Category: Fuel

Willpower is overrated. According to three decades’ worth of research, by relying on grit and determination to eat a healthier diet, you’re setting yourself up for a fall – not just ploughing through finite resources that you could use better on something else, but dooming yourself to an eventual crash that ends with you sitting amid piles of Fondant Fancy wrappers, blood sugar levels through the ceiling.

Mercifully, though, there’s a better way. By putting systems in place to check your hunger before it starts, you’ll eat better effortlessly, leaving your willpower intact for your workout. Here’s how it’s done.

01 KEEP WATER NEARBY

“Keep a glass or bottle of water within reach in the office or when watching TV,” says food psychologist Brian Wansink, author of Slim By Design: Mindless Eating Solutions For Everyday Life. The logic – you’re more likely to grab things within arm’s reach – works in reverse, so ensure sugar-heavy foods require a trip to the kitchen.

02 THINK LINE-OF-SIGHT

“In a study, we asked people to move all their fruits and vegetables onto the top shelf of their fridge and less healthy foods down into the crisper,” says Wansink. “After one week, they reported eating nearly three times as much fruit and veg as they had the week before.”

03 SLOW YOUR SNACKING

In a 2013 study published in the journal Food Quality And Preference, volunteers who ate bite-sized portions of chocolate and crisps were just as satisfied 15 minutes later as ones who ate four times as much. All your brain remembers is the snack: if you can distract yourself until the craving goes, you’re safe

04 TREAT BREAD LIKE A GUN

Translation: going pre-sliced is like keeping it loaded. By buying a loaf that needs to be cut – a crusty sourdough, let’s say – you’re putting up a barrier to that next round of toast, and making it less likely that you’ll fire endless sandwiches into your gob. For next-level snack control, keep it in the freezer and defrost one or two slices at a time.

05 SET UP SOME CUES

Psychologist Peter Gollwitzer recommends “if > then” thinking, explaining that it overrides your easily-influenced brain with preprogrammed responses. “If I go to the pub, then I’ll drink red wine” is a good example. The trick? Plan your routines ahead of time, while you aren’t short on willpower.

06 CHANGE YOUR ROUTINE

Eating a triangular sandwich at your desk again? A study by Duke University in the US found that 45% of habits are repeated in the same location, cued by routines. Aim to eat a sit-down meal outside the workplace at least a couple of days a week – or even just turn left not right when you leave at lunch to break the subconscious spell.

07 BE MORE INCLUSIVE

Researchers from Utrecht University term it “behavioural ironic rebound”: try to avoid bad foods, and you’re doomed to failure. Instead, focus on eating more good ones. Chug water before you head to the Coke machine, say, or have a banana before you buy a Kit Kat. Gradually, the good stuff will push the bad out of your life.

08 USE MICRO- INCREMENTS

Planning to put together a 13-ingredient mega-salad every night? Doesn’t sound likely, does it? Instead, build the cookery custom with what behavioural expert BJ Fogg calls “micro-habits”. Start by just putting a pan on the stove every night, and then whip up something as simple as possible, like scrambled eggs. Take it from there.

09 ‘NOT NOW, BUT LATER’

It’s your new favourite phrase. When cravings hit, use what scientists call a “postponement strategy” to avoid the worst of it, by promising yourself a pint/pizza/slice of apple pie at some unspecified future date. Chances are, once you’re better-fed and hydrated, that future time will never come.

10 SAY ‘DON’T’, NOT ‘CAN’T’

Nobody wants to be the man making sad eyes at the cake trolley. Rather than telling yourself or others that you “can’t” have a slab of Victoria sponge, say you “don’t” eat cake (or, for less finality, that it’s not something you’re doing right now). You’ll reframe yourself in your own mind as a more disciplined, less temptable person.

Adding some heat to your main meals with chilli peppers and other spicy ingredients can help you shift your spare tyre thanks to the fat-burning properties of capsaicin, the compound responsible for giving these foods their fiery kick. Research published in the American Chemical Society journal found that capsaicin helps fight rising body-fat levels by decreasing total calorie intake, shrinking fat tissue, and lowering fat levels in the blood. Try increasing your intake of capsaicin-rich food by adding chillis to scrambled eggs for breakfast and to salads at lunchtime – and try these Mexican-inspired fajitas for dinner, which also contain chicken, avocado and veg to give you the high-quality protein and fats needed to build muscle and strip away your belly.

