The Imperial Ministry of Anti Health has put a total ban on dogs as a house hold pet.

A problem human beings share is a tendency to fall for the ‘see food’ diet.  Our primitive genetic coding sometimes tells us when food’s available, just incase there’s a shortage tomorrow – and if crispy, golden, succulent goodies confront us at every street corner, we don’t always stop to ask our stomach if we are genuinely hungry.

Of course this weakness has been fully exploited by the big diet companies and the supermarkets too.  The shops are full of products claiming to be low fat or low calorie, but they aren’t really the slimming solutions that they appear to be.

How do you define slimming food? An orange? An avocado? A chicken salad? Or is it a pre-packaged ready meal with low-fat written all over it that looks very much like high-fat, deep fried product we’d actually prefer to eat? Are we really going to change our eating habits permanently by drinking three imitation chocolate milkshakes everyday for a month? Or are our bodies going to be even more confused when we finally give up the pretend party food and start introducing weird stuff like fish and tomatoes and brown rice?

Another problem with special diet foods is that, in order to make them taste as good as real food, a lot of sugar or chemicals have to be added.  So a low-fat label often means high sugar.  A Sunday Times article in February 1999 by Steve Farrar and Tom Robbins revealed that many leading slimming products (including diet drinks) are simply loaded with sugar which can be addictive as well as harmful; according to the same article, refined sugar consumption could be responsible for the deaths of 3000 British women a year with heart disease.

And for chemicals, well, that’s a controversial subject and the jury is still out on a lot of them.  But in the meantime it’s safer to stick with the simplest and most natural basic ingredients instead of putting stuff in our bodies that we haven’t  learned to deal with.

So, weighing up the evidence, it seems that the best thing about diet meals is that they are much more expensive than real food so you probably can’t afford to buy as many of them.

So Why Do We Keep Doing It

The great thing about banging your head on a brick wall is that it’s so wonderful when you stop.  Of course, you may already have caused yourself a permanent injury…

People with problems are anxious and afraid that things will get worse – so the one thing they are reluctant to do is change, which, of course, is exactly what they most need to do.

In spite of the fact that dieting makes them miserable and doesn’t provide a permanent solution, it’s familiar territory.  It can also be expensive and difficult, and that gives them confidence.  Desperate people will believe anything – and if nothing’s worked in the past it’s reasonable to assume that they have to try harder and spend more money next time round.  Of course, this opens the door to a lot of bizarre and even fake diet plans, as well as the usual calorie cutters.

What do you think?

Myths & Truths About Nutrition

Myth: Heart disease in is caused by consumption of cholesterol and saturated fat from animal products.

Truth: During the period of rapid increase in heart disease (1920-1960), Consumption of animal fats declined but consumption of hydrogenated and industrially processed vegetable fats increased dramatically.

Myth: Saturated fat clogs arteries.

Truth: The fatty acids found in artery clogs are mostly unsaturated (74%) of which 41% are polyunsaturated. 

Myth: Vegetarianism is healthy.

Truth: The annual all-cause death rate of vegetarian men is slightly more than that of non-vegetarian men (.93% vs .89%); the annual death rate of vegetarian women is significantly more than that of non-vegetarian women (.86% vs .54%) 

Myth: Vitamin B₁₂ can be obtained from certain plant sources such as blue-green algae and soy products.

Truth: Vitamin B₁₂ is not absorbed from plant sources. Modern soy products increase the body's need for B₁₂. 

Myth: For good health, serum cholesterol should be less than 180 mg/dl.

Truth: The all-cause death rate is higher in individuals with cholesterol levels lower than 180 mg/dl. 

Myth: Animal fats cause cancer and heart disease.

Truth: Animal fats contain many nutrients that protect against cancer and heart disease; elevated rates of cancer and heart disease are associated with consumption of large amounts of vegetable oils. 

Myth: Children benefit from a low-fat diet.

Truth: Children on low-fat diets suffer from growth problems, failure to thrive & learning disabilities. 

Myth: A low-fat diet will make you "feel better . . . and increase your joy of living."

Truth: Low-fat diets are associated with increased rates of depression, psychological problems, fatigue, violence and suicide. 

Myth: To avoid heart disease, we should use margarine instead of butter.

