theguardian.com/lifeandstyl...
Good reminder of what a 'portion' actually is.
I think portioning vegetables is kind of not smart. Vegetables are usually low calorie (unless drenched in something high fat) and they are filling. Less room for calorie dense foods.
Thanks, Gabkad - a wake up call!
Right from the 1st image it looks like propaganda for the food industry. The industry that gave us the "Low Fat" myth.
A Tennis ball of Pasta? It's just bread without the holes, so probably about equivalent to a loaf.
It's a sad state of affairs when people struggling with their weight think they need to avoid oil on their pasta!!!!!
The oil/butter will make you feel full (good thing), but won't send your glucose soaring. Body stores Fat when Insulin binds glucose & stores it. Stick to foods which don't trigger Insulin.
Look at picture of people from the 50s 60s 70s. All skinny. High Fat, low carb diet.
Calorie counting = yo yo dieting.
Vegetables swimming in butter is a good thing!
Avoid : Soft drinks (even "sugar free"), Sweets, biscuits, cakes, PASTA, bread, Cearials. Hidden carbs in stuff like low fat yoghurt. The words "Low Fat" on packaging just means good stuff removed, filled with addictive crap. Avoid.
Totally agree, Knackersyard. Reading that article - could only bear to read about half of it - the words 'balderdash' and 'red herring' came to mind.
And, what the hell is a 'spear' of broccoli? A spear of asparagus, ok, but broccoli comes in clumps...
Why do so many still buy it though?
The problem with the calorie argument is it's perfectly true in scientific terms, IE, as a unit of energy, which the body burns....
What it ignores is how the body deals with different foods. Poo is calorific (sorry ladies 😆). Eat a block of butter & most will be passed straight though. Put 6 raw eggs in a glass & drink them. You will see cloudy yellow pee follows. The body simply can't process that much Fat or Protein.
Carbohydrates on the other hand, are quickly converted to Blood Sugar. That triggers Insulin production.
A calorie controlled diet, including "Low Fat" snacks is a recipe for weight gain & misery.
Why do people still think that cholesterol causes heart attacks? People like sensation, so if you create enough sensation with your wild claims, people will believe it. The quite voice crying in the wilderness, gets ignored.
Even on here, we still have loads of people stating that you should count calories to lose weight - even hypo weight - and people on here, if they read enough, should know better. Doctors tell them to reduce their calories.
You hear rediculous things like people telling their doctor that they only eat 800 calories a day, and they're still putting on weight. The doctor just says, well, it's still obviously too many calories for you! A stupid comment if every I heard one! But if the doctor said it, it must be true!!!
Human being just aren't rational creatures. 
Yes, why DO people worry about Cholesterol?
Nothing to do with Statins being the most profitable drug in history.......... No, they wouldn't make stuff up to make money, surely.
Sadly, you're right. It's sad how many people struggle with weight for years, yet would argue to their last breath that low calorie / low fat diets work. Proof of the pudding etc...
> Why do so many still buy it though?
I have a family of good friends I've watched over the past ten years or so try to improve their diets. They used to eat things like pizza with no veg and pints of cola all day.
It's amazing what slow progress they've made, it's painful to watch. Part of the problem is that there's such an enormous amount of disinformation around, food labelled as healthy, and all these adverts using the term 'balanced diet' to imply you shouldn't eat too many vegetables and should always have crisps or Turkey Twizzlers or something to balance them out.
Also, when they try to do their own research they get caught up in a lot of fad diets, and can't distinguish what the good information is. Also its easier for them to get caught up in something quite simplistic and extremes like giving up all dairy, than it is to just increase their vegetables.
I always advise them to cut down on processed food before they cut out anything else, but I think they find that far more challenging, I see loads of sausages, cheap cured meats, jars of pasta sauce and curry, powders to flavour homemade food, etc, etc. I think they are scared that plain grilled meats or vegetables will be too bland, and that using their own herbs, spices and good cooking techniques will be too difficult. And this is with them still unable to really distinguish what's healthy and what isn't. There are so many pitfalls for them I'm sure most people are more like my friends than the people who read this forum. And even more don't even have the time for inclination to try to improve their diets.
knackersyard, the article was not about avoiding fat.
I didn't say it was, but it's incredibly misleading, for the reasons I've given.
Calorie controlled diet is BIG business. Guaranteed repeat business. Weightwatchers (wholly owned by Heinz) is testament to that.
PS, you made a comment about Veg being drenched in Fat.
Since you didn't read it past the picture of the serving of spaghetti at the beginning, going on about like you are is not relevent. Maybe start another thread?
I did read it. It's utter tripe, compiled by "food critics" (they don't dance to the food industry's tune, do they...).
It's just the sort of rubbish that keeps poor sods trapped in the cycle.
Why did you post it?
Fast food servings are bigger than ever. Sweetened carbonated beverages are sold in much larger volumes.
I don't understand why you interpreted what you read as a support of the 'food industry' however you define it.
Of course we could have a debate about the colour of water in a white bucket. That could get really controversial and people can get quite exercised over it. Sort of like the arguments about the colours in the picture of a dress that went viral on the internet last year.
Quite obviously you totally disagree for whatever reason with absolutely everything in that article. On the flipside there may be people who don't 'feel' the way you do. Is ThyroidUK Healthunlocked supposed to be an echo chamber where only those things are posted where everyone nods their head and agrees?
I read an awful lot of material and just because I don't 100% agree with everything I read doesn't mean it's not worth reading. Clearly you see things differently.
