Nutrition Blog: Vitamins, Cooking & Walking | SustainBite

Short reads on food, nutrients and moving more, each with a painting to look at.

• Which oil should you fry with?: Smoke points, stable fats and a few myths: how to pick an oil for the pan, the wok and the deep fryer, and when olive oil is perfectly fine.
• A short walk after meals: small habit, big effect on blood sugar: Why a few minutes on your feet after eating blunts the rise in blood sugar, how soon to go and how long is enough, even if you only walk around the house.
• Beans: the cheapest protein on your plate?: Why lentils, chickpeas and beans pack protein, fibre, iron and folate for very little money, what the evidence says about them and heart health, and how to keep the wind down.
• Calcium beyond the milk carton: How much calcium your bones need, which foods carry it (some surprising ones), why spinach isn't the answer you'd expect, and what vitamin D has to do with it.
• Do you really need 10,000 steps a day?: Where the famous number came from, what large studies say about how many steps are worth it, and why the first extra thousand matter most.
• Fibre: the nutrient most of us are missing: What fibre does, how much you need (probably more than you eat), and an ordinary day of meals that gets there without a single supplement.
• Five a day, or ten?: Where "five a day" comes from, what a portion of fruit or vegetables looks like, what research says about eating more, and simple ways to add a portion to every meal.
• Food waste starts with the shopping list: Households throw away more food than shops and restaurants put together. Here's why, what "use by" and "best before" really mean, and a weekly routine that wastes less.
• Hidden sugar: where it hides and how much is too much: The difference between the sugar in an apple and the sugar in a cola, how to spot sugar's many names on a label, and an easy way to cut back without missing it.
• How many calories do your steps burn?: A simple way to work out what a walk is worth in energy, why your weight changes the answer, and why a walk still matters when the number looks small.
• How much water do you really need?: Where "eight glasses a day" came from, how much water adults actually need, why food and tea count, and the simple signs that you're drinking enough.
• Oily fish and omega-3: how much is enough?: Why oily fish is singled out in heart-health advice, how much to eat each week, what pregnant women should watch, and where vegetarians can find omega-3.
• Protein at every age: are you getting enough?: How much protein children, adults and older people need, why spreading it across the day matters as we age, and easy ways to add some to each meal.
• Salt: the five-gram question: Why most of the salt we eat is already in the food when we buy it, what cutting down does for blood pressure, and how taste buds adjust in a few weeks.
• Short nights, big appetite: how sleep shapes what you eat: Why a few short nights leave you hungrier, especially for sweet and starchy food, what the studies found, and simple ways to protect your sleep.
• Ten easy ways to add 2,000 steps to your day: Two thousand steps is about a quarter of an hour on your feet. Here are ten ways to fit them into an ordinary day without a gym, a plan or spare time.
• Tired all the time? What iron has to do with it: Why iron matters for energy, who runs low, how to absorb more of it from food (hint, a squeeze of lemon), and why a blood test beats guessing.
• Vitamin D in winter: can the sun still do the job?: Why the winter sun makes little or no vitamin D across much of the world, which foods carry some, and who is advised to take a supplement.
• Why family meals matter more than the menu: What research says about families who eat together, why it isn't only about the food, and how to make shared meals happen in a busy week.
• Why smoke point matters (and what it can't tell you): What happens when a pan starts to smoke, why that haze is worth avoiding, and four habits that keep frying oil, and the air in your kitchen, cleaner.