One of the many things that I recommend that people do is to change to a paleo diet to avoid any future development of symptoms of Chronic systemic inflammation.

One of the worst meals for the development of Chronic Systemic inflammation (CSI) is the current breakfast fad of having grain based confectionery for breakfast.

While I know that many people consider a cereal breakfast to be a great start to the day, unless you are eating something luike porridge they really are just a cereal confectionery.

To answer some of the questions that I get asked. Here are some breakfast ideas.

Pancakes

1 cup almond flour , 1/4 cup coconut milk, 1 egg, 1/2 a cup of blueberries or other berries (optional) 

2 eggs, 1 onion cooked in olive oil , 1 orange 

2 eggs, a 1/2 a cup of steamed spinach, 3-4 slices of pineapple or melon, handful walnuts 

leftover meat or deli meat, and a piece of fruit 

Vegetable scrambled eggs

1. Heated up some butter in a small frying pan
2. Tossed in half a bag of roughly chopped up Baby Leaf Spinach (60p) for a few seconds till it was covered by butter and wilted very slightly In another bowl mix up 2 organic free range eggs (33p) with some pepper, mixed herbs and thyme (I used all dried but you can use fresh if you prefer
3. Chuck in the egg mixture to the pan and stir it around on a medium heat.
4. When the eggs are set to your liking, remove and put in a nice bowl with some smoked salmon

In fact almost any vegetable omelette is a great start.

Mind you try not to go too crazy eating eggs.

Another one that I enjoy is is a piece of cold chicken breast from a roast chicken and a 1/4 of a rockmelon/cantaloupe.  Or you can try a fruit slushie and a boiled egg.  It is also nice to whack some fruit into a blender and to drink that while eating a cold cut.

I will date this one the 14th of June and keep adding as I run across new recipes

So today I am going to start with the great question about water, which is:  How much water do I need to drink.  We have all asked that question at one time or another "How much water do I need to drink."

Considering that after air, water is our second most important nutirent, this is a very important question.

Unfortunately tha question is much more complicated than it would first appear.  There are a number of key factors involved in that.  The key in this question is what is your caloric intake?   You see the second largest factor in the amount of water is that your bodies uses water as a tool when digesting food and energy distribution.

The Primary use of water is for thermal management. So depending on the weather you may use or lose up to 3+ litres of water per day.

So a list of water usage in your body includes, 

• Food intake.
• Climate.
• Activity level.
• Environmental toxic load.
• Airconditioning (dries you out).
• Length of day (believe it or not).
• Lubrication.
• Moisturising skin and lungs.
• Shock absprbtion. (very active people use more for this)
• Cleaning and toxin removal from cells.
• Transport of energy, nutrients and toxins.
• Etc etc....

But you start to get the idea.

This means that almost any advice that you get regarding amounts to drink is flawed advice as it takes none of the above into account.

In fact the original 8 glasses of water a day was an off the cuff comment by a doctor given in response to an interview question in north Eastern USA around 30 years ago.  It has little relevance to most peoples water requirements.  Especially if you are living in a temperate or tropical climate.

The simplest and best advice that you can be given regarding water, and this does not apply to people with kidney disease or other such issues, is:

Drink enough water to need to urinate every 2-3 hours during the day.

This will cover most situations.   As your body flushes toxins it ramps up and down depending on load.  Also this will bypass the amount of water that your body is using for cooling and keeping your lungs moist.  If you continue to have enough foe your kidneys and liver to process toxins out of your system then the other issues are covered.

As a Public Health Nutritionist my focus is on avoiding issues. One of the frustrating issues in my professional practice has been peoples fascination with the outcomes of low quality diets, activity, hydration or sleep.

These outcomes include, obesity, overweight, arthritis, osteoporosis, diabetes, fatigue, depression, artheriosclerosis, stroke and cardiovascular disease. 

Now, while I absolutely encourage people with any of these conditions to see a medical professional, and Australia has some of the best in the world. My contention is that all of these conditions are symptoms of an underlying cause. And it is the causal issue that we need to address.

So here is my rule of thumb. See a medical professional to deal with those symptoms but do not get fascinated by them.

Redesign your life, have fun and focus on what works.

Diabetes prevention comes mainly from the field of nutrition and modern biochemistry.  

Most of the developing trend towards lifestyle diseases can be best understood when viewed as symptoms of an underlying chronic systemic inflammation.  This is not the red throbbing of an injury but the sense of feeling bloated after a meal, a sense of abdominal discomfort or digestion or bowel issues.  While these can occasionally be symptoms of an illness or a disease they are most often simply your bodies immune response to high levels of lectins, gliadins, glutens etc from an unbalanced diet.

Our bodies have wonderful mechanisms for dealing with toxins in our diets.  However those mechanisms can be overwhelmed as we eat a westernised diet.  Grains, Seeds, Legumes, Nuts, Nightshades (potato, tomato capsicun and eggplant) and Dairy all contain levels of these chemicals.  When they are eaten on their own this has little meaning to our bodies.  Unfortunately those items now comprise most of the caloric intake for many people.  And a little bit of those chemicals from everything we eat slowly gets us sensitised to these chemicals.

Once we are sensitised our bodies assume a state of low grade inflammation that can last for years.  And modern biochemical research is pointing to this being the underlying cause of many western lifestyle diseases.

This is not medical advice but I would recommend that anyone who has any signs of auto-immune responses consider seeing a dietitian or nutritionist to try an exclusion diet.

Some examples of these western lifestyle diseases/ immune disorders are

• Type 2 diabetes
• arthritis
• osteoporosis
• depression
• some types of insomnia