I've cut out milk on cereals and substrituted it with hazelnut milk instead. Mmmm delicious and NO fat. There is soya / almond / cashew etc etc so pick a flavour you like.

The norm in most professional kitchens is that washing up is done by entirely separate staff in a separate area, never in the kitchen where the cooking is done. Even the most junior commis chef would never do any washing up.

 

So it's not a chef function or skill.

.

When I was 16 I worked one summer as a pantry boy on the Fishguard->Rosslare ferry. While crockery & cutlery was washed up by me & the other pantry boy the chefs always washed up their own utensils & pans. I always assumed that it was so they could be sure it had been done properly. I'm sure things will have changed in the last 50 years eg we did all washing up by hand - no dishwasher.

When I was 16 I worked one summer as a pantry boy on the Fishguard->Rosslare ferry. While crockery & cutlery was washed up by me & the other pantry boy the chefs always washed up their own utensils & pans. I always assumed that it was so they could be sure it had been done properly. I'm sure things will have changed in the last 50 years eg we did all washing up by hand - no dishwasher.

 

On a ferry I can well understand the circumstances would be different. My knowledge of this is lifelong from my father always being in catering for hotels, clubs and restaurants.

 

All that was always manual and never by chefs, the machines are ok for front of house crockery but not for the kitchen "tinwash" where only manual is good enough to deal with baked on foodstuffs.

.

Why do you need to reduce your cholesterol levels? Try reading "The Great Cholesterol Con" and "Too Many Pills" for a more modern and informed view.

 

Books like that quite rightly point out the fallacy of relying on medication to 'treat' certain conditions (where in reality, they often just mask the symptoms and don't address the root cause of what caused the issue in the first place - and of course the drugs almost always have negative side effects as well!).

 

And yes, we all need cholesterol to thrive. However high blood cholesterol is often a proxy for excessive fat intake and/or a poor diet, and that's bad. So reducing blood cholesterol readings is usually a good thing.

But to be clear, its not good to do it with drugs like statins - you need to modify your diet.

One issue is how much a change in eating habits now will help if I get Covid19 in the next few months? Of course in the long term it might benefit us in other ways, but that is much less of a motivator.

 

You can change things like your blood lipid levels in 24hrs!

Many people with type 2 diabetes who radically change their diet can be 'cured' in a matter of a few weeks.

And a couple of weeks is also all it takes for non diabetic people to drastically increase their insulin sensitivity and start to see significant reductions in things like inflammatory conditions if you're having problems with certain foods. And your immune response capability is going to get stronger and stronger as this happens.

 

So yea ... its WELL worth making the change in eating habits right away, even if things like fat loss are going to take a good few months/years to become significant.

Books like that quite rightly point out the fallacy of relying on medication to 'treat' certain conditions (where in reality, they often just mask the symptoms and don't address the root cause of what caused the issue in the first place - and of course the drugs almost always have negative side effects as well!).

 

And yes, we all need cholesterol to thrive. However high blood cholesterol is often a proxy for excessive fat intake and/or a poor diet, and that's bad. So reducing blood cholesterol readings is usually a good thing.

But to be clear, its not good to do it with drugs like statins - you need to modify your diet.

 

That's exactly what I did.

 

The "threat," from my GP was that unless I could get my total and LDL levels to below the NHS stated figured of 5.0 and 3.0 respectively, she would be prescribing statins.

 

My levels were 7.6 total, 4.5 LDL.

 

I achieved it within 6 months, hence the 2.5 stone weight loss as a by-product.

 

Cutting out dairy was a big part of that.

In the cystic fibrosis case I mentioned earlier in the thread diet is a lifetime issue. Good diet established in childhood and maintained though life makes a vast difference to length and quality of life.

 

I totally agree, but I think the important thing here is that its not just for people with chronic illnesses such as cystic fibrosis. Doesn't a good diet make a vast difference to the length and quality of life of pretty much everybody?

 

It would seem that one of the problems with our modern society and all its medical advances, is that while overall life expectancy has in general been rising, the quality of life in the last decades hasn't! Medicine has become very good at stopping you dying, but not really making you healthy (or even curing the underlying problems!). The cynical out there will point out that the maximum profit for the pharmaceutical companies is when they lock you in to a lifetime of needing to rely on their medication. They don't really want you to be 'cured'. Just kept alive as long as possible.

That's exactly what I did.

The "threat," from my GP was that unless I could get my total and LDL levels to below the NHS stated figured of 5.0 and 3.0 respectively, she would be prescribing statins.

