Food Made For Man or Man Made Food?

Welcome to your local supermarket...

A labrynth of food, drink, genius marketing and mis-leading information aimed all at one thing.....PROFIT!

I want to make the food shop simple for you. Let's look at the food we shop for in the most basic terms.

Let's use only 2 types of food and drink:

1. Food Made For Man

2. Man Made Food

Food Made For Man

Do you think Mother Nature is trying to kill us? As a species human beings have  survived and thrived for thousands of years, until now...

We are one of the most sick and ill species on the planet and the increase in obesity related illnesses, such has type 2 diabetes, has increased immensely over the last century, to the extent that the UK NHS forecasts that it will be unable to service this demand for healthcare.....so let's take us back to why we are here today, as human beings.

Food Made for Man is food that is provided to us from the planet not from a factory. It's just REAL FOOD.

This Food has been grown (fruit, vegetables, nuts & seeds), the food that has swum (fish & seafood)  and the food that comes from animals that walk (red meat, poultry, eggs, milk &  butter).

In its raw form this is the food we have spent thousands of years evolving and designing ourselves to eat....Do You Really Think This Food Is Making Us Sick and Fat?

As examples your shopping list should contain a selection from the following list of foods * this is not a complete list of foods just some ideas :

Meat - steak, chicken, liver, pork, lamb, free range eggs 

Fish - salmon, mackerel, white fish, crab

Dairy - milk, Greek yogurt, butter NOT margarine 

Fruit & Vegetables - green vegetables  are best and colour variety is great. 

Limit or avoid white potatoes and fruit juice.

Nuts & Seeds - almonds, walnuts, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds are good examples. 

Limit or avoid peanuts and dried fruit.

Man Made Food

So you have seen the list of foods made for man, "real food". You should consume these as part of a healthy lifestyle and you know what you are going to buy at the supermarket, am I right?

Unfortunately marketing teams are way ahead of us at the moment, so beware of the man made food marketing.

Firstly, anything packaged tends to be man made. Essentially produced in a factory. 

Tinned foods, ready meals, pizza, crisps, *chocolate, sweets, drinks other than water and milk are man made.

*as chocolate is such a craving for a lot of flight crew it can be enjoyed as part of a a balanced healthy lifestyle. I recommend you consume chocolate as near to 100% cocoa as possible to minimise the sugar content*

Labelling of products is so confusing, "low fat", "high in fibre", "added vitamins" are all seen as foods that are "healthy"....be CAREFUL and stick to the raw foods where most won't have labels, such as broccoli.

I set a challenge for you....

This week at the supermarket, shop around the outside aisles first, as this is where most of the REAL FOOD that is "Food Made For Man" is positioned. 

The inner aisles contain the packaged foods made by man...Limit or Avoid!

Conclusion

As flight crew we all aim to be that little bit healthier, fitter or slimmer most of te time. Knowing what types foods to eat is key to maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

REAL FOOD should be the majority of food you consume and although the MAN MADE FOOD is not off the menu it should be managed and consumed in limited quantit your goals for your lifestyle will depend in how disciplined you will need to be with these foods. For example if you want a fitness model body then man made food is totally off the menu. But if you strive for an improvement in your health or just an inch off your waist then just eating MORE real food may work for you!

Understanding which foods are good and why some foods are not so good for us is a complex picture when we are surrounded by so much mis-leading marketing and information aimed predominantly at profit. 

Throughout the blog I aim to break down this complex information, so as flight crew you can become the experts and make fantastic food choices. Whether you are at home, on a nightstop or even eating crew food!

Take it easy,

G

Chocks In Wine Out - is a de-stress vino bad for your health?

The chocks are in and the passengers off ..... a huge sigh of relief can be heard from the crew..WHAT A DAY!

Is this a normal job:

Calls from Crewing to change your flights

Delay after delay

Technical problems

Rowdy Passengers

Oh yes another call from Crewing "by the way you are starting 2 hours earlier tomorrow" ... Aaaargh!!

A pilot or cabin crew life is by no means a NORMAL job. 

The disruption that comes with the job is part of day to day life. Nonetheless It does not makes it easier. Personal and work related stress is something I feel Flight Crew handle very well and most pilots and cabin crew are very professional.

Time for a glass of wine I hear you say .... or is this bad for me?

Would you like some good news...read on

 

Harvard study finds that men and women who drink a small amount each day have a lower risk of heart failure than teetotallers

A small glass of wine a day could prevent heart failure, a new study suggests.

Middle-aged men who have up to seven drinks a week are 20 percent less likely to develop heart failure later in life compared to teetotallers, the Harvard research found.

The same drinking levels – equivalent to a small glass of wine or a half pint of beer a day - were also associated with a 16 per cent reduced risk in women.

Even those drinking two or three drinks a day had the same rate of heart failure as non-drinkers, according to the research published in the European Heart Journal online.

For the purposes of the study, one "drink" was defined as a beverage containing 14 g of alcohol, approximately equivalent to a small (125 ml) glass of wine, just over half a pint of beer.