EAT THIS CHICKEN FAJITA

This classic Mexican fajita provides lots of protein in a portable package that can be eaten hot or cold, making it a highly convenient muscle-building meal or post-gym snack. The spicy recipe also adds a whack of calorie-burning capsaicin to help you burn fat too.

INGREDIENTS

1tbsp olive oil / 2 skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips / 1 red onion, sliced / 1 red pepper or 1 red chilli, sliced / 1tsp chilli flakes / 200g tomatoes, chopped (fresh or canned) / 4 wholemeal tortillas / A handful of fresh coriander / 2tbsp Greek yogurt / 1 avocado, diced

TO MAKE

• Heat the oil in a wok until it starts to smoke.

• Add the chicken and stir-fry for four minutes.

• Add the onion and pepper or chilli and cook for a further three minutes.

• Add the chilli flakes and tomatoes and cook for another three minutes.

• Warm the wraps for two minutes under a preheated grill.

• Spoon the mixture into the wraps, dress them with the coriander, yogurt and avocado, and fold to eat.

Age creeps up on us all. Little twinges become aches and pains and maintaining muscle mass while keep the belly at bay becomes a war of attrition against Old Father Time. But the battle isn’t over yet, and adding these three supplements to your diet – so long as you continue to eat well, exercise intelligently and get good-quality sleep – can give your body a better chance of staying fighting fit for longer.

1 Get stronger joints

Glucosamine is an amino sugar and a major component of cartilage, which is the stuff that absorbs the shock to your joints when you run, lift or do plyometric drills like box jumps. As you age your cartilage starts to lose the elasticity that protects your joints and so becomes less effective at doing its job. Taking glucosamine, which is typically made from shellfish, can reinforce cartilage by stimulating the cells to produce proteoglycans, which can improve joint function and mobility. Aim for three daily doses of 500mg.

2 Add muscle faster

Glutamine is an amino acid that studies suggest minimises the breakdown of muscle tissues during strenuous exercise as well as improving muscle synthesis, which is the assimilation of the protein you eat into new tissue. Having adequate levels has also been linked to improved brain and gut health. You should already get enough of this compound from your diet, but it can be worth taking a supplement if you’re under a lot of stress or training harder than normal.

3 Better overall health

Make sure you eat as many servings of fresh veg as possible every day – then try adding a greens supplement to fill any nutritional gaps you may have missed. Most powders contain multiple servings of veggies along with other highly beneficial compounds you’d be loath to eat in their natural forms (think algae and grasses). You can drink it straight – if you have no sense of taste – or blend it into a breakfast shake or smoothie.

Still struggling to hit your five-a-day? Bad news: you’re dithering around at the low end of what’s acceptable. The World Health Organisation says 400g of fruit and veg a day (or five 80g servings) is the bare minimum required for health benefits, and official recommendations in other countries are higher – Australia suggests five portions of veg and two of fruit should be your target, while Japan’s 5 A DAY organisation urges its citizens to eat 350g of veg and 200g of fruit daily. And if you’re planning to top up with some multivitamins and greens powder, remember: you do need the real thing.

“Vegetables contain antioxidants and other disease-fighting compounds that are difficult to get elsewhere,” says body composition expert Luke Leaman (musclenerds.tv). “Plant phytochemicals reduce inflammation, eliminate carcinogens, regulate cell reproduction and maintain DNA health.” A 2014 meta-study found that higher veg consumption is linked to a drop in all-cause mortality, but even if you’re planning to live fast and die young (unlikely, we know), there’s more to it: more fibre will help keep you feeling full and in fat-burning mode, helping you get lean while maintaining muscle. Here’s how to keep things green and pleasant.

SIMPLE SWAPS

INSTEAD OF ICEBERG…

HAVE ROCKET

It’s been less selectively bred, hence that peppery flavour – and as a result, it has a better antioxidant profile. Serve it in salad with a glug of olive oil and a dash of balsamic vinegar.

