A calorie is not a calorie. And here’s the reason why

You can download a copy of the slide here

Service Station Upselling Alert

On a recent car journey, we needed to stop at a motorway service station for a comfort break and we called in the shop for a newspaper and bottle of water.

After collecting the items we wanted, we had to walk past two isles of complete and utter junk (see the pic) to get to the checkout where the assistant tried to ‘upsell’ us even more sugary junk.

On a similar point, we noticed at Bristol airport that that WH Smith bookshop had swopped some valuable book shelf space for sugary snacks and confectionery.

Britain is often referred to as the ‘snackfood nation of Europe’. With temptations like these and continuous upsell’s, it’s little wonder we’re a nation battling with our weight and health…

The Obesity Epidemic Lecture

Recorded on 7 February 2012 at an open public lecture at Cardiff Metropolitan University, Wales.

Here’s the audio file only..

You can also listen and download it from iTunes here

Or in a new tab and download here (It’s a big file!)

And you can download the slides from the presentation here

THE OBESITY EPIDEMIC – HARDBACK. SPECIAL OFFER – LIMITED QUANTITIES

Am I losing fat or water?

A common question I get is “Am I losing fat or water?” which I answer in this podcast.

Naturally increasing oestrogen

Hi Zoe,

Since coming off the pill in late August i’ve had some probs with irregular periods (a 56 day cycle & a 49 day cycle).

Doc wants me to go back in Feb if things are still funny because she doesn’t think i’m ovulating & wants to put me on some drugs to rectify this.

I am not keen to take drugs & was wondering if there’s anything in particular I can eat that would be good for increasing oestrogen levels – (don’t really want to go near soy!)

I also think it might have something to do with the fact that I was on the pill for 11 years & my body is bound to take a bit of time to sort itself out however frustrating that might be!

Would be interested to hear your thoughts.

Answer.
Hi there – this is really common when coming off the pill. Some people get caught out and get pregnant immediately! More typically, cycles are quite irregular for quite a few months. You’ve effectively stopped your body releasing eggs each month for 143 cycles! Hence it’s going to take more than one or two cycles to get this back to normal. Having had two period suggests to me that you are ovulating – just not back into a c. 28 day cycle yet. You must have had a couple of cycles or there would be no lining to shed – which is what a period is.

I would take the time to sort it out – if you were 40 and running out of baby time, that would be one thing. But you’re no where near there! So – let the body sort things out naturally.

You really, really don’t want to go near soy because it’s effectively a birth control pill! It contains isoflavones – plant oestrogen hormones – and these a known to severely impact fertility (see Kaayla Daniel’s great work or Dr Mercola’s site on this). You may also like to memorise this fab wiki chart – we get pregnant in the mid part of the cycle and there are 4 hormones at play – LH, FSH and osterogen are all high at this time.

Eat super well (as we do!) Loads of meat, fish – consider a folic acid supplement if you are thinking of getting pregnant – don’t think you can start this too early and let nature sort things out. Manage stress, have some ‘me-time’ every day – all of the well being stuff will speed up getting one’s natural body back!

Marisa Peer (http://marisapeer.com/ and on twitter) is also mega on fertility – may be worth following for a while and deffo one of us!

Good luck!
Bye for now – Zoe

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