GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post

Martin Brown · 06-06-2013, 10:46 AM posted to uk.rec.gardening

On 06/06/2013 11:21, wrote:
In article ,
David.WE.Roberts wrote:
On Wed, 05 Jun 2013 09:46:05 +0100, David Hill wrote:

Came across this interesting item

We all love our steaks and our spuds but what if we could make them
healthier? Well, according to research currently being conducted all
over the world, there are certain spices, vegetables and fruits that can
actually turn an unhealthy dish into one that burns the cals!

As others have suggested, absolute bunkum!

Putting a sprinkle of black pepper on a super sized hot chilli pizza is
not going to turn it into a healthy nutritious slimming snack.

That is very true.

The original article had all the hallmarks of being a quick fix targeted
at lazy fat American couch potatoes that want to eat whole giant
supersize pizzas, 16oz steaks with mega portions of French fries and a
gallon of high fructose corn syrup Coke to wash it down.

Using these (and other) natural foods within a strictly calorie controlled
diet may increase your metabolic effectiveness slightly, but the main
thing is just not to eat more than you need to replace energy used during
a 24 hour period.

And that.

That is basically the fundamental energy balance of life. If you eat
more calories than you burn each day then some of it will get stored.

Oh, and as far as I know steak isn't unhealthy apart from the links
between red meat and carbonised food with some forms of cancer.

Look harder. Small quantities are fine, but a lot of problems are
associated with high-meat diets - we aren't adapted to them, though
some people are a lot more adapted than others.

We are not obligate carnivores and need comparatively little protein and
fat in a healthy diet. Oriental rice based diets come close to the ideal
(although some things they eat are dodgy like bracken!).

Spuds are far more likely to do you damage because overloading on
carbohydrates is the thing that piles the weight on.

Sorry, but you have just joined the bunkum wallahs.

I agree. When I lived in Japan we were in effect on a very high
carbohydrate diet and rapidly lost weight to the extent that visiting
colleagues from the UK would take us out to "feed us up". After three
years we were still slim and fit and they all had bulging waistlines.

I suspect that refined sugar in almost everything is actually far more
of a problem than is generally acknowledged. Yudkin probably did have a
point with his book "Pure, White and deadly: The Problem of Sugar".

Look at high protein/high fat low carbohydrate diets - there is a lot of
support for this as a healthy way of living.

And a lot of evidence that they are very risky. Few people do well
on the very high carbohydrate diet that suits me, but most people
are best advised to get most of their calories that they burn up in
exercise above and beyond ordinary moving around (note!) from
carbohydrates.

ISTR the ketonic high fat adequate protein diet is used for control and
treatment of some forms of epilepsy. And promoted in faddish forms as
the Atkins diet (less so since he is now deceased).

I suspect making the liver work overtime like this is not a good idea.

Also, potatoes are NOT a particularly high carbohydrate food, and
are a very healthy way of getting that (if you eat the skins, of
course).

So long as they are not green...

--
Regards,
Martin Brown