Nutrition can be incredibly complex. The latest fad diets often ignore this, resulting in restrictive food rules with little concern about how the prolonged deprivation of nutrients can cause long-term harm to our bodies.

This is why it’s best to follow the advice of Registered Nutritionists who have studied the profession for years and who provide evidence-based information about the impacts of food on your health. Thankfully, here at the DBT, we have the help of Registered Associate Nutritionist Steph Hayes. Some members who work in the south of the county may already know Steph from the away day healthy living talks she delivered last winter. This blog will highlight some of the key points she made in those talks.

Knowing your nutrients is not about calorie counting. It’s about knowing what the food you consume is made up of and how this benefits your health. It’s important to remember that whilst every body is unique, every body will require the following nutrients to function at its best.

Macronutrients

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are an important nutrient as they are the body’s main source of energy and fibre. If you don’t eat enough carbohydrates, you will quickly run out of steam and begin to feel tired and lethargic. Fibre is incredibly important for your gut health, with increased consumption of fibre linked to a reduced risk of bowel cancer.

It is important to consume starchy carbohydrates such as potatoes, wholemeal pasta and oats, instead of refined carbohydrates like cakes, biscuits and energy drinks. Don’t forget, fruits and vegetables are carbohydrates too!

Fats

Your body requires fats to transport nutrients throughout the bloodstream, but too much consumption of the wrong types of fats can lead to weight gain. It is important to remember balance in your diet and swap out saturated fats like meats, dairy, and fried foods for healthy monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats like avocados, nuts and oily fish.

Protein

Protein is an important part of the diet, and should be included in every meal. Your body requires protein for a number of different jobs, but the most well known is for muscle growth and repair. Sources of protein include lean meats, fish, lentils, tofu and beans. It is important to mix your sources of protein – don’t just stick to eating chicken – so that your body can utilise the different amino acid profiles contained within protein, which will keep your body functioning to the highest ability.

Micronutrients

Micronutrients are the wide variety of vitamins and minerals that your body needs for its daily processes. These are not required in the same amounts as macronutrients, but are just as important.

Some of the most well known micronutrients found in our food are:

Vitamin A for eyesight, skin health and the immune system
Vitamin B1-12 for variety of functions through the body, the immune system and energy release
Vitamin C for cell health, bone health, skin and wound healing
Vitamin D, Phosphate & Calcium for bone, teeth and muscle health
Iron needed to make red blood cells which carry oxygen around the body

What does this look like for me?

The easiest way to ensure that you are consuming the right nutrients is to follow the UK Government’s Eatwell Guide. Based upon years of research, the Eatwell Guide demonstrates the best mix of daily nutrients for most people in the UK in a handy plate diagram. You can click on the image below and print it out to stick up wherever you prepare your food, so that you always have a reminder.

The Eatwell guide demonstrates a well balanced diet we should all be aiming for. Credit: Public Health England 2016

I’ve not received a password reset email?

Be sure to check spam folders, Some email providers may consider the email to be a spam email and automatically file it into your spam folder.

The email is not in my Spam folder?

Some email providers may have very strict spam blocking in place. If this is happening you can add our email address to your ‘white list’

To do this please follow the instructions in the below links, by choosing your mail provider and adding the email: “admin@derbyshirebenevolenttrust.com” to your whitelist.

AOL

Add the “admin@derbyshirebenevolenttrust.com” to your AOL address book:

Click the “Mail Options” menu and select “Address Book”.
Inside the “Address Book” window, click the “Add” button.
Inside the “Address Card for New Contact” window cut and paste “admin@derbyshirebenevolenttrust.com” into the “Other E-Mail” field.
Make our From address the “Primary E-Mail” address by checking the associated check box to the right of it.
Click the “Save” button.

If the mailing is in your SPAM Folder, you can open the email and click the “This Is Not Spam” button.

Gmail

Add the From address you want to receive mailings from to your Gmail Contacts List:

Click “Contacts” along the left side of any Gmail page.
Click “Create Contact”.
Copy and paste “admin@derbyshirebenevolenttrust.com” into the primary email address dialog box.
Click “Save”.

