Why do we get fat? Do Diets Help or Hinder?

Why do we get fat? A very good question. I don’t think anyone really knows or understands. There are so many different propositions around. Do Diets help or hinder? I have tried a lot of diets, and every time I end up the same size again. I am not alone. We get given so much conflicting advice, from our friends, our doctors, our newspapers and our social media. Here’s the latest new miracle diet. Celebrity A loses weight by doing this 1 simple thing etc. Your doctor tells you, eat less move more. Low fat is the way ahead. Others say Fat is good for you, Cholesterol is bad, no it’s OK, it’s fine – forget it! I could go on for ever…

Some people stay thin throughout their lives, others like me start thin, then when they get to about forty – as my husband says – the fat fairy comes, almost overnight! Others fight with their weight from they are very young.

I have been watching a series on BBC recently, about diet and its effect on diabetes. Apparently 10% of the cost of the National Health Service is related to Diabetes. A scary piece of information. I’m interested in the outcome, but while the program is saying – if you go on a very restricted diet for 8 weeks (800 calories in 4 drinks each day.), you will move out of the diabetic range. The fat on your liver will diminish, and effectively you start with a clean sheet. However, what next, what do they eat for the rest of their lives – the people all agree that they have to keep the weight off, but what is the healthiest diet?

Around 1970, approximately 2.7% of both men and women were obese. By the year 2014, this had risen to more than 28% (Source: Wikipedia, quoting WHO figures) We’re doing something very wrong, that much is evident.

Please note: I am not a doctor, health professional or have any dietary training. The views expressed in this article, are mine and mine alone.

Different Diets

I’m an expert on diets. I have been trying all sorts of them over the last 20 years.

That’s where the jury is out. If you look at the NHS recommended diet plate. It looks like this. According to that I should be eating starchy items for one-third of my diet. Note that butter does not appear, it i slower fat spread. Dairy should be lower fat. Now I have tried to live this way, low-fat, little sugar, lots of vegetables and I am overweight, so I don’t think it works.

If you look at Slimming World, you need to go really low fat, to lose weight, and it doesn’t always work. I tried this in 2016, I never really managed to lose significant weight on it although I know many people who have lost a lot of weight on it. But again, some of them have put the weight back on again. Peoples bodies handle food differently!

My Mum had many attempts at losing weight through restricting calories, to the extent that she almost starved herself, and the weight still didn’t drop off. I suspect her body went into starvation mode. I also suspect genetics also play a part – she and her two sisters also struggled, and I am definitely my mother’s daughter!

If you look at Low Carbohydrate – you don’t need to count anything, but your diet is very restricted. Today the Atkins Diet will also offer you a lot of very processed bars. I’m not too sure about it. I know that for me, going low carb will shift the weight, the problem is it is quite hard to stick to!

Keto is Lo-Carb but with a difference, High Fat, Medium Protein, Low Carbohydrate (HFMPLC). A diet of High Fat means you are less hungry (Fat fills you up). The reason for Moderate protein is because too much protein could even make you gain weight, and the low carbohydrates is to put you in Ketosis, where your body literally eats itself.

Then there’s the Zoe Harcombe diet, which puts you on Low Carbohydrate for 5 days, then suggests you never eat fat and carbs within 3 hours of each other. It also advocates eating no processed foods, and avoiding any sugar. She also suggests that many of our eating problems are caused by 3 things. Candida, Hypoglycaemia and Food Intolerance. An interesting concept. I have tried it and was quite successful, but ultimately like any other diet, I slowly fell by the wayside, and guess what a few years on, all the weight is back on. But I do know that if I go back to the very strict 5 days, I will lose some of my weight again. However, once I start re-introducing carbs, the temptation to cheat is too hard. Who wants toast without butter?

The doctor option – you can, if you are obese enough be prescribed pills that encourage you to avoid fat. (If you eat fat, to put it bluntly you spend a lot of time on the toilet!)

There’s the hypnotherapy option – I’ve tried three different versions. I listened to the Paul McKenna CD and read the book, I tried Glenn Harrold, finally I took an expensive option – 1 to 1 hypnotherapy.  Nil points.

Finally there’s the surgical option. Bariatric / Gastric Band Surgery. My friend Kat did this – you can read about it here. As I write she has lost quite a lot of weight (about 20-25 kg I think), but her weight loss has stalled because she isn’t able to move much at the minute.

Where do we go from here?

I have been doing quite a lot of research in this area recently. Would I have a stomach bypass?  Absolutely not.

