Hello Again

So I have not done a blog in quite a while...
I have been very busy! I recently had my first book published called The Undeniable Truth About Food.
In addition it undertook the crazy task of rating and reviewing every grocery item in the major supermarkets in Australia. To say I have been busy is an understatement! The manuscript is currently with a publisher so hopefully won't be too far away from release.
I rated products in terms of 3 criteria: Nutrition, Food additives and type of packaging used. In order to get a favourable review, it needed to have less than 8g of total fat, 10g of sugar and 500mg of salt. There needed to be no harmful food additives and packaged in either glass, foil, or or waxed paper. For those who are unaware of this fact; all types of plastic packaging (though some are better than others) leach its chemicals into the food/drink.; as does cellophane (as it is now dual layered with plastic), plastic lined tetra cartons, paperboard, polystyrene, steel can and aluminium cans.
It was a big job as I need to obtain the maunfacturers specifications for each product also. This is because we have a 5% labelling loophole which means that anything that is less than 5% of the overall product does not need to be labelled. A stupid law that I have a petition to have abolished.
What I found was that not including baby food, there was 71 products that got a favourable review. 71 out of thousands of items. But I looked at it another way, once the obviously unhealthy food was removed, it was 71 items accross 54 product lines. That's actually pretty encouraging. It means that at least one company is doing the right thing. My new book The Ultimate Supermarket Handbook will guide you to these products as well as teach you how to select meat, fruit, vegetables and many other staples.
In 2 weeks I am taking off with my tour The Undeniable Truth About Food - with my 4 kids, the 4WD and the pop up camper trailer! I am very excited! We are going to Adelaide, Melbourne, Hobart, Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane. Tickets are $22 and are available at http://www.ticketmaster.com.au/
My book is available at bookstore and online I know the book depository has it for $11 and has free shipping http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/
I will keep you posted. I have a bit of media coming up with magazine, newspaper, radio and possibly TV.
More soon xx

80/20 Maintanence Plan

Congratulations on your weight loss!
The final instalment of this blog series is about how to maintain your hard work!
If you live by the simply notion of eating 80% healthy food, 20% junk you can't really go wrong.
Go for unprocessed whole foods. Processed foods are magnets for hidden sugar, salt and hydrolised fat and protein, as well as preservatives and other nasty additives.
Choose a good breakfast that is a challenge for the body to breakdown. Drink lots of water upon rising 1-2 glasses! Give up that early morning coffee or tea as it interferes with nutrient absorption.
Morning tea should be a piece of fruit, handful of nut, yoghurt or a maximum of 4 plain sweet or savoury biscuits/crackers.
Lunch will depend on your situation. It might be a sandwich, a salad, lean meat and veg, soup, dip ( like hommous or tatkizki) with veggie sticks and a few crackers.
Afternoon tea is similar to morning tea but only choose the biscuit option once!
Dinner should be lean meat or fish with salad or veggies. Limit pasta and rice to twice a week. Eat a wide variety and try and include some raw food everyday!
Drink 1-2L water and don't eat 2 hours before bedtime as this is growth and repair time not digestion time. 
Try to incorporate the serotonin effect by eating something sweet, can be a piece of fruit or a scoop of ice cream to get those happy chemicals flowing through you body.
Enjoy special occassions, just be sensible, after all a special occassion isn't that special if it happens daily!
Good Luck.
By the way my weight loss at present is 14.5Kg, 9cm off my hips and 6 cm off my waist. I still intend to loose another 7Kg which will be made alot easier now that I have completely stopped breatfeeding and can go full tilt!
I hope this has been helpful and motivating for you.
I'm always reachable via facebook or my website http://www.asnatureintended.com/
All the Best 
Kylie Floate

Plastic Chemical Migration

Are still using plastic????

