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Author Topic:   More on Diet and Carbohydrates
Faith 
Suspended Member (Idle past 1444 days)
Posts: 35298
From: Nevada, USA
Joined: 10-06-2001


Message 183 of 243 (766273)
08-16-2015 12:08 AM
Reply to: Message 182 by Coyote
08-15-2015 11:20 PM


Re: On diets
Yes, I know that would take off the weight for me and I'd already taken your recommendations under advisement, especially the Cobb salad. Watch the ingredients in store-bought salad dressing though, especially the creamy types. Do you make your own? Oddly enough, I couldn't find blue cheese at the store I frequent, but I only looked once and didn't try the deli yet.
However, I can't eat JUST the meat for breakfast, at least not every day, it works better for me with eggs and maybe a slice of tomato, and have you noticed that store-bought sausages have loads of sugar in them? Can't do it. I have bought plain ground pork and made my own sausage patties to freeze (internet has many recipes), but that's a project I'm not always up to.
Omelets are good though. Have you ever tried "Joe's Special" -- crumbly browned hamburger mixed with eggs and onions and spinach and herbs. That's a good low-carb meal for breakfast or any time.
Yeah I love those country potatoes too, but those are gone gone gone for the next few months.
I don't have a problem skipping lunch, usually do only two meals a day anyway, but I need veggies with that steak. A four-ounce New York steak with a mountain of asparagus is my ideal dinner plate.
Something like this is what I expect to be doing over the next few months anyway, and I could lose weight on it for sure.
But you know what? I don't even care that I'm fat, or I wouldn't if it was just about looks. The problem comes in when my doctor threatens to up my blood pressure medication or I get too high a reading on the blood sugar monitor. Well, face it. it's not comfortable either, and I remember that wonderful LIGHT feeling when I've lost weight, how happy my feet were too; that's another reason to take it off. I don't even fit right in the driver's seat of my car any more. Clothes are getting tight, the usual problems. Sigh.
One thing that I hope will help is that I got this wonderful new toy, a new juicer. I love veggie juices but my old juicer had too many bad habits, like skittering around the counter so the pulp made a mess everywhere instead of going neatly into the pulp container; like spitting juice at me so I had to tape some plastic wrap over the spout; like having a small chute so I had to cut up the veggies. The new one, a Breville Juice Fountain, is a monster machine, had no idea it would be so big and heavy, but it has none of those problems: the pulp container is attached so it can't move anywhere if the machine skitters, the chute will take a whole apple or tomato or cucumber, even a whole bunch of celery, and it comes with its own quart-sized juice container that has a guard on it to prevent the juice from spitting. I haven't set it up yet but I know it's going to be fun and I'm counting on the juices to improve energy and help with the weight loss.
Now, if the world manages not to implode in the next few months or they don't come to my door and arrest me for refusing to accept gay marriage, I may lose some weight and even get healthy.

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Faith 
Suspended Member (Idle past 1444 days)
Posts: 35298
From: Nevada, USA
Joined: 10-06-2001


Message 186 of 243 (766284)
08-16-2015 8:53 AM
Reply to: Message 185 by Percy
08-16-2015 8:08 AM


Re: On diets
Yet the Chinese aren't known for being obese.
Second thought: Maybe they don't eat fried rice, maybe that's one of those recipes they invented for Americans.
I think you're right about the combination problem. Does it really work to split carbs and fats between meals though?
Potatoes with butter or gravy, breaded meats, also often with gravy, biscuits and gravy, deep fried thickly breaded chicken, Fettuccine Alfredo, Eggs Benedict, think of all that good stuff SOME people can eat without gaining weight. Sigh.
Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

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 Message 185 by Percy, posted 08-16-2015 8:08 AM Percy has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 188 by Percy, posted 08-16-2015 9:21 AM Faith has replied

  
Faith 
Suspended Member (Idle past 1444 days)
Posts: 35298
From: Nevada, USA
Joined: 10-06-2001


