First we are told that fats are unhealthy and then carbohydrates and sugar and salt. Now there is mercury in fish to worry about, hormones in dairy, additives in children’s snacks and even spinach has been linked to bacterial outbreaks. But not to worry you can take the stress out of healthy eating by making a few changes to the way you shop and cook.

Fish: Mercury is deposited into the oceans and streams by coal burning plants where it can convert to a more toxic form, methylmercury which makes its way into the food chain and is most prevalent in large, predatory fish that live a long time because the metal accumulates over time and the fish also feed on other mercury-contaminated fish.

To avoid the risk of mercury overload avoid fish like shark, swordfish, and marlin. Buy canned light tuna, wild or canned salmon (not farmed), halibut and catfish. Pollutants in fish are most likely to accumulate below the skin and in fat deposits so remove skin before cooking. Unfortunately, mercury concentrates in the muscle tissue so if you are pregnant or hoping to be, the recommendation is to have no more than two portions of oily fish a week. Also limit tuna to either two fresh tuna steaks a week or four medium cans of tuna (canned tuna does not count as an ‘oily’ fish because the oils are lost in the canning process). Fish oil supplements are fine as long as you know they are from a reputable source.

Fruits and vegetables: Conventionally grown fruits and vegetables are sprayed with dozens of chemicals and pesticides. Pesticide residues have been linked to hormonal imbalances and cancer.

To avoid the risk choose organic when you buy the most heavily sprayed fruit and vegetables e.g. peaches, apples, nectarines, strawberries, pears, celery, cherries, imported grapes, lettuce, bell peppers and potatoes. You should also thoroughly wash your fruit and vegetables under cold running water. For foods with firm surfaces such as apples use a vegetable brush.

Dairy: Dairy cattle are routinely kept pregnant now while they are being milked so the hormone levels such as oestrogen can be high.

Choose organic dairy produce where possible. You could also choose non-dairy substitutes such as rice, oat or soya milk.

Meat: Antibiotics are routinely fed to life stock to prevent infections from unsanitary conditions. Experts believe that the overuse of antibiotics in live stock allows harmful bacteria to develop resistance. About 70 percent of bacteria that cause hospital infections have become resistant to at least one antibiotic; some of which may be related to those used in live stock.

My advice is to avoid meat completely and to substitute with protein rich fish, nuts, seeds, legumes and grains but if you must eat meat, buy organic chicken or turkey. Remove skin and fatty tissue to reduce the amount of pollutants and pesticides; don’t let anything raw come into contact with fresh food and cook meat thoroughly.

Ingredients: Many additives, preservatives and colourings have a negative effect on your health ranging from allergic reactions, headaches and nausea to hyperactivity in children. The best advice is to avoid food that is processed and refined, such as white bread and ready meals and use your common sense when shopping. If a food looks unnatural it probably is and if the list of ingredients on the back reads like a chemistry experiment put it back on the shelf. Seven dangerous ingredients to be wary off, especially if you are shopping for your children, are:

• E211- sodium benzoate: This preservative can trigger allergic reactions and is used in salad dressings, barbecue sauce, soy sauce, fruit drinks and sweets.
• E110- sunset yellow: This dye can cause nausea and hyperactivity and is found in orange squash, jam, lemon curd, packet soups, cheeses sauces and sweets.
• E129- allura red: This dye is found in sweets, soft drinks and biscuits. It can cause mild allergic reactions and is banned in nine European countries.
• E124- ponceau 4R: This red dye can cause allergic reactions and is found in dessert toppings, salami, salad dressings, cheesecakes and fruit drinks.
• E104- quinoline yellow: This dye is found in scotch eggs, chewing gum and cough sweets and can cause hyperactive behaviour. It has been banned in Australia, Japan, Norway and the US.
• E102- tartrazine: This dye is found in fruit squashes, cake mixes, soups, ice creams, jellies, mustards, yogurts and tinned food. It can cause allergic reactions, headaches and blurred vision.
• E122-camoisine: This dye is found in marzipan, swiss roll, jam, brown sauce, flavoured yogurts and fruit drinks. It can cause mild rashes and hyperactive behaviour.

