Diet and weight

[Massimo Maddaloni]

Well,
to get in shape people need to eat better but, more than else, need to eat LESS. We have been fed this BS about "good foods" and "bad foods"so much that we believe it. The truth of the matter is that to the food industry it doesn't matter if we overeat triple-cheesebacon rice-a-roni or broccoli ... as long as we overeat. The other obscenity is about the "fat-burning foods", an oxymoron that should be prosecuted in the courts of law.
Watch the movie "The Big Wednesday". There is a scene of hundreds of American kids being rounded up for the draft. They are ALL as skinny as the American soldiers during World War II. There aren't as many skinny soldiers in the whole US army, now. Actually close to 50% of them are unfit to deploy because they are overweight. Carbs, proteins and lipids didn't change, what changed is our acceptance of self-restrain. It's a matter of self discipline not a matter of calories/good food/bad food mumbo jumbo. And, of course, there are unfortunate diseases, but this is another story.
Regards
Massimo

[Snags]

This a very interesting video that will change your whole view on diets.
Basic gist is fructose is the problem,the body doesn't recognise it and is still hungry and the liver turns it into fat.
The cause of High blood pressure, cholesterol, heart disease ,diabetes and obesity.
Its very very long but worth it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM

[vagreys]

Thanks, Snags. I've seen Lustig's lecture, before. While he talks disparagingly about the monofocus on fat in the 70's, I'm not sure I see where his activist obsession with fructose is different. There is no silver bullet, no one macronutrient that is "the problem". Our nutritional problems are complex and intertwined.

Before you become too influenced by Dr. Lustig's position, I suggested you consider some of the critiques of his lecture and position, and some of the objective research material referenced in the following articles and by the many folk commenting:

http://www.alanaragonblog.com/2010/01/29/the-bitter-truth-about-fructose-alarmism/
and
http://www.alanaragonblog.com/2010/02/19/a-retrospective-of-the-fructose-alarmism-debate/
For more objective discussion of fructose, see the links to the NIH articles provided at the end of the second link. If nothing else, it will provide you with food for thought.

All that said, it is clear that we ingest way too much sugar from many sources. One of the easiest ways to reduce sugar intake is to cut out sweetened beverages, including fruit drinks, entirely. Another way is to cut out commercial breads, where HFCS is used not just as a sweetener but as a humectant, and switch to unsweetened breads. The use of HFCS is pervasive in prepared foods of all kinds. Making your own food, from fresh ingredients you control, and reducing reliance on prepared foods and sweetened beverages can go a long way toward improving one's nutrition and weight. It also requires regular exercise, moderate portions, reducing stress, and spending less time at the computer or in front of the TV. It isn't just fructose. It can't be.

[Snags]

I do cook all my own stuff from raw ingredients, I dont drink soft drinks or use sauce in a jar/packet to cook with,virtually everything is home grown organic and raw
I dont buy baked goods as I avoid trans fats.
I rarely eat junk food less than 4 times a year (closest junk food is a 3 hour round trip away)
The additions of "sugars" are wine, chocolates,pre prepared sauces(oyster,hoi sin, tomato,chilli etc) and cereal,even gherkins.
Which when you look into it is still a fair bit of sugars.
Then add white flours, rice and potatoes for starchy carbs.

The interesting concept is that in a pre super market world you only ate what was in your village or what got traded to your village.
Fruit was very local and very seasonal.
Bananas are now available all year round globally and are one of the highest in fructose.
I grow bananas and if I only ate the ones I grow it would be feast and famine a few times a year.
Then add dried fruit added to every breakfast cereal so they can claim no added sugar (sultanas being one of the worst for fructose).
Ive got heaps of fruit trees of all different varieties giving me fruit all year.
Just like the supermarkets but fresher and organic but still full of fructose that our body wasn't really made to be exposed to 24/7
Even this would have been impossible prior to Alexander the great bringing fruit from Asia to Europe or Marco Polo and Chritopher Columbus and Cortez doing the same.
All of a sudden the amount of fructose available to man increased.
Now days through globalisation we can go to the local nursery and take our pick of exotic fruit trees and get tonnes of fructosethat our ancestors couldnt.
Globalisation ,refrigeration and supermarkets are the worst thing that ever happened ,give me a 3rd world local food market any day over a supermarket.

[johngaltsmotor]

One of the great things about making homemade sausage is knowing what ISN'T in it as much as what is.

Snags comment about the fruit is spot on. From my experience and reading, if it's something that is typically dried and stored (beans, lentils, meat, etc.) then go ahead and make it a staple in your diet, man has been living off of it for centuries. If it is something that up until refrigeration and mass transportation has been available in limited supply, then it is not required for a "balanced diet".

