Why We Eat (Too Much) Thread 4

[TooExtraImmatureCheddar]

Hi to all regulars and lurkers!

Here's the 4th thread, based on the ideas in Dr Andrew Jenkinson's book. We've seen some amazing losses on these threads, and the benefits for me can be summed up as 'no counting, no starving'.
We don't count calories, and if we're hungry we eat. We're focused on quality.

General eating principles:

No sugar
No wheat (which reduces unhealthy carbs)
No ultra processed foods, and in particular no processed/ultra refined oils
Honourable mention to tipping the balance of omega 3 and 6, but that’s mostly achieved by doing the above.

His principles also include trying to sleep more and reduce stress, and take regular (moderate) exercise.

If any of this sounds promising, please feel free to ask questions and come and join in!

Hi @Styletryle I am certainly not a poster girl for this WOE in terms of the scales but it has killed my overeating and craving completely. I think for this to happen for me the answer is fat. Breakfast is coffee with full fat milk and chunky porridge with double cream and cinnamon. After this I have zero interest in food for the rest of the day. I eat if I'm hungry but I'm not looking in cupboards for the next hit, which is how I was before, always looking for toast or something nice. As for wheat and sugar, the less you have the less you want. It feels liberating, maybe look again at your fat intake?

Hi @styletryle. I go for jumbo rolled oats. I think their fibre means they they cause less of an insulin spike and fill you for longer. They don't take too long to cook either maybe 4/5 mins boiled with water. For someone that has low carbed for ever this breakfast feels like such a treat!!! If you don't like cinammon maybe chuck in a few blueberries or frozen strawberries? Also sorry to over share but it really gets my system moving !!!!

Hi Aria999. You're so right, a new weight set point would be really exciting especially as I feel confident now that changes on the scales are not just a flash in the pan.

Here's a link to my recipes:

www.copymethat.com/recipebox/words/6661790/

And here's a link to the group one:

www.copymethat.com/recipebox/why-we-cook-too-much/6661160/

I can't quite work out how to post mine to the group one however.

styletryle. Porridge can be made in the microwave if you need a quick breakfast. If you don't like cinnamon, and your children eat all the blueberries, , how about a dash of vanilla essence to add interest. Full fat milk and a splash of cream too. Very luxurious and filling.

@Words

Here's a link to my recipes:

www.copymethat.com/recipebox/words/6661790/

And here's a link to the group one:

www.copymethat.com/recipebox/why-we-cook-too-much/6661160/

I can't quite work out how to post mine to the group one however.

I think it's not possible to post in other people's profiles (it's not a group one, it's just the name I set up my account with).

However, if you click on Community Recipes and "show following", it brings up all the recipes posted by everyone you're following. Then people can pick and choose which recipes they want to add to their own collections.

You can click on a profile and see all the followers, so we should be able to follow each other and pool the recipes that way.

I've made it sound a lot more complicated than it is.

Thanks for the links @Words

I've joined the group as Obladee. Now to work out how to add recipes

One of my favourites is Shakusha from Pinch of Nom which can be easily adapted to suit the WOE

That's a perfect lunch @Styletryle. Personally I'd use lemon juice or white wine vinegar on that salad.

Yes, I think the recipe website is a bit like Pinterest. Though Pinterest is also an excellent place to look for recipes. I find if I have some random ingredients to use up, I only have to search in Pinterest and someone will have made them into an acceptable meal.

I've just made a big batch of roasted garlic in the slow cooker, and have come courgettes and onions in there now, to make into a tortilla for dinner.

I used some of the garlic to make a cream cheese and herb dip for raw vegetables, which is now going to be my daily lunch, alongside yoghurt, oats and raspberries. I need to be eating more vegetables, but I wasn't fitting in that many with only two meals a day, one of which was just yoghurt.

Actually, to clarify, the recipe site isn't just for sharing web links. You can add a button to your browser which adds online recipes to your collection on the site. This is very handy because the software removes the 10,000 words of guff that precedes every blogger's recipe.

You can also add your own recipes and share them.

Sorry to spam the thread - I've changed my user name on Copy Me That, to avoid confusion!

Lots of nice recipes appearing in the circle...

Spamming the thread is my specialty leadbetter !

Bad news here scales-wise. Generally don't weigh mid week but did today as I thought things were going in the wrong direction. Correctly- I am two pounds up again.

I know what's done it. Too much chocolate and I let bread slip back into my life a little too frequently over the last week. Also grazing unnecessarily on cheese and oatcakes. I really thought I was off the plateau, and let my guard slip. Hey ho.

Back to basics. No wheat, no sugar. Attention to portion sizes and satiation levels. Sigh.

I have the exact same problem @Words. As soon as I feel I am doing well I get complacent and let things slide.

I find I have to periodically return to the literature - re-read the books, remind myself of the science and what the sugar is doing to my cells. Otherwise my ratio of good eating to bad eating slips, and the visceral fat starts to build again.

