In these days of low light levels, I needed a summery photo or two to cheer me up. So there you are . . .
I woke early (as ever) and ate my breakfast whilst I watched a programme I recorded from last night - Horizon: Clean Living - the Dirty Truth. It was very interesting, and dealt with the present craze for fads in "clean eating" and dietary habits as influenced by food writers such as "Deliciously Ella" Mills, the Hemsley Sisters, Natasha Corrett and other "gurus" of the healthy eating brigade, who propose that whole food groups should be excluded from our diets (think Gluten-free for starters even though only 1% or so of the population have Ceoliac disease and really mustn't have gluten), cutting out sugar, grains, meat, dairy, whatever, as they are unhealthy in one way or another.
There was an interview with an American who proposes that he can cure cancer and has made millions from giving desperately ill people alkaline treatments intravenously (as well as writing books and doing lecture tours which propose people ditch meat and dairy (acidic) in favour of plant-based foods (alkaline). He is currently languishing in jail, having been proven to have purchased his PhD and been practicing "medicine" without a licence . . . As Dr Yeo said, pseudoscience at its worst.
The Hemsley Sisters and Natasha Corrett all declined to take part, but at least Ella Mills had the courage to stand up and be counted and fight her corner. I think the most interesting - and worrying - thing to come out of this programme was, as the presenter Dr Yeo said, that by these diet fads being put on social media (Ella Mills has something like a million followers) are incredibly influential and people buy into the mindset, and food is then seen as good (clean) and bad (dirty). I am guessing chocolate (needless to say) is BAD!!! No hope for me then . . . which gives me a link into what I am going to say about people then getting obsessive about food and feeling guilty for eating something "bad" (yup, been there, done that and still feel that way if I have chocolate or a (rare these days) cream bun, but that's mainly because I am needing to lose weight.
Just think, whole industries have sprung up from these mindsets - manufacturers of spiralizers, juicers, smoothie makers, and the chaps with coconut plantations must be doing very well now that anything coconut - oil, milk, flour, water, flakes now that coconut is a known superfood. . . Or is it?!
After I had been so ill for three years with chest infection after chest infection, I bought into this healthy food mindset too, and was a devout follower of the Low Histamine Chef, and if you open my kitchen cupboard doors there are still lists of foods which are anti-inflammatory, and high - or low - in histamines and for a few months I truly believed that by keeping to the regime of all foods as fresh as possible, as little meat and dairy as possible, eating the "right" sort of fruits and vegetables oh and she was another one who eschewed grains (there's a recent post about wheat triggering an inflammatory response and even now, reading it, I could buy into that mindset again . . .)
I feel sorry for Eldest Daughter, who put up with the Guest from Hell when she had to ask in advance what I couldn't eat, and when we went out for the day into the Antiques Quarter of Sheffield and were looking for lunch, there was not ONE BLARDY THING ANYWHERE that I could have eaten without offending one element or another of my low-histamine anti-inflammatory regime. You know what - in the end I just thought damn it and had a Bacon Butty !
What stopped me? Hah - well, there had been no great improvement in my asthma, and I was having IBS symptoms, so I went to a Herbal Doctor, and was given a blend of herbs which would help to sort out my gut and boy DID IT - but perhaps not in the way the herbalist intended - good grief, my body turned itself inside out to rid itself of everything recently ingested and I couldn't leave the house for 24 hours! There's a lesson in a) self diagnosis and b) possibly misrepresenting my symptoms to a Herbal Doctor. Well, after that I thought damn it, my body was screaming for REAL cheese (I'd given up all bovine dairy, and had been sticking to goaty products, as soya was also apparently something I shouldn't go near) and I had eliminated all sorts of things which were apparently having an adverse affect. Well, I just ate normally again and haven't looked back since.
I eat all food groups, all mostly in moderation (I still eat lots of apples, as I do have an apple addiction), and always cook from scratch when I can. I buy what is in season, but always have cucumbers on my shopping list as I eat them all year round - nothing freshens your mouth after something spicy, like cucumber. I try to grow some vegetables here, and have always had a good soft fruit patch and fruit trees. I would like to buy all organic vegetables where possible, but round here, the choice is fairly limited. I try to buy good meat from a good local butcher (though if I am in a rush, then Supermarket meat it has to be, but it has to be low fat quality steak mince if it's mince, and never EVER the cheapest quality of meat or fish on offer.) I still get queasy thinking of a neighbour whose family "dined" on that truly awful pack of cheap "mince" which had to go in the oven on a tray to solidify into anything resembling "food" and ditto the dodgiest looking "sausages". But then, her idea of a quick pizza for the kids was tomato puree spread on toast . . . so gourmet she was NOT! I like to try new recipes, but I will confess to having a repertoire of meals which are regularly eaten, and new things only happen now and again - because of being so busy since having the Units etc. I still bake, though not as much as I used to, and 2017 is going to be the year of all bread being made at home (unless I am manically busy).
