[Closed] Why our food is making us fat

If you eat home cooking like people did 30 or so years ago, you should be OK

Have you seen the crap people used to eat 30 years ago??? Boiled veg with everything, yuk. Modern home cooking is loads better!

Lots of our food doesn't have a barcode on it

Point taken, esp for fruit, veg, fresh meat etc. But, my point is that it is still relatively easy to set up regular meals as a recipe and subdivide by the number of portions.

i'm sure I will tire of it very soon - but in the meantime, myfitnesspal has been a real eye opener

Have you seen the crap people used to eat 30 years ago??? Boiled veg with everything, yuk. Modern home cooking is loads better!

[i]*thinks back to childhood*[/i]
Hmmm... Findus Crispy Pancakes, Oven Chips and frozen peas...

Yay for home cooking 😀

I think you have to go back more than 30 years. [url= http://michaelpollan.com/articles-archive/unhappy-meals/ ]Michael Pollan suggests we should eat only stuff that our grandparents would have recognised as food[/url] (which is where I got my five ingredients thing from) but I'd widen that out to include other peoples' grandparents as well.

Interesting article, thanks for the link.

A lot of it was covered in a very good (worrying) book, "Fat Land" (Greg Critser, 2003) which looked at the rise of obesity in the States and the correlations/causations with things like high fructose corn syrup and palm oil now being so prevalent in fast / prefab foods.

The research he was referencing then had appeared in the '90s so it's been known for quite while now - which is why it's plausible that lawsuits might be successful...

Good to see some newer pieces of research also featuring. I thought the point about the tobacco industry was chilling in its cynicism.

Hmmm... Findus Crispy Pancakes, Oven Chips and frozen peas.

And tinned ravioli. Tried a can of it a couple of years ago, just to see what it was like. God it was awful.

Fray Bentos pies are still awesome though! 😀

I think you have to go back more than 30 years. Michael Pollan suggests we should eat only stuff that our grandparents would have recognised as food (which is where I got my five ingredients thing from) but I'd widen that out to include other peoples' grandparents as well.

I doubt my grandparents ever ate quinoa or even lentils, doesn't mean they are bad for you.

I just bought a flapjack from the work shop.
Is it likely to be made as one would make it at home with basic ingredients, or might it contain corn syrup/ palm oil/ rendered Vietnamese children?

I doubt my grandparents ever ate quinoa or even lentils, doesn't mean they are bad for you.

[b]I'd widen that out to include other peoples' grandparents as well[/b]

My granddad was a Scottish, truck driving smoker. Looking at his diet for inspiration would be a bit silly, but luckily there [b]other peoples' grandparents[/b] who ate lentils and stuff 🙂

LOOK, NOBODIES' GRANDPARENTS EVER ATE QUINOA. [b]NOBODIES!![/b]

I just had a look yesterday at the ingredients of a chicken sandwich at work.
The fact that the 'chicken' had separate section for it's ingredients wasn't a good sign, and lo! sugar was one of them.

LOOK, NOBODIES' GRANDPARENTS EVER ATE QUINOA. NOBODIES!!

[url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinoa#History_and_culture ]I beg to differ[/url] 🙂

I'd somehow never made the connection that glucose-fructose syrup was the same as high fructose corn syrup. For some reason, I thought HFCS was an American thing.

Grandparent's stuff?

Looks like it's just spuds, milk and the odd bit of sugar beet for me then.

I know this won't sit well with the polarised nature of internet debates, but how about a mixture of the old and new.
Rather than "Grandparents food was better/worse than modern food" a combination of old style home cooking, that includes ingredients they wouldn't have had easy access to such as lentils and quinoa, plus such modern devices as juicers, steamers and George Foreman grills would be best of all.

MTG, we'll have none of that sort of compromise here. Please.

So when the label says "Carbohydrate (10g) of which sugars (7.8g)" then what is the other 2.2g? More sugar?

Carbohydrate comes in two forms, simple and complex. Both give energy but some are longer lasting than others and will give energy over a longer sustained period of time rather than a quick burst. The 'quick burst' type are the simple carbs, that'll be your sugars. The longer-lasting type will be the complex carbs, the starches, the sort you'll get from rice, pasta, potatoes etc.
So in the above example, the total carb content will consist 78% sugars and 22% starches, not a great ratio.
Nothing wrong with simple carbs as an energy source, you just need to appreciate that it will only give you a quick burst and then tail off to BELOW where you were before, this is the post-sugar rush 'dip'. Complex carbs will last longer but not give you such an instant hit, more of a gradual burn.
The idea is to try and combine the two in such a way that you get an instant hit followed by a sustained energy release that doesn't dump you on the other side of the hit. This is what most energy foods like Power Bars, SIS Go Bars etc. try to do.

An excellent article.

Sadly on this forum some people think the answer is following a diet that eliminates fruit except one day a week.

mike; maybe you need to make some wwmigpe* bracelets, to hand out with kielder timing ones.

*What would my inca granparents eat. 😉

Sadly on this forum some people think the answer is following a diet that eliminates fruit except one day a week.

deadlydarcy - Member
Grandparent's stuff?

Looks like it's just spuds, milk and the odd bit of sugar beet for me then.

