How's your diet??

[AParsons]

As I'm now 42 I have for some reason taken notice of what I am eating. Maybe its because the stomach area is getting larger, and it takes longer to remove it. I have always exercised regularly and to be honest never really spent any time in trying to understand nutrition.

Anyway this guy (http://www.fit2fat2fit.com/) caught my attention. It kind of illustrates how bad the food that we eat is. (I'm only looking at this from an Australian point of view as we tend to follow American trends.)

Obviously if I was the same as him, a personal trainer and that's all I did, I would probably look like him. But what got me thinking is that there must be a happy medium that will keep the midsection under control without having to be a total fanatic.

So I have always known that high sugar and carbohydrates are bad, but man, I really like sugar (sweets etc) and carbs (potato etc), so I have been trying to reduce them.
This guy has some interesting stuff to say: http://www.cholesteroldeception.com/sustainable-health

It kind of feels like the matrix, where you are being lead by the nose and you don't even know it. By this I mean, if McDonald's is so bad why is it even produced?

Mushroom Syndrome?? (Kept in the dark and feed s**t

What are peoples thoughts?

[anunitu]

A lot of your health really depends on your genes,I am 65 years old and my waist is 34",and for me that is a bit to much. Up until I was 55 my waist was never larger than 30",and that without a lot of exercise other than physical labor at work. My diet wasen't special,I ate mostly what I wanted,no diet food or supplaments. it comes mostly from what I inherited from my parents. My Mother was about 5' 10",strong and mostly thin. My Dad was 5' 4" and worked his whole life as a cook. Sometimes its just your linege that makes the difference. I am 5' 11" and my weight is still low for my age.

Its not a bad thing to concider what you eat,and perhaps check out the nutritional stuff,couldn't hurt,and as you age you have a harder time losing weight.

[hutch--]

I more or less agree with the view that your genetics are a major factor in your shape and general health but you do have some control in how you end up and it comes in both what you do physically and what you eat. If you regularly work then you can more or less eat anything that agrees with you but if you sit on your butt all day and stuff yourself then you only go one way, wider, slower and unhealthier.

You may like this one, about 10 years ago I went off coffee as it was irritating something in my stomach and spent about 5 years drinking tea instead but with a body and brain used to high levels of caffeine, I slarted to slow down and put on weight so after working out what the problem was I went back to drinking saturation levels of coffee and got healthier, came back down to my normal weight.

RE: Diet, each to their own but low fat, high protein diets work for me, at 6'4" and about 13 stone I am about the right weight for my size, have a half inch pinch of fat on my guts that must not get bigger and I never stop working. (Having a house to fix helps here).

The solution is,

1. Find something useful to do that is physical work.
2. Regularly walk or ride a pushbike, don't just drive everywhere.
3. Don't eat crap or you will turn to crap.

Final comment, long ago someone at my mum's work tried to sell her the view about growing old graciously so my old lady bit her head off and she never tried it again.  :bg  PHUK growing old graciously, old age is when you get even for every irritation you ever had to suffer, no nagging, policemen call you "Sir", you are more or less immune from politically correct new speak (they can't be bothered trying to re-educate you) and if they try you re-educate them instead.  :bg

[dedndave]

make sure you enjoy life, too
if you eat crap and live 6 months longer, was it really worth it ?
soda pop and lay's potato chips for me   :bg

[anunitu]

I have always believed this little saying. I would rather die from a massive heart attack, than die from bordom from eating only healthy food,that has no taste that you have to force yourself to eat. Not to say some healthy food does not taste good.just Variety  is the spice of life.

[Bill Cravener]

Steve, 13 stones is what, 185 pounds? At 6'4" 185 you're one tall lanky fellow. :bg

Genetics does have a great deal to do with weight. In my case at 60 years of age and a height of 6'1" 210 pounds I don't concern myself much about it. I'm a protein eater and meat is a mainstay in my diet but veggies are always the main course, that is to say they are the larger portion on my plate. I'm not a sweet eater at all, can't stomach sodas of any kind (real men don't drink pop :bg). Love my beer and dark red wine. Which of the two I drink is determined by my mood. After stating all the above however I've had a somewhat high cholesterol level for over 25 years at around 225-240 that my doctor tells me is considered a bit high and unhealthy (no doubt do to my love of real butter in cooking). On the other hand I don't much worry about that either because heart disease is not part of the family tree, cancer is though especially lung cancer, so I stopped smoking over 25 years ago. 

[hutch--]

> you're one tall lanky fellow.

Thats me.  :bg

Cholesterol also seems to be a genetic factor, I eat anything I like allowing that its a bit narrow and I have a cholesterol level of 4.1 where normal is 5. A girlfriend of mine had even lower, about 3.2 but she did carry a bit of tub on her. I have problems with fat, I don't digest it all that well, animal fat from cooked meat is OK if not in excess and I can cook a couple of eggs in butter with no problems but I must stay away from vegetable fats as they don't agree with me. I am not big on carbohydrates like bread and cakes but I can eat massive amounts of sugar with no problems.

[zemtex]

Dieting is usually something that people learn about during a hospital visit, they may or may not learn about it from the outside but they will not really understand what dieting is, they will partially understand it but probably not take it seriously. I think that dieting is 50% health and 90% mood and wellbeing. I don't have to tell anyone that what enter the body is what is fueling your body and the "car" is going to be performing and behaving just that good based on what you give it. One of the basic parts of a good diet is to ensure you get enough fiber, at least 30 grams per day to maintain an effective digestion and it helps prevent colon cancer. The good bacteria flow feeds on fiber and multiply from that. Fiber is indigestible carbohydrates. A good source of fiber can be kellogs albran (beware it contains a bit salt) and if you mix it with bacterialized milk it is an excellent combination.

One problem with a diet is that you usually can't eat anything else what your store is selling and that means you have to eat the crap that comes along with it. This crap multiply during the course of a year of course, 10 grams of salt per day will give 3650 grams per year and so forth. One method to effectively half this is to cut away half of your food intake and replace that half portion with meal replacement products, these products are extremely clean and you get rid of 50% of all crappy substances you would normally get. You become twice as healthy in terms of consuming crap substances.

The next thing that can be done is to really give a boost of greens on your dinner plate, a good principle is to combine all sorts of greens on one half of the plate and non-greens on the other side. Instead of using salad dressing on top of the greens, put some yoghurt on top of it instead. Water is also completely relevant, just 3% loss of body fluid lower your strength by 10% and that is a great deal, you may or may not know how much that is, but it is relevant. Water is anabolic, you should always drink water before you become thirsty, when you become thirsty you are already dehydrated and the harm is already done. I have a principle that when you need to piss twice during the course of half an hour or an hour you are probably hydrated.

What dieting CANNOT do is to maintain a strong body, back problems and preventing future back problems can only be solved by doing intense strength training, dead-lift, squat, pull-ups, row and so on.