Because I don't know what the fuck to eat anymore!

[MissusWrex]

I'm almost ready to give up.

It's in the news today that a high carb low fat diet is bad for you and that a high fat low carb diet is the way to go with lots of protein.

Though not too much red meat according to the stories a few months ago.

I suppose you could have eggs? Are they bad or good I can't bloody keep up anymore!

I know I know. The advice I should listen to is to just have a healthy balanced diet but I've never had that. I had a terrible diet growing up and still have a very poor relationship with food.

So asking me to just follow a 'healthy balanced diet' is the equivalent of asking me to build a rocket to Mars using only the contents of my bin.

Ive tried to research what exactly constitutes a healthy diet but there is so much contradiction...

I've a few stone left to lose but have been following the low fat high carb route ( no low fat or sugar foods though, I cook from scratch as often as I can)

Will someone more knowledge my that me just tell me what's good and what isn't in a easy to understand format that won't change tomorrow.

Is that too much to ask?!

I've followed low fat diets for years and gone up and down with the same few stone, then I hit a plateau and it wouldn't shift and I was bloody miserable.
I joined the LCHF boot camp on here and I'm a week in and 5lbs lighter, I know this isn't a sustainable amount to lose every week but I feel so much healthier and it makes sense, eating stuff that's unprocessed and hasn't been pumped full of chemicals.

Maybe instead of becoming lost in the bewildering amount of conflicting information, you could start with a simple food diary of your own. Draw yourself a grid, breakfast, lunch, tea, snack, and write what you actually eat. I would then work from that as it is likely to be food you like. So if you are having sugary cereal there's no point in making yourself have a green smoothie as you won't sustain that. Change it to homemade granola or something similarly crunchy in a bowl, use almond milk instead of cow's milk. And gradually lessen amounts of things. I am just overwhelmed by diet information so this is what I do.

Leptin is a hormone which controls appetite and satiation. There is a condition called Leptin Resistance, very similar to insulin resistance meaning we have less control over our appetites and feel hungry.

There are several known causes but one of the major culprits is fructose syrup, derived from corn oil. It is added to a vast range of foods and is especially prevalent in low fat foods.

We have been utterly conditioned to believe that low fat =healthy when these processed foods are anything but healthy.

In an ideal world we would eat regularly, eat a variety of fresh foods and we would moderate our portions. We have been super sized by the food industry who cares nothing for our health.

Fat as in olive oil, nuts,avocado, oily fish,egg yolk, natural yoghurt, meat. Not fats as in crisps, deep fried crappy processed junk and banoffee sundaes. Wholegrain carbs are good for you as in they keep you regular but a fist size is a portion. That's my diet (the former not latter)and it works for me, never been overweight.

Matilda Also being tired generates leptin resistance. So all the people who have broken nights find it harder to control their appetites.

Fibre is helpful but it needs to be the whole rice fibre (or for some eating the skins of potatoes and fruit which helps with the sugar content).

I lost my weight with Paul Mckenna who educates your body to eat when hungry and STOP when you feel full, that works well.

This plan is based on the one the nurse gave me 4 years ago and I still loosely follow it today, I am 4 stone lighter but do 7 classes and 5 runs most weeks so need to be properly fuelled. The plan is all about going back to basics and weighing foods, raw rice/pasta 25g and potato 100g makes one portion. I eat gluten free so its easier for me to cook mine separately.
I personally find that for me to lose weight these days I have to run about 25/30 miles a week and drop white sugar, 6 weeks without Haribo's and I'm 9lb down!

What the hell do i do? I can eat carbs all day long and never feel full up. Big plates of pasta, slices of bread etc etc and i csn go on and on. Ive been on slimmin world for ages, it worked for the first two stones and ive just been stable since then. Not a clue any more!!

suitsyousir Look at Paul Mckenna (I Can Make You Thin) it works REALLY . Maybe eat more protein and veg. ?

It seems everything is now branded as good for you or bad for you: I agree it so confusing.

I live like a cave woman, and leafy veg, oils and fish, veg and fruit, nuts and seeds. We have roots everyday, sweet potato, carrot potato.

I like brown rice and quinoa and porridge.

I contacted a nutritionist who qualified with BANT, and it was great to get her recommendations. Mediterranean diet with portion control.

