h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

why dooes a low fat diet cause so many headaches???we have a low fat diet in our house..for medical reasons,and it is getting harder to find something to make meals with.does anyone have the same problem,and what suggestions can you make to make our meals more interesting.we thought we'd lose weight as well,but weve both put it on!!!!not good..no...,and we still have our five portions of fruit and veg!!!!

Hi sal, so what exactly do you eat, then? My hubby was on a low fat diet and it doesn't have to taste ugly, I think it's just in your head. If you think you can't do without fat, you should try MCT ( middle-chained-tri(something like glycerids or so), thats a fat that just goes through

hi sal...

well you've got me there hun....
all depends on what you call low fat really.... luckily we don't have to be on any paticular diet, but i do try to see we eat healthily, well most of the time... lol...
i buy lean cuts of meat, and always try to cut the fat off meat before cooking.... i grill or griddle when possible and not fry, unless it's stirfry as it cooks in it's own juices....
if i do use oil i use reduced fat sunflower oil..... i also use low fat sunflower spread, not butter....
i don't buy full cream milk, we have semi-skimmed.... only have cream as a treat now n again....
there are many low fat products in the supermarkets these days.... asda's range "good for you" is very good.....
hope you manage to come up with some different ideas hun....
try a chicken stirfry with brown rice.....

good luck....
bright blessings...
sheryl....xxxxxx

hi claudia,my hubby had a heart attack almost five years ago,and he has high cholesterol.his body doesnt get rid of it,as most peoples do.we have salads,and low fat foods..we check that everything has a fat content of less than 10.0% per 100.we have potatoes and veggies,and pasta,and pork when we eat meat,and chicken `and special cheese.he cant have egs or seafood,apart from meckerel....but he doesnt like much fish anyway.oh!!and once a week pizza,but very low fat as a general rule!!!xx

Well, oat, apples and carrots are perfect to get the cholesterol down a bit, when eating pasta, you should make sure it's wholemeal, as should be the bread. If you drink coffee, you should filter it, for some reason coffee increases the cholesterol if brewed directly and not being filtered and I think Gingko is said to lower it as well, but you'll have to ask in your chemist's shop

hi sheryl,we do all those things,semi -skimmed milk,no cream,etc,only on an odd occasion we have red meat,...and i buy thrkey wuth sage and onion,from asda range...and lots more as well.i'm just finding it hard to decide what to eat thats good any more,,,.think i might have oto try another supermarket!!!!nice to hear from you.xxxx

Hi sweetheart, i am off now to the hospital and could not resist a peek. Remind me when i get back i can give you loads of ideas as thats my job. i also have an excellent way of finding out if a product is genuinely low fat too!! Please vbe patient, i may be well enough to do it at the weekend, but i promise i will help you as much as i can. i see so many people whom thinking they are doing so well, but have similar problems to yourself. I have just left one of my cliemst whom sounded just like you, that was in March today i weighed her and she had lost 3 1/2 stone, so you see there is hope and she is alot fitter and healthier too. Diane xxx p.s. thanks for the message of support, i need it, well here goes bye xxxxxx

I'm no expert on nutrition and I'm fortunate that I can mostly eat what I like. However, I am interested in eating healthily. You mentioned that you had put on weight despite being on a low fat diet. Is it not the case that too much carbohydrate can also make you put on weight? I have also heard that low fat foods often contain extra sugars to improve the taste and so low-fat does not necessarily mean low-cal.
I myself suddenly put on half a stone at the beginning of this year and I firmly believe that having a hot chocolate drink at work every morning and drinking red wine every weekend were the culprits. I decided to make Hot Chocolate and Red Wine treats only and lost the half a stone very quickly.
I know that you are not as fit and well as some of us Sal, but I would suggest that you should try and do as much of your own cooking as possible and not rely on food manufacturers labelling to tell you what is or isn't low fat. I have seen receipe books especially for low fat diets - have you got one?
I look forward to reading Diane B's tips for low fat eating and I hope she gets well soon.
Liz
~

hi liz.i knoow that alot of my problem is that i .sweet things.i try to eat low fat yoghurt when i am peckish ,or some fruit,but but with a cupboard full of tit bits for the girls i am very tempted.i dont exercise either..i just got myself a pedalling thing,but it hurts my hips if i use it for too long.i think most people would describe me as the original couch potato...but i realy dont want to be.i put ...not half a stone....but four stone on about nine year ago,when my problems got worse with mobility,and i cant shift it.i have to think about what hubby can eat as well though....we got a bit fed up of beans ontoast!!!chat latersalxxx

i dont believe i just removed this from my space...now i have to try nd get it back

It should still be on your converstion list.
Click on more conversations list, if you do not see it on your front page.

