Keeping It Off by Michelle Bridges

Diet books by hosts of reality TV shows are not my usual fare, but in my role as editor for the General Non-Fiction page at The Australian Women Writers challenge, I'm trying to highlight all the possible types of non-fiction books out there.

Michelle Bridge's Keeping It Off has an admirable aim - to help us all be fit and healthy for our entire lives. As her starting point is the sad but true fact that most of us who lose weight while on a diet or get-fit program, will put most of it back on again within two years.

Bridge discusses how her approach to food and fitness has evolved over the years thanks to experience and research. She is no longer a pure 'calories in - calories out' advocate thanks to new research around how we all burn calories differently as well as the way environmental factors influence us. Weight loss, she claims, is a science, but keeping off is all about psychology. Bridge cites the work of Dr Katharine Samaras from St Vincent's Hospital and the Garvan Institute.

The 60-odd pages devoted to Bridge's ideas and thoughts is written in a direct, down to earth, humorous way. Unfortunately most of the photos don't have the same appeal (Mr Seasons accused me of having a 'you women are hard - you eat your own' attitude, before admitting that he also found the photos to be ghastly). Perhaps I'm just showing my age, but all those heavily made-up, photo-shopped images do nothing for me whatsoever. They don't inspire or impress. The more natural photos of Michelle exercising later in the book were better and felt more authentic.

Case studies, food plans and work-outs make up the bulk of the book. The recipes looked simple and tasty. Using the same set of ingredients, the recipes were divided into meal portions for toddlers, teens, mum and dad.

The main message though is one most of already probably know - there is no magic pill or easy fix. Keeping the weight off is a lifelong commitment to eating well and staying fit.

The trick is to find the way that works for you.

Keeping It Off has kick-started my annual spring 'let's get fit and healthy' spree. That's a good thing. Ultimately, though, Bridge's book will probably not inspire me long term. Perhaps it's time for me to read another chapter of Changing Habits Changing Lives?

Out of curiosity - is there a fitness/health guru that inspires you?
I'm quite taken with Michael Pollan and Michael Mosley's approach to food and health as they appeal to my own attitude towards life and their ideas fit into my lifestyle. But is there someone else out there that could tempt me with the right balance of science and practicality?

The Diet Myth: The Real Science Behind What We Eat by Tim Spector

I'm lucky.

I'm one of those annoying people that pretty much eats what I like and I still stay slim(ish). I have a good metabolism, good genes and after reading this book, I also assume that I have a good diverse range of microbes in my gut.

I'm lucky that the food I like is mostly the healthy stuff - you know fruit and vegetables. Although my main weakness will always be cheese and chocolate and the occasional pack of chicken chips.

The Diet Myth discusses all the facts, fictions and fads that now influence our modern eating lives.

After a personal health scare, Tim Spector, Professor of Genetic Epidemiology at Kings College, London decided to change his eating habits and research the best way to do this. He thought that this would be his "greatest challenge - but it turned out that finding out the truth about food was an even greater one."

Diets, food and our health are surrounded by bad science, myths and dogma. Spector was keen to explore the layers of "biological complexity".

He discusses in depth:

Genes, adaptation and twin studies
Microbes & the importance of diversity - in microbes in your gut as well as food types.
Antibiotics
Calories, exercise, taste and texture
Fats - cholesterol - cheese & yoghurt
Fast Diet, Mediterranean Diet, Atkins Diet, Paleo, Raw Food, Vegan, Juicing & Prebiotic Diet
Soy, Dairy & Superfoods
Sugar
Fibre - Gluten free, FODMAP & Alkaline Diets
Artificial sweeteners & preservatives
Chocolate & coffee
Alcohol
Vitamin supplements
Birth options and microbes
Allergies
Use by dates on food

This is an easy to read, easy to understand book.
The science is fascinating and reinforces many of the ideas I've been coming across for the past few years. Spector finishes with a few essential facts to help us in our food choices.