Truth: Margarine eaters have twice the rate of heart disease as butter eaters. 

Myth: We do not consume enough essential fatty acids.

Truth: We consume far too much of one kind of EFA (omega-6 EFAs found in most polyunsaturated vegetable oils) but not enough of another kind of EFA (omega-3 EFAs found in fish, fish oils, eggs from properly fed chickens, dark green vegetables and herbs, and oils from certain seeds such as flax and chia, nuts such as walnuts and in small amounts in all whole grains.) 

Myth: A vegetarian diet will protect you against atherosclerosis.

Truth: The International Atherosclerosis Project found that vegetarians had just as much atherosclerosis as meat eaters. 

Myth: Low-fat diets prevent breast cancer.

Truth: A recent study found that women on very low-fat diets (less than 20%) had the same rate of breast cancer as women who consumed large amounts of fat. 

Myth: The "cave man diet" was low in fat.

Truth: Throughout the world, primitive peoples sought out and consumed fat from fish and shellfish, water fowl, sea mammals, land birds, insects, reptiles, rodents, bears, dogs, pigs, cattle, sheep, goats, game, eggs, nuts and milk products. (Abrams, Food & Evolution 1987)

Myth: Coconut oil causes heart disease.

Truth: When coconut oil was fed as 7% of energy to patients recovering from heart attacks, the patients had greater improvement compared to untreated controls, and no difference compared to patents treated with corn or safflower oils. Populations that consume coconut oil have low rates of heart disease. Coconut oil may also be one of the most useful oils to prevent heart disease because of its antiviral and antimicrobial characteristics. 

Myth: Saturated fats inhibit production of anti-inflammatory prostaglandins.

Truth: Saturated fats actually improve the production of all prostaglandins by facilitating the conversion of essential fatty acids. 

Myth: Arachidonic acid in foods like liver, butter and egg yolks causes production of "bad" inflammatory prostaglandins.

Truth: Series 2 prostaglandins that the body makes from arachidonic acid both encourage and inhibit inflammation under appropriate circumstances. Arachidonic acid is vital for the function of the brain and nervous system. 

Myth: Beef causes colon cancer

Truth: Argentina, with higher beef consumption, has lower rates of colon cancer than the US. Mormons have lower rates of colon cancer than vegetarian Seventh Day Adventists 

HI there 

In this short film I talk about the difference between the foods we often want and the foods we actually need, not only to lose weight but to also be healthy and have plenty of energy.

In you are looking for more information on this subject matter than you might like to listen to some of the following pod-casts

Interviews with Health and Fitness Professional Ben Pratt called; 

Are carbohydrates making you fat and What's is an Exceptional Diet 

Interview with Nutritionist Lucy Ann-Prideaux

Please make any comments  you have about the above film/

Hi everyone 

Welcome to the third in a series of three pod-casts  with Health and Fitness Professional, Ben Pratt.

The  first pod-cast is called "What is an Exceptional Diet " and  the second is called "Are Carbohydrates Making you  Fat".

The last in the series is called "Is Stress Making You Fat". Here we discuss how stress affects the body and in addition we look at how eating different types of oils can affect your health and well being.

To find out more about Ben and his products and service then have a look at his web site 

www.naturalfoodfinder.co.uk

www.nutritions-playground.com

Please make a comment if you find this pod-cast useful

Hi everyone 

In this pod-cast I talk with Health and Fitness Professional, Ben Pratt about what is the difference between a good, great and an exceptional diet.

To find out more about Ben and his products and service then have a look at his web site 

www.naturalfoodfinder.co.uk

www.nutritions-playground.com

Please make a comment if you find this pod-cast useful

Hi everyone

If you are interested in the subject of fat then please have watch this film with Dr Mary Enig.

Why the experts agree: Diets just don't work!

Hi all,

Here's a little something you might like to see... It's The Phillips vs The Mitchells in the first full-episode (5 parts) of Fat Chance, a series that I was involved in back in 2003. Wait till you see what these families were doing and eating before myself and Jane DeVille-Almond got hold of them!

You can watch the whole episode on petecohen.com:
http://www.petecohen.com/go/episode/fat-chance/

P.S I'm putting loads more clips up from my TV work over the next few months - so stay tuned.