Diet and finding food.

[Nedlamar]

OK so MA mentioned in another thread about obesity in the US, this prompted me to post about something I have been experiencing.

My girlfriend and I are going on this diet type thing.
Basically this diet urges you to stay away from chemicals and sugars.
Eat normal food at proper times and avoid pre-prepared, chemical and processed foods.
And drink lots of water.

It's great, $47 and we got this huuuuuge info pack and links to videos and the like, plus great communication with the author.

I'm liking this idea, it's fantastic if it works, they actually tell you to eat bacon! just not half a pound in one sitting

So, today I go shopping, basic rules are no sugar in products, breads, yogurts etc.
Nothing in the ingredients you can't pronounce.

That's it, pretty simple.

OMG do you think I can find anything without sugar added or chemicals?

I am shocked and appalled at the mere fact ALL the bread and wraps and breaddy products have chemicals, things I can't pronounce (no seriously ) and added sugar.

What the hell?

I managed to find 1 out of 18 types of yogurt that was just plain "add your own fruit" yogurt. .. One.

Almost all the cereals have this crap in them, in fact the healthier the label, the more bloody chemicals it has in it and is actually worse for you.

You see apparently (and this makes sense) these low fat and "Zero" type products have the chemicals that allow less fat etc, but your body has to work harder to process the chemicals than if you just ate normal food.
This extra work means your body doesn't get to properly process the good stuff because it's spending all it's time detoxing the chemicals.

I may have that slightly wrong but you get the idea.

But many of these products have been making the products for50, 75 or 100+ years. These chemicals weren't around back then....... why are they here now?

Well, silly question, I'm sure it boils down to money lol

So I've found a "Natural Food" store near my work, gonna go have a butchers in there tomorrow.

But damn, why is all this crap in our foods, and they wonder why people are fat and unhealthy. It's not just MacDonalds

[LauraR]

Preservatives. People expect food to last after they buy it and the stores need it on the shelves for longer than a day before going stale.

You might want to try organic sections of your food store as well. I haven't looked, but I'd suspect that they are not as loaded with all the chemicals.

[Rikky]

So you lose weight because you can't find anything to eat

Hehe have you ever been to a health shop before? Your gonna spend your entire salary on a carrot!

It will be a tasty carrot though

Jokes aside good luck And look on the bright side if you can't stick to the diet at least you'll be single again Maybe not that bright though it will be hard to find a wife if your not that easy on the eye.

Face it Ned,lose weight and lose all your money or don't lose weight and lose everything else! Should I stop typing now? K I'll stop

[Sgt. Tibbs]

The answer is to make your own bread. Unless you get bread directly from the in-store bakery (and often not even then), you're not going to find any that doesn't have preservatives, added sugar (even a little...I've never made bread that didn't have sugar in it), or some kind of chemical. Of course, your best answer is always to make your own everything. It's possible, it's just time-consuming and a pretty big PITA, but at least you know exactly what is in everything you eat if you make it yourself from scratch.

In my opinion, most things from supposed "health food" stores is overpriced, overrated, and really not any better than what you can find in the grocery store. And half the time the "natural" products actually taste worse, because they have nothing added. I realize you're trying to avoid the added stuff, but trust me...that's what makes food taste like you expect it to. Just compare canned vegetables to salt-free canned vegetables to see what I'm talking about.

I highly recommend local farm stands and/or farmer's markets over health food stores. Not sure how they are where you live, but where I live the baked goods are made fresh every morning, and have no preservatives (which means they last maybe 3-5 days before starting to mold).

[mjnc]

You do have to spend some time looking, hunting and reading labels.
I now buy certain things at specific stores.

I have recently "discovered" Trader Joe's. I had been to one several times in Tucson, but not where I am.
They are Always busy, and for good reason.

As for bread, you should look at their Organic Whole Grain Flax and Fiber.
It does have organic evaporated cane juice, which I suppose is a sweetener, but there are no other sugars or preservatives.

They also have organic soups, some organic frozen vegetables (easy ) and even organic pasteurized orange juice.

Earth Fare is another "natural" food store. I like their organic instant oatmeal, although it does have sugar.
Quaker makes some "lower sugar" instant oatmeal which has much less than the regular stuff.

I found one variety of Prego spaghetti sauce with no sugar and no corn syrup.

Steaming vegetables is pretty easy and healthful.

Something I just discovered recently is quinoa.
Never had this before a few weeks ago. Easy to prepare, like rice. Lots of "complete" protein.