"Our bodies vary entirely in how they respond to everything, from food to exercise to environment, and this variation affects how much fat we deposit and how much weight we gain as well as our food preferences....the variation is due in part to our genes, but also to the different microbes that populate our guts."

But "there are certain facts about diet that are unarguable: diets that are high in sugar and processed foods are bad for our microbes, and by extension our health, and diets that are high in vegetables and fruits are good for both."

Learn to listen to your stomach - discover what works best for you.

Try new foods - we need to eat more diverse foods not less.

"Avoid bursts of unsustainable dieting on restrictive food plans that inevitable rebound....weight loss through intermittent fasting looks as if it may be more likely to alter your microbial community for the better."

Reduce your meat intake.

Eat traditional cheese and yoghurt, avoiding the high-sugar varieties.

Eat fruit and vegetables in season to increase the diversity of our food.

Experiment, but avoid destroying your microbes with "preservatives, antiseptic mouthwashes, antibiotics, junk food and sugar".

My own personal mantra is 'don't believe the advertising'.
So many of the studies are commissioned by the large food corporations. So many of the assumptions that we currently have about food comes straight from the marketing arms of food companies. They want us to buy their sweet breakfast cereals, their sugary drinks and their packaged goodies...and they want us to buy as many of them as possible.

Reading this book has confirmed what I have discovered for myself during the last 18 mnths of doing the Fast Diet with Mr Seasons.
Intermittent fasting works - it feels good, is quite easy to do and it encourages me to eat in a healthier way during the other days. But I don't panic if I eat too much at a dinner party or skip a week.

Giving up processed breakfast cereals was one of the best things I ever did. I now make my own toasted muesli and make my own spiced yoghurt to put on top.

It took several months, but I also weaned myself off sugar in my coffee.

Portion control is my aim at every meal.

Everything in moderation, balance and diversity are my key words when eating or exercising.

I highly recommend this book if you are looking for dieting inspiration and the reasons why something is good for you or not.

The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan

This is one of the longest reads I've ever had. I started it in May 2012 and finished it Dec 2014.

Why you ask?

Was it hard to read? Boring? Too techincal?

None of those things. It was simply my swim bag book.
Which meant that I only read a chapter (or less) after doing my laps...in the summer months only...once maybe twice a week.

It was a fascinating read from start to finish - thought provoking, personal and very easy to read.

I have been on a personal journey to eat well & to eat consciously most of my adult life. As time goes by I'm also keen to eat as ethically and as sustainably as I possibly can. I try to source fresh, organic produce in season. I read the labels on everything I buy.

And I read foodie books.

There are so many messages to take out of The Omnivore's Dilemma that I'm not even sure where to start. It's the kind of book you need to read slowly, to allow time for all the ideas to sit, develop and work on you as they will.

Perhaps the best way to go is to pull out a few key points that caught my eye...to tempt you hopefully into reading this book for yourself!

* ' "Eating is an agricultural act," as Wendell Berry famously said. It is also an ecological act, and a political act, too.'

* The ubiquitous nature of corn - it feeds our cattle, the chickens, salmon, turkey, lambs & pigs. Which means there is some corn in our milk, cheese, eggs & yoghurt.It's in our soft drinks as HFCS - high fructose corn syrup.
Other corn additives include corn flour, cornstarch, corn oil, leavenings & lecithin, the mono-, di-, & triglycerides, colourings & citric acid, maltodextrin, glucose syrup, modified starch, ascorbic acid, crystalline fructose, lactic acid, maltose, caramel colour, ethanol, MSG, xanthan gum all = corn.
Corn is in our tinned fruit, soups, gravy, margarines, salad dressings, sauces, relishes & even our vitamins.

* ' "You are what you eat" is a truism hard to argue with, and yet it is...incomplete, for you are what what you eat eats, too.'

* 'The United Nations reported that in 2000 the number of people suffering from overnutrition - a billion - had officially surpassed the number suffering from malnutrition - 800 million.'

