The Truth About Food

[Pink]

Anyone been watching this BBC series? It's running on Discovery Health and although there's nothing shocking, I'm finding it very interesting.

[monical1]

Hey, Lady Pink. What are they focusing on, mostly?

[Pink]

I've only seen 2 episodes so far: How to Feed Your Kids & How to Be Thin.

One thing I found interesting in How to Be Thin:

They reviewed a test done in Norway? Finland? (can't remember), where they set up 2 diets for a test subject. Can't remember how long the diet lasted (couple of weeks, maybe). They were identical as far as daily calories & grams of fat. The only difference is in the one diet, calcium was resricted, in the other, there was an abundance of low fat calcium-rich foods. *gross alert* The subject saved all of his feces. The results: he excreted much more fat on the calcium diet. Supposedly, the results have been replicated in a couple other independent studies. They said that they suspect the calcium mixes with fat, forming a type of "soap" which is not easily absorbed, so it passes through the body.

I had never heard this before.

Here's the website that lists the episodes (note: there's one on athletic performace & nutrition). It's hosted by Dr. Mehmet Oz (you may know him from Oprah's show).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/humanbody/truthaboutfood/

[jsejt]

Man, I meant to TIVO that! I'm sorry I missed the first episode, it looked very interesting to me as well. Great minds think alike. ;)

[Pink]

Man, I meant to TIVO that! I'm sorry I missed the first episode, it looked very interesting to me as well. Great minds think alike. ;)

I think it's being played multiple times so I'll bet you will be able to catch it. It was really interesting.

Another segment featured 2 best friends -- who have been friends since childhood. One was overweight "because of a slow metabolism" while the other was underweight (and "could eat anything she wants and not gain weight"). They both swore, if anything, the heavy gal ate less than the skinny one. The skinny gal was just born with "a high metabolism," and both swore she ate all the time and stayed slim. They were told to live/eat/move as they normally do but journal everything. Secretively, the crew insalled cameras all over their homes. Plus they were given some special "water" (I forget what it was exactly, but it costs over $700 a bottle -- I was on the phone during this part and only half listening). Anyhoooo, this 'water' allowed scientists to measure the exact amount of calories each were eating (they collected their urine).

As I expected, both had equal metabolism. The heavy gal ate many more calories. She overate & the thin gal underate. Dr. Oz explained that although there are disorders that slow metabolism, they are rare and most people who blame it for weight gain are fooling themselves as to how many calories they eat/burn.

[jsejt]

I find these programs so interesting~it takes me back to the college days.

Thanks for the re-cap.

[cfoam4me]

The good Doc was on Oprah this week talking about a lot of his Discovery special. It was really good. Check out www.oprah.com for show notes.

[Escandalosa]

Thanks for the heads up Pink. I never would have known this was on if you hadn't posted about it. I finally caught 3 of them today. They were interesting :)