Seeds | CrossFit Ignite Sydney

5 seeds you should be eating

March 29, 2012 By Kat 1 Comment

Do you think (like my dad) that seeds are just for birds? If you do then you have to rethink. It is very lucky for us that seeds are making a comeback in our daily food intake. They are packed with essential nutrients and antioxidants.

The easiest way to get the most out of seeds is to throw them into a shake or on top of a salad. Find out which seeds you should be eating to get more fibre, omega-3s, protein, plus more.

Flaxseeds
Eating flaxseed is an easy way to get omega-3s, antioxidants, and fibre into every meal. Flaxseed helps to lower cholesterol levels and blood pressure and also makes your digestion regular. There are some early studies that indicate they may even have a role in preventing breast cancer.

Pumpkin Seeds
I roast my pumpkins seeds at 180° C for 5 minutes stirring every now and then; they get a lovely nutty flavor and are perfect to sprinkle on top of your salad to make it extra tasty. Pumpkin seeds help to lower cholesterol and are a good source of protein, fibre, potassium, and magnesium.

Sesame Seeds
The most common place that you’ll come across sesame seeds are on hamburger buns and bagels — and there are good reasons why we shouldn’t eat those foods as we know. Skip the bread and incorporate sesame seeds into your dinner as a coating for your chicken breast or tuna.
The seeds are a great source of calcium (one tablespoon of sesame seeds contains 90 milligrams of calcium); they’re also rich in other minerals like magnesium and copper.

Chia Seeds
These seeds, which have a nutty pleasant taste, are high in antioxidants, rich in minerals, high in fibre and contain generous amounts of omega 3 fatty acids. They have been used as an important part of Central and South American cultures for thousands of years.
Interest in these seeds and the health benefits they offer have extremely risen in recent years.
Chia seeds are a great addition to any way of eating. One tablespoon of chia seeds contains six grams of fibre, two grams of protein, 90 milligrams of calcium, and 2.5 grams of omega-3 fatty acids. You can always throw chia seeds into your morning shake or in your scrambled eggs for breakfast.

Sunflower Seeds
There’s nothing like popping open a sunflower seed and eating it straight away, especially when you consider how high they are in vitamin E, manganese, and vitamin B1. Next time you go to the movies buy some sunflower seeds and enjoy a super healthy snack.

Filed Under: Weight Loss & Nutrition Tagged With: 4 Week Intensive Weight Loss Program, fat loss, nutrition, paleo, seeds, weight loss

Sore Muscles? Up your Magnesium…

August 4, 2011 By Stacey 3 Comments

Ever wondered why the DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) just doesn’t seem to ease? Are you getting migraines that won’t go away with aspirin or other pain killers? Maybe you’re not getting enough Magnesium! Real food and possible supplementation may help you reduce muscle soreness and ease headaches…

What is Magnesium (Mg)?

Magnesium is a “macromineral”, which means it is needed in high quantities everyday and because we can’t make it we must make sure we eat plenty of Mg containing foods everyday. It’s needed for healthy bone formation and to keep our muscles happy as well as maintaining a healthy blood pressure.

Why do I need it?

As with all macro and micronutrients, they have hundreds of functions in the body that without them we wouldn’t be alive – but just to keep it basic, Magnesium…

Has been found to help reduce muscle soreness and speed up recovery;
Relaxes your nerves and muscles;
Builds and strengthen bones, working with Calcium and other essential minerals;
Keeps your blood circulating smoothly;
Relieves headaches and migraine pain;
Plays a role in prevention of osteoporosis.

Where can I find it?

Great sources of Magnesium include pumpkin, sunflower and sesame seeds, spinach, eggplant and Swiss chard (the less time you cook them for the higher the Mg content), certain fish including salmon, halibut and sardines, and bananas. It is also found in many nuts, seaweed and other fish, seafood and meat in smaller amounts.

Again, the pattern follows that if you are eating real food – lean meat/fish, garden vegetables, nuts and seeds, little starch and no sugar – you will be getting plentiful Magnesium!

How much should I have?

There are basic guidelines of 320-360 mg/d for women and 400-420 mg/d for men. To give you an idea of how much this is… we can get 50 mg from half a medium avocado, 160 mg from a cup of cooked spinach and 90 mg in 85 grams of halibut or salmon.

So as you can see, we need to make sure we are eating lots of foods that contain Magnesium because it takes a while to get to the recommended intake!

What happens if I don’t get enough?