Message 187 of 243 (766285)
08-16-2015 8:55 AM
Reply to: Message 184 by Percy
08-16-2015 8:01 AM


You can find marbled beef where I live but now that's what's terribly expensive. But a lower grade of New York steak is still good and you can get it with a thick rind of fat on it. And there's always leaving the skin on the chicken.
Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

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Faith 
Suspended Member (Idle past 1444 days)
Posts: 35298
From: Nevada, USA
Joined: 10-06-2001


Message 189 of 243 (766289)
08-16-2015 10:05 AM
Reply to: Message 188 by Percy
08-16-2015 9:21 AM


Re: On diets
Her list doesn't mention carbs but I guess we can read them into it.
Why should aging make us fat? It didn't make either of my parents fat. Not sure why not but it didn't.
My sister stays slim by being a fanatical watcher of her diet, but my brother and I both put on weight just by eating what we like.
Aunts and uncles on both sides of the family didn't put on weight as they aged either. Well, three of my eight paternal aunts acquired thicker waists but the other five stayed thin as a rail and none of the men gained an ounce. All the women made it into their eighties, a couple to ninety, the men to seventies and early eighties.
I don't get it. Should I blame the lousy USDA advice for my problems? I'd like to.
Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 188 by Percy, posted 08-16-2015 9:21 AM Percy has replied

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 Message 190 by Percy, posted 08-16-2015 12:50 PM Faith has replied

  
Faith 
Suspended Member (Idle past 1444 days)
Posts: 35298
From: Nevada, USA
Joined: 10-06-2001


Message 191 of 243 (766313)
08-16-2015 9:05 PM
Reply to: Message 190 by Percy
08-16-2015 12:50 PM


Re: On diets
It was really more of a rhetorical question, although the answer you gave is probably good. I can count seventeen people I'm directly related to in the previous generation on both sides of my family who DIDN'T gain weight with age, excepting four women who got thicker through the middle. Something changed between that generation and mine.
Although, come to think of it, I don't know in all cases but I think none of my multitudinous Canadian cousins have the problem I have with weight.
Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

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Faith 
Suspended Member (Idle past 1444 days)
Posts: 35298
From: Nevada, USA
Joined: 10-06-2001


Message 193 of 243 (766328)
08-17-2015 10:38 AM
Reply to: Message 192 by RAZD
08-17-2015 8:44 AM


Re: On diets
Personally I think a lot of the obesity and increased incidence of diabetes and allergies can be traced back to the changes in the food provided by big ag and the big food companies.
That's a persuasive point of view I think. The Canadian side of the family started out on my grandfather's homesteaded ranch where they raised their own meat and vegetables and canned it all to get through the winter. Very no-frills diet and completely natural and organic, nothing processed. That must have changed somewhat for the next generation, though they seem to be doing better than I am with weight issues.
Edited by Faith, : No reason given.
Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

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Faith 
Suspended Member (Idle past 1444 days)
Posts: 35298
From: Nevada, USA
Joined: 10-06-2001


(2)
Message 195 of 243 (766335)
08-17-2015 11:44 AM
Reply to: Message 194 by nwr
08-17-2015 11:20 AM


Re: On diets
And fast food, and take-out food. I think we could make a long list of likely influences.

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Faith 
Suspended Member (Idle past 1444 days)
Posts: 35298
From: Nevada, USA
Joined: 10-06-2001


(1)
Message 198 of 243 (766453)
08-18-2015 1:11 PM


juicing
Thread seems to be getting off the topic of carbs in the diet and the effect on weight gain.
I haven't yet got organized for the low-carb diet I need to get on for the next few months though I've cut out a few things, and I did finally get my new juicer up and running and made this absolutely fantastic juice this morning:
2 large tomatoes
1 cucumber, peeled
5 stalks of celery
4 large carrots
2 compressed handfuls of spinach
2 small beets, peeled
1 Granny Smith apple
1 whole lemon, peeled
1 small piece of onion
This is one yummy juice, tangy, hard to stop drinking it.
This could get expensive though. That's a lot of vegetable servings.
The machine's pitcher holds a whole quart and this filled it to the top. It's not a good idea to keep juice for very long because it loses nutritional value but a few hours in the fridge should be okay, so I get two very large glasses of juice today.
Hope it will take the place of a meal or two. Juicing isn't on the Atkins diet but no reason it shouldn't be.
Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