So the next time someone suggests making a pizza base with cauliflower, or shakes a finger when you have a piece of cake - tell them to go to hell!!
Oh yes. I am an omnivore, and so no reason to change.
ReplyDeleteI have one food allergy (sesame), so have to check ingredients on packaged foods, and take care when eating out, and I am fussy about certain things - I insist on butter, and stick to rapeseed or olive oil at home. I want to eat food - not fake food.
As a child, I realised that when my asthma was bad, certain foods aggravated it - nuts, chocolate (no!), coffee, anything crispy, even biscuits, and most dairy. I would avoid them, even though my mother thought I was making it up, but only when I was ill. Funnily enough, when I was diagnosed with mild epilepsy in my early 30's, I found the one thing that helped me immediately recover after an "absence" was a small amount of good quality chocolate. So yes, the right stuff, in the right portion size, IS medicinal. And I could never give up cheese. I try to have at least five different types in the fridge at any one time.
My mother was never the most adventurous cook. I think learning during wartime and rationing stunted her imagination (that and her dislike of anything remotely foreign). But we always had plenty of vegetables, much of which were home grown - that has stayed with me, and now we have the allotment, we try to grow enough to keep us going for much of the year.
I didn't really take much notice of what I ate until I left home, and even then not really until I pinpointed my sesame allergy (when I worked in a Greek grocers and deli at the weekends, the day I passed out and became violently ill while helping them make hoummus in the shop's kitchen).
I know I need to lose weight, but I also know that I need to get an old knee injury fixed that has made it impossible to be as active as I used to be. But the losing weight thing is part of the problem isn't it? There seems to be an underlying thought that food is the enemy, and must not be given in to. It has meant that food fads, fussy eaters and extreme diets are accepted as the norm, and someone enjoying a full and wide ranging diet is seen as gluttonous, almost perverse.
My gran was a wonderful cook, and made everything from scratch, including wines, chutneys, jams, pickles et al, but sadly it skipped a generation in my mum! She made good roasties, did a mince and veg stew which I enjoyed, but I think if ever there was a candidate for the ready meal, my mum was it, bless her!
DeleteI really did miss proper cheese - goat's cheese never hit the spot in the same way and I don't miss it at all!
Lovely post BB. Everything in moderation. However may I add that every human is different with our own intolerances and peculiarities - mine is bananas I adore them but they go through me in 10 minutes flat as they give me colic and then I have a. Upset system for the next 24 hours. yet medically and on a day to day basis we are treated in a blanket style fashion yet we are individuals and very unique. Therefore our own little differences need to be taken into account. As I have a whole raft of conditions which come under the heading auto immune disease I was told wherever possible to use wholefoods and cook from scratch as my system takes longer to process processed foods and it clogs up. With processed foods there can also be additions which are not really necessary. With Oh now being diabetic stage 2 this has been even more necessary. I had not appreciated you had gone to the levels you have in trying to soothe your system. I use natural live yogurt a lot and often make it myself. I usually start the day with a pot of yogurt to put a lining on my stomach and help with food absorotion and pill absorption. One of the problems with the artritis mecicstion is that it can cause Ibs symptoms and I had to come off a particularly good medication that was working as a result. However the yogurt helps it is a natural probiotic and helps with soothing the system. However we eat pretty sensibly and always have more veg and fruit than meat. However I try and use a butcher where I can but also buy supermarket meat sometimes I cannot easily get to the butchers. I have been watching a programme called sugarfree farm think it is on a Monday or Tuesday night. It has a cast of celebrities in trying to sort out their eating habits and removing sugar from the diet. It has been very interesting thus far. One thing I have refused to use is artificial margarine spreads preferring to use butter and I have continued with that for years. One of the contestsnts was adamant that she could not do without her low fat spread so the Nutritionist helped her make some. She has since sworn not to touch the spreads again. If you get chance to have a look at it it has plenty of practical suggestions once you cut past the celebrity bit. My Dad always used to say that food is not the issue its what we do with it thats the problem. Take care now everything in moderation. And from what I have dead recently there is still some milege in an apple a day keeps the Doctor away! Pattypan xx
ReplyDeleteOf course, we all have things we can't or won't eat, either because they cause a reaction or make us heave! I think the trouble with these books is that they seem to imply this is the ONLY way to eat, forever, and it worries me when there are total exclusions without any real thought to the dietary needs of the average human being (folk who might copy celebrities such as Gwynneth Paltrow for example, who never allows anything remotely enjoyable into her diet!)
DeleteSo sorry that your working medication had to be knocked on the head because it was causing IBS. I haven't seen Sugarfree Farm (not Keith's cup of tea!) but will have to catch it on iPlayer.
