|
James Parrack - Nutrition
James Parrack’s famous
Nutrition talk
We
all know that the way to good health is to eat a good diet and get a little
exercise, so why does it seem to be so difficult for so many of us?
Part of the reason is because the large
and powerful food industry would like to us to be as confused as possible about
what food actually is, part of the reason is because we are busy people and just
don’t have time to plan our eating the way we know we probably should. We are
all being pulled in every direction and have conflicting priorities on a daily
basis and generally will take the path of least resistance, particularly where
annoying children are concerned. Me, I happen to like shopping for food and
cooking; it relaxes me. My darling wife on the other hand comes home from a
busy day on the news desk, crashes out on the couch to let some rubbish tv wash
over her and orders a pizza.
So this is my broad brush introduction
to my take on food: what it is, what it does and how best to go about eating
it. I am not an expert and I recommend this only as a starting point, from
which you can find out more and begin to travel your own path to make sense of
what, when and how to eat. We are all different, and I firmly believe that just
because food exists, we don’t have to eat all of it. In fact, some food will
poison some people, where others will thrive on it. So take some time over the
coming years to find out which foods work best for your body and which foods
don’t. Then eat the ones that work for you and avoid the ones that don’t.
Whatever you do, please take great care when eating or not eating according to
some fad, trend or latest scientific thinking. If you choose to avoid wheat or
dairy for example, you need to be certain beyond doubt that these foods are
harmful to your body. There are some links at the end of this which you should
read if you think you may have food allergies or food intolerances, because
there is an awful lot of bad information out there. Also note that the science
will change as the years go on, so stay informed.
The food we eat is important because
not only does it give us our energy, it builds muscle, bones, hair, skin, all
our organs and cells and affects our moods. So it makes sense to put the best
things into the body that we possibly can.
All the food we eat can be measured by
the amount of energy it contains, which is called calories.
There is only one equation you need to
know:
If the calories you put in per day is
larger than the calories you use up in the day, then the body will store
calories, as fat.
By the same token, if the calories you
put in per day is less than the calories you use up in the day, then the body
will get rid of stored calories.
And if the calories you put in per day
is equal to the calories you use up in the day, then you are in balance.
All food, i.e. calories, is basically
either protein, carbohydrate or fat. We also eat vitamins and minerals but
these will all be adequately covered by eating the right protein, carbohydrate
and fat.
As we go about our day to day lives:
going to work, doing the shopping, watching tv, eating, the energy we use up is
supplied by our fat stores. All of us, even the slim ones, have plenty of fat
stores to keep us going in our day to day lives. More than enough. So for the
average Jo, we probably don’t need to put in too many calories per day.
As swimmers, or as we exercise at a
higher level than your average brisk walk, we start to use carbohydrate as our
energy source. As swimmers, we therefore need to make sure we replace the used
up energy as quickly as possible, by eating or drinking some carbohydrate.
The question is how much protein, how
much carbohydrate and how much fat should we eat in a day? Or to put it another
way, what percentage of our daily intake should be protein, what percentage
carbohydrate and what percentage fat?
For all of us, a general rule of thumb
is to eat about 60 percent carbohydrate, 20 percent protein and 20 percent fat,
give or take 5 or 10 percent here and there. You have probably all seen the
food pyramid, and if you more or less follow that, you will be eating your
calories in about these proportions.
Before we go any further, let’s look at
what proteins, carbohydrates and fats do for us and what foods contain which.
Protein:
builds muscle, hair, nails, cells…
Found in: Meat, fish, milk, eggs,
lentils, beans, peas, cheese..
Protein is digested more slowly than
carbohydrates so you feel fuller for longer.
Carbohydrate
provides fuel for higher level exercise, (not the explosive exercise like
throwing and jumping) and all of it is broken down into sugars which are used by
exercising muscles, or are stored in the muscles and in the liver as glycogen
for when we need it next.
