Lose Weight 35

franby64

Morning

I went swimming on Thursday (some of this in the outside pool and no it wasn't raining, it was lovely!).

Lois and Margaretclare - I also watched this programme and it was a revelation to me too. I had heard of corn oil in disapproving terms but didn't realise how it all fitted together along with the invention of the snack, 'low-fat' (aka high sugar) foods and the rest of it.

The MSE ethos is pretty set in my brain now (with the odd hiccup) and the one thing that will motivate me to change my behaviour more than anything else is if I get the idea I'm being ripped off! The idea of these food industry con men and women sitting by their pools while having wrecked people's lives by cynically manipulating us into eating expensive fattening, probably addictive rubbish for profit is enough to make my blood boil.

Anyway, sorry for the rant and Mrs Angry will now go about putting her own house in order. I've already stopped buying biscuits etc (I won't pay £2 for a packet of chocolate biscuits!), less fizzy drinks - I buy them one bottle each on a friday but I know DS and DD2 drink more. DS is very slim and pointed this out when I suggested he drink less pop. So I told him he may be a TOFI (Thin outside and fat inside) like the presenter of the programme. There's a lot to think about with this! Personally I need to work on my outside fat before I get anywhere near tackling my inside fat!

So, I'm going to stick rigidly to my 3 meals a day and I'll eat them at the table and other people can join me if they want. Labels will be read more closely, I will wean myself off the supermarkets, though this will take time I think - and it should be better for all of us. How the health of the whole nation can be tackled I do not know.

Hope everybody is feeling positive this week.

margaretclare

Thanks for this, franby64. We had only just had a delivery from Tesco on Friday morning and that included Perle de Lait and Mullerlight yogurts. I wanted to take them back to Tesco and exchange them but DH suggested taking them to a neighbour who has a small child and saying 'here you are, she might like these'. As luck would have it, they were having a 2-year old birthday party and lots of people turned up, so maybe my carrier-bag full of yogurts would have been eaten between them all somehow. I chose those particular yogurts in the past because they have lower sugar content than many of the other brands and I was looking for less than 15% sugar content. WeightWatchers and many of the others are a no-no in this respect, which really does bear out the claim that low fat = high sugar. Anyway, we then went along to Waitrose for some fresh salad etc and I got some Yeo Valley yogurts. I shan't buy any others from now on.

I agree with you, I have no idea how to tackle the health of the whole nation. We had our ultimate 'fast food' long before the Americans came along with their burgers, McDs etc - fish and chips! They even advertise OAPs' fish and chips with tea and bread and butter!

I've always had the habit of eating only at a table - it was one of the things my first husband insisted on, again, like so many other things, it went back to his time at school, and it was our habit when the grandchildren came. What they do now they're all grown up I have no idea. I recall my little grandson - he's 30 now! - always used to lay the table when he came here, ask politely for second helpings and if he could get down from table. I know for a fact he didn't do that at home because it wasn't expected of him there - he knew that it was in our house.

Eating in front of the TV means you just do not notice what you're eating because you're distracted by something else, and that is illustrated so often on programmes like 'Secret Eaters'.

Thinking nationally and locally, I would prefer it if councils didn't allow so many takeaway shops so close to each other.

I agree with you - I object to fortunes being made so unethically. Everyone needs to eat and that human necessity has been capitalised on and need turned into greed.

Just a few thoughts.

gymsalesjames

margaretclare wrote: »

Lois, I don't know what the answer is. That BBC2 programme (first of a series) was an 'eureka' moment for me. It explained so many things. Even then, the idea of the 'obesity epidemic' and what to do about it is not new. There have been other TV programmes which I've watched - 'Supersize vs Superskinny' and 'Secret Eaters' both of which talk of being a 'crusade' against the obesity epidemic. What was new to me was the explanation about fructose - that was the artificial kind of fructose made from corn syrup. For some time now I've been very careful about reading the percentage amount of added sugar in various items - low-fat yogurts, for instance. Muller light and Perle de Lait, which I've chosen because they have less sugar than many of the others, both contain fructose, Muller Light more than Perle de Lait. I will not eat them ever again! I'm going back to Yeo Valley: https://www.yeovalley.co.uk/ I emailed them to clarify: they do not use any fructose at all apart from that which occurs naturally in the fruit they add to some of their products. They use organic sugar or honey but no fructose. Methinks closer reading of labels is called for!

Apart from that, it's personal. I have a rooted and long-lasting objection to being controlled, stereotyped or manipulated by anybody at all, and the advertising depicted on the BBC2 programme is manipulation and control. Yes, we were taught not to eat between meals, not to eat in the street, especially in school uniform, but the whole idea of eating 'meals' as such seems to have gone out of the window. Even eating at a table rather than on your lap while watching TV seems to be the exception rather than the rule.

