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.

Image (from the recipe, mine looked good but not quite as good as this!)

@HighlandCowbag that makes sense about nuts and seeds in general, but rapeseed oil has an omega 3:6 ratio of 1:2, which I thought was good? It’s harvested in the summer too, not autumn (and I can’t bloody wait until it is as we are surrounded by fields of it at the moment and it’s making me sneeze). I understand that processed oils are bad, but surely cold pressed rapeseed oil should be ok? As I said, I am staying away from it to be on the safe side, but it would be good to understand.

This is where I struggle with the book, I read and understand the theory but then some of the examples of good/bad foods don’t fit with what he’s said before.

Ahhh I dunno then @BangingOn. I remember vaguely reading something about rapeseed oil, or maybe I read it in here? I'm used to diets being very specific, but this is more a woe. Have anothet.flick through the book and see if you can see it maybe? I don't think he particularly likes any oils does he? He begrudgingly acknowledges evoo as OK. I suppose seed oils are very modern. And even cold pressed is still a process that involves squashing tiny seeds for the oil, if you were to eat the equivalent seeds to get enough for a portion of oil it would be a lot of seeds.

I wondered about cold pressed rapeseed oil, earlier. I ended up not buying the book after reading the kindle sample but if I was going to follow this precise woe (I'm sticking with a more whole foods approach, spurred on by HFW) I wouldn't want to drop the cold pressed rapeseed oil because it's stupendously high in omega 3 and, unlike olive oil, it's local.

@PickAChew What is HFW? I can't see the problem with rapeseed oil either and that solves the problem of making mayonnaise as I've always used that.
@Tiredandbored thanks for posting that recipe the eggplant lasagne looks delicious. I suppose a meat version would work just as well although that might make it moussaka then.
My scales weren't good this morning but then I did eat a lot at the weekend compared to last weekend when I didn't eat much or drink alcohol in preparation for the colonoscopy so not surprising.
No breakfast, Greek salad, orange and fromage blanc for lunch, peppered mackerel fillet and green salad for dinner.

Sorry, was typing in a hurry. Hugh fearnley whittingstall

@HighlandCowbag you are so right that this is a way of eating rather than a strict plan, which is what I love about it but also what throws me sometimes as I’m so much more used to the latter.

I'm going to reread and see if I can find the discussion of rapeseed oil. The book made a lot of sense to me but there are a few inconsistencies like this. All Dr.-written diet books (I have read a lot!) seem to suffer from this, it's all about the science until something doesn't quite fit their theory and then the scientific method goes a bit flaky. However upthread a poster is frying things in lard so I'm in!

Right have found a bit about canola oil think which has a similar ratio of 1:2 like the rapeseed oil. The problem with such oils is that when you expose them to high heats the omega 3 is destroyed. Hence don't cook with any veg or seed oil as the omega 3 isn't stable enough to withstand the heat in this format.

However, someone mentioned mayonnaise, unless anyone finds anything else to explain the reason why you can't use rapeseed if you don't heat it, I'm all over mayonnaise.

Brilliant, thank makes a lot of sense. So fine for dressings and making mayonnaise, but not for cooking.

Don't take what I say as gospel, was just flicking through while half watching TV but it would make sense to me anyway. And I miss mayonnaise so looking for an excuse to have it 🤣.

Not sure what I will be eating today, could do with going shopping but have lectures all day and my house is minging. Have got salmon and swordfish in the freezer tho and some slightly dubious looking salad so probably cobble something together from that. Lunch will be leftovers from beef dinner yesterday.

Morning all! At work today, so am taking leftover veggie lasagne for lunch. Planning to do spaghetti carbonara for dinner but am going to have courgetti rather than spaghetti in mine. Also am making a homemade carbonara sauce rather than the usual shop-bought one I would usually have used.

Hope you all have a good day!

Morning everyone.

I have been in the foulest mood for a week now, I so need to come on! I rarely get this like and never for this long. I’m hoping it’s hormonal so I can get over myself.

bacon and eggs for me today for breakfast I think. Can’t remember what’s on the meal plan for lunch, but I’m sure I’ll throw something together, maybe a jacket potato with tuna salad.

Dinner is Spag Bol but I won’t be having the spaghetti. Serving it with a big salad instead and plenty of cheese.

Love the idea of the lasagne but I hate aubergine what else could i use?! Although to be fair I rarely make lasagne so I suppose on the odd occasion I do, a tiny slither of GF pasta won’t kill me. And my BMI is now 23.7 so

I have less than 9 weeks now to the wedding i’m maid of honour for. Would love to lose another 4-5lbs I think.

Sorry to keep dipping in. Just wanted comment on this way of eating.

I work with the elderly and the people who are in their 90s and still active mentally and physically do seem to be a certain type.

