Why do you eat?

I think we do lose our sense of taste as we age Wilma and I suppose if we are unwell in any way like Annsixty's DH and my own DH that would not be surprising either. I remember the PIL's tea was made ever stronger as they aged until it was really bitter because they said that they " like to taste it". Well my taste buds just curled up at the first sip of it! Interestingly it seems that I am now becoming like that too as I get older as DC recently mentioned my liking for stronger tea and coffee nowadays!

wilma yes it was Roy Taylor on R4 yesterday. I must listen to it again as I didn’t hear it all, but what interested me was that he said everyone was different and what would work for one person wouldn’t necessarily work for someone else. Also that in the early stages of a weight loss programme, exercise didn’t help.
And that you had to think of it as being a two stage protect - losing the weight, and then maintaining the new lower weight.
The maintenance phase being as difficult as the weight loss.

I don't think mine have to a great degree as I still enjoy my food, just much less of it.
My H has completely lost his sense of smell which is common in people with dementia so I assume he has very little in the way of taste as ,to me, they are interlinked.
He eats too many sweet things now and I don't curb him much, he gets so little pleasure out of life
His tastes in food have changed drastically and things he previously enjoyed he will leave now. He is 81 so could be age I suppose.

Do you think our taste bud fade as we age?

Eat to live as I also have to work around food sensitivities like Rascal and Annie. I need to eat regular meals or I become very hungry and feel quite unwell which is a problem when my energy is low and I am unable to do the necessary to pull a meal together. I have to be careful not to nibble at 'stuff' in this situation or I feel really unwell so I would be first in the queue for a meal pill if it was available unless someone was kind enough to cook for me. I enjoy good food prepared and served well but often just lack the energy to do it so when able we do batch cook and freeze to get round this which seems to work quite well. At present food is a nightmare in our home since DH has to be tempted to eat as the medication he is on has sadly robbed him of the sense of 'taste'. Currently I do buy some pretty expensive food items to get round this so we eat less of the best quality I can find but even then DH says it is like eating cardboard. We now call it fuel rather than food! ,

M0nica I apologise if you feel my posts were pushing you into a corner. That was not my intention, I was trying to respond to parts of your posts (quoted by jane) to make sure you were aware of the facts of the situation.

I must catch up with R4 and listen to the contributions.

OldMeg I would be interested in knowing what you think about the book.

margrete was it Professor Roy Taylor from Newcastle University hospital on the radio? Michael Moseley's 8 Week Diet was inspired by the work of the Prof Taylor. He interviewed him on one of the Trust Me I'm A Doctor episodes. Michael Moseley was shocked to discovered he carried a lot of fat around his organs. He's slim and thought he was healthy until he found out about his internal body fat. By doing the 8 Week Diet he improved his situation and Prof Taylor wrote the forward of the book.

But to return to the main topic. I think far more research should go on into the psychology of eating. I strongly believe that if more was done to help people change their attitude to food and exercise, the better people would eat
Completely agree monica
I think you would find actually Lustig’s book interesting, since he goes into this.
The biochemistry and the psychological aspects of eating intertwine so that they drive each other, if that makes sense. So that what you eat can affect your psychological state through the biochemical pathways, and vice versa.
Of course, how you change people’s behaviour and attitudes to food is not easy and a contentious matter.

We listened to 'You and Yours' on the car radio while looking at the very high tide at Two Tree Island in Essex. Very interesting for both of us. Many, many different perspectives from a lot of people. What seems hardest is: once weight is lost, to keep it off. This was actually the perspective offered by the medical expert from Newcastle University whose subjects have had a lot of success in reversing Type 2 diabetes by means of a very low calorie liquid diet. That was half the story, and was very short-term. The rest of the story is the long-term - what to do to maintain that weight loss? I was reminded of what I already knew - the stomach is only the size of an orange. I've always thought of it as the size of my clenched fist - same thing. So, what is many people's idea of portion size is waaaaay out of proportion. We passed a local pub/restaurant which advertises 'eat as much as you like' for a set price. Or a burger and chips - you name it.

Myself, I'm less and less interested in food at all. Interesting TV programme coming up at 8 pm, will have a look. But as for programmes like 'Great British Bake-off' - no, I couldn't be less interested.

janeainsworth We all misremember at times. I just needed to make sure nobody could ever say I had not denied I had been at the LSE.

The para you quote is entirely consistent with the second paragraph of my last email.

But to return to the main topic. I think far more research should go on into the psychology of eating. I strongly believe that if more was done to help people change their attitude to food and exercise, the better people would eat.

I have been listening, or to be honest, half-listening, to You and Yours this week and its review of peoples attitudes to eating well so that they either do not get overweight or return and I find it immensely depressing.

Loosing weight and maintaining a healthy weight is seen almost entirely in negatives, All the things you musn't eat, all the habits you mustn't return to. All the exercise you must do. It makes a maintaining your wellbeing seem such a miserable restricted regimented state I am amazed that there is any one in the country, except a small number of masochists , who actually attain it.

