This week, our wonderful guest blogger, Stacey Mensah, discusses whether blueberries are a superfood or a superscam. Tell us what you think in the comments sections below. 

Welcome back to the ​Lake Foundation! How has your week been? This week for me has been an incredibly tiring one. I couldn’t even tell you what happened on Monday because one: I currently don’t have enough energy to think that far back, and two: I honestly just don’t want to. With moving into a new place and the intensification of work and social commitments, I haven’t been consuming the beloved 10-a-day – heck, if I consumed 3-a-day that would be an achievement. On this particular day I was feeling skinny – you know, think and you become and all of that – so as I said, I was feeling skinny and so I popped into a local health food store. My plan going into the shop was to simply pick up a few superfoods, some vegetables, and poultry. Nothing too extravagant. What I was faced with when I walked in was absolute madness. The prices of the superfoods were robbing me of any dignity I had left. I proceeded to pace up and down the shop floor wondering if this was a system error or if Johnny got a bit too excited with his marker. Nonetheless, I walked out with no superfoods in hand.

It begs the question: are superfoods a super scam? I would happily agree, end this discussion here and go eat a Kit-Kat. That, of course, is because with the prices independent stores are charging one would think that these superfoods would be​ covered in gold dust. That, of course, is not the case. The superfood in question today is the humble blueberry. With its low glycaemia index and antioxidant qualities, you can definitely be prepared to pay the premium for a punnet. There could possibly be a reason behind this.

New research that has conducted by the European Journal of Nutrition found that the daily consumption of one cup of fresh blueberries can improve cognition in healthy older adults. Meaning that you will understand, learn and remember things far more easily. Not too bad when you’re trying to remember what you did last week. The study was conducted over a 3-month period, with 13 healthy men and 24 healthy women between the ages of 60 and 75 being randomly assigned to receive Highbush blueberry powder daily (the equivalent of one cup of fresh blueberries) or a placebo powder. The results were incredibly telling and emphasising the importance of the promotion of healthy ageing. So, we’re in agreement; yes, blueberries are fantastic for your health, but what does labelling them as a superfood do to our pockets?

When a piece of fruit or veg is more expensive I automatically think that it must be better for me. Unfortunately, the hipster-ish packaging only encourages this mentality. And, honestly, the sales clerks with their ‘love life, love food’ slogan tees are not helping the situation and giving me free food, I mean c’mon, couldn’t you just ignore me, Johnny?  So what’s left? Where can you buy cheap fruit and vegetables while still not compromising on the quality? With the rampant gentrification of London and the blow of Brexit, this is not an easy question to answer. Regardless of your budget, find what works for you. Above all else, it’s about quality and not quantity.

We are so happy to say that our founder, Abi Begho, is featured this month on the Secrets Birds entrepreneurship platform as a Rare Bird.

Secret Birds is an emerging market entrepreneurship community that empowers, encourages and supports women in the pre-start-up and start-up phases of their businesses, and they  teach girls aged 8-13 in disadvantaged communities entrepreneurial skills.

Secret Birds has also developed the concept of Rare Birds who are women who inspire through entrepreneurship. They define a Rare Bird as “an ordinary woman who is achieving extraordinary things as an entrepreneur. Rare Birds have mastered the art of flight!” Every month a woman in business is featured on the Secret Bird platform and March 2017 is the month for our founder Abi Begho.

In her feature, Abi Begho discusses why she set up The Lake Foundation, some of the challenges she has faced along the way, how she has overcome these and provides some advice for others wanting to start their own business. You can read Abi’s interview with Secret Birds here.

Secrete Birds is doing great work to support women in business and they will be launching a new initiative called ‘Connect. Collaborate. Grow.’ this year. This initiative will provide a mixture of activities which will focus on both the technical and non-technical aspects of starting a business.

We would like to say a big thank you to Secrete Birds for featuring Abi Begho this month and wish them every success with all the great work they are doing.

The health and wellbeing of our community starts with our young people and an important aspect of their wellbeing is ensuring they have access to good education with the best possible facilities. This is why we’re supporting The Pen Network, an independent charitable organisation that aims to improve the life chances of African children. Currently they are fundraising  for the Odoi Atsem Memorial Preparatory School in Ghana to help this school with much-needed infrastructural work

ODOI ATSEM SCHOOL, Ghana

The school was set up by well-meaning individuals because there were no schools in their area which meant children didn’t attend school as it was too expensive for them to travel outside the community. The fees at the school are a fraction of what they would have to pay at other private schools ensuring that as many children as possible can access a high standard of education. Although it’s private, the school uses the national curriculum but is also committed to providing African centred learning. Much of its funds come from the parents, relatives and friends of the staff, especially the Headmaster, Mr Percy Gogoe.