[Nedlamar]

Thanks for the advice guys, but just to clarify after more researching.
You can find bread without sugar and chemicals, it's just only available at Natural food stores and is about $5 per loaf lol

And both Tibbs and Mj are right in that making your own stuff is the way to go.
The missus has gone at this fairly hard and fast and has dropped several pounds in the first week, I'm not quite as into it as she is but I'm easing into it.

Although I will stress in reply to Quaker "Low Sugar", not sure of this product but the one thing this diet stresses above almost all else is that you do NOT consume ANYTHING that claims "Low Fat/Sugar" due to added chemicals.

The only sugar this diet allows is natural sugar, meaning what is found in foods such as fruit etc.

Our biggest thing is cutting out pop, we pretty much have, I drink on a daily basis around 3-8 cans of pop in some form.... I've had 3 this week and she has had 1.
Had a bloody headache all week though and both peeing like mutha******s lol

Although today is sunday and they stress you have 1 "Free Day" per week where you eat whatever you wish, but still in proper portions.

Hell I even turned down MacDonalds for lunch the other day in favour of a turkey wrap lol
Although lunchmeat is a no go too but better than a Big Mac lol

The missus is doing really well and she says she's feeling so much better and more energy than she's had for years..... which is boding well for me

I'm not normally taken in by diets but I have to admit, this one makes so much sense, the whole premiss is basically getting your body to process the correct elements in the correct order, Example: Pop will cause your body to burn sugar instead of fat making you retain the fat etc, same with chemicals.

If any of you are interested in taking a peek...

http://www.beyonddiet.com/BD

[Phantom]

Some interesting info and thoughts there.
~Cheers for that, Ned.

[BoredOutOfMyMind]

Nedlamar, Gluten Free and Paleo are two of the most popular diets right now. If it becomes a lifestyle, then you have long term success. I have gained about 20 pounds and need to again return to more discipline in my life.

Best of success in yours and your wife's journey!

[the mekanic]

Heck, we've had a bread machine for years. Whip up some dough, and it does the rest. Sits right on the counter, too.

Not to toot my own horn here, but I have been on a "healthy" diet for years. My aunt has been into holistics since the '70's, and my sister is a dietician. Now that I see all the flavored aloe drinks on the shelf, I kick myself in the pants. We've mixed fruit juice and aloe juice for decades! I remember when it used to come in a big, brown, "chemlab" style bottle.

The best way I have found to roll is eating things like whole grain organic pasta, which you can make yourself, fresh/frozen vegetables, fresh fruits, going fishing, snapping up salmon in a can when it's on sale, cous-cous, rice (pick your variety), guinoa, polenta, and GRASS FED meats. Luckily I live on the eastern seaboard, so fresh fish is available if you come away with an empty bucket!

The most important thing to remember is to keep a reasonable caloric intake. Rats who were overfed in lab experiments lost the telomeres at the end of their DNA more quickly via cell division, than those who were fed a restricted calorie diet. It seems that a low calorie diet turns on a sort of "preservation" survival mechanism from the days of yore, when humans foraged for bark, berries, and the like.

Also, as an apnea patient, I can't stress enough the value of a good night's sleep. Your body will go haywire without it.

Good luck, and hope you look 28, at 38!!!!

[Major Attitude]

Honestly, it's all about moderation and lifestyle. I have slowly gone (after gaining weight back) from 196 to 184 and continue to realize it will take a long time to lose 10 more. I also had a vacation, comapny over and a mild back flare up that took me out for a month. I went to Wendys the other day but first fast food for me in months. I'll eat bread, but prefer a wrap. Diets sucks and I hate the word. I think people need to adopt the term "Lifestyle Change". It's about eating right and excercising but knowing you can pig out once a week or so or eat the crappiest thing you can find. My problem last time was I went hard core, starved myself and worked out until I was at 175 and almost had my six pack at 45 years old. It took one summer to completely erase this. One summer.

[Triaxx2]

Buy local. Farmers don't have preservatives.

[handygal]

Nedlamer, you got it exactly right. I comment all the time that low-fat and non-fat, fake sweetener foods are much worse than the original version, who has gotten healthier since this crap came out 15-20 years ago? Give me full-fat sour cream, at least it's natural, anything else is PROCESSED FOOD. It's not that we are eating twice as much of the altered version, it's that the altered version is barely even a food anymore. The body is not so simple as to work with the simplest of mathematical formulas. One pound = 3600 calories is false and I think most of us have suspected that. The body is so much more complex than that.

