The Off Topic Thread...

Lol those cola frosties were savage way to wreck the roof of yer mouth though!
My 20p binge would have been some combo of burger bites, wheelies, frosties, mr Freeze etc.. God things have changed so much (and I'm only 24!) How much does a penny sweet cost these days?

Temple_Grandin wrote: »

Just found this awesome graph

Tehe you're an even bigger nerd than I am!
Sorry I'll butt out now

Temple_Grandin wrote: »

Haha, guilty as charged!

Do butt in, what's your opinion on the subject?

Is it wise to advise people to not reduce their saturated fat intake as a healthy eating strategy?

hmmm... My advice to the average joe (no background medical issues etc considered) would always be to be carb conscious (ie. zero processed sugar, low sugar fruits only and small amounts of wholegrains - 2 portions a day and only 1 of them a flour product if they were someone prone to weight gain)and to stick to unporcessed organic and preferably free range meats, fish and eggs without paying much attention to how much sat fat they take in.

I'm not a fan of dairy at all so in that sense I would be against a high sat fat food, but I have no problem with sensible amounts of good quality meat and eggs. So I guess its wise to advise against certain sat fat foods and not others, but it hasn't really got much to do with the type or amount of fat in them rather I just don't think milk and it's products are appropriate for humans beyond human breast milk as a child.

I think the cholesterol thing is a bit of a joke at this stage and am fairly sure the saturated fat thing is too the more I learn about it, but that being said I'm not the best person to judge at this stage in my education I've a hell of a lot to learn before I can fly against the wind as you do.

It would depend on the person too though and how clued up they were, like corkcomp said if I were to say that to the wrong person they might go off and start eating fries 3 times a day with no veg or fruit (I lived with a guy for a year who did exactly that and his diet was supplemented only by huge amounts of beer every night :eek:) and ignore the advice that didn't appeal to them (ie. the masses of vegetables part)

This is the issue as far as public health goes is how much can we trust people to use the advice appropriately without ruining their health.
At the end of the day your average joe doesn't give much of a damn about what he puts in his mouth as long as it tastes good so it's not realistic to expect people to eat as well as the likes of people on this forum would so even the most up to date knowledge we have about these things could be construed into a very dangerous message in the minds of the public. Hence the far from ideal food pyramid.

I think a moderate fat and moderate carb approach is most sensible for losing weight and general health and that a focus on quality and unprocessed foods is the most important thing without focusing too heavily on exact quantities of one macronutrient or another. If you ask me it should be micronutrient intake (ie. nutrient density) we should be concerned about.

I'm starting to be fairly concerned about gluten the more I look into it and I think there's a lot to be said for some of the research done in that area too and it that sense advocating a high carb low fat diet could be a serious no no.

I personally am always unsure of veg oils as you never really know what they've had done to them before you get them. I mean even sitting around on the supermarket shelves in sunlight and more than likely having a huge surface area exposed to the air during the pressing, filtering and bottling process is a scary thought.

I personally use coconut fat for cooking, I think stable saturated fat is a safer option than polyunsaturated and low quality veg oils for cooking at least.

It's a terribly tricky situation really, how do we make sure we only get clean, non-rancid and good quality fats in our diets without going too low fat or too high (so as we end up obese).

Communnicating any nutritional advice to the public is so risky too as they are prone to cherry pick the advice that they like and ignore the rest.

If people actually had the time and motivation to cook their food from scratch and only used wholefood ingredients I don't think we'd have to worry so much about RDA's and precise guidlines for the exact amounts of each nutrient to be healthy.

I don't think this post is going to make any sense and I don't think I really answered you question, sorry!

I barely know what I think anymore, the more I learn the more dissilussioned I become with everything I thought I knew and have been taught and I'm going to be a qualified in 4 months.

Temple_Grandin wrote: »

Hmm, I've been changing my mind on dairy (I change my mind a lot, reading scientific literature demands it ). Unless you have leaky gut or an autoimmune disease I can't see any research in healthy people that shows it as specifically damaging to the gut, unlike gluten. Quite the opposite, the masai mara tribe drink a load of raw milk and have zero heart disease. It doesn't affect me personally, I minimise it to hedge my bets but will put a little cheese with a salad or have cream in coffee which has minimal casein anyway and butter will always have a special place in my heart .

Hmmm.. I think the quality of raw 100% organic and pasture fed (presumably) milk might be a different story to the pasteurised, potentially hormone laden, and partially grain fed milk we get here though.
I generally think that it's not necessarily a good idea to derive too many conclusions about diet by observing traditional cultures considering how vastly different their lifestyle, environment and eating habits are to ours, we live such an artificial and alien existance to our ancestors and surviving tribal and/or hunter gatherer populations with any number of added strains (chemical, physical, emotional etc..) on the body not to mention a hell of a lot less exercise. But thats a whole different topic altogether and my brain is far to fried right now for that!
Yup and the first step to enlightenment is realising you know feck all supposidly so I must be well on my way to a higer state of conciousness by now!

Temple_Grandin wrote: »

Pretty much all Irish dairy is mainly pasture fed and completely hormone free for what it's worth. I have American friends who buy imported Kerrygold and rave about it. It's a real gourmet product over there

I think raw milk is illegal to sell here though. It's a pity because there's a lot more nutrition in it and it wouldn't pose any health risks for someone who wasn't immuno-compromised. It would go off a lot quicker though. Is it just me or does milk not go off as quick as it used to?

Cows are finished off an grain here, granted we have great legislation around antibiotics etc.. but it's not so good elsewhere in the world like you said but imported cheese could be less reliable I suppose.
It is illegal but you can get it frm some farmers markets for a 'donation'. I have 2 guys I get free raw milk off the odd time for making paneer, the flavour is far superior. Most of the old lads keep a few litres for themselves every morning before the milk truck collects it.
I remember drinking milk warm from the cow after being hand milked by my nextdoor neighbour, we all drank it raw back then and it wasn't very long ago either (being 24 ) My parents had a pet cow for milk called bluebell and she had a calf called blackberry!

Temple_Grandin wrote: »

I thought they were only finished for slaughter? Good point on the imported cheese, ditto with meat, always worth spending a bit extra for quality and Irish if possible.

Lucky you having a raw-milk connection, I got some from a friend recently and oh my god the difference in taste was unreal, so creamy and rich.

Such a cute name for a cow! A friend of mine and her husband are both vegetarian. His family has a former dairy-farm where they now just keep all the cows as pets as pretty much the whole family are vegans. Expensive pets I'd say

damn right it's such a privelage to have access to such high quality and clean meat, dairy and seafood, I don't know if many people realise how lucky we are in the respect (for the time being anyway:(). Ireland sucks for fruit though and I would kill to be able to grow sweetpotatos and a decent variety of pumkins.
Yes expensive pets indeed, we used to rent a strip of the mountain I grew up on for my parents horsesm donkey and cow lol! Then the farmer put the rent up too high and we had to sell them! :mad: