[BLOG] Correlation vs Causation

Hi lovelies, long time no post! I am ever so sorry.
It’s been fairly busy with the course at MNU and my little Intermittent Fasting trial!

I’ve started a new project called Tweed Science Nutrition 101 for my You Tube,
hence I will share the project on this blog as in a written format too.

The very first topic of this project is about…

 

Correlation and Causation

Knowing the difference between correlation and causation is very important for the times when we find information about nutrition and diet, as well as other subjects.

Let us have a look at the deifinitions of each concept.

Correlation is a mutual relationship or connection between two or more things.*

So an example of correlation would be a string attached to A and B.

 

Causation, on the other hand, is a relationship between cause and effect.**

So an example of causation would be a string attached to A and B, with an arrow. In this case, A would be a cause and B would be an effect.

 

So it is pretty clear what the differences are between these two.

However, some information sources, including the media, creates confusion for us by drawing their own arrow on the string.

 

 

Once upon a time…

 

I have made up a story for you to understand how I mean by “drawing own arrow” here:

there was a recently published study suggesting that there’s a positive association (correlation) between oranges and weight loss – and Mr. Brown, who’s a Personal Trainer and a big fan of oranges, manipulated the study’s conclusion and claimed eating oranges makes(causation) you lose weight to his clients, on his twitter, in his newsletter etc.

Susan, who subscribed to Mr.Brown’s newsletter found his newsletter in her inbox; which contained the information about eating oranges causing weight loss. Following Mr.Brown’s advice Susan bought a load of oranges and ate 3 of them everyday on top of what she normally ate. She made no other changes.

Did Susan lose weight? No.

For weight loss it’s always calories in vs calories out. Susan had more calories (~150kcal per day) than her normal calorie intake and did NOT increase her exercise (e.g. swimming) or non-exercise activities (e.g. walking).

Hence eating oranges did NOT cause her to lose weight. If anything, susan would have gained weight.

…I know it is an over simplified story but it shows how we all can be mislead!

 

A Real Life Example: Breakfast & Health

 

It has got to be breakfast, which I wrote in my last blog.

If you eat breakfast, do you become healthy? 🤔

No, not necessarily.

Breakfast and being healthy has correlation between them, rather than causation. Being healthy has lots and lots of other things with which it has mutual relationships, for example:

• regular exercise
• eating a variety of wholesome foods
• getting enough sleep
• not having a stressful life
• being keen to be healthy

Breakfast happens to be just one of them.
Please click here to read more about breakfast and health!

 

 

 

I hope this becomes a bit of help for you ask yourself a question “Is it correlation or causation?” when you find information about nutrition.

Thank you so much for reading,
and I will see you guys in my next blog!

H xx

[BLOG] Breakfast, is it really important?

Hi lovelies!
Hope you are having a good week, behold, spring is coming!

I am pretty excited today because I am writing the first ever blog on Nutrition!
And it is about one of my favourite subjects: breakfast.

One of the Mac-Nutrition Uni* (MNU) homework tasks was to pick a myth that I believed in for a long time and find evidences that debunk the myth.

I admit, I was a “breakfast worshiper”. I blindly followed all the anecdotes that glorify breakfast, making it sound like the most important meal of the day.

Did I ever question those anecdotal advices? NO. I just believed that it was healthy to eat breakfast no matter what. I would even compromise my sleep hours to eat breakfast, so I can be a healthy person(?!).

Some of you may be confused right now, as I am talking like breakfast isn’t important.
“What? Isn’t it healthy to eat breakfast?” “Doesn’t it help weight loss?”

Let me tell you, NO. NOT NECESSARILY.

 

 

 

 

 

Breakfast doesn’t make you healthy?!

 

“But, lots of breakfast eaters are healthier than non-breakfast eaters!”
Hence, eating breakfast makes you healthy…?

There’s something called “correlation”. This means there’s a link between A & B, which is different from “causation”. Causation means A causes B to happen.

In case of Breakfast, I have to say it’s a correlation.

Imagine a person who eats breakfast everyday, 6AM in the morning before work. They have to be pretty determined to get up half an hour earlier to have breakfast at 6am… or however early that is. Why are they so determined? Perhaps, they are health seekers.

