I had a health checkup a few months ago where I was given a bit of a fright by the doctor who said I was at very high risk of diabetes. I'd never considered myself overweight but I have developed a beer gut which I've now had for nearly 20 years. Anyway, point is I've never been on any diet and never believed in them. But this diabetes warning made me do a bit of research. During that research I discovered a seminar given by a nutritionist called Dr John Briffa. You can see the whole talk here :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1tPkRJ3W_Q

It's a long talk but stick with it, set aside some time to watch it. It's very compelling. He explains the problems with our modern diet, the stranglehold the food industry has over society, and why all these diets are doomed to failure. What he proposes isn't so much a diet, but more of a lifestyle choice to avoid processed foods, especially carbs and sugar which drive insulin levels (and that is what tells the body to store fat, instead of burning it). He explains why fat isn't fattening and also talks about intermittent fasting. He claims his method is 100% effective for weight loss in men (apparently women have a harder time losing weight because of their biology). Anyway, I tried it - I cut right back on the carbs (no bread, no cereals, and very little potatoes, pasta, rice), stopped drinking fruit juices (drinking only water, milk, or tea) and instead ate a lot more eggs, meat and poultry, and veg. I still eat dairy (cheese and full fat milk) and eat fruit but not the same ones as before (some are overloaded with sugar). Also cut out biscuits and instead snack on nuts. I still eat some chocolate but its dark (80% or higher).

Within 2 weeks I'd lost half a stone. A month later it was 10 pounds. And it was staying off. 3 months on I've lost 16 pounds, and I'm lighter than I've been since I was in my early 20s. People have noticed a difference and none of my trousers fit me anymore. Sorry if I'm sounding like a weightwatchers advert but what can I say? It works. And that's before I even start on any serious exercise program.

When I was a lot younger, I always ran up the stairs - recent years have found me walking (dragging really at times up the stairs).  I have given up all wheat products for a while now and...guess what?  I am running up the stairs again. (Still enjoy a daily glass or two of Wine though.  Happy with that actually.

Preferably not off the top diving board at the swimming baths.

As you get older your digestive system is not as efficient - I believe wheat causes havoc.

There's no doubt that many people have cut stuff out of their diets resulting in spectacular improvement to their health.
Yet even with the evidence staring them in the face doctors are still reluctant to take food intolerances seriously.
It's very much a case of do it yourself or suffer in silence.
One thing is for sure your GP will be a big let down if you depend on them for help.
Especially for treating migraines. You might as well go and see a witchdoctor for migraine as go to your GP.
Overpaid charlatans most of them.

Good luck scandanavian, hope it works for you. You may have a grumbling digestive system for a few days to start with, while your bowel flora adjusts, but it soon passes.

As you get older your digestive system is not as efficient - I believe wheat causes havoc

could be but then it could be either milk or one of the sugars....which then makes the system store the others too because its too much hard work.

Dr Crippen - someone told me once that Doctors do not study nutrition.

Well I never take the skin off. In fact there was an article in the New Scientist today that starts:

After decades of health warnings, the idea that steak, cheese and lard are bad for your heart is melting away. The truth is more complex – and delicious…

Presumably about how the whole ‘fat is bad for you’ stuff is rubbish.

I eat fat and I’m am the leanest I’ve been in my life. However, I realise for a lot of people it is terrifying actually to think of eating fat. I was that way too, but I’ve got over it. If the thought of eating chicken with skin is a step too far too soon, take it off, or take it off some and leave it on others, etc. As long as you are satiated by what you eat AND happy. If you don’t trust fat you can remove it or eat as little as possible – for instance Quorn fillets are very low fat, high protein and without wheat in them, though a lot of other Quorn does have wheat.

One thing to remember – if you ate a lot of wheat before, that’s carbohydrate that you are no longer getting. So (if you don’t want to lose weight) you will need to either eat more carbohydrate or more fat (or both) to compensate.

As for the nuts, the only really bad thing to do is have roasted or salted nuts. Plain, whole nuts and seeds are what you want. With nuts I find almonds are really filling and cheaper than some of the others. But they all have their good points nutritionally. Personally my nut list is, in order of likes: Almonds, Pecans, Brazils, Macadamia, Hazel and last and very much least Walnuts. Don't eat cashews, they are the nut equivalent of pringles! And they're not real nuts. I don’t eat seeds, I’ve never bought them, but whatever you eat you want plain ‘not messed about with’ seeds, whatever they might be.

As for cheese, if you’re still wary of fat then yes lighter. I buy the mature cheddar stuff – at the moment Tesco are selling 2 450g blocks for £5 – an offer that will continue for about another year, here’s the lighter version:

.
http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=281814492

what alcohol is wheat free?

WEETABIX are fattening?

Have they changed the recipe?

I started eating them when I was a kid.

None of them namby-pamby tree hugging wishy-washy breakfast bowls for me I used a salad bowl, with 5 Weetabix in it, a full pint of proper milk on them, and a TABLEspoonful of sugar sprinkled over the top.

I never missed a day, so if I started at the age of 5, by the time I was 11 years old I had eaten 10,950 (not including any leap year Weetabix)

I was so skinny I had to have pencils in my ears to stop me falling down drains

By the age of 16, I had eaten 29,200 and still what I call 'skinny' i.e.- no fat.