Found in: Bread, cereal, rice, pasta,
potatoes, fruit, vegetables, anything made with flour…
To keep things easy, carbohydrates are
either simple, e.g. sugar, or complex, e.g. pasta. At the end of the day it’s
all just sugar, but the complex carbohydrates also come with plenty of vitamins
and minerals and fibre, which means the energy will be released to the body over
a longer period of time, which is good for many reasons.
A good tip is to mix a packet of white
rice with a packet of brown rice so you are not always eating white rice.
(For more detail than you really need on
carbohydrate, see the note at the end.)
Fat
provides the lubrication around the body and carries the vitamins and minerals
to all the cells in the body. The vitamins and minerals make the chemical
reactions happen and will be found in ample quantities in a well balanced diet.
You only need to take vitamin supplements if you have no faith in your diet.
Most are water soluble, so if you take them you will pee most of it out.
But like football teams and
politicians, there are good fats and bad fats.
Fat is either saturated, which is bad,
or unsaturated, which is good. Saturated fat is found in butter, hard cheese,
ice cream, full fat milk, margarine, deep fried food, red meat, chocolate,
coconut and usually anything that is pre-prepared, among other things.
Unsaturated fat is found in oils, nuts,
avocado, corn, soybean and fish...
Fats are a bit of a problem because
although we need them, they are very high in calories, so we need to take care
about how much of them we eat, and ensure we minimise the amount of saturated
fat we eat.
You can usually tell the difference
between the two because saturated fat is solid at room temperature, e.g. butter,
but unsaturated fat is liquid at room temperature, e.g. olive oil.
Going back to the percentages of each we
should eat, it is important to understand the labels on food. Unfortunately,
labels are very misleading and are not getting much better. If the government
or the food industry were really concerned about giving the public good
information about food, all labels would say: This product contains X %
protein, Y % carbohydrate and Z % fat. Everyone would understand.
But they don’t and they don’t do it
because lots of food in the shops contains far more fat than the food industry
wants you to know, most of which is saturated fat. Why? Because more and more
food is convenience food for busy people. Convenience food is largely
processed, nutritionally deficient and high in fat and other bad stuff we don’t
need because it has to be cheap to make and it also has to sit on a shelf for a
year or two and not send us to hospital when we eventually get around to eating
it.
Labels are complex so take a few
moments, or a few hours if maths isn’t your best subject, to understand what is
going on.
If a product says it contains 60g of
carbohydrate per 100g of product, 10g of protein per 100g of product and 30g of
fat per 100g of product, THIS DOES NOT MEAN IT IS 30% FAT, OR 60% CARBOHYDTRATE
OR 10% PROTEIN.
It means absolutely nothing of the
sort. It is like me saying to you, would you like seven 10p coins or one £1
coin? Everyone will take the £1 coin and my argument that you get seven coins
instead of just one will fall on deaf ears. In fact you will think I am
stupid. This is exactly what the food industry and the government are saying to
you. They are persuading you to take the seven coins because they are relying
on you not knowing the value of coins. In my view, it is bordering on criminal,
but then I am a bit of a liberal when it comes to this sort of thing and not
everyone wants the government to be the ones to tell us what is right and wrong
and sometimes even I can see their point so you see, sport and politics will
always mix.
1g of protein and 1g of carbohydrate
contain 4 calories, (it will actually say kcalories on the label but ignore
that), while 1g of fat contains 9 calories. So to find the actual percentages,
look in the ‘per 100g’ column and then you need to multiply the number of g of
protein and carbohydrate by 4. Then you look at the total number of calories
that it says there is ‘per 100g’ and work out what percentage of that total is
made up by the figures you just worked out for protein and carbohydrate.
To work out the percentage of fat, take
the number of g of fat, multiply that by 9, then figure out what percentage that
is. It is ridiculously complicated.
Here is an example for a crunchy
granola snack bar:
Per 100g – 451 kcalories
Protein 8.3g
Carbohydrate 70.4g
Fat 16.1g
Now here are the calculations:
Protein 8.3g x 4 =
33.2 which is 7.2%
Carbohydrate 70.4g x 4 = 281.6 which
is 61.3%
Fat 16.1g x 4 =
144.9 which is 31.5%
Total 459.7
kcalories
Start doing this for some of the packets
and jars that you are eating, or about to put in your shopping basket. For a
quick check, just look at the fat content.
