My diet, please assist.

MrStuffins

I posted a similar thread over at Fitness but here seems to be a better place.

Basically, i was always pretty fit even though my diet has always been terrible. But i got injured and had to give up sports and fot unfit and i am now flabby.

So, my diet basically consists of chips, potatos, the odd piece of chicken, soft drinks, crisps.... and nothing else. It may seem weird but it's all i've ever known and is hard to get out of.

I want to completely over haul my diet, exercise and get fit over the summer. So, what i am asking for is, are there any easily prepared and which i can eat regularly.

Every and any suggestion is welcome thank you very much Boardies

MrStuffins

EileenG

It's good that you know your diet needs work.

Ideally every meal should have a quality protein, a healthy fat and a green vegetable. Try to avoid white carbs, particularly sugar and anything which includes sugar as a major ingredient.

Base your diet on eggs, fish (especially oily), fresh meat, chicken, lots and lots and lots of green, leafy or salad vegetables. Some dairy, olive oil, fruit, nuts, root veg, wholegrains.

As a suggestion, how about:
Breakfast: mushroom omlette or porridge with natural yogurt.
Snack; handful of raw nuts.
Lunch: tin of salmon or tuna, bag of washed salad leaves, olive oil dressing.
Before workout: apple.
After workout: protein shake or yogurt.
Dinner: steak and broccoli, or chicken and green beans, small boiled potato.
Supper; cottage cheese.

MrStuffins

Thank you very much for the reply. Those are some great suggestions.

I am not a fan of fish however, are there any alternatives which might give me similar benefits of fish?

EileenG

Meat, chicken, eggs, nuts, cheese, etc. Depends on if you are trying to lose weight or just clean up your diet.

If you don't eat any fish, then I'd recommend some fish oil capsules (freeze them to reduce fish burps) to make sure you are getting enough omega 3. Walnuts and flaxseeds are vegetarian sources, but fish oil is hard to beat.

savvy shopper

EileenG, do you realise that your suggested diet is pretty high on fat and overloaded with protein? Meat doesn't automatically mean protein, it means animal proteins. There are many sources of plant proteins that are much healthier (soya, pulses etc.) Even an orange has 1g of protein! The suggested diet will lead to a protein (animal protein!) overload, which increases metabolic acid and may cause demineralisation of bone, renal damage and some other lovely detrimental conditions. Both orthodox and alternative practitioners accept that 40g of protein should be sufficient with 15% added for individual variation.

MrStuffins, vegetables and fruit are very important! You don't need any synthetic highly processed protein shake, you will be getting enough protein from your diet, even if it is mainly vegetarian.

http://yourfoodcoach.blogspot.com/2009/04/artery-clogging-fitness.html

EileenG

Yes, I know my suggested diet had a high proportion of animal proteins. The idea that fat is evil and protein rots your bones are totally out-dated.

There was ONE study on old ladies who had been given protein powder supplements which found they excreted excess calcium in their urine. They discontinued the study before they discovered if the effect continued or if it resulted in any change to bone health. Since then, there have been loads of studies which consistantly found that a high protein diet, coupled with adequate calcium, tends to remineralise bones.

In fact, the biggest danger to bones is usually a very acidic diet, high in sugar and refined grains. The best antidote is lots and lots of green vegetables.

And I'm sure you don't need me to tell you about the health benefits of fats like omega 3.

More and more nutritionists are telling people that if it doesn't run, swim, fly or is green, don't eat it.

savvy shopper

I am not talking about fats from fish or nuts. Your suggested diet is high on SATURATED fats. A steak has up to 20g of saturated fat, chicken is slightly better but it is protein to fat ratio is still high. Add yogurt, egg, cottage cheese to that and you get a high-fat day. Any doctor will tell you that the recommended daily intake for saturated fats is 20g. Any diet that is high on protein means high saturated fat.
I am not sure what your source of information on research data is but it is certainly outdated. How about a study conducted in 2002 (too long ago?) and published in the American Journal of Medicine that showed a staggering 53% in the urine calcium levels in a group of dieters who followed the Atkins high-protein diet? The study was actually funded by the Atkins group! In 2002 in Australia a teenage girl died from a cardiac arrest after being on a high-protein diet. I can continue a long list of recent scientific papers published in well respected medical and nutrition journals that show how animal protein increases urinary calcium and the rate of bone loss. Here is just one of them, which is titled ‘A high ratio of dietary animal to vegetable protein increases the rate of bone loss and the risk of fracture in postmenopausal women’.

