I did not take this photo
Right, we’re going to move on now from the thorny topic of portion control to fibre.
I wrote a piece about 6 months ago for The Times about how carbohydrate is “back”, (yes I know, but that’s how newspapers talk), and in the course of my research talked to lots of totally delightful nutritionists about carbohydrate and the importance of fibre.
I was anyway casting about to make some changes to my boring diet and speaking to a few experts convinced me that not only was my Atkins-type diet really boring, it was bad for me and my whirling, clattering hormones as I head towards 40.
It lead me to re-read that 80s classic book, the F-Plan, which was all about a low-calorie, high fibre diet (notoriously nicknamed the Fart-Plan because of the side effects).
If you’re interested, read F2, which is the updated book – but all it seems to be as far as I can see is a bit of science that I didn’t totally understand, plus endless charts of exactly how much fibre is in everything.
I also think that the meal plan they advocate is a little extreme, followed to the letter I think you’d be a walking whoopee cushion and get the most terrible stomach cramps.
What I took away from it was that I was going to forget about Atkins, (except the low-sugar thing), and for my general health concentrate on a plant-and-fibre based diet. Red meat sometimes, fish sometimes and plenty of CHEESE. And wine.
So far, it’s working. I will be posting some good high fibre recipes in the coming weeks but the good thing about fibre is that because it includes wholewheat pasta, rye bread and grains like bulgar wheat and baked potatoes, making meals is far more straightforward than the meat-and-veg tedium of a high-protein approach.
This is particularly key at lunchtime, when you don’t want to do loads of elaborate cooking, you just want to bung a bit of (wholewheat) pasta on or eat crisp breads and cheese and miso soup and then have an apple and be done with it. (I find lunch annoying, can you tell.) Someone did once tell me that highly baked foods like crisp breads give you bowel cancer, which is slightly bothering me. Can that be true?
And that’s all I have to say about it really. A few weeks ago, The Times ran a piece on the importance, specifically, of fibre in your diet and they had a handy cut-out box listing all the highest-fibre foods by category, which I re-post below for your general amusement.
The original article about fibre can be found HERE for any Times subscribers.
Just a quick note on the breads section… for anyone who was traumatised in the 80s by a rye cracker bread like Ryvita, there are now loads of others available that taste completely different; I like Finn Crisp, which is available on Ocado and I’m sure elsewhere.
I was a teenage in the 80s and my mum was doing the F Plan diet … we lived in a small house with one toilet upstairs, and I can remember her dashing from the kitchen and up the stairs, yelling ‘MOVE!!!’ as she raced to the loo! I guess when the fibre works, it works quickly!
LOL – I think the intake they suggest is quite extreme. Adding more fibre in moderation will with any luck not send you screaming for the bog…
My takeaway from years of diets is both portion control (God I hate those two words) and ditching the refined sugar and all the sneaky foods where sugar hides (ketchup). I am also relaxing with the carbs but the thing that I find helps most is not snacking between meals – basically letting your digestion calm down – and then eating a nice plentiful plate of food super slowly so my feeble brain has time for the fullness hormone to kick in (leptin I think). I agree completely that mums with babies and young kids need to go gently. My babies are now young adults but I remember those blindingly exhausting days very well. Be kind to yourselves. xx
no way of saying “portion control” that doesn’t sound like “mind control”
Esther, when you say your diet is working – what do you mean? You’re feeling better on it? You’re feeling fuller? You’re able to eat vast quantities of cheese and it doesn’t matter?
Sorry Lucy I mean that I am at the weight, size and shape I was before I had kids, which is where I wanted to be, not putting on any more or losing any more. I don’t eat vast quantities of anything but I don’t especially go hungry and still drink wine in the evenings xx
Thanks!
Does anyone know the most fibrous sweet treat (apart from fruit)? That’s my main downfall – wanting to have something sweet after every meal…
Hmmm… good question. I think you could do worse than have some of those Goodies kids bars handy, they’re pretty sweet but no refined sugar and they’re made from oats, which are high fibre xx
I highly recommend Finn crisp and St Agur cheese.
Oh yes! Me too!