You know what your body does with toxins? When it can't deal with them anymore it stuffs it in the back of a fat cell, packs some fat over top of it so that the toxin is out of the blood stream. Exercise causes sweat and heavy breathing, both of which eliminate some of the toxins that the kidneys can't flush out and that is a contributing factor to why you lose weight. Those that diet only and can't lose belly fat could have toxins that are stored in their belly fat that their body can't handle having released.

If you are interested in some interesting science about how the body works, the endocrine system and what our western diet does to the natural systems of the body, try http://raypeat.com. When he explains how RDA's were devised and why vegetable and seed oils were added to animal feed, it makes you certain that The Man was smoking some big fat doobies when they made official nutrition guidelines.

If you read nothing else in Ray Peat's website -- and I wouldn't blame you, it's heavy on scientific talk -- read at least part of http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/gelatin.shtml or http://raypeat.com/articles/aging/tr...in-aging.shtml. It's eye opening.

Good luck with your changes!

[Nedlamar]

Well we went for our first proper shop for this stuff. I normally go to the small place in town but it's limited.
So my conclusion is this and odly enough always has been.

We purchased a lot of fruit, veg and the like, nothing really weird except the bread stuff she got and natural nut butters, peanut and almond.
Otherwise very little was "Organic" but as I said, lots of nice fresh stuff.

Normally I buy some veg and some fruit and a couple of frozen pizzas, fries etc.

A normal week of food I do happily for around $90-$120
Last night we dropped $248 and this is without meat which we get a 30% discount on 'cos the missus works at a butchers
Admittedly some of it will be 2 weeks worth or longer in some cases....... but ouch!
Double the cost to eat healthy, although as I said, variables come in to play here that wont give me a more accurate weekly figure for maybe 3 or 4 weeks, I'll keep a check on it.

She's coming up with some good stuff though, she even made me eat breakfast the other day, probably for the first time in years, certainly the first time having fruit.
Banana, Cantaloupe and greek yogurt...... nearly puked

[handygal]

Originally Posted by Nedlamar

Banana, Cantaloupe and greek yogurt...... nearly puked

I'm curious how it turns out. Maybe after a few weeks you will find you eat less of the quality foods?

[Nedlamar]

Not sure what you mean by "Quality foods"?.... if you mean like Pizza and fries then yes I will eat less of it

As for quantities in general, well the wife is eating twice as much food as she was, the idea being you eat 4-5 times per day, breakfast, brunch, lunch, snack, dinner, snack.
Snacks comprise of fruits and nuts or veg etc

[Triaxx2]

Hey, Pizza is healthy. Homemade is anyway. Pineapple and Spinach with Garlic Breadsticks gets you most of your food groups.

[mjnc]

Something I forgot to post last time.
After taking the quiz, I decided to get some mustard greens, since it was near the top of the list of foods containing the most
nutrients most likely missing in my diet.

Food Advisor Helps You Find the Foods that are Right for You

[sikvik]

Hey Ned, I know you're not counting Carbs, Fats, Proteins, FatCholesterol or Cals. But this is a good chart all the same. Just for reference.
http://www.caloriecountercharts.com/chart2a.htm
Cheers..

[dyamond]

Originally Posted by Nedlamar

Not sure what you mean by "Quality foods"?.... if you mean like Pizza and fries then yes I will eat less of it

Hey pizza is quality, you've got your dairy, veggie & grains

I've started not dieting (although, I call it that) but slowly changing my eating habits. I started probably 2 years ago with not consuming anything with high fructose corn syrup in it due to the research I've done AND the effects it has on me. So, that in itself eliminated MANY products. Then I slowly started fazing out artificial sugars, other highly processed sugars, fats, etc.

After watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, that show has also changed the way I eat, in addition to what I already avoid. In result, I eat now mostly whole grains, salads, veggies, fruits, and fresh poultry. That's not to say I don't have a some pizza or ice cream once in a while, I do but it's not nearly as much as I used to and although I'm not losing weight as quickly as I'd like to it's better to do it this way, though changing diet and exercise than to do a strict diet, lose weight quickly but possibly gain it back because nothing has really changed.

[handygal]

Originally Posted by Nedlamar

Not sure what you mean by "Quality foods"?.... if you mean like Pizza and fries then yes I will eat less of it

As for quantities in general, well the wife is eating twice as much food as she was, the idea being you eat 4-5 times per day, breakfast, brunch, lunch, snack, dinner, snack.
Snacks comprise of fruits and nuts or veg etc

I haven't tested this theory but "supposedly" after a few weeks your body realizes that it is going to get more nutrient dense foods and you don't crave as much food? On 180degreehealth they also say not to panic if you gain first for a few weeks. That's just what I want my diet to do!