http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/73/1/118?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&author1=Sellmeyer+&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&resourcetype=HWCIT

You say that ‘the biggest danger to bones is usually a very acidic diet’. Absolutely!!! Animal protein, unlike plant protein, increases the acid load in the body. The antidote is a higher plant protein ratio!

g'em

Whilst it may not be specifically said in her post above, Eileen always recommends fats from both plant and animal sources. The effect of acidity on bone density I can't comment on because I haven't looked into, but I wonder how much of this would be offset by exercise, particularly resistance training.

savvy shopper wrote: »

In 2002 in Australia a teenage girl died from a cardiac arrest after being on a high-protein diet.

This you will have to show me proof of - I have yet to see a report of anyone dying of too much protein in the absence of pre-existing renal problems or compounding factors.

Vampireskiss

savvy shopper wrote: »

Any diet that is high on protein means high saturated fat.

That statement is just so not true

Vampireskiss

Lean cuts of red meat are very low in saturated fat and chicken breasts are also very low in fat and have certainly a higher protein ratio than fat

savvy shopper

A standard size 4oz (the size of a deck of cards!) lean steak has between 8 and 11g of saturated fat. Unfortunately, most of us are used to eating 8-12oz steaks, which drives the saturated fat intake up. So, quite often we consume the daily recommended amount (20g) in one sitting.

rubadub

savvy shopper wrote: »

A standard size 4oz (the size of a deck of cards!) lean steak has between 8 and 11g of saturated fat. Unfortunately, most of us are used to eating 8-12oz steaks, which drives the saturated fat intake up.

Where are you getting these figures? 4oz is 113g. Now you are saying up to 11g of that is sat fat. I read the sat fat in beef is around 40% of the overall fat so you are saying 27.5g per 113g which is 24% fat overall.

Now I don't know where you shop but I have never heard of beef with 24% fat described as "lean steak". I have heard mince at 10% and below called lean, I have some round steak which is 11% in my fridge which is not described as lean. Also when I cook it, and I expect when most people cook steak or mince they do not collect and eat all of the fat that comes off it. The highest fat content I have seen was 28% in tesco "value" mince, which is closer to your 24% mark. That gives off horrendous amounts of fat, I never buy it as it there is so much fat given off it spatters everywhere and is a real pain to get rid of, there is simply loads of it.

If I am eating a sirloin I would cut off the fat on the side after it is done, or before, but such a steak would not be described as lean either.

Meat/muscle is denser than fat so on a 100g steak at 24% that 24g of fat would take up a lot more volume than 24% of the overall visible size, the butcher would have some nerve to call that a lean steak!

El_Dangeroso

savvy shopper wrote: »

Meat doesn't automatically mean protein, it means animal proteins. There are many sources of plant proteins that are much healthier (soya, pulses etc.)

Plant proteins are categorically NOT healthier than animal proteins. The protein from animal flesh is complete i.e. it contains all 20 amino acids.
Further, it is 100% bioavailable i.e. we absorb it completely.

Whereas vegetables with protein such as grains and beans have their nutrients locked away in cell walls (cooking helps soften them), and have very little protein to start with and its all bound up with fiber and things called lectins and phytates which inhibit the absorbtion of vitamins and minerals and damage the gut wall.

Google 'leaky gut syndrome' to see the danger in getting all your protein from plant sources.

Also, please check out how much vegetables you would have to eat to get the recommended 1g per kilo of lean body weight, far more than is realistic I think you'll find.

Also the fact that you recommend soya, the most industrially processed, genetically engineered foodstuff that has been proven to inhibit mineral absorption, interfere with oestrogen balance in the body and damage thyroid function instead of natural fresh unprocessed meat really belies that you are basing your argument on dogma rather than science.