[Closed] Why our food is making us fat

Vegan Moussaka, spuds and some chocolate cake.
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I like STW, no one is responding to solo [ apt name 😉 ] yet they are posting away on his soapbox FFS even TJ required an adversary to do this.
.

Solo, I'm surprised The American College for Sports Medicine should focus on weight like that.
I know that quote is probably a dumbed down summary of a longer article, but it's always worth pointing out that weight, fat and health are not always directly linked.

said the healthy, fit, fat bastard 😉

[i]Solo, I'm surprised The American College for Sports Medicine should focus on weight like that.
I know that quote is probably a dumbed down summary of a longer article, but it's always worth pointing out that weight, fat and health are not always directly linked. [/i]

I was recently flammed for stating a belief I held on this subject.

Since then I have been researching.

I have found Mr Banting's letter and accompanying remarks, fascinating and also, somewhat [i]familiar[/i].

EDIT
BTW, thanks for the recipe OurManintheNorth.

I'm near enough the same height & weight as Chris Hoy. 😛

That bit in the article where it talked about foods being marketed as "low-fat" and therefore healthy struck a cord with me. I used to eat 4-6 M&S Low Fat yoghurts every work day as snacks until someone pointed out how much sugar was in there in place of the fat. 150 calories each, I'd have been no worse off eating Kit Kats all day.

I'd consider myself pretty well informed and I try and be as healthy as possible and yet I still get caught out by Marks and Spencers underhand marketing.

I was recently flammed for stating a belief I held on this subject.

pretty sure you are still owning him on endomondo 😆

Since then I have been researching

Since then I have been researching.

Solo, I'm under the impression you do a lot of reading on the subject. Have you read anything by [url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Sears ]Dr Sears[/url]?

ourmaninthenorth, I followed that recipe too last night!
And tonight, and the night after, and the nigh after that 🙂

Coke's fine though as all calories are the same
[url] http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/story/2012-06-07/coke-q-and-a-coca-cola-mayor-bloomberg/55453016/1 [/url]

I'm gonna make that casserole tonight, cheers.

Phil.W

Thanks for the link, I will give it a look.

[i]nobody likes a cheat[/i]

Actually you are right.
My Bads, I've been attempting to learn more on the subject for quite sometime.

I suppose there could be worse pre-occupations.

Just in case anyone is interested...

I struggle with long sentences, have you got the Cliff Notes?

[url= http://www.clifbar.com/food/philosophy/ ]Clif Notes?[/url]

Cougar.

I don't know what you mean.
I recently discovered Banting and his letter.
I was amazed to see that this subject has been hanging around since the Mid 19th Century.
I find that letter very insightful, personally.

Michael Pollan also said "Eat real food, mainly Plants"
I try to follow this rule every day. I have blips of course, but if you cook from scratch every day for dinner, salads for lunch, whole grains for breakfast, like porridge, you're pretty much there...

[url= http://www.cliffrichardsongs.com/devilwoman/ ]Cliff Notes?[/url]

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

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

anybody got a my head just exploded smiley?

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cheers jamie

mmm toulouse casserole looks nice, might have a crack at that.

What I've found interesting is people not understanding why I'm eating differently - "But why are you on a diet, you don't need to lose weight..."

I'm [i]not[/i] on diet.

I'm thinking about what I'm eating and I'm eating "differently" to "normal", but I'm not on a diet and I'm not trying to lose weight.

In a similar vein the bariatric women at work sees that I eat a lot and thinks I'm "lucky that I can eat what I like" whereas she has bad genes.

How do you polietly point out that it's more [i]what[/i] not [i]how much[/i] to someone with a donut in their hand?

[i]How do you polietly point out that it's more what not how much to someone with a donut in their hand? [/i]

If this place has ever provided an indication of how such an attempt might turn out.

I'd suggest that you'd not bother.
And perhaps thus has it ever been.
Remarks by Banting indicate this was a [i]hot[/i] topic, ~150 years ago.
😯

I've read the links for that Zone Diet.
Theres a few things I'd point out.

And I've worked my way through the OP's post to the original news article.
Which I found very interesting, thanks OP.

Interesting also is how people such as Lustig, through trying to find solutions to related problems.
Are gradually lifting the lid on the working of the last 40 years and finding that the low fat, added sugar era is likely to be reflected upon in the future as how lots of people got really fat and suffered the related diseases of being over weight.

In a similar vein the bariatric women at work sees that I eat a lot and thinks I'm "lucky that I can eat what I like" whereas she has bad genes.

