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Jack Lalanne's Advice

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  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited December 2017
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    Oh, wait, I got confused about what thread this was. Silly me.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,368 Member
    edited December 2017
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    stevencloser wrote: »
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    stevencloser wrote: »
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    stevencloser wrote: »
    People on here are not a random subset of the "Average American". Through the fact that they're already trying to lose weight they are a minority. If you went to the Keto group and posted this it would be even less useful. That's context.

    I would sure think those in the minority who are trying to lose weight would be interested in the guidance of the researchers at the USDA and WHO

    Let me rephrase it in a different example.
    Do you think financial advice aimed at someone with average income is going to be useful to someone with a Master's degree?

    Not your best ever argument, though usually I like your arguments.

    I had (about) median income. I had a big chunk of a master's degree (MBA, didn't quite finish). I read lots of financial advice for average-income people. I followed quite a bit of it. I retired, comfortably but not luxuriously, at 51.

    I understand what you're trying to say, I think. Still not your best argument. ;)

    I pay attention to USDA/WHO, too. Just not slavishly.

    If packerjohn's point is that we should all read USDA/WHO recommendations as part of our personal nutritional education and analysis, I'd totally support that. I mean, it's a consensus of mainstream experts. Not unchallengeable at the margins, not tailored exactly to ever unique one of us, but great stuff.

    Jack Lalanne, circa 1960 (?), with a dozen or so words on a chalk board, is not 2017 USDA/WHO. Not close.

    It was 3 am when I wrote it.

    LOL. I knew I liked you. :flowerforyou:

    ETA: Don't worry, I'm old enough to be your granny . . . maybe great granny. ;)
  • missysippy930
    missysippy930 Posts: 2,577 Member
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    Maybe for some people, but eliminating any food has never worked long term for me...........just saying.
    For me all foods in moderation and stay within my calorie budget.
  • Evamutt
    Evamutt Posts: 2,363 Member
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    my hubby would eat several of those on the list every day. He was diabetic, felt sluggish & just not good most of the time so when he stopped (80%, he still struggles with cravings) he lost 40lbs & got off insulin. Maybe Jack L was referring to someone like him? I have a few friends who also eat from that list every day
  • GottaBurnEmAll
    GottaBurnEmAll Posts: 7,722 Member
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    janejellyroll wrote: »
    JerSchmare wrote: »
    NorthCascades wrote: »
    JerSchmare wrote: »
    Very interesting. ^^^

    So, the idea that eating less cake, instead of no cake, may not have been understood during Jacks time.

    Is that possible?

    We’re arguing about a concept now that wasn’t understood very well, or at all, then.

    I don't think it is.

    Wait what?

    Calories were not known. People don’t understand what “less cake” means. How is this not relevant?

    The concept of the calorie was known and I think people were able to get information on the calorie content of various foods (they used to sell handbooks where you could look up foods, I do remember seeing those in the checkout line with magazines when I was a kid). What wasn't required was labels on all foods. But it would still be known, for people who wanted to take the time to understand, that "cake" is generally a higher calorie food than, say, a carrot.

    So the concept of "some cake" being okay for weight control and "huge amounts of cake" being less okay would have been completely graspable for someone like Jack Lalanne and anyone interested in health/weight control.

    (I'm in my late 30s, so if someone with more relevant historical and/or real-life memories needs to correct me, please do).

    Can confirm. My mother and aunt used a postage scale to weigh foods and had one of those little books and counted calories back in the dark ages.

    I'm 55 and grew up well aware of what foods were "fattening" and what foods weren't.
  • Packerjohn
    Packerjohn Posts: 4,855 Member
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    I've have the flu so took Googled a bit, found this video of Jack answering a viewer's question on a typical meal plan for a day.

    c6up4g4gl2sk.png

    It includes dairy products and coffee, pretty spot on to MyPlate and WHO guidelines. Since he was active in his profession for 60 years or so, he may have very well changed his position a bit on some things. Also, from his history of illness as a youth, he may have had some autoimmune/allergy issues that resolved by him personally changing his diet.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    Packerjohn wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    ccruz985 wrote: »
    I'm pretty sure everyone realizes that cutting back drastically on these things is along the lines of what he meant.

    From the other things he said, I do not think that's what he meant.

    And as several of us have noted, we did not cut back drastically on those foods, because we did not consume a lot of them anyway.

