Pure White and Deadly - The Sugar conspiracy (or why the world's obese) ...

[hopless500]

Quick choccy bar for @hopless500

Today is 500 cals day
No choccy bar for me

 

[Speicher]

@phil_hg_uk I think I will use 5g as it is a round figure (not unlike me ) and avoid the obvious sugar-laden foods. Once a week I bake a treacle sponge, and I will include that in my calculations. One portion contains six teaspoons of sugar, so that will remain a weekly indulgence.

Cutting out the chocolate might be rather more tricky.

 

[phil_hg_uk]

@phil_hg_uk I think I will use 5g as it is a round figure (not unlike me ) and avoid the obvious sugar-laden foods. Once a week I bake a treacle sponge, and I will include that in my calculations. One portion contains six teaspoons of sugar, so that will remain a weekly indulgence.

Cutting out the chocolate might be rather more tricky.

Cutting out sweets is tricky but as you go on your taste changes now things that were a little bit sweet are to sweet for me and my sense of taste has improved a lot. Also the cravings just go away & you start wanting different types of food rather than just sweet things & I am not as hungry as I was for instance I had my breakfast a 8:30 am & I am only just thinking about getting lunch now.

 

[phil_hg_uk]

@phil_hg_uk I think I will use 5g as it is a round figure (not unlike me ) and avoid the obvious sugar-laden foods. Once a week I bake a treacle sponge, and I will include that in my calculations. One portion contains six teaspoons of sugar, so that will remain a weekly indulgence.

Cutting out the chocolate might be rather more tricky.

Cutting out choccy is hard for the first 2 weeks then it gets easier and you just stop wanting it anymore.

 

[Speicher]

Cutting out choccy is hard for the first 2 weeks then it gets easier and you just stop wanting it anymore.

That is encouraging.

The only crisps I like are Tyrrell's "naked" ones, any salted crisps now taste horrible.

 

[Fab Foodie]

Sugar is hydrophilic so helps keep the moisture in. It means the producers don't lose as much weight in processing so get better yields.

I'd check your science application regarding Gravadlax and traditional smoked salmon.

 

[marknotgeorge]

I've been wondering about my sugar intake. I favour Coke over other drinks, and just recently I've been feeling rough when I get hungry. I've been getting multipacks of cans for the convenience - no big bottles to go flat or cups to wash. I'm not keen on the taste of tap water here, and I find squash just tastes of artificial sweetener (which is something I cannot stand the taste of). I could get bottled water for the convenience, but then there's the waste. One of those Brita filtered water bottles, I think, then.

 

[srw]

Ahem.

View attachment 124568

Like I said. Not crap.

That was all high quality meat and cabbage.

 

[User169]

I'd check your science application regarding Gravadlax and traditional smoked salmon.

Yes, I was talking about smoked salmon, but the fundamental biochemistry is correct.

 

[srw]

Just so much of it.

I had just ridden 500-odd miles in a week. And, yes, there was far too much of it. I might well have ordered something smaller if I'd known how big it was going to be. But I'm a well-brought-up child of the 1970s compassionate middle classes ("Think of the starving children in Africa") and leaving food on my plate still repels me more than eating too much.

[edit]
Hey - no fair. Now that I'm on a computer I can see what I missed on my phone. That's not my food! That plate belongs to @User.

 

[srw]

But it is true. And I'm not getting sniffy. Nor am I pointing any fingers at any individuals. There are, as with most rules, exceptions. But as a rule, if you want to get to the roots of, as the thread title puts it, 'why the world's obese', you don't look at excessive natural yoghurt or vintage claret consumption, or lack of exercise. You look at the way immense corporations, mostly in America, but elsewhere too, have set about manufacturing foods carefully calculated to hit 'the bliss point'* and marketing them aggressively to consumers who want stuff that's easy, yummy and cheap (enough). It's turning one country after another into nations-of-blobs, vastly overweight and prone to life-threatening illnesses like heart disease and diabetes on an epidemic scale.

Most people who are obese are obese because they eat crap. Not all. But most. The overwhelming majority. That's not sniffy superiority. It's just a clear look at the facts. And I say again, the obesity rate hasn't risen by 133% over 20 years after rising barely a third in 30 due to a catastrophic falloff in exercise or a massive rise in yoghurt consumption. It's because country after country has succumbed to the allure of cheap(ish), easy, yummy food created in the lab by food scientists specifically to target pre-existing human fallibilities: essentially, our bodies' inability to say 'stop', faced with a 'bliss-point' combination of (generally, about 50/50) fat & sugar.

People who do that sort of thing with recreational drugs go to jail. People who do it with food get massive salaries and share options. Funny old world, isn't it. Funny and, increasingly, fat.

*Bliss point (food) In the formulation of food products, the bliss point is the amount of an ingredient such as salt, sugar, or fat which optimizes palatability. (Wiki)

I think we are violently agreeing, and I missed the point of your post - apologies. I hope you can understand why someone who is fat but fit and has a self-acknowledged psychological issue with food might be a little sensitive about the subject - especially as it's often painted on a cycling forum where fatness is too often equated with moral deficiency.

 

[srw]

[QUOTE 4234052, member: 259"]Which cycling forum is that then? It doesn't sound much like this one - quite the reverse I think. [/QUOTE]
This one, perhaps?

Who had also ridden 500 miles that week (as had I) and he barely made a dent in his portion.

I have often wondered whether obesity would be less widespread if we applied the same compassion to those who compulsively overeat as to those who compulsively undereat.

 

[Fab Foodie]

Yes, I was talking about smoked salmon, but the fundamental biochemistry is correct.

Then you'll realise that the sugar on the outside will attract water therefore drying out the meat/fish (osmosis) rather than keeping it inside.

 

[User482]

Then you'll realise that the sugar on the outside will attract water therefore drying out the meat/fish (osmosis) rather than keeping it inside.

Surely immaterial, given that the salmon is covered in salt, doing the same thing?

 

[SavageHoutkop]

I'm not keen on the taste of tap water here...One of those Brita filtered water bottles, I think, then.

We got a filter when we lived in Oxford (couldn't stand the water there either). How about a bit of lemon juice in the water (if it's too hard)?