Leading a healthy lifestyle of high energy, mental focus, team playing and weight management is about the types of foods you eat and NOT simply about calorie counting.
The types of foods we eat determine our general state of health. Survive on a diet of high sugar, high fat, processed foods and you will find yourself lacking energy, focus, concentration and patience as is reported here in an experiment carried out by Amanda Hamilton for the Tonight programme.
The impact of our personal fuel on our health and performance is often discounted... read this article to understand the damage we do to our physical and mental health when we eat an unhealthy diet - you will be amazed and hopefully inspired to make some changes.
- Amanda Hamilton, nutritionist, swapped her nutritious diet for that of mrs Average
- Although she changed her diet, she only ate an extra 250 calories a day
- In a week she gained 5lb in weight and two inches round her waist
- Her cholesterol levels soared, her iron levels dropped and her gallbladder doubled in size
But the damage, both inside and out was staggering. She gained 5lb in weight, two inches around her waist and one inch around her hips.
Her cholesterol levels rocketed, her iron levels dropped by 1g, and her gallbladder - the organ that aids fat digestion - doubled in size.
'To say there was a big change is an understatement,' she says. 'It's really worrying news for Britons, that just a week of this diet can do such damage.'
Amanda's extreme diet swap was carried out for a documentary for the ITV show Tonight. Using government data, Amanda worked out what the average British woman eats in a week and followed it exactly: consuming 2,250 calories a day, which is not too far over the recommended 2,000 for women.
However, it was the make-up of those calories that caused a shock to her system: on average, Britons eat 29 per cent more than the recommended amount of saturated fat, 14 per cent too much salt and 26 per cent too much sugar.
Meanwhile, they're falling short on the recommended amount of fibre and typically only get three of their five a day of fresh fruit and veg.
As a slim size 8, Amanda usually consumes around 2,000 calories a day, with a balanced diet based on fresh, fibre-filled ingredients and absolutely no processed meals. She's also religious about getting her five-a-day.
When approached to be a guinea pig for the programme, Amanda says she was fascinated. 'I was interested to learn what it is like to eat like Mrs Average, to find out what British people think is an acceptable diet and what it's doing to us,' Amanda explains.
Optimistically Amanda says she expected to gain around half a pound and see her cholesterol go up a notch. She never expected the results to be as drastic. 'It's frightening to think what would - and does - happen to people who eat like this every day.'
She says she started to feel the ill-effects of her new eating plan almost immediately: 'On day one, I started with [pre-packaged] breakfast biscuits and within an hour I was hungry again. I had to eat lunch earlier because I was getting so irritable.'
As well as her three meals a day - containing little or no fresh fruit and veg - Amanda had to snack on sweets like Haribo and drink full-sugar fizzy drinks.
'On the second day I got a headache because of all the sugar and had to take a painkiller for the first time in five years. I was already feeling bloated and more sluggish.'
'I'm normally clockwork in terms of digestion, but on this diet, I found I was constipated for two days.'
Amanda's new diet caused some raised eyebrows - and amusement - among those who know her.
'One night we had a Chinese take-away - normally I'd have something like seasonal greens with oyster sauce, but I had to eat sweet and sour chicken in batter. My friends were absolutely killing themselves with laughter.'
'But I was really struggling. Forcing down a ready-meal macaroni cheese, I found myself fantasising about a delicious goat's cheese salad.'
After a few days the diet started to really take its toll on her energy levels.
'Normally I'm quite active - I do something like running or badminton or an exercise class three to four times a week - but I found that by 9pm I was a complete couch potato and just wanted to crash.
'My husband said I seemed flat and less enthusiastic. People at work commented on how tired I looked - even though they didn't know I'd been doing this experiment.'
'My clothes felt tighter after just a few days - although no one noticed, I could tell my waistline was expanding. I started to feel a bit self-conscious.'
Amanda was also startled to find she was becoming addicted to the sugary elements of the diet - sugary foods can cause spikes in blood sugar levels which lead to an energy slump, and hunger pangs.
'I noticed I started enjoying the fizzy drinks and craving them for a quick fix when I felt tired. I can see how sugar can become a habit.'
Perhaps the hardest thing to bear, says Amanda, was the effect the diet had on her emotional state: 'I started to feel depressed and was very grumpy.'
Still, even though Amanda knew she looked different and felt different, she still found the reality of the results medical tests at the end of the week 'deeply shocking'.
'I'm finding it hard to get my head around the fact my gallbladder doubled in size [because it had to work to digest all the fat], and also the weight gain. Two kilos is a huge amount of weight to put on in seven days given the fact I wasn't actually eating any extra calories.'
