Why We Eat (Too Much)

[TooExtraImmatureCheddar]

Has anyone come across this book? It's written by Dr Andrew Jenkinson, who is a bariatric surgeon in London. Basically, it's about how to lose weight by lowering your body's natural set weight point. This may take a long time but it's sustainable and doesn't fuck your metabolism.

The book goes into a lot of detail about the causes of obesity, because he says it's important to understand why people are getting fat in the Western world. It pretty much comes down to eating too much omega-6 fat and sugar. The overall volume of food people eat doesn't matter.

I'm trying to work out how you would cut that out practically and I wondered if anyone had tried it. It sounds like going lower carb but not low carb as in low carb diets. He suggests eating low-carb breakfasts and throwing out bread (and anything else baked). I eat toast for breakfast most days and sandwiches for lunch. I'm trying to work out practical alternatives that I actually like.

Porridge
Full fat unsweetened yoghurt
Bacon and eggs
Omelettes
Soup
Oatcakes and cheese
Salads

Other rules include no takeaways or fast food or crisps etc, and no snacks, mainly because most snack food is carb-based with vegetable oil in it.

Can we discuss breakfast?
I'm keen not to have eggs every day as we often have eggs later in the day. I thought too much processed meat (ham / bacon) wasn't great.
Tomorrow I'm going for brie and ham, Sunday I'll do bacon and eggs. I've done an omelette with smoked salmon trim. I've done loads of omelettes, but I'm looking for a non eg non processed meat breakfast.
I quit sugar before I read the book so my regular breakfast was Greek yoghurt, defrosted frozen berries, and seeds. He suggests no fruit for breakfast. Please shared your breakfast ideas!

I know we can have normal food for breakfast but I've only managed it once.

I think your Greek yogurt and berries (just no seeds) would be fine. I had porridge and banana this morning and really enjoyed it. I’m not really sure why he suggests no fruit with breakfast but when it’s included with slow release carbs (oats) and full fat milk I can’t see it being a problem.

Kedgeree would be OK as a breakfast option if you wanted a change.

Hi All,

I had a breakfast plate the other day of quorn slices, a slice of goats cheese, a few olives and some plain Greek yoghurt. It filled me up quite well. Also...have had a tofu scramble to break up the egg options. Porridge too went well for me.

Would love some vegetarian or vegan ideas. I have been using a few good cook ones recently - Dr Ruby A s books are quite good along with Anna Jones if anyone else is meat and fish free. Not having those in my diet and now no carbs has made things feel quite challenging but I am getting there.

I experienced a terrible bout of keto flu on day 3 until about day 7 but being a veggie, I think I was raised on carbs so potentially this was a harder shift for my body than expected!

Vegetarian kedgeree for a weekend breakfast?

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/spicy-tofu-kedgeree

Does he mention cold pressed rapeseed oil? It does have twice as much omega 6 as olive oil but also over 10 times as much omega 3, so is a lot more balanced. It also has a much higher smoke point than EVOO and is just as tasty for dressings, etc. Also - home grown so lower in food miles.

@Arbadacarba

Kedgeree would be OK as a breakfast option if you wanted a change.

Thanks, good idea. I have no clue how to make it, off for a Google. I've a vague idea it is fish and veg from colonial India?

@PickAChew

Does he mention cold pressed rapeseed oil? It does have twice as much omega 6 as olive oil but also over 10 times as much omega 3, so is a lot more balanced. It also has a much higher smoke point than EVOO and is just as tasty for dressings, etc. Also - home grown so lower in food miles.

I don't think he does. Perhaps he focuses on stuff that I easy to buy?

Yes, fish, egg, spices and rice in the non-vegetarian version and I think you're right about it being imported from India originally.

Rapeseed oil (the stuff in glass bottles, not the refined "vegetable" oil) is widely sold in most, if not all, supermarkets and is slightly cheaper than EVOO.

I don't remember rapeseed oil being specified. Generally, Jenkins advises minimising omega 6 so while a balanced 6/3 oil would be a better choice than some, I am guessing ideally you should choose those with the lowest levels of omega six.

Jenkins talks a lot about the heavy processing that's needed to get oil from seed sources, and suggests we should move away from any foods that require a lot of processing to be edible by humans, hence the recommendations of fats/oils that you can consume as closely as possible to how they come naturally.

I wondered about rapeseed oil as well.
I buy it cold-pressed from a U.K. farm. So it’s not chemically extracted. Generally I am trying to use extra virgin olive oil but I find for frying on high heat rapeseed is better. For example, tonight I did a chicken stir fry - I started off with the olive oil but it just wasn’t browning the chicken properly, so I had to switch to rapeseed instead.
However, I did manage to avoid eating the spring rolls and prawn crackers which DH had bought!

I think if you're generally following the principles and choosing the best oil option that's suitable for you personally in terms of omega six, you are doing OK. If you take too proscriptive an approach to a way of eating it can be counter-productive because avoiding certain things 100% becomes too complicated and irksome to be sustainable.