    For example:

    white sugar -- I often did not have any in the house since I used it only when doing seasonal baking. I bought cookies occasionally, and I sometimes consumed junk food that happened to be in my office (stress eating or mindless eating), and sometimes, not always, that was sugary. Working on not stress eating or mindless snacking was what helped with that, not worrying about sugar.

    Candy and cake -- I almost never consumed these

    Ice cream -- I occasionally consumed this (as in a pint or half a pint when sad). I am sure I consumed as much or more total in the years since I lots weight than when I was gaining, just divvied up differently.

    Jams and jellies -- I never consume these, never did. I doubt they are significant factors in obesity rates.

    Cookies -- as noted above, I sometimes ate these, I eat them somewhat less now because, as with all foods, I am pickier about everything and more focused on whether calories are worth it. This is not sweets specific (much more relevant to savory foods which was more of what I overate).

    Pies -- I ate them mostly on holidays and special occasions before, same now.

    Pastries -- I rarely consume them. I consume less baked goods in general now since I realized that bread is for me often not worth the calories, but that's not what he'd talking about. I decided muffins weren't worth the calories for me many, many years ago, so they were unrelated to be being fat.

    Canned fruit -- I don't consume it, never did, don't think it's a big factor in the obesity rate.

    Pop -- I only consumed diet in moderation.

    Am I saying I did not consume high cal foods? Of course not, but these are hardly the only such options.

    It's like people who themselves either had issues with sugary foods (or weren't fat) like to assume that all fat people must be super into sugar. I don't get it.
    You don't have to cut these things out altogether but do you eat all of them every single day and still maintain a healthy and happy weight? No right?

    Do most fat people eat them all every single day? I can't imagine that they do. I am positive that I have never eaten all, or even most, of these foods on a single day.

    But again, I don't think Lalanne was just saying "cut down on these foods if you eat a whole lot of them." OBVIOUSLY that would be common sense. No one is saying it is not.

    One doesn't have to eat all of them every single day. One can eat an excess of any one or a combination. Two people I work with drink 3+ 20oz regular pops a day at work, yes the are significantly overweight/borderline obese.

    That comment about fat people not eating all of them every single day was in response to this statement: "You don't have to cut these things out altogether but do you eat all of them every single day and still maintain a healthy and happy weight?"

    If the list is just supposed to be a list of things to not eat to excess or not to eat all in the same day, I don't see the point. I could make a list of any ten calorie-dense foods if the point is to not to eat them to excess or not to eat them all in the same day.

    Someone I work with eats something like a 1/3 of a jumbo jar of peanut butter for breakfast each morning (he does this at his desk) and he's overweight. But to put peanut butter on a list like this wouldn't make much sense because it's totally possible to eat a reasonable portion of peanut butter. Portion size matters. Yeah, if you're having 3+ 20 ounce sodas a day, that's going to be hard to regularly do and maintain a healthy body weight.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    Packerjohn wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    ccruz985 wrote: »
    I'm pretty sure everyone realizes that cutting back drastically on these things is along the lines of what he meant.

    From the other things he said, I do not think that's what he meant.

    And as several of us have noted, we did not cut back drastically on those foods, because we did not consume a lot of them anyway.

    For example:

    white sugar -- I often did not have any in the house since I used it only when doing seasonal baking. I bought cookies occasionally, and I sometimes consumed junk food that happened to be in my office (stress eating or mindless eating), and sometimes, not always, that was sugary. Working on not stress eating or mindless snacking was what helped with that, not worrying about sugar.

    Candy and cake -- I almost never consumed these

    Ice cream -- I occasionally consumed this (as in a pint or half a pint when sad). I am sure I consumed as much or more total in the years since I lots weight than when I was gaining, just divvied up differently.

    Jams and jellies -- I never consume these, never did. I doubt they are significant factors in obesity rates.

    Cookies -- as noted above, I sometimes ate these, I eat them somewhat less now because, as with all foods, I am pickier about everything and more focused on whether calories are worth it. This is not sweets specific (much more relevant to savory foods which was more of what I overate).

    Pies -- I ate them mostly on holidays and special occasions before, same now.

    Pastries -- I rarely consume them. I consume less baked goods in general now since I realized that bread is for me often not worth the calories, but that's not what he'd talking about. I decided muffins weren't worth the calories for me many, many years ago, so they were unrelated to be being fat.

    Canned fruit -- I don't consume it, never did, don't think it's a big factor in the obesity rate.

    Pop -- I only consumed diet in moderation.

