to be confused about food?

[Mermaidspam]

It's the whole butter v. margarine thing.

Is it really better for you to have "real" food rather than lower fat, "plastic" food?

What if you need to lose weight? Would it still be preferable to have the "real" option, but have it in moderation?

I'm confused!

i know the feeling, I don't want to eat low fat this that and the other - but if I eat normal food I seem unable to lose wieght.

would love to hear the answer

there is a HUUUUGE difference between a good healthy diet and a diet for which you wish to lose weight.

yes it is always far far preferable to have a little of good wholesome food than lots of low fat plasticised food.

having said that , i have to stick with Flora as it is disgusting and theerefore i do not gorge on it as i do when i have butter in the house, nor do i scramble the kitchen looking for something to spread it on and then give up and eat it straight from the tub

I signed up for change 4 life and have just gradually been making changes.

WRT butter, I've been able to accept flora buttery, may be no better for me though?!

I lost 2 1/2 stone, eating real butter, since I will not buy the fake stuff. It meant that some things that I would normally have butter on I didn't have as often, but I am really anti processed food...I know in some cases it may be unavoidable, but I avoid it when I can.
Moderation is key!

Its not just about what you eat, it's about portion size, balance, exercise.

So yes, butter is ok if used in moderation. Low fat options tend to be shit, look at things like sugar and salt content as well as things like additives etc.

Low fat doesn't always equal healthy.

YANBU by the way. Everyone gets confused because we are bombarded with adverts telling us about low fat this, low sugar that, and then we have government awareness programmes.
All of which tend to conflict with each other.....

I would rather eat a small amount of "real" food than more low-fat food. Personally most of it tastes nasty and tends to be full of things like sweeteners which I am not keen on eating.

Everything in moderation is far healthier. Try to look longer term and change your eating habits and look to lose weight slowly and sustainably rather than look for a quick fix diet full of quick fix solutions. Exercise is key too.

I would rather eat a couple of proper biscuits a couple of times a week (as a bad example!) than eat some crappy special k/go ahead bar everyday, or a proper yogurt once a day than those foul muller lites which as I remember were thrust upon us at slimming world as something you could eat as much of as you liked. It doesn't foster healthy relationships with food.

I can understand why people are confused though, the messages from advertisers and even the government seem so mixed. Sorry, this is a bugbear of mine!

Thanks for your replies.

It is a bit baffling.

It seems that moderation is key, but surely a moderate amount of butter contains less calories than a moderate amount of butter?

Therefore, are we also taking into account the amount of chemicals in marg when we class butter as "good"?

You can use less butter on a muffin for example as it has more flavour than crappy marg.

Yes, most marg has more chemicals than butter. But only decent butter.

Btw, this isn't really about losing weight, so much, just being healthier.

(I'm currently on a food replacement diet, this is more about my parents).

Low-calorie spread are the devil's poo. So there!

I think margarine has tended to have more bad trans fats in it, which butter has less of, so although you may be taking in less calories by eating margarine, you may be eating more of the fats our bodies aren't designed to cope with. As I remember it; I think that's part of the reasoning behind butter being preferable.

Agree with Orm - better to have a butter - any other kind of spread is horribly processed and full of chemicals.
My drug of choice is Lurpak!
I am currently losing significant weight on the idiot proof diet (Atkins type thing)
Nothing processed is allowed at all - all fresh lovely food.
I think meal replacements are also the work of the devil - how are you going to cope when you have to eat 'normally' again?
Real is definitely healthier.

also dont forget that low fat foods have extra sugar/sweeteners added so you are actually imbibing more CALORIES albeit low fat ones

and also you will never re-educate your palate if using sweeteners.

tis better to eat small amounts of as wide and varied a diet of real foods as you can, cover all bases. if the ingredient list contains items you have look up in a dictionary, chances are it's not real food.

Seriously, margarine is something like one chemical away from plastic...do you seriously want to put that in your system, even if it is low fat??

Butter may be high in fat, but it's not loaded with preservatives or anything else to make it taste good. I use unsalted butter now that I have DCs, just to keep their salt down. I do think a little butter typically goes a long way.