What this study suggests for us flight crew is not to stress about enjoying a small glass of wine or beer!

My ideas for health, nutrition and exercise are that all of our actions have a good reason behind them, enabling us to reach ours short and long term goals.

If you are feeling stressed after a hard day in the skies or you just want to enjoy a glass of wine with your dinner then feel free....it won't kill you and in fact may even be good for your heart!

JUST DONT OVER DO IT

Unfortunately as human beings we have the ability to indulge and sometimes our subconscious mind is so overpowering we don't know when to stop. If you would like further advice on over consumption of alcohol you can visit www.drinkaware.co.uk.

My conclusion is that a small glass of wine is a healthy choice of drink to consume as part of a balanced flight crew lifestyle. Used to enhance the enjoyment of a meal, to de-stress or just for a nice social time you should not feel guilty for consuming a small glass of wine.

All wines and alcohol have different nutritional properties and that requires a blog post of its own. Don't miss this future post by joining my email list today.

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Cheers,

G

First 3 Steps To A Healthier Flight Crew

Everytime I speak to my fellow pilots and cabin crew about health and fitness the questions I get are usually the same:

What should I eat for breakfast?

Can I eat this? Should I eat that? 

Should I join the gym?

Whooooah!!! Slow down and let's start with the basics.

For this post I wanted to give you the first steps you can take to be a healthier you, what can you do TODAY!

Here are my 3 tips to start your journey to health and fitness as flight crew:

1. Get The Junk From Your Trunk

We all know that junk food is bad for us, right? Keeping it at home allows your subconscious mind to keep telling you to get it, it's a battle you won't win! Especially if it's been a hard day flying, or a tiring roster thr week.

Clear your junk food, such as crisps, chocolate, biscuits, cakes,sweet yogurts and sugary drinks.

Now if you really want it you have to meek the CONSCIOUS decision to go to the shop...leaving you in control!

2. Increase Your Activity Levels

Activity levels are exactly that - activity NOT training! 

Make the effort to sit LESS, walk MORE and be aware of how much activity you actually do. It could be just playing with your children or walking the dog, do any activity that keeps you moving and try to make it FUN if you can!

Take the stairs not the elevator, park away from the supermarket front door and walk in, all these small lifestyle changes make a BIG difference as you start to build healthy habits of a lifetime.

Remember, modern ways of transport and life are there to make things easier for us, but unfortunately it has reduced our activity levels to an extent that we all don't move enough!

3. Drink More Water

Water has many benefits for our body, mainly reducing dehydration, which can be a factor whilst flying every day in a cabin environment that's so dry! 

Fluids through our body allows us to clear our body of its toxins whilst avoiding dehydration allows our muscles to function more efficiently, making everyday movement easier.

Many people mis-judge the feeling of thirst for hunger, mistakenly eating more calories but not solving the problem of thirst! 

Water is calorie free and the liquid our body is designed to consume. There is no exact amount I recommend to drink exactly but drink when you are thirsty and aim to keep your urine colour pale.

Best of all .....it's FREE!

I hope these 3 starter tips will get you moving towards a healthier you.

Let me know how you get on in the comments below.

Take it easy,

G

Flight Crew Health and Fitness - a healthy lifestyle?

Life above the clouds, is flight crew a healthy or unhealthy lifestyle that is the question?

Let's look at it this way......you are placed in a metal tube closing in on the speed of sound, with just enough room to swing your arms around. The crew food is filling the gash cart or otherwise your filling yourself with the gash crew food, either way these are choices we have to make everyday!

And I've not even started on the 5am report time yet.....anyone for coffee! Sugar and milk? Decisions, decisions and you are still half asleep.

I have worked in the airline industry for nearly a decade now and I am currently a Captain in the UK, flying Domestic and European routes whilst doing my fair share of night stops. With a 90 minute commute to work each way I spend a lot of time on my backside these days, with the addition of crew food this is not a healthy lifestyle by any stretch of the imagination.

HOWEVER....

Through personal experience, research and education (Loughborough University BSc Sports Science), I find myself feeling healthier than I was in my teens and twenties, where I was playing professional and semi-professional football, training up to 2 times a day 6 days a week! I have found ways to reduce illness and injury, feel more alert and awake, mainly through understanding food, nutrition and exercise.

Many health and fitness programmes do not fit the lifestyle of pilots or cabin crew, and the flight crew fitness plans out there are just aimed at fitness. My philosophies are based on health and wellness which will allow you to become "fit" in any form of fitness you choose. The basics are the same.

My idea behind the Flight Crew Health and Fitness blog is to provide you, the flight crew of our skies, the information to help you achieve your health and fitness goals. Whether it's losing a few pounds, training for a marathon, protecting your medical certificate and flying licence, or just making yourself feel better you'll find something here!

If you have any topics in particulars you would like the blog to cover please let me know in the comments below.

Take it easy,

Remember.... Rome was not built in a day

G