Health seekers tend to eat breakfast because of the anecdotal advice in media that “eating breakfast makes you healthy”. What else do they do? They tend to eat less junk food, do regular exercises and to be “conscious” about their diet and lifestyle.

Do you see some co-relational link here between breakfast and health?

How about non-breakfast eaters? Apart from those who may seek health whilst skipping breakfast, most breakfast skippers may not be so keen to become healthy. Or they perhaps are shift workers who usually have a worse lifestyle! (not enough sleep, irregular routine etc)

So it seems more of the lifestyle that has stronger link to health, instead of just breakfast(1).

It maybe healthier than snacking on chocolate bars and crisps… if you eat fish, meat, loads of veg etc for breakfast. Some Asian countries like Korea and Japan traditionally have breakfast including veg, rice and fish/meat for breakfast so perhaps you can find positive association between breakfast and health.

However, eating bowl of sugary cereals along with fruit juice and jammy toast doesn’t seem to create that positive association to me.

 

Should I eat breakfast or not?

 

It’s totally up to you, if you like eating breakfast, go ahead!

BUT if you don’t have a habit of eating breakfast in the morning, you don’t have to make an effort to wake up earlier than the usual hour to give yourself a bowl of cereal(2).

What I am trying to tell you, is that eating sugary cereals for breakfast doesn’t make you healthy nor lose weight(3). As long as you have a relatively healthy snack ready instead of chocolate bars or biscuits, you are OK not to have breakfast!

How about eating a big lunch after skipping breakfast? As long as you choose a healthy option, that’s fine too.

In terms of weight loss, it is all about energy balance. If you eat more than what you burn, whether you have breakfast or not, you will gain weight. I will write another blog on this sometime soon. 😃

Let me be clear here, I am not an anti-breakfast person.

I personally love it. It fuels me to get things done in the morning. However, I am planning to try Intermittent Fasting(IF)** over this Lent to see if I can cope without breakfast, and it suits me rather better. I will post a blog about IF for those who don’t know about it, including my IF  journey here. 🙂

 

Thanks for reading,
and I will see you in my next blog.

Bye!

 

H xx

 

*Mac-Nutrition Uni is one of the best online nutrition course you can take.

**Intermittent Fasting: a period of fasting which lasts 16-24 hours.

(1) The relationship between breakfast skipping, chronotype, and glycemic control in type 2 diabetes.

(2) A randomized controlled trial to study the effects of breakfast on energy intake, physical activity, and body fat in women who are nonhabitual breakfast eaters.
(3) The causal role of breakfast in energy balance and health: a randomized controlled trial in lean adults

[NEWS] New Name, New Chapter!

Hi My beloved readers,
Just a little announcement for you…

I have launched a new title for my blog: The Muscle Tailor! Ta-da!

As I progress on my nutrition course, I have learnt that I need a title to represent BOTH my blog and future business as a Professional Nutritionist. And the previous title didn’t quite fit in the latter.

So for the last few months, I have been secretly thinking of a new name, to present myself as a Evidence-based Practitioner in Nutrition (and hopefully Personal Training too).

 

Why The Muscle Tailor?

The Muscle Tailor came up in my head as the final & perfect name for me; because it really conveys me as a Nutritionist who designs every nutrition/diet programme based on each client’s personal body type, lifestyle, health conditions and diet goals by using evidences from scientific research studies.

 

I absolutely love the new name, it really carries my passion to help people with their diets, and so I hope you like it too.

To follow the title’s vision, I am planning to post lots of blogs about nutrition in near future, so stay tuned!

As always, thanks for your love and support.

I will see you guys soon in my next blog 🙂

 

H xx

[BLOG] Haz In Korea | Why You Gotta Eat Out In Korea

Hi my beloved readers,
I hope you are enjoying winter with cosy nights in and cups of hot chocolate 🙂

Today I am writing about another amazing experience of mine in Korea; meals out!
It’s one thing you’ve got to try at least once while you are staying in this Far East country.
No matter which cuisine you choose, you will enjoy the whole experience let alone the food.