The stomach is one of the problem places on your body where weight gain tends to end up and once the fat settles there is can seem nearly impossible to remove; however hard you exercise or try to eat healthily.

Not only is stomach fat unsightly it also increases your risk of poor health. This is because fatty tissue that is stored around the stomach and abdomen (sometimes called intra-abdominal, or visceral fat) carries a greater health risk than fat located in the lower body around the bottom and thighs. Some health studies show that abdominal fat leads to raised blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, high blood sugar, insulin resistance syndrome (metabolic syndrome X) and heart disease. Because of this, some experts believe that the ratio of your waist to hip is more important than your actual weight in predicting future health risks.

Fortunately, stomach fat isn’t as impossible to shift as you may think it is. You just need to know how. Follow these fifteen steps and you will see major improvements not just in your waistline but also in your health and wellbeing.

1. Get walking: You know walking is great for your heart, legs, bottom and energy level but here’s a little-known fact: It’s also a great way to flatten your belly. Women who walked briskly for 30 minutes to an hour a day for 14 weeks shrunk their belly fat by 20% – without changing their eating habits, reports a Canadian study.
2. Eat more often: Here’s another little known fact: eating more often than usual can help give you a flatter stomach. By eating little and often – and keeping your digestion and blood sugar levels steady – your body only takes in what it can process and little is stored as fat, so the risk of stomach bulge or bloating is minimised. So make sure you don’t leave more than three hours between meals and snacks.
3. Watch your posture: Poor posture and slumping as you walk can make even a flat stomach look saggy because when your body is aligned correctly, core muscles will work harder leading to a firmer stomach. Good posture has nothing to do with the old school rigidity of pulling in your stomach and puffing your chest out. Good posture is about keeping your body upright and stomach firm by using the muscles that run along your back and spine and legs to lift you up.
4. B vitamins: Make sure you get sufficient B vitamins, especially vitamin B6 – found in banana, fish, nuts, seed and whole grains – which is a good remedy for bloating. Other foods that can naturally decrease bloating include potassium rich foods such as bananas and green leafy vegetables.
5. Do your sit ups correctly: Sits ups performed correctly can help you give you a firm stomach and stronger back and if you perform them correctly you don’t have to do hundreds a day. To do a sit up correctly make sure you do it slowly and carefully. Lie down on the floor and bend your knees at a 45 degree angle. Tilt the pelvis up and release so your spine is in contact with the floor except at your lower back, where it will naturally come off the floor. Curl your chin towards your chest, leaving an apple-sized gap between your neck and chest. Keeping your hands on the floor, gently and smoothly lift your shoulders off the floor. You should take around two seconds to come up on an out breath and then breathe in as you release. Aim to do 15 reps, and build up to two to three sets at a time. Try to make this part of your daily getting up routine.
6. Ditch the gum: Chewing gum can cause bloating because your stomach starts producing digestive juices for food that doesn’t arrive and because when you chew gum you tend to swallow more air so best to avoid. If you want to freshen your mouth after a meal, brush your teeth or drink a cup of peppermint tea instead. Peppermint tea is known to help reduce bloating.
7. Cut out salt, sugar, junk food, and refined and processed foods: These can all lead to bloating, weight gain and digestive problems. Cut out caffeine too. Caffeine is a diuretic but it won’t cut out bloating because it hinders the secretion of excess salt and toxins from the body.
8. Increase your fluid intake: You need to drink more not less if you have water retention and bloating, to help your body dilute the salt in your tissues and allow you to excrete more salt and fluid. Aim for 6 to 8 glasses of filtered water a day.
9. Avoid alcohol: Any alcoholic drink can add to the size of your stomach because it causes bloating and is dense in calories. Every gram of alcohol contains the same amount of calories as a gram of butter. Like other calorie-packed foods it promotes weight gain. If you can’t give it up completely bear in mind that beer drinkers tend to have the highest waist-to-hip-ratios.
10. Eat slowly: If you eat too quickly this can overload your stomach, which can cause gas and bloating. Also you tend to gulp more air when you eat quickly so remember to eat slowly and really chew your food.
11. Work out your core muscles: Your core muscles lie behind your abdominals and keep your spine upright and control your balance and posture. A firmer core means a stronger back and a flatter stomach. To strengthen your core muscles, sit back in a chair with your head up, knees bent and feet on the floor. Rotate your shoulders up and back, and rest your arms by your sides. Pull your stomach in and breathe; imagine you are doing up an imaginary zip on the front your trousers. Keeping your stomach in raise and lower one leg at a time 10 times.
12. No starchy carbohydrates after 7 pm: Make sure you eat breakfast, then have a mid morning snack followed by a healthy lunch, a mid afternoon snack and a light supper. Try to eat most of your starchy carbohydrates before 7 pm. This is because carbohydrates are your energy boosters and you need to eat them during the day when you have an opportunity to burn off calories as energy not at nighttime when you need to be resting. If you do this you’ll notice a difference immediately the next morning when you wake up.
13. Massage your abdomen: If you suffer from bloating or digestive upsets abdominal massage can help ease symptoms. Use the flat of your hand to apply light pressure in anti-clockwise circular movements because this can help blood flow, relax muscles and encourage digestion.
14. Stress and stomach fat: Some health studies show that abdominal fat can develop as a result of stress. This is because the hormone cortisol is released during stress, and a high level of cortisol in the body appears to stimulate the storage of fat around the belly and abdomen. Researchers at Yale University studied 60 women and found that the more stress they were under, the more fat they stored around their stomachs. So if your life is constantly stressful make stress management a priority. An aromatherapy bath is a great way to unwind at the end of a busy day and can also be helpful for bloating. Add fennel or chamomile to a warm bath and soak for 20 minutes.
15. Whatever you do, don’t go on a diet: Irregular eating habits can increase bloating. If you leave your stomach empty for long periods of time the secretion of digestive enzymes slows down. If you’ve got weight to lose, avoid fad diets and bouts of starvation, deprivation and desperation and eat a fresh, healthy diet rich in organic whole grains, fruits and vegetables, nuts, seeds and oily fish. This will keep your metabolism (fat burning) up and your digestion steady and leave you with a smaller stomach.