I like yoghurt and have it with my muesli in place of milk (which I hate). I should make my own as I have a slow cooker combo thing which has a yoghurt setting.
I've always stuck to butter though I do use Stork for baking sometimes.
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ReplyDeleteWe have become fixated by food as a nation, Bake Off, and the half dozen or so chefs that prepare before us incredibly exotique stuff that always needs something you haven't got. Think the first book I read years ago was something by Patrick Holford, it was so complicated that I never picked up another 'food as health' book. Cheese and chocolate try to reduce but will never, ever give them up. Bake my own bread, eat lots of vegetables and fruit, keep telling people I am not a vegetarian because I eat ham, bacon and fish but always in moderation...
ReplyDeleteAll these new fads make someone rich, mostly I think we eat what we have been brought up on and food is not the enemy.
Your final sentence says it all Thelma. Folk are just out to make money (especially that chap in America with the alkiline diet and drip feeds of the stuff. He made millions out of that little idea.
DeleteI try to eat less meat (and do) but Keith is a real carnivore and thinks of vegetables as The Enemy!!
I read this post with gusto - love it. I too am watching sugar free farm the Tricia mentioned and even that I have issues with as they are removing fruit and honey, something which I wouldn't. I get that they need to make a tv programme though! Everything in moderation and if it wasn't in the shops when supermarkets came around 80/90 years ago, think twice before eating it now! Also I believe if nature provided it, it's usually good to go however I also refuse to over analyse. If it feels wrong it probably is. I eat a lot of things I "shouldn't" which I am working, but I'm human :D Great post.
ReplyDeleteI can't remember which diet it was, years ago, but it said about cutting out ALL fruit for a month or 6 weeks, and I thought, well, that's not for me then.
DeleteThe nearest we come to Processed Food is the occasional fish finger - I am always so disappointed when I grab a pizza or a pie if we are home late - nothing compares with home made food - but I don't beat myself up about it. I think these sort of celebrity hype cookery books set out to make you feel guilty for your bad eating habits. . .
Decent balanced eating (like I don't) and exercise (which I do) will do the trick for all but the 1% who have actual digestive tract problems
ReplyDeleteExercise I love - and I am sensible with my food intake. I need to get back to counting every mouthful though as that really DOES get the weight off! Those days when the chocolate has won show up on my Fitbit notes . . .
DeleteEating in moderation is the way, we don't diet, we just adjust our diet, I know white flour causes me problems so I don't eat it. Another way is to stop eating process foods, both hubby and I have found health bonus in cooking from scratch, plus no hidden salt, sugar. I truly believe there is not so much harm is fat's if you moderate them and eat the good fats. We both now eat butter again and have had no change in our cholesterol levels. The easy root with food is tempting, but we feel it causes so many of our health problems.
ReplyDeleteI've never given butter up - I think reading somewhere years ago that margarine is one molocule off being plastic convinced me I was right! Of course, it was just a sillyness, but some things stick in your head don't they?!
Deletewatched it last night and thought what a load of tosh, by preying on peoples insecurities and health issues these people are all out to make money, I do not believe that any of them eat the diet they claim they do, been watching the sugar free farm too, yes fruit and honey is not allowed at the moment but is reintroduced later as is meat, we watched a program the other week cant remember what it was called it was about milk and good fats, lot of common sense there, there seems to be a swing back to eating butter cheese and full fat dairy products, everything in moderation is the sensible thing to do.
ReplyDeleteI think the trouble is that folk have an agenda - what annoys me more than anything is the hype around Veganism, and the "milk has pus in it" hyperbole, and how farm animals farting contributes to global warming (wasted on me since I think any Global Warming - if it exists - is a natural phenomenon, but don't get me started on that!) Every vegan mag I have ever opened seems to have these misleading rhetorical articles in them. Go plant-based by all means, but because that is right for you, not to save the planet.
DeleteThat flower picture is a delight on what has been a miserable cold and dull day here BB. As for food - I am a banana addict and eat all kinds of fruit. I rarely eat cake because I am not a sweet eater, but I love my food and eat anything in moderation.
ReplyDeleteI know it as Fox and Cubs but the "proper" name is Orange Hawkbit. Such a cheery flower for a winter's day. I usually have a piece of the cake I've made and give the rest to the folk I've made it for. Takes away the temptation then!
ReplyDeleteA person eating gluten free when not really necessary drives me nuts when they come and visit, have to buy special bread etc. Now they are also no fat,no salt, no sugar. makes catering very difficult. I eat anything and probably too much, one way or another we will both die!
ReplyDeleteIt does make life difficult. We have a neighbour down the road who has self-diagnosed herself and everything has to be gluten free. It doesn't seem to have helped her problems though. You'll have to ask them to go self-catering and bring their own grub!
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