Here’s why:

 

1. Koreans Know How To Barbecue

A Standard Korean Barbecue*

One of the famous things about Korean food is Korean Barbecue.
When you go to a Korean Barbecue restaurant, you sit at a table with grill in the middle and a pipe hanging down from ceiling to suck all the smoke.

Once you have ordered meat to grill, you get a dozen of side dishes to keep you busy while the meat is being cooked. It depends on restaurants but quite a lot of restaurants have staff to grill the meat for you too. They even replace your grill when it gets too greasy and burnt! So all you have to do is eat eat and eat.

You can also get a small free bowl of rice when you order a traditional Korean stew (either Kimchi or Miso paste). Anyway, it is heck a lot more than just grilled meat.

 

2. Koreans Are Keen To Find Good Ones

A Korean Restaurant Guide Application**

Koreans love sharing; from information to food. If there’s a good Italian restaurant, they have to share it. Also Koreans love finding and trying the best of all sorts, especially food.

There are loads of bloggers who review hundreds of restaurants and even TV programmes and mobile applications to introduce quality restaurants in Korea.
So it is quite easy to find a good restaurant for any cuisine in whichever area, all you have to do is search.

Most of the restaurants that I went to were actually those quality ones proven online; my friends kindly searched them for me. How convenient! And the foods? Of course, they were amazing!

 

 

3. Koreans Are Creative Foodies

I was really impressed with some of the restaurants for their creative way to serve food. I went to 3 different Korean barbecue places, and they were all unique and appealing. Grilling meat on your own table was the only thing in common among those three. Wow. You would be surprised by how many different styles of restaurant for the same cuisine in one street in Seoul.

Black Stone: A steakhouse with a pipe on a side of the table!

This steak house my friend and I went to had two pipes sticking out from edges of our table to suck smoke from this individual steak grill. I know, right? The picture above might help you understand what I am trying to describe here… It is just another level.

 

4. You Can Try Proper Traditional Korean Cuisine

A Traditional Korean Cuisine***

Yes. When I say proper traditional Korean food, I mean PROPER. A small bowl of rice, a bowl of soup, a couple of main dishes and a dozen of side dishes. You don’t know where to start and may feel somehow lost in so many flavours and textures. The main dishes usually contain meat or fish, and side dishes are mostly made of a range of vegetables.

A Main dish: Steamed Pork With Kimchi

I took my British hubby to a traditional Korean restaurant, and he loved it! He found a couple of the side dishes a little strange, but he enjoyed most of them and all the main dishes.

Korean cuisine is mostly based on soy sauce, chilies, garlic, sesame oil and a little bit of sugar. So if you are OK with these ingredients, you will find traditional Korean cuisine very enjoyable. Have a try, and let me know what you think of it. 🙂

Also, you get to experience this “sharing food” culture whilst trying a variety of food too! And you know, it is quite easy to try traditional Korean food in this scale at a meal out.

 

All in all, it’s one thing you will try in Korea because of its variety and convenience, and I am quite confident to say, something you will enjoy too.

The following restaurants are my little recommendations on good eat out places in Korea for you.

• Hanam Pig (Korean Barbecue): http://www.hanampig.co.kr
• Jeju Montrak (Korean Barbecue): http://www.jejumontrak.co.kr
• Black Stone (Steak House): http://blackstone.or.kr
• Norang Jeogori (Traditional Korean): http://www.yellowjeogori.com/
• Bugmaggol (Traditional Korean): https://www.facebook.com/Bugmaggol/

 

Thanks for reading,
I will see you in my next blog. 🙂

H xx

 

Me trying on a disposable apron 🙂

* Picture taken from https://www.timeout.com/newyork/restaurants/best-korean-bbq-in-nyc

**Picture taken from https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ktms.food114&hl=ko

***Picture taken from http://vvdesignstudio.tistory.com/82

[VIDEO] A Little Catch Up | Hello 2017!

Hi guys,
I hope you had a wonderful start of the New Year!

In this video, I am going to give you guys a little life update of mine and
how my Youtube channel and Blog are going to be shaped in 2017.

