1. Set clear expectations and boundaries.
2. Show your children unconditional love and acceptance.
3. Spend quality time with your children.
4. Encourage your children to express their feelings.
5. Model the behavior you want to see in your children.
6. Praise your children for their efforts and accomplishments.
7. Teach your children problem-solving skills.
8. Discipline with love and consistency.
9. Encourage your children to be independent.
10. Teach your children to be responsible.
Here are the top 10 scientifically proven ways for weight loss:
1. Eat a high-protein diet: Protein is the most filling macronutrient and can help reduce cravings and calorie intake.
2. Reduce calorie intake: To lose weight, you need to consume fewer calories than you burn. This can be achieved by reducing portion sizes, choosing low-calorie foods, and avoiding high-calorie snacks and drinks.
3. Increase physical activity: Exercise can help burn calories and increase muscle mass, which can boost metabolism and aid in weight loss.
4. Drink plenty of water: Drinking water can help reduce calorie intake and increase feelings of fullness.
5. Get enough sleep: Lack of sleep can disrupt hormones that regulate appetite and metabolism, leading to weight gain.
6. Eat more fiber: Fiber can help reduce calorie intake and promote feelings of fullness, leading to weight loss.
7. Avoid processed foods: Processed foods are often high in calories, sugar, and unhealthy fats, which can contribute to weight gain.
8. Practice mindful eating: Mindful eating involves paying attention to your food and eating slowly, which can help reduce calorie intake and promote weight loss.
9. Reduce stress: Stress can lead to overeating and weight gain, so finding ways to manage stress, such as meditation or yoga, can aid in weight loss.
10. Consider weight loss medication or surgery: In some cases, medication or surgery may be necessary to achieve significant weight loss. However, these options should only be considered under the guidance of a healthcare professional.
The best intermittent fasting method for you depends on your lifestyle, schedule, and personal preferences.
The brain represents about 2% of body weight of an adult but it consumes 20% of the oxygen and glucose the body produces, even at rest. Glucose is the brain’s main fuel supply and is therefore necessary for mental performance.
Despite the well established fact that increased levels in glucose are associated with better cognition 10-30 % of people in Europe skip breakfast - the first opportunity to replenish the glucose levels in the blood after a long night of fasting.
We all know breakfast is important, but does it matter what type of breakfast? We enlisted one scientist and a classroom full of schoolchildren, to see if we could find out.
"increased levels in glucose are associated with better cognition"
On two consecutive days we got our children to test two different types of breakfast - an English breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast, and an American one of waffles and maple syrup.
We waited three hours for the breakfasts to take effect and then gave the children a frustrating game of swing ball to play. What we were looking for was not swing ball skill, but rather the ability to stay focused on the task in hand and not get frustrated with losing.
So which breakfast proved a winner? Staying power was more prominent after the English breakfast. Why? Because foods like eggs, toast, and oats have a low GI content which means the glucose is released more slowly into the blood keeping you focused for longer.
"Rosie ate 3 more pieces of pizza when watching TV"
Eleven year old Rosie is active but still slightly overweight. We gave Rosie her favourite food, pizza, on two different evenings, one sitting in front of the television and the other sitting at the table. Rosie ate 3 more pieces of pizza when watching TV which, if she ate pizza every day, would be a whole extra 118 pizzas a year or 81900 calories. Why? It could be that when your brain is distracted by television it ignores your internal satiety signals.
How you eat is as important as what you eat so eat at a dinner table with the television switched off.
Do you dread children’s parties because of the effect all those sugary snacks will have on your child? Does sugar turn your little angel into a little monster?
Are you sure it’s the sugar?
We decided to find out. Enter Becky and Niall. Two five year olds whose occasional out-of-control behaviour their parents’ attribute to sugar. Add two parties, one with sugary snacks and the other sugar-free, and mix well.
Day one, the underwater themed storytelling party. To make sure the experiment was impartial we told Becky’s mum Patricia, and Niall’s dad Michael, that we would be feeding their children a sugar-free lunch. Then we swapped the healthy snacks for the sugary ones.
