I've decided to switch from eating low fat versions of foods like salad dressing, sour cream, yoghurt, milk, etc. to the regular version. I've been drinking 1% milk for so many years, the first glass I drank of 2% last week was like drinking cream!! And I have to say, it tastes better than 1% both on its own and in foods. I make my oatmeal with milk, and the difference in texture and taste with 2% vs. 1% milk is huge,
I think the trade-off of more calories vs. less additives and sugar is worth it. I'll just cut back on the quantity I eat to help balance it out.
The more I learn about low fat food, the more I realize that low fat isn't all it's cracked up to be.
Anyone else moving away from low fat??
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overly processed foods are kinda scarey
if there are things i can't pronounce on the ingredient list i tend to avoid them
eating in moderation is the best thing
Thanks dbd. I'll check it out.
Marketplace reran the episode tonight. I checked and it's scheduled for CBC Newsworld on Sat afternoon so check you local listings.
typical with that myfoodguide.ca. If I ate the way they suggest I would be in a sugar induced coma. But the pictures are nice don't you think? Much easier for the public to understand and an exercise that was well worth tax dollars and time spent.
You can see a write up of the Marketplace show at [url]http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/hyping_health/[/url] (some of the comments are interesting) and I am sure it must be going to shown again sometime soon since it looks like they are already into reruns of the latest season's shows.
I wish someone would go after the whole system. The food guide is flawed, the Heart & Stroke and Diabetes folks base their recommendations on the guide, and studies and thinking which is now well documented as flawed, and people are filling the emergency wards and hospitals because they don't know what folly it is to believe this crap and have lost their health because of it. the whole thing gets me going.
The nutritionist was talking about a new site myfoodguide.ca. Enter your gender and age and it tells you how much you need. Dumb. How about my size. I'm not 5' tall. I can only eat so much. It's no where near what they suggesting and I already feel like I'm over eating. I'd sure like to see that show Marketplace did if they run it again.
Yes DBD you are right....In the post war days everything people ate was all natural....now that is called ORGANIC...and more costly...figure that..... :confused:
Whiskey.. I hadn't thought of that as a breakfast food before but it might help get working out going if some tunes went along with it.
As for that food guide... well the amount of grains they recommend just happens to correlate to the amount of land Canada has planted in it. Also the 'stakeholders' they included to develop the thing was the dept of agriculture (which almost makes sense if you don't know about the lobbying that goes on)... but they don't mention that when writing up their process.
I was reading up on the process they used to make the new guide. Basically their goal seems to have been to ensure the pictures were nice. Then they surveyed some people to see what foods they typically buy/eat and worked the guide out around that. Now that is sure comforting when they pass the thing off as based on health. The recommendations freely admit they are [I]the minimum[/I] requirements based on what people are likely to eat. What a crock and there they go passing it off as optimum to the unwary public.
Same with the 'heart smart' logo they are [I]selling[/I] companies to use on their packaging. I think it was Marketplace who did a show on it. Just awful how the public is being snowed.
Interesting. So I should switch my breakfast cereal to fermented grains like.....whiskey? Then I'd end up with a new set of problems :D
I have gone off the low fat diet foods and there has been no change on the scales for me and I'm happy about that. I'm not gaining weight in other words.
I was reading Chatelaine earlier this morning and they mentioned the Canda Food Guide recommends 7-8 servings of fruit & veg, [B]6-7[/B] servings of grains - that's a lot of grains if you ask me, and only 2 servings of meat. I usually get 1-2 servings of grains and that's plenty for me. I couldn't imagine having to eat the amount in the Canada Food Guide. That's a lot of sandwiches.
Just in case anyone is interested, here is a newsletter from a site I recently discovered that discusses various aspects of diet and metabolism. Here's a link to the most recent blog called How We become Over Fat [url]http://blog.wellnesstips.ca/blog/index.php/?m=200803[/url] and there are links to her previous blogs explaining more about why some things work for some people but not others.