Did you know that chemicals leach from plastic packaging and containers into our food and beverages? Well believe it! What's worse is that the government KNOWS about this and even has legislation of 'so called' safe limits. Studies show that products contain mucher higher levels than is legislated, but what is disturbing is that these chemicals are highly carcinogenic (ie they cause cancer). So what is the government doing endorsing the use of plastic packaging? Most people would assue that 'microwave safe' containers would be safe to use....well they are safe -for your microwave - NOT YOUR HEALTH!

Heat is the fasted way to increase plastic chemical migration. So plastic and microwaves is not a good mix. Plastic kettles another bad idea and plastic coffee travel mugs -yikes! I cringe ther worst at BABY BOTTLES being heated in the microwave or standing in boiling water. Taking BPA out of baby bottle is important - it's a shame that Australia was several years behind the rest of the world, but the bottom line is that babies are too precious to be poisoning with plastic bottles.

Get to know your plastics

The worst kind is shrink wrap, commonly used on frozen pizzas. It is hard to avoid on the likes of cheese. Cling wrap (am scared to use brand names) is not a wise choice on school lunches - get back to the paper bag! Foil is also unstable but mainly with acidic things or heat. So you could use foil on a sandwich. I almost died when I saw them using clingwrap to cook food in on Junior Masterchef.

PET (polyethylene) bottles are very unstable, they are made cheaply for disposal. Did you know that bottled water contains on average 3.1% of various forms of benzene? The numbers increase dramatically when an acidic soft drink is packaged in a PET bottle.

Poly carbonate is commonly used for drink bottles and kitchen containers, much more heat stable than PVC but over time it is a toxic leacher. This is the worst kind to store left over food in or freeze drinks in.

PVC plastic is the hard variety that is often used to make plates and cups. Over time they leach the least amount of chemicals but have no resistance to heat - the worst kind to put in the microwave or serve hot food on like at a BBQ.

Melamine dinner should be banned. Not only do they leach melamine which causes kidney dysfunction, but also formaldehyde, commonly known as embalming fluid! And yes the GOVERNMENT also has legal parameters in place! It does say very clearly on the bottom of the plate/bowl that they are not microwave safe, but how many people actually read this and how many children are served a hot dinner on their favourite character plate?

How about the old microwave plastics stets? They are styrene based and are the most stable. There's the reason why when microwaves were first released everyone always used the special plastic containers. How many people still use them??

What you should do NOW!

Throw away your plastic kettle and cooking utensils like spatulas and ladels (I know you've all got a plastic spatula that melted at the end, the plastic didn't evaporate it DID go into your food.

Stop microwaving plastic containers, this includes plastic wrapped meat on a foam tray (and no foam isn't stable either).

Stop storing your left overs in plastic containers, use a ceramic or glass dish.

Stop wrapping lunches in plastic, switch to paper bags.

Buy a stainless steel drink bottle (not plastic lined)

If you have a baby, use stainless steel or glass bottles.

When a product is available in glass, waxed paper or steel, buy it.

Today it is almost impossible to completely avoid plastic packaging, so be realistic, do what you can.

Ever wondered why some products are always in glass? When was the last time you bought coffee or a cooking sauce in plastic? It isn't because they are concerned about your health, it is because the manufacturer doesn't want the plastic chemicals the affect the taste.

The Factors that affect plastic chemical migration

Heat

Time

Acidity - don't buy juices or sauces in plastic

Fat Soluble - don't buy products high in fat plastic packaged such as cooking oil

Please share this info with as many people as possible - awareness is the key. If people stop buying plastic packaged foods, the manufacturers will change their ways!

Transition to your new healthy lifestyle

So now the detox is over - what next??

Congrats on completing a gruelling 4 weeks, it's not easy. Remember the results really won't been seen for another 4 weeks, so don't be tempted to the the weigh and measure yet! The next 4 weeks is really a combination of the 2 diets, not that hard and you won't be hungary, but you will continue to lose weight.

It's really simple...

No bread, No pasta, No rice and keep the starchy vegetables (potatoes, pumkin and corn) to a minimum.

I will be having my banana smoothie for breakfast, but I might have the berry one for variety.

