I’m thoroughly enjoying the CH4 ‘Food Fight’ season:
www.channel4.com/food/on-tv/the-big-food-fight/the-big-food-fight.html
but I can’t help wondering who is watching? is it preaching to the converted…?
After all, in the T.P. household we eat loads of fruit, veggies, wholemeal bread and pulses – consequently we probably produce more poo than most east Africans (see – eat to change your life) and it is possible that we are causing global warming through our own excessive production of natural gas!
Ch4 say: “With the worst diet in Europe, two thirds of Britons are overweight, and treating obesity-related diseases costs the NHS more than £3 billion a year. Experts fear that today’s children could be the first generation to die younger than their parents if nothing is done.”It is a shocking fact that most people in the UK eat worse food than people who live in far more impoverished conditions in other parts of the world – that the obese folk around us are actually malnourished.
Especially as what we eat then affects not just our life span but our ability to function and enjoy our life.
Saint Jamie Oliver’s programme Eat to Save Your Life certainly made an impression on some of the labourers that we work with, they did watch it. They laugh at our vegetarian diet, and like many people, they find it hard to believe that Mr Tara Plumbing usually eats vegan meals every day at home (doesn’t he miss his meat?). The labourers’ diets are typical of those on the TV programme – refined, processed, convenience food, meat and potatoes, absolutely no fruit or vegetables.
The long term consequences of such a diet were graphically shown, it was hard hitting. A shorter life and increased chance of getting all sorts of disabling diseases.
Most important – I thought – was the increased likelihood of male impotency. I guess we all have different priorities!
The message was clear – eat fruit and veggies; wholefoods; simple home cooked foods; the best quality you can afford and a little indulgence will probably not hurt.
If you get chance to watch repeats I recommend them, if you can watch only 1, see Eat to Save Your Life:
I’ve been investigating this very issue for some time now. No real conclusions but I am not as large as I was.
Before Christmas I found myself weighing in at sixteen and a half stone with a waist that was bordering on 38”! How did this happen? Ten years ago I had a perfect muscular physique, I was one of the schools top athletes and popular with the girls too! Unfortunately, in the past ten years I’ve been stuck behind a desk, eating when my partner gets in from work at 9pm and I don’t have the time to work out, so gradually over time my stomach has been creeping up on me. I’ve always been able to hear a faint voice chanting “belly’s going to get you” in the back of my head, but all of a sudden it had me and I was struggling to put my socks on!!!
Since Christmas, I’ve lost over two stone (now fourteen four) and my waist is down to a respectable 34 (I’m a fairly sturdy build so I will never be at 28” waist).
St Jamie had an impact on me too, I went Organic after Christmass and cooked everything from scratch – Not a tin, bottle or packet in the house. I only eat Organic meats now and I make sure I know exactly what I’m putting into my temple. I have also cut out all food after 6.30 along with daytime snacks and the weight just dropped off. I have started eating breakfast as well because this helps kick start your metabolism.
Best buy this year …. Kenwood Chef – If you are into coking and like to make everything from scratch you need one of these.