Anyone else see the World's Best Diet?

miss no stars

It was on Channel 4 last night. Just watched it now, really interesting. Some of the best diets were almost polar opposites to each other even though they were all really good. Like France with all its dairy and meat, and South Korea with loads of veg. It seems that worldwide what makes a good diet just doesn't change - eat locally produced food that hasn't been messed with.

What I did find quite sad though is the bit about how Bolivians used to thrive in quinoa but worldwide demand has caused such a spike in the price for it that they can't afford it any more.

Dtp1979

miss no stars wrote: »

It was on Channel 4 last night. Just watched it now, really interesting. Some of the best diets were almost polar opposites to each other even though they were all really good. Like France with all its dairy and meat, and South Korea with loads of veg. It seems that worldwide what makes a good diet just doesn't change - eat locally produced food that hasn't been messed with.

What I did find quite sad though is the bit about how Bolivians used to thrive in quinoa but worldwide demand has caused such a spike in the price for it that they can't afford it any more.

Ye it was good. I thought it was sad about the island that used to eat healthy until the American military set up there and introduced them to processed food

miss no stars

Dtp1979 wrote: »

Ye it was good. I thought it was sad about the island that used to eat healthy until the American military set up there and introduced them to processed food

I know... You could practically track American influence around the world.

Really glad high fructose corn syrup hasn't caught on here

Magenta

miss no stars wrote: »

Really glad high fructose corn syrup hasn't caught on here

Think it's illegal in the EU.

El_Dangeroso

miss no stars wrote: »

It seems that worldwide what makes a good diet just doesn't change - eat locally produced food that hasn't been messed with.

Amen!

El_Dangeroso

miss no stars wrote: »

It seems that worldwide what makes a good diet just doesn't change - eat locally produced food that hasn't been messed with.

Amen!

I always thought it would be a great experiment to take a bunch of obese people, put them in a house where all food is available to them but only in one-ingredient format, so even high calorie stuff like nuts, bacon and cheese and even refined sugar and white flour.

The catch is they have to cook everything from scratch. Want cake? No problem, just spend the next 90 mins making it.

I bet the majority would lose weight.

rubadub

The bit with the sweetcorn was funny, the UK presenter and a guy from some country with a high fibre diet, both ate a tin of sweetcorn without chewing and it took something like 8 hours to "reappear" for the high fibre guy and 24hrs for the UK guy.

This was one thing I would say to people who believe calories are an exact science for humans, liquidise a tin of sweet corn, and see what comes out, and eat one unchewed and see what comes out, now ask yourself if you really believe you extracted the exact same energy from both.

I read of some study saying you get more energy from peanut butter than eating regular peanuts of the same calorie content for this reason.

Alf Veedersane

El_Dangeroso wrote: »

Want cake? No problem, just spend the next 90 mins making it.

I would suggest cookies....and then happily put away the cookie dough

InReality

Great show.
Really brought home how far away from natural food we are here.

All the good diets had very little factory processed food in them.
The old italians really caught my attention - cholestrol levels below a babies !

miss no stars

InReality wrote: »

Great show.
Really brought home how far away from natural food we are here.

All the good diets had very little factory processed food in them.
The old italians really caught my attention - cholestrol levels below a babies !

Lower! :eek:

Hande hoche!

Was surprised by the amount of European countries in the top ten.

Precious flower

I can never understand why people think all these celebrity diets will do anything for them. Have they not figured out that the trick to maintaining healthy eating habits is to just eat as much unprocessed natural food as possible stop eating crap and exercise.

All these diets from other countries are healthy because as the OP said, they're eating simple foods. The Irish diet can give you that too if you kept your food locally sourced and healthy. People seem to think you have to take some magic potion to lose weight and never seem to consider just eating healthy when hungry and exercising as the solution?

It's funny though I was watching this show before that talked about the change in nutrient content in food since 1914 and it was amazing to see how low the calcium or iron can't remember had dropped in cabbage basically because of the land not being replenished with nutrients properly.

It was a UK show so I'm not sure how that translate to Ireland but my mum always said the vegetables store bought do not taste the same as the home grown veg she grew up with. She said even chicken shop bought tastes different!

El_Dangeroso

Precious flower wrote: »

It was a UK show so I'm not sure how that translate to Ireland but my mum always said the vegetables store bought do not taste the same as the home grown veg she grew up with. She said even chicken shop bought tastes different!

You're spot on there, I'm growing my own lettuce at the moment and it tastes amazing, it's so full of flavour compared to the watery stuff you buy in bags in the supermarket.

I also thought I didn't like tomatoes until I ate some in a hot country where they grow lovely sweet tomatoes that burst with flavour.

Alf Veedersane

A lot of the land that vegetables come from has had the range of nutrients taken from it and replaced with the narrow range of nutrients from fertiliser.