INSTEAD OF SPINACH…

HAVE KALE

It’s full of folate and magnesium, as well as fibre. Get rid of the stems, then stir-fry it for a few minutes with a clove or two of crushed garlic.

INSTEAD OF SWEET POTATO…

HAVE CELERIAC

There’s nothing wrong with the orange beauties, but you should rotate your veg occasionally and celeriac’s a better source of vitamins C, K and manganese. Chop it into wedges and roast it with paprika.

Q SO, APART FROM VITAMINS, WHY ELSE DO I NEED VEGETABLES?

A ALL SORTS OF REASONS

“I would honestly rather see almost anybody jack up their fruit and veggies and take their protein intake down, rather than having three shakes a day,” says Leaman. “By eating more veggies you’re upping the amount of fibre you eat, raising your alkalinity and reducing acidosis in the body.” Acidosis occurs when the kidneys and lungs can’t regulate your pH levels, causing sometimes serious health problems. “If you’re trying to cut calories you should still keep veg high. You’ll also ramp up your anti-ageing pathways.” Basically, Leaman says, if you want a healthy diet, “veg is the first thing you should add, and the last thing you should think about cutting out”.

Q ANY OTHER BENEFITS?

A YOU’LL EAT LESS OF THE BAD STUFF

“One of the best reasons is food displacement,” says Leaman. “I work a lot on habits and if someone hasn’t eaten right for 30 years, they’re going to do three days of good diet and then have a pizza. Instead of changing everything, the trick is to add more of the good stuff until it pushes the bad stuff out. If your breakfast right now is eggs on toast, add some broccoli or spinach, or maybe throw in another egg. Eventually you’ll leave the toast out. Think practical instead of optimal, and keep making minor changes.”

Q DOES IT MATTER HOW I COOK THEM?

A YES

“There’s good evidence that you keep more of the fibre and antioxidant content in most green veggies when you steam rather than boil them,” says Leaman. Toss your asparagus or broccoli in a saucepan with a shot glass’s worth of water for four to five minutes. For extra flavour, finish them off with a blob of butter and a sprinkle of salt.

Q DO I NEED TO GO ORGANIC?

A IT MIGHT HELP

We’re still not sure of the benefits of organic food in general, but the evidence is starting to pile up for veg in particular. A Newcastle University study published in 2014 concluded that there are “statistically significant, meaningful” differences, with a range of antioxidants being “substantially higher” – between 19% and 69% – in organic vegetables. The study was based on an analysis of 343 peer-reviewed studies, and found lower levels of heavy metal cadmium and pesticides in organic foods – but there’s still controversy over how exactly the results link to health results. The consensus? Go organic if you can afford it – but any veg is better than none.

5-6

DAILY SERVINGS OF VEG YOU SHOULD EAT BEFORE THINKING ABOUT A GREENS POWDER

Tossing a handful of greens powder into your protein shake might be more appealing than wolfing handfuls of broccoli, but sadly things aren’t that simple. Though its vitamin content is similar, the fibre and phytochemicals you get from veg are hard to replicate. “I don’t recommend greens shakes,” says Leaman. “That should be a treat you earn when you’re already smashing five or six portions of veggies a day. If you want a greens drink that works, steam some broccoli and throw it in a blender, then have a couple of cups of that with every meal. I’ve seen guys literally go from no abs to abs, just doing that.”

1 “Cook vegetables completely”

Still boiling your broccoli? Step away from the saucepan now if you want maximum goodness from the veg for better health. Researchers from Zhejiang University in China cooked broccoli using the most common cooking methods and concluded that steaming kept intact the most number of nutrients, including soluble fibre, vitamin C and glucosinolate, the compound thought to be behind its cancer-fighting properties. Microwaving was next best, with stir-frying and boiling resulting in the greatest nutrient loss because of the veg’s exposure to high heat and vitamins leaching into the water.

This supports Harvard research that found the best cooking method for retaining nutrients is one that “cooks quickly, heats food for the shortest amount of time, and uses as little liquid as possible”. That sounds like microwaving to us. Eat your peppers raw, though: a medium one contains around 150% of your daily vitamin C needs, but cooking peppers above 190°C irreparably damages the antioxidant, according to the US National Institutes of Health.

