Everyday Systems

This is a health & nutrition blog I like to follow and his latest ideas on weight loss are below:

http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2 ... ty_28.html

His "First Level" sound especially familiar!

The first level seems familiar and sensible Levels 2 and 3 look like useful additions for people trying to lose more weight or prepare more nutritious food.

I have to say, he really lost me at level 4 - cook things only by themselves, plain? No flavour in your food? Um.... not for me

If you want to eat butter, eat it separately rather than mixing it in with your dish.

Wha-a-a-at???? (I suspect there's an editing issue here, and that he's nit suggesting chowing down on a stick of butter.

I also think that the idea that food should be un-palatable is sort of insane.

Pick three foods, and eat nothing else

Again, I think that's crazy. Likewise, eating food you would only enjoy if you were really hungry.

This seems joyless at best. Hardly sustainable.

Interesting. He's ruthlessly utilitarian about this, approaching eating with an engineer's perspective.

I think I will stick to No S. There's enough latitude to accommodate our human foibles.

That's really interesting. Thank you, BuckeyePink, I hadn't seen this blog before.

I am a big believer in pleasure, and the idea of trying to kill your pleasure in eating seems sad and crazy to me. Also, very American -- who else runs around trying to make eating NOT enjoyable but us? And maybe the British ... And we know how skinny this approach to eating has made Americans!

Thalia wrote:I am a big believer in pleasure, and the idea of trying to kill your pleasure in eating seems sad and crazy to me. Also, very American -- who else runs around trying to make eating NOT enjoyable but us? And maybe the British ... And we know how skinny this approach to eating has made Americans!

I agree.

The article reminded me of another eating program I'm aware of and it's certainly not about pleasure!

And maybe the British

When my husband and I were in England and Scotland for two weeks, we ate VERY well. I had the best tomato soup ever at the Royal Armories Museum in Leeds. And I had the best potato salad ever at a pub in Coldstream. When my husband first ordered peas, we were leery of them, because they were radioactive-green, but he quickly discovered that's because they were actually FRESH! He ate peas almost every evening because, no matter where we were, they were good.

And NOTHING beats Irish grass-fed beef.

Overall, we ate better in Britain than we ever have in the United States (with the exception of Charleston, SC). The portions were the perfect size, too, to fill you up without making you stuffed (and we frequently had room to share a dessert).

No, I don't think anyone hates their food more than Americans.

Hey Brits don't hate food! Well most of us....

I can see the point of this strategy - in my own life, the more tasty the food, the greater my appetite. If I weren't fat, it wouldn't matter. Perhaps the ideal is the "French" approach - we are told they savour their food, giving themselves time to eat, so they get more pleasure out of smaller quantities. @ Thalia: The problem is not so much that Americans hate food, as Americans making tasty food but then not giving themselves time to savour it.

Graham wrote:I can see the point of this strategy - in my own life, the more tasty the food, the greater my appetite.

Really? This isn't true for me. I find that, if I eat excellent tasty food, I'm satisfied much faster than if I eat bland boring food. There's a restaurant I really like in London that serves open ravioli with fresh egg and truffle shavings - the portion size is pretty miniscule but I am totally satisfied after it.

@Sheepish - clearly being satisfied is a complex matter - many factors contributing to it. I'm thinking of your lovely restaurant meal, and assuming you do in fact savour it? Linger over it? Rather fits what I said about the "French" style of eating. And your reaction to bland food? I'm thinking you probably mean carby stuff like rice or pasta? There I see there is a big divide - some people happily fill up on carbs, others like me won't - if I do I end up feeling over-full and under-nourished all at once.

I think of meals enjoyed with Bangladeshi or Pakistani friends, where, stuffed with rice, dal and spiced meats, sure I couldn't eat another morsel - out comes the rasmalai and I'm instantly ready to eat again! Research on lab rats demonstrated this effect years ago - their weight was stable on ad lib "lab chow" - but they became obese when given cafeteria options to choose from. The duller diet seemed to be part of their ability to match calories in to calories out.

Taste, aroma, stomach distension, variety, visual appeal, social context all play their part - and time, time to absorb all the stimuli that contribute to satisfaction.

Graham wrote:@Sheepish - clearly being satisfied is a complex matter - many factors contributing to it. I'm thinking of your lovely restaurant meal, and assuming you do in fact savour it? Linger over it? Rather fits what I said about the "French" style of eating. And your reaction to bland food? I'm thinking you probably mean carby stuff like rice or pasta? There I see there is a big divide - some people happily fill up on carbs, others like me won't - if I do I end up feeling over-full and under-nourished all at once.

I think of meals enjoyed with Bangladeshi or Pakistani friends, where, stuffed with rice, dal and spiced meats, sure I couldn't eat another morsel - out comes the rasmalai and I'm instantly ready to eat again! Research on lab rats demonstrated this effect years ago - their weight was stable on ad lib "lab chow" - but they became obese when given cafeteria options to choose from. The duller diet seemed to be part of their ability to match calories in to calories out.

Taste, aroma, stomach distension, variety, visual appeal, social context all play their part - and time, time to absorb all the stimuli that contribute to satisfaction.

I think it is a complex thing, satisfaction.. I don't think of carbs, specifically, when I think bland food - I think pretty much any food group can be made bland and any can be made exciting. I love carbs - open ravioli with fresh egg and truffle is definitely nicer than just fresh eggs and truffle - but they need seasoning and flavouring to be nice. But then the same is true for protein, for fat, etc, etc..

Another thought about bland vs interesting food for me: When I'm eating duller food, I'm asking myself "Must I go on eating?". When I eat interesting food I'm asking myself "Must I stop eating?" I think that is why the "dull food" strategy works for those it works for.

check out this site for some really interesting posts on the differences between satiation and satiety--

http://www.gnolls.org/