Is the question that has been going through my mind this week. I tried on my summer trousers from last year and found to my horror that they are too tight. Even last summer I was slightly overweight so it is time to lose some of these extra kilos.
The last time I lost weight was a good few years ago, by going to WeightWatchers and eating lots of low fat food. Recently however, I read the fascinating book In Defense Of Food by Michael Pollan which casts doubt on the whole low fat industry. Pollan writes that we have taken to heart the advice, "Eat more low fat food", and instead of cutting down on the size of our portions we are eating more food. Much more food. Is it healthier?
Low fat food is highly processed, which is less healthy. Pollan advises us to ignore products on the grocery store shelves that our Great Grandmothers would not recognise as food stuff. Much of the processed food in our cupboards would truly baffle Great Granny. You can imagine her confusion if she were to come face to face with Chicken Nuggets or Pringles, which bear no relation to the humble potato.
White bread is less healthy than wholemeal bread, we know this for sure. The removal of the husks make the flour fluffier and whiter, but we lose a lot of goodness too.
What does Pollan suggest? His advice is simple, eat good food, not too much, mainly greens.
Ok, so if I leave out the low fat food, how do I lose weight? Well, first I thought about what low fat foods I still use. Semi-skimmed milk has been a staple in my fridge for many years. It has become so normal to use semi-skimmed that many would react with horror on seeing normal milk in the fridge. But thinking about it, the difference between semi and full fat milk here in Switzerland is merely 1% - 3.5% instead of 2.5%. Does that make a difference really? I am not drinking 25 litres of the white stuff every day. I have changed to full fat milk and found that I use less of it.
Butter. No, I am not giving that up either. So I use less. I cannot abide margarine, and have always been convinced that it is much healthier to eat a natural product than a chemical product that is trying to be better than a natural product. Marg is the ultimate processed food, there is just no goodness in there. No space amongst all the additives.
Cheese, well there is a problem. How to live in Switzerland and not eat cheese, or eat low fat cheese. It is possible to buy low fat cheese, but it is not particularly tasty or popular. I have tried some but found them not worth buying. I would rather eat less cheese but really good stuff.
Cutting out bread is another thing that I find incredibly difficult so I have started baking my own bread, which I find to be much more filling that the fluffy white processed bread that I used to buy. Good quality organic flour, yeast, water, sea salt. Delicious and healthy.
So, my diet consists of homemade bread, slathered with butter and a small piece of cheese, washed down with a cup of tea with full fat milk. Small portions, and I have got the scales out to make sure that I am not fooling myself. For lunch I often eat pasta with lots and lots of fresh vegetables, perhaps a bit of meat - ham, chicken, beef, lamb - whatever I have in the fridge. Or rice or even potatoes. No low carb here, just plain good food but not too much of it.
I have started jogging so that should help. Only managing about 3km at the moment, hope to improve on that in the coming weeks.
It is early days yet, I have only been doing this for the past 5 days so it might be that I am completely off base. We shall see.
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Some info you might find helpful :)
ReplyDeleteLow fat is not helpful, as you stated, the processed equivalents are frequently less healthy than the original for different reasons. My thoughts are to stay as near natural as possible - butter all the way here as well, but olive oil for cooking. Stay well clear of polyunsaturated fats for cooking as the high temps can cause trans fats to form, which bugger up the body's fat metabolism.
Sugar is a major culprit and we don't actually need sugar in our diet at all. Carbs - yes, but in a complex form, not as simple sugars. Resistant starches are very useful carbs - things like new potatoes, boiled and left to go cold (e.g. in potato salad) are an excellent form of resistant starch - our bods find them quite hard to digest but our gut bacteria have a field day with them, producing lots of useful metabolites that can a) be absorbed by us and b) help protect against certain illnesses.
Fruits are still necessary, despite containing a level of simple sugar - they also contain more complex sugars and a wealth of other nutrients, so should never be excluded.
However - minor carb restriction is a good thing. Not too much - and never veg - but limit your bread/cereal/rice/pasta/potato intake. Instead, increased your protein and veg intake.
Protein, like fat, is acid-based food - amino acids and fatty acids are the final breakdown products. As we eat them, the acid level in our system rises (countered by alkaline minerals such as calcium, sodium and potassium) and causes us to feel full quicker - acidity affects appetite. Fat has more than twice the calories of protein though, so increasing protein is a better option than increasing fat! Carbs have no effect on the acidity levels.
Low fat foods, the Go Ahead range in particular, raise my blood pressure inordinately because they frequently contain as much if not more sugar/refined carb material than the full fat version - which is worse for you because sugar is such a culprit and even worse for you because it is the fat in foods that slows down the absorption rate of the sugars! So - a low fat ice cream is loads worse for you in terms of sugar absorption rate (glycaemic index, if you've heard of that) PLUS any excess sugar in the bloodstream that can't be turned into storage glycogen (because the stores are all full) gets turned into fatty acids anyway and stored in fat cells.
Something else to definitely steer clear of - high fructose corn syrup - cropping up all over the place in confectionery/baked goods. Way worse than ordinary sugar - fructose in high amounts = bad news
In a nutshell then - keep as natural as poss, eat less carb and more protein - and stay away from "diet" foods!
THUMBWITCH