Fruit for morning tea

Soup or salad for lunch

Handful of nuts, yoghurt or fruit for afternoon tea

Lean meat/fish and veg/salad for dinner

scoop of lowfat/low sugar icecream (Paul's Neopolitian is my pick), diet jelly or stewed fruit for dessert.

Over the 4 weeks I will help you to address the underlying causes for the initial weight gain, so it is never manifested again. Remember weight is just a symptom of something else in your life. If you want to keep the weight off you must deal with this issue!!

While I haven't weighed myself in about 6 weeks, I know that the pair of size 12 jeans I bought 4 weeks ago are loosening up and I think I'll be a size 10 at the end of the 4 weeks and be ready for maintanence. If you're not ready in this time and want to loose more I will advise you on how to proceed.

Well done on getting this far.

One last thing you might like to consider, is changing your exercise regime. The more you surprise the body the faster you'll get results. I'm going to start doing my Tracy Anderson's (Madonna's personal trainer) dance aerobics DVD and continue my tummy exercises. Making my work out 45 mins cardio, 15 mins tummys. Choose what suits you, just make it different and try to increase the intensity as you should be feeling fitter that you were.

Have a great week - I'm off to Singapore for a week and am going to eat all the sashimi and dragonfruit I can get my hands on!

Kylie xx

Everything you need to know about artificial rippening, hybridisation and food additives.

Our World Has Changed
Our lives have become a whirlwind adventure and there simply aren’t enough hours in the day to take it all in. This has created a demand for convenience, pre-packaged food. We now have the most diverse food supply in recorded history. Supermarkets are huge and are filled low-nutrition, high energy, additive laden products. The truth is you could set fire to the bulk of what the supermarket chains sell. And that includes the fruit and vegetables. Fresh produce (and I use that term loosely) is first grown with an abundance of pesticide chemicals. They are then picked when they are not even in the realms of ripeness and then placed in cold storage for up to 3 years. Finally they are artificially ripened using toxic chemicals and if your lucky the produce will continue to get sprayed with these chemicals as they rot on the supermarket shelf.
Our lives have become a whirlwind adventure and there simply aren’t enough hours in the day to take it all in. This has created a demand for convenience, pre-packaged food. We now have the most diverse food supply in recorded history. Supermarkets are huge and are filled low-nutrition, high energy, additive laden products. The truth is you could set fire to the bulk of what the supermarket chains sell. And that includes the fruit and vegetables. Fresh produce (and I use that term loosely) is first grown with an abundance of pesticide chemicals. They are then picked when they are not even in the realms of ripeness and then placed in cold storage for up to 3 years. Finally they are artificially ripened using toxic chemicals and if your lucky the produce will continue to get sprayed with these chemicals as they rot on the supermarket shelf.
We may have an over abundant food supply, but it is in no way superior. We may have more exciting lives to lead, but we have alarming rates of depression, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADHD), autism, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), cancer, suicide, dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, stroke and the list goes on – all are linked to a poor diet.
But is it a poor diet by choice, for some it is, but others truly believe they are doing the right thing by their body and it is very unsettling to find that you’ve been duped.
What is more unsettling is the lack of regulation and disclosure in our food supply. Additives are approved under very dubious conditions and when independent studies prove the undesirable effects of these chemicals, the food giants launch their own funded studies – you can just imagine their findings.
How do we turn back the clock and return to a more natural way of life and reclaim our health? The answer is, we replace our flowerbeds with a veggie patch and start making meals from scratch, just like our grandparents and the generations before them.
“Well I don’t have time for all that” I can hear you say. Think of the time you spend dealing with unruly children, or what it would take to recover from a serious illness, like cancer, we all know someone who has been there and its not pretty. As for the gardening, kids love to get their hands dirty and research shows that they are more likely to eat fresh produce or try something new if they have been involved with its care and production. Gardening has also been shown to be a great stress reliever.
To those who say that they couldn’t possibly give up their favourite treats, there is no need to. The body is a fabulously resilient machine that can cope with few treats a week. The problem is that the large majority of the western world treats everyday like its Christmas. It isn’t really our fault; it is a consequence of a generation living through the great depression and then World War II. The baby-boomer generation got spoilt with all of the food and treats that their parents missed out on – who can blame them? However, all parties must end sometime. It isn’t doing our bodies any favours by constantly indulging in treat food. A treat is a treat, not an everyday occurrence. Human beings are supposedly the most intelligent creatures on the planet, yet we are the only one’s that deny our body of proper sustenance. If you examine a food label, it appears to be a cocktail of chemicals and numbers that the average person has no understanding of. The scary fact is that food companies don’t actually have to disclose all the ingredients of a product. If an ingredient is less than 5% of the whole product it doesn’t have to be declared. As we are discovering, the 5% is adding up and it is getting increasingly difficult to find completely additive free food. Currently 4 multinational companies own 40% of the world’s food supply. These food giants have become very savvy at marketing and food labelling. A label can very boldly state that there are no preservatives added, when they are in fact laden with food additives. This is achieved by either adding a whole ingredient such as vegetable oil or vinegar that contains the preservative, or by using a synthetic antioxidant or sorbate that technically isn’t classified as a preservative, even though it has the same function.