* 'When food is abundant and cheap, people will eat more and get fat.'

* 'Our bodies are storing reserves of fat against a famine that never comes.'

* Pollan went on a mission on pg 115-17 to detail the ingredients in McDonalds and other fast foods. I knew about the high sugar content, but was surprised by all the corn based additives and ingredients.

* The Salatin's from Polyface Farm are truly inspirational with their seasonal, rotational, intricate 'dance' with nature. Anyone interested in growing their own food, at any level, should read this book just for these sections.

* 'So we find ourselves as a species almost back where we started: anxious omnivores struggling once again to figure out what it is wise to eat. Instead of relying on the accumulated wisdom of a cuisine, or even the wisdom of our sense, we rely on expert opinion, advertising, government food pyramids, and diet books, and we place faith in science to sort out for us what culture once did with rather more success.'
I found the thought of suspect science rather confronting until I realised that the 'science' Pollan was talking about was the science sponsored by the food industry.

* 'As a rule, animals in the wild don't get good deaths surrounded by their loved ones.'

* '...appreciate just how parochial, and urban, an ideology animal rights is. It could only thrive in a world where people have lost contact with the natural world, where animals no longer pose any threat to us...and our mastery of nature seems unchallenged.'

* 'What's wrong with eating animals is the practice, not the principle.'

Michael Pollan is great for anyone interested in the food we eat, where it comes from, what it's made from and what it does to our bodies. The Omnivore's Dillema is US-centric, but the questions he asks about what we eat and why are universal.

I Quit Sugar - Part 2

I grew up with sugar.

We sprinkled it on our cereal, put it in our tea and coffee and baked with it all the time.

My sugar intake reduced and changed as the years went by & I focused on healthier eating options. I started using raw sugar instead of white sugar but I couldn't cut it out completely.

But high cholesterol is a family failing and during my 30's my levels hovered around the "we need to keep an eye on this" side. I moved to 'lite' everything and reduced my cheese intake.

Nothing happened.

A few years ago I came across a copy of Cyndi O'Meara's Changing Habits, Changing Lives in a second-hand bookshop. It encouraged me to change one thing at a time, starting with my breakfast habits. I cut my sugar intake from everything except half a teaspoon in my coffee and the occasional chocolate indulgence.

For the first time ever my cholesterol levels dropped to a level that my doctor was finally happy with.

So I know that sugar is bad for you and that your body is better off without it. But do you need to quit it altogether?

The science behind the I Quit Sugar idea states that it's not sugar per se, but fructose that's the enemy.  Fructose converts directly into fat, it makes us eat more as we do not feel full and it makes us ill. Fructose is in fruit, so the I Quit Sugar diet also includes quitting most fruits.

And that's where I have a problem with this book.

Up until now, everything I've read, known or heard about good nutrition suggested that balance, wholefoods (organic) and moderation were the keys to a healthy diet.

Cutting out a naturally occurring food group just doesn't seem to make sense.

So I've been researching it in my spare time.

People like Michael Pollan agree that the fruits that we eat today have changed (been modified) over the past 200 years in particular as we breed fruits and types to suit our (sweet) tooth.

But after that things just get muddy. One online scientists claims this and another online scientists claims that. As with anything, you can use statistics and figures to prove either side of the argument.

So what am I left with after all this pondering?

A gut feeling!

The same gut feeling that has been guiding my eating habits for most of my adult life.

Moderation and balance:

Anything and everything in moderation.
Eat a diet that balances all the food groups but focuses on naturally occurring and where possible organic foods.
Keep processed foods to a minimum.
Eat smaller portions at meal times.
Don't go back for seconds.
No snacking between meals.
Read the labels on the foods that I buy (if sugar is one of the top three ingredients, do I really need it? And I usually only buy foods with 5 ingredients or less listed on the label).
Include the occasional fast day.
Treat myself sometimes.
And, of course, exercise regularly and get a good night's sleep.