Also note that you want to minimise the
amount of sugar in the carbohydrate, and minimise the amount of saturated fat in
the fat.
Pay particular attention to your
cereals too. Cereals are generally good to eat morning noon and night, but only
if they are the plain boring ones. Avoid cereals that are loaded up with sugar
and contain all kinds of additives and preservatives. Anything that glows in
the dark should not be eaten, so fruit loops for example really ought to be
banned.
The new labels, the GDAs (guideline
daily amounts) certainly help things a bit, especially with the saturated fat,
but are still not anywhere near enough. Guideline amounts for who? For
Swimmers? What age?
I do not buy into the separation of
protein and carbohydrate. I look at milk, lentils and beans, which I consider
to be nature’s energy foods, and think that is a good way of eating. But I can
believe there will be a small number of people for whom separating the two will
really work and for those people I say do it.
I tend to look at food as either green
food, amber food or red food.
Green
food – Everyone can eat these foods in unlimited
quantities.
Amber food
– Everyone can eat these too, but begin to think about what you are eating and
what effect it will have on you.
Red food
– Swimmers can eat these foods, but only eat them from time to time and be sure
to know you are making a conscious decision to eat something that isn’t that
great.
Green food
is food which is generally low in fat. This means fruit, vegetables, rice,
pasta, lentils, beans, peas, salads, fish, lean meat, low fat yoghurt, skimmed
or semi skimmed milk, whole grain or whole meal bread, low sugar cereals, etc.
The important point to remember here is
that while pasta is low in fat, what you put on it may not be. In most cases,
you will either have a red sauce or a white sauce. Red sauce is tomato based,
so will usually be low in fat. A white sauce is often made with butter, high
fat milk, cream and often cheese. So more often than not, choose, or make,
predominantly red sauces.
The same goes for salads. Only use very
small amounts of dressing, and use olive oil and vinegar dressings.
Likewise baked potatoes. If you add
loads of butter and cheese, you are turning a green food red!
Meats can also contain relatively high
amounts of fat, some good and some bad. For example, the same size piece of
steak and salmon both contain the same amount of protein. But the steak
contains nearly twice as much fat. Worse still, the fat in the steak is
saturated fat and the fat in the salmon is unsaturated fat.
The same sized serving of lentils has
half the amount of protein but practically no fat, so it contains far fewer
calories per serving, which means you can eat tons of it.
Chicken skin is where all the fat is so
cut it off. Lamb and duck are higher in fat than pork (especially with the fat
cut off) and all are higher in fat than fish.
This does not mean don’t eat steak or
lamb. It just means on the days you do eat them, you probably want to avoid
other foods that are also high in fat.
Amber
foods are everyday foods but which are higher in fat or less nutritionally
beneficial than a similar green food. This means we will be eating more
calories per unit of food, but not necessarily feeling fuller because of it.
Amber foods include, cheese, eggs, white
bread, white sauces, higher fat meats, higher fat snack foods, pizzas, burgers,
refined foods, processed foods, convenience foods, higher sugar cereals, some
biscuits and cakes, etc.
Red foods are high fat foods. Eat
them, but eat them occasionally.
Red
foods are chips, chocolate, ice cream, crisps, fizzy drinks, deep fried food,
butter, margarine, some biscuits and cakes, diet food, microwave meals (by and
large), take away foods, foods from a machine, etc.
It is ok to eat red foods, but if you
have had a packet of crisps as a snack, steak for dinner and ice cream for
dessert, you need to be making different choices about what you eat and when you
eat it if you want to perform well.
The ultimate power snack:
Banana, peanut butter and honey in a
thick sandwich or roll.
Also worth noting is the important
difference between low fat products and diet products because they are not at
all the same. Low fat means they have taken out some of the fat. Think whole
milk, semi skimmed and skimmed milk. The only difference between them is that
they have taken out the creamy fat.
