Thread: I gave up smoking 2 days ago - it was REALLY easy....

Originally Posted by Enfield Guy

$60 odd for a 50gm pack of rolling tobacco. Gotta give these things up, after India.

No! Now!

TV documentary, Dr Michael Mosely, SBS, Monday 8.30, be there or.........

fletty

Thanks fletty. Will either watch it live or on catch-up. In the mean time here is a quote from a recent interview with him:

So what was your conclusion? Is vaping OK?
I think vaping is OK. There are some problems associated with it, which we explore in the film, but certainly compared with smoking, they’re trivial. There are about a billion smokers in the world, and about half of them will die from smoking-related diseases. So the numbers are just monstrous, and if you can persuade even a few of them to switch to e-cigarettes, it would make a huge difference because we know that going cold turkey doesn’t work.

That's a better conclusion than I thought it would be, but I really don't know how much cred he has (maybe a lot, I just don't know of him).

Mosley is primarily a medical journalist with medical training as a Psychiatrist so his real deep knowledge of other things medical is more limited than he sounds. His TV programs and small scale TV testing experiments look really convincing but are really just for show as they far too small scale to have any sort of significance, so what he ends promoting very much depends on his beliefs and the input of other medics which he picks and chooses to suit his views. I would be more convinced if he also sought the views of respected medicos with alternate viewpoints. I do agree with most of his views on low sugar diets and exercise some of which I had adopted even before I heard of him.

I have recently bought his book "The 8 week blood sugar diet" and my blood sugar figures are already showing improvement so wether he has psychiatric or medical training I am happy he wrote the book.

Originally Posted by safari

I have recently bought his book "The 8 week blood sugar diet" and my blood sugar figures are already showing improvement so wether he has psychiatric or medical training I am happy he wrote the book.

Book appears sound - SWMBO has been following following it for about 3 months but I've gone all the way, zero sugar, minimal carbohydrates, and no processed foods for ~18 months.
From full blown type two diabetes to not needing to take any diabetes drugs (provided I stay on the diet) in 12 months.
However, doc wants me t o stay on a daily tablet of Metformin for the foreseeable future - apparently taking it reduces a bunch of other risk factors for diabetics.
My cholesterol was out of whack even while on statins before the diet, and is now normal.

Blood pressure is high even on BP pills but slowly coming down.
My main problem is peripheral nerve damage in feet and legs from being in denial with untreated diabetes for several years.
Also my only kidney is not working properly.

Originally Posted by BobL

Book appears sound - SWMBO has been following following it for about 3 months but I've gone all the way, zero sugar, minimal carbohydrates, and no processed foods for ~18 months.
From full blown type two diabetes to not needing to take any diabetes drugs (provided I stay on the diet) in 12 months.
However, doc wants me t o stay on a daily tablet of Metformin for the foreseeable future - apparently taking it reduces a bunch of other risk factors for diabetics.
My cholesterol was out of whack even while on statins before the diet, and is now normal.

Blood pressure is high even on BP pills but slowly coming down.
My main problem is peripheral nerve damage in feet and legs from being in denial with untreated diabetes for several years.
Also my only kidney is not working properly.

You have touched on issues I have written about elsewhere in these fora Bobble. I eat no sugar and very little carbs and i am off stains - for about18 months now.
Blood pressure still needs medication but at a lower rate.

As a routine I have never eaten processed foods, never snacked between meals, don't eat anything except three meals a day etc. All my food is cooked in our house and I still have have type 2 diabetes though very low to the point where some professionals have questioned the diagnosis and I am very overweight with elevated cholestorol. The dietician told me that she could not contribute to any change in my diet that would produce any differences. I think there is more to all this than meets the eye and evangilistic crusades against a single factor are fairly simplistic to say the least. Most people who start a new regime such as no sugar for health reasons neglect to mention when pointing out the results that they also started exercising at the same time where they never exercised before, what caused the improvement?

I agree there is no magic bullet, especially because we are not all the same and react differently to different factors so there's not much else that can be done other than try things out and find out what works.

My kidney specialist is disturbed about the advice that many dieticians provide and reckons they are way behind on the latest medical research especially in regards to what constitutes good and bad fats and the role of fat in a healthy diet. He works at a couple of major hospitals and is appalled at some of the diets provided to some patients.

It depends on what you mean by processed food.
Technically pasta, bread, most breakfast cereals, and even white rice, and all diary, except raw milk, are all processed.

The sort of diet I'm on is very low in carbohydrate (even lower than what Michael Mosely suggests), no alcohol, bread, plastic, rice, cereals of any kind, very few fruits and legumes.
Its basically meat, diary and lots (and I do mean lots) of veggies, with only a few veggies that come from below the ground.
The only things that come out of a can are, tuna or sardines in spring water (I add the olive oil) and tomatoes.
Our fresh veggie bill for two is more than $100 a week and we also consume about $30 a week of nuts (almonds, brazil, pecans, walnuts)
I used to eat 5 pieces of fruit a day but now the only fruits I eat are a half cup of berries each day, and the odd orange/mandarin/persimmon - bright orange colour is OK.
I eat all manner of fatty cheeses, full fat yoghurt, and usually have full cream instead of milk (milk contains lactose, a sugar) in coffee if I have it white.
When we do have milk we have full milk as it contains less lactose than skim or half and half which are loaded up with lactose to replace the lost of taste from the removed cream.
Fats I eat include liberal amounts of olive oil, butter and coconut oil, but no oils pressed from seeds.

Breakfast is a combo of, fresh fish, eggs, stir fried veggies, often with chilli or ginger, cheese, and the occasional all "meat and veggie" sausage that contains no added carbs.
Lunch is usually last nights leftovers
We have vegetable only dishes at least twice a week, my favourite is plain old roasted veggies; celeriac, eggplant, capsicum, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts, and garlic.
Cooked Grated cauliflower makes a good substitute for rice so we have this with veggie curries, or add full cream and cheese and it makes a good mashed potato replacement.
When I asked the doc about my diet he looked at my blood test results and said - its working so keep doing it.

Sounds like the Diet suggested by Tim Noakes from South Africa Bobl.
That is basically the way Ana and I now eat.

Might I suggest a couple of books:

Wheat Belly by Dr. William Davis

What the Fat by Prof Grant Schoefield, Dr. Caryn Zinn, Craig Rodger.

The Real Meal Revolution by Prof. Tim Noakes, Jonno Proudfoot and Sally-Ann Creed.

Much of what you read will be counter intuitive to what you have been told for the last forty years or so.
I was stunned to find the benefits of following all this advice.

Cheers, and keep an open mind.

Originally Posted by artme

Sounds like the Diet suggested by Tim Noakes from South Africa Bobl.
That is basically the way Ana and I now eat.

Pretty much.

I have an interesting book to recommend.

Natural Born Heroes — Christopher McDougall's take on the German General Kreipe abduction on Crete and the nature of heroism, with plenty to keep interest the athlete as well as the historically curious

Some info here The Story - Heroes Ultra

It sounds like a weird book to recommend but as well as a darn good story, McDougall's book is loaded with the benefits of the Noakes, and mediterranean diets and the nature of real physical strength - contrary to popular opinion it's not in muscles but in ligaments and tendons!

Meanwhile.....back at the ranch......I'm down to 10mg of nicotine, and the next mix will be 9mg.

Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

Meanwhile.....back at the ranch......I'm down to 10mg of nicotine, and the next mix will be 9mg.

Starting from?

18mg at the end of April.