Speaking of ice cream... I can tell you that both the hollistic doctor (who maintains low carb is the only way to eat and he's non negotiable on that one) and the homeopathic one I saw (who is more into the pyramid, low fat way of eating) told me you may as well eat ice cream as eat yogurt. It's basically the same thing (if you buy a good natural, low or no sugar ice cream). The only reason yogurt got a good name (besides people using it to replace higher fat sour cream etc.) was because of the acidophilus and it's almost impossible to find a yogurt in a store with live acidophilus anymore. So yet another over processed myth food we've been sucked into. It's only useful when you make it yourself otherwise, may as well have the ice cream which is way yummier anyway.
Me chopping wood would be quite the sight. :laugh:
I went on another search today to find yogurt with more than 1% fat and there aren't many to choose from. It's crazy how many no fat or low fat yogurts you can buy now and 20 years ago there weren't any.
I think my problem is I am very healthy and take no prescription medications. I do eat fairly healthy food and have done so for the past 10 or 15 years. There was a time when I lived on cookies and ate 2 candy bars a day and smoked like a chimney though. I don't have any health issues related to food to make me want to change my ways badly enough right now.
I'm off low fat foods for sure now. I bought some yogurt with 8% fat. Now previously I would have thought that yogurt was very expensive for the small container it comes in but since you only eat half the amount it actually ends up being cheaper. I think when those low fat foods came out we must have thought we could justify eating bigger quantities particulary since we didn't feel full.
I am pretty good in that I don't use sugar, or eat bread and potatoes or pasta on a regular basis. But I don't want to feel like a cheat or a loser if I enjoy a bowl of cereal for breakfast that will cancel out the other foods I eat. The pie with ice cream is another story.
Well it's really hard that is for sure and if I could figure out how to do it I would be golden. I'm fine once the withdrawal is over and have gone months but all it takes for me is one bite and it's over. It is hard. I feel better, do better, no contest but even knowing that, it's really hard to get through those times when you want a comfort food.
The problem is if you want your body to be healthy and work as nature intended, that is the diet (not the ones people try and stick with that are just as hard to live with only to find out they are not based in science or health). The more society has leaned on grains and starches and has had access to sugars as sugar and fruits and processed food, anytime, all the time, the more the top three killers have risen. There was no such thing as a heart attack 100 years ago. It only became something they started to name and diagnose about 80 years ago because it was so rare before (before processed grains, having sugar every day, before pasta by the plateful became a daily occurrence). Same with type II diabetes, obesity, asthma, and a bunch of other conditions. They have all risen with the same curve as our sugar and starch consumption. Why do people get cancer so commonly (or at least so it seems to me)? I don't know but strange but true, the second they know you have a tumour they tell you to stay away from sugar because cancer feeds on it.
Since this low fat thing started we've gotten so dependent on starches and sugar (for flavour) it's hard to go without now but if we ate as they did even 100 years ago, it would look very different. I heard someone on TV saying if you want to eat right, eat only the foods your great grandparents would recognize and in the quantities they used to eat. I suppose we could do the same amount of physical activity too as that has got to help. Going back to chopping our own wood might save some money on gyms and equipment too I suppose.
I guess it comes down to be a trade off. You can have what you like or have what you need. It depends on what your goals in relation to health really are and how determined you are.
That would be pretty hard for most people to follow though. NO starches or sugars for the rest of your life without consequences? I'd go loony for sure. On Atkins I was on my way there I could tell, daydreaming about potatoes. I don't even eat potatoes on a regular basis either. No chicken curry with rice, no lasagna, no tuna sandwiches, no oatmeal for breakfast let alone no desserts like pies or cakes of any kind. I could probably do it for a limited time but not change my lifestyle to accomodate that kind of diet for the rest of my life.
Where is this from Smoodgie? Nice to see someone is publishing something that offers some good info vs the typical party line.