(For more detailed information on getting rid of that fat around the middle see my book ‘Fat around the Middle’ and if you think stress could be causing the problem it is possible to test for this by doing an Adrenal Stress Test using saliva to measure levels of cortisol and this can be organised by post, phone 01892 507598 or go to www.naturalhealthpractice.com)

A recent report released by the Pesticide Residues committee suggests that up to a third of our food may be tainted by pesticides. Traces of chemicals were even found on fruit destined for children under the Government’s free fruit for schools scheme.

More than 3,500 food samples were tested, of which 34.8 per cent contained residues of pesticides. The committee did stress that the vast majority of the traces were at levels too low to cause health problems.

However, 60 of the samples – 1.7 per cent – did contain levels higher than the maximum safe legal limit. Imported food was most likely to be in breach, said the committee. Exotic fruit and vegetables such as yams, pomegranates and passion fruit were responsible for almost all the higher than acceptable levels. Scientists also found worrying levels of chemical fungicides on Spanish lettuce, with one containing twice the permitted maximum.

From the point of view of a nutritionist I can understand why people may be worried about the amount of pesticides and residues in their food. A build up of pesticides in the body has been linked to a range of illnesses and conditions including cancer, damage to the immune system and hormone disruption in children, which causes girls to hit puberty earlier and boys to have lower sperm counts. But it is important for everyone to make sure they eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day. Study after study shows that the health benefits of eating good amount of fruit and vegetables.

To minimise your risk of pesticide residue, however, follow my advice in my ‘So what can I eat?’ feature and then make sure you:

• Wash all fresh vegetables and fruit, thoroughly with lots of running water.
• Use a small vegetable brush to clean the outer skin of vegetables and fruit, if appropriate – for example, before eating apples, potatoes, cucumbers or other produce in which you eat the outer skin.
• Peel vegetables and fruit and trim the outer leaves of leafy vegetables, along with washing them thoroughly. (Unfortunately, peeling vegetables and fruit may also reduce the amount of nutrients and fibre.)
• Buy organic where possible because you are not only reducing your exposure to pesticides but you can also eat the peel where most of the nutrients are contained under the skin.