But diet products are products
manufactured in the laboratory that are very low in calories. Food that has
very low calories like this usually has all sorts of other things in it to make
it last a long time and taste nice. In almost all cases this means the use of
artificial sweeteners like aspartame. In my view aspartame is a dangerous toxin
and should be avoided.
Hydrating
As well as eating well, we have to
replace the fluid we lose from training. Everyone at least has to be drinking
water. Better yet, you also want to be replacing the lost energy, so put some
carbohydrate in there too. If you want to buy the tubs of carbohydrate drinks
then do so. They get more relevant the older you get and the more you train.
So for a ten year old, I wouldn’t bother. But for a 15 year old training ten
times a week, then I would. Drink them before, during and after training and
competition.
Alternatively, you can buy a packet of
glucose powder in Boots and add a spoonful of that to your drinks bottle, with a
small amount of juice or tiny amount of ribena or something to taste.
Or make up your drinks bottle with half
fruit juice and half water. This is a pretty good approximation to your average
energy drink and is absolutely fine.
Avoid squash as most of them will
contain all sorts of artificial stuff the body doesn’t need. For the average
person a little squash is fine, but if you are drinking litres of it a day, you
should probably think about changing.
To know if you are properly hydrated
your pee should be clear or straw coloured and hardly smell at all. If your pee
is a darker, more yellow colour and smells a bit, then go to the kitchen and
drink a pint of water.
In summary:
What is all comes down to is this:
- Eat unlimited quantities of fruit,
vegetables, salad, rice, lentils, beans and peas.
- Use oil to cook with.
- Eat whole food.
- Plan more.
- Learn more.
Some other
important points to remember:
Scales are for fish not for the
bathroom. There is no point in having some random inanimate object ruining your
day for no reason. You will know whether you are eating well by how much energy
you have in the day and how your clothes are fitting. Throw the scales away.
The language we use is important. If
you lose twenty quid, you get annoyed and want it back. So avoid saying phrases
like ‘I want to lose two kilos’ as the subconscious mind will probably find ways
of getting it back. Instead, say things like, ‘I want to get rid of two kilos’,
or ‘I want to set free two kilos’ because the subconscious will have no interest
in getting them back and they will stay away.
Eat when you are hungry and stop when
you are full.
If you are struggling with your weight,
only eat sitting at a table. The food we eat when standing up, walking around
or sitting in a car is usually snack food with high calories and a high fat
content.
The food industry relies for its
profits on your being confused. Begin to take control by learning as much as
you can about food.
A note about carbohydrate
To say that carbohydrate is either
simple, which I have done, or more complex, which I am doing now, is not just a
clever play on words, because the issue of carbohydrate is actually very
complicated indeed. To understand carbohydrate you also need to understand the
glycemic index and the glycemic load.
Some carbohydrate we eat is broken down
into sugar very quickly, and has what is called a high glycemic index. These
‘fast release’ carbohydrates send the blood sugar levels very high, very quickly
and need a little care because in the longer term, they may lead to heart
disease, diabetes and other complications.
But this is only part of the story,
because some very fast release foods, i.e. foods with a high glycemic index,
only contain very small amounts of carbohydrate and therefore do not have such a
big impact on blood sugar levels as foods with a lower glycemic index but which
contain a whole bunch of carbohydrates.
The whole effect, i.e. how fast and how
much carbohydrate, is called the glycemic load, and this is the important one.
Some food with a low, medium or high glycemic load are listed below.
Low – fruit and vegetables, lentils,
beans
Med – rice, pasta, bread
High – white bread, white rice, sugar,
potato, chips, refined cereals
So, surprise, surprise, this is all just
a complicated way of saying you want to be going for: whole wheat bread and
pasta, brown rice, whole grains, fruits and vegetables, lentils and beans. Duh!
The links to good nutrition sites will
appear on the website this month.
My recipes for good eating
- Buy one large, good quality, non
stick frying pan with a transparent lid.
- Buy one very large, good quality
casserole.
- Buy one good quality general use
kitchen knife.
- Buy one medium sized steamer (it is a
stainless steel thing like a fan that expands out and you put it in a saucepan
with some boiling water. Very useful it is too.)