My levels were 7.6 total, 4.5 LDL.

I achieved it within 6 months, hence the 2.5 stone weight loss as a by-product.

Cutting out dairy was a big part of that.

 

Awesome!

You mentioned in a previous post that you'd also had other health benefits from cutting out dairy? care to share ??

I see a fair bit of talk about the exercise side of things, but not so much on the diet aspect...

 

To follow up on this, I subscribe to a number of health related podcasts and youtube channels, and to be honest, they've all singing from the same hymn sheet and telling everyone how important it is to protect yourself from Coronovirus by eating healthily, however the mainstream media has still seemed to be fairly quiet about discussing the elephant in the room.

However a couple of days ago Dr. Aseem Malhotra did speak in an article in the Telegraph, and the BBC did do a very brief interview with him

 

 

A summary of the points:

 

'Poor diet is responsible for more death than physical activity, smoking and alchohol COMBINED'

'Specifically, 11 million deaths per year due to bad diet'

'obesity, type 2 diabetes etc ... all routed in bad diet'

'You can reverse, send into remission or massively improve those risk factors within the space of just a few weeks'

'>50% of UK diet unhealthy food .... nutrient deficient ... highly processed ...'

 

'Government needs to add guideline to Eat Real Food and protect the NHS ..'

'10 fold more likely to die of Covid19 if you're obese' (and this is for under 60s)

 

And I guess its worth reminding that the definition of Obese is a BMI of 30 or more. Plus, its not going to be a binary thing. i.e. the '10 times more likely to die of Covid19' isn't going to suddenly disappear to nothing if you're still carrying excess fat, but are under the BMI of 30 !

 

I am actually quite annoyed with a lot of the mainstream news media (what a surprise) that in the with a large proportion of stories about someone who has sadly died of Covid, they usually post a picture of that person taken years previously, when they were much slimmer and looked far healthier! Anyone else noticed that?

 

Good to see that news piece, but if its so important (as the stats seem to indicate) then why isn't more noise being made about the whole health issue?

 

Anybody got any theories? Conspiracy based or otherwise

I wonder what David Icke has to say about it .....

:D

Good to see that news piece, but if its so important (as the stats seem to indicate) then why isn't more noise being made about the whole health issue?

 

Because people take no notice.

 

The mistake we've made as a society is the widespread provision of instant access fast foods and prepared processed ready meals etc.

 

The outcome is a society that lives on those and watches a few specialists cooking on TV for entertainment, rather than as inspiration for their own sustenance.

.

Because people take no notice.

 

The mistake we've made as a society is the widespread provision of instant access fast foods and prepared processed ready meals etc.

 

The outcome is a society that lives on those and watches a few specialists cooking on TV for entertainment, rather than as inspiration for their own sustenance.

.

Don't forget how ridiculously cheap food is now. Forty or fifty years ago food was relatively a much higher proportion of the household budget (& housing cost a much smaller proportion).

Don't forget how ridiculously cheap food is now.

 

Indeed.

So wouldn't a 'junk food tax' be a sensible thing?

 

So it might be say £5 for a small bag of crisps, and maybe £20 for a big mac?

 

Or perhaps also subsidise the healthy nutritious foods?

If you had a head of broccoli costing 20p and a pound of butter £20, that should make a few people reconsider their diets

Awesome!

You mentioned in a previous post that you'd also had other health benefits from cutting out dairy? care to share ??

Most could be attributed to the weight loss. However better digestion and not suffering mild IBS symptoms can be directly attributed to cutting out dairy.

 

I know this from switching back onto dairy for short periods and seeing symptoms recur.

I just gained weight during COVID, because I hate working out in my house. I haven't cycled in months...

I just gained weight during COVID, because I hate working out in my house. I haven't cycled in months...

 

 

Yes, I know what you mean, I haven't been swimming since February and due to ill health, I've had times when I haven't even been able to cycle for a couple of months. Making myself exercise for the sake of it is such a drag. Exercising to get somewhere, like on a bike is a completely different thing.

 

To avoid putting on weight the best solution I've found is a kind of 5:2 diet. Not as extreme as the maximum 500 calorie recommended for two days,but just eat less and no treats on those two days. I've also given up breakfast cereals, just a load of sugar and processed crap.

I did the Michael Moseley Blood Sugar Diet at the beginning of 2017 when I was fast approaching 14 st and a BMI of 30. I basically followed the 800 calories a day and cut out bread and alcohol for 8 weeks - the exception being Saturday when I’d have a curry (no rice) with Chapati and a couple of measured spirits.

 

Although the weight loss was slow, it was steady and I ended up just below 12 st and after reverting to a normal ish diet I settled at 12.5 st. What was surprising was that despite no exercise, I stayed at 12.5 st for around 2 years despite a few decent cruises and regular visits to my local, so testament to the diet kick starting the metabolism.

 

I‘m just starting to tip over 13st and the missus is tutting So I may be heading for another 8 weeks of veg and chillis !

I did the Michael Moseley Blood Sugar Diet at the beginning of 2017 when I was fast approaching 14 st and a BMI of 30. I basically followed the 800 calories a day and cut out bread and alcohol for 8 weeks - the exception being Saturday when I’d have a curry (no rice) with Chapati and a couple of measured spirits.

 

Although the weight loss was slow, it was steady and I ended up just below 12 st and after reverting to a normal ish diet I settled at 12.5 st. What was surprising was that despite no exercise, I stayed at 12.5 st for around 2 years despite a few decent cruises and regular visits to my local, so testament to the diet kick starting the metabolism.

 

I‘m just starting to tip over 13st and the missus is tutting So I may be heading for another 8 weeks of veg and chillis !

 

I don't think you need to do something so extreme. Just two days a week, eat less and don't have any treats on those days. Spread it out, so I do Tuesdays and Thursdays.

 

The other big thing is boredom. We eat because we are bored, especially in lock down. Find something engaging to do for a few hours and you will totally forget about food.

I don't think you need to do something so extreme. Just two days a week, eat less and don't have any treats on those days. Spread it out, so I do Tuesdays and Thursdays.

 

The other big thing is boredom. We eat because we are bored, especially in lock down. Find something engaging to do for a few hours and you will totally forget about food.

One other driver was an ex-work colleague of the same age who was diagnosed pre-diabetic and this is the diabetes reversing regime.

 

I’m not a foodie, so eat when I need to. My usual regime was 3 alcohol free days and a reasonably healthy diet but the weight crept up. We have a takeaway on Saturdays, which usually does 2 meals, and fast food maybe 2 or 3 times a year. Neither my wife or I eat cakes or sweet treats and we only have biscuits in the house when we have visitors, so in my case the extreme diet was justified.

Health is very important! We all must practice sport and take care of our health because It's vital!

The situation is a bit better now, I could at least go cycle once a day. It is so nice going out after not being able to for so long. I was depressed eating at the beginning of the pandemic because I lost my job and that is when the extra weight started appearing. After that I started working from home and that helped work out. I found an app with some cool exercises and healthy food recipes. It was going great, but I got sick and I had to stop exercising. That kind of ruined all the progress I had, but now when I can go out and ride my bike it is better.

 

__________________________________________

https://www.modernfit.com/programs/noom/the-only-noom-food-list-youll-ever-need/

There are varied reasons why an individual might choose to cycle (e-bike or not), but I’m sure for many people, the health benefits are a primary driver. Speaking personally, getting back into shape was the no1 thing that made me want to get back on two wheels (and the hills around where I live was the no1 reason to buy an ebike to let me achieve that original goal!).

 

However one thing I’ve come to realise, and this is especially true the older you get, is that you can’t exercise yourself out of a bad diet. If you want to be healthy, you need both. Exercise AND a good diet.

And of course, right here, right now, as well as all the other commonplace ailments, we have Covid-19 to deal with. The data indicates that its more likely than not you’re going to catch it at some point, and the only thing that’s going to protect you is your own immune system and general state of health. The statistics also show that its people with co-morbidities/existing medical conditions are the ones by far most likely to die.

So it seems logical that everybody should be doing as best they can to improve their general state of health and get their immune system in peak condition. Which means exercise and diet.

 

I see a fair bit of talk about the exercise side of things, but not so much on the diet aspect. So I thought I’d start this thread to hopefully instigate a discussion on what people are doing or thinking about changing regarding the food they eat (or the exercise for that matter). Either because you’ve already altered your eating habits when you started cycling and exercising some time ago, or maybe the current situation has given some urgency to re-evaluate your nutritional strategy?

 

Experiences or thoughts welcome.

 

The latest medical statistics is that you have a 99.7% chance of surviving Covid I’d you catch it.

that’s bad for me I’m going to get into m covid bunker and hide.

The other big thing is boredom. We eat because we are bored, especially in lock down. Find something engaging to do for a few hours and you will totally forget about food.

I'd agree boredom can be a factor.

