 Welcome back dear viewers, hope you've had a nice short break, can I have a cup of tea? The daily du'as are very refreshing and so now we're going to talk more with our specialist It's brother Bilal Ali, I was going to call you doctor there Brother Bilal Ali, thank you so much for joining us, Assalamu Alaikum How are you doing this morning? Alhamdulillah, I'm well So this morning's topic we're going to discuss about is our relationship with food And how it affects our mood, the benefits of giving ourselves a positive image towards it Our attitude towards it, and how it will perhaps pick us up or it can even do the opposite effect, can't it? So what is your experience in this field, your various courses you've done What would you say is the most concerning issue that we have in this current era About towards food, because we have such a growth in processed food haven't we now And pesticides with fruits and there are all sorts, so what would be your first concerning? It's funny because as much as my experiences in my clinic and on the mental health circuit I'm still always informed by the saint and the prophet, peace and blessings be upon him About being aware of your intake of food because many diseases or many illnesses You know start from the stomach and it's quite profound that not just the physical But even the psychological plays up or manifests itself in terms of people's diet So a lot of overeating, obesity and people's unhealthy relationships with food Are often times a manifestation of a psychological problem Comfort eating, eating to cope, eating beyond what's necessary Is really what we're talking about Do you think so, you know a lot of us on a Friday night, oh I just want pizza I just want something, you know, just a down time for eating healthy in the week And just want something, is that quite detrimental to our physical health Or is one off sort of having a treat where we see a treat as something that's high in fat processed Is that quite a negative thing on No, I wouldn't say so, I'm not a dietitian but I'm a qualified personal trainer And I do have weight loss management knowledge or experience or qualification so to speak And so you know the occasional break from the healthy regime is not going to cause any major problems It's when there isn't a break because it's not a break away from a healthy diet But it's more like I had something healthy today as a one off But the other meals throughout the week are the more unhealthy, more high in sugar Lower nutritional value, lower macro nutrients, that's what we're getting into Right, so it's the relationship we have with food then And it can be under eating as well, there's a variety of ways that we can What's going on on the psychological level can play out on our plate if I can put it that way So let's look into what would be a healthy relationship with food We've all been raised in different ways from different parents from all over the world And that becomes our habit, so what we've seen in our children, what we've been growing up with And then what's perhaps sort of the extremes, so I was just thinking more of anorexia, bulimia They're all relationships of food and how does that tie in So if we start with sort of a healthy attitude towards food, what would you say Like you said, it's an interesting point that, oh I've been good so I'm going to treat myself But then it's when that good becomes sort of just the minority It needs to be a regular thing, doesn't it? Yeah, well essentially we need fats, a certain portion of fats A minority of fats, oh my gosh, there's such a big debate about how much fats is healthy for us But fats are healthy in terms of your non-process So there's an obsession to cut the fat off the chicken and take the skin off and all things of this nature But a more recent scientific breakthroughs are showing that our bodies process those type of fats We've been doing it for millennia and so we're able to do that without there being a problem Some of the issues that came up in the food game, if I can put it like that Is that there was this thing about fats being the devil, fats were evil, fats were terrible So everything became low fat but to make the food have flavour and have body They had to pump it with carbs now, carbohydrates Now if you don't use up a certain amount of carbohydrates, what happens is your body It turns into glucose, sugar, your body stores it and that's where the obesity has gone through the roof So a healthy relationship with food is more to do with eating natural foods as much as possible So which oils would you recommend? Olive oils, coconut oils, I highly recommend it There are some oils that are healthy if you drizzle them on your food, vegetable oils for example But it's sunflower oil, but it's when you fry with particular oils They say that there's a kind of carcinogenic or cancer causing agent, they transform them, the heat transforms them So coconut oil is one of the most, let's say, preferable oils to cook You're used to actually fry with that, it doesn't cause, it doesn't have that effect It doesn't change its configuration chemically in that negative way So in terms of a balanced diet, a healthy relationship with food would be to eat more natural, not the processed foods Because you have a lot of emails in that food Less processed is better, a healthy portion of carbohydrates, preferably like your brown rice Rice in general, say for example, brown rice, pasta or even bread, even whole meal is always going to be better So a certain amount of carbohydrates starts in your foods, sweet potatoes, things like this Then a portion of meat or fish, if that's your preference, if you're vegan You can still get a healthy intake of protein through your pulses, your chickpeas and the like So you've got your protein, you've got a healthy portion of carbohydrates And also fats as well, animal fats are fine, cream, milk Or even if you're vegan or more, you eat less meat, then things like avocados and nuts, hazelnuts, walnuts, whatever Are they all quite healthy to feed children and develop that healthy attitude towards food from a young age? Is that advisable? Yes, because the biggest relationship or the biggest issue is the psychological element You know, in terms of our relationship with the fridge And do we eat out of comfort, do we eat out of boredom, do we eat out of being habitual Do we not eat out of there being a psychological problem? Because we don't know if we mentioned anorexia or bulimia Like say for example, these are psychological conditions And they're often triggered by trauma Or being unable to cope with certain major life events Sometimes people have been victims of abuse or there's some type of self loathing taking place Something may have happened to a person where they felt like they were in a situation where they didn't have any control So by them being very particular about their food When they eat, how much they eat, that's them regaining control over themselves That might be because they are self loathing, they feel unworthy So it's about them being punitive with themselves Are they finding themselves having to mislead others? But children are known for this because it kind of develops an early puberty for some people around that age Our teachers and caregivers and people who are guardians of the way that children may try and avoid Did you eat your dinner and it's throwing food away? Yeah, I had something earlier on and this type of thing It's not a straight way for a child to do that, I'm not suggesting that's a diagnosis But these little telltale signs of them avoiding food, avoiding eating with others Avoiding sharing for everybody It's different culturally, the etiquette of giving others first But when you notice that person isn't eating at all Are they a bit, do they appear a little bit underway? Are they trying to conceal and be deceptive about their problematic relationship? Believe me, there's more to do with eating but then purging And inducing vomiting to bring the food back up And the irony is that it doesn't necessarily work anyway Because once you've consumed the food, those nutrients are now kind of entered into the system It doesn't always work, it can cause these ulcers in the stomach and problems And people can actually die from anorexia as they can die from obesity Two different extremes but in terms of unhealthy relationships But there's usually essentially telling us something These are like symptoms of, this is like the iceberg that we see But there's a deeper psychological, emotional problem under the surface That needs to be addressed, so try to not chastise or be punitive towards that person If it's somebody themselves that they're going through something like this Is it something, it's a parent that recognises it in their child or siblings Whoever we recognise, friends, what would be as a practitioner What would you advise people to do with that situation With a person that they may recognise has certain unhealthy attitudes towards food? I'd say there's various national mental health charities that are online That have websites with a lot of information, for example Mind is a national charity, they have very credible information online about things of this nature You can always go on the NHS website But if you go online, there's, like I said, organisations where you can call up and speak to somebody to get further advice Because it's one thing, reading an article, it'll put you in the know We're watching a short YouTube video on the NHS website So that'll give you some basic understanding But you may want to phone a number and speak to somebody And there are people available Exactly, there are people that you can speak to to say, I have this concern about this particular family member And how can I move this forward, how can I get them help Because I think one of the things that people wouldn't want to do is become highly emotive And panic or cause more distress to the person that perhaps already is suffering In some sort of capacity that's causing this sort of unhealthy relationship And you wouldn't want to say the wrong thing to trigger anything else in them So that's really helpful to know about sort of help lines that can actually guide you How best to, you know, what next steps to take and everything So any final points you'd like to raise? Yeah, I would say if you have concerns, well, people, oftentimes people are aware about themselves In terms of their relationship with food and, you know, their food addiction And, you know, there's nothing that can beat natural foods You know, we hear all the time that we should avoid these processed foods that are high in sugar And everybody wants a biscuit, a bit of chocolate, no problem But, you know, avoiding that being the mainstead or the bigger portion of your daily food intake It's from these foods that are high in sugars that causes these rushes and these highs of energy and whatever But then these crashes, because then it is like a kind of addiction Like with these other nefarious substances but it plays out in that kind of way And any final points about e-numbers and things like that that are present in our food Any concerns about those, about the effect of the chemicals in our body? We were speaking about earlier, you know, there is an actual crisp that is on sale in the high street That has a particular chemical in it that lights up various neurons And has a particular effect on our brain activity And it does induce an addictive or compulsive behavioural trait with that crisp So it's like once you have one, you feel like you need another and another and it's actually something So I think we need to do some, we need a Muslim organisation to commission some research What a beautiful dower could that be if we were to research some of these e-numbers and maybe produce some Yeah, produce some information about the inherent dangers of some of these chemicals in a processed food Let me imagine that, you know, we freely hand these out to young people and children saying Oh, just have a crisp or just have this and you don't know what you're feeding them So, you know, it's always better to be natural, isn't it? Isn't this something to say that though? It's not just halal but it's like tell you a bit that the food must be pure, isn't it? So there's food that isn't got anything haram in it necessarily but it's not pure food Yeah, it's saturated or, you know, low in nutritional value And it's always the most delicious, I have to say Thank you so much once again and we'll come to the end of this morning's segment So then Charlie, have a blessed day and we'll look forward to seeing you in our next morning episode of The Specialist And so next up we are going to be joined by Fahima and Salah and I'm looking forward to what they're going to be making for us over to the kitchen