If you are deficient in Mg, you may experience symptoms of decreased appetite, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, and weakness. As magnesium deficiency worsens, numbness, tingling, muscle contractions and cramps may occur.

Deficiency is normally caused by people not eating enough Magnesium containing foods, that is a diet high in processed, man-made foods because minerals are destroyed during processing. People with digestive problems and gut inflammation will have lower body Mg because they aren’t able to absorb as much.

What happens if I have too much?

Toxicity of Magnesium from food sources is not a health risk but too much Mg from artificial sources like supplements can be a problem and may lead to diarrhoea and stomach cramping. To make sure you stay within the limits, don’t have more than 350 mg per day from a supplement (Magnesium from food is not counted in this limit).

Supplementation

This is probably necessary for some of the population, especially women at risk of osteoporosis. If you are eating “The Ignite Way”, you will be getting a fairly decent amount of Mg – but if in doubt get onto the multivitamins or a “chelated” Magnesium supplement (for example, Magnesium Oxide) because these are better absorbed than “non-chelated”.

So, all you need to remember is…

Eat plenty of fresh veg, fish, nuts and seeds – Eat the Ignite Way! – and you will be covering your daily Magnesium requirements. If suffering from regular DOMS and/or headaches, give supplements a go for a while and see how you feel…

Let me know how you go or if you have tried Magnesium supplements before, tell us your experiences with them below!

Filed Under: Weight Loss & Nutrition Tagged With: DOMS, fish, magnesium, nuts, seeds, supplements

Vitamin E: King of the anti-oxidants!

November 11, 2010 By Stacey Leave a Comment

Why do I need vitamin E?

Vitamin E is essential for absorption of iron, it has been found to slow aging and is an active anti-oxidant in the role of clearing up free radicals from your body. It is also involved in a number of mechanisms in the body including the production of sex hormones, cell respiration, and building body tissue, muscle fibre and blood vessels.

It is a strong cancer fighting agent and anti-clotter as well as aiding in the reduction of cholesterol and increasing blood flow to the heart. It is the king of the anti-oxidants because it actually helps protect the other fat-soluble vitamins (A, D and K). And it doesn’t stop there… it also has a role in fertility, the nervous system and healing scar tissue.

So many secret actions! It really is a super vitamin…

Where can I find it?

Vitamin E can be found in most oil based products and is a fat soluble vitamin, so is found in the good fat sources like seeds and nuts. The following is a list of great sources of vitamin E so make sure you’re having at least one of these everyday: sunflower seeds and walnuts in larger amounts, eggs, peanuts, safflower/sunflower oil, beef liver, tomatoes, all seeds and nuts in smaller quantities.

How much should I have?

The recommended intake for adults is 15 mg or 22.4 IU (international units) per day. To put that into perspective for you, 30 g of almonds has about 7 mg of vitamin E (this is about 20 almonds)… I’m not encouraging you to eat 40 almonds a day but just to get an idea of how much you can get from this source, and then mix it up with some eggs, seeds and oils. You’ll also get small amounts of vitamin E from some veggies like spinach and broccoli.

What happens if I don’t get enough?

Deficiency of vitamin E is pretty rare, and generally only occurs in people with fat-malabsorption disorders or VERY low fat diets as vitamin E needs fat to be absorbed.

What happens if I have too much?

There has been no evidence to show that too much vitamin E from food can cause any problems but too much of the artificial form has shown to cause problems in animal studies so be aware of this if you choose to use supplements. The suggested upper limit (this is the number that you should try to stay below) for vitamin E is 1000 mg per day but with the average diet we’re far from reaching this so it doesn’t seem to be of too much concern.

Supplementation

The man made version of the vitamin found in tablet form is only half as active as getting it from natural food sources, so if you don’t think you’re getting enough vitamin E in your diet, you might like to try supplementation but you’ll need double the recommended intake (30 mg or 44.8 IU), most tablets provide greater than 100 IU so this shouldn’t be a problem but as I said deficiency is rare so this is probably one supplement you don’t need to focus on as much, unless you don’t eat any nuts, seeds, oils, eggs or vegetables! But with the above mentioned comment about too much synthetic vitamin E being a problem, it’s a good idea to focus on natural sources rather.

So, all you need to remember is…

Have a handful of nuts or seeds with your eggs at breakfast and snacks, drizzle some oil on your salad and get some green veggies in and you should reach the suggested vitamin E intake for the day!