I do question the science and the validity of Wilson's I Quit All Sugar approach, but I also applaud anyone who helps us to look at, reassess and modify our intake of excess sugars.
Some of the recipes are very tasty, but the rigidity inherent in this approach is not something I feel comfortable with.

I Quit Sugar did inspire me to give up that last little bit of sugar in my coffee. And it convinced my husband to drastically reduce his added sugar intake too. A win/win situation!

I quit (added) sugars, but I do not quit fruit.

Happy Eating!

The Fast Diet Update #1

I have just completed my third week on the Fast Diet.

Instead of doing the 5:2 fast, I jumped straight to the maintenance phase of 6:1 as I only need to lose a few kilos and 1.5cm from around my waist.

I found fasting from breakfast to breakfast very difficult. The 4pm hunger pangs were simply too much!

So I followed Mimi's advice the following week and went from 3pm to 3pm - much easier!

But the best thing about the Fast Diet is my husband.

I left the book lying around the house in the hope he might be inspired by it.

By the time I had finished my first fast he was asking me questions about it. I then showed him the Easy Diet Diary - Australian Calorie Counter app that I had downloaded for our phones...and he was hooked!

He started scanning items and working out how many calories he consumed in a normal day. He was surprised to see how quickly things added up. And before I knew it, he was declaring that Tuesday would be his fast day!

He booked a doctors appointment, he walked to the local chemist to weigh himself and we spent an evening measuring ourselves according to 'the book'! His results showed that he could lose about 5-6 kilos and 10cm from around his waist to be safely back in the 'normal' range.

We have had discussions about white bread, sugar and exercise for quite some time, the boys have commented (i.e. teased) him about the 'softer' cuddles, but it took the Fast Diet to finally bring about some changes.

And I believe it was the "stay healthy, live longer" sections of the book that proved to be the most motivating.

My husband has now also completed three weeks on the Fast Diet.

We both feel better for it.
Just like Michael & Mimi said, we enjoy seeing how tasty we can make our fast day meals and we are far more conscious on non-fast days of eating well but with smaller portions.

And my husband is now walking instead of driving everywhere.

The Fast Diet by Dr Michael Mosley & Mimi Spencer

The Fast Diet has become a best seller in Australia. Over the past few weeks at work we have been getting calls, requests and orders every day for this book.

The 5:2 Diet has become the rage in the UK - the web is inundated with articles, recipes and journals of people embracing this way of eating (eat regularly anything you like for 5 days, but fast for 2 days each week - 500 calories for women on fast days and 600 calories for men).

I decided I needed to find out what all the fuss was about for myself, and I also wanted to be able to discuss it knowledgably with our customers.

And I have to say, sceptic that I am, that it appealed to me from the very start. I kept trying to pick holes in the theories, the philosophy and the research. But it all sounded on the level, reasonable and balanced.

Where the research was based on animal studies, they told us that. If something was purely anecdotal, they told us that too.

It was on pg 129 I finally realised why the 5:2 diet seemed so right and sensible to me...it was actually the way I've been eating for most of my adult life.

"Interestingly, the Fast Diet's on/off eating scheme looks a lot like the approach of many naturally slim people. Some days they'll pick, other days they'll tuck into treats...As you settle into the routine, you'll naturally moderate your calorie intake on fast days and feed days, until the process is innate."

So yes, I have days where I eat very little followed by days of regular eating or 'treat' days. I also tend to eat a fairly healthy, balanced diet most of the time. Treats are chocolate and ice creams. But my approach is very ad hoc (or perhaps innate?) I've also been a walker all my life and I was delighted to read just how beneficial this has been and will continue to be for me.

As an experiment, I've decide to follow the Fast Diet calorie counting fast days to see how things compare, change or improve with this more conscious approach.

I've downloaded an Australian calorie counting app. I've weighed myself and measured myself and purely, by chance I have recent blood results to use as my base point.

Today, Sunday, was my first official fast day following the guidelines in The Fast Diet.

Watch this space.