As long as you don't let the occasional compromise become a 'gateway' to abandoning the WOE altogether (that's often where I've come unstuck in the past) I think you'll be fine.

Yep, the cold pressed rapeseed oil is as close to how it occurs naturally as EVOO and definitely more versatile.

Looking back I shudder to think how much omega 6 I was consuming - I used sunflower/vegetable oil without a second thought (or that 'Fry light' concoction). I am feeling so much less hungry since I began this way of eating, so I hope my body is getting the message that it really doesn't need to hang onto fat in the way it has been doing. Almost one and a half stone down so far! Another 2 to go.

Wow that’s amazing! How long have you been following it?

Since mid-January so about 3 months now - it varies but I'm losing 1 or 2 lbs most weeks. I generally feel as though I have much more energy - I don't get the slump after eating that I used to.

That’s good then as he suggested in the book that weight loss wouldn’t happen straight away.
I’m amazed at how easy it’s been so far - I was expecting massive sugar cravings as I was eating A LOT of sugar and refined carbs everyday. But I’ve been fine..!

Yes, it's not a fast-results process - I don't think anything sustainable gives very fast results.

I've done low-carbing before and had fast results, but I've always suffered those massive sugar cravings you mention. Eventually I find I can't go on with it and the weight goes back on. What I like about this WOE is that you don't have to cut out 'carby' fruit and veg. If I have a craving for something sweet I can have an apple, for example, which you couldn't on a low carb diet.

I’ve realised from this just how much veg/seed oil there is in processed foods. So I think avoiding those will be more effective than me worrying about frying in cold-pressed rapeseed occasionally.

When I read the ingredients list, nearly every processed food has veg/seed oil in it - even foods that you wouldn’t expect - and often sugar as well. So I think my next challenge is to make more food from scratch, rather than buying ready-prepared foods.

I made falafels the other night and it was actually easier than I expected, and much tastier than shop-bought.

A small steady weight loss would be fine with me! Anything would be better than my current weight....

Yes, it's amazing what strange things appear in food ingredients. I find home-cooked food much tastier too. I used to eat a lot of tinned soup, for example - now the thought of it is very bland and after-taste-y if that makes sense.

@hamstersarse

Despite the dogma, calories in calories out is an oversimplified way of describing weight gain / weight loss

It absolutely matters what calories you eat. The different macros have a different pathways and processes in your body, setting off different hormonal reactions.

You can’t over eat protein for example. If you think about consuming ‘all your calories’ in steak or chicken breast....you just couldn’t do it. After the 4th steak you would be choking on it.

Same with fat. You can’t overeat it, again consuming all your calories with butter would make you gag eventually. This is fat on its own btw.

Carbohydrate otoh, is deadly. Mix it with fat and you are in trouble. Most people can eat a McDonald’s, then be hungry again a few hours later and go again. Same with pizza, crisps, chocolate, biscuits, pasta.

Cut the carbs, especially the highly processed carbs (so not necessarily potato etc) and you’ll regulate your appetite / feelings of satiety within a few weeks

Thank you for this explanation,. It is the first time I have understood about macros and low carb. It always sounded a bit like a fad diet to me, but this makes complete sense.

This sounds interesting.

I am coeliac so don’t eat wheat but I do eat GF pasta... is this ok since it’s not wheat or because it’s still refund grains, I need to cut it out? It’s a regular staple in my diet! I love pasta!

Also I really struggle for breakfast. I normally have eggs with a potato waffle as I can’t get on with GF bread. Presumably as the waffle is processed (and I think cooked in sunflower oil?) that’s out?

I don’t really like processed meat and I don’t like things like porridge and fruit, don’t like smoked salmon... wtf do I eat for brekkie?! And lunch tbh. I can’t eat soup without bread and I don’t like salad. I know I sound really fussy but I’m not lol. I love vegetables, carbs (oops) and don’t mind meat (but it’s not my fav). I have salmon occasionally. Tuna regularly (with my beloved pasta)

Pasta doesn't fit with this way of eating because it contains flour - like you say, refined grains are out.

If you could make your own potato waffles (or another potato dish cooked from scratch ) and cook them in a low-omega 6 fat that would be fine.

It can be useful to get out of the habit of classifying foods as 'breakfast' 'lunch' and so on, because all that does is limit your options further.

Look online for 'paleo' diet suggestions - this isn't a paleo diet but they have some things in common and you can assume if a dish is OK on a paleo diet it's in line with this way of eating.

Just to add, my personal view is that this doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing way of eating. I have a few things - condiments mainly - that would strictly not fit, and I am still losing weight and feeling healthier. I see it as being about reducing intake of omega-6 and refined carbohydrates as much as possible, but it's not like (for example) low-carb/high fat where a single lapse can throw you off course for a whole week.