Hello Sal- I have been out of touch for a while – my computer has had a headache!

I don't think its low-fat food that produces headaches - probably you’re not eating enough of the right things or may have cut something else out without realising and are suffering withdrawal symptoms. I am on the dreaded Atkins (it works for me, ok!) and suffered headaches when I first started, because of caffeine reduction and sugar /processed carb withdrawal) It only took a couple of days for my body to readjust and now I am fine, in fact I never felt healthier! The food I normally eat now is obviously low carbohydrate but if I overdo it any time the headaches (and other symptoms quickly remind me of what I have done!

Sorry to hear of your hubby’s heart problems, but I’m sure with you looking after him and watching his diet so well the condition can be managed. Sorry I can’t comment on tasty alternatives because we’re following different ways of eating, but I would suggest lots of fresh unprocessed food is far better and healthier than the other choices that lead us into bad eating habits.

Its difficult when you tell yourself you can’t ever again eat a certain thing, and makes you crave it even more – that’s the thought for food you’re referring to, eh? Never say never again! Still, a little of what you fancy once in a while can’t do too much harm, surely?

Bye for now, I’m very buy again, lots of plans in the offing and not much time to do them!

Love x

I will ask the wife if she has any good recipes, as we are both eating sensibly and in 2 months I have lost 2 stone and a bit. I would offer my own advice but being a genetic scot if it ain't frying I aint cooking!

hi there annielovely to hear from you.i wondered where you ha gone..but i have been a bit neglectful of my messages...cos it kept kicking me out!!!!!i have jeard soooo many bad eports about the atkins diet...but i suppose its whats best for you,and if it's working,well done.i dont want to diet as such,just try healthy eating..but mainly i'm worried about hubby eating the right things.hope to chat soon..and ease up a bit..,catch ypu when youre passing eh!!!!salxxxx

helo tone,havent chatted for a while!!!!oooooo,i darent use the frying pan in here...it has been banned for a l-o-n-g time now.we use the grill for most things..no chip pan.that went years ago...just low fat oven chips.SO HOW COME you managed to lose two stone..and were putting it on?????somethin dont sound right !!!!do you have a sweet tooth??i think thats my downfall!!!salxxxxx

Big portions and beer were my downfall, after quitting smoking.
More than glad I did, considering how Mum and Dad went!
Losing 2 stone has taken about three months of just eating sensible food and smaller portions, along with an upturn in work in my second job meaning I spend less time at home. I think the trick is not to deny your cravings, but to allow them in small doses. Denying the cravings just ups the temptation to 'cheat' as it were!Another thing that has helped is being married to my wife, who organises me, and tells me what I am allowed to eat.

hi there,well the children have ben here today,,,,,,so ive told them all the sweet things that are left tonight are going in the bin!!!!thats my temptation out the window..i have kept the yoghurts though!!!a good healthy food shop at some point tomorrow,,and here goes,,,,,it looks as though i might be going on a dietof healthy eating.no exercising i'm afraid,unless i pedal for an odd five minutes here and there!!!!wish me luck.salxx

well,if i carry on like this i'm gonna look like a turkey!!!!!
no biscuits,just yoghurts,...but must admit to having half a pizza!!!i think i lost two punds,but have to check the scales again tomorrow..just to be sure.i could really eat a trifle just now though!!!!!

Hi Sal,
Well hopefully some orf the info i give now may help both of you. As you know i have been teaching healthy eating for a number of years. I also have recently lost 40lb and am bnow within 3lb of my goal. The main reason i gained the weight i did, was because i had a car crash a couple of years ago, and it completly sent me on a downer,and i also was not as mobile as before. See even such as me gain weight!!
Anyway the question how do we find low fat food? The manufactors love to misguide us, in the efforts to sell more products, after all thats all they are interested in. They will promote a product being low fat when in actual fact it could be high!! So how do they get away with this? Well that one i will post later, but believe me when a product says for e.g its 95% free it isnt really...well it is and isn't....confused yet...as far as the body is concerned it isnt.

