Ask a Nutritionist

Headaches

I saw your article about drinking water and after a workout (that lasts an hour or more) at the gym, the next day I have a severe headache. I have water throughout the day as well as salads and the occasional coffee/herbal tea. As well as this I make sure I eat nuts at times during the week so I get my potassium (because I don't like bananas) and have a good balanced diet (protein, carbs,etc) and lots of fruit and veges every meal. I have resorted to drinking Vita Quench with the vitamins and minerals needed to replace what I am sweating out. Just wondering if this is good to take when also trying to lose weight at the same time?

I’m ruling out dehydration as the cause of your headaches because it sounds as if you are drinking enough water. Without looking at your food diary or knowing how many hours of exercise you are doing it’s hard to see what’s missing in your diet. A few vitamins won’t make up for a lack of calories, carbohydrate or protein in the diet. If you are experiencing post exercise headaches I would firstly consult your doctor to rule out any underlying conditions. I suspect you are not recovering from your training, try having a carbohydrate rich protein snack within 30 minutes of your workout. If your goal is to lose body fat your diet plays a massive role – especially when in conjunction with exercise. I frequently find women tend to under eat in their pursuit to lose weight; this is detrimental to their end goal and makes weight maintenance unsustainable. You can visit our website realnutrition.co.nz, it’s full of useful weight loss information as well as offering a free nutritional analysis of your current diet.

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Digestion Problem

Hi Jacquie, I'm 50. I do about 60- 80min of exercise per day - gym, cycling, running, swimming, walking. (I work full time also). I have found that I get hungry quite quickly. I've upped my veggie intake to a cup of salad every lunch time and as much other veggies at dinner as I can manage. I eat a cup of uncooked muesli with fruit and trim milk for breakfast. I have a morning and afternoon tea - fruit etc.
Now here comes the but... If I have wholegrain bread for lunch I have wind for the rest of the day. Not good! Is there anything I can eat with wholegrain bread that will stop this effect? I do get less hungry when I eat it. I also take Losec for heart burn daily.

Digestive problems such as bloating and wind are common. Without knowing a little more about you, it is difficult to pin-point the exact reasons you are experiencing wind problems. Interestingly one of the most common side effects of the pharmaceutical drug Losec is flatulence or wind.

It's probably more likely to be something you've eaten or the way you eat that's causing the problem. Here are a few hints on how you can reduce the amount of wind in your system:

1. Try to avoid the foods that cause a wind problem. If you can't pinpoint which foods might be causing it, try and keep a note of what you've eaten and then cut them out, one by one. It can often be a case of trial and error for a while. If the wholegrain bread seems to be the culprit, it could be either the yeast content or the wheat gluten in the bread.

2. Eat a varied diet so that you can keep the natural bacteria in your gut balanced - this will help your stomach digest food more effectively

3. Being busy often means being stressed - and stress means poor digestion because your body shuts down digestion to concentrate on the brain and other vital organs.

4. Make more time for meals: take half an hour to eat lunch and choose a balanced meal.

5. Complex carbohydrates are important in the diet, especially at lunchtime, try using basmati rice, kumara, potato, or gluten free bread as alternatives to wholegrain bread.

6. Digestive Enzymes and Probiotics can help aid digestion, however consult with your doctor first. If you have stomach ulcers you need to be careful.

A visit to a naturopath, dietician or registered nutritionist would be well worth it.
A qualified nutritionist could look over you complete diet and work on improving you digestive health as well as making sure you are eating enough to recover from your exercise sessions.