I get that a lot.

To be fair, I can eat pretty much what I want without getting particularly fat - I once managed to get my BMI into the top third of the normal range. However, I [i]choose[/i] not to eat what I want which is why I'm a stone lighter than that.

Loving the advert for "drop 3 dress sizes and discover the shocking truth about Britains hottest diet" on the right.

My lunch today ..... but with deference to the popular fad diet around these parts, I forewent the fruit

Still losing around 1 - 2 lbs/week on my exercise everyday programme

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My day:
[list][*][b]Breakfast:[/b] scrambled eggs, slice of ham, baked beans[/*]
[*][b]Dinner:[/b] three sausages with roast veg (carrots, courgettes and onions), chorizo and a handful of rocket[/*]
[*][b]Tea:[/b] chicken with brocolli, leeks, onions and baby sweetcorn[/*][/list]

Usual 15 minute bike ride to work and 15 minute bike ride home.

Weight still dead on 69kg. As it's been for the last 6 weeks, despite little slip ups like eating 17 chocolate digestives last Friday 🙂

No carbs then mike?
I had fruit and fibre and a protein shake for brekkie
Lunch was a grilled chicken breast salad with cottage cheese and coleslaw.
Normally have a coupe of egg whites as a snack
Creatine before and another Protein shake after gym
having beef stew for tea (made in slow cooker)

It's unadventurous but very low calorie, low fat, low carb and very high protein. I don't know if I'm doing it right though.

No carbs then mike?

Except the ones in the baked beans.

And the veg.

I've tried logging today's food on MyFitnessPal, and it's reminded me why I stopped.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/miketually?date=2012-06-12

As usual, it's telling me I'd weigh 65kg if I continue eating like this. It's told me this for the last 6 weeks and I've not lost any weight at all.

I previously used it for a few fairly typical, consecutive days, to try to get an idea of what I'm eating. The only day I got close to my calorie target for the day was the day I went out for tapas and five pints 🙂

Normally have a coupe of egg whites as a snack

Dear god man!

in answer to the OP. Food makes us fat for several reasons

1. there is a lot of processed food readily available
2. people believe that they are too busy to cook
3. people believe that they are to busy to exercise
4. lack of understanding about what is in food
5. lack of skills available to prepare food
6. humans are not evolved to eat what is made readily available/easy for us in ready meals
7. instinct drives us to do the easiest thing possible
8. people with no scruples are happy to exploit all of the above for money

I'm making Ton's beans right now, ready for breakfast in the rest of the week.

Basic recipe: fry a chopped onion. Add 3 tins harocot beans and one carton of passata.

Tonight's variation had a chopped pepper and some chorizo added to the onions. Plus a splash of balsamic and a glug of wine. And some chilli flakes and lots of black pepper. Am experimenting with 100g of red lentils too. The pre-beans-and-toms lentil/onion/pepper/chilli/chorizo mix is lovely.

For balanced I go for (this week ish)
Breakfast
Cereal or Toast Depending on how much I'm doing
Bacon and Eggs sometimes on a weekend

Lunch
Sandwiches

Evening Meal (one from)
Lasagne
Thai Curry (Fish or Chicken)
Chicken and Veg Pasta
Chilli and rice
Steak Pie with roast and steamed veg

Plenty of fresh veg with the exception of the Thai curry things are made fresh from ingredients

Plenty of fresh fruit
No Crisps or crap like that

balanced

Cereal or Toast

Sandwiches

Pasta

Pie

fruit

Controversial 🙂

alex222 speaks sense. Some people think I'm crazy for the amount of time I spend cooking each evening (15-40 mins during week, an hour or two at weekends). Priorities I suppose.
90% of my main lunch and evening meals are healthy. Breakfast is variable but not to bad, avoiding most highly processed cereals BUT I turn to sweets, chocolate and savoury processed crap for snacks.

Controversial

always

Couple it with exercise and everything is fine

Steady weight plenty of energy

Exercise more eat more

No real need to worry about hidden sugar

BUT I turn to sweets, chocolate and savoury processed crap for snacks

Many years ago I realised I was doing this out of boredom so got rid of crisps and chocolate from my diet. Lasted about 4 years. Only back in moderation now - helps not being bored at work

oh ok I will join in

Breakfast - nowt
Dinner- 3 humous pitta breads with salad
Snack: crisps and some biscuits
Tea: Flapjack, chocolate cake and a peach
3 hour bike ride
A few minutes ago: Pasta with raw veg and some cherries

Chocolate cake looks nice but might have it for breakfast

All home made except the pittas

What do I win?

