Why We Eat (Too Much) thread 6

[TheLeadbetterLife]

Whoops, we let thread 5 get away from us a bit there...

I'm going to boringly copy-paste the previous thread opener, because it's too hot to be imaginative.

Welcome to thread 6 of discussion, encouragement and advice inspired by the book Why We Eat (Too Much), by Dr Andrew Jenkinson.

The basic principles of this "diet" (it's not one in the traditional sense, as it's meant to be a permanent set of changes), are as follows:

Cut out ultra-processed food

Massively reduce sugar, carbs, refined flours and wheat

Eat a wide variety of vegetables, whole grains and fruit

Eat full fat dairy and other healthy fats like extra virgin olive oil

Improve the ratio of omega 3 to 6 by eating greens, fish, eggs and grass-fed meat, and cutting out ultra-refined seed oils

Important lifestyle changes include getting plenty of rest, relaxation and sleep, as well as taking a moderate amount of exercise (or more, if you like that sort of thing).

You don't need to count calories (in fact, you shouldn't), though it may help to count carbs or glycemic load, at least to begin with, until you get the hang of it.

Some of us share recipes by following each other on Copy Me That - www.copymethat.com/recipebox/the-leadbetter-life/6661160/

As well as the book mentioned in the title, the principles are similar to those espoused by the likes of Rangan Chatterjee, Robert Lustig, Tim Spector and Michael Mosley.

There are many successes on this thread, and the main thing is that we are aiming to make permanent, sustainable changes to adjust our weight set-points downwards.

Join us!

Well, technically you can eat anything, but annoyingly Jenkinson's book is a bit unclear in places (I suspect poorly edited). We've had a lot of debates on these threads as a result.

He mentions pasta salad somewhere, which naturally all us former carb lovers latched onto, but he also makes it quite clear that we shouldn't really be eating wheat much, if at all.

It's a relatively low-carb diet. He recommends getting your daily carb intake below 100g, or even lower ideally.

Personally, I do this by not eating pasta, rice, bread or potatoes except as an occasional treat, but plenty of other people on this thread do eat rice and potatoes and get on fine. You'll just have to see what works for you, and count the carbs.

I am sure I saw on Trust Me I'm a Doctor a few years back that when pasta is cooked and cooled many of the starches before fibre - maybe that is why pasta salad it okay occasionally. It could open the floodgates though.

Birthday win: instead of cake my son requested birthday pastries. I provided a tempting tower of a variety of pastries (with candles added!) but crucially I didn't add any of my favourite ones. That would have been a disaster as I have no self-control when there is something I really like available in the house. In fact, I consciously picked my least favourite pastries to include. My plan worked, I wasn't tempted in the slightest and didn't eat any of them. 1-0 to me.

Birthday loss: one of his friends somewhat annoyingly kindly gave him a range of sweets, crisps and other birthday treats that included 5 of my favourite chocolate bars. Oh dear. Final score finished 4-1.

Lesson learned: I really can't have any of my tempting foods in the house or I have zero resistance. This is why I don't buy them.

We ordered a chocolate mousse in a restaurant 😳. It said it was for two people, it would have been fine for six!

Otherwise, too much ice cream and the occasional pastry but mostly staying off the bread. A fair bit of lugging the toddler about in the hiking backpack. I can still fit in my shorts but it's probably good there are no scales!

Good to hear you're bumping down another notch @Words! Welcome to the thread, new people!

@TheLeadbetterLife this is very interesting what you just wrote about cholesterol. We were raised believing all fats are wrong, but at the same time no one told us how bad are UPFs. Egg yolks- no no. Cake- yes yes.

Yes the body needs fat, it doesn't need sugar. The liver creates the sugar it needs. Eggs are high in cholesterol, but it's the good kind - HDL.

That's a good point, I remember that too. I don't care for cold pasta personally, but I wonder if this applies to potatoes too? I do love a tortilla, and the potatoes we get here are so delicious it's a shame not to eat them.

