Tuesday, 28 January 2020

The human cost of 'food fads'.



The picture above may represent many people's idea of healthy foods, but although each element is healthy in itself; overall it seems to be causing problems.

It is now claimed that ONE IN FIVE people in the UK are suffering from gut problems; all due to their 'healthy' diets. Why, I wonder, was I not surprised by this?

Overzealous healthy eating has caused a massive emergence of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). It's mostly younger people who follow online, unqualified, 'food gurus', and their recommended trendy eating diets of 'clean ingredients', who are falling victims to this sudden outburst.

Nut milks, too many Avocados, and exotic grains beans and nuts, are all accounting for this epidemic of gut problems. 

Time now to abandon such trends, and return to the wisdom of our elders and eat a little of everything (The Great Gran Diet). Variety is the answer.

Drinking a pint of liquified Broccoli and Turmeric for breakfast every day may sound like a good idea, especially if accompanied by photos of radiant, slim, and beautiful, bikini-clad-young-women, but don't be surprised if you spend the rest of the day either in the loo, or at the doctor's. 

Beans on toast, bacon and eggs, or kedgeree once in a while, is now recommended.

30 comments:

  1. I had tinned tomatoes on toast for lunch yesterday as Mrs G wasn’t here to cook me anything. Naturally I removed them from the tin before heating and eating.
    Results of a Greenpeace Survey in the paper at the weekend claimed 88% of meat on sale in German supermarkets was of poor quality. That doesn’t surprise me when I study the prices in the supermarket adverts. Not long ago I saw minced meat, pork cutlets, chicken etc. being offered at 2.99, 3.99 at per kilo.
    There’s a theory the corona virus outbreak originate in bat soup. Ugh!
    Bottom line is we become what we eat.

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    1. I'm always suspicious of 'cheap meat'. I prefer to buy less of a good quality product. In fact, as good quality meat is so expensive, we eat far more meatless meals.

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    2. I seem to remember a politician biting into a fast food burger during the mad cow disease outbreak with the message that it was safe for his children to eat. On the other hand I remember Edwin Curry being sacked for telling us to boil our eggs for longer during the salmonella scare. Here when a truck full of live pigs crashed on a motorway and they all escaped they were rounded up and put down because the Adrenalin rush would make them unfit to eat it was said. At the end of the day we make our own choices and have to live with them. Try to find good and fair sources is my conclusion.

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    3. Gwil, the pig thing is true. A vet friend explained it to me once, and it is what is behind changes to abattoir processes, keeping the animals as stress-free as possible before killing them.

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  2. I agree with you, a little bit of everything is always good.

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  3. I think nutritionists call it a balanced diet, which is exactly what our diets should be. I recall reading of an English couple who went vegetarian and became ill. They upped their fruit and vegetable intake and became more ill. They upped their intake again and became seriously ill and sought medical advice, with the expected outcome. We have two vegetarian friends but neither eat large amounts of fruit and vegetables and know what protein substitutes to use.

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    1. I had an uncle who became ill from eating too many Apples. It sounds almost impossible, but his Doc' ordered him to abstain.

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  4. I think the most worrying thing regarding one of the foods that are supposed to be healthy is margarine. Apparently it was invented for fattening turkeys. It shares chemical elements with both paint and plastics and most worrying of all, nothing will grow on it!
    Butter for me. Always.

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    1. I'm both pleased, and rather smug, to say that I was never convinced by the whole margarine nonsense. As far as I know, it's a mixture of chemicals designed to imitate butter; so why not simply eat the real thing!

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  5. I've never been keen on margarine either, and as for juicing and the like, why take in more vegetables than you would eat, raw or cooked, as part of a meal? Asking for trouble!

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    1. A lot of the current food-fads are totally illogical; probably because they come from Z-list celebs.

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  6. I have always thought that ‘ everything in moderation ‘ is a good mantra to live by. We should eat something from each food group. We all need a bit of roughage but I’ve always thought that it can’t do your gut any good if you overdo it. AND, some say we must get rid of all the cows because of all the methane they produce ..... what about all the methane vegans and vegetarians must produce 😂🤣 !!! XXXX

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    1. You'll have the Vegan Police around having said that! However, never having lived with a Vegan, I can't corroborate.

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  7. I expect they'll just get their colons irrigated, wash out anything that's there, good and bad and carry on. A hose up the arse.

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    1. Wasn't that Ms Spencer's favourite pastime?

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  8. Is it permissible to look at photos of radiant, slim, and beautiful, bikini-clad-young-women while eating an unhealthy diet?

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  9. I am a bit of the fan of the how I grew up in the 70s diet. Meat and 3 veg most night, some easy meals like eggs or beans on toast for the rest and a light lunch of yoghurt. Fruit for snacks with the occasional treat.

    I think balance is the key and get a bit tired of all the "fad" things that people like to recommend.

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    1. Of course Poppy. These 'food fads' are exactly what they say.... no more than fads.

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  10. All these food fads drive me nutty, what's wrong with everyone? A bunch of 'snowflakes' if you ask me. I don't eat a lot of meat, not because I want to be vegan or anything else, I just don't like it all that much. Another thing that annoys me is the portion size of everything these days, we (not me I assure you, haha!) eat far too much.I try to adhere to the 1950's plate (have a look on the interweb for comparisons to today's plate), and on the odd occacsion that we have fish and chips I always get a child size portion and even that's normally too big for me. Today's snowflakes would faint at the thought of sensible portions!

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    1. Don't go to the USA; their portions are GIGANTIC; hence the size of people. We all eat far too much these days. I know I'm guilty.

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  11. These so called "super foods" are also causing other problems as well.
    .Almonds (for almond milk) seriously impact the water tables where grown as they need so much - and now it turns out that they are one of the main causes of bee deaths as bees love the almond flowers but the heavy use of pesticides is killing the bee colonies!
    The demand for foods like avocados and quinoa has upset the balance of many agricultural areas in the world and has put smaller scale farmers out of business.
    Soy (since it is in so many products) is now causing all sorts of unforeseen issues in our bodies!
    Extremes of any kind make me nervous and I prefer to take advice from my doctors and nutritionist (plus what I read) rather than from celebrity "experts" who only want to sell me their latest cook book or such!
    Even my cardiologist recommends eggs, moderate amounts of protein, fruit & veg. The only food group that he recommends I cut back on is the carbs - but this is because I need to lose more weight. Notice I didn't say "no carb" just lower amounts and it works for me.

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    1. I'm sure you're right. Palm oil comes to mind too. This is why I like to eat what I grow, and also why I try to buy mostly what's grown around us. It's not always easy (I like Bananas) but we do our best.

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  12. One of my pet peeves. Eat what's local, eat a bit of what you fancy. Moderation and variety.
    Look at all those blue zones where people live so long. The diets are so varied, there's no such thing as a super food. Italians and greek drink wine and eat meat, Japanese are mainly rice and vegetable based. It's also about quality of life. Enjoy yourself, eat,drink, dance and be merry .
    And definitely eat butter. It's good for you!

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    1. I agree with the last bit, I always have 'slices' of butter on my toast.

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    2. Linda, if only we could all live like Greeks!

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