If the mailing is in your SPAM folder, check the box next to the mailing and click the “Not Spam” button along the top.

Hotmail/Outlook/Live

Add the From address you want to receive mailings from to your Hotmail Safe List:

Open your mailbox and click “Options” (upper right hand corner).
Click the “Junk E-Mail Protection” link.
Select the “Safe List” link.
Copy and paste “admin@derbyshirebenevolenttrust.com” into the dialog box titled “Type an address or domain”.
Click the “Add” button next to the dialog box.

If the mailing is in your “Junk E-Mail Folder”, open the email and click the “Not Junk” button.

You should also check that the mailing’s email address is not in your Blocked Senders list. You can find your Blocked Senders list by following the directions above and going to “Blocked Senders List” instead of “Safe List”. If you see the mailing’s from address on this list, select it and click the Remove button.

Mozilla Thunderbird

Add the From address you want to receive mailings from to your Thunderbird Address Book and configure your Junk Mail Controls to white list your address book.

Add an address into your Personal Address Book:

Click the “Address Book” button.
Make sure the Personal Address Book is highlighted.
Click the “New Card” button.
Under the “Contact” tab, copy and paste “admin@derbyshirebenevolenttrust.com” into the Email dialog box.
Click “OK”.

White list your Personal Address Book:

From the main drop down menu, select “Tools –< Junk Mail Controls..."
This will launch the Junk Mail Controls window that has two tabs: Settings and Adaptive Filter
Under the Settings tab, update the “White Lists” module by selecting Personal Address Book from the pull down menu and then check mark the box next to “Do not mark messages as junk mail”.
Click “OK”.

If the mailing is in your junk folder, right-click the mailing and choose “Mark –< As Not Junk".[/vc_column_text][/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title="Netscape Mail" tab_id="1498728551530-a54d18f1-2c51"][vc_column_text]Set up a filter to redirect the mailing you want to receive into your inbox:

From the Edit drop down menu, select “Message Filters”.
Click “New”, and give the new filter a name (e.g. “Whitelist”).
Change the drop down on the left to “sender” and the one in the middle to “is”.
Copy and paste username@domain.com into the box on the right.
Make the bottom two drop downs “Move to folder” and “Inbox”.
Click “OK”.
Make sure that your new filter is located at the top of the Message Filter list so it is run before any spam filter.

Outlook 2003/2007

Add the address you want to receive mailings from to your Safe Senders list:

On the Tools menu, click “Options”.
On the Preferences tab, click “Junk E-mail”.
On the Safe Senders tab, click “Add”.
In the Add address box, copy and paste in username@domain.com and click OK.

If you are using a different version of Outlook you can add the mailers From address to your Address Book. This can be done by opening the email, right clicking the From address, and selecting “Add To Contacts”. You can also access your Address Book via the tools drop down menu.

Yahoo

Set up a filter to redirect the mailing you want to receive in your inbox:

Open your mailbox and click on “Mail Options” (upper right hand corner).
Select “Filters” under the Management column.
Click the “Add” button on the Filters page.
In the “From header:” row, make the drop down “contains” and put the mailer’s from address username@domain.com in the box.
At the bottom of the page Click the “Choose Folder” pull down menu and select “Inbox”.
Click the “Add Filter” button.

If the mailing is in your Yahoo Bulk Folder open the email and click the “Not Spam” button. You should also check that the mailing’s email address is not in your “Blocked Addresses” list. You can find your “Blocked Addresses” list by clicking “Mail Options” and then clicking the “Blocked Addresses” link under the Spam column. If you see the mailing’s from address on this list, select it and click the “Remove Block” button.

Others

The most common way to whitelist an address is to add it to your address book, white list, or safe list. There is no universal way to whitelist an address, so if this is not an option, you will have to consult the help section associated with your email application. They should have instructions on how to whitelist an address there.

Nutrition: what you need to know