All the recipes are a bit vague on
quantities, but you are not cooking for a dinner party here, you are feeding a
hungry swimmer as quickly and painlessly as possible. So add, subtract, cook
for longer or shorter, whatever you feel works.
The base
Pour a table spoon or so of olive oil
into your large, good quality, non stick frying pan.
I love onions, so I slice up three or
four medium sized onions and let them cook on a medium to low heat until they
are starting to go golden. This takes at least ten minutes, so be patient. I
put the lid on as it cooks quicker and you can keep the heat fairly low.
Chop up one (or two if you like) carrots
and throw them in and let them go for a few minutes.
(if you want to add cumin, curry powder
or paprika, now would be the time)
I like peppers, so I put in some green
and/or red pepper here.
Chop up one leek and throw that in for
another five or ten minutes.
I like garlic and it is good for you so
I put two or three cloves in at this point.
For a red
sauce
Add half a tube or a tube of tomato
puree
Add a tin of chopped tomatoes
This is your basic red sauce which you
can put on rice, pasta, baked potatoes, mashed potatoes boiled potatoes and
lentils.
To turn the base into more of a stew,
you can throw in a tin of flageolet beans, lentils, or chick peas, to make it go
further and to get some more protein and carbs.
For the
meat:
After putting the leek and garlic in,
then you can add some meat. Bacon is the obvious one. Trim the fat, cut into
pieces, move the veg to the edges of the pan and cook up the bacon. When it’s
done, stir it all around and continue with the tomatoes.
Personally I like pork, so any pork, or
chicken, or turkey or steak you like the look of (you don’t need to get the most
expensive cuts, you can trim bone and fat at home), cut it up into small ish
pieces, move the veg to the sides and throw it in. Let it cook for eight to ten
minutes or until you think it is done then add the tomatoes.
I do sausages in the pan but the
nutritionists would have you grill them then add them once they are cooked under
the grill.
Or throw in a tin or two of tuna.
Chili
The trick is to vary the quantities and
see what suits you best.
Get the biggest saucepan or casserole
you can find. Heat some oil then add:
6 medium sized roughly chopped onions,
then
4 chopped carrots, then
Some chopped green chili, depending on
how strong you like it, (or none at all) then
A sliced red pepper and a sliced green
pepper, or more if you like them
Lots of chopped garlic, then
Add the ground beef, a kilo or so, but
it’s up to you, and cook it until it is brown
Add a desert spoon of marmite
Add a tube of tomato puree, then
More mushrooms than you think because
they reduce when they cook
Two or three tins of red kidney beans
Two tins of baked beans
A tin of chopped tomatoes
Anything else you like
Cook it on a low heat for a few hours.
Eat that day or better still, put it in the fridge and then heat it up and eat
it then next day. Freeze the rest in large freezer bags, for a quick and easy
meal.
Eat with rice, mashed potatoes, baked
potatoes, pasta, and loads of peas.
A note on
cooking rice.
Put one measure of rice and two
measures of cold water into the saucepan. Add some salt. Cover. Heat until
the water boils. Then turn the heat to as low as you can and leave it for
twenty minutes. All the water will be gone and your rice will be ready.
In my view, just use your regular rice
and forget about the non stick rice which tastes awful and costs twice the
price. Rice should stick together in big chunks. Or if you like the non stick,
then get basmati rice. It’s a good idea to mix half white and half brown rice.
Simple
risotto
Make the base (carrots are optional, I
usually don’t use carrots).
If you want meat, add it here, if you
want fish, wait until later.
Add the rice (round risotto rice is
best, but normal rice is fine) and one and a half times its volume in water.
Cover and cook until all the water has
been absorbed, which should take around twenty minutes.
If you want fish, salmon for example,
you place the salmon on top of the rice and base a few minutes before you think
the rice is cooked. Cover and cook. Salmon only takes about eight to ten
minutes like this. People usually overcook it.