During the rainy season the local area experiences terrible flooding and the school has to close for many reasons, one of which is the poor sanitation which is made worse by the flooding. This inability to install an effective sanitation system means they have been subjected to paying fines from their already meagre income.

The Pen Network Aims to Help

The Pen Network is aiming to raise £3000. This is needed for the completion of the school’s infrastructure, including the roof, the toilet facilities and waste disposal system. The waste disposal system will help with the drainage of stagnant water, which breeds mosquitoes and increases risk of malaria. The children do not complain. They are happy to be at school, no matter what the conditions, but The Pen Network believes that by coming together we help them learn in a much better environment and are seeking your support to achieve this.

 How You Can Help

The Pen Network have some exciting activities planned to help reach their £3,000 target. The aim is to do something charitable, whilst having fun and getting fit and healthy. Check out the challenges below and see what inspires you. They are all designed with maximum fun, fitness and health in mind. You can take part as an individual, organisation or a group of friends.

1. Vegan/Raw Health Challenge

Join The Pen Network’s members for this healthy eating, lifestyle changing activity. You decide how long you want to do the challenge for but it must be between 1-4 weeks.​You can either do a strictly vegan, combine vegan and raw meals or really go for it and do a strictly raw diet. Get as many of your family and friends to sponsor you.

Starts: 31st March 2017

2. The Bicycle Ride Challenge

How about a cycle challenge in collaboration with us, The Lake Foundation. You will need a bike to take part. Get your family and friends to sponsor you and get fit cycling.

Where: Croydon, South London

When: 29^th April 2017

Duration: 4 hours

 3. 10k Run

For the die-hards, you can join The Pen Network members in a  10K challenge.

Where: to be confirmed

When: May

Duration:It’s up to you  😉

 

4. The Big Soul line Dance

 The Pen Network’s Big Soul Line Dance in the park will give you the chance to learn some new grooves whilst raising funds for educational needs. Sponsored by Johmard Fitness & Dance.

Cost: £5.00 to take part

When: In summer, to be confirmed

Where: A lovely park in London, to be confirmed

5.  Do your own!

Do you have an idea or challenge you want to share? Tell The Pen Network about it and get your friends to sponsor you. The duration of the challenge is up to you but it must be completed by the end of May.

6. Sponsor The Pen Network as an Organisation

If you are an organisation that shares an interest in The Pen Network’s cause, why not sponsor them? A great benefit will be the opportunity for some team bonding by getting your staff involved in our challenges. At the end of our activities, we’ll invite you to share your success story.   Speak to The Pen Network about how you can work together on this and other projects

More Information

For more information on how to take part you can contact The Pen Network by:

Email: thepennetwork@gmail.com

Phone: 07950 308 033

Twitter – @thepennetwork

Facebook – thepennetwork

 

We welcome back our guest blogger, Stacey Mensah. This week Stacey reflects on the new research conducted by Imperial College London that found we need to eat more than 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day to achieve a significant health benefit.

Welcome back to the Lake Foundation!

I hope this week hasn’t been too depressing for you with the arrival storm Doris. This has been a week of great reflection for me as I look back on how I became the person I am today. I’ve been particularly looking at my eating habits and how they formed. This comes at quite an interesting time as new studies have found that eating greater amounts of fruit vegetables can lower your risk of disease. Honestly, I’ll give them an A for effort. Studies like this one are not going to comfort you when it’s a movie night and you have no food; or, when you’re coming from work and you ‘happen’ to stumble across the infamous golden arches. Ultimately, people are going to treat studies such as these as a pick ‘n’ mix or an all you can eat buffet. So, here is what’s on the menu, or rather what the study has found.

Eating 10 portions of fruits and vegetable​s every day​ could significantly reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer, a new study has found. The study, that was published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, also identified which fruit and vegetables provided the greatest protection against disease.

The research found that apples, pears, citrus fruits, green leafy vegetables and cruciferous vegetables may help protect against heart disease, cardiovascular disease, ​and early death. The foods that were found to prevent cancer were green vegetables, yellow vegetables such as peppers and carrots, and cruciferous vegetables.

Other studies have also supported this thesis, as a separate study that was published in the Thorax journal, found that a fruit and veg rich diet is linked to a much lower risk of chronic lung disease. I’m guessing this isn’t something we haven’t already heard before. I don’t know about you but what I’m particularly interested in is how we fit 10 portions of fruit and veg into our daily intake. With all the dinners and drinks the working women have​ scheduled during the week you really don’t want to be that friend who is taking out her Tupperware containers at the dinner table.

