Emily English Nutrition

19/11/2020

🌱Plant based gorgeousness🌱

We eat food, not nutrition so remember to love and enjoy what is on your plate. Make it wholesome and make it complete ✨

📸 ancient grains, roasted chickpeas, steamed spinach, salt baked beetroot, jalapeño hummus and avocado. Drizzled with a lemon, EVOO and tahini dressing.

13/11/2020

✨New things coming soon✨

I am so excited to be working on a new project bringing healthy, nutritionist designed food to your homes...WATCH THIS SPACE 👀

Bridging the gap between health and food you want to eat. Nutritional but comforting. Filling but won’t weigh you down. 🙏🏻

📸Slow roasted tomatoes, marinated feta, soft egg, labneh, sourdough.

04/11/2020

✨MY 5 TOP TIPS TO STAY HEALTHY DURING LOCKDOWN✨

Increased anxiety, closure of gyms, colder weather and shorter days. Winter lock down comes with a whole new list of challenges but here are my top tips for staying healthy and happy💪🏼

1. SELF CHECK IN. The word meditation can sometimes put people off and is hard to get the hang of so I prefer self reflection. Take 5 minutes, sit or lay down and breathe deeply into your stomach. Imagine with each breath out any stress or anxiety is leaving your body through your forehead.

2. COMFORT FOOD DOESN’T HAVE TO BE ‘BAD’. Rather than turning to junk fast food try making it yourself at home with real wholesome ingredients. Have a hand at tacos, try out a homemade pizza, mix up your own burger. Connect with the food you are making! Give it love and it will love you in return.

3. ORDER A VEG BOX. Now is the perfect time to get to know vegetables that you dont normally cook with, spend the time to know what’s in season, how to prep it and make it taste great. Plant diversity = better health = happier you.

4. MINDFUL MOVEMENT. This doesn’t have to be heavy exercise if you aren’t feeling up to it but everyday get some form of movement in fresh air. Exposure to natural light is key in regulating your rhythms and waking you up.

5. KEEP A ROUTINE. Try and wake up and go to bed at the same time each day. Create a list of all the tasks you want to complete to allow yourself to feel like you are achieving something each day, no matter how small.

01/11/2020

✨WARM ROASTED WINTER SUPERFOOD SALAD✨

Is it just me who craves food that is warm and comforting during the colder months? 🥶This superfood salad is JUST the ticket with roasted Za’Atar butternut squash, nutty pearl barley, marinated feta, roasted crispy kale and a sprinkle of pomegranate seeds. 👀

If you take away one thing from this post (as well as a the recipe) it’s to go and buy some pomegranates! 💫They are in season NOW. Pomegranates also have antioxidant activity three times higher than that of red wine and green tea💪🏼

👉🏼One of the most important health effects of pomegranate is its action on the gut. The polyphenols in pomegranate can act as a prebiotic, supporting beneficial strains as well as increasing SCFA production in the gut (see my post on butyrate)

👉🏼They are also fantastic for our skin, reducing oxidative stress with their potent anti inflammatory action.

👉🏼Help support your joints. Pomegranate extracts were found to be protective of the deterioration of the cartilage in joints, helping to alleviate knee pain.

RECIPE
1️⃣Cut the butternut squash into cubes, drizzle over good olive oil and Za’Atar. Roast in the oven at 200c fan until golden and soft inside.
2️⃣ Cook the pearl barley in seasoned water until softened and nutty, I like them with a bit of texture.
3️⃣ Marinade the feta in 1tbsp EVOO, lemon juice, and more Za’Atar.
4️⃣ Roast the kale with a drizzle of EVOO in the still hot oven from the butternut squash, making sure it doesn’t burn mixing occasionally.
5️⃣ Once all the parts are finished, assemble together, finishing the plate with a sprinkle of fresh pomegranate seeds, some extra Za’Atar, lemon juice and salt.

24/10/2020

CONFUSED ABOUT PROTEIN POWDER, HAVE A READ👀

Protein as a macronutrient is often put on a pedestal, the golden child if you wish. Essential for muscle building, wound healing, immunity, hair skin and nails. It great at boosting peoples feeling of fullness making it a great tool for sustainable weight loss diets. Interestingly, protein is also thermogenic meaning roughly 25% of the calories in protein will be burned off after consumption due to its thermic effect. This doesn’t mean a free for all, as the thermic effect of food only makes up a tiny part of your daily energy expenditure.

For day to day life, our essential protein requirements are easy to reach. Is a protein shake necessary here? Only if you enjoy them, otherwise NO! We can get all our protein EASILY from foods, both from plant based and animal based sources. However, protein shakes are convenient and suited to specific individuals especially when it comes to muscle growth💪🏼

Who would benefit most from consuming protein powder? The winners here are the elderly population as they suffer from a “anabolic resistance” ie they need more protein to lead to maximum muscle protein synthesis. There is also great use for those who exercise and are trying to meet high daily protein requirements.

If you’re exercising for fat loss whilst in a calorie deficit, consuming more protein helps to minimise muscle loss & increase fullness. The BIGGEST mistake I see people make is chugging down a peanut butter protein shake after their workout alongside lunch to then sit at home for the rest of the day. If exercise for fat loss is your goal (and the shake isn’t acting as a meal replacement) choose lighter protein mixes. Blend 1 scoop with berries spinach and unsweetened almond milk for a great post workout drink.

