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Overhauling your diet

What changes have you made to protect your health? Not necessarily willingly.

After working on a vascular ward in a hospital I cut down massively on booze and sugar and did see the health benefit. Only trouble is that avoiding sugar makes a lot of foods a distant memory.

Seeing what type 2 diabetes does certainly shocked me into eating more healthily so that I can hopefully avoid it.
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Comments

  • Wednesdays anti-depression thread.
  • What do you eat instead of the sugary foods? What are good substitutes?
  • I'm blitzing up a lot of fruit smoothies. I always chuck in healthy greens like kale and raw ginger which work surprisingly well (a friend of mine who's recovering from breast cancer adds both ingredients to hers). The best thing is my kids really enjoy them so they don't badger me for so much junk.
  • I switvched to largely vegetarian and fish diet a couple of years ago (not that I ate much meat as my wife is vege), and I don't each much in the way of sugary snacks, sweets and crisps... If I'm going to lose eight I really need to cut out the booze. That and cut down on cooking oils, processed food like breads and pizzas and that old chestnut, giant portion sizes. And eating the kids leftovers.

    Most veg I cook from fresh or frozen which is a start.
  • I'm blitzing up a lot of fruit smoothies. I always chuck in healthy greens like kale and raw ginger which work surprisingly well (a friend of mine who's recovering from breast cancer adds both ingredients to hers). The best thing is my kids really enjoy them so they don't badger me for so much junk.

    That's cos they're full of sugar still! Fructose catches out many people who are ''avoiding'' sugar.
  • What do you eat instead of the sugary foods? What are good substitutes?

    Started eating nuts as a snack and have replaced cakes, chocolate etc with fruit. I was eating loads of sugary stuff and the weight dropped off once I stopped and I didn't get the sugar cravings any more.

    It's far harder to consume so much sugar from fruit.

    Not true. It depends on the fruit itself. A banana when still slightly green - Not a lot of sugar. A banana with brown sickly sweet smelling skin - May as well lob a mars bar down your throat.
  • What do you eat instead of the sugary foods? What are good substitutes?

    Started eating nuts as a snack and have replaced cakes, chocolate etc with fruit. I was eating loads of sugary stuff and the weight dropped off once I stopped and I didn't get the sugar cravings any more.

    It's far harder to consume so much sugar from fruit.

    When you say nuts, what do you mean? My idea of nuts is either salted or dry roasted. What would you recommend?
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  • What do you eat instead of the sugary foods? What are good substitutes?

    Started eating nuts as a snack and have replaced cakes, chocolate etc with fruit. I was eating loads of sugary stuff and the weight dropped off once I stopped and I didn't get the sugar cravings any more.

    It's far harder to consume so much sugar from fruit.

    When you say nuts, what do you mean? My idea of nuts is either salted or dry roasted. What would you recommend?
    As Big Rob said on the other thread: haslet.
  • Switched from drinking Coca Cola at home to the Zero sugar version. No idea if its any healthier, probably not.
  • edited November 2017
    No one is going to take the piss there @ValleyMick

    good luck sir and well done
  • I'm blitzing up a lot of fruit smoothies. I always chuck in healthy greens like kale and raw ginger which work surprisingly well (a friend of mine who's recovering from breast cancer adds both ingredients to hers). The best thing is my kids really enjoy them so they don't badger me for so much junk.

    Fruit smoothies contain lots of sugar. You will get more sugar from a smoothie than you would from eating all the fruit individually as you break the cell walls and release sugars. Thus smoothies are not as healthy as they are portrayed.
  • I've posted previously on this and you can expect people to take the piss.

    7 months ago I had very high blood pressure, was drinking too much (I love whisky) and was overweight. I was warned by my doctor that if things didn't change I ran the high risk of a stroke and heart attack (it's in the family genes as well).

    Over the next 10 weeks I lost 2.5 stone through a combination of changed diet, calorie counting, less alcohol and more exercise at home. I'm still on blood pressure medication but my blood pressure is normal and I've not put on a pound in four months. I found that if you eat sensibly (I cut down on sugary and salty food) there's never any need to feel hungry.

    When I really focused on losing weight I switched from normal tea and coffee to green tea (and cut out the biscuits); avoided Indian curries and made Thai green curry instead at home; replaced normal milk chocolate with high cocoa content dark chocolate; avoided fry ups; eat on smaller plates in the evening (sounds odd but it works); eat more soup, salad and steamed veg with meals.

    After a few weeks your salt and sugar receptors adjust and your tolerance for food with high sugar and salt content falls. There's plenty of good stuff on the internet by way of advice but you've got to want to make a change.

    Good luck to all.

    Good work Mick
  • Switched from drinking Coca Cola at home to the Zero sugar version. No idea if its any healthier, probably not.

    Gave up drinking Diet Coke about 18 months ago. I was drinking 2 x 500ml bottles at work daily and then drinking even more when I got home, especially at weekends. I could easily go through a 2l bottle in an evening.

    Have swapped it out for sparkling water now.

    Aspartame is evil. I used to have almost a regular occurence of IBS which made life very difficult at times, especially when training for marathons. When the side effects of Aspartame was put under my nose by one of my wife's friends, it made an awful lot of sense to give it up. Since I gave it up, all my IBS problems have as much cleared up so we know what the problem was.