BTW did anyone see the CBC special this week (My Big Fat Diet)? It was on Newsworld (and will be run again on Sunday I think). It followed a community in BC which being Native, has a high incidence of diabetes, overweight, heart problems. Typical of traditional Native diets being changed to our western grain based diet. They chose 100 people who decided to return to their Native diet (which resembled a low carb diet), high in fat, high in protein, no starches or sugars and monitor the people on the diet (the show followed the first year). It was stunning. One fellow was off his diabetes and heart meds within a month. All lost a lot of weight. All commented on how much better they felt.
When it came to cheating, a few did. The one who got off his meds said he cheated once (I think he said he ate a tart or piece of pie) and had to go back on his meds for something like 3 weeks because of it. Some also commented on how addictive sugars are. This is my life I tell you and so it just reaffirmed what I have found. One slip for me is major damage control because the effects of sugar hang around much longer than we expect.I have no Native blood in me so I know this is true of people beyond the Native population, but they really are wonderful examples if for no other reason that being an entire community which can easily be compared and contrasted.
What got me was the area nurse who was all a dither about it all saying it just wasn't healthy, people should follow the food guide and I wished for a rubber brick to throw at the TV. The local doctor (who started it all) saw improved results from the get go, kept track of them all over the year and no contest. Meanwhile at the end of the show CBC fires off a warning about consulting your doctor or the food guide, more study being required, blah, blah, BS, blah. This wasn't the first time this was done. This wasn't the first time they had medically monitored stats and yet they still discount results.
I was furious. We don't get warnings when they pump out the food guide and heart healthy and diabetic diets yet those are proven over and over again to cause these problems but when they are showing one with stats they fire off a warning. As a matter of fact there have yet to be any conclusive studies backing the food guides, heart and diabetic diets yet no one is told that.
Anyway, a good show with more proof that we've literally been fed exactly the wrong info and foods which has lead to so many of our current health problems. Also more proof that fats actually improve health and eating them can lead to weight loss and improved cholesterol.
Here's a helpful article on why we need fat in our diets, and which fats are good and bad....
[SIZE=2][SIZE=3][B]Eating fat to lose fat![/B][/SIZE]
[I]How to add healthy fats to your diet.[/I][/SIZE]
By Dr. Joey Shulman
Imagine this common scenario. You start off your day with a breakfast that consists of nonfat cereal, loaded with nonfat milk, banana slices, orange juice and a coffee filled with milk and sugar. Do you lose weight? Absolutely not! In fact, you gain weight, are starving by 10 a.m. and continue your day feeling fatigued and eating sugar in the form of a variety of high-glycemic-index carbohydrates. Not the best recipe for long-term weight-loss results, is it?
Poor fat -- this essential macronutrient is so misunderstood. From low-fat diets to an abundant amount of “fat-free” foods, many people are dodging fat in an attempt to lose weight and keep it off for good. Yet research shows that we indeed need fat to lose weight, for disease prevention and to feel satiated.
In terms of fat -- let's call a spade a spade. Fat tastes delicious! Fat provides food products with a specific “mouth feel” that satisfies and makes food taste great. Without it, food tastes lousy and needs something extra added to it to improve flavour. So, if you are a food manufacturer and remove fat from a product to be able to market it as “low fat,” what do you typically add back in to improve taste and appeal to consumers' taste buds? Sugar, of course! Unfortunately, an excess of sugar and refined flour will trigger the oversecretion of our “fat storage” hormone, insulin. This will lead to fatigue, cravings, excess weight gain, and in severe situations -- the development of type II diabetes.
For weight loss and optimal health, there are five keys to eating fat and losing weight.
[B]
1. Eliminate trans fatty acids (partially hydrogenated fats) [/B]
Trans fatty acids are a specific type of fat formed when liquid vegetable oils are made into solid fats such as shortening and hard margarine. Most of the trans fats in the typical North American diet are derived from commercially baked and fried foods that are made with vegetable shortening, some margarine (especially hard margarines) or oils containing partially hydrogenated oils and fats. French fries, doughnuts, pastries, muffins, croissants, cookies, crackers, chips and other snack foods are high in trans fatty acids.