If portions were much smaller in the 1950s it was not because people in general ate less, it was because food was rationed and they had very little to eat.
Food rationing in The UK started in around 1940, I believe, and ended in 1954. Food was scarce.
However, I have some of the remnants of the dinner service my mother bought when she got married in 1942 - presumably manufactured before the start of the second world war, and the dinner plates were huge. So, I Don't give much credence to this article, I'm afraid.
I think more of a problem is we don't exercise like we did back in the 50's 60's 70's. When you think most families didn't have a car, housework really was more if a chore, we spent more time walking outdoors, we didn't have remotes, and we had to go out and do our food shopping, we grew vegetables so regularly dug the garden. Children were playing out all day and only came back when they were hungry. People ate more calories in the past, bacon and eggs was a normal breakfast and in most households there was bread on the table along with dinner. Plus now of course we have processed food full of sugar, even the savory items! I think we need to get back to full fat milk and lashings of butter! Cooking from scratch with fresh ungredients too.
How many people remember bread and dripping, or toast and dripping? I remember toasting the bread by the fire and having a bowl of beef dripping softening on the hearth, and it was wonderful! Low fat makes you fat. We were skinny eating more fat and using our legs!
Totally agree Helcaster, we were not so spoilt years ago, breakfast, dinner and tea, cannot remember snacks being on the menu and the only time we had lemonade was at xmas when it was home made. Sweets were doled out one at a time if you were lucky and by golly you sucked on that toffee as though life depended on it, one bag had to go round the whole family as a rare treat. Loved all the home made dinners and puddings such as suet, spotted dick and jam roly poly yum; veggies from granddads allotment and a tame rabbit at xmas. People did not go to the gym to exercise as normal living created enough exercise, as you say walking everywhere and down on your knees to clean the floors. Over weight people were in the minority.
Absolutely correct Joyia, you just didn't eat anything between meals. Food is available 24/7 now, no wonder there is obesity. No takeaways then just the odd fish and chip shop. We only had fish and chips as an absolute treat, no one ate there daily as some people do.
We didn't have any sweets until a selection box at Christmas.
All meals homemade and like you said suet puddings to keep you warm and full. I wish we could go back to those days to be honest, people were happier and generally healthier.
Generally healthier Helcaster because Big Pharma had not go in on the act. Medicines were made up in the local independent Chemists and certainly not as many as today were taken. Here's another who wishes we could go back to those days.
People still used a lot of home remedies then too, j_bee, it wasn't all about big fat profits for drug companies. I honestly think because we were outdoors so much it prevented a lot of illness. Children still had milk free in schools, I remember vitamin drops given for babies, is that still done? There seems to be increased malnutrition around, despite people having food around at all times. The lack of cooking with mum, poor domestic science lessons all add up. I remember in the 60's and 70's we were taught meal planing and nutrition, all the basic techniques, different pastries, sponges, how to make sauces, I've always been a really good cook because of this. Yet when my youngest children were at school all they seemed to make was pizza! I can cook fresh, cheap nutritious meals, I worked full time but still my children had 5 vegetables with whatever protein I cooked every day. I was so proud when my last two started school and they had to write their favourite foods, one said parsnips and my youngest sun dried tomatoes, I'm not kidding!! A very proud mum at parents evening 
No, I guess it wasn't all about profit for Big Pharma Helcaster. Food certainly was a lot healthier then as well and, of course, most people did not have cars. I remember vitamin drops for children, Abidec,I think they were called and I have never known my daughter have vitamins given for her two boys (7 and 5). She does give them to them now and again if she feels they need them though as they are fussy eaters and she is a good cook as well.
Really think they should bring back Domestic Science for secondary school at least. I know in the 10 years difference between me and my youngest sister School cookery classes were very much down-graded with tins and packets being used for almost everything and no basic cookery being done. We did well by being taught good nutrition from Mum though, and likewise,I have passed on this knowledge to my daughter. She used to puree all her boys baby food herself.
Hi j_bee, yes those were the vitamin drops! I used to make all my own baby food too, my children have always eaten lots of vegetables. Do you remember putting your baby in the garden in the pram? Mine always had an hour a day in the fresh air, didn't they sleep well?! I wonder how many cat/ insect nets are sold now?
All my children are good cooks, and what is wonderful is they are feeding my grandchildren the way they were fed. My children never used to go to the GP, one said of my son, if all my patients were like you I could retire and play golf! Amazing what fresh air and nutritious food can do!
Yes Helcaster, I did put my babies in the pram outside for part of each day, most of the day in summer, or walked with the pram. My daughter is a good cook too and I think if they are good it is because they follow by example, which is just not shown today.
I have to agree with everything you say j_bee! X
Being one of those people who only have to look at food to put weight on, it astounds me to see the size of portion some consider normal. What astounded me even more was when my mother (whom I consider to eat next to nothing) complained that the bowl of soup I served was half empty.
The biggest culprit in the modern epidemic of obesity sweeping all corners of the globe is fructose. Unlike glucose, which we can use for energy, the body has no way to utilise fructose. It activates no response from the pancreas so no insulin is produced leaving the liver as the sole means of control, the same response given to any poison entering the system. Unlike real sources of food it has no effect on ghrelin so arouses no signal to the brain that the stomach has had surfeit. Fructose taken before a meal fools the consumer into eating more before feeling full. It also affects dopamine production leading to cravings and further consumption.
Sugar is 50% fructose, HFCS is 55%, honey 40%. Agave syrup, often touted as a healthy alternative, is 90 to 95% fructose!!
Of course other carbohydrates also play their part.
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