WE ARE WHAT WE EAT

[Wendyf]

OMG! Is it you wot does it? Are you the mighty ruler of the red mites??

[Stanley]

I always knew she had strange powers.....
Watched a couple of programmes on iPlayer on Carbs v Fat last night and there are some weird folk out there making very strange claims. Pity the water is muddied by these people like the man in the US making millions out of conning people to take courses at his ranch to cure cancer.....
I'm convinced I am feeling good effects. No weight loss as yet because I am eating too much of it! That will come.....
Wendy, I found pork scratchings in the Co-op yesterday. Mr Porky Crackles. The analysis looks OK to me....

[Wendyf]

I have an inkling of how to ward you off if push comes to shove Maz!
Stanley I was quite shocked by the Horizon programme shown last week, it connected the criminal charlatan in the USA with bloggers in the UK simply advocating unprocessed, healthy food. The presenter seemed appalled at the thought that what you eat could affect your health and claimed there was "no evidence". As Dr Yeo is an eminent scientist in the field of obesity and endocrinology I have to hope that it was badly edited!

[Tizer]

I haven't watched a Horizon programme for many years, they didn't seem to be helpful and tended to hype up or garble science news stories.

[Marilyn]

Ha....I see some chooks getting garlic necklaces and perhaps a wreath on their door.
Drats. Foiled again.

[Wendyf]

[Stanley]

I watch them Tiz. We are savvy enough to sort the wheat from the chaff and it's always good to know the enemy!
Later.... have a look at THIS Farmer's Weekly report on the anti-meat campaign being run by Sainsbury's. Could it be that meat substitutes are a higher profit margin than meat? The people who spawn campaigns like this and I include vegetarians and vegans simply don't understand the relationship between keeping livestock and maintaining optimum soil condition, let alone the fact that it is mixed farming that has produced our landscape. I wish they'd keep stumm, do their own thing and leave the farmers and the rest of us to do our best to preserve our world.

[Stanley]

Indications that the Wendy diet is working. Weight down 2lbs and BP this afternoon was 123/82, an improvement!

[Stanley]

I keep forgetting to mention this.... It will upset Tiz! While looking at recipes for fried cabbage and bacon I found a woman in the US who washes all her veg in household detergent to 'make sure they are clean and safe'. Include me out!

[Wendyf]

Pleased to hear of your progress Stanley.
Col is helping Verner Wheelock to start up a local support group for people wanting to use nutrition to improve their diabetes. The X-pert Health course has started in Skipton with a good turnout. Col is going along to share his experience.
If you can bear it watch The One Show tonight at 7 o'clock, the Fixing Dad team will be on with 4 new people whose health they are hoping to turn around.

[Stanley]

All thanks to you Wendy..... My tongue is beautifully clean and a lovely healthy red colour..... (If anyone feels the need email me and I'll detail the current condition of my stools.....)

[Stanley]

I watched Dr Mosely last night (Trust me I'm a doctor) and was quite disappointed by several aspects of the programme particularly the way they dealt with an examination of the benefits of Omega 3 supplements. There was no mention of straight liquid Cod Liver Oil and at no point did they differentiate between long chain Omega 3 and the inferior varieties. This is a pity because there are so many 'health supplements' being sold on the back of the name 'Omega 3' which don't contain any useful amounts of the scarcer but more effective long chain variety. I'd recommend you look for a book called 'Queen of Fats' by Susan Allport which gives the complete history of our knowledge of Long Chain Omega 3 and was the source that changed my thinking on lipids completely. Everything I have discovered since confirms the accuracy of the information she details.

[Wendyf]

I've been very disappointed with this series of Trust Me I'm a Doctor, they seem to have gone the same way as all the other food/science programmes that are on at the moment, claiming to tell the "truth" about issues based on short experiments involving a small number of people. The piece about fats and blood glucose levels was completely confused and confusing! It annoys me that whenever dietary fat is mentioned on TV these days it is accompanied by pictures of carbohydrate loaded foods, pizzas, pies, chips etc etc.
This talk by Professor Salim Yusif, current president of the World Heart Federation is worth a listen to...

[BBvideo 425,350]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sNqnAZTy4w[/BBvideo]

[Stanley]

"It annoys me that whenever dietary fat is mentioned on TV these days it is accompanied by pictures of carbohydrate loaded foods, pizzas, pies, chips etc etc." I agree Wendy. The dead hand of the food processors and the advertising industry is still a problem. All you have to do is look on the supermarket shelves.....

[Tizer]

Here's an easily readable article published in 2014 by the Harvard School of Public Health which explains the background and history of the dietary fats debate and gives the opinions of some of the leading American scientists working in this area. It's aimed at the general public, not at a specific group such as diabetics. Note that they are not against eating normal amounts of carbohydrate foods like potatoes, rice, and pasta; instead they are concerned that when people seek out low-fat diets they end up eating much more carb foods and especially refined carbs as in sugary drinks, ready meals, prepared foods etc.
The web article is here: LINK
This is a PDF version for printing: LINK

[Stanley]

The canard that all natural fats are dangerous has possibly led to more ill health than any other single policy.

[Wendyf]

The video I posted the link to a couple of days ago of Professor Yusif been removed from YouTube. Very strange

[Tizer]

It tells me I have to have permission from the owner to view it.

[Wendyf]

I don't Tiz, just a notice saying it is private.

[plaques]

Directly on Youtube you can get the full video after a 24 second introduction. Link

[Wendyf]

Thanks Plaques, it is popping up in a few places now.

[Stanley]

I must make a confession. In a moment of madness I bought a small packet of Skittles (90% Carbs) and ate them after tea last night, couldn't leave them alone. This morning I woke with a sore wrist as though I had sprained it, it was OK last night when I went to bed. And.... on my walk this morning I had a couple of twinges in my right knee. Surely these events can't be related to the Skittles.... Or can they. I have learned my lesson.

[Wendyf]

They must be twinges of guilt Stanley! Mind you, they are little packages of nastiness......

Skittles is a brand of fruit-flavoured sweets, currently produced and marketed by the Wrigley Company,[1] a division of Mars, Inc..

They have hard sugar shells which carry the letter S. The inside is mainly sugar, corn syrup, and hydrogenated palm kernel oil along with fruit juice, citric acid, and natural and artificial flavors.[2]

[Tizer]

...and more:
Sugar, Corn Syrup, Hydrogenated Palm Kernel Oil, Apple Juice from Concentrate, Less than 2% Citric Acid, Dextrin, Modified Corn Starch, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Coloring (Includes Yellow 6 Lake, Red 40 Lake, Yellow 5 Lake, Blue 2 Lake, Yellow 5, Red 40, Yellow 6, Blue 1 Lake, Blue 1), Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C).

In America farmers were feeding waste Skittles (broken or mis-shaped) to cattle. But apparently it made the cows ill!

[Stanley]

You are both absolutely right and I am ashamed. All I can say is that it was a moment of madness! 90.7% carbs!! My favourite muesli is 60% carbs but I reckon the benefits of it in terms of whole grains and nuts makes it acceptable. The main thing is that I am taking note of these things and on the whole, doing the right thing.
How about the occasional sweet potato? (Bearing in mind that my system is less carb critical than Col's)