Having just lost 10 pounds from switching up my eating habits I would suggest making your meals in advance – which means making them from scratch and staying away from processed foods. At the beginning, ​it’s best not to be over ambitious as you will have lots of leftover food. Another suggestion would be to invest in a smoothie maker. Thankfully I was gifted a Nutri-bullet a while back so it has made eating vegetables and fruit much easier. The main thing to keep in mind is that you want to ​strike a balance – you don’t want to overload on sugar.

Comment down below on how you manage to eat 10 portions of fruit and vegetables a day.

We would love to hear from you….

In this week’s blog, our Cycling Coordinator continues her discussion on the benefits of cycling.

It’s 2017 and we kick-started the year as we intend to go on with more cycling adventures in Croydon and beyond. Following our blog about the mental benefits of cycling, we are looking at the physical benefits of cycling.

Gently does it

Cycling is low impact but effective.  Low-impact describes an exercise where at least one foot remains on the ground. So some argue that cycling is no-impact as both feet sit on pedals! When you sit on your cycle your weight rests on a pair of bones in your pelvis instead of your legs. This takes the pressure off your joints. In turn, it reduces the risk of injuries that can affect your movement. In fact, research suggests low impact sports can promote the healing of damaged joints.

Look great on the outside

Cycling is generally a great full-body workout. It works and tones leg muscles, your bottom and upper body. It can assist in weight loss as it increases the body’s ability to burn calories and fat. A lesser-known fact is that exercise promotes the flow of oxygen and nutrients to feed your skin cells. This can make you appear more youthful. It also promotes the creation of collagen, which can prevent those pesky wrinkles.

Be great on the inside

Prevention is better than cure. A low impact activity like cycling can improve and prevent cardiovascular diseases. The British Heart Foundation found that cyclists have half the risk of heart disease compared to those who don’t exercise at all. If pilates or yoga isn’t your thing then cycling is a good way to strengthen your core muscles. This can improve your balance and your coordination. Surprisingly, regular cycling can improve your fitness levels to match someone 10 years younger.

We can’t promise you’ll achieve the stamina of a professional cyclist nor the lean body of a central London courier, but The Lake Foundation Cycling Club is a good start towards your fitness and wellbeing goals for 2017. For more information on how to join email events@thelakefoundation.com

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Sources

http://www.sparkpeople.com/blog/blog.asp?post=fitness_defined_lowimpact_and_highimpact_exercises

http://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/the-top-5-benefits-of-cycling

http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/fitness/the-mediterranean-diet-good-for-your-body-and-mind.html

https://caloriebee.com/workout-routines/Can-Cycling-Help-Tone-Your-Legs-Stomach-and-Butt

http://www.livestrong.com/article/417895-what-parts-of-the-body-does-bicycling-work/

http://www.bikeradar.com/road/gear/article/30-reasons-to-take-up-cycling-23965/

Last week, researchers published the results of their analysis on vitamin D which assessed the overall  effect of vitamin D supplementation on the risk of developing respiratory tract infections such as the cold and flu.

In their analysis, researchers looked at 25 studies and this included 11,321 people aged 0 to 95 years old from 14 different countries.  They found that daily or weekly vitamin D supplementation lowers a person’s risk of developing acute respiratory infections. The effect was most profound in people with the lowest levels of vitamin D with their risk being halved. People with higher levels of vitamin D also benefited, their risk reduced by 10 per cent.

Researchers explained that vitamin D may protect against these infection by helping the body make anti-microbial substances that protect the body from bacteria and viruses.

As a result of their findings, researches stated that this strengthened the case for fortifying more foods with vitamin D, but whilst the researchers were very positive about their findings the UK Government was very cautious saying:

“The evidence on vitamin D and infection is inconsistent, and this study does not provide sufficient evidence to support recommending vitamin D for reducing the risk of respiratory tract infections.”

Vitamin D is very important in protecting our bone and muscle health as well as boosting the immune system.  It i also thought to have additional health benefits such as protecting against diabetes,  asthma, some cancers and heart disease.  To reap the benefits of vitamin D, Public Health England has recommended that people’s average intake of vitamin D should be 10 micrograms.

Vitamin D, also known as the sunshine vitamin, is made in the skin as a result of exposure to sunlight and this is the main source of vitamin D for many people in the UK during the spring and summer. During the autumn and winter months, to get the recommended amount of vitamin D, Public Health England recommends consuming foods which contain vitamin D naturally or are fortified with it.

