Which diet advice is to be believed?

[TheDeadlyDonkey]

I've started reading John Briffa's Escape the Diet Trap. It makes for very interesting reading, but has made me question the usual run of the mill low fat type diet advice.
If Briffa is to be believed, low fat diets are unsustainable and can contribute to ongoing obesity issues and increasing the risk of diabetes.

I've also recently heard that if milk is to be drunk, full fat milk is better, as the majority of vitamins and minerals are in the fat.

I'm also hearing varying reports on cholesterol, and how it maybe isn't playing the dangerous role that many drs are telling us.

So, after DH's stroke (which wasn't in any way a lifestyle issue) he has been advised to be cautious and cut down on fat and use benecol spread and yoghurt drink (I have read that these aren't good for you, but can't remember where, could have been on here)

So when there is so much conflicting advice, who do you trust? What do you believe?

John Briffa's book is really convincing, quotes trials, uses scientific charts etc, and makes sense.
I myself have struggled with low fat diets, and failed more times than I care to admit.
I am in no way qualified to interpret scientific trial data (along with the majority of the population) and am growing more and more confused about the conflicting advice that is out there.

I'm not really sure what I'm expecting from this thread, but I'm interested to see what others think about this, and who you trust when it comes to diet advice?

Thanks Kungfu, will have a look

Kungfu that cake sounds lovely - I'd love the recipe!

This afternoon I picked up some walnuts and some seeds and had a small handful of those for my afternoon snack (instead of my cheese and cracker addiction).

I've made a "moroccan chicken" with tomato, honey, lemon and spices with cous cous. It was lovely and simple to make and all from "real" food.

I think I want to aim similarly ish to Xenia's basic idea, and what Kungfu is saying - real, whole foods, and increasing fruit and veg and decreasing fat ans sugar.

I do like to bake though and am making chocolate brownies (admittedly with lots of walnuts!) for the children and at least I know what the ingredients are. I'm making cheese and bacon muffins for a picnic tomorrow - again at least I know whats in them.

I'm really interested in Kungfus cake though - I'd quite like to apply the ideas to baking and use less white flour, caster sugar etc!

Oh - random fact, I was looking for chicken stock for the recipe as I haven't yet learnt how to make it. OXO has MSG, some of the "posh" looking brands have glucose syrup (english for HFCS?) and only the own brand one looked like identifiable ingredients!!! I've never checked that kind of thing before. (We usually use veg boullion but I wanted to follow the recipe).

Oh missed the bit about the course that sounds interesting althouggh I'm not "there" yet. I'm still trying to make some of the "big" basic changes towards wholefoods!

I normally buy the supermarket bread that has been baked in the bakery onsite. Does that still have lots of additives then? I assumed it was similar to bakery bread elsewhere....

We used to make our own. I could do that again. I do like them to slice it for me though - I'm rubbish at slicing!

If you read their names, it would seem that glucose syrup contains glucose while high fructose corn syrup contains fructose, which would make them different things. Yes they are both sugars, but different kinds of suagr are digested differently. Also, I find that the chicken/beef stock cubes tend to have less sugar and salt in them then the vegetable ones.

What about agave syrup as a sugar alternative - worth it, or just as bad?

Just as bad. As is honey.

All sugars are just empty calories.
They are the one part of the diet we do not need in any quantity at all.

Fat, salt, protein, carbs, vitamins, minerals - all essential for our bodies
Sugar - NOT

Agave is worse than table sugar - it's very high in fructose! definitely one to avoid. All sugars/sweeteners are not created equal - some are worse than others. Agave and HFCS are bad because the fructose is processed by the liver - leaving your liver in a pretty poor fatty state. Good local raw honey contains some beneficial nutrients and some would argue help to protect against infection but should be consumed in moderation.

Supermarket baked breads are just that - baked in the supermarket, the dough is often made elsewhere, they are baked on site because the smell drives you crazy, their ingredients are often a mystery as by law companies don't have to label in store baked products in the same way - so you won't find an ingredient list on the bread...even if you did it would most likely still be full of crap because the bread is still factory produced off site.

