Obesity crisis in Ireland Mod Note post 1

RHJ

If you are super lazy you can always get frozen already chopped onions in a bag from Tesco never used them myself but could be useful and for garlic you can get already crushed garlic in the herbs and spices section.

Ardillaun

joeguevara wrote: »

No problem chopping onions and garlic. Actually find it therapeutic. Much prefer to use something different than lentils though. Like lean turkey mince.

Having read what they taste like the description of ‘mild earthy flavor with a meaty watery aftertaste doesn’t instil me with confidence that I could eat them on a long term basis. But if people like them then it will work for them.

The trick is to find low-sugar items you can tolerate long-term as your staple items. For each person, it’s a matter of experimenting until they find such a list. Another example for me is that a bit of pepper and curry powder on salad makes it more palatable.

wakka12

I dont know how you could like lentils. They are so bland, but I like that they they are filling and satiating and good replacements for simple carbohydrates, I prefer rice and pasta obviously but the main thing I like about meals is the sauce so lentils can replace the pasta or rice in the meals without ruining it too much

Ardillaun

Here’s a piece on the spectrum of homeostatic and hedonic eating:

https://www.livescience.com/54248-controlling-your-hunger.html

It’s the hedonic end of things that’s getting us into most of our trouble. One basic requirement to rein this drive in is enough sleep each night.

Ardillaun

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts wrote: »

Obesity levels in Ireland and the Benelux countries according to the link you provided:

Ireland: 25.3%
Luxembourg: 22.6%
Belgium: 22.1%
Netherlands: 20.4%

Not much of a difference between Ireland and the Benelux nations going by your own stats. They won’t have had to chance upon an Irish tourist couple to witness obesity in their home countries.

Jaysus, being slightly better than us is scant comfort for those Benelux lads. I thought the Dutch were slimmer than that.

Ardillaun

Some more info on hedonic eating:

http:m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD1H0muqxjQ

igCorcaigh

joeguevara wrote: »

Having read what they taste like

Try them, as I said maybe, with olive oil, wine vinegar and fresh parsley. They are delicious.

It's the flavouring that helps. Try them with sausage or chorizo to begin with. Get the puy ones. I think gourmet merchant sell them precooked. And you only need a small amount.

igCorcaigh

Ardillaun wrote: »

Some more info on hedonic eating:

http:m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD1H0muqxjQ

Added to my hedonic youtube binge list!

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts

joeguevara wrote: »

Problem is I’d prefer all the issues that obesity brings instead of eating lentils regularly. Also a big issue is putting forward food that tastes revolting as a way of losing weight. People can’t keep it up and then regain more.

Better labeling of calories and preparation is key.

One thing that shows how people really are so oblivious about calorie content is a conversation I had with my dad. He was complaining that he was eating so healthily but hadn’t lost even a lb in three weeks. I knew something was up so next morning I joined him for breakfast. What he thought was ultra healthy (and it was) granola, yoghurt, blueberries, whole grain toast, large glass of orange juice and a grapefruit added up to some ridiculous amount of calories like 1400. When I said that that breakfast was equivalen to nearly 2/3s of his daily calorie allowance he wouldn’t believe me. He equated healthy food to near zero calories.

He still believed that fat was the evil that he had learned as a kid. When it was all explained and had a plan he found it easy to lose weight.

Yeah, my dad just does not get calories at all. He seems to think that healthy foods should contain basically no calories. I was telling him before that oily fish like mackerel and salmon are quite calorie-dense and he was shocked. He was like “I shouldn’t be eating those so!”. And I said “No, they are healthy and good for you, all you need to do is not eat a massive portion of them.” And he has also made statements like “Sure, potatoes have no calories!”. Erm, yes they do, father. He’ll eat a mound of potatoes but be proud that he didn’t put butter on them (he also has the drummed-into-him fear of fat). I’d rather much less spuds that I can add a bit of butter to, pops! And he thinks that dried fruits are no calories when they are actually quite calorie-dense per 100g. Just does not get calories at all.

And I totally agree re: lentils. They do nothing for me. It’s very easy to eat a sensible portion of rice, potato or pasta. There is this market for things like lentils and quinoa even though it’s as easy to overeat those as the more traditional carbs we eat here in Ireland. And the West’s lust for quinoa is pushing up the price of it in South American countries where it is the staple carbohydrate. Just don’t eat a mound of potatoes and pasta, people!

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts

Ardillaun wrote: »

Jaysus, being slightly better than us is scant comfort for those Benelux lads. I thought the Dutch were slimmer than that.

I know! Very little difference between the countries. And as I said in another post, my own experience tells me that the lowest obese BMI number - 30 - looks very, very fat, not just a bit chubby. I looked really, really fat at BMI 30. So even if the obese folks in the Benelux countries tend more towards the lower end of the obese BMI scale, it’s still going to be noticeable. So the poster who said that Irish couple looked out of place, well, quite frankly I don’t believe her. She posted the ranking of the countries rather than the actual percentage who are obese which made it seems like Ireland was way ahead of the Benelux countries when it comes to obesity. But the percentage figures there show that it’s not the case.

wakka12

wakka12 wrote: »

I dont know how you could like lentils. They are so bland, but I like that they they are filling and satiating and good replacements for simple carbohydrates, I prefer rice and pasta obviously but the main thing I like about meals is the sauce so lentils can replace the pasta or rice in the meals without ruining it too much

I dunno why rice is maligned so much
90g portion of wholegrain basmati is 300kcals.

