It should be stated now that my proposed diet is not ambitious – there is no requirement to lose 20 kilos within a month so that I can star in a new movie. Rather, the target is to have a small reduction in weight every week or so, and that is mainly so that I can binge on good food and drink occasionally.
I am not a great believer in maintaining a steady weight throughout the year – our Palaeolithic ancestors certainly didn’t maintain steady body weights all year round. In fact, our ancestors stuffed themselves when food was available and starved when food was scarce.
So it would be reasonable to assume that our bodies would probably function pretty efficiently if our weights vary throughout the year – as long as our weights swing down periodically as well as up, therefore maintaining roughly the same average weight over the year
The basic rules
So the simple rules to follow for this unambitious diet are as follows:
1. The first rule of the diet is that any food you enjoy eating should continue to be eaten. There are no exceptions to this rule, although it is expected that items containing excessive sugars would wean themselves off over a period of time (explanation later).
2. The second rule is that you must look after your intestinal flora. This is done by ingesting a little pot of probiotic yoghurt or drink every day, and also by eating some tasty suggested foods (listed below).
3. The third rule is to swallow a multi-vitamin pill every other day, but this is pretty optional and do this only if you have been eating a lot of bad food due to Rule 1 above.
4. The fourth rule is that you must be capable of simple arithmetic, and preferably be capable of using a spreadsheet.
5. The fifth rule states that you can actually eat more than your required calorie intake every day – provided you do the amount of exercise needed to burn off those excess calories.
Rule 1
So here is how this diet works: As per Rule 1, make a list of foods that you really, really like – if there is any food which would compromise your quality of life if it was missing, please include it on the list. Here is an example list:
■ Beef sirloin steak
■ Pork (especially bacon)
■ Chicken curry
■ Salmon
■ Chocolate
■ Potato crisps
■ Ice cream
For each of the food items, look up on the internet the calories per 100g and also derive the adjusted TEF calories per 100g (TEF refers to Thermic Effect of Food and this is the cost in calories from the effort needed to chew, digest, absorb and dispose of food eaten – refer to “The Perils of Dieting – Part 1” for how to calculate the TEF calories). For example, it may look like this:
ITEM
|
Calories per 100g
|
Adjusted TEF Calories
|
Sirloin steak
|
230
|
185
|
Bacon
|
288 (grilled)
|
230
|
Chicken curry
|
157 (masala)
|
140
|
Salmon
|
217 (raw)
|
170
|
Chocolate
|
530 (Cadbury’s)
|
520
|
Potato crisps
|
435
|
413
|
Ice cream
|
216 (100ml)
|
205
|
The foods above don’t tend to be served alone by themselves. Usually they will appear garnished with sauce, bread, mayonnaise or cream, so a list of some common miscreants is as follows (and you can always add more as necessary):
ITEM
|
Calories per 10g
|
Adjusted TEF Calories
|
Cooking oil
|
82
|
74
|
Mayonnaise
|
80
|
72
|
Butter
|
75
|
68
|
Sugar
|
42
|
40
|
Cream
|
46
|
41
|
Bread
|
26
|
23
|
French fries
|
23
|
20
|
Cooked rice
|
14
|
13
|
Rule 2
For Rule 2, choose and eat at least 1 or 2 items from the following list every day – note that you do not have to eat much of them (even 20g a day of most items is enough, and only 10g of nuts is adequate). You can add or substitute the items as long as the items you elect contain significant amounts of either soluble or insoluble dietary fibre. The calorie count against each item is also included – you will need that for Rule 4:
ITEM
|
Calories per 20g
|
Adjusted TEF Calories
|
Green peas, beans
|
15
|
12
|
Oats, chia, barley
|
76
|
68
|
Bananas, dark fruits
|
20
|
18
|
Broccoli, carrots
|
6
|
5
|
Onions, garlic
|
7
|
6
|
Peanuts, almonds
|
60 per 10g
|
54
|
Cauliflower, celery
|
6
|
5
|
Avocado, tomatoes
|
37
|
33
|
Probiotic drink
|
43 per 65 ml
|
38
|
Probiotic yoghurt
|
110 per 125g pot
|
99
|
Rule 3
Rule 3 applies only when you have been ingesting a lot of stuff without any major vitamins or nutrients – it is actually very unlikely but if it does happen, just swallow a multi-vitamin pill every other day. There has been research that suggests that general multi-vitamin supplements do not work all that effectively but the overall consensus is that such supplements can assist in a vitamin deficient diet.
Rule 4
To use Rule 4, just apply some simple arithmetic and count up the daily TEF calories you have ingested for each day. A single day example for a 30-year-old man may look like this:
ITEM
|
TEF Calories (100g)
|
Grams eaten
|
Total Calories
|
Sirloin steak
|
185
|
250
|
463
|
Chicken curry
|
140
|
300
|
420
|
Chocolate
|
520
|
50
|
260
|
Ice cream
|
205
|
200
|
260
|
Cooked rice
|
130
|
200
|
260
|
Cooking oil
|
740
|
20
|
148
|
Probiotic yoghurt
|
79
|
110
|
99
|
TOTAL
|
2,060
|
As the target daily calories for a 30-year-old man is 1,830 (refer “The Perils of Dieting – Part 1” for how to calculate your target daily calories for weight loss), this means that he has exceeded his target by 230 calories. If he does not do some exercise (see Rule 5 table below), this amount of food can cause a slow increase in weight.
