Aperitifs culture change?

General Discussion
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Stella how old was this report? That old chesnut has been debunked some time back. How your blood insulin levels react to certain “foods” is more important than calories in calories out.
Calories are determined by burning in a fire, our bodies simply do not do that. Our bodies dissolve food and as a result certain hormones are released to carry out certain functions our gut microbiome takes nutrional elements and produces other chemicals like ATP muscle fuel. Excess sugars trigger an insulin spike and converts sugars to fats for storage.

Now I am not saying that by calorie restriction you wont loose weight but modern diets are not about that, foods that make you hungry due to a dip in blood sugars every few hours have often been engineered that way by food companies. Fizzy drinks make you hungry, thats why they occupy the same places as industrial processed foods.

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Carbonated water excluded.

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Good diet of non processed foods, excercise and calorie adjustment and you will lose weight and you will feel more energy. Of course it is up to every individual to select their route, but marketing out there plays an incredible role in driving certain ‘miracle’ cures through ‘special’ diets/products/equipment that are really not necessary, but many folks just feel that if they handover hard earned cash they’ll instantly be transformed. Unfortunately it doesn’t work that way.

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It isn’t just advertising that’s the problem, it’s also trying to sort through all the reports, surveys from all the supposed agencies that say they know better, they contradict each other daily, this is good for you, this isn’t, then another tells you it’s only good in moderation, then it’s found it actually is good for you, then it isn’t again, is red wine good for you or bad or only in moderation or not at all for example.
You get bombarded with contradictory info on a weekly basis, this year’s definitive report is next year’s debunked one, organizations contradict themselves all the time, just when you think you have a handle on it out comes a definitive report to rubbish it all.

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Yes totally agree, it seems like there’s someone changing direction every week. Personally I try to get back to basics as far as diet is concerned and just make sure I don’t consume anything in excess, although I do find that rather difficult as far as ‘good’ chocolate is concerned :grinning:

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That’s a problem I don’t have, I’m allergic to coco/chocolate :wink:

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Sorry Griffin, but there are certain pieces of information that are entirely consistent. Our well-being is being totally damaged by the food processing industry and any info that contradicts that (or tries to deflect that) is being put out by the food processors themselves.

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You said it yourself, certain pieces but a lot aren’t, NHS, BMA WHO advice change backwards and forwards yearly, every week there is some new study shows that something thought bad is now good in moderation or vice versa.
Red meat is a case in point.

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I think you’re both right.

The UK government’s advice is influenced by the food industries. When it seems to contradict itself, some of that contradiction is the result of that influence.

I think the best thing we can do is avoid processed foods as much as possible, especially hyper-processed foods.

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One of the reasons for this is that scientists are only now learning about the sheer complexity of our digestive processes, the immense variety in our gut biomes and that what may be beneficial for one person will not be for another. So, inevitably, some of the earlier work is now proving to be too simplistic.

I have known for over 50 years how food affects my health and well-being and I’ve always assumed I was not alone in this, hence my interest in good nutrition and health. I started having migraines in my early 20s and quickly learned that certain foodstuffs, sometimes, acted as a catalyst. The after-effect of stress was often the trigger, but it took the food to tip me into 24/48 hours of appalling headaches and sickness. And the food? Often what everyone else thoroughly enjoyed (like chocolate or cheese) and often food that was considered healthy - the breakfast orange juice for example, or the occasional glass of red wine.
I’ve said elsewhere, I think we are only at the dawn of understanding our relationship with food and what is beneficial for us and what is not and what may be right for you may not be for me. I believe it will be microbiology that will get us there.

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What I am saying is the problem of sorting the chaff from the wheat, not always easy when you get conflicting info all the time.

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I’ve seen it in many reports etc… over the years…
virtually every report says somewhere in its depths… the very same thing…

image

Here’s another example dated January 2023… found by accident on Google today…
(incidentally I’ve never counted calories… never needed to… )

Counting calories: Get back to weight-loss basics - Mayo Clinic.

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If you consider companies like weight watchers etc have been trotting out the same message since the 80’s and they are Heinz, one of those responsible for making people overweight in the first place. It annoys me so much that these stories still abound and as griffin says confuse people. But then the confusion principle is another way to exhibit control over others. The stuff they put in ultra processed food that is none of the things you would ever add to any of your own cooking do several things, make people frequenty hungry and add to peoples health issues. I gave my explanation of why it is not as simple as calories because our bodies do not work like that.