Do Diets help or Hinder? One size does not fit all. What works for one person does not necessarily work for others. One person is able to stick to ‘moderation’, other people when faced with 1 biscuit, want the whole packet. Our diet advice from our medical professionals is seriously flawed and has been for many years. The obesity epidemic across the western world tells you that. There has not been enough independent scientifically controlled trials. We also need to move away from the work diet, more towards lifestyle changes. A diet suggests something temporary. For people like me, I suspect that Diets have indeed made me fat! Thinking a few weeks or months will work like magic, and then you go back to your old habits!

A lifestyle change says you are making a real change on how you fuel your body and run your life.

What is my reading telling me?

The original research done by Ancel Keys would appear to be flawed. (Particularly read the section on The Sugar Controversy… How close John Yudkin was to the real answer, 40 years ago. What would have happened if we had followed his path, not Ancel Keys?) Across the world we have used it as a bible, and what has happened – we have an epidemic of obesity. However, I also think that the ready supply of cheap, tasty food plays a huge part. We snack endlessly, which means that we are forever forcing our body to produce insulin. What does the body do with extra insulin – it stores it as fat. Fruit juice means it is so easy to drink 10 apples in just 1 tall glass – would you eat 10 apples on the trot – I don’t think so. Parts of the world which are switching to the ‘Western Diet’ are getting obesity issues too. We also have quantity issues. When I was growing up, we had a small punnet of fruit among 4 of us, now I buy a box with twice the quantity and we share it among two of us.

The five-a-day, that they have now upped to ten-a-day has absolutely no scientific basis. It was initially started in the hope it would benefit cancer sufferers, but a study in 2011 showed that it had no effect. Meanwhile, there is a huge conflict of issue in much of our food research. Food companies and packaging companies sponsor a lot of it. Trials are often stopped early, there have been no mass trials done. Often the decision on why a diet is good, is as a result of a television program.

So in the absence of real, quantified research, done across a large population, rather than 5 or 6 people here and there, I think there are a couple of things that stand out for me.

• Sugar is bad for you. Cut the sugar, and your waistline and liver will thank you. (I was surprised to read recently that the liver struggles as much with fructose as alcohol.) But be careful, lots of things have hidden sugars. Who would think that a bagel had more sugar in it than a chocolate muffin? Read the labels. It’s also addictive. You know yourself. Are you like me? If 1 have or 2 sweets, I want the whole packet.
• Bread and potatoes are converted by the body into sugars. I adore them, but I think I really have to watch my consumption of them, going forward. Here’s an interesting picture from the Public Health Collaboration showing the equivalent sugars in different types of food. You can find it online here

Diagram from Public Health Collaboration 

• There is no clear argument for 5 a day. By all means eat vegetables, but we don’t need to consume masses of fruit, particularly processed fruit, such as fruit juice.
• HFCS – High fructose corn syrup should be banned! It is everywhere, in sauces, ketchups, most processed foods. It is far sweeter than sugar. Here is a good article on how difficult it is for the body to deal with fructose.

What I am going to do, myself?

I think there is sense in the Keto approach, but it is difficult to stick to. I have done low-carb before, but as soon as I let the carbs back in, the weight goes back on! So if I adopt it, I need to make it a way of life.

One of the ‘supposed’ benefits of the Keto diet is that it reduces inflammation in your body. all sorts of aches and pains vanish. Diet may be at the root of a lot of illnesses. However, there is very little formal research happening on diet, plenty on drugs, because the more drugs produced, the more profits Big Pharma make. John Joyce, in Blackpool, has transformed both his life and that of his wife, by following a Keto style diet. His wife, Mrs J, has Secondary Progressive MS. However, by switching to Keto to improve his own health, they have each lost 28 pounds and her MS symptoms are improving, almost daily. His medical practice is so impressed by the outcome of his cooking, that he has been invited to come and talk to them, and some of their patients. His cooking has done more for his wife than medicine can. Amazing. This is so inspiring. He also generously puts many of his recipes online.  You’ll find his story and some of his recipes here

I am told, once you get used to it, your tastes change and you don’t want potatoes and bread – I do hope so. I am not sure celeriac fries are going to do it for me! I’m going to try and avoid synthetic sweeteners. My tastes are pretty savoury anyway. I already eat fruits such as gooseberries and rhubarb without sugar.

You also are supposed to get more energy (I’m still waiting for that to kick in!). It’s early days for me.

About 15 months ago, I posted this article about my fight with weight In both 2017 and 2018 one of my goals has been to lose weight. I am a typical yo-yo dieter, I lose a few kilos and then put it on again. This time I aim to keep those pounds off. It’s time to break the yo-yo effect. Though how I will cope with my upcoming travel plans, remains to be seen. Ireland in a couple of days, Amsterdam in August when I meet up with my family, and then September and October in Italy – the land of good cooking!

Here’s hoping!

 

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