Food! [The thread that started this section]

I heard of Atkins of course but frankly I consider his philosophy humbug.

Every form of "diet", which tells you that you have to forgo important components of nutrition, is a swindle in my eyes. It seems that the Atkins Diet has come out of fashion again anyway. The company he founded, Atkins Nutritionals, Inc., had to go into administration in 2005. Since then the company concentrates on producing convenience food, I read.

There seems to be a strange controversy about the circumstances he died under, too. When Atkins died in 2003, his weight obviously was 116 kg. His fans, however, say that he only weighed 88 kg, when he arrived in hospital and that he gained 28 kilogramms in only 9 days due to the hospital food, while every other sick person in the world loses weight in hospital :lol: Besides, 28 kilos in 9 days would put pig farmers to shame. It's the kind of story legends and fairytales come from :rolleyes:

I used to attend the Weight Watchers for 4 years, you know, and you can say what you want about them but at least they make the effort of scientific research, before they let their methods loose on mankind.

Diets have been tested by independent organizations for their effectiveness and harmfulness here and Weight Watchers was the only one, which earned the assassment "absolutely recommendable". Most of the others, including the Atkins Diet, were close to getting a "dangerous, avoid it". I know it was a big hit in the USA but it never really struck in other places of the world, you know...

Current reasarch admits, though, that you indeed do lose weight by the Atkins Diet -- only not because you leave away the carbohydrates but because leaving away the carbs has the side effect of making you feel full earlier, resulting in simply eating less food, a.k.a. reducing calories.
And there are also studies about people doing the Atkins Diet having less heart problems. However, those studies do not answer the question, whether the reduction in heart problems came from the diet or simply from losing weight (!)

So why not simply reducing calories in the first place? It's been tested for decades, it works, and it hasn't got any unknown or dangerous side effects on your body ;)

I have become sort of an expert in nutrition over the years, being overweight and having diabetes, and believe me: The secret of healthy eating is not leaving stuff away and replacing it with pills to compensate for what you left away.

The secret of healthy nutrition is also not to run after every new fashion or fancy diets, that the yellow press and talk shows on TV celebrate, but to keep the right balance between all food groups and -- when you want to lose weight -- simply eat less.
 
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Okay, so you debunked the Atkins diet. That was a fad and it's over now.

But, how do you say you can eat all those potatoes with any regularity and not get fat? Atkins had one basic thing right and that's that carbs can make you fat.

Yes, you shouldn't be like the idiots who at the height of the Atkins diet would go to a burger joint and get a burger without the bun, but just because he was promoting an extreme of no-carb intake you can't go the exact opposite route and say you can eat all the carbs you want and not get obese.

Nobody is talking about taking pills, don't jump to conclusions. It's all about a balanced diet.
 
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The only thing that really can make you fat in higher doses on the picture I placed above, is the melted butter. The meat was fried with only a spoonful of oil and you can forget about the bits of cheese.

When I attented Weight Watchers, it was explicitely allowed and even encouraged to eat as many potatoes (and later noodles), as you like per meal. That was in the old points system about 5 years ago, dunno what they changed since then. And guess what? It worked despite of that. People lost weight (me included, I lost 40 kilos back then) ;)

I'd like to read a respectable and independent scientific study, that says that carbs make you fat, but so far I haven't found any. Too much of everything is never healthy, though, but you don't need to resort to science to gain that wisdom. As a matter of fact, the more I read about that Atkins Diet, the more it reminded me of those half-truths in the "alternative medicine" scene, which sound logical at first glance but cannot withstand a closer examination by experts.

And btw.: Call it "pills" or "nutritional supplements" or "additional vitamins" or some other stuff you pour into your water, stirr and swallow, the Atkins Diet contains that kind of helpers as a necessity to replace what normally the food would provide, which you left away.
 
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Anybody hungry?