Finn Crisp sounds like a folk hero.
I’m living in Copenhagen at the mo, and am fascinated by the way the Danes eat. Lots of rye bread, and crackery things and cycling everywhere seems to mitigate a PASSION for cake, icecream, beer and sweets. The portions in restaurants are smaller and chips aren’t much in evidence. My husband’s breakfast and lunch at work are really healthy, and there’s free nuts and fruit available all day. There is much less street advertising and convenience stores sell fresh snack food. People definitely seem to cook more at home.
Nichola this is really interesting, thanks xx
What I think I’m saying is that there are lots of things that make people fat, and our environment, approach to food and the availability of good options is critical. I think understanding fibre, portions, exercise and what we drink is crucial.
I think the main post-baby change for me has been how much I bloat when I eat white bread/pasta. Unfortunately when I’m stressed I speed eat toasted tea cakes one after another! Quite good with every day bread but going to change to wholewheat pasta. Thanks Esther 🙂
So happy you got the swipe function on your Instagram. Am too lazy to remember to come to the blog but this is so easy!
Fab!! that’s great to hear x
Ha ha! The stuff about the F-Plan diet really made me laugh! I too remember that book (seem to recall it was a stark white cover with a bloody great red EFF on the front?) lying around at home when I was a kid back in the early 80s. Literally EVERYONE’s Mum was on that at some point back in the day. I also remember there always being a lot grapefruit halves bunging up the fridge back in those days…..(black coffee and grapefruit diet or something hideous). Totally agree though that fibre really is key. A quite good sweet treat, which still contains a good amount of fibre, is a medjool date cut in half and stuffed with cream cheese, or nut butter. Actually quite delicious! 😋
Thanks Louise xxx
Medjool dates are lovely – but not sure I could only eat one?!
hi, I can’t recommend Symprove highly enough for restoring gut health. Mine was a mess post baby number 2 and having taken the evil Lactulose. Symprove sorted my insides out in a week or so.
It doesn’t taste very nice and it’s ££ but worth it.
Do check it out if kefir is too much faff
I hate lunch!!! Hate it. I’m avoiding lunch as we speak as it bores me to tears. I never have any energy in the afternoons and feel I’m getting it all wrong. So I’m really interested in this. I went on to wholemeal everything about ten years ago because of constant migraines and bloating and it is a lot better, so I really recommend trying it. I still have teacakes if I want them, or white bread occasionally, but I know the score and it’s not all the time so it’s ok. You do get used to it very quickly, white pasta is really weird and rubbery to me now.
It’s interesting about Fibre. My husband is a type 1 diabetic and when he was diagnosed in the 70s, they put him on a high fibre diet. These days the thinking is different. I might try this as a family. My husband is such a nightmare to cook for. My kids eat loads of veg and fruit and all he has is potatoes, white bread and meat – lots of meat! When he goes away on business we secretly gorge on veg. The kids ask if they can have mushy peas!
LOL
Re lunch/high fibre, I am currently ever so slightly obsessed with coronation chickpeas: finely chop a couple of spring onions, a carrot, a hunk of cucumber, about 1/4 head of cauli, maybe some cherry toms and a can of drained chickpeas and toss in a dressing made from big dollop of Greek yogurt with a tsp of curry powder, ground cumin, vinegar, Dijon and mango chutney, adjusting the last 3 to taste. Season with salt, pepper and lemon juice and serve stuffed in pittas or flatbreads (wholemeal natch), on crispbreads or if you’re feeling v virtuous, wrapped in lettuce leaves. Makes enough for a good few days.
That does sound good. Will have to give it a try, thank you
woah. I like the sound of this
Thank you that sounds nice. I’ve got to get my head round chickpeas it seems.
Hi there – I love your insta posts – is it worth buying the fartplan 2 book to get meal suggestions as not sure what fibre is the best – assume white bread/pasta /rice are not included 😞
ha!… no – but there is SO much on the internet about all of it you can pretty much dodge buying the book if you don’t want to x
Two easy but delicious lunches to add to TGCath’s (mmm sounds good Cath):
1. smoked mackerel fillet + brown bread and oops, butter, but the browner the better for the bread.
