Why We Eat (Too Much) Thread 2

[TooExtraImmatureCheddar]

Shiny new thread to continue on with! I hope everyone keeps going.

For any newbies, this thread is based on a book by Dr Andrew Jenkinson. The main principles are to cut out sugar, wheat and ultra-processed foods, while eating fresh natural ingredients. It works!

Previous thread: thread 1

Ah! Thank you. Is EVOO good or bad? I’m a third of the way through the book.

Morning everyone. The Book arrives today!
Two pounds up this week, but that's how it goes . I try not to get too perturbed as long as the overall trend is down.
Still...

To people trying the 'diet' without reading the book, please go and read the book first. It's not really a diet. It's some very well explained and evidenced recommendations about a different way to think about food and weight loss. I feel that trying to do it as a 'diet' (aka another set of hoops to jump through) will not be as effective

I agree with this. My motivation is health and the weight loss is a happy side effect, but the way I think about it is I can eat what I want as long as it has no sugar and is made from scratch. I only drink tea, water and of course wine. Do this 95% of the time, then it works. For me the ultimate goal is not to set off the sugar addiction again, I had chips last night, they were lovely, I know they won’t impact my eating today. Whereas if I had fruit pastels I would go out and buy another packet and it would snowball from there.

@BirdsandBeesmakinghay

Ah! Thank you. Is EVOO good or bad? I’m a third of the way through the book.

It’s good, it has a good mix of o6 and o3. For oils and fats best stick to olive oil and butter.

Billy - I feel the same regarding sugar. I'd like to get to the place when I can eat and enjoy one really good doughnut and be satisfied but as soon as I thought of a doughnut my brain added "or maybe two or three?". So not for a while yet then...

Yes you definitely need to read the book. I don't think people will lose weight the same way as a traditional diet, we aren't restricting calories enough ultimately. We are completely retraining our body to use food in a different way. By only using quality fuel we are getting our body and appetite to control our hormones properly. And that will be slow and steady rather than dramatic weight loss. But doing it this way means we don't relapse. Mentally it's more difficult as there are no meal plans and it's a complete lifestyle change.

But the food we should be eating is (to me anyway) far nicer than the crap I was eating. I used to look forward to our Friday night takeaway. Now I dread it because I don't want to eat crap, shitty processed rubbish. But also don't want to be a Debbie Downer. It's really strange this shift. It's not even just about weight loss, tho that is a big bonus. It's about a complete mindset shift.

And EVOO is pressed to get the oil not refined. Refining is a chemical process. Because of this EVOO is not a processed food, most veggie oils are.

Thanks. I always use extra virgin olive oil, but heating it changes its composition so that it produces free radicals in the body. It shouldn't be heated, only used cold. I have started to use coconut oil for everything which needs oil to be heated.
Also all oils should be kept in the dark in a cool place, as light degrades them. The number of people who keep their oil by the cooker is scary. Heat and light are to be avoided, and the bottles need to be kept tightly screwed on.

I totally agree with everyone who has said that reading the book is essential. It's actually very much an anti-diet book laying out in one place and pulling the strands together of different areas of scientific research into metabolism into one coherent and easy to understand reason for the explosion of obesity over the last 30-odd years.

The last part of the book goes on to suggest a WOE to avoid the obesity trap. The WOE he suggests is not meant as a weight loss diet, it's a WOE to maintain a healthy weight over time. It's only because a lot of us are over weight that over the long term the WOE will result in a weight loss and keep it there. **Actually, it's a WOL (way of life) he recommends, not just a way of eating. It incorporates sleep, stress-busting, work/life balance, meditation etc. These are as important as the way we eat.

I was doing some of the things he suggests and had some success controlling my weight, other parts were either new to me or I hadn't realised their significance. For me, I feel that by giving me the science behind the ideas, he's given me the power to understand why my weight is not stable and why my weight fluctuates in a yearly cycle. I now feel like I have all of the jigsaw pieces and the picture on the box 🙂

@BirdsandBeesmakinghay

Thanks. I always use extra virgin olive oil, but heating it changes its composition so that it produces free radicals in the body. It shouldn't be heated, only used cold. I have started to use coconut oil for everything which needs oil to be heated. Also all oils should be kept in the dark in a cool place, as light degrades them. The number of people who keep their oil by the cooker is scary. Heat and light are to be avoided, and the bottles need to be kept tightly screwed on.

Yes, this is something he talks about in the book. But I believe the issue with olive oil only occurs at or over the smoking point - around 200 degrees I think, which is higher than coconut oil. Butter, ghee, lard, duck, goose fat are other options for hot frying, I think ghee has the highest smoking point of all of them.

It's the first time I've ever actually REALLY looked at the ingredients in things. Some ingredient lists are ridiculously long and half the things I'd have to google what they are and why they are there! Eye opening is an understatement.

Morning all and welcome to all the new posters (and any lurkers who are following along). Anyone got any nice menu plans today? I'm planning scrambled eggs for lunch. Not sure about dinner yet as I'm getting my vaccination today, so will wait and see how I feel after it before planning too much.

Not sure on lunch Tired, probably an omelette or scrambled eggs. Dinner is BBQ. Will avoid the bread but may have a (naice butchers) sausage and dh has brought some steak back to dice up and make skewers with. So pretty on plan sort of day.