The best way for consumers to make a difference to our food supply, it to choose bands that are additive free. It won’t take long before the multi-nationals realise that their market share is dropping, thereby encouraging more additive-free products to become available and reducing costs by increasing the competition.
There are also many petitions and open letters to send to food companies and Food Standards Australia (our regulating body), to demand the removal of these additives. This has worked in other countries, particularly the UK. Some damning research came out by South Hampton University that clearly showed the link between particular food additives and behaviour. Europe has never used many additives in their food supply and are highly regarded for their superior health, despite their increased alcohol and tobacco use. It’s not the Mediterranean diet; it’s the low additive food supply. Many food additives that are used extensively in Australia are banned in many parts the world due to the demonstrated adverse effects – why is Australia so far behind the rest of the world?  

Detox Guidelines

Congrats on making it through the high protein diet! I didn't find I was at all hungry, but I was definately snappy! Now it's time to detox. I always find the detox section the most challenging, probably due to the lack of coffee permitted and the headaches that result. It is an important step though, as we haven't been exactly kind to our bodies for the last two weeks, and who knows what other toxins have accumulated over the past months or years - particularly if you don't consume enough water.

So here are the guidelines...

No red meat, fish is fine (eat it everyday if you want, make sure it's fresh and not canned or crumbed) and a little chicken (say twice a week).

No Dairy, yoghurt is fine (make sure it's free from any additives labelled between 200-220), as is dairy substitutes such as rice, oat or soy milk.

No Tea or Coffee, while the caffeine is of some concern, it's actually the phytates that we are trying to eliminate, which interfere with nutrient absorption.

Limit Potato intake, the good news is you can have some root vegetables, but don't over indulge, try not to exceed 1-2 potatoes per day (even if they are in a soup).

No bread or flour based foods - we want whole foods that are a challenge for the body the breakdown and are loaded with nutrients (no empty calories).

No refined cereals - stick to the whole grains, like oats or muesli.

No pasta or white rice - some brown or wild rice is ok. You might like to try some grains like quinoa or couscous.

Limit egg intake - no more than 1 per day.

Do utilise nuts, particularly natural ones (not roasted) and buy sulphite free. Remember nuts are very energy dense so only 1-2 handfuls per day.

Do eat lots of fruit and vegetables of a wide variety - try to buy non-artificially ripened, pesticide free produce.

Eat legumes and pulses, they contain the amino acid methionine which very good for digestion.

Drink lots of water, aim for 2 Litres per day - small frequent sips is far kinder to the kidneys than guzzling half a litre at a time.

Breakfast suggestions

I'm probably going to make a berry smoothie (1 cup of frozen berries and half a glass of apple juice).

Porridge made with a dairy alternative is a great start to the day. Or a muesli.

If you're going the smoothie option, be creative, there are lots of possibilities.

