Why We Eat (Too Much) Thread 3

[TooExtraImmatureCheddar]

We’ve chatted as much as we (used to) eat! New shiny thread for more support.

General principles:

No sugar
No wheat
No processed foods
Honourable mention to tipping the balance of omega 3 and 6, but that’s mostly achieved by doing the above.

Everything else is fair game!

Morning all! Interesting experience yesterday - my husband opened a bag of Doritos last night and I made the mistake of taking one... then another... then another. They were very more-ish and it was very hard to stop.

Firstly it reminded me of how these foods are designed to make us overeat them. I hesitate to use the word 'addictive' as I'm clearly not addicted to Doritos, but I certainly felt a little bit like an addict going back for a fix when I knew I shouldn't and I knew it wasn't good for me but I was willing to accept the consequences for another 'hit' of the crunchy, tasty crisps.

Secondly, for the first time in months and months, I woke up hungry today. I actually felt hungry before going to bed as well, but ignored it, then I woke up feeling hungry and realised it was because of the Doritos.

I haven't felt hungry like this since starting this WoE. I do get occasional hunger shortly before my evening meal, but it's 'I'm ready to eat now as it's been a few hours since lunch' hunger. This was different, it was not hunger that was due to not having eaten for a while, but was the old sort of hunger I used to get despite eating recently and would attempt to satisfy by eating more and more biscuits or cake.

It has also made me realise that I really can't have UPFs that appeal to me in the house. If I succumb to their tempting call I will not be able to moderate how much I eat of them, so I need to avoid having them in the house at all. My husband usually eats other crisps that don't appeal to me and I can happily ignore, but Doritos are clearly in a different league for me.

Interesting experience! Lesson (hopefully!) learned!!

I loved Doritos! I'm trying to remember all the stuff the books says about UPF because it grosses me out and therefore it's easier to resist it!

I've been doing pretty well since I finished the book and started this woe at the weekend. Bacon, eggs, beans and mushrooms for breakfast; salad, fruit salad or fruit smoothie for lunch (still too full after eggs in the morning) and meat and veg for dinner. No veg oils or grains so far at all.

I don't have an easy way to track Glycemic load of foods - does anyone? Would be interested if there is an app!

We've run out of eggs now so I'm going to have some porridge this morning. So far I haven't really craved any processed food, although I am finding it difficult to decide what to eat without bread/pasta - I used to eat it every day!

I have found a bubble and squeak frittata in Asda which maybe suitable for a quick lunch. The ingredients are...

Potato (28%), Cabbage (15%), Smoked Reformed Bacon with added Water (12%) [Pork (80%), Water, Salt, Tapioca Starch, Dextrose, Preservative (Sodium Nitrite), Antioxidant (Sodium Ascorbate)], Onion (9.6%), Petit Pois Peas (7.0%), Extra Mature Cheddar Cheese (7.0%) [Extra Mature Cheddar Cheese (from Milk), Potato Starch], Pasteurised Whole Egg (6.0%), Spring Onions (3.6%), Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Chives, Unsalted Butter (from Milk), Cornflour, Salt, Cracked Black Pepper

Better to make your own but for a quick lunch on the go, not too bad with some salad!

Words thanks for the tip on the ginger. I'll give that a go.

Weighed myself this morning and I was right in thinking a stone to go. Will be happy with slow and steady.

I'm trying to remember all the stuff the books says about UPF because it grosses me out and therefore it's easier to resist it!

Here's a great quote for you to help with this:

It's from Dr Fernanda Rauber of Sao Paulo University in Brazil who has been doing a lot of scientific research into UPFs and described them by saying:

"It's not really food... It's an industrially modified edible substance"

That is what I'll be reminding myself the next time someone opens a bag of Doritos!

@Tiredandbored That helps!

Also, I recently bought some soap and the sales assistant told me that it had all natural ingredients and was even safe to eat! 🤮 It's about 80% vegetable oil that's why.

Veg oil = slimy soap. Helps! 😂

Interesting article I read in the wee hours this morning (woke up for a bit and the brain started whirring):

www.aocs.org/stay-informed/inform-magazine/featured-articles/one-persons-response-to-a-high-omega-6-diet-november-2010?SSO=True

Obviously it's not a proper study or anything, but I thought it was fascinating.

I'm thinking of trying the opposite of this for a week next week - cutting out as much omega 6 as possible and eating more omega 3 foods. I want to see if I can boost my metabolism and get over this plateau.

On the one hand, the plateau is encouraging, because having lost around 15 kilos overall since last year, my weight really hasn't changed at all in the last month (despite more than a handful of off-plan days) and I am pretty much at a healthy weight and waist size now. It suggests sticking to this plan 80-90% of the time works for maintenance.

On the other, I'm marginally over a BMI of 25 and my waist size is at the upper end of healthy, so I want to get a bit of leeway and lose two more kilos or so.

My concern, having lost the weight, is that my metabolism may have slowed (and it will anyway, because I'm nearly 40). I want to see if I can speed it up.