My cholesterol is lovely, but my DH has high cholesterol. It's genetic, and bad luck for him. We were being tested to see if we have arterial plaques as well, as that is also another factor in health. Some people genetically have a propensity to lay down cholesterol plaques in their arteries, and have low blood lipid profiles- some people have low blood lipids and have very clogged arteries, and fatty livers. It's good to know that, so ask for a test/ sonogram.

Your inner fat blood profile and deposition areas are more important that whether you can fit into a size 10/12 jeans. Have a blood test and scan then you'll know how your health is really rather than how skinny you look.

IME getting enough sleep is the factor of your health that is often overlooked, but an essential piece of the puzzle.

Make sure you get enough sleep... Not easy when you're breastfeeding I know, but do try and rest and have a herbal tea rather than reach for the carbs.

suits...you need to eat less basically

we are absolutely brain washed into eating enormous portions.

look at the size of a coffee or a muffin from starbucks nowadays ??

If I eat bread and pasta then I too am starving a short while later. I was out to lunch with friends today and had rice. Am starving now! If I'd had a big salad I would be ok.

At one point you were told not to eat too many eggs because they were bad for cholesterol. Now that advice has been changed. Advice seems to change according to fashion.

I don't think any diet is good or bad.
Cut down portions and exercise more. It isn't rocket science so you don't need to worry op

Cut the fat off fatty meats. Cut down or preferably cut out biscuits, deserts, crisps, chocolates, sweets and alcohol.
Have small portions of bread, pasta and rice.
Eat plenty of salad and veg. Eat plenty of chicken or fish. Include some fruit or nuts but don't go mad.
And exercise as much as you can.

Everything in moderation.

The theory is easy and definitely works. The hard bit is implementing it.

who knows what to eat anymore ay
I've given up, hence why I'm sat eating a packet of wotsits

I have Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) so I have a crap relationship with food, too.
Have you tried MyFitnessPal? It's an app. You log what you eat, and it tells you how many calories, how much fat/carbs/etc. you have left for the day. I lost 17lbs while using it.

theredjelly I don't think it's just nowadays though; If you think about it a 3 course meal is traditional isn't it? In Fr. it's not unusual to get a 7 course meal in some restaurants fgs.

My stomach has shrunk on the Paul Mckenna and it's difficult to eat a meal out believe me!

This is the guidance for eating well. It's really simple, no fads no gimmicks, learn your portion sizes and stick within these guidelines and you will be eating a healthy balanced diet. nothing is bad for you just some things you don't need as much of as others, some things fill you up more and some things contain more of the vitamins and nutrients that you need more of. Honestly, I despair over all the faddy 'diets' and rumours of this and that being 'bad' and the 'new discoveries' claimed. that's what confuses people. look at the guidance and learn it it honestly makes sense.

I like Michael Pollan's rules:

Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much.

His definition for 'real' food is would your great-grandmother recognise it as a foodstuff, which I think is quite a good way of sifting out the junk.

Basically eat a shit load of veg, moderate amounts of meat, cheese, grains etc and keep the junk food and sugar for an occasional treat. And don't eat portions the size of your head.

eat real food, mainly plants.

The less processed the better - so butter is better than low fat spread. I use Olive oil not a 1 cal spray. Full fat natural yoghurt not a high sugar low fat one with fruit. Yes eggs are fine - they were rehabilitated quite a while ago . When looking at the research I always ask the questions "who funded the research?" "who does this benefit if it turns out to be right?".

The diet food lobby is very powerful, it's a huge market, they don't want us to eat fresh and unprocessed natural food - they want us to eat their carefully calorie counted ready meals that will leave you hungry for one of their high sugar and low fat deserts (or two!) washed down with their diet drinks.

agree with matilda - high fructose corn syrup is the work of the devil - and we HAVE known that for years. We've also known that sugar, in any refined form, is basically toxic, messes with the way in which insulin is regulated. I remember reading John Yudkin's work in the 70's - and he demonstrated this. He was basically silenced by the diet food, anti-fat, lobby - and we all fell for it, me included.

My Dad came up with a good one - eat less, move more..... makes sense. Only eat as many calories as you can burn/use.