2 “Butter is bad for your health”

Butter spent decades in the nutritional wilderness because of a suggested link between its high saturated fat content and heart disease, obesity and high cholesterol. But support for butter is spreading – global sales were up 7% in the five years to 2014, while sales of non-dairy spreads such as margarine fell 6%, according to research firm Kantar Worldpanel – because the studies behind these claims has been discredited.

A meta-analysis of 72 studies of 600,000 people from 17 countries, published in the Annals Of Internal Medicine, found total saturated fat consumption had no relationship to heart disease risk, while research in the British Medical Journal found death rates among men with heart disease actually increased when they ditched saturated fat for the type of polyunsaturated fat found in margarine. Butter is also a source of vitamins A, D, E and K, as well as selenium, a powerful antioxidant that plays a big role in an efficient metabolism. Time to dust off that butter dish.

3 “High-protein diets damage your kidneys”

We evolved to become the smartest animal that’s ever walked the Earth thanks to a diet high in protein, so it’s hard to believe that in the last human generation – a blink of the eye in evolutionary terms – protein has suddenly started damaging our kidneys. And you shouldn’t believe it, because the study that linked high protein intake to organ damage was done on people with preexisting kidney disorders. If you’re in good health a high-protein diet can help weight loss without any side effects, according to the Journal Of The International Society Of Sports Nutrition, as well as reducing blood pressure, according to Dutch research.

It’s worth noting that the World Health Organisation last year classified red meat as a Group 2 carcinogen and added processed red meat in Group 1, advising people to limit daily intake of both to no more than 70g. However, it matters what meat you eat: organic and grass-reared red meat is very different nutritionally to that which has been factory farmed or heavily processed.

4 “Booze before bed helps you sleep deeper”

You may have found that a snifter after a long day helps you nod off faster – but booze before bed doesn’t encourage a good night’s rest because of how alcohol influences activity in your brain, according to research in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

Subjects who drank just before bed had more slow wave sleep patterns called delta activity, which is the period of deeper sleep that’s associated with restoration. So far, so good. But the subjects also had heightened alpha waves, which your brain typically displays when you’re awake. This competition between alpha and delta waves disrupts sleep, which is why after a drink or two you’ll wake in the morning feeling as though you’ve not really slept.

Each night you should have around six or seven cycles of deep and restorative REM sleep – but if you’ve been drinking you’ll typically have just one or two, according to charity drinkaware.co.uk, so you can wake feeling exhausted. Horlicks, anyone?

Photography Getty

5 “Carbs after 6pm make you fat”

This one really won’t go away. The belief that eating carbs at night is a fast route to fat gain is built on the assumption that our resting metabolic rate (RMR) slows down during sleep, so any excess energy gets stored as fat. While energy expenditure does decrease 35% during early-stage sleep, according to the journal Metabolism, it then increases significantly during deeper REM sleep to the extent that your RMR is the same at night as it is in the day, according to the European Journal Of Clinical Nutrition. What’s more, if you exercise you significantly increase your RMR during sleep, according to the Canadian Journal Of Applied Physiology, prompting your body to burn more fat as it recovers from exertion.

In reality a high-carb dinner can help reduce body fat by sending you to sleep faster because carbohydrate consumption increases blood concentrations of the amino acid tryptophan, which makes you feel drowsy. People who ate a high-carb meal in the four hours before bed fell asleep faster than those who weren’t given carbs in a study conducted by the University of Sydney.

26% Reduction in the odds of developing bowel cancer by drinking two cups of coffee a day after adjusting for other lifestyle factors, according to the USC research

Whether you take it short, long, black, with milk, with cream or decaf, drinking more coffee can reduce your risk of developing cancer, according to a new study from the University of Southern California (USC). Researchers tracked the coffee-drinking habits of more than 9,000 people and found that the more coffee subjects drank, the less likely they were to develop bowel (or colorectal) cancer. This was the case even when other lifestyle factors, such as family history, diet, physical activity and smoking were factored in. Better stick the kettle on.