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Hi Corona… didn’t mean to start a skirmish… it just struck me that I’d not replied to your question… and I’m reading all sorts of stuff ancient and modern :wink: :wink:

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No skirmish Stella, sorry if I came across like that. Its like Ancel Keys low fat solution that some still believe in when the clinical evidence doesnt support it. His research literally fiddled the data to make if fit his hypothesis and it still doing the rounds with some. If you have a low fat sugary cake etc you actually get a bigger insulin/ blood sugar spike, the fat tempers that effect down. So buying low fat actually increases diabetes numbers.

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During the last years I was working my weight steadily crept up to 110kg due to hotel food and sedentary career. I stopped work, got back into excercise and eating well and subsequently dropped to 83kg and 14% body fat, and have remained in that zone ever since, and I eat plenty of sweet ‘stuff’. So I still very much stand by the excercise/calorie intake principle. You eat it, you burn it, or it gets turned to fat and you store it. I haven’t followed any magic formula. I really think it’s so easy to over complexify this topic, but ultimately it’s a really simple strategy for most folks.

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Except that we are all different, likewise I found it easy to lose fat. After my oncology surgeon said I was fat on the inside (visceral fat) which is resonably hard to shift. Still around 12% fat with less visceral fat. Others dont find it anywhere near as easy and the diabetic T2 have to reverse the condition via a re-set. Some of my friends have made amazing changes by using low carb.
The Zoe study has thousands of users and they can analyse gut microbiome to a level never before achieved. Their aim is to suggest different foods to re populate and offer a diverse gut microbiome so far they havent repeated the same suggestion in over a quarter of a million people.

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I found this amusing a few weeks ago.

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From today’s New Yorker

The Latest Findings on What to Eat and What Not to Eat

By Alison Myers

October 13, 2023

Don’t eat carbs. Ever. Not just the obvious ones like breads and pastas, but the surreptitious ones, too. I’m looking at you, carrots and bananas. If you must eat a carb, let it be a blueberry.

Eat fat. Lots and lots of fat, especially in the form of cured animals, fried eggs, butter, and mayonnaise. Gold star for any coffee drink that out-fats a double Big Mac. Your brain needs fat, but only if you starve it of sugar first.

Don’t eat fat. It’s killing your liver, and God only knows how your arteries are faring.

Sugar is evil. It’s worse than cocaine. We’re all addicted to it because of the sugar lobby that prompted the “low-fat” (read: high-sugar) fad in the eighties. Or maybe it was the nineties? Somewhere around then, anyway. I was too strung out on low-fat Skittles to notice.

Eat sugar (glucose). Your liver needs it in order to cleanse your body of all the shit you’ve been putting into it because of these other crazy diets.

Gluten is an inflammatory jerk that was never meant for human consumption. It is the source of all our problems, including brain fog, arthritis, poorly fitting pants, and your inability to get tickets to a Taylor Swift concert.

Gluten is a delicious and inexpensive carb that offers the body and brain useful energy. It helps us feel satiated, both biologically and emotionally.

Dairy is part of a healthy diet, and a tasty way to get protein and calcium.

Are you a baby cow? No? Then stop drinking milk. It leaches calcium from our bones and it’s making us all snore and fart.

Lentils, chickpeas, and beans provide more easily digested protein and nutrients than meat.

Lentils, chickpeas, and beans are full of poison that will destroy your digestive system.

Meat is killing you and the planet. Do the rain forest a favor and become vegan.

But don’t eat soy!!! It’s over-processed and mimics estrogen, so you’ll be a hormonal mess.

Determine where your ancestors are from. Eat what they ate, unless it’s any of the foods listed above.

Peanuts are out to destroy the world. They’re full of mold. No one wants them around, except Hershey’s.

Eat organic, unless the food came from more than a hundred miles away. Then eat local. Unless it’s all potatoes and carrots. Then drink water, but only if it’s filtered and dechlorinated and has been left standing overnight.

You may as well avoid yeast, corn, eggs, all nightshades, and any fodmap foods.

Coffee seems to be O.K., as long as it’s fair-trade and you don’t put any weird shit in it.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

Only eat within an eight-hour window and certainly not right when you wake up or within four hours of bedtime. Your body has just been conditioned to be hungry outside of those hours. You have to show that bitch who’s boss.

A light snack before bedtime can help you sleep, as it will suppress an adrenaline surge in your brain at three in the morning.

Drink green smoothies.

Vegetables were meant to be chewed.

Drink lemon water.

Lemon water will disintegrate your tooth enamel.

Stop talking about food and your body. It’s the least interesting thing about you! It’s boring and of no interest to anyone.

I think that just about covers it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, it’s time for lunch. :diamonds:

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Eat: food - you will find it much healthier in both the short and the long term than not eating food.

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