Their minds are occupied. One lovely man still tends his cottage garden growing lots of vegetables and was still using his tractor until a year ago he is in his 90s. His diet was simple, three meals a day, pretty much unprocessed, accept weetabix and the odd digestive. His focus was not food but being active. Another woman also mid 90s, 3 meals a day all unprocessed, the odd biscuit but very measured, she used local butcher etc. Her mind was sharper than mine ( not hard!) by a long shot. She would do a crossword at breakfast plan her garden, jigsaw, listen to the radio etc and was happy with her lot.

The older people who aren't so healthy are those that lived on ready meals and watched TV as their mainstay, and also had quite a negative outlook on life.

There are also massive differences in mobility. The active, clean eating elderly definitely require less intervention and support.

Obviously generalising but just my observations.

Tinkling - you can use sliced butternut squash in lasagna. Sainsbury’s do it with their prepared veg. Or leeks. Hairy Dieters use leeks slice into long strips and unrolled.

I’m completely confused about the oil thing as I though rapeseed oil was better at high temperatures. And I’ve just bought two bottles of it. So will be using it!

Re the book being a ‘diet’ book - I haven’t read it as a diet book at all. I have read it as a reason and explanation as to why every other diet I have been on hasn’t worked long term. Its not because I am rubbish with no willpower. It’s because my body wants me to hang on to the fat as I have put it into starvation mode so many times. I have given up dieting completely. I desperately do not want to be stressing and panicking about diets the way I used to. So I’m not being too prescriptive. I have the Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall book too and the Chaterjee one and I’m dipping in and out of them and just generally trying to eat better.

@felineflutter
Your observations are interesting and I agree that keeping active and eating simply is so important. I live in rural France and many of my neighbours are elderly, in their late 70s and 80s with huge impressive vegetable gardens (much tidier than mine)which they tend to every day. They eat very simple hole cooked food, main meal at lunchtime, soup in the evenings.
None are remotely overweight and all in good health physically and mentally.

Scales back to normal today 58 something so just water weight over the weekend due to eating more unhealthily!
Homemade butternut carrot and leek soup for lunch.

@samthebordercollie and @felineflutter - completely agree. I follow a woman on Instagram who is British but lives in Italy. She cooks amazing food. Seasonal fresh produce from her local market. Bakes a lot. And she has effortlessly lost weight since moving there. Even with all the amazing baking she does. She puts the weight loss down to seasonal unprocessed foods.

felineflutter, I work in this area (not directly with the elderly - supporting teams who do, though), and there is so much discussion going on just now about keeping people active and engaged with society in their old age. A huge part of it is stopping people from being isolated - maybe they've lost a spouse or close family and friends and their social circle has shrunk, maybe they've got poor mobility and can't get out of the house any more. I hadn't thought about the role of food in all of that, but it is really important - the social aspects, the nutritional aspects etc. For example, right now all 4 of my grandparents are alive, in their early 80s. However, if either grandmother goes first, I have no idea how my grandfathers would feed themselves - they've barely cooked in their lives! Well, I know exactly how one of them would cope - it would be pies and Mars Bars all the way. My stepfather's dad deliberately stopped eating when his dementia started to worsen - aided and abetted by Covid. He wouldn't let his daughter into the house - she took him food every day, and eventually they got worried and insisted on coming in and discovered it all going off in the fridge. Food is such an intrinsic part of health and we don't pay enough attention to it in the right way.

Samthebordercollie, I went up 5lbs over the weekend, grr! 3 have come off today and hopefully the rest will be gone by tomorrow. I'm due on at the end of the week, though, so that probably isn't helping.

Lunch: Omelette with salami, mozzarella, spinach and pine-nuts (not sure if they're ok but DH made it and I didn't like to quibble).

Dinner will be something out of the freezer - we have some chicken pies, homemade but with pre-made pastry on top, that really need eating. I'm just going to have it and I'll top future pies with mash instead.

We got the nicest strawberries from M&S, I don’t even like fruit but I haven’t been able to stop thinking about them! I’ve had strawberries and cream for pudding for two nights in a row! I never have pudding! Oops.

Good day today otherwise, although I did have a waffle for breakfast (two lazy to do my own potatoes) but I did extra new potatoes at lunch (had them with tuna, pepper, cucumber, peas, sweetcorn, onion and cheese) so I just need to fry them tomorrow. Bolognese and salad for dinner.

Still waiting for my biopsy results. The consultant called and apologised for the delay, she’s hoping for them back within the next 48 hours.

I do think the previous generations were doing the right thing with food. My man’s nearly 80 and yes she is overweight (been on a diet her entire life) but she does eat really good meals. Her problem is sweets late at night and she’s very fond of a pudding. Personally I blame slimming world and the like for distorting her view of food as she’s got older.

I've been thinking of times I've been slim and times I've been overweight. I was slime until I left home at 18, then I couldn't cook so we had lots of beige food, microwave meals and takeaways plus beer. Got fat very quickly, was working full time and out of the house 10-12 hours. Plus had a bought from a shop lunch.

Then I went on a diet, joined a gym and ate a lot of salad for a good few years and had a very active job so walking around all day, every day. Was back in my size 10s 4 weeks after having dd despite a c section.