Also agree with Patsy about eating 'real' food moderately for sustained weight loss. I'm sorry, but all that low fat crap is so full of additives...just foul. It took me ages to lose weight, but I loved eating 'real' food, and never felt deprived.

I go for real food (occasional exceptions but I'd say at least 95%)
I'm not trying to lose weight, I just don't think fake is good.

I said on a thread the other day that I will eat a huge greasy takeaway, yet in hospital I refused to eat a Muller lite because they have fake crap in.

Real stuff but the more fattening/unhealthy things in moderation is what I believe to be the best and healthiest way of eating.

I am slim and I only eat "real" stuff. Proper butter, full-fat yoghurt etc etc. But I do eat less - so I make cake once a week and therefore I have one piece of cake a week, but it's homemade, full of butter and proper ingredients. And once I've had that real cake, nasty sugary supermarket cakes just aren't a treat so I don't eat them. Those low-fat diet things just aren't nice! A bowl of fresh strawberries are nicer than a Muller Lite (which I agree are vile) and cold iced water is nicer than Diet Coke, and they're lower calorie too.

I agree, badgermonkey...now that I've become more interested in 'real' food...stuff like takeaway pizza and store bought cakes just taste weird to me (I will admit that I love a takeaway curry though, even when I make a mean homemade one...I just like the night off! ). I don't eat very much at all, either...just small amounts of what I want when I'm hungry.

I've just started baking, (made oatmeal sultana cookies today) I've never been that good at it but I've been enjoying it. Before now I just didn't buy many sweet treats because they are a bit fake, and unfortunately the realer something is, the dearer it is.
I buy mainly natural yogurt and sweeten with fruit and/or honey for that reason.

I will have the odd bit of fake though, I love Asda party mix crisps and will let DD have the odd pack of frubes or whatever if they on offer and she does have sweets. She's mainly a chocolate or ice cream kid though so tends to choose that over the sweets when the offer is there or come to think of it those chicken things which look and taste like vile fake chickeny sponge

I don't like the low fat spreads - ever since I heard how they are made, it's basically vegetable oil, with some kind of chemical in it to make it solid rather than liquid

What really irritates me is they use it at the children's centres - most of the "butter" consumed there is by the children, all of who are under 5 and don't need a low fat diet!

I would say a pure Olive spread was best for all round healthiness AND maintaining a healthy weight.

I DO NOT buy in to weight loss foods and I think the only way that they will work is for people who are looking to lose weight for an occassion, even then it is very damaging to your health (mentally and physically)

'REAL' food is the only way to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

I yoyo dieted - weight watchers, GI, Special K blah blah blah for years and years and its all a waste of time. They either hike up sugars, or salt, or fat or Aspartame or whatever and it will send your body either in to starvation or sugar rush or sugar drop up down, up down... its not natural.

I let go of all this when I met my DP 3 years ago who has made me see I am beautiful without dieting and obsessing over 'health foods'

I cook everything from scartch now and eat lots of natural things which would have scared me before i.e. fancy cheeses, non low fat butter or olive spread, whole meal bread, Deli meats, creamy pastas etc etc

Ironically now that I dont think about what I eat I weigh less than I ever have!

These diet companies prey on your insecurities and WANT you to yoyo so that you can continually stay under their spell.. Its sick.

Can you tell Im passionate about this one?

Oh mermaidspam I just caught up and see you are on 'meal replacement'

Please dont do that to your body.

Believe me, the diet is better for me than being the weight I was! (It's only short-term, don't worry!)

Thanks all for you help, very informative.

Only one more question, how does having "real" food affect diabetes (re: my dad)?

foureleven, I gave up the whole dieting cycle, as well, and it's so much better...I cook everything from scratch, enjoy my food for the first time in my life, and I no longer weigh myself.

Please, mermaidspam...no meal replacements...if you are doing that to lose weight, you will gain it back as soon as you stop...it's so hard on your system...

Not sure if this has been mentioned before (haven't read whole thread) but:

Please bear in mind that many "low fat" foods have had sugar added in order to compensate for the lower fat content.

So they may not even be any lower in overall calories.

I would go for real butter (but less of it) every time.