Why not sing the praise of a good diet, the wonderful food choices, the range of foodstuffs available, how easy it is to cook and eat well.

Talk less of punishing sessions in the gym, more of the pleasures of getting outside. Even in towns walking roads and pavements; the variety of architecture, the different businesses you see, the people on the streets are just as interesting as any country walk. I know I have done both.

When listening to You and Yours today I promptly looked out the Christmas chocolates and started eating them - and I do not even like chocolate!

Please forgive me also for imagining that in this comment
I would imagine in his academic articles, he either doesn't use this new definition of 'pleasure' or his academic readers understand it completely and see his definition in its very narrow compass. He is not alone in this, lots of academics do this in all sorts of disciplines, hence the proliferation of jargon that no-one understands it was Lustig you were referring to.

My apologies for mistaking your university background monica.

catterygirl, I get that about knowing when one needs a sugary food. When I had a morning job (0900–1300) to which I cycled five miles and then back again, I was so hungry when I got home (in spite of eating a cheese roll in my morning tea break) that I used to eat a few (three or four) squares of chocolate before I could even begin to get my lunch.

I have never said I attended the LSE, because I haven't. I have said, on occasion, that, professionally, I was an economist, and that is something entirely different.

Neither I have never made any comment about this author, beyond a general point about being uneasy when populist authors (on any subject) give common words arcane meanings. I have not made one comment on or allusion to this author's work because I know nothing about it.

I am fascinated by the number of posters criticising me for saying things that I have never actually said. It just shows how big the gap is between what an author writes and what the reader understands them to have said, which rather proves my point!

Wilma I’ve just ordered his book. I’ve already read Yudkin’s book and found it makes sense.

The term 'pleasure' and its usage and definition is fully and clearly explained in the book Monica.
I'm rather surprised that someone with your level of education (you have on many occasions referred to your time at the LSE) should make such comments about a book you haven't read and an eminent scientist whose work you say you're nor familiar with.

Stop pushing me into a corner to defend the indefensible. Initially I merely commented that to take a widely used word with an entirely understood meaning and give it a different much narrower meaning is very confusing, especially when writing for the popular market. I will stick with this very limited comment whether the person doing it is a paediatrician, politician, pig farmer or paleontologist

Now discussing how sugar affects the brain, as described in Lustig’s new book.

wilma on WATO Radio 4 just now. Talking about Yudkin’s work and the battle between him & Ancel Keys and how advice about low fat diets is now changing.

M0nica he's a practicing paediatrician so he must be reasonably good at communicating on many levels. His books wouldn't sell so well either if he was jargon bound. Nor would he have been asked to do a TED talk. Perhaps instead of imagining his written work and grouping him with academics who have limited contact with the people their work involves, it would be helpful to spend even a few minutes to find out more about Lustig. I'm not trying to sell you his book, just asking you not to dismiss him as an academic reinventing the wheel.

I have little appetite and am happy to skip breakfast and lunch too. I do like a dinner after a couple of glasses of wine which does give me an appetite. Lately I have forced myself to build up the vitamins with Farleys rusk in milk and honey for breakfast. I lived in Trinidad as a child and saw the sugar cane growing. Does it not therefore qualify as a vegetable? I prefer savoury food but when I have a sweet, I like it sweet.

Wilma, I do not know Lustig's work, my complaint was merely a general one about experts, writing for a popular audience who redefine the meaning of common words for the general confusion of all. I would imagine in his academic articles, he either doesn't use this new definition of 'pleasure' or his academic readers understand it completely and see his definition in its very narrow compass.

He is not alone in this, lots of academics do this in all sorts of disciplines, hence the proliferation of jargon that no-one understands.

Thanks wilma, I didn’t know that John Yudkin’s book had been republished.

monica Robert Lustig doesn’t give dietary advice, or preach.

What he does is present the science around the modern problems of metabolic disease in an accessible way and readers can then make their own informed choices.

jane John Yudkin's book was republished a few years ago and Lustig wrote the preface. Fitting tribute.

M0nica Lustig specialises in neuroendocrinology. His work studies how the brain controls the secretion of pituitary gland hormones maintains homeostasis (the constant internal environment of the body). How the brain uses these hormones to regulate our metabolism and our eating and drinking behaviour (amongst other things like regulating our blood pressure).

In 2009 he recorded a lecture for the University of California called Sugar: The Bitter Truth and it went viral on YouTube. The Financial Times called the lecture sugar's 'tobacco' moment. The video is still on YouTube here if anyone wants to watch it (it's 90 minutes long)

Sugar: The Bitter Truth

He's not anti-sugar btw. I came across him in 2013 when I bought his book Fat Chance: Beating the Odds against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity, and Disease.

I think it’s a bit more complicated than that monica.

No, I haven't. However I have read much that has been written on food by Michael Pollen. It was he who coined the mantra^'Eat well, not too much, most of it plants^ and followed it up with this criteria when food shopping. if it is made from a plant, eat it; if it is made in a plant, don't Obviously the pun works better in American than English.

With those two mantra to guide one, the need for any further nutritional information seems unnecessary.