You have 2 types of food group: Slow release and Instant release and it is important to get the balance of the 2 every day. It is one of the reasons we have a sweet pudding after our main meal.

Slow release is pasta, bread, potatoes, beans etc
Fast release is sugar based....fruit, sugar, chocolate etc

You eat the slow release first and the fast release helps to speed up the metabolism to enable you to digest the first course. Exercising increases the effectiveness of eating the fast release course and the fast release foods also provide energy.

If you eat either course on their own it won't be balanced.
If you eat cereal with milk and some toast, the food will take a long time to digest and because it can make you sluggish, will slow you down, leading to weight gain......
If you only eat fruit and drink fruit juice, you will eat more than you need, have a massive sugar rush and a burst of energy, leaving you very tired in a short space of time and then, you will feel hungry - very hungry, and over eat.......leading to weight gain.......

Forget what you can eat or what you can't (unless you are allergic of course) and instead, look at what the food can do for you. What vitamins does it give me? How much energy does it release? How many calories does it contain? (to lose weight, it is recommended to eat no more than 1500 for women and 1800 for men, and to maintain a healthy weight, it is 2000 for women and 2500 for men - without exercise).

It is very important to teach children how to prepare and cook the basics. I have met adults who cannot boil rice (I know.... I was a bit ???). Meat is pre-prepared and veg is pre-chopped, all they need to know is how to make a fresh cheese sauce........ There is no excuse not to cook fresh (except for a sneaky one-off treat of course!).

I heard the pro-fat story, but it was quickly followed up by this response

"Advice to eat more fat is irresponsible and potentially deadly, Public Health England's chief nutritionist has said.

Dr Alison Tedstone was responding to a report by the National Obesity Forum, which suggests eating fat could help cut obesity and type 2 diabetes.
The charity said promoting low-fat food had had "disastrous health consequences" and should be reversed.
Other experts have also criticised the report saying it cherry-picked and misquoted evidence."
and
"The Royal Society for Public Health described the report a "muddled manifesto of sweeping statements, generalisations and speculation"."

Presumably the claims will be chewed over and argued out. If it is true that the document was not peer-reviewed before publication, and the organisation received funding from the food industry, it deserves to be treated sceptically.

79 when i did slimming world the first time i lost ten stone in 18 months. This was at the age of 29/30 on their high carb low fat Green plan.

3 years ago at the age of 40 i had 4 stone to lose and high carb low fat wouldnt work. This time i had to cut my portion sizes despite SWs eat as much as you want no mullerlight yogs or their far too sweet hifi bars. Cut out pasta completely. Upped my consumption of fresh friuit and frozen veg. (something has to give, cant afford to do fresh for both. ) this time it has taken me over 2 and a half years to lose 4 stone so ive had to be really patient. Something lots of people arent prepared to do because they want instant gratification. SW classes are full of advice on how you can speed up weight loss but when you get ill (with gallstones in my case the first time due to losing weight too fast) these companies are nowhere to be seen)

The NHS are complete hypocrites when it comes to weight. Moan like hell about obesity and what it costs them but.
a. will NOT admit they have got it wrong about low fat.
b. are happy to prescribe steroids rather than alternatives for illnesses and conditions because the steroids are cheaper.
c. saw a post on another thread from an MNer who works or has contact with them in some capacity and the lunch they laid on for a meeting was sandwiches and pork pies. There was fruit but a lot of it was citrus.

if it were me i would have insisted on going out to eat. I would have had to. i cant eat bloody pork pies and bread and have a bad reaction to citrus.

Now the NHS is always crying foul when ppl try to say that healthy food is more expensive and they insist that it isnt.

But if they really believed that wouldnt they be putting their money where their mouth is and not choosing the pork pie/bread option for meetings!!

It's so boring.

This is my new revolutionary healthy diet. I am going to start a blog and make millions. You heard it here first!

Eat less:

Saturated fat
Simple carbs (white bread/rice/pasta/etc)
Sugar
Salt
Processed food

Eat more:

Vegetables
Fruit
Lean protein
Low-fat dairy
'Good' fats (avocado/oily fish/olives/unsalted nuts etc)
Complex carbs (brown rice/pulses/sweet potato etc)

Drink lots of water
Drink less boozes

There you go!!

which is pretty much what the NHS says to do ephemeral fairy see my link above