It is particularly important that the black community in the UK ensure they are getting enough vitamin D. This is because the melanin in our skin, which protects against UV light, also affects our skin’s ability to make vitamin D. So with the same sun exposure as someone with lighter skin we produce less vitamin D. This means that black community are more at risk of having a vitamin D deficiency and should consider taking vitamin D supplements all year round.

In today’s blog post our guest blogger, Stacey Mensah, discusses depression and very powerfully shares her personal experience with us. Get involved in the discussion and please do leave a comment below for Stacey.

Today’s blog post comes in somewhat of a sombre note. The topic we’ll be discussing is mental health, but more specifically depression. Many see this as simply a word, unable to comprehend the intensity of such a thing. Some, ​however, have experienced the feelings of hopelessness and darkness that come with this condition. Depression, whatever that may look like is real, you may not be able to understand it but it’s there lurking in the background. Coming from an African family but also a Christian one, my perception of mental health has always been an interesting one; and when I had depression as a child my mother was not quite convinced. In this blog post, I’ll be sharing with you, my experience of depression and my mother’s perception of it and what we have both learned from the experience.

The World Health Organization defines mental health ‘as a state of well-being; of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.’ Going on from this, depression can be understood as a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest. This typically affects how you think, feel and behave. This could lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems. This topic has always been of great importance to me not only because I’ve experienced this, but as a society, I feel like it’s so easy to focus on the outward appearance. If you’re smiling, then everything must be ok – surely. If you ask someone how they’re doing and they reply with, ‘I’m fine’, then all must be well. I have found that in the past this has not been the case at all. Anyone who has been around me for an extended period of time will know that I have a tendency to frequently ask the questions – How are you feeling? What are you thinking? How do you feel about that? And no, this is not because I’m a maniac who wants to get inside your head. It’s because I know it’s far too easy to hide your negative emotions and to some, in the end, this does become destructive.

I experienced depression from the age of 11 until the age of 20. I know I don’t have the condition anymore as I don’t have that persistent feeling of sadness. Although I do realise that depression does not have an expiry date, everyone does experience it differently. This post is not about telling you how we all experience the condition but rather encouraging you all to not be so eager when it comes to labelling or formulating certain medical conditions. One size does not fit all. During this period, I experienced intense feelings of loneliness, rejection and just overall darkness. The interesting thing however is that though I have always had my family around me, but that didn’t matter at the time. I was mostly inwardly focused, focusing on my own feelings – exaggerating my feelings of negativity and isolating and marginalising my positive emotions. They did not matter. I would always focus on the negative. This would be accompanied by 3 am phone calls to family members about how everything I did in my life was so wrong. The more than occasional bursts of tears would follow and just general misery. Although I was deep in the pits of depression I never did seek professional help. I didn’t want to be labelled as damaged or different. This was, of course, to do with the stigma of depression in society. I can talk about it now because I can look back at that time and think wow. I’m glad I went through that because it made me a stronger person and I’m able to empathise with people with mental health issues. It also brought my mother and me​ together. Here is what she had to say:

‘When you had depression, honestly, I felt helpless. I didn’t know what to do. I was always worried about what you were going to do as you were quite unpredictable. The only thing I could do was pray for you and answer those 3 am phone calls. Although you do mean everything to me, I had to understand that there was only so much I could for you. At the beginning, it was incredibly difficult as I just thought you were being dramatic and didn’t want to be put into certain social situations. After a while, though I learned to listen to you and from there we just had to work through it together.’

To describe depression as being a rough journey would be an understatement. It’s not easy. Some people have to seek medical help for it whereas others do not. Everyone is different. Families and cultures deal with it differently. The key thing that helped me during this time was having a strong support network – made of family and friends. What are your views on mental health? Comment down below or on our Facebook page and let’s open up the discussion.

See you soon x

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The Lake Foundation would like to say a big thank you to Stacey for sharing her experience with depression, we hope that through her experience you have gained some insight into this condition.

For more information about depression you can visit Mind, Rethink Mental Illness and Croydon Drop In  

Over the past month or so we’ve had the opportunity to attend a number of interesting events to discuss a range of health issues and in today’s blog, we’ll give you a quick summary of a childhood obesity event we attended a few weeks ago.

Reducing Childhood Obesity

On 18^th January, we attended the Croydon Children, Young People and Families’ Network reducing childhood obesity event. This event brought together organisations in Croydon who are tackling childhood obesity to share experiences and also to understand Croydon’s new childhood obesity strategy.