There might not be weekly videos and blogs which is a little sad;
BUT there are still really exciting things coming up in 2017, so stay tuned!

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy watching this video.

Have a lovely week

xx

[VIDEO] Haz In Korea | Foods In Korea

Hi guys,
Sorry for a long wait since the last blog; I am still alive!

This is another vlog of my adventure in Korea and it’s about food 🙂
I love how foods in Korea, whether it’s Korean, Japanese or Western cuisine; they just do it very well!
You may say I am biased BUT really, you would definitely agree if you tried the food out yourself.
From the actual taste of food to the presentation of it, I just can’t say enough how much I enjoyed eating out in Korea.

I hope you guys enjoy having a peak of what Korean meals out are like!

xx

[BLOG] Haz In Korea | Wonderfully Weird Korean Gyms

Hello lovely people!
I hope your week is going wonderfully.

I visited my motherland, South Korea, last month for 3 weeks and it was just amazing.
One of things that I did during my visit was, of course, to work out at Korean gyms! I have a friend who’s a PT at this gym in Seoul, and so I could use the gym for FREE. So I send special thanks to my friend Hansu who gave me vouchers for the gym & sauna 🙂
Anyway, including the one in Seoul, I went to two Korean gyms; and both managed to impress me with their special features!

 

Doing a rehab exercise at the Korean gym in Seoul 🙂

 

1. Free-to-use Tshirt, Shorts, Towels & Socks

I know right, which gym in the UK does provide gym clothes let alone towels?! However, it seems very usual for gyms in Korea to provide such kit. The shorts had mesh inside so if you were a man, you wouldn’t need to bring anything! It doesn’t limit your freedom to wear your own gym clothes though, but I just wore them for the sake of convenience and.. you know, they are free :p

Fully kitted with a free t-shirt, shorts, socks and a towel; in the sauna room 🙂

 

2. Amazing Sauna Facility

I absolutely loved the sauna facility at the gym, you are given a key for both shoe locker and clothes locker in the sauna room. So you may… 1) take your shoes off  2) get into the sauna/changing room 3) put your things in the clothes locker and 4) go to either the gym or sauna. I think the one I went to was probably a little nicer than some other gyms in Korea. They had hot & cold baths, showers, steam sauna and a room with hair dryers, combs, cotton buds, lotion etc etc… Wow just wow!!! I could spend hours in there!

 

3. Weird Machines

These machines have taken Korean gyms to another level. They were amazingly popular to elderly people, so I couldn’t easily get a hold of them. However, at one evening, I finally did..!!!

 

First one is some kind of massaging machine, mainly for your calves. When you switch it on, the machine starts spinning at a speed, and these wooden balls(?) on the machine give your calves a massage. My husband managed to get his forearms done on this machine though. How creative!
Click here to watch a video on it 😀

 

Second one is this vibration belt, again this is to give yourself a massage. I think it is mainly for your lower back but I saw some people getting their WHOLE body massaged with some awesome maneuvering skills. My skin got really sore after 10 minutes of it though, so I do NOT recommend it to people with sensitive skin!
Click here to watch a video on it 😀

 

Third one is my least favourite, I have to say; it is an upside-down machine. It simply flips you upside down at a very slow speed. I think it’s designed to help elderly people with their blood circulation, but I found it so uncomfortable!! I felt like my nose was bunged up and all the blood was going into my head, which isn’t a pleasant experience really. Still, it was worth a try!

 

The last one is actually my favourite, it’s a little sauna machine. I really wanted to take it home once I had tried it… it was that nice! I am sure it would be very very nice in winter, mmm… This was at another gym in Pangyo, a relatively new techno-valley near Seoul. You basically sit in the machine, pull the lid towards you, switch the button on and enjoy the sauna! You can control time and temperature to your liking too. Oh how lovely!

 

4. Wide Range of Population

I was really impressed by how many elderly people were at the Seoul gym. The major age group was over 50s and I was one of the few youngsters there. Even more, they exercised with a passion, which motivated me a lot! The gym in Seoul was combined with a rehab facility to aid the elders physical conditioning, which might well have been the reason for such number of over 50s. Still, I hadn’t seen so many elderly people in the gym before so it was inspirational for me. It was just great.