Am looking forward to a new start tomorrow tho. We are having steak for dinner as I am out most of the day. Not sure what I am going to take with me, there is a cafe but there's nothing remotely on plan. Probably do a picnic for ds and will chuck a salad together for me I think. Or summon dh to pick something up for us from subway and have a boxed salad from there.

@BirdsandBeesmakinghay

Thanks. I always use extra virgin olive oil, but heating it changes its composition so that it produces free radicals in the body. It shouldn't be heated, only used cold. I have started to use coconut oil for everything which needs oil to be heated. Also all oils should be kept in the dark in a cool place, as light degrades them. The number of people who keep their oil by the cooker is scary. Heat and light are to be avoided, and the bottles need to be kept tightly screwed on.

I've seen a lot of research recently that says olive oil is perfectly fine to cook with. It is much more stable than vegetable oils. The Mediterranean diet uses olive oil both cold and hot and it's one of the healthiest ways of eating it can't be that bad. I use olive oil, butter or both for cooking. Agree it should be kept in the dark!

I read an interesting article on omega 6, which says 70% of Omega 6 consumption in the average American diet is made up of processed food cooked vegetable oils, shortening, margarine etc. It said that omega 6 from wholefoods has a much lower concentration of linoleic acid and we shouldn't stop eating wholefoods (like nuts!) as they contain stacks of good nutrients too.

We’re having leftovers today from a tapas dinner last night, as a friend came over.

I was very pleased with my menu:

Chouriço de porco preto (the Portuguese equivalent of Ibérico, raised free range in the oak forests), cooked in wine
Presunto (ham) de Porco preto
Garlic chicken
Tomatoes
Griddled peppers
Lettuce
Courgette tortilla (just onions, courgettes and eggs from our hens)
Sheep’s cheese and fresh goat’s cheese
Olives
Gram flour and spinach pancakes

For pudding we just had the most perfect, ripe Algarve fruit - strawberries, cherries and early figs - with cream

We also had beer and wine of course, but I managed not to get pissed (I can’t handle alcohol the way I used to).

I read the same article I think Sam, compared omega 3 deficiency to smoking? It was very interesting, especially about the nuts!

@badlydrawncat

I now feel like I have all of the jigsaw pieces and the picture on the box 🙂

This perfectly expresses how I feel too!

To be honest I haven't stopped eating nuts and seeds anyway. I find it hard to believe they can be bad for me, especially since there's a lot of evidence for other health benefits. I've changed the ratios of them in my muesli mix though - added more flax and chia and reduced the nuts and other seeds.

Let's not forget that as appealing as Dr Jenkinson's plan is, it's completely untested as far as I can see. It's based on his theories (hopefully sound), rather than practice.

Let's not forget that as appealing as Dr Jenkinson's plan is, it's completely untested as far as I can see. It's based on his theories (hopefully sound), rather than practice.

To be fair it's supported by a lot of experimental evidence and, at its core, some basic mathematics.

@Aria999

Let's not forget that as appealing as Dr Jenkinson's plan is, it's completely untested as far as I can see. It's based on his theories (hopefully sound), rather than practice.

To be fair it's supported by a lot of experimental evidence and, at its core, some basic mathematics.

I agree that there's a lot of very interesting and useful evidence in there about how metabolism works and so on.

I'm talking more about the idea that his plan would lead to long term weight loss and the reversing of a too-high weight set point. There was no evidence presented in the book that backed that up. It's all theoretical.

I like the plan a lot from a health point of view, and am following it, but I think it's wise to be sceptical.

@TheLeadbetterLife

That's fair though I feel a lot of it follows logically from the supported arguments.

But I agree with you about not sweating the small details eg nuts. I don't think he really intends you to anyway, it's more a range of suggestions than a plan you have to follow.

For myself I am just making fairly minor changes that fit in well with how I like to eat!

Well I hope that he's right, certainly! I suppose we'll see.

I do think Jenkinson would have more credibility if, like Professor Taylor at the university of Newcastle, he had actually run an experiment before writing the book.

Let's not forget that as appealing as Dr Jenkinson's plan is, it's completely untested as far as I can see. It's based on his theories (hopefully sound), rather than practice.

I like to think that Dr J is following this thread and using us to test his theories in the real world 😂😂

I agree that we should be sceptical due to the lack of robust scientific evidence, but having lost 25lbs without significant effort or excessive limitations on my meals and with feeling so much healthier following this WoE I genuinely believe he's onto something.

Yes, same, I've lost over 10kg since March, although I've also been doing intermittent fasting and trying to improve my gut microbiome at the same time.

I never feel hungry though, unlike in the past when I've just done calorie counting.

My weight loss has stalled in the past month however, which is frustrating, as I want to get another couple of kilos off.

I think it will take a long, long time to run an experiment into this theory though, possibly 10 years or more. I totally get what you're saying though. For me, each bit of his theory has enough science behind it (and in some cases, my own observation) for me to put what is for me & my husband, some minor changes into place.

I had smashed avocado and bacon for a very, very late breakfast/lunch
Dinner will be air fried fish and chips with kimchi. The fish is breaded with a mix of coconut flour and parmesan so not too far away from plan.

I've been pondering making some pão de queijo (Brazilian cheesy breakfast buns) which I love. What's the hive-mind's thoughts on tapioca flour? All the other ingredients in my recipe are fine.