So you think you know all about diet and exercise? These days we are bombarded with information and advice about healthy eating and taking exercise, but after a while much of this can become conflicting or confusing. As we head into the Christmas binge season, find out how good you are at separating the facts from the fiction with this true or false quiz.
Crash diets can make you gain weight.
TRUE Strange as it seems, this can indeed happen, particularly if you are constantly on one diet or another or began dieting at a very early age.
Drastic diets cause your brain to send out messages telling your body to store fat because there's a famine! Your metabolism then slows down and it becomes more and more difficult to maintain weight loss, and you may actually gain. Think about it: the financial survival of slimming clubs and manufacturers of dieting products depends on dieters returning again and again. With crash dieting you lose essential water and muscle as well as fat, so even if your bathroom scales indicate that you are lighter, this does not necessarily mean you are losing fat.
It is almost impossible to maintain any dramatic weight loss which has been achieved over a short period. Instead, aim to take things much more slowly by changing your eating habits, eating moderately and taking appropriate exercise. Intensive diets can also make you feel unwell. Some involve having less than 100 grams of carbohydrates a day, when your body requires nearly double that amount to function properly.
Everyone should drink at least two litres of water a day.
FALSE It doesn't have to be water, but you should be having at least two litres of fluid a day. The good news for those who just don't fancy water, bottled or tap, is that this can be provided by tea, coffee, milk, fruit juice and squash. The important thing is to constantly replace fluid lost during the course of your daily activities. Seventy percent of the human body is made up of water and some of this is constantly being lost through the simple processes of breathing, sweating and going to the toilet.
Exercising in hot weather or spending time in an overheated room will cause you to lose even more. That is why you should drink six to eight glasses of fluid a day, evenly spaced so that you have a drink about every two hours.
The recommended amount is based on an adult weighing around ten stone.
Larger people may need more fluid, children less.
If I don't drink all week it's all right to have a bit of a binge on Saturday night.
FALSE However sober you stay from Monday to Friday, it does not mean you can imbibe the maximum number of units of alcohol all in one go. The recommended limit for a woman is 14 units a week, a unit being one small glass (4 fluid oz) of wine, half a pint of beer or cider, or a single shot of spirits, but the recommended limit for any night out is three units for a woman, four for a man. If you exceed that you could be putting both your health and safety at risk. All alcohol is high in calories, so it's not helpful if you are trying to lose weight. You may have read about the beneficial effects on your heart of drinking red wine, and research does show that a very small amount can help reduce cholesterol and prevent blood clots. However, these benefits do not apply to young people, but rather to those aged over 40.
Taking a good quality multi-vitamin tablet each day means you don't have to worry about how much fruit you eat.
FALSE A supplement in tablet or liquid form can never match the variety of vitamins, minerals and roughage contained within ordinary fruit and veg.
Supplements should only ever be taken as an 'insurance policy' - never to replace fresh food. The 'five a day' rule still holds good and this is something you should stick to for yourself and the child in your care. If you feel you need iron tablets or other supplements because you are tired or unwell all the time, you must discuss this with your GP. Choose seasonally available fruit and veg and buy it every couple of days from a local store with a high turnover, rather than bulk buying and storing it a long time.
Green tea is good for you but black tea contains too much caffeine.
FALSE Green and black tea come from the same plant, and both are good for you. If you like green tea, go ahead and feel virtuous when you drink it, as it is a source of antioxidants which are known to fight heart disease and some cancers, and it is currently undergoing research in connection with other diseases as well. If you prefer a black brew (with or without milk) you are still drinking to your good health, because black tea also contains flavanoids to protect against heart disease as well as zinc, folic acid, potassium and manganese. Potassium helps maintain a normal heartbeat (which is probably why people offer tea in stressful situations), and it also helps nerves and muscles to function and regulates fluid levels within the body's cells to help us feel less tired. If you take milk you also get a dose of calcium, and tea has been shown in dentists' tests to be OK - it contains fluoride and, providing you don't take sugar, is less likely to damage teeth than soft drinks. Four or five cups a day are fine.
Too much exercise is bad for you.
TRUE It's almost impossible to believe, hearing so much emphasis on how none of us exercise enough, that you could do too much. If you're overweight and have trouble motivating yourself to take a short walk every day, then this is not referring to you and you should NOT use this as an excuse. However, if you've got yourself into a daily gym, class or running routine you may be edging towards over-exercising. The feelings of well-being you get from exercise come from the release of naturally occurring chemicals. It's normal to want to feel good all the time and go after the 'high' that exercise provides. But accept that your body needs to rest between sessions. Exercise should not be a replacement for socialising or for any other aspects of life, but should complement them. If you find yourself getting more colds than usual, feeling weak while doing simple tasks or not sleeping well, you are over-exercising and could end up with problems such as osteoporosis and infertility.
The best way to get fit is through yoga.
FALSE Yoga, whether Hatha, Iyengar or one of the many other branches, is not intended to exercise your body aerobically. To become fit you need to get breathless three or four times a week and yoga doesn't do this.
However, yoga is excellent in so many other ways. It can help your body become more supple and flexible, so, for example, if tennis is your thing, you'll find you reach shots that you previously found impossible. Through its many balancing poses, yoga will also help you develop stamina, strength and good posture. Many devotees also claim yoga helps them lead a balanced lifestyle in respect of eating and drinking. Yoga is recommended by doctors as a means to relaxation, stress reduction and a good night's sleep. If you practise yoga you should also include some walking, swimming or cycling in your exercise quota.
Walking 10,000 steps a day is all you need do to be fit.
TRUE But this truth is misleading. Most people don't realise that 10,000 steps amount to about five miles, and the golden rule - get breathless during exercise for around 30 minutes, three times a week - still applies.
A nanny is not in a sedentary job, so you may already clock around 5,000 steps a day. But you still need another 5,000 steps. That means setting aside time, just as you would if you went to the gym, to walk two and a half to three miles, at a fast pace, slightly slower than jogging, which will leave you just able to talk if you are with someone. Ambling along, chatting to mates or talking on the mobile is not what the experts had in mind when they designated 10,000 steps as a route to fitness.
Walking with a pedometer is one cheap way of giving yourself a reality check and could prove a powerful tool in getting the children in your care motivated to walk as well. The fact that walking increases bone density, which helps prevent osteoporosis, and that it's free to take up, should speak volumes in its favour. But if that's not enough, remember, if you walk two miles, three times a week, briskly, you will lose a pound in weight every three weeks - providing you don't snack along the way!
Sue Hubberstey and Jan Hurst are the authors of Help Your Child Get Fit Not Fat (Sheldon Press, 7.99)
