An interesting article about eating healthy instead of dieting.
It is pretty much what I have been doing. Mainly healthy home cooked food, very little takeaway food, and virtually no junk food.
I have lost 10 kg in the past 12 months and I am now almost down to the weight I was as a teenager over 50 years ago.
While some of the following foods are peddled oooops sorry sold here, I can just imagine the results if even a few more arrive on our shores and the outcome might be even bigger waistlines and Diabetes etc. The article can be read at:
I note Maccas and Hungry Jacks (HJ) as Burger King make appearances as does Taco Bell (TB), I just stumbled through a few of them and it got scary fast. Are any of the HJ, Maccas, TB, KFC, Subways, Red Rooster, Dominoes, Pizza Hut and similar franchise products being hinted at for Shonkys. If they aren’t is it worthwhile making them? Hmmm Triple Whopper anyone, Double Quarter Pounder?
Want more then have a look at the following slide list (it contains those from above but even more as well) by the same eatthis site:
A further query, has any research been done into the salt content of desserts that are commonly sold at these business and at supermarkets and shops?
It’s hard to read about healthy food when there are so many holidays ahead. It’s a question of not eating more than I need. I am afraid of overeating, and then having to work out even harder in the gym.
The UK experience, although our supermarkets are very similar when it comes to the UPF (Ultra Processed Foods) on the shelves.
The greatest surprise was even the humble can of baked beans in tomato sauce gets a less than healthy endorsement.
Why it might be of interest.
Actually, UPF often tastes delicious. But unfortunately, two recent large studies showed that it significantly raises the risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, heart attacks and strokes.
This article reminds of me of something that I read a few years ago, where consumers believe that ‘plant based’ products are healthy and a better alternative nutritionally to products they purportedly replace (the article was written by industry lobbyists). Many plant based products (esp. dairy and meat) are ultra-processed foods which often have lengthy ingredient lists containing sugars, salts, preservatives, emulsifiers, fats/oils, other chemicals with numbers, minerals and vitamins. Such ingredients are present in the foods that they try and replicate.
‘Plant based’ is potentially only healthy when it is eaten in the form that it comes from the plant, that being whole grains, whole nuts, fresh fruit and fresh vegetables. Thinking eating ‘plant based’ food alternatives as a similarly healthy alternative is a myth. It reminds me of ‘low fat’ being a healthier alternative, only to find out the fat has been replaced by something else which may be equally (or more) undesirable.
Lost in translation?
There are healthy and less healthy choices in all types of processed foods.
Nothing like using Tofu in a stir fry to remind one how healthy processed plant based foods can be. 
The comments were made in relation to those marketed as alternative type products, such as margarine being an alternative to butter in the news article. Likewise applies to other plant based dairy or meat alternatives. It is worth looking at their ingredient lists when shopping.
Historically tofu hasn’t been a meat or dairy alternative. It is a processed soybean product which has been used in Asia for centuries, if not millenia, as a food. Only more recently has it been marketed by some, especially in the west, as a meat alternative.
Having lived in China and also travelled around SE Asia, many traditional tofu dishes contain meat, meat is also used in vegetable dishes. Meat is added for flavour to enhance the dishes taste.
If it’s about healthy eating, great advice to read the contents table (magnifier or mobile phone camera in hand). Irrespective of how the product is described and how it is branded.
Irrespective of whether it’s a Vege burger patty, a can of baked beans in sauce with a ham flavouring, or slab of red meat. Everyone is competing for our minds and wallets.
With regular debate around the labelling of alternatives, are consumers once again being played by the vested interests in food production and supply?
With health stars now a regular feature on many products, do they reliably reflect the benefits of the product including the processing?
P.S.
One does not need to add meat to a meal using tofu to make it taste great.
I have just started a new free course with Future Learn https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/nutrition-for-health by EIT Food (European Union). This course has been designed for medical students or people working in the healthcare sector.
If you want a simpler introduction to healthy eating I would recommend the Future Learn course “Food as Medicine” presented by the Dietitians of Monash University.
More practical healthy eating courses are presented on Future Learn by the BBC Good Food https://www.futurelearn.com/search?q=BBC%20good%20food Most are free, you have 6 weeks to finish, although you can just re-enrol and do it again. There is a fee & test to some free courses if you want the certificate for Continuing Professional Education. Expert Tracks are a paid course designed for professional development or credits towards higher qualifications.
I really enjoy learning new things through Future Learn. The CSIRO has the Total Wellbeing Diet, which is a paid 12 week diet (fully refundable if you comply with conditions) which is based on their research of over 3 million participants which informs the National Diet Guidelines. The ratio of food types, the emphasis on less processed foods (hard to get entirely away from processed food.
Oh no.
Let’s have a competition. Which ‘healthy’ diet, being described by their advocates as being avoiding food processing, can sell the most books to the gullible.
The Paleo diet, or the Van Tulleken diet. The latter being against foods that meet his own definition of ultra processed foods, which I find laughable.
Check it out.