Then moved back to my mums and we had a lot of ready meals again, so went to a size 14 pretty quickly. Was working in a bar as well so lots of late nights, takeaways, beers, crap at work.

Then I got a job in a butchers and started cooking from scratch because I had easier access to butchers, greengrocers, fishmonger. Dropped easily to a size 10/12 again. Maintained it easily despite eating really well.

Then got a full time office job, so sedentary plus started doing most meals from supermarkets so more processed because I was working mon to Friday etc. Was a size 14/16 for ages. Then got pg with ds, went to slimming world when he was 3 months old and dropped 2 stone in 12 months. But have put that on and off again for the last 5 years. When I did SW I did cook healthy food fro scratch and followed it pretty strictly. And because I wanted to have a gin or two most days I was really strict with my food so all fresh to avoid any syns.

Hoping going back to homecooked food, no wheat and no veg oil takes me back to a size 12 at least. And I can still enjoy the odd treat and drink. Like I did when I was late 20s/early 30s.

I do think physical activity plays a part as well. Whenever I've had a physical, on my feet job I've been slim easily. I think the lockdowns caused so much weight gain because despite running or walking most days we spent far too much time at home.

Anyway. That's a lot of musing about my lard arse. I had tuna and olive salad for lunch. And had a cheese, red pepper and ham omelette for tea with a small portion of baked beans and airfryer chips fried in lard. Which were lush tbh. Didn't think I'd like them in lard but they are far, far nicer than veg oil ones. They go crispier without burning which the veg oil ones tend to do. They also taste sweeter bizarrely unless my taste buds have changed.

@Tinkling so sorry you haven't had your biopsy results yet, no wonder you aren't in a great mood. Fingers crossed they arrive soon and are all clear.

Am watching a documentary on cereals. Most covered by Dr J, but one of the things they mentioned was was rice. Overcooking rice turns it into sugar. Likewise the 'quick' cook rice in 5 mins is no good because the industriels have crushed the grains to make it cook more quickly and therefore the outer shell isn't intact and the rice turns to sugar immediately. So it's best to eat rice with a normal cooking time and al dente if possible.

I cooked pasta carbonara for the rest of the household and finished off the smoked mackerel with green salad myself, but have since spoilt things by eating too much 70% chocolate with a cup of tea. Feel a bit 🤢

Morning all! Lots of posts to catch up on!

@Tinkling, sorry you're still having to wait for your results, I hope the consultant is in touch soon with good news Great news on the BMI, well done! You'll definitely be able to lose another few lbs between now and the wedding, it's a great target for you to focus on!

@felineflutter and @TooExtraImmatureCheddar, that is really fascinating about how well elderly people age being determined by their lifestyle and diet. Isn't it a warning to us all!?! I do worry about the future when I see how much junk food we all consume nowadays - it's bound to have massive health consequences for us as a society if we continue like this. I was reading that the current generation of children are likely to be the first who do not outlive their parents, which is so sad. We have such a responsibility to try and educate kids properly about health before it's too late.

@HighlandCowbag, I could have written a very similar post to you about my weight fluctuations. I have gained and lost the same 4 stones at least 6 times in the last 10 years. This is partly why this book resonated so strongly with me and I really believe he is right when talking about our set point weight.

I ate loads yesterday, but all on-plan. Veggie lasagne for lunch, courgetti carbonara for dinner (made a home-made creamy sauce rather than a shop-bought jar). I did have berries and Greek yoghurt in the evening and probably took too large a portion as the fruit was needing used up, but that was my only slip.

Even managed to decline the cake and buns provided by my boss as a bank holiday treat - I intentionally chose a bun I don't like and brought it home for DH

@Tiredandbored well done on not succumbing to the temptation of cream cakes! I think I'd prefer berries and Greek yogurt to cream cakes now. Much less sickly.
I listened to an interesting podcast on the Dr Rupy kitchen doctor series while running this morning. It was with a doctor who is a specialist in olive oil. The only thing he didn't address was the loss of omega 3 when used in cooking but it is still healthier when heated than the other oils.
He also mentioned it was worth buying a 3 or 5 litre container of extra virgin olive oil on line as it is so much cheaper. And buy the more expensive stuff to use neat, drizzled on food. As he said, we don't baulk at paying £8 for a bottle of wine which will last an evening, but when it comes to spending £8 on a bottle of olive oil which may last a month it's a problem!

Afternoon all

Bit of a disaster for lunch, went for a run and can't eat for a couple of hours afterwards so ended up missing lunch and I donthave breakfast. Had a lecture then had to rally up and pick a parcel up from Next and nip into M and S for food shopping and realised I was a bit shakey. Had a look for something I could eat in car while I waited for ds to finish school. Found a salad with separate dressing but no forks. So ended up with a pack of falafels and hummus dip. And a banana. Not horrendously bad but still a bit frustrating.

Tea for tonight is new potatoes, rainbow trout and veg tho so back on track. Have the most horrendously bad PMT, but haven't actually needed to eat chocolate. Totm is the only time I really have a sweet tooth so body must be getting used to no sugar.