UPF.... WTF - I knew it was addictive but didn't realise...

[PaminaMozart]

... how quickly things can fall apart!

I'm a self-confessed health nut. Love exercise, lots of walking, and my diet is normally supper healthy. Lots of vegetables, lean protein, a smattering of complex carbs, healthy fats and dairy/mostly yoghurt.

It has stood me in good stead. At 70 I am really fit and my health-MOT suggests a biological age of 53 or thereabouts.

BUT...... for the past 10 days I have had relatives staying with me who seem addicted to UPF, carbs and sugary 'treats'. They sleep till 10, so I've given my usual morning workouts a miss so as not to disturb them. No point cooking stuff they won't eat. Or we eat out at places with limited/no healthy options.

Slowly but surely I've fallen into a pattern of eating what they eat, drinking wine daily (as opposed to a glass once or twice a week), and taking the bus instead of walking.

And, even after such a short time I have gained weight, my belly is definitely more prominent, and my lovely muscles seem sadly diminished.

A salutary lesson. Use it or loose it. I wonder how long it'll take me to get back to where I was...?!!

I find even fruit often tastes too sweet these days. Apples especially! The only ones available in the supermarket that I like are granny Smiths; everything else tastes unnaturally sweet to me.

The man who made the Supersize Me film died last month; his health never recovered.

What!?? I heard he died but didn't really take note. Surely a month of fast food didn't create a lifetime of problems? Or did he do other food experiments maybe?

Do some Googling - he had all manner of issues.

To be fair, he also had trouble with alcohol.
Very very sad though, he was only 53.

He was an alcoholic which would have massively skewed the results of SuperSize Me. I don't think his career as a documentary maker really recovered from it tbh.

The man who made that documentary - Morgan Spurlock - died of cancer last month. He was only 53.

Sorry. Just noticed this has already been mentioned. Should have rtft. Or gone to Specsavers.

Honestly I know what I should be doing. I’ve read all the literature on UPF and nutrition. I was bought up with a Mother who was always on a fad diet so I’ve done several variations of diet by proxy and had all manner of food items demonised as I grew up. This has led to me have a very unhealthy attitude to food.

Im a good cook and my kids tend to have 3 foods a day that are either non UPF or minimal. (I don’t believe all UPF is equal - ie chicken nuggets vs fish fingers and I admit to still having baked beans and I don’t think that adding a stock cube eliminates all the goodness in a homemade, veg packed chilli) but I struggle with an all or nothing mentality and if we get a family bar of chocolate I can demolish it totally mindlessly.

I don’t want to pass on my food issues to my kids so rather than tell them what they can and can’t have I just control what comes into the house but don’t get too stressed about birthday parties etc.

Even Dr CVT talks about how you can’t avoid it with kids and how you will want your kids to fit in. It’s so true.

@Alalalalalongalalalalalonglonglilong Morgan was an alcoholic when he made that doc - it is not a good example of anything other than how to manipulate data and the public to make a lot of money.

So he was in active addiction and drinking?

Sorry what? Even fruit is too sweet for you? This place is 🦇 💩

I've read that happens alot, not bat shit in the least

Yes.

He said himself that he'd not spent a week sober in 30 plus years

It's pure batshit

Yes apparently, I've been googling him too! He was drinking consistently since 13 (13!!!!) and was an active alcoholic during the documentary, basically a fraud. So while some of the effects probably were very real like the weight gain and lethargy etc, the long term internal effects were BS. In particular he showed someone examining his liver and being astonished by the damage done. The ridiculous thing is he still had a good point to be made, he could have edited it to focus only on the changes physically but he didn't.

@SquiglePig Well done! That's amazing! what motivated you to get started, was it really difficult? Any withdrawal symptoms?

Honestly I wonder sometimes should there be support services for those trying to give up. I mean proper addiction based models. Like a daily meeting for the first month and a mentor at the end of a phone, for a few weeks or after someone falls off the wagon. I don't think I'd have the strength mentally to go it alone.

It's honestly true.

I had the biggest sweet tooth. Millionaires shortbread, haagendaz ice cream, boost chocolate bars were all my favourite.

Now if I have fruit it seems extremely sweet to me!

I've never, ever in my life ate dark chocolate. It made me feel sick. Now I have a small square 70% chocolate to quench my cravings.

I had a gastric sleeve and all the sugar and carbs were giving me digestive issues.

The first 3 /4 days was very hard. I just wanted sugar so badly. And Pepsi max, but after those first days it becomes so much easier.

I also bought keto sticks and seeing the positive test helps keep me in check. I don't want to eat anything that will give me a negative result.

I find fruit too sweet, it’s just the way my tastebuds are and not a judgement on anyone else’s!

I have a bottomless appetite for salt and fat though.

Fruit is definitely WAY uniformly sweeter these days than when I was young (and I'm only a young adult). I like it but my family and I have noticed it too, at least in my home country.

From Google: "At the Melbourne Zoo, the monkeys are no longer allowed to eat bananas. And the pandas are getting pellets instead of plums. In fact, fruit has been phased out completely. That's because the fruit that humans have selectively bred over the years has become so full of sugar the zoo's fruitarian animals were becoming obese and losing teeth."

I notice on the packets it says “supersweet” pineapple, cherries bred for “maximum” sweetness and you think why is that better?

Personally I prefer sharper and less ripe fruit.

YABU self righteous and judgemental. Nobody has forced you to do anything.

The trademarked fruit is sweeter. The standard priced out of season fruit tastes like potatoes. There is nothing uniform about it. If you don't want the super sweet just don't buy pink ladies or sundowners or whatever equivalent in other fruits.

Bananas haven't changed for over 70 years. They don't feed them to monkeys because of increased understanding of their natural diet rather than them becoming sweeter in that time period. The original commercial banana available until the 50s or so was significantly sweeter and we've had the same cultivar ever since