  
Faith 
Suspended Member (Idle past 1444 days)
Posts: 35298
From: Nevada, USA
Joined: 10-06-2001


Message 201 of 243 (769635)
09-23-2015 3:43 PM


trying to lose weight by cutting carbs
I went all out for fat once I discovered the Atkins diet and lost weight on it. The problem is that fat and carbohydrates together will put weight on you faster than either fat or carbs alone, and once the weight has been lost my problem is adding back the carbs and not being careful enough about it. And as often happens in that stage I get into not caring if I get fat. So I get fat. Doctor now wants to up my blood pressure med unless I can lose enough weight to make a difference. OK so I promised him and I've been trying. Emphasis on meat and vegetables, eliminating the pasta. Problem is sandwiches are SO easy I haven't been able to get the bread out of my regime. Decided I'd keep the bread and get rid of the heavy cream in my coffee, so I've been having tea. Something is working because I'm losing weight, not hand over fist but I'm losing. The days I do nothing but meat and veggies I feel best about, the sandwich days happen but not as often.
The juices I love so much are still part of it but I had to make some changes there too because the veggies that make them taste so good are of course the very high carb veggies: the beets, carrots, and the apple. I can't cut them out completely, that would be too Spartan and the idea is to enjoy the food. That's what Atkins gets across so well. Aim to avoid a feeling of deprivation, starvation, all the unpleasant stuff of dieting. So cut back but not out, still good juices.
You can juice an entire bunch of greens and feel REALLY good about it, all those vitamins and minerals and not a lot of calories or carbs, and the green taste is hardly noticeable with a beet or a couple carrots or an apple. A whole bunch of greens is expensive though if you do a juice every day as I've been trying to do.
I'm off to a rocky but nevertheless somewhat effective start, and success does breed success. Already I find myself preferring the pork chop with sauted cabbage to the sandwich.
Anyway, while fats ARE just fine you've got to watch having them with too much of the bad carbs like potatoes and pasta and bread.
Coyote seems to have the best idea: have those things once in a while, otherwise stay away from the carbs altogether. Have the bacon (and eggs in my case), skip the potatoes and toast except once in a while.
.
Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

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Faith 
Suspended Member (Idle past 1444 days)
Posts: 35298
From: Nevada, USA
Joined: 10-06-2001


Message 207 of 243 (769725)
09-24-2015 10:38 AM
Reply to: Message 206 by Percy
09-24-2015 8:22 AM


Re: trying to lose weight by cutting carbs
Yes I remember you saying something along these lines. It's hard to have carbs without fat though: Mayo on a sandwich, butter on potatoes etc. The other way around works though, fat without carbs.
Weight problems are so much a product of diet history it's hard to know exactly what to do.

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Faith 
Suspended Member (Idle past 1444 days)
Posts: 35298
From: Nevada, USA
Joined: 10-06-2001


