Monthly Archives: January 2014

Back to school food choices a nightmare

Kieron Rooney explores some of the food recommendations being used around the supermarket in this article on ‘The Drum’.

The red, amber and green light labelling is being manipulated by the food industry in his review.

I grabbed this Kellogg’s packet off the shelf yesterday. LCM’s are being promoted as a healthy lunch box option. Chocolate flavoured, laden with sugar, refined carbohydrate and vegetable oil. All of the different types were the same – a huge sugar and carb load.

Kellogg’s use the term ‘Sure Fire Lunchbox Hit’ – to me that’s a chemical hit. Continue reading →

Biggest Losers on ‘Biggest Losers’

Knees, ankles and feet are the biggest losers in this boot camp stupidity.

‘Biggest Losers’ is off and ‘running’ again for another season in 2014

There is going to be another group of individuals with joint and soft tissue damage once again.

The ‘boot camp’ exercise programme that we see on television may shed a few kilos quicker but it does this at the expense of damaging joints and is not sustainable when the contestants get out of the enclosed environment.

The frustrating thing for me is seeing these people pushed over the edge physically and the injuries that develop. Continue reading →

What is LCHF?

LCHF is eating by the concept of a diet of Low Carbohydrate and High (Saturated) Fat intake. It is sort of two thirds of the No Fructose concept.

Fructose is half of sugar. Sugar is a carbohydrate and the fructose portion ‘makes you’ hungry and gets turned into the ‘bad cholesterol’ – the small dense LDL’s (low density lipoproteins).

Glucose is another carbohydrate and it makes up half of sugar and is the basic carbohydrate in starch, bread, pasta and rice.

Glucose that is not used up immediately by the brain and muscle in particular goes to fat production.

Eating fat does NOT make you fat. It is an energy dense food source which is slowly metabolised in the body without insulin spikes.

Running your body on fat as a fuel is like using an efficient diesel fuel in your engine in comparison to a high octane carbohydrate fuel which is highly inflammatory.

The third component of the NO Fructose concept is the avoidance of Polyunsaturated oils. These are mostly man made and create oxidation and inflammation of the extra fat and in particular the LDL’s that we are carrying around because of the carbohydrate load.

Going back to butter and lard (and coconut oil) and tossing out the margarine and seeda and vegetable oils will cut back the inflammation.

So is LCHF plus going back to saturated fats the way to go? It is for me.

http://www.nofructose.com/introduction/overview/

What is LCHF?

LCHF is eating by the concept of a diet of Low Carbohydrate and High (Saturated) Fat intake. It is sort of two thirds of the No Fructose concept.

Glucose is another carbohydrate and it makes up half of sugar and is the basic carbohydrate in starch, bread, pasta and rice.

Glucose that is not used up immediately by the brain and muscle in particular goes to fat production. Continue reading →

Are ‘Carbs’ the Problem?

There is a surprising amount of ‘energy’ in carbohydrate and if you are struggling with the weight control then look at the ‘carb’ intake.

Carbohydrate commonly comes in the form of bread, rice and pasta. These have a lot of glucose in them.

Carbohydrate is essentially glucose and glucose is fuel. If you take in more than you require immediately then the excess is stored. The glycogen stores are replenished in the liver and the rest goes to fat storage.

One slice of bread, white or grain has about 5 teaspoons of glucose in it which is the same energy load as 5 teaspoons of sugar. That will have approximately the same effect on blood glucose as having a large scoop of ice cream.

100 grams of dry weight pasta or rice when cooked is about a bowl full. It has the equivalent of 16 teaspoons of glucose which is the same energy load as 16 teaspoons of sugar.

The digestion of carbohydrate starts with saliva in the mouth and continues through the intestine. It is rapidly broken down into glucose which is transported into the blood and then either metabolised or stored. High glucose levels provoke an insulin response which stimulates a fat storage response along with other effects.

Vegetables have varying amounts of carbohydrate in them and potato has a significant amount. The more colour to the vegetable, generally the less carb and the more fibre. Fibre is good as it slows up the absorption of the carbohydrate and results in less of a glucose spike in the blood stream.

Is it no wonder that farmers fatten up their stock by grain feeding them. We are fattening up society by grain feeding – a massive energy load in the form of carbohydrate which is just glucose.

http://www.nofructose.com/introduction/carbohydrate/

‘Death by Food Pyramid’ – Denise Minger

If you live by the food pyramid, you will die by the food pyramid. I have been stating this for some time.

I have just finished Denise Minger’s new book ‘Death by Food Pyramid’. It was predictably informative and insightful.

She dissects a lot of the history of how we have gotten into our modern diet and filled in some gaps for me.

I liked her section on meat. She quelled some myths around the good and bad aspects.She reminded me of the benefits of eating more than just the lean muscle part of animals as well as cooking on low heats rather than burning the meat to a charred mass.

Minger looks at the common ground of what ‘diets’ work and revisits Weston A. Price’s work from the 1800’s on what healthy societies ate. The common theme was what they avoided rather than what they ate. No surprises for me here.

The common themes for healthy living were minimal sugar, no refined carbohydrates and no modern polyunsaturated vegetable oils!

Fresh air, physical activity and community involvement all play a role in longevity and health.

It was an easy read with plenty of references. I will be cross checking a few for more information.

Bacon for Breakfast – Love It

2 more things about bacon. Try and go for the non grain fed version and virtually all have some added sugar. Just a little but worth looking at as the percentage varies.

Animals tend to store their waste products and particularly the Omega 6 inflammatory fatty acids in the fat layers. If the pig is ‘natural’ farm reared and not grain fed it should have less toxins on board so eat all the saturated fat you like. Definitely do not get led into believing that pork crackling is bad for you.

Cereal grains including corn that are used in production line pig farming results in a higher Omega 6 fatty acid load on these animals. They then store that in the fat. Continue reading →