Talk to me about syn free foods

[MummySparkle]

I need to do something about my weight this year and I'm trying get a better idea of how each different diet / health plan works.

Am I right in thinking Slimming world is a combination of 'free' foods that you can eat as many of as you like and then foods with differing values that you can only eat a certain amount of?

If so, what sort of foods are syn-free? I need to know what I'm going to be eating for the foreseeable future before I sign up for anything!

[TrollTheRespawnJeremy]

f!

[Sometimesithinkimbonkers]

Tinned beans, spaghetti, pasta, rice, most vegetables, most fruit, potatoes, tinned tomatoes, lots of basic ingredients, miller light yogurt, fat free natural yoghurt, quark, mug shots.... The list is enormous!

[HappyHippyChick]

Free foods are fruit, vegetables, pasta, rice and pulses, meat and fish. Foods that are limited are dairy and bread and then sugary or fatty foods.

[Sometimesithinkimbonkers]

Oh yeah and meat and fish!!!

[katienana]

Drinks too like squash, diet fizzy drinks, tractor and coffee. You get an allowance of foods like bread, cereal, milk and cheese to eat each day.

[MummySparkle]

Awesome! This sounds perfect for me. I love pasta and would happily live on pasta with meat and a little bit of cheese. Or just tinned spaghetti!

So they're basically filling foods that aren't too bad for you? I've been bread-free this week anyway, so that won't be too hard. Fruit and veg are all good here so that's a win. What's the stand on nuts? I love them, but work is a nut-free-zone due to colleagues with severe allergies.

So Diet Coke and tea are in? What about tea with milk?

[cowboylover]

I would recommend checking out the website as it has some 7 day sample menus which can give you ideas.

Nothing is out, some good encouraged and others restricted but plenty to fill up on.

[Pobspits]

F

[tabulahrasa]

Nuts, bread and milk are all allowed (everything is, they just fit in the plan differently) so they do have to be measured but you get healthy extras which all those would fit in and you've still got syns on top of that.

[BarbaraofSeville]

When making meals, you are supposed to make a third of your plate 'superfree foods' which is basically most fruit and veg (not potatoes and grapes I think, but certainly things like carrots, salad, spinach, mushrooms, onions are superfree).

It's to lower the calorie density of the food you eat - meat, fish, rice, eggs and pasta are free, but if you don't eat the veg you might not lose.

[cheapskatemum]

I was going to big up the eggs as they hadn't been mentioned, but you beat me to it, BarbaraofSeville. Eggs are a free food.

[MummySparkle]

Ahh, the 1/3 super free makes sense. Then I guess as much as you can of free with a few allowance bits and syns too. I like the sound of SW a lot

All I need to do now is get the bank account out of its post-Christmas hangover so I can sign up...

[cheapskatemum]

Honestly, it's really easy and straightforward once you get the hang of it. It's about £9 the first week, then just under a fiver subsequent weeks, which I think is reasonable compared to other diets (DH is doing Lighter Life at min £70/week). I reached target in 10 weeks, so don't have to pay now. Good luck & let us know how you get on!

[hollyisalovelyname]

Slimming World recommends low fat products and fat free products yet other diet advisors ( medical doctors) say do not eat low fat or fat free as they are often loaded with sugar.
Your thoughts please.

[tabulahrasa]

It's a low fat, low calorie eating plan...a few low fat products do have more sugar than you'd suspect without reading the label - but not many of those are free on slimming world.

Some flavoured yoghurts are the exception, but that's individual choice whether to eat those or plain yoghurt, which is also free.

The core of the plan is fruit, vegetables, lean meat, fish, eggs, pasta, rice, meat replacements, pulses and low fat dairy products, those are the freely allowed foods...out of those, the only thing that has added sugar is flavoured yoghurts of which only certain kinds are free and they only make up a small part of the dairy products.

You'd be hard pushed to be taking in high levels of added sugar while eating free foods, it's possible I suppose if you live off yoghurts, but that would be an odd choice with plenty of variety of free foods available.

Other low fat products that are usually marketed at people trying to lose weight, but are actually quite high in sugar and calories (mcvities go ahead biscuit things for example) have to be counted and are quite high in syns as well.

So actually it's only when something is low calorie, low fat and a little but high in sugar that it's "recomended". (Actually they don't really recomend stuff so much as let people make their own choices within the free foods)

[hollyisalovelyname]

Thank you.