Category - Food

Following on from my last post about that BBC programme which looked at new scientific findings about weight loss, I noticed tonight that Marks & Spencer is advertising a new range of “Simply Fuller Longer” meals. They contain high protein – one of the key points made by the BBC programme.

Exclusive to M&S, the range was launched in January 2010. The range was developed with expert advice from scientists at the Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health at the University of Aberdeen. The Rowett Institute is renowned for its ground-breaking research on effective weight-loss and their work has shown that diets higher in protein result in more effective weight loss as part of a calorie controlled diet.

It’s interesting how these things work, and how people think. Only the night before I watched one of those UKTV Food programmes – Monster Munchies – which is hosted by Matt Dawson (a former rugby player). On this show, they have two teams competing to make giant versions of common well-known dishes or snacks. Usually, the finished articles are disgusting because you’ve seen how much they’ve messed around with them to get them to work.

On the programme I saw, the challenge was to make a giant Scotch Egg. Matt Dawson repeatedly turned his nose up at the idea of eating a Scotch Egg – he didn’t go into detail, but I think the point was that eggs and sausage meat are unhealthy (in his opinion), hence his dislike of the things.

If the evidence about protein is correct – and there’s no reason to doubt it – the occasional Scotch Egg (and the protein it contains) isn’t so bad after all. Particularly if you make it yourself and eat it as part of a calorie-controlled diet.

As I said in that last post, ADIs are often quite sedentary and managing their health and weight is something they need to be in control of.

I just watched a fascinating programme on BBC One called “10 Things You Need to Know About Losing Weight“. It is available on iPlayer for the usual limited time.

The programme starts by explaining that visceral fat – fat which fills body cavities and surrounds organs – is the most dangerous kind, and can lead to various health problems including cancer and Type 2 Diabetes. It is this fat which gives people enhanced waistlines even if they aren’t overtly fat, but it is also the first fat to be burnt when a person starts dieting/exercising.

Just stopping eating – as in the classic diet – is no good. You’ve got to consider other things, too.

The 10 things were as follows (all backed up with current scientific evidence):

1. Don’t skip breakfast/meals – if you do, your brain makes you crave high-calorie foods to compensate.
2. Use smaller plates – if you change your plate size from 12″ to 10″ and you could eat up to 22% less food.
3. Calories matter – for example, a chicken dinner with potatoes and vegetables is quite possibly more than you can eat, but a fruit smoothie containing the same number of calories can be knocked back in seconds.
4. Don’t blame your metabolism – you’re just eating more calories than you are burning.
5. Protein makes you feel fuller for longer.
6. The exact same meal served as a soup instead of separate items with a glass of water keeps your stomach full for longer.
7. The wider the choice, the more you will eat.
8. Dairy calcium causes you to excrete more fat – twice as much as the non-dairy equivalent diet.
9. Moderate exercise carries on burning fat for up to 24 hours after you do it. The actual excercise burns very little, but the main effect occurs after you stop.
10. Even small changes to the amount of exercise you do burns a significant amount of calories – up to 240 just by going up and down the stairs a few times and maybe walking to the shops.

Obviously, you have to make up your own mind. But it is something that a lot of driving instructors really ought to think about – sitting down all day is not good for the waistline!

What IS interesting is that if you Google for information on weight loss, the advice is all old. It advises just eating less and becoming some sort of herbivore. As the presenter of the BBC show said (and he is a trained doctor), when he was at medical school, they were just taught that calories are calories, when modern science is saying absolutely the opposite.