    Am I saying I did not consume high cal foods? Of course not, but these are hardly the only such options.

    It's like people who themselves either had issues with sugary foods (or weren't fat) like to assume that all fat people must be super into sugar. I don't get it.
    You don't have to cut these things out altogether but do you eat all of them every single day and still maintain a healthy and happy weight? No right?

    Do most fat people eat them all every single day? I can't imagine that they do. I am positive that I have never eaten all, or even most, of these foods on a single day.

    But again, I don't think Lalanne was just saying "cut down on these foods if you eat a whole lot of them." OBVIOUSLY that would be common sense. No one is saying it is not.

    One doesn't have to eat all of them every single day. One can eat an excess of any one or a combination. Two people I work with drink 3+ 20oz regular pops a day at work, yes the are significantly overweight/borderline obese.

    And one can eat an excess of many other foods, not listed.

    Therefore, I really don't see why it's so important to focus on these rather than (as I keep saying) look at your actual diet and identify where you are overeating or can easily cut without losing many micronutrients or satiety. For some people this might mean pop. For others, it would be pointless to cut pop, because many fat people don't drink sugary sodas. Same with the other individual foods.

    Not every person who needs to lose weight has sweet foods as their main issue. Why is it so difficult to just acknowledge this?
  • TR0berts
    TR0berts Posts: 7,739 Member
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    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    ccruz985 wrote: »
    I'm pretty sure everyone realizes that cutting back drastically on these things is along the lines of what he meant.

    From the other things he said, I do not think that's what he meant.

    And as several of us have noted, we did not cut back drastically on those foods, because we did not consume a lot of them anyway.

    For example:

    white sugar -- I often did not have any in the house since I used it only when doing seasonal baking. I bought cookies occasionally, and I sometimes consumed junk food that happened to be in my office (stress eating or mindless eating), and sometimes, not always, that was sugary. Working on not stress eating or mindless snacking was what helped with that, not worrying about sugar.

    Candy and cake -- I almost never consumed these

    Ice cream -- I occasionally consumed this (as in a pint or half a pint when sad). I am sure I consumed as much or more total in the years since I lots weight than when I was gaining, just divvied up differently.

    Jams and jellies -- I never consume these, never did. I doubt they are significant factors in obesity rates.

    Cookies -- as noted above, I sometimes ate these, I eat them somewhat less now because, as with all foods, I am pickier about everything and more focused on whether calories are worth it. This is not sweets specific (much more relevant to savory foods which was more of what I overate).

    Pies -- I ate them mostly on holidays and special occasions before, same now.

    Pastries -- I rarely consume them. I consume less baked goods in general now since I realized that bread is for me often not worth the calories, but that's not what he'd talking about. I decided muffins weren't worth the calories for me many, many years ago, so they were unrelated to be being fat.

    Canned fruit -- I don't consume it, never did, don't think it's a big factor in the obesity rate.

    Pop -- I only consumed diet in moderation.

    Am I saying I did not consume high cal foods? Of course not, but these are hardly the only such options.

    It's like people who themselves either had issues with sugary foods (or weren't fat) like to assume that all fat people must be super into sugar. I don't get it.
    You don't have to cut these things out altogether but do you eat all of them every single day and still maintain a healthy and happy weight? No right?

    Do most fat people eat them all every single day? I can't imagine that they do. I am positive that I have never eaten all, or even most, of these foods on a single day.

    But again, I don't think Lalanne was just saying "cut down on these foods if you eat a whole lot of them." OBVIOUSLY that would be common sense. No one is saying it is not.

    One doesn't have to eat all of them every single day. One can eat an excess of any one or a combination. Two people I work with drink 3+ 20oz regular pops a day at work, yes the are significantly overweight/borderline obese.

    And one can eat an excess of many other foods, not listed.

    Therefore, I really don't see why it's so important to focus on these rather than (as I keep saying) look at your actual diet and identify where you are overeating or can easily cut without losing many micronutrients or satiety. For some people this might mean pop. For others, it would be pointless to cut pop, because many fat people don't drink sugary sodas. Same with the other individual foods.

    Not every person who needs to lose weight has sweet foods as their main issue. Why is it so difficult to just acknowledge this?

    Perhaps the larger point is that myopic, wrong-headed, misdirected pop-culture demonization of certain foods really hasn't changed since 1960? Jack was a pioneer in that, perhaps.

    ;););)

    tenor.gif

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