Rule 5
Rule 5 comes in if you have accidentally (or deliberately) eaten more calories than planned for the day. It is really quite simple to fix any minor overeating – just indulge in some exertions to burn up the excess calories. Some common exercises and their calorific impact for 30 minutes of activity are listed as follows:
Activity
|
Calories burnt per 30 minutes
|
Brisk walking
|
125
|
Walking on stairs
|
170
|
Badminton
|
190
|
Cycling (easy)
|
155
|
Cycling (medium)
|
250
|
Running (easy)
|
370
|
Dancing
|
125
|
Ping pong
|
112
|
So for the man who had ingested 2,060 calories when only 1,830 calories was required, he needs only to walk up and down some stairs for just over 40 minutes during the day to burn off the excess 230 calories. Or he can do some running after work for 19 minutes. As a tip, if he is to carry a backpack or a weight of 10 kilos while walking or running, the rate at which the calories can be consumed will increase by 12%.
Rule 6
Oh, I almost forgot to mention Rule 6, which is very easy indeed. We are all civilised, cultured people (more or less) so Rule 6 simply states that there is no need to chomp or wolf down your food – dining is not a speed-eating competition.
Actually, not chewing your food properly has a small advantage in that un-masticated food raises the TEF level a little but unfortunately you would also eat more (which negates the small increase in the TEF) – so overall it is not worth eating too quickly.
Instead, the best part of the diet might simply be that you will learn to eat slower, chew food more, savouring every morsel while you prepare food for digestion.
The curious banana
As an aside, unripe bananas contain around 37% starch but by the time they ripen, the starch content dwindles down to only 3% – the starch has been converted into sugar during ripening. Why this is interesting is that although the total calories are identical between unripe and ripe bananas, an unripe banana adds significantly fewer calories after digestion than the ripened fruit.
This is because the starch in unripe bananas is resistant to the digestive processes. Starch in food is presented as A-type or B-type crystal structures – wheat and maize have A-type starches which are much more easily digestible than the B-type starches found in unripe bananas and certain tubers.
Once ripened, bananas actually do contain a lot of sugar – however, as mentioned, although the calories remain the same, the TEF is much higher in unripe bananas. Due to the amount of B-type starches, unripe bananas are also great as nutrients for intestinal microflora – but it has to be said that some people cannot digest unripe bananas well, so please don’t take this as advice to excessively eat unripe bananas.
Those hunger pangs
If you develop hunger pangs during the day (which is likely at the beginning of the diet), eat languidly as many cucumber slices, celery, chopped cabbage or other raw vegetables as you like. And drink slowly lots of mineral water (still or sparkling), light bone or vegetable broths, soups of Marmite or Bovril or Vegemite – and black tea or coffee which you can sweeten with artificial sugars if you crave the taste of sweet things.
Sweet again
Talking of sweet things returns us to the subject of Alzheimer’s Disease or Type 3 Diabetes. The suggested diet does help to reduce the amount of refined sugars ingested daily because if you load your diet with sugary food, you will reach the daily calories target so quickly that you will feel like starving after the sugar rush – and that is going to be pretty painful.
The reason is simply because sugar is digested so quickly that you will always feel hungry on a sugary diet – the hormone ghrelin induces the hunger pangs and it only starts to retreat after some substantive food has been eaten which requires slower digestion in the stomach.
If the diet is maintained, you will want to cut down the sugar content by yourself (simply to avoid the hunger pangs), the body will then adapt itself to a slower digestive process with a more balanced mix of foods – and the craving for sugar should get substantially reduced as you get used to the gentle effect of ghrelin easing away.
As ghrelin abates, another hormone called leptin is produced as food fills up the stomach – this hormone induces the sensation of satiety and satisfaction (or engorgement) after a good meal
Blowing up the diet
The main aspect of this diet is, of course, awareness. You now know how to calculate the calories you need daily to maintain a healthier weight regime. You are aware about the TEF (or DIT) and can now make better food choices; eg. always elect the raw or less-cooked option if feasible. Importantly, you would also have slowly conditioned your body to avoid excess sugar.
If you had been habitually eating too much of the foods you love and as a consequence, introducing too many calories into your body, you now have the information to do something about it – and it really doesn’t have to hurt.
Maybe it means skipping an extra scoop of ice cream or having a 200g steak instead of a 300g steak – but you now know it’s better to enjoy chewing it longer. And of course, you can trim off any daily excess calories with some exercise – everyone knows that regular physical exertion is never a bad thing.
Please note that as part of this diet, it is perfectly fine to exceed your daily calorie limit at least once a month (regardless of the exercising) – but never do this more than two to three times a month. So save your bingeing for the occasions when you know you’re going to have a smashing meal and drinks with family or friends.
The reason why you can afford to binge occasionally is because the diet will return you to the right dietary track almost immediately so the negative effects of sporadic overindulgence are somewhat limited.
And the wine
The diet might help develop a greater appreciation of the foods you’ve always enjoyed – mainly it gives time for the ghrelin and leptin hormones to work harmoniously and provide that gentle, pleasant sensation which accompanies a satisfying but not overly expansive meal that fits your body’s requirement like a glove.
Incidentally, it also leaves a bit of space for a glass of fine wine – which is around 76 calories but somehow this never seems to matter. So, genially and blithely forgetting about the wine calories is about the only major peril of this diet that I have (quite often) encountered so far.
And once again, this diet is just my personal scheme and is not based on any official dietary or medical expertise – so please do not follow it without taking professional advice beforehand.
Source: http://www.star2.com/food/food-news/2016/02/28/the-perils-of-dieting-part-2/