    In all honesty, I would think the full fat version of Coca Cola is healthier than all the Aspartame-loaded diet versions.
    Like with everything, a bit of everything in moderation is probably best.
  • I am not on a diet but a way of life trying to reverse my type 2 diabetes.
    That is I eat whole food plant based diet.
    I do not call myself vegan as that does not tell anybody what you actually eat but a whole food plant based diet does.
    So no vegan processed foods for me. Many of the so called vegan products out there are not healthy but the companies that are selling them are only interested in maximising their profits and couldn't care less about your health.
    We are after all herbivores not omnivores.
    Only herbivores are born with appendix omnivores do not have an appendix.
  • What do you eat instead of the sugary foods? What are good substitutes?

    Started eating nuts as a snack and have replaced cakes, chocolate etc with fruit. I was eating loads of sugary stuff and the weight dropped off once I stopped and I didn't get the sugar cravings any more.

    It's far harder to consume so much sugar from fruit.

    When you say nuts, what do you mean? My idea of nuts is either salted or dry roasted. What would you recommend?
    Unsalted nuts - handful of walnuts or cashew nuts.
  • Dazzler21 said:

    What do you eat instead of the sugary foods? What are good substitutes?

    Started eating nuts as a snack and have replaced cakes, chocolate etc with fruit. I was eating loads of sugary stuff and the weight dropped off once I stopped and I didn't get the sugar cravings any more.

    It's far harder to consume so much sugar from fruit.

    Not true. It depends on the fruit itself. A banana when still slightly green - Not a lot of sugar. A banana with brown sickly sweet smelling skin - May as well lob a mars bar down your throat.
    You're never going to eat as much fruit as you are sweet things. There is sugar in fruit but unless you eat tons of it you're never going to get near the sugar in cakes, chocolate etc. Sugar is added to loads of stuff and will prove to be the biggest health problem going forward.

    Type 2 diabetes is massively on the rise and a lot of this is down to poor diet often caused by added sugar. I saw the consequences of this whilst working on a vascular ward and it's best avoided.
  • About 4 years ago I had a load of things go wrong with me at the same time - tremors, twitches, pins and needles, muscle aches, night sweats, desperate for a piss every 5 seconds and generally never felt so bad. My dad had MS so thought great it's probably the start of that.
    Anyway had pretty much every test done at docs plus an MRI and nothing was found. Decided as a last resort to change my diet completely, not expecting any real change. Cut out all ready meals, chips, white bread etc and went to a rather dull diet of lots of fruit, veg and chicken pretty much every day. Within 2 weeks all symptoms (that had been going on for about 4 months) just went.
    Whether it was just coincidence or not I don't really know or care but for me I'll always pay attention to what I eat now.
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  • If you can spare the time please try to watch this.

    https://nutritionfacts.org/video/how-not-to-die/
  • I'm blitzing up a lot of fruit smoothies. I always chuck in healthy greens like kale and raw ginger which work surprisingly well (a friend of mine who's recovering from breast cancer adds both ingredients to hers). The best thing is my kids really enjoy them so they don't badger me for so much junk.

    Fruit smoothies contain lots of sugar. You will get more sugar from a smoothie than you would from eating all the fruit individually as you break the cell walls and release sugars. Thus smoothies are not as healthy as they are portrayed.
    Smoothies lose all the fibre from fruit - better off eating fruit itself. Smoothies are often drowning in sugar given how much fruit can be packed into them.
  • - two weeks ago gave up bread, potatoes, rice and pasta - but just got back from a long weekend in St. Ives
    where gallons of Cornish Knocker and Betty Stoggs were consumed, so back to square 1 ...
  • edited November 2017
    sugar added and hidden in junk food and elsewhere like ketchup and fruit jucie, and quick release carbs (which are rapidly converted to sugar) found in processed foods like white bread, also potatoes, rice, etc all supposed to have contributed to global epidemic of type 2 diabetes, which believe me you really dont want, can get you young, and is preventable.

    We have apparently been bombarding ourselves with high levels of sugar for so long, sometimes unknowingly, making our bodies produce more insulin wearing out our pancreases and making us resistant to insulin, to the extent that 1 in 3 will get this, and its getting worse.

    Get your blood sugar checked if you haven't before and are over 40, and then regularly once a year in my view - personally I would do it periodically after age of 30 had I known what I know now.
  • The documentary 'What the Health' (Created by Vegans) states that it is in fact consumption of animal products that causes diabetes.

    Obviously I can't say that's wrong, but it is picking up some traction as rumours go.

    Personally I believe that the UK needs to rule that Supermarkets limit their junk food to a MAXIMUM of 20% of their stores.

    At the end of the day eating shit foods now and then won't kill you, but eating shit every day will certainly speed up the process.
  • Dazzler21 said:

    The documentary 'What the Health' (Created by Vegans) states that it is in fact consumption of animal products that causes diabetes.

    Obviously I can't say that's wrong, but it is picking up some traction as rumours go.

    Personally I believe that the UK needs to rule that Supermarkets limit their junk food to a MAXIMUM of 20% of their stores.

    At the end of the day eating shit foods now and then won't kill you, but eating shit every day will certainly speed up the process.

    Its not a rumour but a medical fact.
    You know doctors once said smoking is good for you!
  • You're a Vegan aren't you?
  • Sugar is the main problem not fats and this was first identified in the 1970s by a guy called
    John Yudkin. The sugar industry has done all it can to cover up research.

    Sugar has become increasingly common in our diet and there is an increasing amount of research into the problems it causes. Hard to avoid the stuff.
  • Just to clarify I don't add any sweeteners/yogurts/juice to my smoothies. Am I still consuming the equivalent of a full fat coke when I blitz one up? I'd heard that smoothies weren't as healthy as regular fruit consumption but I had no idea it was as bad as some on here seem to suggest.
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