Those are my favourite ways to enjoy mushrooms.

You’re worth more than a number

On By queeenvkIn Beauty, Food, Health, Help, InspirationLeave a comment

[Listen to me read this post out for you on Spotify]

You’re worth far more than any number on a scale.

If you don’t have to, seriously, NEVER weigh yourself.

Is it actually useful to know your weight and how it fluctuates daily, weekly, monthly? Be honest.

Instead, it’s far more useful to note how your body is feeling. How are you feeling at the moment? Are you a bit bloaty? Are you in pain? Are your clothes tight or uncomfortable?

If stepping on the scales makes you feel so crappy that you lose motivation then remove that toxic bitch from your life!! No BODY has time for that negativity.

If you’re losing confidence and beating yourself up because of those scales, get yourself out of that depressing cycle.

You have the power to remove those negative influences in your life and become more productive in your journey through life.

And remember, our weight fluctuates so much that we weigh differently at different times of the day. The amount of water you drink or whether you’ve emptied your bowels will make a lot of difference. Even the amount of sleep you get will change your weight!

So weighing youself day to day doesn’t actually matter. You know what does matter?

How strong you are becoming as you train your muscles to lift weights.

Holding that yoga pose or nailing your pilates routine.

Reaching your goal of running a few km or completing a marathon.

Feeling confident when you look in the mirror.

Loving yourself because you’re worth it!

It’s rare that I check my weight anymore. When I do, I accept the number that appears on the dial. It’s only a number.

Working towards fitting into a pair of jeans or a slinky dress is a great goal, but you deserve to love yourself and feel worthy in the clothes you are already in. No matter the size.