Eating, weight and health

Food - everyone eats it but...choices! The red meat paper highlighted just how difficult it is to get good nutrition research (as well as now the bias that goes with research funding disclosure). A really good overview of the red meat deal is provided by Science Based Medicine.

My guiding principle for weight loss is pretty well summarized by this video.

Last time I tried to lose weight was when I was 40 - sort of lose it or learn to live with it. Using the principles (eat what you want just less of it and exercise) in the video I dropped from 66 kg to 59 kg in around 6 months. Nearly 10 years later I was stable around 56 kg and have remained in that range.

But weight loss isn't the only reason to check your diet; I focus on metabolic health - people in the healthy BMI range can be unhealthy too. Recently I felt we had drifted away from including protein in our home cooking (we have a vegan kitchen). Sure we had nuts and seed but I felt not enough. Fred went to the dentist and found he's recommended to get his teeth cleaned quarterly again. Dental care is important as the bacteria can lead to circulatory diseases. So off to the internet to check for an expectation check and some ways to optimize dental outcomes. WebMD seems to have reasonable information on oral health.

Secret - when the hygienist asks if I floss I always say yes but...I only recently started even brushing my teeth twice a day. Flossing not so much. And I am fine going twice a year.

Back to food. A search leads to a pretty reasonable post on foods to help reduce plaque build up. I say reasonable because they do say food is not a magic bullet, the effective way to reduce plaque is to brush and floss. Happily an easy adjustment is to drink Green Tea after supper. Warm liquid can make you feel fuller as well as washing out the mouth so we can both do that. Dairy cheese may coat the teeth as well as providing a source of calcium. Cheese and me are a no go even outside the vegan thing.

As for the protein thing. We both like adding tofu to stuff so we'll make sure to do that if we're not adding chickpeas as part of the meal. I read a post about boiling it from frozen. That really changes the texture and allows curries and sauces to add flavour through the entire piece. Also makes it easier to fry. Also going to get back to a wider range of colourful veg.

So we're making tweaks to our diet for dental health.