Right when shopping next time you need to take your time as you will need to read the labels carefully, take glasses if nes.,
For every 100 cals (NOT KJ) in a product don't go over 3grms of fat, and thats the top line of the fat not the broken down bits like sat fat, trans fat, mono fat etc. The top line ok. When looking at the label always stay on the same side for the reading. So for example. If you brought a yogurt and it said it contained 100 cal, you can go up to 3grms fat but not over it. If it said 200 cals you would be allowed up to 6 grms fat, 300 cals 9grms fat. If it only had say 50 cals in it you would be allowed 1.5grms fat. So if a product had 150 cals in it it would be 4.5 grms fat.
1grm of fat contains 9 cals, so if we allow 3grms for every 100 cals we would be getting 27 cals of fat per 100 cals eaten. Which is 27%, now this may sound high, it isn't, its the reccomended amount for low fat eating.
Now i hear you ask but that sounds way to high when products state they are 95% fat free, well have a look at some of the labels then and you will find that many are higher than that amount. So how come they can state its 95% fat free when it isn't? Well the manufactors are going on the weight of a product and not the calorific value. So think like this if i gave you a bag of carrots and a cream cake which one would make you gain weight? The carrots or the cake......hopefully you would say the cake, so its nothing to do with the weight of a product but more to do with the contents of the product. Your body recognises cals not the weight of a product as a source of energy.
So thats one way of buying the right type of foods.
The other ways are looking at portion control, when serving meals on your plate imange a shallow pasta dish being placed over the top, your meal should not touch the top, unless its veg or salad.
Only allow 2 pieces of fruit a day, and remember bananas, grapes pineapple are high in cals so dont have two of those on the same day. Grapes should be limited to a small handful a day, and bananas small ones, pineapple 2 rings.
Right i am sending this message and starting a new one ok Diane xx

OK im back,
Aim to have skimmed milk and sweetners ( alot of people worry about how safe these are, but to get any side effects you would have to consume buckets each and every day. Try to go for decaf coffee and tea, and avoid fizzy drinks even low cals ones, as they are not very good on the bones.
Always aim to have good sources of calcium to as this is important for the bones and can also help to regulate the blood pressure. What i normally say is have your milk in your tea and coffee and also either have a cereal with milk or a yogurt each day.
Dont allow yourself to go over 4 1/2 hours between meals, and never skip a meal. (OK i may sound a hypocrite here but then i am an ex anorexic and bulimic) when serving ach meal try and make it as colourful as poss, so when preparing veg., try and aim to have different cols with each meal, eg. carrots (orange) broc (green) cauli (white) and pepper (yellow), its the different cols that give us the vits and min we need and most of thenm help us to break down fats and sugars which is what we need when wanting to lose weight and eat healthy.
Right you have a sweet tooth...snap!!! he he.
Here are some ideas.....limit your intake of treats to no more than 200 cals per day. Curly Wurly 115 cals, 2 fingered kit kat 120, marks and sparks do some wicked desserts that are low cal and low fat, sugar free jelly with muller light yogurt on top. new slimfast snack bars ( now i would never normally rec these but these are snack bars and not meal replacement bars ok) 99 cals.
When looking for low fat food there will always be foods that for certain reasons cant get as low as i have said, e.g mayo, cheese, certain meats, so when buying these try to find as low as you can get, and be careful how much you do consume. We do need a certain amount of fat within our diets to help vit A D E K to get absorbed.
When looking at your dinner plate try and visualize it has deviding lines on it and you wont go far wrong, 1/2 plate is to be filled up with salad/veg,the other half divide that into 3 sections 2 sections are for your carbs (pots, pasta, rice etc) now the 1/3rd you are left with is for your meat and fish etc., You should not consume any more meat than would be found in say for eg a bar of bath soap per day.
We should all aim to eat oily fish 2x's a week to get out healthly omega 3/6 fats that help out hearts etc., (salmon, mackeral,herrings,sardines anchovies) But again not massive portions of them.
So hope some of this info will help both you and your husband, i am sure i will get some disaggree with me, but i am used to that. And if anybody wants to know by whom was i taught this......the top lecturer of dietitians at leed uni. I am sure you will have questions so feel free and fire away hon., Lots of Diane xxx