You should also take your protein in the context of total leucine👀. It’s often stated whey is better than pea protein but this is due to the fact gram per gram whey has a higher LEUCINE content. If you take a vegan protein powder simply have more to reach 1.8g leucine per portion. ie 25g powder for pea rather than 20g whey to reach 1.8g leucine = stimulates max muscle growth.

More to come folks 🥤

20/10/2020

⁉️What’s is butyrate and how can we make more of it?⁉️

Butyrate is BIG player when it comes to gut health. It’s one of the short chain fatty acids produced by bacterial fermentation of dietary carbohydrates, specifically resistant starch🍠

Although it is produced in the lowest amounts out of the other short chain fatty acids (∼60% acetate, 25% propionate, and 15% butyrate in humans) butyrate is the major energy source for our colon cells 🐷and plays an important role in our immune and inflammatory responses along with overall intestinal barrier function🔝

It promotes the growth of our gut villi (for nutrient absorption) and enhances our mucin lining providing us with a strong “epithelial defence barrier”, that stops any nasties ie bacteria, toxins from travelling into our bloodstream🦠There are specific butyrate producing bacterial strains, when our bacterial diversity is thrown off due to a western style diet or keto/high protein diet it can result in a thinning of our mucin lining which affects how we regulate inflammation and the overall health of the gut, not good!

How can we increase our butyrate production?
By increasing the species that make it!
How...
Prebiotics and fermentable fibres 😁 aka fibre diversity ladies and gents. Resistant starch from potatoes, unripe bananas, uncooked oats, artichokes and cooked to cooled pasta is a good start. NOT all fermentable fibers are equally capable of stimulating butyrate so try to just eat a nice range of foods to ensure you are ticking every box!🥗

Butyrates role in cancer should also be mentioned as it acts as a signaling molecule, effecting multiple pathways that are associated with cancer development and progression with the potential to be utilised into cancer prevention and treatment regimens but research is not there yet.

Can I not just supplement butyrate? as the acid is absorbed further up than our lower colon so won’t be able to fuel all those key cells. It’s better to support your natural production line! 💚

NB: If you are keto/ low carb or just want to ensure you are making enough butyrate consider a fibre supplement that has been shown to increase colon butyrate concentrations

15/10/2020

📣FOOD CAN INFLUENCE OUR GENES📣

We are born with a set of genes that do not change, these are our own unique set of instructions 📖. Genetic variation can result in multiple versions of genes, which can lead to differences in the amount of protein produced or how efficiently those proteins function ie the lactase enzyme🧀

These genetic differences can affect how we respond to the foods we eat, giving each of us our own nutritional needs🧍🏼‍♀️🧍🏾🧍🏻‍♂️

But did you know food can directly influence how those instructions are read⁉️. This is known as epigenetics, essentially how our food affects gene expression and the ability to switch genes on and off💤

POLYPHENOLS ARE KEY EPIGENETIC INFLUENCERS (yes I am talking about these guys again)🥬🥦🍅

A great example is curcumin in turmeric. Curcumin has been identified as an inducer of epigenetic change, regulating the expression of important genes by reversing DNA methylation and altering histone modifications and by targeting several miRNAs that play a key role in disease including cancers, diabetes, autoimmune diseases and neurocognitive disorders (Alzheimer’s disease).

How can I get more polyphenols into my diet? 🍓Buy organic if you can, organic foods contain higher amounts of polyphenolic compounds (a whole coming on this later). Choose colour ie deep purples and reds. Last but not least bump up herbs and spices in your cooking.

Food isn’t just macros ladies and gentleman!🙏🏻

29/06/2020

Aubergine parmigiana lasagne

Oh this really ticks all the boxes. A hybrid of a classic lasagne but with the taste of a aubergine parmigiana. Traditionally the aubergines are fried in lots of oil before layering making them meltingly soft and rich however hot very waist line friendly. Aubergines are particularly porous

12/06/2020

Bit of ugly delicious for you all this Friday. 🍽 crispy skin olive chicken, parmesan cauliflower steaks and secret sauce.

-

Managed to sneak quite a few veg into this without compromising on the taste. The crispy edges of the cauliflower remind you of the top bits of a cauliflower cheese. Roasting the chicken with olive tapenade stuffed under the skin gives a juicy and salty olive tang to the meat.

-

This punchy sauce is one for the archives with 7 different veg...but I can’t share with you just yet 🤭
@ Greenwich Park

10/06/2020

Hey 👋🏼 I’m Emily and wanted to introduce myself to you all ⬇️.

-

I come from a huge family of 7 and food has always been a massive part of our lives. I adore cooking and good food without demonisation. Often with nutrition advice, our identity and love in what we eat can be removed 👥.

-

It’s why in my private clinic, everyone is understood through all their uniqueness. What you feed your body is incredibly important, but so is what you feed your mind 💆🏼‍♀️. Plans should suit you and be achievable.

-

Better health is a journey which should be full of happiness, feelings of success and motivational drivers and nothing gives me more pleasure than supporting that journey with my clients 🍽✨