[B]2. Minimize saturated fats[/B]
Saturated fats are found in full-fat cheeses and red meats. Excessive consumption of saturated fats can raise the level of the bad cholesterol known as low density lipoprotein (LDL). High LDL levels increase heart disease risk because they keep cholesterol in blood circulation and carry it to the arteries to be deposited. In addition to raising LDL levels, research has also demonstrated that eating too many of the wrong fats such as saturated and trans fatty acids increases inflammation in the body.
[B]3. Eat monounsaturated fats[/B]
Monounsaturated fats can be found in olive oil (73 per cent), rapeseed oil (60 per cent), hazelnuts (50 per cent), almonds (35 per cent), Brazil nuts (26 per cent), cashews (28 per cent), avocados (12 per cent), sesame seeds (20 per cent) and pumpkin seeds (16 per cent). The health benefits of monounsaturated fats are numerous and include lowering cholesterol and reducing the risk of heart disease.
[B]4. Fill your diet with essential fats [/B]
Essential fatty acids are called such because they are vital for health and cannot be produced by the body, thereby making them essential. Every living cell in the body needs essential fatty acids to rebuild and produce new cells. The essential fats to include are those called omega-3 essential fats, found in coldwater fish, fish oils, flaxseeds and flaxseed oil, nuts, seeds and fortified foods (i.e., bread, soymilk and eggs).
[B]5. When using fat, think “sprinkling”[/B]
Fat contains more the twice the calories per volume of carbohydrates and proteins (9 calories per gram vs. 4 calories per gram), so you do not need to eat as much (e.g., 1 teaspoon of olive oil for cooking, 1 ounce of low-fat cheese, etc.).
[B]Take home point:[/B]
For weight loss and optimal health, fat is a necessary part of the daily diet. From fish oils and wild salmon to avocados and raw almonds, eating the right type of fat can improve heart health and brain function and can reduce inflammation naturally in the body. Now that you know the “good” fats vs. the “bad,” you can get the most out of this precious and necessary macronutrient.
I think the most important thing we can do to eat better is to avoid prepared and/or 'convenience' foods completely, but when that is not possible it's best to avoid as much of it as you can. ..... For those who eat meat, I think fresh is the way to go. I almost never buy the flavoured/injected/prepared stuff that's frozen.
Hear, hear - now to try and get DH (main grocery shopper for this household) to adhere to that :hairpull:
I have been a lifetime member of WW for 20+yrs and also have the point system on my mind when eating.It is a lifestyle that you can live with & it works. :)
thanks DBD for your great insight and firsthand experience..........I have followed weight watchers for years...after each pregnancy I had to get the baby weight off......I always keep the point system in mind when eating....and the 4 big messages I have learned from WW is ......control portion sizes but eat what you want within reason, eat lots of fibre, fruits and vegetables ( anything in its natural state), drink lots of water and try to MOVE....( walk a few times a week, take the stairs...etc).......that's basically it.....there are no foods you cannot eat, no denying yourself that piece of cake....just balance things....if you have cake for lunch...try to eat a salad for dinner....moderation..........its about lifestyle...never say DIET.....drop the T and then what do you have........ :laugh:
Oh don't get me started....too late, the switch is thrown.
After my dad had a heart attack when I was 13 my whole world became low fat, heart healthy, yadda yadda. As a result by the time I was in my mid 20's I had hypoglycemia and a weight problem (5 or 10 lbs which at my height is nothing but is the end of the world when everyone is supposed to weigh 98 lbs even if they are 5'9" because fashion says so) which of course meant going low calorie too. that was okay, by then I was vegetarian and never, ever, ate fat anything having 7 of my dads sibs now dead of heart attacks. Well without all the details, the result has been total insulin resistance, high cholesterol, and a big problem especially with weight that just kept coming on over the years no matter what I did. Meanwhile, I could quote you chapter and verse every calorie and every fat molecule of every food on earth. I could find every low fat/no fat product they make because I was so into it. I never ate butter or margarine because I regarded both as poison as am still quite happy with dry bread or potato I got so used to living without it.