It just occurred to me - there has always been this mantra in dieting that there are no bad foods, everything in moderation etc. But actually there are bad foods. Processed foods. Sugar.

Quick made up tasty supper today plus lots leftovers:

Lentil and roast pepper thing

Roast tomatoes and peppers in oven in olive oil. ( save leftover oil and juices to add flavour to other things or use it for next step)
Fry onion carrot celery and garlic - and add various green herbs if you have to hand and maybe a few chopped olives
Add chicken stock and a sachet of ready to eat puy lentils
Add sliced mushrooms. Simmer for a bit
Stir in the roast veg.

Eat as main course, side dish or with leftover chicken.

@Styletryle

Sounds nice! I would eat it. Rapeseed oil is better than a lot of the others.

Rice is ok, you don't need to go zero carb! Maybe don't live on risotto but a normal amount eaten with other stuff should be fine.

I am not actually counting carbs at all though I am finding I am naturally eating fewer of them (and may have accidentally gone keto the other week 😳)

medium.com/not-another-diet/why-caloric-restriction-works-and-then-doesnt-55c99166b30f

Just came across this

Hi, I just finished reading the book and have been working my way through this thread.

I really like the ideas in the book, but I'm unsure if its going to work for me. I've got too many questions to ask in one post, but I'll give a start:

I was really looking forward to understanding why he said avoid wheat and pasta, but he doesn't - it's just avoid sugar, wheat, corn... and something else I forgot. Is it just because they are processed carbohydrates? (but corn?) Or is it the seed/omega-6 thing? But then why is rice and some other grains okay? Would wholemeal wheat be okay? I don't think cutting out wheat and corn is sustainable for me - I'm from an Italian family and DH is from Texas and I've learned a lot of Mexican cooking from his mother. Nearly all the family recipes I have use wheat or corn - I also don't quite see how stopping using my grandmother's or MIL's recipes fits in with the 'food cultures' thing he talked about. I could make them less a part of our diet, but I just can't imagine cutting out our culture like that.

Another question is about oils - he says olive oil is okay because it's pressed and not processed like petrolium (like the new vegetable oils). What about things like avacado oil and sesame oil? They're similarly culturally old oils and come from pressed fruits/seeds. Most of my Mexican dishes uses avacado oil (when they use oil).

We do already cook from scratch for the most part, because DH has so many allergies he basically can't have anything pre-made. So if I could continue to have some pasta/corn but less frequently, I might be able to do some of this.

@Billybagpuss that’s a great article, thanks! The next one under it is also good (by the same author) about how she doesn’t eat ‘factory foods’ because they lead to overeating.

@murmuration

There's a useful list of the properties of various oils here:
www.drfabio.com/healthblog/cooking-oil-comparisons

There's no need at all to cut out your cultural heritage. Many of us on these threads find the book frustratingly vague on detail as well. I think it's because Dr Jenkinson is striving to make out that it's not really a diet (when it kind of is, albeit one that you're supposed to stick to forever).

He's writing very much from a mainstream UK perspective, so you need to understand the principles and adapt it to your own dietary preferences and cultural background. When he says cut out wheat and bread entirely, he's thinking about all the rubbish sliced white loaves and highly-processed biscuits and things that are such a huge part of the UK diet. It's easier to just say cut it all out.

Some of us here make our own bread using wholegrain flours and are still losing weight (NB wholegrain is better than wholemeal). I'm careful to keep carbs below 80g most days, but I have at least one day a week where I'm much less restrained (this evening I'm making sweet popcorn for example).

You might also find the book Metabolical by Robert Lustig interesting, which is from the American perspective and primarily focused on the dangers of processed food. His central tenet is "protect the liver, feed the gut". Broadly, this is done by reducing sugar and increasing fibre.

If you're cooking from scratch already, then it's probably a matter of tweaking for you. Have less wheat and corn and more green vegetables and legumes like beans.

Culturally there are adjustments I'm having to make, mainly when it comes to Christmas, as the feasting aspects of it are very important to me, and something I look forward to all year. I'm not giving up mince pies, Christmas pudding and cake (I already have my dried fruits soaking in brandy), but I am thinking about how I can mitigate the effects of all that sugar. We will be careful with portion sizes and carb counts, do lots of walking and exercise to burn up the glucose, and use fats to lower the GL.

Also on the subject of cultural backgrounds, I've said before on these threads that I think the whole "foods your grandmother would recognise" is a bit of a red herring (and possibly comes from a very middle class perspective).

My grandmother's diet, in working class Wigan, was not anything to emulate. She shopped in Asda, not a lovely local greengrocer or farmer's market. She's struggled with her weight all her life, and has been in a care home, with very advanced Alzheimer's, for the past ten years.

Does anyone know a decent chocolate brownie recipe involving dates? I've just tried the Deliciously Ella one with sweet potato but they're an odd texture.

Why dates?