When it was time for Becky and Niall to go home both parent’s were unsurprised at how calm they were since they believed that the children had consumed a healthy sugar-free lunch.
Day two, the crazy, boisterous, food throwing party. This time we told Becky’s and Nialls’ parents that we would be feeding them a lot of sugar and they prepared for the worst.
"they had both eaten the equivalent of 47.5 cubes of sugar"
The dreaded time arrived and we filmed Niall and Becky on the journey home. Both their behaviour was markedly different to what their parents had witnessed the day before and Patricia and Michael were certain the sugar had some influence.
On revealing our double-bluff Patricia and Michael were astounded by the outcome, especially when we told them that on day one, when the children were calmer, they had both eaten the equivalent of 47.5 cubes of sugar.
The theory that too much sugar makes children hyperactive doesn’t stand up to the tests - it may be that the environment your child is in is the defining factor in how boisterous their mood is. This doesn’t mean sugar get’s off lightly though. It may not lead to hyperactivity but it does make your blood sugar drop which could make your children irritable and distracted.
Since the 1970s portion sizes have increased dramatically amongst children and adults. According to psychologists children rely on adults to show them how much to eat so we decided to see if, when doubling portion sizes, children know when their satiety signals are saying stop.
"They ate 73% more on the second day"
We are all born with an efficient system that tells us when we are hungry and when we are full. However, very early in life we are taught to override these signals. When children are presented with a large portion they will eat all of it in spite of feeling full. If children overeat consistently they are going to be overweight.
We took a class full of children and gave them an identical meal on two consecutive days. The difference was that on the first day we gave them the government recommended allowance and on the second day we doubled it.
Did the children know when to stop? Not quite. They ate 73% more on the second day than they did on the previous one. A 2000 study showed that three year olds still heard their satiety signals and stopped eating when they were full. Five year olds, on the other hand, finished their plates no matter what the portion size.
Eating habits are cultivated early on in life- if we are not careful we may be the first generation to outlive our children because of obesity so don’t overfeed your child.
38% of adults will only eat 10 foods. So how do you get your children to eat something that even adults won’t try?
"peer groups are the biggest influence on young children"
Cognitive research shows that peer groups are the biggest influence on young children - if the boy next door is eating it, chances are your child will want a piece of the action.
We brought in four older child-actors to see if their influence could make our vegetable haters change their eating habits. The plan was that by lunchtime our undercover agents would have worked their magic and Isaac, a self-confessed broccoli hater, would be a reformed, vegetable-eating character.
Did it work?
Isaac’s friend Luke, who had earlier claimed to hate peas, witnessed his new found friends eating their veg and attacked his with fervour. Isaac, with a little encouragement, not only tried his broccoli but ate the entire portion without fuss. Now he’s tried it once there’s a chance he will try it again so a week later we film Isaac and his family enjoying a meal at home. Although Isaac still doesn’t like the tomato his mum encourages him to try he needs no persuasion to eat his broccoli.
So, peer groups have a larger influence on children than their teachers or parents so bring in the backup and remember- if you can get your child to try something once there’s a chance they will try it again and again until they like it.
Research shows that by making foods unavailable they become more attractive. To test this we took a classroom of four and five year olds and examined their reaction to restricted treats over the week.
First, we had to find two foods that all the children were nonplussed about- we tested them with a range of dried fruit snacks and mangos and raisins were equally indifferent in the children’s preferences. Then the fun began. Every day, at snack time, we put the two bowls of snacks side by side and told the children that on the first whistle they had 15 minutes of unrestricted access to the mango. At the second whistle they had only five minutes of snack time to eat the raisins.
"there was a stampede to reach the forbidden fruit"
We watched the children day by day as the mango fell out of favour and the kids began cravin’ raisins. To begin with the children snacked voraciously on the mango but were more excited when it was raisin time. By the end of the week there was a stampede to reach the forbidden fruit, and the mango was looking less and less attractive.
The same kids who were indifferent to both snacks at the beginning of the week couldn’t get enough of the raisins by the end.
So, by restricting snacks you may have the adverse effect of making your children desire them even more and even encourage them to hide their snacking habits.
