To be astonished at the stupidity of the Smart Swap campaign?

[Farrowandbawlbauls]

Yes, we all need to eat better and move about more but I've just seen the advert for swapping sugar loaded fizzy drinks for sugar free ones.

Am I alone in thinking it's one of the most ill thought of things they've come up with yet?

The sweetners in sugar free drinks are dangerous. The sugar free stuff usually advertised is most of the time, worse than the full fat stuff.

Link

I can see why they are doing this as it is a huge problem in this country, but I don't thing they've thought this through at all.

Source, Maureen?

Well the Wikipedia page on The China Study basically says it was a study that says animal proteins are bad and people should eat a vegan diet. Maybe there are health benefits to that but it's a bit disingenuous to represent the study as saying 'milk is bad', since it basically says all animal-based food is bad. And a lot of foods are bad in some aspect, but you have to weight up the benefits with the downsides.

I've just had a quick Wiki - it doesn't mean it's conclusive by any stretch, the study received plenty of criticism, and lowering your blood fat profiles and balancing LDL/HDL etc while maintaining a healthy weight has also been associated with reduced risk of various "Western" diseases and is completely achievable with a relatively high protein diet utilising animal protein as well as plant based sources such as pulses.

So again, they are saying, everything in moderation.

A cooled boiled potato! oh yes...a cold spud is REALLY tasty!

I don't advocate The China Study as I've not read it....someone I know well thinks it's the Holy Grail though...and he's usually a balanced person. However, I think anything extreme is to be taken with a pinch of salt. I like meat...and I always wonder why we've got such pointy eye teeth if we're not meant to eat it...wouldn't we have flat teeth like cows if we were meant to be vegetarian?

Diet soda is a bullshit solution to the obvious health problems of conventional soda
m.huffpost.com/us/entry/3606906/

That is a pithy summing up C3p0.

there were never any such things as caveman. HTH

I don't know for certain whether or not aspartame is bad for you, but reading up on it it sounds toxic... I switched to diet drinks as a teen and am honestly addicted to them- I tried to go aspartame free recently and had actual withdrawal symptoms. Stay away from the diet stuff. An occasional fizzy full sugar drink should be a treat, the diet stuff is definitely not all its cracked up to be.

ugh I'm dreading dd1 starting school because if all this healthy eating tripe they peddle.

yy MrsDixon - my 5yo is already muddled, having taken in the "fat and sugar are bad" messages but watching school have cake sales, and bacon sandwiches at Friday playtime...

I can safely say that 9 years of schooling have made bugger all impression on what ds wants to eat - don't fret!

It depends what type they are Johnny, I have one who was oblivious and another who thinks teachers are god-like and has fretted over eating chips.

Well I don't know what to eat at all now.

I heard that vitamin D from dairy sources isn't any use to us as humans, and that vegans have more access to vitamin D through other means than people consuming dairy stuff do.

And then I stopped being a vegan, and started eating everything again - while my friend carried on and then she died from cancer, allegedly with a big vitamin D deficit somewhere in the mix...

and then another friend's sister, who was also a vegan, died of cancer in her early 30s too

I don't understand any of it.

Rooners, I'm sorry for your loss.

The only thing I can advise is what we've all been taught before all this bollocks came about - everything in moderation. Make sure your diet is good 90% of the time and allow yourself that pig out every now and again, lifes too fucking short to be miserable about food and cut out all the treats and sweet stuff.

That's how I'm doing it anyway - and that includes Angel Delight (butterscotch of course though)

Margarine is rancid (literally).

Sugar is incredibly bad for you.

Saturated fats are good for you and carry the nutritional value of the product. Monounsaturated also good. Trans fats are awful.

You can get all the carbohydrates you need from veg and fruit.

Wheat's as bad as sugar.

Eggs are really good for you - choose ones laid by hens allowed to forage for insects in the dirt.

Farmed salmon is a bad idea and is actually unavailable in Canada. Eat the wild stuff (much cheaper to buy frozen. Also often heavily discounted at the end of the week).

Think about what your food ate, basically. So, grass fed over grain fed beef, etc.

Much mainstream nutritional advice is dangerously wrong.

Rooners, there's a school of thought that dairy isn't that great for you (causing an insulin response), and that the calcium and vitamin d etc in many dairy products aren't as bioavailable to humans as we are led to believe.

That doesn't mean we should be vegan though - I get my vitamin d though bone broths (aka homemade chicken and bone broths) and fermented cod liver oil.

I realise this makes me sound like some kind of weirdo and a health nut. I'm really not! But my reading over the past few years on nutrition has led me to a profound belief that we're getting this really fucking wrong. I'm sorry for your loss.

Rooners, you may be interested in this blog, on one woman's journey from veganism to an omnivore diet based on the traditional foods I've gone on talked about above:
kristensraw.com/blog/about/

people often respond as though i'm peddling crack or something but i really believe in supplementation with good vitamin and mineral products.

I am so sorry Rooners.

Vitamin D has been one of those health issues that "healthy living " advice has ballsed up. For quite a while the talk was about protecting from skin cancer but also lesser skin damage like wrinkles.

I spent my 20's slathering my skin with high factor cream whilst my parents went a tiny bit more wrinkly every year. I knew who was right! Only turned out the old timers were.. (Now they were always very clear that babies don't go in direct sun and burning was a no-no at any age. But sunlight and "fresh air " were necessary especially for kids, they had grown up hearing about rickets, and seemed to know plenty of people who were bow-legged!)

I do think stuff developed in the lab is not the best bet for us, so I avoid artificial sweeteners and marg. It seems sensible rather than Luddite.

One word - NESTLE.

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