JockoT's Journal, 11 December 2016

"Fun" fact: before the invention of insulin, we treated diabetes with lowcarb diets, including some of the "modern" substitutions such as almond flour. For any history buffs or fans of curiosity, there's a digital copy of one here: https://archive.org/stream/diabeticcookeryr00oppeiala#page/2/mode/2up 

I think WOE needs to be tailored to the individual. NO one size fits all. I can't do loads of dairy and my diet is heavy on the carbs in regards to fruits and veggies. I eat grains as well; limited though. I eat NO red meat whatsoever and my numbers are great. I believe genetics plays a big role in all of this too.  

Really makes you think Jocko, there has got to be something in this. The Prof researched 70000 people and argues that the benefits of statin treatments have been exaggerated. Of course there is scepticism from other academics who have said that he needed a more randomised study!! What part of me thinks that a 70,000 study cannot be good enough in itself. Its fascinating reading, Dr Malcolm Arnold his co- author said it would be controversial. You bet it is ! Whats going on? But i suppose with the modern wave of growing obesity, there is going to be new research and new ways of seeing the light! We can see it for ourselves and the evidence is out there for all to see now. When I was in my 20's and weighed about 10 stone, I felt quite fat when comparing myself to the world around me at that time. Now I am well over 4 stone heavier, I feel quite the average, not fat when I look at the world around me! Really surely there is something in all this. I feel fuller now on the low carb diet. I'm not finding it easy going. Yesterday was not an easy day for me! Oh dear. Cheers for reminding me of this again. Its all great reading.  

You bet there is a host of other aspects.. genetics and our own personal lifestyles Arabella66, I forgot about that too x 

The URL has been truncated, RGG - can you post it as a tinyURL, maybe? I agree completely, Arabella. There isn't a one size fits all ... but it seems the acceptance of high carbs in the way of added sugars has caused a lot of problems in the last 40 years or so. Carbs in fruit and veg is one thing; added sugar to a shepherd's pie ready meal is sabotaging people's health and substituting cheap calories with no nutritional value for wholesome food. 

Yes that's so spot on Phooka Gosh I never really thought of that.. sugar in shepherd's pie!! Now that trickery on the part of manufactures. Oh no maybe it is me maybe not reading the labels properly! Makes you think and think again. x 

NO one should be eating tons of added sugars or tons of processed foods for sure.  

You bet they shouldn't Arabella, but they do! 

Yes, unfortunately. :( 

The old USDA dietary pyramid with the ridiculously strong emphasis on grains developed from a Swedish food pyramid which had been created for economic reasons - in other words the original Swedish pyramid was a guide to cheaper foods and had little to do with health. Recently there's been a lot of argument about which is worst: loads of carbohydrate (i.e. sugar and grains), or loads of saturated fat (bacon, deep fried foods etc). The current NHS stance is that both have their problems and that both need some degree of control. I think this is correct: that it is a false argument. From an evolutionary point of view, sugar and pastas are vert recent introductions, so we are likely to have difficulties if we eat them in too high a quantity. Vegetables, fruit, meat, fish, eggs and nuts are all fine and we are going to be well adjusted to them, but it important to have lean cuts of meat and stick to a reasonable quantity. If we look at the Paleolithic period, then the animals moved about a lot and tended to be more lean. There are plenty of studies which show whole grains to be better for us than refined grains and this is partly because of the fibre in intact grains, which means the sugar is released much more slowly. Archaeological findings suggest that during Neolithic times, there were farmers and hunter-gatherers living in parallel with each other, with the hunter-gatherers having a stronger reliance on fishing. How well different individuals tolerate grains and dairy will depend on individual ancestry and some people may get on better with gluten-free, lactose-free or Paleo. Other people will have a stronger farming ancestry and so be better adjusted to grains and dairy. Milk does have a tendency to spike insulin, as it is basically intended to feed calves, so is geared to a much larger animal. We are living in modern times and are lucky to have a wide range of foods available. This gives us the opportunity for a wide-ranging and highly nutritious diet. Unfortunately there's also a lot of very appealing and pleasant tasting things out there which can be pretty dangerous for our health. As everyone who uses this site is aware, it all comes down to portion control and trying to make some reasonably sensible decisions about what we eat. For carbohydrate I tend to think in terms of a standard jacket potato, or the equivalent in carbs and aim for that at mealtime. For cheese, I try to limit it to a single slice (around a 20g portion, I would fry an egg with a little olive oil and a knob of butter for flavour, I generally aim for about 250 mls of whole milk and maybe a little extra yogurt. However sometimes, it's worth saying what the hell and just eating something because it tastes good. Well that's my justification for eating a walnut whips yesterday anyway! 

Excellent Paleo Judy. I always try to eat mostly natural foods but, like you, I'm only human and sometimes indulge in a little treat 🙂 

Hmmm...walnut whips! I didn't even know you could still get them. I loved the dark chocolate ones with a coffee filling. At least that's what I think they were. And no, that's not all I've taken from your post, Judy. The history is interesting and one of the most fascinating is what we arrived at in the UK following the rationing of WW2 and the food shortages thereafter. Similar to the Swedish pyramid really. I agree that the bottom line is about portion control. And a varied diet. And cutting down on refined sugar. And wine 🤔🍷. Oops, where did that last one come from 😜 

I remember my Dad, going to our GP, back in the very early 60's. He was overweight (obese actually), and our doctor put him on a diet. And what was it? Completely low Carb. No bread, potatoes or sugar. That was the medical opinion back then, so why not now? 

I agree with Phooka cutting down on sugar and then a varied diet. Also portion control is really important. My previous meals before would be almost twice the size of what I am eating now. I think it was only exercise that stopped me getting a lot bigger than I was 

@Jocko - no money in it at a guess. So called Big Pharma, companies like Coca Cola and McDonald's (and no, they're not the only ones) need their profits. Feed people with sugar, market it to children and hide it in foods then hold the people to ransom for the drugs that hide the symptoms of the illnesses it causes (not cure - where's the profit in cure?). Sorry to sound like a Michael Moore lecture but it makes my blood boil. Sugary stuff should be an occasional treat, not routinely in ready foods like Shepherd's Pie. 

I love Shepherd's Pie. I love homemade food, though ... so much more than the processed, packaged, chemical laden foods in the grocery stores. Real nutritious food is what is missing in the modern diet. 

Jocko. You started something today. Fantastic reading here. It really makes you think 🌟 

Yep..that's the research that took me to the LCHF lifestyle. Believe it or not, those guidelines grew mostly out of politics. Agricultural lobbyists, the mindset that we had to 'feed the world', and some good, old fashioned palm greasing.  

@Phooka - that actually is the whole URL (ending in "2up", but I'm on a desktop, so perhaps it's not so clear on a phone. Here is shortened version: https://goo.gl/IeqrtD - @in general - while lowcarbing helped me lose weight for the first 20kg or so back in 2010, I ultimately swapped to IIFYM. That said, I'm also active, healthy, normal blood sugar, and take the perspective of balance, variety and carbs=fuel that must be burned. Carbs as a primary fuel source for someone who is largely sedentary is - to me - nightmare fuel, and my father's life was a testament to it, EVEN after he was no longer obese/overweight. Not addressing what he actually ate, not changing it significantly, gave his body no chance to recover, or repair. 30+ years of wacko blood sugar is not a way to live. And this wasn't a man who ate junk food. This was a man who ate too much of the SAME foods, skewed to one macro, without a full spectrum of fatty acids, aminos, micronutrients, etc necessary for his body to function normally. Watching my brother literally repeating history unless he digs his way out of this (in fact, his is actually MORE aggressive than my fathers), has made me permanently aware of the quantity and quality of whatever carbs I choose to eat. I do give full credit to Atkins in the 90s for getting my eyes open to some core concepts - that good fats were not only satiating, but important - that creative cooking can help immensely in retraining the mind and body where carbs are concerned. However, at the same time, completely vilifying a food group isn't logical to me either, provided the person in question doesn't have a distinct medical reason to avoid them, and provided the other aspects of nutritional and emotional needs are addressed sufficiently. If you feel "ADDICTED" to bread, (or indeed, any food) in my eyes, that's a red flag. If your diet consists of a shortlist of malnourishing, incomplete foods, that's a red flag. Our species didn't have unlimited access to ready made foods, franken-foods, engineered foods made to be as appealing, addicting and repeat-customer building as possible - and unfortunately humanity still seems to be coming to grips with all of this as well. Eat well, eat less. This is the EASY part. The hard part is all the stuff that people do, that gets in their own way, and in some cases - can kill them.  

My husband and I just saw the documentary Forks over Knives- has anyone see this and is anyone having success with a mostly plant based diet, lots of good fats and whole foods? I ordered the book and cookbook for my husband, as he has a history of heart disease in his family and about 28-30 pounds to lose.