Medical Advice Page


Losing Weight ..Iron for Babies

Losing Weight

Although people are eating less than ever because there is less need for manual exertion in most jobs they are storing the extra calories as fat. It is healthier to be abit overweight than underweight but if you waist size or hip size exceeds your chest size then you should lose weight. Men tend to lose from the face , then hips and finally waist while women tend to lose from the face then waist and finally hips.

Each food has a certain calorie vaule for example a piece of toast is 100 calories and we need about 2000 calories a day to maintain weight , so if you ate 20 pieces of toast in a day (2000 cal) then you would neither gain nor lose. If however you ate only 10 then you would have taken in only 1000 calories and your body would burn up 1000 calories that day by burning up fat from stores . if you carried on like that for a week you would lose 7000 calories .

Since each pound of fat is 3500 cals , you would lose 2 pounds or about a kilo that week. so the first thing is to go the local bookshop and get a book on all the calorie values of food. Write down for 2 months everything you eat and its calorie value. A boiled egg has for example 80 cals while a fried one has 200.Try and eat as little fat -butter , margarine , oils , cream as possible and eat more potatoes , vegetables etc.

Each day total up the calories you have eaten , subtract from 2000 and that is your loss for the day. When your losses reach 3500 , you will have lost a pound of fat. Get a set of weights and do 15 minutes a day of weight lifting and body building esp improtant for women . You will lose 300 calories on top or nearly 2000 a week , 100000 a year or nearly 30 pounds of fat a year just by doing that ! More to follow next week.
Iron for Babies- by a Health Visitor

From 6 months IRON is important in your baby's diet and the baby gets most of its iron from solid food. There is not enough in milk.

Iron improvefs a baby's appetitie and helps it fight off infection.Drinking only milk can prevent your baby getting enough iron for its needs.

Toddlers can have a bottle of milk in the morning and before going to bed but do NOT give it milk at night when he wakes up ! It just becomes a habit and he will not eat properly in the day.

Milk and rice have too little iron . Cereal in the morning with a Vitamin C drink is a good source of iron as is meat.If your child eats vegetables , pulses , fruits , meat , eggs and cereals and even if its only small amounts he will be having a healthy diet.

Sweets , crisps ,fizzy drinks , biscuits should be avoided or kept for a treat after meals.Avoid underfeeding the baby . Its healthier for a baby to be a little bit overweight.