Really interesting (and scary!) article, thanks for sharing @TheLeadbetterLife. Shame her book costs £20 or I might have given it a read. I thought eggs were recommended, I think I need to look again at the omega 3/6 info in Dr J’s book.

I can well believe the effect of Doritos you describe @Tiredandbored, and it’s helpful to think of all those UPFs as non-food substances!

Oh I thought the eggs thing in her experiment was to do with them being cooked in oil in restaurants, rather than not eating them.

It was interesting that she didn’t put on weight, but she did gain abdominal fat. Shows that BMI is too blunt a tool without considering waist size. It’s perfectly possible to be a healthy weight but have a waist that is too big.

The eggs was down to the chickens being fed a corn diet. I don’t know what chickens in the uk are fed on..?

Anything other than free range they will be fed on highly-processes, extruded layer’s pellets, which are 80-90% wheat and corn, plus some oil and protein.

Free range birds will likely also be fed either whole grains or pellets, along with what they forage. What they forage will depend on whether they have access to grass, or if they’re on bare earth. What chickens want to eat is insects and green stuff (grass, weeds, vegetables, fruit etc).

There’s no way to know what they’ve eaten, unless you can find a local source.

In the summer here, my chickens have to have their diet supplemented with whole mixed grains, because there is very little growing vegetation in the heat. They have an acre to roam and dig for insects all day. In autumn, winter and spring, there are plants shooting up everywhere for them to eat, and the eggs become very rich, with deep orange yolks.

We always get free range but can’t do more than that really. I think the biggest impact for me on reducing my omega 6 levels will be from not eating UPFs.

@OhMyChrist2020

We always get free range but can’t do more than that really. I think the biggest impact for me on reducing my omega 6 levels will be from not eating UPFs.

Yeah, I read that 70% of the US omega 6 consumption is via UPF, it's a little less in the UK but even so, it you can cut that out it's a big reduction overall. I'm not too worried about eggs either. My hens are free range and we feed them mixed grain, but they have 7000m2 of ground to wander around in and forage for food so don't consume a lot of grain. I've also cut my nut consumption to weekends only so that has also helped reduced my omega 6 consumption.300g of almonds and cashews as opposed to 1.5kgs!

The thing I found really striking about it is how many things can be high in omega 6 or not, depending on how they're made.

It didn't occur to me to check if milk and cheese are from grass fed cows! And I bet the milk isn't (we eat European cheese so that's probably ok).

Phew. My Greek yoghurt is from pasture raised cows. (As I kind of live on the stuff these days!)

I love all this talk of chicken-keeping. One day! My eggs are either from the market or from people like you chicken keepers!

I have chickens as well. I feed a mix of layers pellets, corn and greens from the allotment/fridge. Over winter they are out a few hours a day.

My eggs are bright orange!

What do people think about gluten free flour as a substitute for flour? (Still hoping to bake that soda bread!)

It seems to be made of rice and potato mostly.

Could you make the soda bread with spelt flour? I know it's a form of wheat, but it's an old variety and should spike the blood sugar less. it would be perfect for soda bread, it's just the right sort of flavour.

My view on alternative flours is the same approach as I take to rice, potato, fruit and sugar: just count the carbs.

I might actually look into what varieties of wheat are typically grown and used here in Portugal. I know it can't be the same as the UK, as the bread and pastry products have a very different taste and texture. The heat and dryness must require a completely different crop - I wonder if it's as bad as the UK and US stuff?

Not that I crave bread like I used to (it sits very heavily in my stomach), but it is nice to have once in a while.

Fell off the wagon and bought a Coke yesterday, but only drank half and gave the rest to DS. It was an incredibly stressful day and I nearly managed not to give in but succumbed in the end. It helped that it was a bottle (I much prefer drinking Coke from cans) but it just didn’t taste that good and I’m happy to say it hasn’t (yet!) sparked a fuck-it spiral of wanting All The Coke today.

Thanks for the spelt flour suggestion. I had an idea that we were specifically avoiding gluten but I'm not actually sure why I thought that.

I had my own mini 'tadaa' moment this afternoon. We live up a moderately steep hill and I am normally exhausted after pushing the pushchair up it, especially in the heat. Today it was fine. I haven't been exercising more than usual so it must be the food I think.

Bloody hell that's the third or fourth post I've typed that didn't post. Argh.

The Doritos thing is so true, i know its Pringles but the once you pop you can't stop thing is true! That's what the thread title of thread 4 should be! UPFs - once you pop you can't stop!

I was walking into asda behind two ladies the other day and they grabbed 2 tubes of Pringles off a massive pile in the foyer. I had to stop myself tapping them on the shoulder and saying that's not real food ladies, put it down 😉🤣

You can buy omega 3 eggs in Sainsburys. I got some the other day.

Sorry for multiple posts 🙈

Do you think that if you have sorted your omega 6 out by cutting out all UPF, eating animals raised on grass not grain, chucked your sunflower oil in the bin you can speed up your 'recovery' by supplementing with an omega 3 capsule? Would that get your fat cells back to how they should be quicker?