(Late) September Health Hits.

Hello everyone! Hope you're all good and getting ready for autumn and winter...although it doesn't feel like it's coming with this heatwave! I can't believe summer is over already, I wish I could do it all over again! Anyway, here are just a few new health tips I've learnt over the past few weeks, and I hope you find them useful :)

1) Cloves have been shown to be packed full of antioxidants, and therefore great for you as the season of colds and coughs begins. Try adding some to a mug of hot water, honey and lemon for a warming treat.

2) Feeling down or stressed, and wanting to reach for a sweet treat? Although a biscuit or French Fancy might raise your mood for a short while, it can lead to a sugar drop later, making you feel worse than you started out! Instead, try snacking on a banana, which contains trytophan. It's an amino acid that gets converted into the hormone serotonin - the happy hormone! Also try eating nuts and seeds (in moderation), as they contain vitamin B which regulates and improves your mood.

3) Why exactly is wholegrain so wonderful?

I'm always going on about how we should only eat wholegrain and not refined, white carbs, but I've never exactly given an explanation as to why it's so much better for you, so here goes! When white bread or pasta is made, it becomes 'refined'. This means the bran and germ layers of the grain are removed, thus removing fibre, nutrients and antioxidants from the wheat. What you are left with, therefore, is a carb that is basically nutritionally empty, and not really that great for you. Wholegrain products, however, contain all the important parts of the grain. These are:

1 - the germ, which is full of nutrients

2 - the bran, which is full of fibre

3 - the endosperm, which is full of energy

The fibre helps to keep your digestive system healthy, and wholegrain has also been found to have beneficial effects for your heart and keeping your weight steady.

4) Why you shouldn't skip the salad dressing

Eating fats, such as olive oil, in salad dressings actually helps the body to absorb those wonderful carotenoids that are found in carrots, tomatoes and salad leaves, so don't leave it out! These carotenoids counteract cancer-causing free radicals in the body, so are pretty useful. Try a little lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper and you're all set :)

So there a few healthy tips for you as winter approaches. I've been a bit busy lately, hence the delay between posts, and will be even more so as uni starts, but follow me on Twitter (if you're not already), and I promise to keep you going with nutritional nuggets of information and health hints!

Nati xXx

Eating Italian.

Once again, I have to start this blog by apologising for my delay between posts; the combination of more holiday-ing and getting ready for uni has meant my blog has been on the back burner, but I'm here!

So here's just a little about my trip to Italy. I feel that it's a little hypocritical to put it in my 'nutrition' and 'health' blog because basically all I ate was carbs, carbs, and ice cream...Did I mention the carbs? It was fantastic though! I went to Rimini on the North-Eastern coast with some of my girlfriends, and it was 6 days of the beach, eating and nightlife - the perfect way to end the summer.

In terms of the food, I'd just like to mention how FRESH and FLAVOURFUL everything tasted compared to much of the food in England. Going to the supermarket and walking through the fruit and veg section was a sensory overload, because they were all so vibrant and actually smelt like fresh produce should! Pasta sauces tasted like mama was cooking them in her casa, and the mortadella (a cold meat I loved as a kid) was succulent and simply amazing! Obviously I was out of my health habitat because 'spelt' and 'soya' are somewhat foreign concepts to the Italians (absolutely no offence intended), but I didn't mind when every plate of pizza and pasta were full to the brim with taste.

As with my holidays in Spain and California, although I wasn't sticking to my strict healthy eating regime that I have at home, all the swimming in the sea (I promise I didn't just lie in the sun all day...) and lack of snacking due to the warm weather meant that I didn't feel too bad about eating slightly bigger meals. I had a fantastic time, and after a great summer I couldn't be less excited by the good old British winter....bring on spring!

Next up will be a round-up of September health news! xXx