Morning Tea suggestions

1 cup of yoghurt.

Fruit or cut up veggies

Handful of nuts.

Lunch suggestions

I will be making a pot of soup and eating that or making a big salad with a light vinegarette.

You could have fish/chicken and steamed veggies or salad.

If your forced to buy takeaway as I am when I have to go to the city Nando's chicken salad is a good option, or a subway salad bowl.

Afternoon Tea

Same as morning tea

Dinner

Fish/chicken and veggies/salad (you can have fish every night if you want, but limit chicken to twice a week)

Veggie and lentil patties are always a hit in my house, just roll them in quinoa or couscous instead of breadcrumbs.

Chicken and veggie  stir fry with some rice, quinoa or couscous.

Theres always soup....

Sweets

Fruit - try something decadent like a mango, strawberries, pineapple or dragonfruit.

Dried fruit - I love those pawpaw spears. Remember dried fruit is very energy dense so just a small handful.

Remember not to eat 2 hours before your bedtime!

Have a glass of water first thing in the morning.

Good Luck. Feel free to email me is you have any questions.

If you haven't entered our competiton yet, it closes on 31/10/10 all you need to do is email me your best 'fat' photo - that's it! There are 10 Onya prize packs to be won.

Have a great week

Kylie xx

Little Known Nutrition Facts

Here is some nutrition trivia to help you fight the high protein diet blues....

1.It takes 20 minutes for the brain to get the message that you have eaten. Try to make your meal last that long, instead of wolfing it down and sniffing around for seconds. Have a glass of water instead and wait out the 20 minutes, if you really are still hungry, brush your teeth.

2.Drink water after every meal. Your body doen't actually have time to breakdown everything. But if your body has to provide the fluids for digestion it is very keen to reabsorb those fluids and retain toxins inorder to avoid dehydration. It's a bit like having a car and never changing the oil.

3.1 Litre of water consumed equates to 1Kg on the scales. Try it we did it at uni it really works! This doesn't mean stop drinking water! But factor this in when you weigh yourself - do it first thing in the morning before anything is consumed.

4.Your body is actually a reflection of the conditions about 4 weeks prior. Hydration is the only factor that can influence this. This is why I don't want you weighing yourself during the rapid weightloss, as one can easily get discouraged. 1 month after the completion of the diet is when we should see the most significant results.

5.As babies we have 50,000 more tastebuds than as an adult. Taste is the first of the senses to deplete. This is why we should always retry foods that we previously disliked, as tastebuds really do change. If you have small children, don't decide at the age of 2 that they don't like something - people carry it for their whole lives. Make a fuss that they are 'big' enough to like something now, trust me, as a Kindy/Preprimary teacher, I KNOW this angle works!

6.Fresh fruit and vegetables should be consumed within 20 minutes of cutting. Fruits and vergetables continue to respire (slowly 'breathing out') after they have been picked - in some cases for months. Once they have been cut open, cellular death occurs and with in 20 minutes it will 'die'. There are wonderful phytochemicals that can be utilised during this period, as well as the 'lifeforce' of the plant that really does contribute to health and vitality.

7.Telfon coating on baking trays, that has a habit of flaking off, actuallu won't hurt you. Teflon is inert which means that it passes straight through the body, untouched.

8. There is the same amount of energy in olive oil as there is in lard. While the effects on the body are very different,. they have the same Kilojoule content. A few celebrity chefs would have you drizzle olive oil over your meal, it is a very quick way to over-consume Kilojoules.

I'll give you some more trivia when we're half way through the detox which is coming up next week. I'll post all you need over the weekend.

I know it's tough, the high protein diet, while it doen't leave you feeling hungry, it does give you alot of irrational rage. Just be aware of it and be kind to those who love you.

We have a competition on facebook, where if you click 'like' you go in the draw to win great Onya prizes, including stainless steel drink bottles, weighbags, petbags and groovy shopping bags.

Don't forget you can always email me with any questions at asnatureintended@bigpond.com or post me on facebook.

Hang in there xx