By the age of 18, the count had gone up to 32,850. Now 6 feet 2 and still as lean as a greyhound.

5 Weetabix every single day, and no alcohol intake at all.

This carried on until I was 36 years old, by which time I had scoffed 65,700 of them, but I had cut down the sugar sprinkled over the top to half a tablespoonful.

Still 6 feet 2, and no more than a maximum of 13 stones 7, and there was more fat on a butchers pencil.

I then took up playing darts again, but this time I indulged in the sophisticated art of drinking beer, a lot of it

9 years later at the age of 45, I had now scoffed 82,125 Weetabix, but as previous years showed, they had no effect on my weight.

But I was now 18 stones 7.

I think I can safely blame the extra 5 stones on beer for that.

I stopped playing darts and stopped drinking beer. I changed to a shift work job (which 'they' reckon is bad for you now) so that I oouldn't be tempted to go in the pub for any long sessions.

Despite still eating 5 Weetabix a day, but now with no sugar at all, and Mrs CMAT insisted on semi-skimmed milk, in 4 months, I got down to 15 stones 7.  This wasn't dieting that lost this weight, I wasn't an office worker, it was hard manual labour. 

I stayed around the 15-7 to 15-10 mark for a long long while. It looked like I couldn't lose any more weight, perhaps it's the metabolism of middle age, or perhaps I had finally arrived at my proper body weight, as all the other males in my family are/were a lot heavier than me. I think that years of very long hours and hard manual graft really kept my weight down.

However, you can't keep up the pace you worked at as you get older. But a 14 hour day 6 times a week has more effect than a desk jockey doing 2 hard hours in his local gym 3 times a week.

I still have 4 or 5 Weetabix a day, and I've now eaten 115,000 of them. So really, shouldn't I be enormous, as I don't exercise?

I've not done any hard graft for 9 years (mowing the lawn does for  me) and in that time I've eaten another 16,425 Weetabix.

I weigh in at 16-8.

I'm overweight, but I'm not obese.

Put your bowl staright away. Dried Weetabix is the hardest substance known to man

I know, The bowl is rinsed and washed up within seconds of me draining the last drops of milk.

Davin_03 - After 8-10 days it was relatively easy. The hard part's thinking differently, trying to work out what to eat and all that. I did eat gluten free stuff when I didn't know any better - trying to carry on as I were before but without wheat. It's crap, once I got used to looking for alternatives and started eating 2 or 3 eggs, yolks and all, I just fell into it, Once I'd stopped seeing the grim reaper lurking behind every egg and chicken skin.

I certainly would not consider eliminating wheat from my diet if I was not absolutely certain that regular eating of it made me unwell.

Nevertheless I've said before that after eliminating a food you will build up a tolerance to it. In most cases you will be able to eat the offending food on occasions and suffer no ill effects.

Thought  i would try rye bread from Lidl tastes ok but a bit dry.

Orses for courses innit.  I know someone who since she started eating only raw fruit and veg has never felt fitter and more energetic.

Well as you know, you can only eat three things – protein, fat and carbohydrates. Protein in humans is more to do with building structure. We burn fat or carbs for energy. The body can use either; if you don’t eat much carbohydrate you’ll start producing ketones from the fat you eat, and if you eat mainly carbs, it’s glucose that fuels you.

Carbs are like a quick-fix, they give you plenty of energy now, but for a short amount of time, that’s why when you eat carbs you keep feeding yourself every few hours no matter how much you eat.

When you eat mainly fat and burn ketones, you have all your body as a resource (unlike with carbs) and don’t run out and need a re-feed every few hours, in other words the energy from fat lasts longer and does less damage*.

(*unless it turns out the 'fat is almost instant death' crowd were right all along, I'm doing what I believe the science tells us is true).

It is just orses and I’m not saying every one of exactly the same, but longterm it is carbs that do the damage via insulin, not fat. As you age the machinery of insulin may start to falter if it is constantly trying to put right your blood sugar. If you’re young most people don’t need to think about it, but as you age, well no body systems actually improve with age after a point, do they? 


In most cases you will be able to eat the offending food on occasions and suffer no ill effects.


I think you know better than I on this, but I do think wheat is one of those exceptions.

As I understand it, the two proteins from the gluten are able to get into the blood stream via the intestines. The body thinks it is under attack and causes an immune response (which is why joint pain is made worse, I think). If you keep eating it you get used to it, though as I understand the immune system never stops treating it as a threat, but if you stop it is worse when you eat it again. Most people that have had the benefits from being wheat free say the same - if they eat wheat again they crash and burn. I had a rough 4 days after eating wheat one Sunday, it was very unpleasant, wobbly bowels, joint pain, flu-like symptoms and anxiety. I started to feel better the following Thursday afternoon. You can’t get by with a bit now and then like with other foods, I think, certainly not in my case. If you could I’d be treating myself, but experience tells me it’s not worth the grief.

Oats and carrots. You heard it here first, straight from the orse's mouth.

today I've had, 3 chicken thighs, tin of tuna, Yeo valley greek style yoghurt, 1 banana, 1 tomato, 4 or 5 thin slices of cheese, 4 or 5 whole almond nuts, they were £1.29 from sainsburys, I do feel a bit light headed, i wont update what I;ve eaten every day as i wont want to bore the arse of you but low carbs and no wheat all round, not sure I bought the best kind of yoghurt in general though

^