Is THIS the best diet plate to follow ?

Ha ha I like it. Simple and to the point

Ha Ha, would love this as a poster for my kitchen wall

I like that poster very much and It does say a great deal. I could adopt it in place of the more formal thing I have used in the past.
A site called Weightlossresources publishes a GI table and in the preamble to it it says.

"Foods only appear on the GI index if they contain carbohydrate. This explains why you won't find foods like fresh meat, chicken, fish, eggs and cheese in GI lists. However, you may find some processed foods like sausages or chicken nuggets in a GI list because they contain flour!"

I now think of most processed food as cake with flavouring.

As usual, it's a massive oversimplification which may or may not be helpful. What's the difference between having a glass of orange juice, and having an orange? Only the former is sugar, the latter is perfectly OK based on your diet plate.

However, you may find some processed foods like sausages or chicken nuggets in a GI list because they contain flour!"
[...]
I now think of most processed food as cake with flavouring.

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Do you normally eat chicken on it's own? What's the difference between chicken nuggets, and a chicken roast with potatoes?

Plus, the idea that unprocessed food is necessary better is flawed. There is considerable evidence that humans have evolved eat processed (i.e. easily digestible energy dense) food - look at our brain size. Relative to our body size, we have much larger brains and much shorter digestive tracts than our closest related apes.

It's extremely hard to avoid processed food altogether as even cheese, bacon, sausage and cold meats can fall into the processed food category.

AMBrennan said:

As usual, it's a massive oversimplification

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or just humour .....

AMBrennan said:

There is considerable evidence that humans have evolved eat processed (i.e. easily digestible energy dense) food -

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could you elucidate ?

AMBrennan said:

look at our brain size. Relative to our body size, we have much larger brains and much shorter digestive tracts than our closest related apes.

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:eh:

AMB
oranges contain sugar! they don't need to add it to juice. An orange is about 9% sugar and that includes the bits you don't eat like peal. check out the label on a container of orange juice with no added sugar. Almost all fruits contain sugar, that's why they are sweet.
Your blood doesn't care if that sugar came from the whole fruit or the juice.

AMBrennan said:

Do you normally eat chicken on it's own? What's the difference between chicken nuggets, and a chicken roast with potatoes?

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I like chicken and all meats to be identifiable as having come from animals and so are usually referred to as wing, breast, steak, fillet, and so on. Kievs, dippers, nuggets, goujon have other things in them.

According to Weightlossresources the difference between chicken nuggets and chicken roast is that the nuggets have flour in them which the person eating them may not be aware of.

http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/di ... tables.htm

Oh yes, thank you Angua.

Works for me!

There are some forms of processing that don't alter the nutritional content.

There is a recent idea that it isn't processed foods per se that is the problem it's the proportion of over (ultra) processed that are now in many peoples diets.

The issue therefore is not processing as such. It is the nature, extent, and purpose, of processing, and in particular, the proportion of meals, dishes, foods, drinks, and snacks within diets that are ‘ultra-processed’

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The idea is that there are 3 levels of processing.
1) no or minimal processing (cleaning, removal of inedible fractions, grating, squeezing, draining, flaking, drying, parboiling, bottling (without additions other than water), chilling, freezing, fermentation (when the result is not alcoholic), pasteurisation, vacuum and gas packing, and simple wrapping)

2)Processed culinary or food industry ingredients . These are the processes of extraction and purification that result in 'ingredients' ie Vegetable oils, margarine, butter, milk, cream, lard; sugar, sweeteners in general; salt; starches, flours, ‘raw’ pastas and noodles. Food industry ingredients usually not sold to consumers as such, including high fructose corn syrup, lactose, milk and soy proteins, gums and similar products
and the third one

3) Ultra processing the "combination of already processed group 2 ingredients usually with some unprocessed or minimally processed group 1 foods in order to create durable, accessible, convenient, and palatable drinks or ready-to-eat or to-heat products liable to be consumed as snacks or desserts or to replace home- or restaurant-prepared dishes and meals."

foods that are ultra processed include:

'Breads, biscuits (cookies), cakes and pastries; ice cream; jams (preserves); fruits canned in syrup; chocolates, confectionery (candies), cereal bars, breakfast cereals with added sugar; chips (French fries), crisps (chips), sauces; savoury and sweet snack products; cheeses; sugared fruit and milk drinks and sugared and ‘no-cal’ cola and other soft drinks; frozen pasta and pizza dishes; pre-prepared meat, poultry, fish, vegetable and other ‘recipe’ dishes; processed meat including chicken nuggets, hot dogs, sausages, burgers, fish sticks; canned or dehydrated soups, stews and pot noodle;, salted, pickled, smoked or cured meat and fish; vegetables bottled or canned in brine, fish canned in oil; infant formulas, follow-on milks, baby food"
This is a short summary of the idea
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archi ... -us/65614/
This is the original long essay (excellent site about food/nutrition and politics)
http://www.wphna.org/wn_commentary_ultr ... ov2010.asp

phoenix said:

2)Processed culinary or food industry ingredients . These are the processes of extraction and purification that result in 'ingredients' ie Vegetable oils, margarine, butter, milk, cream, lard; sugar, sweeteners in general; salt; starches, flours, ‘raw’ pastas and noodles. Food industry ingredients usually not sold to consumers as such, including high fructose corn syrup, lactose, milk and soy proteins, gums and similar products
and the third one

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I'm sure eliminating most of these would be beneficial too. The biggest problem is practicality - if you have to shop in a supermarket, lots of these things are snuck into even apparently "unprocessed" foods.

There is also quite a spectrum of processing on that list - margarine is far more processed than butter (you could make your butter at home). You can get lard and tallow as a bi-product of cooking, you couldn't make your own vegetable oil.