I have golden syrup on my porridge. Not a lot but I love it. I did wonder if maple syrup would be 'better' but we on the other hand its now such a small part of my diet.

I'm incredibly grateful for this thread :-) I've really enjoyed my food the last two days and eaten a lot less.

Thanks itsonly. Of course! I got them muddled! We use the low salt veg boullion usually but hadn't checked it for sugar!

I have crackers and oatcakes in the cupboard. I haven't checked their ingredient list. I guess oatcakes are easy enough to make and I don't really need crackers.

I'm going to make hummus for tomorrows morning snack with veg sticks (anyone know how long home,made hummus lasts for?)

I could do with some other ideas -I might start a thread!

Thanks for that about the bread! I've been googling the online shopping sites to see if any store displays nutritional info and none of them seemed to. I'd always assumed it was more 'real' like bakery bread. Hmm. Might have to teach myself to use the breadmaker. Its mainly my daughter who likes sandwhiches at school. If I made rolls would they keep at all?

I make rolls and freeze them. Then it's 20secs on fast defrost in the morning and they are fine.

Cleanest bread you can buy in the supermarket is ciabatta or go for Organic which often has cleaner ingredients. Making your own is even better.

Ah didn't think of freezing . . . ! I always worry it will go soggy. I might give it a go. Thanks :-)

I'd been thinking of eating more cous cous, bulgar wheat etc. But they're still wheat aren't they? I'm happy to eat wheat cut just thinking if I eat that one meal I probably ought not to have sandwhices for the other. Or are they whole grains and ok?

Cous cous is the same thing as pasta, literally. I don't really find wheat bad, I think it's best to stick to wholewheat though, because at least you are getting the benefit of added fiber. However, people here would more than likely urge you to eat something like Quinoa as a replacement for wheat, which is a seed that is a good source of protein.

Also sugar is a carbohydrate and lots of fruits and vegetables contain sugars. When you look at the back of a label on the nutritional information where it lists sugar it could be sugar found naturally in fruits, for example if you find a no sugar added jam, the sugar content is quite high because when you cook fruit you reduce the water content and concentrate the natural sugars. You should check the ingredients to see if ant suagrs are actually listed.

I disagree that you don't need sugar. I mean natural sugars found in fruits rather than processed cane sugar. If you think about eating a balanced meal which includes foods from every food group (dairy, fruits & veg, carbs, protein) you'll get a quick energy boost from the fruits and veg, but longer more sustainable enegry from the protein and carbohydrates (assuming they are complex carbohydrates from wholegrain sources). The main point of eating food is to give your body calories for energy and vitamins, minerals, proteins (among other things) which are needed for regular body functions.

Please excuse any typos and if this didn't make sense, it's past my bedtime.

Thanks, really helpful. I can't believe I don't really know how to put a good weeks healthy meal plan together. (hence being interested in this thread).

we like wholemeal pasta - so is that better than cous cous. Will look into quinoa but I guess potatoes and brown rice are other alternatives for the carb bit of the meal.

Thanks for your advice. I'm going to bed too -can't believe how many typos and extra exclamation marks I've put it. Its embarrassing. I need sleep.

cut down on the carbs, not totally but certainly a couple of days a week

vegetable soup / stir fry / stew
frittata or spanish omelette
ham and onion normal omelette with a side salad
steamed fish and vegetables and a nice tomato gloopy sauce

all nom nom carb free incredibly low calorie meals

have a look at pulses
make a chilli sauce with lots of beans and then dip tortilla chips into it - 50g of them is plenty
or some of the amazing chickpea curries
or mixed beans in a piri piri type sauce with some steamed chicken

Those meals sound nice talkinpeace. I sometimes do mashed cauliflower instead of mashed potatoes. I like it but the rest of the family demand the real thing :)

This is the recipe I used www.sunbeam.com.au/11373.aspx but I used wholemeal flour and added walnuts, flax seeds and chopped apricots. I also left out the sugar as its sweet enough with the fruit.

For me the important thing is to enjoy your food as well! I think the 80/20 rule mentioned above is very good. We try to eat healthily but we have dessert on Friday nights (usually something good!) and eat out once every week or two weeks (we're in NYC and love trying all the different cuisines). We enjoy it and it's fun!

twasbrillig I use molasses in my oats and they're nice esp. as they have magnesium which we all need (you need to get used to the flavour though.