The main speaker on the day was Bernadette Alves, Consultant in Public Health at Croydon Council, who took us through the Croydon Healthy Weight Action Plan for Children and Young People which aims to cover their plans from 2017 to 2020.

The Scale of the Problem

Bernadette Alves started by setting the scene with some background information stating that childhood obesity is a major priority for Croydon being one of their five main priorities for children in the borough. She explained that obesity causes children harm impacting their physical health, mental health, behaviour and day-to-day life (such as school attendance). She explained the extent of the problem telling us that 20.3% of children in reception (4-5-year-olds) are overweight or obese and 39% in year 6 (10-11-year-olds). When we look across the borough there is a lot of variation with Broad Green, New Addington, Selhurst and Thornton Heath having the highest levels of year 6 obesity levels and Sanderstead having the lowest year 6 obesity rate.

Croydon’s Action Plan for Childhood Obesity

We then heard how Croydon Council aims to tackle childhood obesity with their new strategy. Bernadette explained that their core priorities would be :

• Sugar: to sign a sugar declaration and develop a borough wide sugar smart approach
• Targeting and Integration: they will ensure that services are targeted to those most in need and develop an integrated interactive pathway of all services that are available to support children to reach and maintain a healthy weight
• Physical activity: roll out the Daily Mile campaign to schools
• Engagement of residents and the community: they will raise awareness of the impact of childhood obesity and support and empower residents to make behaviour changes.

The Council’s action plan, at the time, was in a draft phase and going forward they were conducting a consultation on the plan; the deadline for this was the end of January.  We also learnt that a Healthy Weight Steering Group was set up and is being led by Croydon Clinical Commissioning Group and Croydon Council; they will monitor the implementation of the action plan.

Unhealthy High Streets

Following Bernadette’s presentation there was time for questions and one of the issues raised was the large number of unhealthy takeaway restaurants in close proximity to schools.  In response to this Bernadette stated that there is a lot of work being conducted to create healthier high streets. She acknowledged that there is a major issue with fast food chains being placed near schools that target children with very cheap deals on their products.  Even data from the Royal Society of Public Health has shown that  Croydon has a particular problem with Central Parade in New Addington being the second most unhealthy high street in London.

Developing Better Relationships Between Local Government and Charities

Another issue that was raised during the Q&A was the lack of communication between small groups and the Council. It was felt that there needs to be a better working relationship between community groups and the Council that would enable all organisations working in this field to work effectively together, reduce duplication and align their objectives with the local approach. It was felt that the Council could provide more support to community organisations that goes beyond providing funding through their grants programmes but promoting projects and working in collaboration to ensure that projects are successful.

The event ended with a networking session where we could learn about the work being conducted by local community groups and charities.

This was a really interesting event and provided some good insight into local plans for tackling childhood obesity.

 

We are delighted to announce our next fibroids Twitter chat will be on  Wednesday 15^th  February 2017 from 7pm-8pm. We will be joined by special guests Dr Sydney Dillard, CEO of Fighting Fibroids, Candice Bryan, CEO and Founder of Noire Wellness and Leah Salmon, Founder of the Naturally You Coach with host, our own Abi Begho, founder of The Lake Foundation.

This Twitter chat has been organised to allow for an in-depth discussion on fibroids, diet and exericse.

We’ll be putting questions to our expert panel and you can put your questions to them too. So if you have a burning question about fibroids or just want to get involved in the discussion then do join us on the day. To take part in the conversation please use the hashtag #FibroidsChat.

We look forward to tweeting with you!

We’re delighted to announce that we have teamed up with Voices for Autism to host our first Autism Health and Wellbeing Conference. This event is aimed at parents, carers and teachers of children with autism and will cover a range to topics to empower attendees with the information they need to successfully care for a child with autism.

On the day we’ll be looking at therapeutic options and the impact of nutrition and physical activity on autism. We’ll also explore autism friendly initiatives and hear personal stories from parents.

Autism is quite common in the UK affecting approximately 700,000 people. It is a lifelong developmental disability that affects how a person sees the world. It also affects how a person communicates with, and relates to other people. It is a spectrum condition which means people with autism have a range of difficulties in common but it affects everyone differently. It can be hard for those caring for a child with autism to find support and advice on how to manage their child’s condition and so organisations like Voices for Autism have been organising a range of much-needed support services.

Our conference aims to connect parents, experts, teachers and carers to create the perfect environment for shared learning.

This conference will be held on Saturday 15th July at the Bernard Weatherhill Community Space in Croydon. More details will be available from April 2017, but please save the date.

For more information please email events@thelakefoundation.com