Today

Breakfast - 2 bits of brown toast and a mango yoghurt
Lunch - 2 poached eggs on brown toast with marmite
Snack - 2 sticks of celery with hummus
Tea - that sausage casserole above with a little bit of quinoa

All very tasty and I'm not hungry now. According to myfitnesspal I'm about 800 calories under for the day though!

What I don´t understand is why the hell don´t kids learn how to cook as part of their education at school. And I don´t mean an optional 1 hour a week home economics class.

I´m looking into teaching kids still at school(I´m a chef). Since even here, in Spain, the fact that both parents have to work and are too tired/too lazy to cook decent food, coupled with the rise in popularity of industrial processed junk has lead to an obesity epidemic. This was once one of the healtiest places in europe, lots of fresh veg. and fish.

My solution:
Teach the kids about healthy balanced eating and how to source food and cook for themselves.
Super-tax anything with hfcg in it and use the money to subsidise organic food.
Eat healthy home cooked food and have a blowout (takeaway/eat what you want) day once every week or two, until it´s no longer necessary.

Got to shoot off to work, so can't read all this. Regardless of what science throws up every now and then, there is simply too much food. And not an obsession as such, but almost like an underhand mind **** campaign to keep us thinking and talking about food.
We've turned food into some sort of art culture, but we can't draw.

I did skim over and noticed some good points. Like how we turn something we pull out of the ground and bung in boiling water to eat, into God knows what coated rubbish.

Too the 'oldgit' bit. When I was growing up everyone was a bit hungry before they ate. And though parents worked long and hard and had virtually no gizmos to help in the kitchen, just oven and hob. Good food was prepared daily. The same food you can buy cheaply to this day.
I also recall that the average house didn't have things like crisps, sweets or fizzy drink in it, I don't think supermarkets even sold that sort of stuff. Even biscuits were a weekend treat. Though strangely fat and sugar were embraced with relish, but were only available in small measures - mmmm dripping and salt sandwiches.
Portions have also changed. The sizes of chocolate bars you buy with your petrol are massive, the combined Christmas chocolate booty of a 60/70s kid was nothing compared the one king size two for one bar the punters pick up today.
Like someone said up there, it isn't rocket surgery.
It had one downside, the one single slightly overweight kid in town had his/her like made hell.

If convenience food went overnight would we therefore all starve to death before we found time to boil a spud.

in answer to the OP. Food makes us fat for several reasons

1. there is a lot of processed food readily available
2. people believe that they are too busy to cook
3. people believe that they are to busy to exercise
4. lack of understanding about what is in food
5. lack of skills available to prepare food
6. humans are not evolved to eat what is made readily available/easy for us in ready meals
7. instinct drives us to do the easiest thing possible
8. people with no scruples are happy to exploit all of the above for money

These are not reasons they are excuses
1) Just because it's there doesn't mean you need to buy it.
2) Being too [s]lazy[/s] busy to cook means you are lazy - not the fault of the food. Good simple food can be cooked in minutes
3) Too busy to exercise!! Well best eat less then (again not fault of any food)
4) Possibly poor education and confusing labels don't help but taking no interest in food - one of the most basic of all needs is asking for trouble.
5) Time to get out and learn how to cook.
6) Not being evolved to eat crap ready meals - well don't eat them.
7) Instinct drives some people to do the easiest thing - the rest of us might live longer (Darwin time)
8) People are happy to be exploited??

Time to wake up and work it out. All credit to Jamie Oliver for the stuff he has done in the past. I can see why he hasn't done any more as it must be demoralising to see how people are not doing anything about it. If you tick 3/4 of the 1st list or more time to take a look at yourself and whats important to you. The only person in charge of what food you eat is you.

A lack of personal responsibility is the biggest threat to life rather than anything else.

[i]Too busy to exercise!! Well best eat less then [/i]

Eating less ?.
[i]•At the moment, the government efforts to curb obesity and diabetes avoid the all-too-apparent fact, as Hilde Bruch pointed out more than half a century ago, that exhorting obese people to eat less and exercise more doesn’t work, and that this shouldn’t be an indictment of their character but of the value of the advice.
[/i]

mikewsmith - I wasn't reflecting on my own eating habits. I always make dinner even though there is a canteen. I always make my tea and I don't eat cereal from a box. I was reflecting on what I have heard people say seen people do and also from visiting supermarkets.

However What you have said was kind of implied in what I was saying.