Within the colon there are over 500 bacterial species, making up about 95% of cells in the body. In effect, we are living, breathing, bacteria-carrying monsters!
Good bacteria in the gut break down carbohydrates to create 10 % of our daily energy. They also help the body fight infection and disease by combating the effects of the bad bacteria.
"The prebiotic group managed to increase their good bacteria numbers by 133 million"
We took 8 hard-working cowboys, and divided them into two groups. Half of them were put on a diet of probiotics - cultures containing good bacteria found in foods such as yoghurt. The other half we put on a prebiotic diet - substances found in certain vegetables such as leeks and bananas, which make the pre-existing good bacteria in the gut healthier.
Then we got down to the dirty work. Their poo was examined daily to measure the change in bacteria. If the good bacteria are fed well they should multiply in number and make the ranchers healthier.
The cowboys’ poo showed that the prebiotic group managed to increase their good bacteria numbers by 133 million, small in bacteria terms, but an encouraging effect. The probiotic group saw little change over the week, but over a longer period there’s evidence that they can make a difference.
It seems from our investigation the best thing you can do for your bacterial health is treat your good bacteria to a prebiotic meal. The best vegetables to feed good bacteria are artichokes, garlic, leeks and onions.
Are we paying the price for eating processed foods?
"our group’s total cholesterol fell by 23%"
We took ten volunteers back in time to take a leaf out of the book of our ancestors in order to investigate what impact our short, sharp, shock would have on reducing the risk of fatal illnesses.
At the end of the period we tested the biological markers cholesterol and hypertension as the measures of our success. In just twelve days our group’s total cholesterol fell by 23% and we also saw a sharp decrease in sodium levels.
So, what does this show? That simply by introducing changes into our diet, by aping our ancestors, we can dramatically improve our health.
There’s a common dieting myth that if you drink a glass of water before you eat you will feel fuller for longer.
But is there any truth in this? We took it upon ourselves to put the water theory up against the latest idea in the science of dieting.
The new buzzword in dieting is satiety - it’s less about reducing your calorie intake and more about eating foods that will keep you satiated for longer.
To illustrate our study we conducted at Nottingham University we took two teams with a love for classic American automobiles and sent them on a road trip through the lonely Nevada desert to see which group would give in to their hunger pangs first.
Both teams were given an identical meal of chicken and vegetables with a glass of water. The only difference was that one team drank the water before they ate, and the other had the water blended with the meal to make a soup.
Then we sat back and waited for the hunger signals to kick in.
In the original study the group who ate the chicken and vegetable soup were satiated for 60 minutes more when compared to the group who drank the water before the chicken and vegetable meal.
"activating our satiety signals can reduce our hunger by up to a quarter"
But why? When we drink a glass of water with our meal our stomach is able to sieve the water from the solids passing quickly from our intestines into the stomach. However, when we combine the water and food in a soup this sieving is prevented and ensures that the water and the nutrients from the food stay together, homogenised, thus entering the intestine at the same time.
Because of the increased volume of the water and solid combined the food stays in our stomach for longer, activating our satiety signals and delaying emptying, which, according to the scientists, can reduce our hunger by up to a quarter.
Many of us think that the best way to fill our stomachs is with a large amount of carbs. But is this the best way to keep us from snacking throughout the day?
We decided to find out. Research shows that eight out of nine subjects ate less after a protein-rich meal than after a protein-poor one.
To illustrate this we recruited three volunteers used to working long shifts and snacking on the job to see if we could give them a meal that would set them up for the long day ahead. We fed each of our recruits a pasta meal - one high in fat, one high in protein and one high in carbohydrates. Then we detained them at Her Majesty’s pleasure just to make sure they couldn’t give in to temptation.
Four hours later we let them loose and carefully observed as they tucked in to a well earned pizza.
"subjects ate less after a protein-rich meal"
The inmate who ate the smallest amount during lunch was the one who had had the protein-rich meal.
So, if you don’t want your hunger getting you in trouble, try a meal high in protein to keep hunger locked away for longer.