Materialism also doesn't help. People want to have more "things" so they scrimp on quality food to afford iPads and huge TVs and fancy cars. And instead of eating nutrient rich foods, they eat things with every good part processed out and a few vitamins put back in.

I made some relatively simple changes to my diet last year and dropped 39lb in 3 months. The biggest problem wasn't a lack of willpower, it was more a lack of knowledge. Once I knew what worked it was easy to find the willpower.

[vagreys]

...The interesting concept is that in a pre super market world you only ate what was in your village or what got traded to your village. Fruit was very local and very seasonal...still full of fructose that our body wasn't really made to be exposed to 24/7...

Lustig attaches qualitative judgement to the way the body processes fructose, but if you think about some of what he says, it makes sense that our bodies would process fruit sugars the way we do, if our access to fruit were seasonal - fattening up on fruits during the limited time they are available in the growing season before the fallow months. In context, what our bodies do with fructose isn't bad; and, it isn't the case that fructose is something we weren't made to use. Obviously, we were. It all comes back to quantity and context.

Here in the US, the American diet underwent a huge shift with the advent of transcontinental rail service and refrigerated shipping. The ability to transport perishables, quickly, made access to highly seasonal fruits and vegetables much less seasonal and much more widely available.

If we look at medieval treatises on food, a significant area of discussion was preserving the harvest against those fallow months. So we see discussions of preserving meats and fruit, making hard breads, ways to preserve dairy, converting fruit and grains into fermented beverages that would extend the life of the harvest. We also see a diet that is much more focused on taking advantage of the seasonal availability of ingredients, including charts of when various fish are best in season throughout the year, and dishes that take advantage of an ingredient while it is available, including recipes for oxen, goats and mutton, when older working animals died or had to be harvested.

Even in medieval cities there was a loss of seasonality. For example, in book production centers, lilvestock were raised and bred so that veal, lamb and goat kid were available most of the year so that hides would be available for vellum production. I think a lot of charcuterie is artful necessity.

[Snags]

Even in medieval cities there was a loss of seasonality. For example, in book production centers, lilvestock were raised and bred so that veal, lamb and goat kid were available most of the year so that hides would be available for vellum production. I think a lot of charcuterie is artful necessity.

I wonder if the the raising of veal lamb and kid was to do with the dairy industry?
Its great to see in rural Europe even today the one pig raised and butchered and preserved for a family for the whole year.
We in the former British colonies never had that tradition and were more susceptible to accept inferior food from fast food factories and super markets.
Europeans have pride in their foods and its origin were we just have cheap fuel. (obviously its changing as we all think we are progressing to modern times)
Its sad

[Wunderdave]

Massimo I think that the question is more complex than simple self restraint. I tend to agree that fructose is a problem but also I think that modern processed foods don't offer the same level of satiety that whole, real foods offer. Fructose, in its natural state, is fine - you get fructose sugar from fruits but the fruits contain lots of fiber to provide the fullness feeling you wouldn't get from processed fructose.

You can get plenty of calories from soda or candy (fructose), chips, cheetos and processed flour that don't provide the lasting energy that your body needs to thrive. Many of these processed foods also contain lots of added MSG which is hard, at least for me, to stop eating once one starts. Additionally, these foods are consumed above and beyond normal meal times.

Combine the useless calories that people consume idly, between meals, with the increased portion sizes that are expected today, and people don't really have a chance. It's hard to stop eating with delicious food on the plate. In this time of industrial food supply the question of food quantity is really not an issue for all but the most poor of people in first world countries. Therefore there's no economic reason for restaurants or even for individuals to limit the quantity of food they prepare, and that naturally leads to overconsumption.

I try to approach diet holistically and so I guess I agree with you, no food is really all that bad by itself, but moderation is essential no matter what you are eating. You can drink soda or eat chips, but you also have to realize that that comes with 100s of calories and adjust your diet appropriately for the rest of the day. You also shouldn't be eating/drinking these things anywhere close to every day.

[Massimo Maddaloni]

Well, sure enough modern life and TV don't help our waistlines but part of the obesity epidemic is caused by our increasing lack of crytical evaluation and processing of the information. I mean, we need to be told how many Spectator points a wine has to know whether we like it or not ... How retarded is that?!??!

Massimo

[Snags]

If we drank local wines and ate local seasonal fruit and veg we wouldn't need anyone telling us anything.
Plenty would starve and go thisrty though

[RickyPaul]

Nice thread to discuss about diet. We all know that diet plays an important role in weight issue. We can easily reduce or gain weight through diet. If we want to lose weight then we must eat fruits and vegetables or any other simple food but not fast food and if we want to gain weight then we should go for its opposite.