 

However many people eat more than they should because they are addicted to certain foods. "Me? Addicted ?? don't talk such rubbish ...."

 

Sugar for example, stimulates the craving parts of the brain.

Dairy contains casomorphins that act in the same way that opium does. Milk contains this so the baby animal keeps on wanting more and more and thus grows fast. Cheese is effectively a very concentrated form of milk!

Ever wonder why so many people can't ever imagine life if they had to give up cheese!

 

I find it fascinating studying and being more mindful of my own body these days. Now I've weaned (good choice of words there ...) myself off dairy pretty much entirely, any cheese cravings have now gone. I don't generally miss it at all. Except .....

If I see something on the TV and there is say an advert with say a pizza smothered in bubbling cheese, my word ... I can just FEEL my brain pumping out some chemicals that are mood and behavior altering. Literally within seconds.

My visual cortex is obviously triggering other things in my brain/body that's trying to control my behavior. If I had a pizza in the freezer, it would be in the oven in 30 sec flat

God help me if I lived next door to a Domino's .....

 

(fortunately for my health, I'm too tight to pay for any kind of delivery service )

... it seems logical that everybody should be doing as best they can to improve their general state of health and get their immune system in peak condition. Which means exercise and diet.

 

 

So has anybody changed anything since this thread or Covid started?

 

 

I've stepped up my nutrition a fair bit. Tried to grow more of my own fresh veg this year. Got more sun exposure for the Vitamin D as well in the process (but I'm now making sure that I'm supplementing at this time of year ).

And my cycling has been fairly consistent as well which is good. I've been working remotely from home for months and months now, so the exercise and getting out of the house on a regular basis is doubly important.

A lot of my life has involved manual effort (hobbies, work, DIY) and a long time ago it became obvious for me it's a balancing act between the food you eat and the calories you burn up during a day. During winter I'm less active so don't need to eat as much, long days doing physical work in the Summer means I eat a lot more.

 

Some of my family are health concious, they noticed a big improvement in their overall health when they reduced their intake of bread (gluten?) & dairy products.

 

Relevant (and hopefully not against forum rules - let me know if it's a problem and I'll delete), a good friend died yesterday morning with/of Covid. He was middle aged, generally unfit and - significantly - had become very overweight in the past 18 months due to lack of excercise and lots of eating due to boredom. Groups expecially at risk from Covid seem to be the eldery and the overweight / unfit, you can't do anything about your age but you can work on improving your fitness / weight.

a good friend died yesterday morning with/of Covid. He was middle aged, generally unfit and - significantly - had become very overweight in the past 18 months due to lack of excercise and lots of eating due to boredom.

 

 

 

Very sorry to hear of your loss, Scorpio.

 

Regarding diet: I've put a lot of faith in easily home made Kefir because:

 

 

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0753332220311665

 

 

...plus I've reduced my BMI from 30 to 24 (a bit more to go) through intermittent fasting:

 

 

https://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/threads/ebikes-and-the-unfit-very-heavy-rider-a-cautionary-tale-for-newcomers.40440/post-604102

 

 

...and to reduce my age I need a time machine to move my current mind into my younger body, then another time machine to move my younger body to the current time.

 

I ferment Kefir at room temp for three days, to use up all lactose, sieve the grains to reuse and start again. Kefir grains are cheap, last forever and they multiply:

 

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=kefir+grains

 

 

Kefir uses lactose to grow, so there's very little lactose.

 

I've also recently started making my own beanpsrouts, for their probiotics and lack of anti-nutrients. Beansrouts are really easy to grow, and very nutritious:

 

 

 

 

 

Some general info and potential problems:

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bean_sprout

 

 

...ecoli and other pathogens can be reduced by fermenting in Kefir, or by cooking. Billions of people consume beansprouts every day, raw or cooked.

 

 

Here is my latest batch of chickpea beansprouts:

 

 

 

 

 

70% of the immune system is in the gut, looking after your microbiome is a good idea:

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_microbiome

 

 

Beansprouts are chock full of fibre and probiotics.

 

 

Fermenting mashed beansprouts in Kefir seems like a good idea - that combination tastes quite nice, if nice had a much nicer definition.

 

Plain Kefir tastes great! A little tart. It's very mildly alcoholic and a good mixer.

 

BTW... and it could be far too much information: Kefir cured my IBS. I tried every probiotic pill in and concoction in existence, and it cost me a fortune - but in the end, Kefir did the trick! I really didn't fancy a fecal transplant...