We're the older generation and it's no good saying 'we did it this way' because we grew up in a different world. There's a thread running elsewhere on Martin's site headed 'What people ate in the 50s' and if you read that you get an idea of how things have changed in a few short decades and it has been the result of business decisions as much as political decisions, probably more so.

The current series on ITV1 'Secret Eaters' highlights the fact that people eat in a kind of mindless way and have no idea, until the evidence is put before them collected by CCTV and private detectives, how much they eat, what, when and where. One other 'eureka' moment came when someone said that 'fast food contains no fibre'. No, it doesn't, and that explains how it can be so easily swallowed and digested almost without being noticed, resulting in the 'feeling full' mechanisms in the stomach, liver and brain being bypassed. There is the emotional pleasure from high flavour and because there is no 'full' feeling, people want to carry on with the pleasure without noticing that they've taken in huge amounts of calories.

DH just went down to our local baker who produces what he calls a GI loaf. Word has got around, you have to be there soon after they open at 7 am or he's sold out of the night's baking - yesterday there was only one small loaf left at 10 am. DH was there at 8 am and there were 4 loaves left - he bought 3 and put them into the freezer. This bread will have been baked fresh overnight/early hours of the morning, has no additives or preservatives for 'shelf life' and hasn't been trucked halfway around the kingdom before it gets to the consumer.

So we are just going to have to be a lot more careful reading food labels in supermarkets. DH and I don't eat between meals at all, we weren't brought up to it and we've never bought into the 'snacking' or 'grazing' habit. He knows the effect on health - before he was diagnosed Type II diabetic in 1980 he spent hours behind the wheel, eating and drinking unsuitable things as and when he could, probably drinking coca-cola, which has been shown to be a baddie!! And that was after he'd been a very fit, active, sporty young guy in his younger days. Just shows what an unhealthy diet and inactive lifestyle can do.

It is not so much fructose you need to worry about, as this is a naturally occuring fruit sugar. It's high fructose corn syrup you want to avoid like the plague.

I saw the end of that program and I must say it was one of the first "diet" programs I have ever seen on TV that I've actually thought was worth watching.

It makes me sad seeing mainstream media's usual interpretation of a "healthy" diet. No wonder there is so much obesity going around, people are trying all these diet foods and pills when really, all they need is a proper eduacation on the subject.

If I had a £ for every time someone said "use margerine not butter, less calories" or "dont cook with butter or lard, use vegetable or olive oil" I'd be a millionaire, yet this is the complete opposite of what people should be doing.

Read this site, it is a wealth of information and lots of it is aimed at dispelling common myths about healthy eating.

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/

In particular

https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.marksdailyapple.com/high-fat-diet-healthy-safe/&sa=U&ei=jt7dT5KOKqGs0QXawKXsCg&ved=0CA8QFjAF&client=internal-uds-cse&usg=AFQjCNFRnxdRyI2w5mkQvg-NAL0ptL-htQ

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/definitive-guide-grains/

I work in a gym and have seen tens of thousands of members come and go and it's invariably the ones that make a lifestyle change and educate themselves that make the biggest changes.

margaretclare

It is not so much fructose you need to worry about, as this is a naturally occuring fruit sugar. It's high fructose corn syrup you want to avoid like the plague.

Yes, the difference between these was pointed out. This is where politics came into it in the part of the programme that you missed. It was a decision made by Nixon's Minister of Agriculture to encourage farmers to grow more corn and to profit from it.

When I asked Yeo Valley they were at pains to point out that their products do contain naturally-occurring fructose i.e. fruit sugar in the fruit they use, add to their yogurts etc.

If I had a £ for every time someone said "use margerine not butter, less calories" or "dont cook with butter or lard, use vegetable or olive oil" I'd be a millionaire, yet this is the complete opposite of what people should be doing.

We always use butter - English butter, of course - and we don't use olive oil. What we use for cooking mainly is English rapeseed oil. I wouldn't use margarine unless to grease an axle!

Thanks for the links - will definitely look at them.

PS: DH and I eliminated potatoes from our diet almost a year ago and we haven't felt any the worse for it. I once went to a weight loss clinic at our local surgery and the practice nurse there reeled out a whole list of food items that she said 'you can eat as much as you like: pasta, rice, potatoes, bread...' all the things that Mark says we don't need because we didn't evolve to cope with them! In England we didn't have potatoes until the 17th century and we didn't know about pasta, pizza etc until the 1960s. DH and I do like our wholemeal bread from the local baker, what he calls a GI loaf, but we don't eat a lot of it. We sometimes go to Anglo-Saxon themed meals and there you get wholemeal bread to mop up your gravy. You also use a chunk of bread instead of a fork - only knives and spoons used!

gymsalesjames

Try cutting out bread (if possible all wheat products:pasta, bread, pastries etc), you'll notice a difference in levels of water you hold and digestive health almost immediately. The best sources of carbs you can have are sweet potatoes, yams and rice, all of which you can make very diverse meals with.