Apparently it does apply to potatoes: www.healthline.com/nutrition/cooling-resistant-starch#TOC_TITLE_HDR_4

This is good news, because I can move two of my favourite things - tortilla and potato salad - off the treat list and on to the regulars list.

Hi, can someone here link to the previous threads please as i cant find them and would like to join in. Ta.

Hiya team!
You may remember that I had taken a blood test to measure my Omegas with a blood testing group called Thriva. People seemed interested in what I got back after sending a tiny vial of blood off to them.

I have screen grabbed the main points below. I hope you find it interesting. It's roughly what I expected at a ratio of 19:1. This is the "before" - let's see what I get back when I try again in October.
(If anyone's interested, it's Here. If you go for it, use the referral code JL8DG9DMGTY and get £10 off (and I get the same in credit.))

Here are the remaining highlights of my report. I hope this is of interest (not my personal health as such although it will be interesting how much difference I can make to the balance in the weeks to come!)

APOLOGIES: I tried to link to Thriva above. This is the link. (Don't forget to use the referral code JL8DG9DMGTY and get £10 off)

Interesting stuff @Skylarking953 , will be good to see how it changes.

I wonder if I can get an omega ratio test at the clinic here? I don't think we have Thriva in this country, but my health insurance package makes blood tests dirt cheap, so I plan to get them done every year to monitor progress. I might ask my GP for a referral.

@TheLeadbetterLife I'm not sure where you live, but in the UK, there were a few places offering tests. I hope you are successful. It will be interesting to see how your levels are matched as you have been on a version of the diet for a while, I know.

That's interesting @Skylarking - it will be good to see how things change! How much did they charge, out of interest?

Also, has anyone yet done the Zoe gut microbe test? I've read mixed results online. They have some interesting podcasts though!

Also fascinating to read about cold pasta/potatoes potentially having a less bad effect on insulin resistance. Not a fan of either, very sadly, but I might try a potato salad if I can find some really nice spuds.

My weight is yo-yo ing wildly at the moment. Up again this morning, and might be a bit off plan this weekend too, so need to watch out.

However, I can now fit comfortably into a size 12 pair of walking trousers. Amazing. Four sizes smaller than when I was at my heaviest two years ago, and smallest size I have been for decades. Might need to start thinking about selling my larger things on Ebay this winter.

Speaking of amazing, @TheLeadbetterLife , that Elizabeth David choc mousse you mentioned in the last thread was awesome. I added just a hint of sugar and used high cocoa content dark chocolate. Definitely a keeper, and will experiment with flavourings too. Coffee springs to mind!

Recipe here, if anyone is interested. It's really easy to do:

www.copymethat.com/r/JQUJV1Y4g/how-to-make-perfect-chocolate-mousse-st-/

Now I want to try omega 3:6 tests, especially on my husband as I think his diet is worse than mine.

Morning everyone

I was reflecting yesterday about the term 'comfort eating'.

I'd been looking at my weight loss graph over the last two years on Fitbit, and the two major bumps in the road were when I started 'comfort eating' and increasing my alcohol consumption.

The first deviation followed a back injury and the second when various life stresses hit at once. Both these things turned my routine upside down and I really struggled.

Going off plan in response certainly provided some instant 'comfort' ( first bite always the best), but my goodness did I pay.

Because rather like taking out a loan at an extortionate interest rate, the instant gratification from sugar and carb overload is powerful. However, my goodness I paid for it over the following weeks:

Rapid weight gain and tighter clothes, less exercise, poor sleep, loss of focus and mental clarity.

Dull, puffy skin, brittle nails, hair falling out. Bloated stomach. Return of hormone related hot flushes and palpitations.

Loss of confidence, low mood and greater susceptibility to stress and anxiety, leading to - guess what - more carbs and sugary things.

Not much comfort in all that, is there?

The good news is that a return to the plan, for me, and I know others too, does result in weight loss as rapidly as it is gained.

Nobody can, or should, avoid treats. ( And let's not think of them as 'bad' or 'naughty' - it's just food!)