Aren't you Irish? Just milk and sugar beet then. 🙂

Fray Bentos pies are still awesome though!

I thought that until I tried one the other week - horrible, hardly any meat in it and the meat that was there was very low quality!

General balanced diet
Make food then you know whats in it (no excuses)
Most things in moderation
Don't blame others or make excuses
Take Some Personal Responsibility - I don't see any force feeding going on

General balanced diet

easy to say; more difficult to define.

General balanced diet

General balanced diet

just have what these guys are having

[img] https://encrypted-tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRIIyxdZidc7HLB_zFbEllbK1hyvMgGufQany6lp41QYy-e7jMCAQ [/img]

It's bloody hard work though, you have to check everything. I bought a chickpea salad the other day and thought this is nice too nice. On checking the label SUGAR! FFS!

It is also not easy coming off sugar as the article states it is as addictive as cigarettes, which I also use. It is probably more damaging as I try to only smoke at weekends.

Interesting saying that the fat will wipe themselves out! 😆

There was a Morrisons advert on TV last night, showcasing food that was ideal for the family to eat while watching the footie. It was almost entirely brown.

But man, sweets and chocolate and cake are sooo satisfying 🙂

I think I need to start reading a bit more into low GI. I hate the concept of low carb and no sugar as I eat plenty of fruit to surely natural sugars are ok - in moderation of course?

alex222 - Member
just have what these guys are having
[img] https://encrypted-tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRIIyxdZidc7HLB_zFbEllbK1hyvMgGufQany6lp41QYy-e7jMCAQ [/img]

It worked for Mike Hall....

toby1, depends how you define low GI and whose stats you believe but quite a lot of fruits appear to be ok.

http://www.the-gi-diet.org/lowgifoods/

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/the-gl-diet-for-dummies-cheat-sheet.html

we should eat only stuff that our grandparents would have recognised as food...but I'd widen that out to include other peoples' grandparents as well.

Let's see

Dad's mum: ate very little. Always thin.
Dad's dad: Italian Swiss. Ate lots, mainly pasta (bad), veg (good), fruit (we're undecided)

Mum's Dad: hated tomatoes. Died of complications from a stomach ulcer.
Mum's mum: forever dieting. Addicted to slimming pills.

You're right - someone else's grandparents would be a good idea..!

I think I need to start reading a bit more into low GI. I hate the concept of low carb and no sugar as I eat plenty of fruit to surely natural sugars are ok - in moderation of course?

Low GI and low carb aren't the same. You can eat as many carbs as you like on a low GI diet, so long as they're from slow-release sources.

Fruit sugar is fructose, which is the 'worst' kind of sugar.

I looked at that earlier grum. I ate some cashews yesterday. Should I feel shameful as they're high in calories (the calorie in vs calorie out train of thought) or should I be chuffed as they're low GI?

Ate lots, mainly pasta (bad)

Cashews are good in moderation I think. Low GI and a good source of protein. For me at least a simplistic calorie in/out mindset is unhelpful, and there is clear research supporting this.

I just Googled Michael Pollan. He's older than my mam, so maybe I should be eating what my great grandparents would have recognised as food, rather than my grandparents.

Been saying this for years!!

Just in case anyone is interested...

I'm off now to have my lunch what I cooked yesterday. Mmmm, sausages.

The American College for Sports Medicine:

[i]Exercise may be associated with better long-term weight control than dieting alone, but the influence of regular physical activity on weight regulation is complex. Although numerous experimental studies have documented the positive effect of exercise training on body weight and fat stores, [b]far less is known about how regular exercise affects attained weight and the risk of weight gain in the general population.[/b] [u]What few[/u] longitudinal data there are [b]suggest that regular physical activity [u]may[/u] be useful in minimizing age-related weight gain[/b] or reducing the risk of substantial weight gain, [b][u]rather than in actually promoting weight loss.[/b][/u] Nonetheless, primary prevention of substantial weight gain with age may be a more efficacious public health strategy for reducing the prevalence of obesity and obesity-related morbidity and mortality in the United States.[/i]

Fruit sugar is fructose, which is the 'worst' kind of sugar.

I thought fructose was a slower release type of sugar, and therefore less "unhealthy" (ignoring exercise nutrition here) than glucose type sugar?

Fruit sugar is fructose, which is the 'worst' kind of sugar.

I thought fructose was a slower release type of sugar

It is, fructose in fruit is low GI, possibly the best type of sugar you can have.

I'm off now to have my lunch what I cooked yesterday. Mmmm, sausages.

I had this for dinner last night and lunch today:

[img] [/img]

[url= http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3949/toulouse-sausage-and-butter-bean-casserole ]BBC recipe here.[/url]

Fructose isn't metabolized the same way as other sugars are.
It would seem that Humans aren't best set-up for that and it has been linked to liver insulin resistance.

In small quantities, as it use to naturally occur, in wild fruit that hasn't been bred over may years to be sweeter.
It was ok.

But its now added to stuff and fruit has been bred to be sweeter.
So now theres more fructose available than before.

If you want to know a bit more about Fructose, you might want to watch the video on Youtube "sugar, the bitter truth".

I did have some fruit today, some blueberries.
First fruit for me in about 6 months.
It is summer though. Allegedly.