Tuesday 22 May 2007

Zzzzz.... I wish. :-(

I'm not sleeping well lately.
And when I am sleeping I am dreaming I am awake not sleeping.
It's getting quite tedious.

I read a really interesting article in one of the Saturday papers relating to this book which touched on the decline on vitamins and minerals in vegetables grown since the 1950's until the present day. The figures were quite alarming, but I'll need to read more about it before worrying unduly. I seem to remember that one of the CR lists touched on this recently and it hypothesised that the research was undertaken by companies interested in pushing supplementation... which I guess reverts right back to the premise of the book anyway, so it might be worth getting hold of. Unfortunately I can't find the link to the article because The Guardian has completely messed up its pages with a recent redesign. Irritating. So actually me telling you about this really interesting article is totally pointless. Sorry! :-)

I blame the lack of sleep.

But I do sometimes feel a little concerned about trusting the nutritional data we have so absolutely... not much choice there though.

Anyway.

I've been to the gym the last couple of mornings but haven't increased my (food) calories accordingly. I have actually been ravenously hungry and eating lunch and dinner really early, at around 12 and 5pm, but once that is done I lose my appetite for having any more - which is good and bad, I guess. I think my increase in appetite is also to do with having started drinking caffeinated coffee again - because I can't wake up because I'm not sleeping... Hmm, I think I see a vicious circle there. Anyway, I need to lay off the coffee for a few days and see if that helps. Surely nature will take its course and I'll have to sleep eventually?! *hopes*

Today's (food) crunch.

===========================================
Nutrition Summary for 22 May 2007
===========================================

General (85%)
===========================================
Energy | 1078.8 kcal 90%
Protein | 89.5 g 99%
Carbs | 152.6 g 127%
Fiber | 37.1 g 124%
Fat | 22.7 g 57%
Water | 1719.7 g 64%

Vitamins (99%)
===========================================
Vitamin A | 66143.3 IU 2835%
Folate | 1624.0 µg 406%
B1 (Thiamine) | 1.9 mg 171%
B2 (Riboflavin) | 3.4 mg 307%
B3 (Niacin) | 20.2 mg 144%
B5 (Pantothenic Acid)| 7.1 mg 142%
B6 (Pyridoxine) | 3.3 mg 257%
B12 (Cyanocobalamin) | 2.2 µg 91%
Vitamin C | 410.3 mg 547%
Vitamin D | 425.4 IU 213%
Vitamin E | 20.3 mg 135%
Vitamin K | 1518.1 µg 1687%

Minerals (98%)
===========================================
Calcium | 1222.1 mg 122%
Copper | 2.5 mg 282%
Iron | 19.4 mg 108%
Magnesium | 548.5 mg 171%
Manganese | 5.2 mg 289%
Phosphorus | 1464.7 mg 209%
Potassium | 5786.8 mg 123%
Selenium | 71.8 µg 130%
Sodium | 1245.0 mg 83%
Zinc | 10.3 mg 129%

Lipids (61%)
===========================================
Saturated | 4.0 g 40%
Omega-3 | 2.5 g 229%
Omega-6 | 5.3 g 120%
Cholesterol | 9.6 mg 3%

10 comments:

Darwin said...

Might this be the article? That book sounds fascinating.

Illiah said...

This one

talks about it as well, but it's a vitamin company as well. I think it definitely is something worth researching. In a nutrition class, the RD teaching said that depleted soil doesn't reduce the nutrients, just makes for smaller vegetables. I heard this at an Agricultural school. So now I wonder who is right?

Sara said...

That's it, Darwin, thank you! I couldn't find it for the life of me! :-)

Anonymous said...

Guardian redesign: there's a new head of web experience over at the Graun, Meg Pickard, maybe you'd like to write her a letter? ;)

Anonymous said...

Caffine is such a strange little friend. It makes you have an appetite? That makes me want to experiment a little because as far back as I can remember, caffine always subdued my appetite. Sorry you're not sleeping....
have you ever tried valerian? Passionflower?
stay well, Sara :)

Sara said...

Good call, Miss M (hello!!)... It's really not a good design at all, IMHO. I could probably back that up technically as well, so I may very well do that.

Sara said...

Oh and Joanna, yes. Coffee / diet coke in the day give me the most appalling nagging hunger pains even when I cannot possibly be hungr; it's very annoying. Just to add to the weirdness, if I drink coffee in a restaurant after an evening meal, that signals to my body that that is an end to food for the day. I wonder how much of this effect is down to psychological conditioning. Or just me being bizarre.

Arturo said...

Hi Sara
You may be making the transition to needing less sleep. It happens to CRed folks. I used to need 7 1/2 hours of sleep, but can go on 6 to 6 1/2 hours now during the week, with more hours on weekend.
Cheers,
Arturo

April said...

Sara,

I was having a terrible time sleeping for awhile! It's awful! Hope you get it sorted soon.

I think you should not invite us to the wedding, and rather you should come to visit us and your wedding present can be lots of amazing (but light! and nutritious!) dinners at all of my favorite BYO restaurants, with the really good French reds I get. It's so rare that one meets someone who can both appreciate good, small food, and good wine! After you get this whole wedding thing done, take a holiday and pop over to see us.

We have a friend from London who just moved here who is quite taken with the BYO scene. Apparently, there aren't such things in England. It's a wonderful concept: you bring whatever wine you want, they open it, pour it, and provide the glasses. Saves a ton of money and you can drink what you want. There's a huge food and wine culture in this city... long history to that, won't take up more space on blog. But anyhow, you'd appreciate it.

My dinner tonight: broth based asparagus cold soup, two scallops, pan seared, and French red. Yum!

a

Sara said...

Thanks Arturo... I didn't know that that was the case. Hmm. But I love my sleep!

April - we do have a few places that are BYO here, but it's not a normal thing, no. Irritating, because it's so easy to see the mark-ups charged on our favourite bottles and we know we are paying at least four times as much for the privilige of drinking it with a restaurant meal. Your supper, apart from the scallops, sounds delicious. We had wine tasting last night so I just ended up with a pile of late night lettuce. :-(