Flash into my 30's and the doctor tells me I need cholesterol meds as I am in the danger zone yet I've never eaten an egg in my life, rarely eat any fats especially the high cholesterol types, only drink skim milk, and no dietitian can find a thing wrong with my diet as I even eat less fat, less calories than they recommend.
I change doctors to an holisitc since it's obvious this is not getting me anywhere and I know the pills won't do much and by now my dad is dead after eating this way for 20 years and now my cousins are starting to have heart attacks. Something is wrong and I can't figure it out. Everyone is stumped but this new doctor threw me on Atkins much to my shock as it goes against everything I ever learned. Outcome, 90 days later my cholesterol was normal for the first time in my adult life and my insulin was turning around a bit so the weight was starting to turn around too.
So I've learned by doing and reading and following every new piece of info I can get and the whole cause of all this grief was that stupid low fat/no fat diet. The more I know the more I realize if you just leave food alone and eat it as nature intended the fewer problems there'd be.
Flash to another doctor I recently started with and they want me off fats again :hairpull: ...truth be told, eating low carb is really hard to do day after day, year after year when you have a metabolism so used to sugars (the low fats). I'm still not sure what they are thinking but time may reveal that if I stay with them (something I am not considering doing just because of the cost of going to them). No way I am going back to low fat or anyone who recommends it.
The one thing I do know is nearly every illness on the list of top killers are now linked to sugar and insulin. All (and I mean all) products which are sold in a low fat version are loaded with sugars in one form or another as well as other chemicals with questionable side effects. Your body will produce cholesterol if you do not eat enough fat and that cholesterol will stick to your veins only if accompanied by sugar which makes it stick. It's now proven but they don't spread the word and still encourage low fat products with no question for reasons which have nothing to do with health.
Finally some media is getting the message out and even yesterday some Dr. on TV was telling people to go for fiber, only avoid the bad fats (hydrogenated and trans), stay with as many whole foods as possible and not to buy low fat because of the added sugars. What a breath of fresh air.
Now I eat meats, butter, and the only milk in my house is whipping cream (which I use but not in the quantities that doctor wanted because i still don't much like the fat taste and would rather have some skim milk but haven't had that for a few years now because of it's sugar content).
Unless there is some really compelling reason, I would tell people to just eat normally, avoid processed foods, avoid ALL low fat foods (the ones made that way by some factory) otherwise you end up with a metabolism so wrecked it's almost impossible to right again. I'm still trying and it's been almost 6 years since I've been off the low fat wagon and it may never go back to 'normal' after all those years being on low fat.
The real truth is if you eat the full fat versions properly you will feel fuller longer and that makes losing weight easier. Our bodies have a natural reflex that will cause us to adctually vomit if we eat too much fat (hence no butter or cream eating contests) so that 'full' signal kicks in to signal we are satisfied much earlier than if eating low fat. meanwhile the sugar a person eats (in any form including those in low fat foods) triggers insulin (which stores food into fat cells) and that triggers hunger which is why people can eat way too much cake, bread, or pasta and still want more.
So yes to no low fat products. They are counter productive be it for weight loss or cholesterol or a few other reasons. Stick with the real deal whenever you can and you will do much better all around.
BTW, if you want to read a really good book on why that is true, pick up The Schwarzbein Principal from the library. She explains it all and how it relates to diabetes, overweight, heart problems, and she also has some other books out to address more specific diet issues. The nice thing with her book is it's really easy to read and is backed up by the new studies that are out. Much easier to understand in her words than many other books. She has a site too but the book is more detailed.
I look at each product individually.
Skim milk - absolutely - I drink a lot of it. I would choke on 1%, too fat for me.