 

Overall, I had a great experience at Korean gyms, gaining some inspirations and motivations for a more enthusiastic gym life. Oh how I miss the weird machines and lovely saunas!

Thank you so much for reading,
and I will see you in my next blog 🙂

H xx

[VIDEO] Haz In Korea | At A Korean Gym

Hi guys,

Here’s the very first video of my Korea Vlog, and it’s on my first Korean gym experience! Korean gyms are truly amazing, they give you a couple of towels, a t-shirt, a pair of shorts and even a pair of socks! Also the gym I went to had a great sauna facility as well which is always a plus.
I hope you guys enjoy sharing my standard gym routines as well as what Korean gyms are like!

xx

[VIDEO] Haz In Korea Teaser

 

Hi guys!
I know, I am so sorry it’s been absolutely ages since I saw you in the last video… I’ve been on a holiday visiting my motherland… KOREA!
Aaaand I am going to share what I have been doing on my holiday with you guys in the next few videos 😀
I hope you guys enjoy the teaser, and am looking forward to seeing you guys in my next video very very soon!

Bye for now xx

[BLOG] Fear of “NEW” | A Cuppa Chat

Hi peeps! I hope your week is going great.

Today I just want to write you about my fear of “NEW”.
It’s been a month or so since I opened my Youtube channel, and a couple of weeks since I started this blog.And I can tell you that I am loving it, it’s great to share my words and life with you that may give you some encouragement. Also THANK YOU so much for all your support, it means A LOT to me.

However, it’s terrifying to have gone into this Youtube world, not knowing whether I am helping anybody at all. What’s the point of doing it if it’s not useful to anybody after all?

Stepping into this world wasn’t so difficult, but surviving, let alone thriving, does seem tricky. I have been questioning myself if I am good enough to actually be a Youtuber.

Not born with it

Going back a few years… since I was very young, I always wanted to speak in front of an audience. I wasn’t very good at public speaking though. I was and still am nervous, panicky and a little shaky when I speak to a group of people, regardless the number of people in the group. Having done a lot of presentations at University, I decided that I wasn’t good enough for public speaking at all.

After graduating from University, I spent a long long time to find what I wanted to do for the rest of my life; and finally I came up with the idea of opening a Youtube channel,about which I was full of hope and excitement. It is because, as you know, you can reach a wider audience without actually speaking to them!

However, the same challenge struck me again. I become nervous, panicky and even shaky when I speak to a flipping camera! Oh my gosh, can you imagine the struggle?! Filming, checking the footage and editing the videos made me realise of the problem, which led me to question myself even more. Would I ever get better at this?…

Looking at The Bigger Picture

Then, I went to church on a Sunday to listen to a sermon by a great public speaker: the pastor of the church. He is, by the way, amazing at his job; he’s clear, engaging, so natural and even funny. While I was amazed by how good he was at public speaking, I realised, regardless he’s born with it or not, he had to start somewhere to become who he is now. Maybe, I have a chance to improve?

Also the pastor’s word on having a bigger purpose of life gave me a great encouragement to chase my dream instead of passing day by day! So I have decided that my life purpose is to encourage and build people up with my positive words by sharing my life via actual encounters, YouTube and Blogging.

It’s Your Time

So I want to encourage you as well, that you have a purpose of your life. If you haven’t found one, do not worry, you will find it just as I have by dreaming, hoping and learning so many good things that you can do in the world! You might sometimes feel useless (I did!), but don’t feed that nasty thought. You are born with a purpose like everyone is… you just don’t know what it is yet!

And if you have started, and are afraid of your new career and new lifestyle; don’t worry, you are not alone!
I know it’s sometimes hard and so frustrating that you might want to quit… but hang in there! Through these difficulties and challenges, we will grow stronger. And I am here to support you! 🙂

 

I hope my words would give you encouragement.
Please leave in the comment what your dreams and how you are overcoming/ have overcome challenges to follow your dreams. I would love to read them all!

Thank you so much for reading such a long story,
and I will see you guys in my next blog. 🙂

Bye! xx