But if you do find yourself in a rut - as many of us probably will - just remember (note to self here too) that this thread is here to help you climb out again and get back on track.

Have a great weekend.

Wise words from Words, so relevent to my own experience as well. It is hard when life is challenging to keep making good food choices, but as you say the consequences in the long-term are the issue.

One thing I like about this way of eating is that having something off-plan does not mean you throw away all the work you've done. It helps me to know that even if I've eaten something I ought not to have that I just get back on track the next day and there are no points to add up, syns to confess or calories to record reminding me of my slip.

Hi @xogossipgirlxo and @Words
Not cheap, a a base charge of £30 per test kit and then charges per measurement - £62 for the Omegas although some of the others are cheaper (you can build a portfolio of tests on one kit) and there's a discount for first time. Check it out here app.thriva.co/blood-test-subscription?type=subscription&sort=alphabeticalAsc&filter=&discount_code=BETTERTODAY
I'm going to leave it 3 months and try my best to eat lots of lamb and swordfish etc!

Just made a coconut flour foccacia... let me know if anyone would like a recipe.

Speaking of bread... I am yearning to spread marmite on my new creation. Any ideas on the omega levels of Marmite?

That looks good! I would go for the Marmite and to hell with it! Even of lots O6 the actual amounts will be pretty small.

Thanks for the links!

Speaking of which, if you sign up to copy me that, linked in the first post, that's a great way to share recipes, and to manage online finds!

I am called That'll Do on there.

Re the lamb, some farmers supplement to fatten up, even in the U.K. Although others have left the lambs longer this year given the expense of food, creating a shortage, hence very high prices earlier in the season.

So depending on what they are fed on the O6 might not be quite as low as you might think.

I eat loads of meat, and try to boost the O3 instead with flaxseed etc.

Please excuse over use of exclamation marks. Dear me.

@Words
It's exclamatory weather here in Witney!!!

If anybody has any time on their hands I'd like to use my annual leave to learn to make from scratch:

1. Tomato sauce for pasta
2. Creamy sauce for pasta
3. Curry sauce
4. Salad dressing
5. Mayonnaise

Can anybody please point me to the easiest recipes out there?

I've literally never cooked in my life.

Many thanks 😊

Pasta sauce:

Ignore missing numbers.

Ingredients
• 1 large clove of garlic
•
• olive oil
•
• 1 small dried red chilli
•
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
•
• 3 x 400 g tins of quality Italian plum tomatoes
•
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
•
• 1 handful of fresh basil , or marjoram
•
• extra virgin olive oil
•

Steps
1 Peel and finely chop the garlic, then gently fry in a thick-bottomed pan with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Crumble in the chilli, add the oregano and tomatoes.

3	Mix gently, but do not break up the tomatoes as this will release the pips, which will make the sauce slightly bitter – by leaving the tomatoes whole and letting the mixture cook slowly you’ll get a nice sweet sauce. (You can remove the pips from the tomatoes if you want, but I don’t bother.) Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 1 hour.

5	Add the vinegar to the pan, then stir and chop up the tomatoes in the sauce.

7	Pick the basil or marjoram and roughly chop, then add to the pan.

9	Season well to taste with sea salt and black pepper, and finish with 2-3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.

Mayonnaise

You can use olive oil rather than rapeseed, but it does have a strong flavour

www.copymethat.com/r/tATTDAITq/how-to-make-perfect-mayonnaise/

Salad dressing:

In a screw top jar: Third of white wine vinegar to two thirds olive oil. Salt pepper and mustard ( Dijon is good but English also fine.) you can also add garlic, herbs, spices whatever you fancy.

Put lid on firmly , give it a good shake and there you have it.

Blue cheese salad dressing, or creamy sauce:

Dilute some St Augur creamy spread with yoghurt.

Can't help with curry sauce, but someone will, I'm sure.

Do have a look round Copy Me That , linked in the first post on this thread, as well.

Post if you need any more ideas!