For the start of the New Year, a different format for Zoe. Instead of a couple of experts in discussion with Jonathan Wolf, two people Beck and Mark l from different perspectives, why they followed Zoe nutritional advice, what they expected to gain, and did the advice meet expectations? Plus additional input from Tim Spector and Sarah Berry.
Becky struggling with weight control. Yo-yo diets. Calorie counting does not work. Now is able to maintain desired weight without dieting.
Mark eating what he thought was a healthy diet but did not feel healthy but does now.
A healthier diet , feel better.
Focus on the quality of food, not counting calories. Counting calories, too simplistic.
Eat three Mars bars, ok, so long as within the calorie quota. But what if, ate other than a few Mars and still within the calorie quota?
The expose on fat, The Big Fat Surprise, which for many will be an eye opener.
M&S pulled this scam last year. Customers were stood by the display laughing, commenting it was ultra-processed food. Needless to say, by the end of the month, sold off.
They pulled off the same stunt previous years, plant-based, Veganuary. Again by the end of the month, sold off.
Here we go again, unproven claims, nutritional bullshit. The difference, dotted around the Food Hall so can’t find. Even the staff when asked could not find.
A display on entering the Food Hall. All I could find was high protein white bread. White bread! White bread laced with additives, including emulsifiers.
White bread is not healthy. Everything of nutritional value has been extracted.
Emulsifiers should be avoided. Damage gut microbes.
The average person on a varied diet consumes more than their daily requirement of protein. Additional protein is not stored. It passes through or is converted to sugars and fat. Be wary of the protein scam. What people are short of is fibre, not protein
Buy sourdough bread or wholemeal. Not from M&S, from a reputable independent artisan bakery. M&S sourdough bread is of very poor quality.
Ninety percent of nutritional information on social media is wrong.
Without exception, food promoted in a supermarket as healthy, is not.
Does eating healthily make a difference, being mindful of what we eat?
It’s that time of Year , New Year Resolutions , Stop Smoking, Lose Weight, Veganuary. By the end of the week, most have fallen by the wayside.
I’ve never made New Year Resolutions. It has always seemed to me a pointless exercise. If I want to do something I do it.
There is though a psychological reason for starting on the first of the month. A fresh start, a new beginning. So what better way to start then the First of January with a New Year Resolution. A New Year, a fresh start?
One possibility. Three fermented foods a day. This is based on a Stanford study, five fermented foods a day. Zoe replicated the study with 5000 volunteers, three fermented foods a day. Both studies showed marked improvement in health. I tried last year. No noticeable improvement.
A discussion between Tim Spector, Sarah Berry and Jonathan Wolf, eight ways we can improve our health by eating better in the New Year.
Counting calories is not the way to lose weight. Yo-yo diets.
We are not short of protein. Ignore the protein scams. Multi-billion dollar scam. The average person on a varied diet eats more than sufficient protein. Additional protein is not stored. It passes through or is converted to sugars and fat.
Positive changes to our diet lead to improvements in how we feel within days.
principles
mindful eating
eat 30 plants a week
avoid ultra-processed food
focus on food quality not calorie counting
when you eat
eat the rainbow
protein quality
eat fermented foods at least three a day
There are simple things we can do to improve our diet, improve our health.
Eat 30 plants a week. Five a Day is dated. Diversity of what we eat is important.
Eat the rainbow.
Eat three different fermented foods a day.
The three Ks, kimchi, krauts, kefir.
Avoid ultra-processed foods. Always read the labels.
Peasant food made to taste delicious. — Dan Buettner
An exploration of Blue Zones with Dan Buettner and Tim Spector.
Blue Zones are locations around the world where people live to a healthy old age, often to 100 and beyond.
A common denominator across the Blue Zones is simple peasant food. Beans and complex carbohydrates. Beans and rice. Beans and pasta.
Eat whole foods, no ultra processed food, be active, walk, have good social interactions.
It is a myth, there is a pill or potion or super food, that will give us a healthy life.
Exercise does not require a trip to a gym. We don’t need to go to the gym for exercise. Move, walk, work in the garden. Grow food in the garden, for fresh food to eat.
In England, we find cities with big difference in longevity. Closely tied to social deprivation.
What is fascinating from this discussion, we see in the real world, what we observe from clinical trials. 30+ plants a week, plus exercise and social interaction.
Diversity of foods and fermented foods. Wholefoods, minimally processed. High in fibre, high in polyphenols. No ultra-processed food.
Depressing,Okinawa, since the introduction of ultra-processed food, has gone from the healthiest people in the world to the least healthy in Japan.
We can see different foods, each labeled 100 calories. But what we extract, will depend on the food, even the same food if processed differently.
100 calories a portion of chips. If we double the portion size, we will obtain double the calories, but it may not be 200 calories.
If we eat sweetcorn as corn on the cob, or sweetcorn milled into cornflour, we will extract more calories from the π½ cornflour.
A steak turned into mince, we will extract more calories from the mince, than we would have from eating the steak.
Counting calories tells us nothing of the nutritional value of the food we are eating.
We have all been there. We finish our meal, not a mouthful more, we push our plate to one side, we are full, we are satiated. Then the waiter shows us the desserts. Somehow we have room for more, after all.
Sadly I see this all the time, overweight customers in a food supermarket with bad, really bad food choices. Do they know they are bad food choices? Or McDonald’s or KFC, tucking into junk food, washed down with a can of Coke.
Or maybe even worse, picking what is labelled healthy and believed to be healthy, a flavoured low fat yoghurt instead of a Greek yoghurt, an ultra-processed food chosen instead of the natural healthy food.
Is it a lack of willpower? Ultra-processed People devotes an entire chapter to answering that question.
Sometimes I am tempted to ask, why that choice? I wisely hold my counsel.
The government is to blame for these bad food choices, for the promotion of ultra-processed food.
Treat ultra-processed food as tobacco.
no promotion
health warnings
upf tax
From Grain of Truth Bakery I buy
sourdough bread – healthy
almond croissants – not healthy
Draw a graph of obesity from 1950s to today. A steady increase in obesity. A kink in the graph in the mid-1970s. This curve is the same for different age groups, for different ethnic groups. In the 1970s the increased consumption of ultra-processed foods. In the US and UK, for adults 60% of the diet ultra-processed food. For young adults and children 100% of their diet ultra-processed food .
In Brazil, type 2 diabetes was of academic interest only. The traditional diet beans and rice. The country flooded with ultra-processed food. Within ten years, an obesity epidemic.
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