2. grated raw carrot mixed with chopped coriander or parsley, salt & pepper, lemon juice and olive oil if you want, or just the lemon juice. Make massive bowl of this at start of week. Then add drained tinned chick peas and ditto tuna. I could eat the carrot salad on its own by the bucketful. There is some astounding alchemy with carrots and lemon juice.
Fibre content in pasta is v interesting. I bought some wholewheat – though bog-standard – pasta the other week (evidently you get to a certain age and your mind turns naturally to fibre!) to try, and compared its nutritional values against the De Ceccio bronze die pasta in the cupboard. I found there was more sugar in the wholewheat, and only fractionally more fibre. Compared to the bog-standard WHITE pasta I had, the wholewheat was winning. So always look at the nutritional tables on the packet. My take-away from that was that I will be skipping wholewheat pasta but eating more fibre elsewhere. I have just perfected bran and banana muffins to a pleasing degree of branniness.
Thank you for the table, which was v interesting, though I wonder whether there is a noticable diffeence between tinned (ie pressure-cooked) pulses and dried-soaked-and-simmered pulses. It seems the beardy-weirdy is strong in me today…
Nigella has a fab recipe for carrot and salted peanut salad. It’s addictive, mainly because I love salted peanuts but also the salty/sweet combo is a winner
is that a russian salad? or am I confused
It sounds similar to my favourite lunch. Grated carrot, brown rice, chopped peanuts, sesame/and or olive oil, soy sauce or salt to taste. I usually add chili flakes too, plus sometimes spring onions/red onion/cucumber. You can also use sesame seeds in place of peanuts – or no nuts. In fact you can add or subtract anything to a brown rice and grated carrot base.
The bastard is cooking the brown rice. I do it in the microwave, 1 cup rice to 2 cups water, cover with cling film then cook the bejeesus out of it for 15+ minutes.
Completely agree with all that’s been said about portion control and fibre and most of all, about LUNCH. What a complete faff it is.
Lunch can do one
There’s a sandal-wearing lentil knitter in all of us somewhere
This is going to sound really irritating but it works. The only times I have been lardy are pregnancy and post and when living full time in the country, hugely enjoyed but lots of wine and hearty meals. I grew up halk in France half UK. The French eat smaller portions, never snack, don’t neck booze the way we do nor really trough the croissants. Seems to work. Boring and tedious I know.
The truth hurts
(Glad to know that true love is finding 100 PG Tips tea bags tucked away in a suitcase when spouse is away filming in cloud country Ecuador………………how did he pitch that particular gig?!)
x
LOL… he just got lucky I think
I am sitting here eating Finn crisp and avocado for breakfast!!! They are great with smoked salmon and cucumber or goats cheese
Esther, can you do a post specifically about resisting the devil (sugar cravings)? I eat disgustingly healthily during the day then blow it all at night with calorie bomb sweet foods. Not dieting at the moment because I’m pregnant, but well aware since this isn’t my first time that afterwards there will be a mountain to climb to get back to my normal size. This is the last baby (hooray!) so I really want to start getting ready for a few months’ time when I will be able to think about making permanent changes that will stick.
Alice I cannot possibly make any dietary recommendations to a pregnant woman. JUST IN GENERAL what makes you crave sugar is sugar. That’s all. ALL sugar does is make you want more sugar, that seems to be its primary function. But again, I can’t tell you what to do if you’re pregnant because it would be irresponsible. When I was pregnant I put on 3 stone each time no matter what I ate so I’m no one to talk. Just get through it without losing your mind xxx
I’m one of the people who can’t Diet diet or I go briefly insane (not, like, charity appeal insane, just unpleasant and obsessive for a week and then thankfully I tend to run out of the energy to keep going) so I am doing the Mind Diet instead which is an American thing about Alzheimer’s Prevention and it’s all about fibre: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/mind-diet or at least you eat a ton of the stuff. I think my favourite thing about it is that it was developed based on a study of really elderly people and they all wanted their treats so the rules are that you can only have Burger King once a week…