Salad dressing. The fellow on C.I.A. - Culinary Institute of America did a blind taste test of the mayo types. They all swear by Hellmans - regular and light but not the low/no fat version as the flavour substitute is sugar so no calories are saved. The sugar addition is true of many salad dressings. If the flavour can be achieved through spices then I don't mind serving them to DH. Personally I only eat Blue Cheese - definitely not low cal. I limit how much I use.
In spite of sugar being the substitue, I still think I would choose it over artificial additives.
Absolutely no diet pops. Very few regular pop but I won't be sanctimonious as I wouldn't turn down a glass of wine or beer.
Lots of water.
I've been trying PC low fat versions of the breaded fish and chicken. Seem pretty good though not as rich as the regular type.
No butter on vegetables except potatoes and squash and turnip.
Basically my dinners are one pre-made item and the rest is from scratch.
Definitely not a purist. I want to enjoy what I eat. Common sense rules - most of the time.
I don't buy the "low fat" or "diet" versions of anything. I even refuse to buy sugarless gum!
Long ago when Kraft introduced the diet versions of their salad dressings, I did try them. But it wasn't the taste that got me back to the 'regular' versions, it was the ingredients list. The Kraft diet dressings had a longer ingredients list, and more of the words listed were words I couldn't relate to and sounded like chemicals or additives.
And the gum thing! I KNOW what sugar does to me, but I can't say I know for certain what all the different sugar substitures do to a person's body. If I became diabetic one day I would pick and choose sugar substitutes as wisely as I could, but for now I just stick to gum with sugar the odd time we buy it. Yogurt I buy is either unsweetened, or without sugar substitutes I don't want.
As for fatty cheese, I think there's a time and place for it. DH bought some kind of diet or part skim mozzarella on Friday and it was dry and nippy like parmesan. Awful for what I needed it for. Too, neither DH or I drink milk and I still buy regular homogenized milk for the kids. Neither one of them has a weight problem because of this.
I think the most important thing we can do to eat better is to avoid prepared and/or 'convenience' foods completely, but when that is not possible it's best to avoid as much of it as you can. Instead of comparing 'low fat' snack crackers or chips to the regular versions, I'm thinking it's better to avoid them or eat less of them. For those who eat meat, I think fresh is the way to go. I almost never buy the flavoured/injected/prepared stuff that's frozen.
my take on low fat, is what are they adding instead....i have heard you are better off cutting portions rather than eating lowfat, but im sure this is a matter of opinion. However, you take low fat cheese.....im sorry but cheese shouldnt be like wax, something just not normal about that.
smiles
janetc
Well said Sweetpea :clapping:
Flowerpot
I use Natrel 1% ,I don't like fat free dairy products (NO TASTE WHAT SO EVER)
I am a firm believer in everything in moderation ,so if I want that chocolate bar or bag of ju jubes I have it.Life is too short to deprive yourself of the small pleasures,as long as they are within reason.I think variety is the spice of life,man cannot live on veggies alone :laugh:
Arizona you are such a hoot.
If only we could give up food :clapping:
I too drink Ntrel, but the lactose free, which is really tasty.
Oppps having a damn senior monent here , the post just before you
Said she is giving up low fat excellent idea. So yes I am doing it also.
Talking about additives in food , when my children were small they loved that
disgusting cheez whiz :p
Then I heard over half of is plumped up with PLASTIC :hurl:
Never again did i serve it to them :biglol:
Flowerpot
I'm thinking of giving up food altogether and see if anything happens :D
I kind of did switch back to the originals I went on the Dr Atkins Diet and just kept up with it after. It's funny how you can't hardly find any higher fat yogurt though, Astro has some but plain flavoured only. No thanks.
A more natural diet cannot be a bad thing in my mind versus all these crazy chemicals they put in food like margarine. When I add it up I don't eat much butter, cream, dressing, sour cream and I don't use sugar so it's very negligible.
I do use Natrel filtered skim milk and I find that is far superior to regular skim milk, but I don't drink much milk either.