Ref. G.M. foods; I'd prefer not to eat corn with added mouse or fish genes thanks. Too much spraying can be prevented by better husbandry.

I think for some of us sugar is like alcohol or cocaine to an addict and all is best avoided. There are a lot of people in the UK who cannot eat one brownie or one piece of cake or one biscuit from the pack and not having any works for us. It certainly does for me and amazingly after a airly short period you don't even want or like it any more.

There are others who can easily just eat one chocolate or one scoop of honey or whatever on their food and save the rest of the bar for the next day and they are probably different. I do not speak for everyone but certainly for a lot of people simply changing your diet so you don't eat those chocolates etc tends to make you feel happier and healthier.

Food should certainly be enjoyed. An interesting issue though is effecting change and change of taste. I am not lying to say I enjoy the food I eat even if it does not consist of cakes and puddings. I am not pretending. It is just my tastes changed. In the same way I can say I enjoy my life even though I don't drink. That might seem a lie and ridiculous to a drinker but it's true.

There is a difference between enjoyment and compulsion though, isn't there? I think anybody who says they can't enjoy their life without alcohol has a big issue. Or anything else come to that but especially alcohol given the seriousness of alcohol addiction.

It is one thing to say that you enjoy something and like having it, but to say life is less enjoyable because you can't have it should send out warning signals imo.

I can and do give up things I love and enjoy surprisingly easily, for various reasons, but I usually go back to them because I enjoy them, not from compulsion. If they weren't available I wouldn't fret about it but they are nice to have. What I haven't found though, is that my tastes change that easily or quickly. Just because I don't eat something for 3 or 4 months doesn't change my enjoyment of it. I find it strange when people say that will happen. If you ate only seasonal food, would you go off things you can only eat for a few months or even weeks a year like cherries or Discovery apples (my personal favs which aren't around much). What is this mechanism that means people don't like what they can't have?

But I don't drink alcohol and never have - foul tasting stuff - so what do I know?

Certain things affect the pleasure sections of the brain = product dopamine etc. Computer games do. Gambling, smoking, shopping for some people, alcohol, drugs, chocolate/cacao/sugar. I am sure some people have more addictive genes than others.

If you don't then you probably don't take the product to excess anyway although with smoking everyone is better with none of that rather than just a bit and as most people usually lose I suspect gambling could be left well alone.

Too right about smoking. Foul habit. I can never understand why statistically, children of smokers are more likely to smoke. Having lived with a smoking parent it had the opposite effect on me!

I suppose some people have to be all or nothing about things. I know I can do something excessively, I can eat too much chocolate for example in terms of health (I still enjoy it), but equally if it isn't there, it doesn't bother me. As one who isn't all or nothing I suppose I don't understand the concept but equally those who have to give up completely can't understand how I can take or leave things.

I remember once, as a child, having my sweets taken away because I had done something wrong. Since I enjoyed sweets, my mother reasoned, I would miss them and behave better in order to get them back so it was a good punishment. I have no idea if I behaved better but I didn't ask for the sweets or mention them again. My mother is still surprised at my take it or leave it attitude. She didn't use the 'taking away something you enjoy' punishment again. I don't think I have changed. Interestingly I have one son who is the same as me and another who would be very upset at having something he liked taken away.

It has its disadvantages though because it would be useful if my palette changed but it doesn't and so to have an extreme diet such as yours, Xenia, would be hard work outside of my own home where I have control, because if I am offered food with less than optimum nutrition, I have no reason to reject it on the grounds of taste. On that basis, I am happy to use the 80/20 'rule' as a guideline. It sounds like you wouldn't be though?

Life would definitely be less enjoyable without tasty food! Why is that worrying? I think many French people would agree :)

Kungfu Sadly the french are now one of the world's most enthusiastic customers of Mcdo's so the sugar\salt addiction has reached them too. Their bottoms are getting much bigger as a result Their 'low priced menu' restaurants are sometimes total shxx too. (I live between Fr. and U.K.)