Or if you want to cook the salmon
separately, it cooks very well in the microwave. Cook it for one minute. Cut
off the bits that are cooked, then cook the rest of it for another minute. Most
of a salmon fillet will be cooked by then. You want it almost raw in the
middle. Trust me.
Vegetables
Vegetables are delicious. Eat them in
huge quantities with everything. Here’s how to cook them:
Peas are very easy and quick. Everyone
should always have them in the freezer. Put them in a bowl with a small amount
of water and microwave them for two minutes. Take them out and stir them around
after a minute or so. Job done.
For a real treat, fry up some chopped
onion and bacon in some oil. When they are nicely cooked, add the peas and
serve that up to some hungry kids.
Onions – slice them up and cook them in
some oil over a medium to low heat either covered or uncovered. Cook them until
they are light brown, which will probably take fifteen to twenty minutes.
Courgettes - steamed for five to eight
minutes depending on how you like it and how tight your lid is, or cooked in a
frying pan with a little oil over a medium to low heat
Leeks are my favourite. Cut up loads
of leeks and put them in a frying pan with a little oil and butter, put the lid
on and cook them for ten to twelve minutes over a medium to low heat. If you
add plenty of fresh tarragon, they will be outstanding.
If you have a leek or two spare, chop
and fry them up for ten to fifteen minutes while the potatoes are boiling, then
add them to the potatoes when you make mashed potatoes.
You can cook courgettes and leek
together and either or both with onions. Get the onions at least half way done
before adding the courgette or leek.
Broccoli – steamed for five to eight
minutes
Open a tin of sweetcorn, or better yet,
if it is in season, boil up some corn on the cob. Don’t know how long. Ten to
fifteen minutes probably.
Cauliflower – in my view, best eaten in
a white sauce, with or without a bit of cheese. So boil or steam the
cauliflower for eight to ten mins and pour a white sauce over them. Go to Delia
Smith for how to make a white sauce and getting it right is not always easy and
you have to be patient with it.
Roast potatoes are my all time
favourite and can be done quickly and easily. Cut the potatoes into fairly
small pieces and boil for twelve minutes or so. Heat some oil in a roasting
dish and then pour the potatoes in. Roast them up in a hot oven of around 200
degrees, or its equivalent, for about half an hour or so.
Ratatouille
Chop up some onions and get them going
in a couple of table spoons of olive oil
Chop up a red and green pepper and add
them
Let them go for a while (five to eight
minutes) on a medium to low heat, then chop up some garlic and add it, then chop
an aubergine and add that too. Let that go for another five minutes, then chop
a courgette or two and add that. Let that go for another few minutes, then add
half a tin of chopped tomatoes, cover and simmer on a low heat. Add the rest of
the tin of chopped tomatoes if you feel you need to.
Ideal with everything. You can add
lentils and beans to this to make it even better.
A simple salad
Buy the best greens you can and always
include some lovely rich peppery rocket.
Add some cherry tomatoes and a small
amount of chopped up avocado
Add a bit of mint or coriander if you
have any.
Add some peas and/or mange tout if you
are inclined, which I am.
Dressing: roughly five parts olive oil
to one part balsamic vinegar
If you like, you can add a little
mustard and crushed garlic.
Use the dressing sparingly; you only
need very small amounts.
Stovies
Put some oil and butter in a large
frying pan.
Chop up loads of onions as small or
large as you like.
Chop up loads of potatoes, very small
then add some garlic.
(Bacon is also an option here once in a
while)
Cover and cook on a very low heat for
two to three hours, stirring occasionally. The onions and potato will go brown
and sweet and it is delicious.
Eat with poached or boiled eggs.
Start them early in the morning and
people will come from miles around to eat them.
Leek and
potato soup
Melt a little butter in a pan
Chop up four or five medium sized
potatoes into small pieces
Chop up four or five medium sized leeks
into small pieces
Put it all into the pan over a very low
heat for ten or fifteen minutes
Add enough water to nearly cover the
leeks and potatoes
Simmer for twenty minutes.
Mash or blend in a blender or with a
hand blender.
Vary all the above quantities depending
on how thick you like your soup and how much you like the leek and/or potato.
|