I literally cannot believe the nurse told you to eat as much pasta potatoes and bread as you want. In her defence, she is probably told to say this bt the NHS, and they in turn but the government, who's idea of a "healthy" diet has lead to an obesity epidemic. You'd think they would have realised this by now.

Do not use rapeseed oil for cooking. Is is mostly a polyunsaturated fat. When you cook with it it is hydrogenated and becomes detrimental to heart health. (Ever heard of hydrogenated and trans fats being very bad for you? That's effectively what you're making when you cook with rapeseed).

You should cook with saturated fats as they are much more stable under heating. Things like butter, lard, beef dripping, coconut oil will not hydrogenate when you cook with them.

There's a lot of misconceptions flying around about fats. Saturated fats are not bad for you, and polyunsaturated fats are certainly not always good for you!

Marks daily apple is a fantastic resource and I'm sure everyone here can learn a lot from it.

margaretclare

Thank you for this. We'll throw out the rapeseed oil and go back to cooking with butter! Actually we do grill a lot of things - grilled bacon with sliced tomatoes. We don't eat anything made from refined flour: pastries, cakes, biscuits etc. It's going to be hard to give up wholemeal bread altogether.

I learned afterwards that the practice nurse got most of her information from SlimmingWorld, which talks about 'free foods'.

"Rice, pasta and grains are staples
that you can make into hundreds
of delicious meals. They are
nutritious and cooked without fat,
they’re Free Food."

DH wants to know: what about olive oil?

gymsalesjames

margaretclare wrote: »

Thank you for this. We'll throw out the rapeseed oil and go back to cooking with butter! Actually we do grill a lot of things - grilled bacon with sliced tomatoes. We don't eat anything made from refined flour: pastries, cakes, biscuits etc. It's going to be hard to give up wholemeal bread altogether.

I learned afterwards that the practice nurse got most of her information from SlimmingWorld, which talks about 'free foods'.

"Rice, pasta and grains are staples
that you can make into hundreds
of delicious meals. They are
nutritious and cooked without fat,
they’re Free Food."

DH wants to know: what about olive oil?

If it's the only wheat product you eat dont worry too much, but if you can make the switch to non wheat carbs you will feel the difference, not only in satiety but in general wellbeing too.

Slimming world depend on people not losing weight, otherwise they would run out of clients.

Olive oil is ok for cooking under 180C (dont quote me on that exact number but I think it's around there). If you plan on cooking around that temperature with OO add a little butter to increase the stability under heat. Do you not find cooking with OO damages the flavour of it though? I find it a bit bitter. Much rather have some extra virgin OO on a salad or something like that.

beanielou

Totally disagree with your take on SW gymsalesjim.

gymsalesjames

Also, dont slimming world have their own range of "low fat" foods they endorse? It's a pretty convenient business model if you ask me:

1. Find overweight people that want to lose weight and offer them a support network.

2. Brainwash them into thinking that low fat foods are healthy and will leave them satisfied.

3. Sell low fat foods at a large premium

4. The overweight people are not satisfied by the measly portions, high sugar/carb/low fat "meals" they eat and then cheat on their diets.

5. When people go back for the weigh in and haven't lost any weight they are told this is because they muct have cheated on their diets and not stuck to the slimming world foods and eaten a dessert afterwards or something akin to this. When people do have the willpower to stick to these measly portions (which they wont have for long) they lose weight and are praised at these meetings.

6. This then leads them to buy more of the slimming world products and the cycle begins again.

It's a money making machine that will never end because as soon as people stop eating the slimming world meals and go back to their normal diets they gain the weight back because they are not properly educated about correct diets. So they go back to slimming world...

Fat is a very important part of every person's diet and certain fats are essential (they are called essential fatty acids) dont eat these, and your body will crave them, resist, and your health will deteriorate.

On the flipside, there is no such thing as an essential carb. The body can make carbs via a process called gluconeogenesis.

gymsalesjames

beanielou wrote: »

Totally disagree with your take on SW gymsalesjim.

Dont get me wrong, I love the idea of a support network for weightloss, I think it is fantastic.

What I strongly dislike is they do not educate people on what a correct diet should be. Pasta and grains are certainly not staples of an optimal diet. Their ready meals are an absolute disgrace for the most part.

Try it yourself and eliminate all wheat/grains from your diet and replace with rice/yam/sweet potato. I gaurantee you will feel much better (and less hungry) from it!