Advice please re Diet

Hi,

I personally don't snack and never have done. However, people on here seem to go for a handful of nuts, or a piece of cheese or similar.
You can eat as many eggs as you like. A slice of Burgen with butter and eggs should be fine, but please throw away the biscuits and buy some nuts or cheese, or celery sticks or raw carrot if needs must. Others will be along with more suggestions.

I snack on thin wholegrain rye with sesame seeds crispbreads from Lidl. They are low GI and work for me but you need to test to see how you react. Sometimes I have them with a sardine and tomato paste and at other times very thinly sliced cheddar cheese and some pickled onion.

If you find that it works for you, and a couple of crispbreads probably will be OK, maybe even 3 or 4, you can move onto the gourmet stuff. Peters Yard rye crispbread or Dr Kargs. Both are to be found in speciality foodshops. Both are expensive but you don't need more than say 1 Dr Kargs. They are both very hard and tough, so you need good teeth. Dr Kargs have stuff like Emmental and Pumpkin seed, you only need a little butter. It is wheat, not rye like Peters Yard but at least it is proper wholegrain.

It's worth experimenting to find what works and what does not work. I keep some or all of these in the kitchen as well as Ryvita and some Finn Crisp Thins. I keep lots of pickled, onions, gerkhins, chillis etc and sometimes mix spices with low fat cream cheeses and use them as spreads. The idea is to make a real meal out of things which have lots of crunch and very strong and sharp tastes. You feel like you have eaten something then and unlike a packet of crisps or biscuits, you don't feel you still need more to satisfy your hunger.

An ice cold zero cal zero carb lemonade with freshly squeezed lemon juice in it will make you whince and halt hunger pangs in an instant. Make sure it is very cold, very fizzy and very very lemony. The lemon juice by the way is good for helping to reduce BG levels and, if you put in the yellow flesh of the lemon, it is a good soluble fibre. Again, if you can find them, there is the gourmet Amalfi Lemon. You can eat the flesh. One lemon goes a long way when you use the slices wisely.

The next best tip, Mezetta Hot Banana Wax Peppers, very hot and very crunchy. Best followed by a slice of amalfi lemon.

You won't go back to rich tea biscuits. Digestive biscuits are probably better anyway because of the higher fibre content. But, you start on these things and the next you know, it's chocolate hob nobs and then the ones which have a thin layer of caramel too. Best not go down that route and retrain your palette, crunchy, sharp, spicy tastes.

Several studies including one in China have shown while eggs (1 a day or more) do not affect the heart for normal people but not so for diabetics as according to the Chinese study they found a significant rise in heart disease and one study even said double normal.

If you are worried about raised cholesterol from eggs, many people are not, Omega 3 enriched eggs are a good choice. They are basically eggs laid by chickens fed on omega 3 rich foods, usually flax seeds.

Of course, tinned fish can give you a lot of omega 3 but the eggs, in addition to higher levels of omega 3 over normal eggs, also have much lower levels of Omega-6. The ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 should be something like 1:1 but is typically 10:1 and in some people something like 30:1. Anything which helps lower your Omega 6 and raise your Omega 3 is beneficial.

But, don't stress about it, most people in the west eat at a ratio of 15:1 and are generally living longer. Eating healthier foods is just a sensible precaution. I like grass fed beef and don't like the idea of feeding cattle with meal made from ground up chicken carcasses. There are a lot of very dodgy practices involved in producing cheap food. The less processing involved, the better.

You can mash a boiled egg with butter to make it more nutritious if you cant face a proper meal. Eggs with mayonnaise is nice too.

Cheese is the perfect snack. Olives aren't bad either.

You need to test to see if you can tolerate bread. I allow myself one very thin slice of rye bread occasionally and have it with a thick layer of butter and lots of cheese.

Totto said:

Cheese is the perfect snack. Olives aren't bad either.

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Olive and feta cheese salad some red peppers and tomatos, a little cucumber perhaps and some spring onions or chives, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Yorksman said:

Olive and feta cheese salad some red peppers and tomatos, a little cucumber perhaps and some spring onions or chives, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

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Now I'm getting hungry.

But I would go easy on the balsamico or use some other vineagar.

Totto said:

Now I'm getting hungry.

But I would go easy on the balsamico or use some other vineagar.

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Yes, only a few drops. It should always be used sparingly.