5012308140_5a01b139b0_o.jpg

Wow, you Germans really like your sausages; 6 types in one plate? :lol:

That sausage, sauerkraut, and potato combo does look delicious, though. :)
 
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Sometimes I feel like having that stuff. Must be the genes ;)
 
Welcome back autumn! All of this was purchased fresh this morning at the farmers market. Roasted acorn squash with butter and salt & pepper, roasted butternut squash with olive oil and salt & pepper, sweet potato shredded then stir fried in peanut oil, and pork chop with my own Greek seasoning blend.

https://pic.armedcats.net/c/cl/clockwerk/2010/09/25/9-25.JPG
 
What flavour Pocky did you have? They are nothing special, but I do kind of like the strawberry cream flavour. I wanted to try the coffee flavoured kind but they only come in the small packets here which is a ripoff.
 
I don't like the normal kind, chocolate is a bit bitter for my liking.

But I agree, they aren't very good in general. I just wanted to try Pocky because for years I'd seen Japanese exchange students snacking on them.
 
Quick question. If I want to shave off a few pounds and tone up a bit, how would drinking milk (1%) effect this? I've read stuff about how milk can help with weight loss and how it can help with weight gain.
 
That's not a quick question, because the answer cannot be generalized. Milk contains fat, yes. but it's also a very healthy drink.

If you want to lose weight, there is a very simple rule: Eat considerably less in general and avoid stuff, that is just designed to keep your mouth busy but has no real purpose in fueling your body, e.g. crisps, cookies, milk chocolate, cakes, soft drinks, shakes, jams, peanut butter, ice cream, gummi bears, licorice, fat sausages like salami, fat cheeses, etc.

If you don't eat all that stuff and pay attention to what you shovel into your mouth, you can have all the milk in the world and it won't hurt you. The stuff mentioned above isn't forbidden, mind you, just cut it back for a while. 20 gramms of chocolate or so per day won't hurt you.

However, always keep in mind, that losing weight is rather easy, especially when you consider that in the first two weeks or so, all you lose is water. The body needs to be convinced to get rid of its precious reserves and believe me, it clings onto them ;) The human body is programmed to store nutrition for later. So when you eat too much and the body has more food than it is necessary to replenish itself, the excess food isn't excreted but put into storage (a.k.a. fat cells). Your body is very hard to convince of letting it go again.

But if you have managed to convnce it to let go of the reserves, your body will lurk and watch you and use every opportunity to refill the storage again, just in case, for the next period of starvation (which never comes in our modern society but the human body still works in stone age mode) and with a vengeance. That's what causes the so-called "yo-yo effect": When you gain weight after a diet, you always end up heavier than when you started.

So the tricky part is not losing weight (piece of cake) but to keep it.

If you by nature are a person who has a tendency to gain weight, learn to live with it. There's nothing you can do about it on the long run, no matter what "food experts" and fitness gurus wanna make you believe. All you will achieve, is that you are unsatisfied with your life and your body, because you lost a lot of quality in your life thanks to the constant relinquishment.

Don't believe that getting thinner and reaching a so-called "ideal weight" is healthier for you, than being a little on the chubby side. On the contrary: It can ruin your health.
 
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Thanks. I don't consider myself "overweight" by any means, but I do need some toning up for sure and I could stand to lose some pounds. I cut out fast food, sodas, chocolates, candies, cakes...pretty much all junk food several years ago. I haven't even been tempted to touch them since.
 
Potatoes rock! My generation is scared of potatoes though, because you have to peel them, which is hard work. Hence all the pasta. I too think peeling is tedious. That sausage plate looks delicious!
 
the peel isn't poisonous. i often eat it as well
 
Potatoes rock! My generation is scared of potatoes though, because you have to peel them, which is hard work. Hence all the pasta. I too think peeling is tedious. That sausage plate looks delicious!

Supermarkets sell pre-peeled parboiled potatoes here :D The only time I peel potatoes is when I'm making fresh fries.
 
Is peeling potatoes that much of a task? Peelers seem to make things pretty easy.

And I agree with bone, you don't even need to peel the skin, just scrub it good and eat it. I do the same with kiwis even.
 
Mmm. Mini stollen from Lidl.

They look like little scones, and the marzipan is yummers :D
 
I am seriously craving Arrabbiata pasta right now. It's 3:30 am, and I'm a hopeless cook. I wish there was a 24 hour italian restaurant in Sydney :p
 
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