(1)
Message 226 of 243 (776113)
01-08-2016 7:01 PM


Pink Salt and Pickle Juice
I'm interested in hearing more about the new guidelines but it's pretty clear that they are very very slow to accommodate to what we've known for years about their rejection of saturated fats and acceptance of carbs. I keep sugar to an absolute minimum but I don't worry about salt, though maybe I'm wrong not to. After decades of being misled by all the official dietary recommendations I now pretty much eat whatever I want and that includes salt to taste, which is always more than "they" think advisable. My rough guideline is that if it tastes like it needs salt then it needs salt, and if it tastes too salty it is too salty.
I do read up some on the alternative diets out there these days though I have the same basic attitude to those, that if I like it I'll eat it and otherwise not.
Tom Brady has been in the diet news recently for his very contemporary semi-vegan diet, which you can read about HERE. They have a personal chef who describes it all. Avoiding "inflammatory" foods is usually an important part of these diets and he and his family avoid even tomatoes because they are considered to be inflammatory foods.
That sort of diet is big on alternative salts too. They reject the standard iodized table salt, speak of it as if it were some kind of poison, and recommend alternatives like sea salt, and in Brady's case "pink Himalayan salt." Martha Stewart also mentioned that particular salt, but she has the practical interest in how it tastes and didn't mention any health benefits. I dunno, salt is salt, right, chemically all the same stuff, right? Naturally occurring secondary flavors may make one or another more desirable I guess, but I don't see what any of that has to do with health
The only thing that interests me about inflammatory foods is whether they produce heartburn or not, because I'm susceptible to it. But I think I've found a cure in, believe it or not, pickle juice. I got a craving for the stuff a few weeks ago, which happens now and then, and went on from there to making my own because I can't eat that many pickles. Pickle juice comes down to water, vinegar and salt, and I think both the vinegar and salt are essential though other flavorings like garlic and dill can be used. Yes, vinegar. Acid vinegar, seems to be a cure for ...acid reflux. Weird but true.
Edited by Faith, : No reason given.
Edited by Faith, : No reason given.
Edited by Faith, : No reason given.
Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

Replies to this message:
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Faith 
Suspended Member (Idle past 1444 days)
Posts: 35298
From: Nevada, USA
Joined: 10-06-2001


Message 229 of 243 (776124)
01-08-2016 10:40 PM
Reply to: Message 228 by Asgara
01-08-2016 10:12 PM


Re: Pink Salt and Pickle Juice
Interesting, thanks. Sounds right that the specialty salts would be for gourmet purposes.
I wonder how many even know that iodine was originally added because so many people had thyroid problems that were prevented by the addition. The attitude among people I know seems to be that it's not good for us, that's why we should use sea salt or whatever the fashionable salt of the day happens to be.
When I make the pickle juice I have to avoid iodized salt if only because it makes the liquid cloudy, so I use kosher salt, and I also have to use purified or distilled water because regular chlorinated tap water mixed with the vinegar and/or salt makes the brew smell peculiarly bad.

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Faith 
Suspended Member (Idle past 1444 days)
Posts: 35298
From: Nevada, USA
Joined: 10-06-2001


(2)
Message 233 of 243 (787450)
07-14-2016 11:39 AM


Back to Carbless Eating
After a few years of eating too many carbs and gaining weight and claiming not to care (but really feeling hopeless about ever again having the motivation, the energy, the dedication, to do anything about it) I've finally got motivated enough to cut the carbs and have been seeing weight loss as expected. It took thinking a lot about how to change my eating patterns so I could tolerate the changes, and so far so good. I don't have a reliable scale but my clothes are starting to hang on me, not to mention my skin in some places, all a very good sign.
And there is no doubt it's due to giving up carbs. I'd gotten into the habit of eating sandwiches because they're easy, and I think that one habit was the greatest contributor to gaining weight, meaning the bread -- or really, the bread plus the mayo. For a long time I didn't think I could give that up because it had become such a habit. If I cut down on the size of the sandwich I'd get too hungry to tolerate it. The alternative involves more planning, preparation and cooking than I thought I could ever go back to, but for now I have the necessary motivation and it seems to be working so far.
Maybe the biggest change I'm in the process of making is adopting some of the "vegan" and "paleo" food recommendations that are so popular. I'll never become a vegan, and the Paleo Diet as a whole doesn't attract me, but practitioners of both systems are very creative about coming up with low-carb recipes that are even fun to try out. I resisted a lot of it for a long time and now find myself enjoying the experimentation involved, which wouldn't be so enjoyable if the results weren't good to eat. Getting into all that would make for a very long post, so all I want to say for now is that it looks like there are a lot more ways to cut carbs now than there ever were before. Of course you have to ignore the continuing dietary recommendations that Percy has been doing such a good job of reporting here.
Edited by Faith, : No reason given.
Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

  
Faith 
Suspended Member (Idle past 1444 days)
Posts: 35298
From: Nevada, USA
Joined: 10-06-2001


Message 238 of 243 (860372)
08-07-2019 9:57 AM


Going on another keto style diet
Kind of a strange experience reading some of this thread. I went back to the basic keto kind of diet for a while, eliminating carbs and adding fat, and thought I was going to stay on it. Seemed I had the motivation at the time.
But the fact is I gave up on it at some point and went back to carbs, lots of sandwiches, even potatoes and pasta, so I've only gained weight over the last few years and again just sort of gave up on doing anything about it. There is a high starch diet out there that is supposed to be good for us, the complete opposite of the keto style diets, and I know one person who is doing that diet, has for many years and isn't gaining weight on it. But when I incorporate some of its principles I don't get rid of principles from other kinds of diets and I don't lose weight at all, just get into loving the potatoes.
Got seriously overweight, supposedly don't care. But recently my nephew went on something called the Code Red diet and lost twenty pounds the first month. It's another keto style, no carb, high fat diet. I know that always works for losing weight but at some point I always get serious carb cravings. But my nephew's success has inspired my brother, and now me too, to go low/no carb, high fat. Not the specific Code Red diet though I've been reading up on it, just a generic giving up of carbs basically. I'm five days into it. I don't have a scale but there are signs I've lost some weight already. Mostly meat plus a veggie or salad, and fat from the salad dressing or hollandaise sauce and that sort of thing. We'll see what happens.
Although eating like this has always worked for losing weight it's always bothered me that it doesn't seem natural. A natural diet includes carbs. Bread, potatoes, pasta and the occasional sweet treat. So although I know it works, and I certainly know that the guildelines that have us eliminate fat are wrong, still there's something missing in our understanding of what we need to be eating.
I often think of this woman in Florida, Annette Larkins, who went off meat some thirty or forty years ago and started a garden in her yard. Eventually every inch of her yard plus pots on the patio, was used to grow food. There's something startling about seeing a banana tree in a private garden, and pineapples! She went from being a vegetarian to being a strict raw vegan. She looks spectacular and she's my age, 77ish. She's a walking advertisement for her chosen way of eating and I often wish I was up to it myself. Although I could maybe use my balcony for some potted food plants I don't have the energy for it.
Ramble ramble ramble. ANYWAY I've started on this completely other kind of diet and hope I can stick to it long enough to lose weight again. I know I would have to stick to it after that if I don't want it to be just another yo-yo temporary loss of weight. Seems you can eat meat and fat as long as you don't eat carbs, and you can eat carbs as long as you don't eat fat. Sigh. And yet there seem to be a lot of people who can eat all of it without gaining weight.
I'm not doing this Code Red regimen. It requires drinking a GALLON OF WATER every day. Not for me. Sleeping seven to eight hours. That would be terrific but I haven't been able to sleep for more than three or four hours at a time for years now, which means more than one sleep session. I'd love to be able to change it but nothing I've tried works. And this diet requires you to weigh yourself every morning without fail. I might do that part of the diet but I'll have to get a scale. And you are to measure and weigh every morsel you eat. That's not going to happen for me but good luck to anyone who can do it.
So if I stick to this I'll report on it later.

Replies to this message:
 Message 239 by Phat, posted 08-07-2019 10:09 AM Faith has replied

  
Faith 
Suspended Member (Idle past 1444 days)
Posts: 35298
From: Nevada, USA
Joined: 10-06-2001


Message 240 of 243 (860455)
08-07-2019 4:31 PM
Reply to: Message 239 by Phat
08-07-2019 10:09 AM


Re: Going on another keto style diet
Is this what you are recommending?
Barleans Omega 3 Lemon Swirl
Are you saying that fish oil will cut down on the inflammation so that this flavored version isn't really necessary? It might be easier to take though.
Are you also following a keto diet?
Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

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Replies to this message:
 Message 241 by Phat, posted 08-07-2019 5:56 PM Faith has replied

  
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