RHJ

Whatever happened to the idea from a few years ago of putting Calories on restaurant menus?
I've only been to one restaurant (in Letterkenny in the shopping centre) that had them next to each food item. I thought it would be an excellent idea for those who watch their Calories.

PopePalpatine

Probably pushback from independent (i.e. not part of a chain like McDonald's or Nando's) restaurants about how much of a ballache the process would be.

coffee_cake

RHJ wrote: »

Whatever happened to the idea from a few years ago of putting Calories on restaurant menus?
I've only been to one restaurant (in Letterkenny in the shopping centre) that had them next to each food item. I thought it would be an excellent idea for those who watch their Calories.

I think it's a great idea too. It's impossible to know these things or how much cream is going into your sauce

On lentils, i did have a lentil dahl recently that was nice. i have been meaning to try learn cooking them

Cryptopagan

RHJ wrote: »

Whatever happened to the idea from a few years ago of putting Calories on restaurant menus?
I've only been to one restaurant (in Letterkenny in the shopping centre) that had them next to each food item. I thought it would be an excellent idea for those who watch their Calories.

Because you wouldn’t order half of what’s on the menu if you saw just how many calories were in it.

xi5yvm0owc1s2b

Ardillaun wrote: »

BMI is a quick and rough guide for average, not particularly athletic people. Any highly muscular person will get a misleading result.

Tall and short people will too. The formula for BMI, developed back in the 1830s, has obvious deficiencies -- including that it divides weight by too large a number for shorter people and too small a number for taller people. An applied math professor from Oxford has developed a "new BMI" calculator to better account for these differences. Might be worth calculating your BMI using this method, especially if you're taller or shorter than average.

RHJ

It looks like the idea of putting Calories on menus is back on the table; of course, the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

Ardillaun

RHJ wrote: »

It looks like the idea of putting Calories on menus is back on the table; of course, the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

Would be a good idea. Conscious eating needs all the help it can get.

silverharp

Amaris Repulsive Golfer wrote: »

Tall and short people will too. The formula for BMI, developed back in the 1830s, has obvious deficiencies -- including that it divides weight by too large a number for shorter people and too small a number for taller people. An applied math professor from Oxford has developed a "new BMI" calculator to better account for these differences. Might be worth calculating your BMI using this method, especially if you're taller or shorter than average.

I saw a few tweets suggesting the standard BMI is not useful for the Asian body type , I think its because they have a lower tolerance for obesity and hit health issues much quicker. Still its probably reasonable for the vast majority of people.

Dial Hard

Amaris Repulsive Golfer wrote: »

Tall and short people will too. The formula for BMI, developed back in the 1830s, has obvious deficiencies -- including that it divides weight by too large a number for shorter people and too small a number for taller people. An applied math professor from Oxford has developed a "new BMI" calculator to better account for these differences. Might be worth calculating your BMI using this method, especially if you're taller or shorter than average.

I'm marginally lower on the new one than the old one - 22.94 V 23.02.

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts

Dial Hard wrote: »

I'm marginally lower on the new one than the old one - 22.94 V 23.02.

And I plugged in the numbers for a few hypothetical scenarios for really tall and really short people and, honestly, there was very little difference between the new and old BMI calculators. That says to me that the advice to use the old, more widely use BMI calculator as a general guideline is still sound. My healthy weight range shifts downward only about 3 lbs at both ends using the new calculator.

xi5yvm0owc1s2b

My BMI is almost a full point lower under the new BMI calculator. I'm classified as slightly overweight under the traditional BMI, but in the healthy range under the new BMI.

At 13.5 stone........

Your standard BMI is 27.12 a reading which classifies you as overweight.
Your new BMI is 26.44 reading which classifies you as overweight.

Ariadne

My BMI went up with that calculator, fcuk that :eek:

wakka12

Seeing as only a tiny percent of the population would any have significant muscle weight , probably less than 1%, BMI should be reasonably accurate for most people

Ardillaun

silverharp wrote: »

I saw a few tweets suggesting the standard BMI is not useful for the Asian body type , I think its because they have a lower tolerance for obesity and hit health issues much quicker. Still its probably reasonable for the vast majority of people.

(edit) just threw in my numbers and the new one puts me in at 1.2kg over. I think I like this one, that's doable ;-)

South Asians have different risk parameters reflecting their vulnerability to atherosclerosis. This Canadian document recommends a BMI below 23 for them:

http://hamiltonhealthsciences.ca/documents/Patient%20Education/BMISouthAsian-trh.pdf

wakka12

wakka12 wrote: »

Seeing as only a tiny percent of the population would any have significant muscle weight , probably less than 1%, BMI should be reasonably accurate for most people

I'm 40% skeletal muscle ..... I doubt I'm anywhere near the 1% you allude to.

Ardillaun

dartboardio wrote: »

Lady but yeah i agree.

I beg your pardon. Why did I assume that?

Ardillaun

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

Quite right.

Most of Belgium is as common as fck.

I think I’d fit in there. The Dutch and their bicycles are above my station. I like the sound of people who aren’t afraid to put sugar, orange peel and coriander in their beer.