Lose Pounds without Pain – Permanently!
The theory behind eating of Natural Low Density food to lose pounds without pain – ie without getting hungry – is simple. If your meal is high volume, solid and low in calories it will satisfy your hunger and enable you to lose pounds without effort. The best way to do this is simply to eat natural foods without added sugar or fat. There’s nothing wrong with eating a reasonable amount of sugar or fat in terms of health but carbohydrate is 4kcal per gram which makes the calorie density of sugar 95% while fat is 9kcal per gram which makes the calorie density of butter for example 180%. The formula for working out calorific density is
Energy-in-kcal / (Volume-in-ml x 4)
and it is conventional to express the result as a percentage rather than a fraction. If you keep each meal down to 25% or less you can’t go wrong and this way of eating becomes the final solution! You just keep eating this way and your weight will reduce to what it should be and then will remain the same for the rest of your life!
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Compare the calorific density of sugar (95%) and butter (180%) with a potato (19%). A potato has 76kcal per 100g. A decent portion of potato is 300 grams which is 228 calories making the calorific density 228/300×4 = 19%. If we add a whole tin of drained baked beans in tomato sauce the calorie density is (228+200)/(300+250)x4 = 428/550×4 = 19% which means adding drained baked beans has not changed the low calorific density of the potato. (Draining the baked beans gets rid of 150g of the tomato sauce which has quite a lot of sugar in it.)
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If instead we add 30g of butter and 200g cheddar cheese we add 1028 calories making the calorie density 1301/530×4= 61%. This means that the potato with beans is about 3 times more satisfying than the potato with butter and cheese (61/19) calorie for calorie!
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Thus you can use the formula energy-in-kcal/(volume-in-ml x 4) to work out your own good food combinations for a diet which is so satisfying and low in calories that you will lose weight without trying. In most cases you can use the weight of the food in grams rather than its volume as they are usually about the same. Exceptions are things like popcorn where clearly you must work out the volume because it is such a light food and sugar itself because it is such a heavy food.
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For another kind of example, if you want a 2 egg omelette use 1 whole egg and 2 egg whites. It will look and taste just the same but the calorie density changes as follows:
2 whole eggs come to 100g for 144 calories = 144/100×4=36%
1 whole egg and 2 egg whites come to 120g for 126 calories = 126/100×4=23%
Aim for a calorific density of 25% or less for every meal . . .
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An important principle of this diet that you must eat only natural food which looks like what it is which means: no cakes, no pies, no pasties, no sausages, no biscuits, no pizza, no bread, no pasta, no sweets, no puddings or any other processed food which looks good on the outside but you can’t see what it’s made of! That includes cheese and all spreads including butter which are processed foods very high in fat. It also includes alcoholic beverages which are highly processed liquid foods containing alcohol which the body cannot deal with properly. You can eat unprocessed meat of course – I often eat canned fish because it’s cheaper, mainly tuna chunks and sardines which cost less that 50p a portion! Naturally it means not eating fried food or sugar sweetened food or drink! Please note that if you make a smoothie of natural food you turn it into a processed food!
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Only by eating natural food can you be sure that the content does not include things you would better off not eating and that includes ready made sauces. Make your own sauce or simply add herbs & spices – particularly black pepper – as making your food hot is another way of making it more satisfying. You can also use herbal flavourings such as: Mild Curry, Mild Chile, Chile con Carne, Piri Piri (Nandos), Garam Masala (India), Chinese 5 Spice, Jerk (Jamaica) or Paprika to make your meals taste of whatever you fancy. There are some sauces which are compatible with this way of eating but it’s difficult to find them. The only one I have found so far is Mild Curry Cooking Sauce from Asda which is mentioned in several of my recipes.
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Also your body knows how to deal with natural food – that’s what it was designed to deal with – but processed food of any kind is a challenge to your body’s digestive system which is best avoided if you want to have plenty of energy from the moment you wake up to the moment you put your head on the pillow to go to sleep. This is what I experience every day at the age of 73 (2Sep2018) and I only eat because I feel hungry – not because I need energy. I never need energy. It’s always there for me. Even after hours of driving and salsa dancing I never feel tired or fatigued in any way – just hungry for more dancing until my salsa soul has been satisfied! As I write this I have been awake since 10am on Friday and it’s now 4am on Saturday after dancing at Salsa Mish in St Albans for several hours and driving 100 miles back to Gosport. I‘m having a nice cup of caffeine free tea before I put my head on the pillow and I will then be asleep in a few minutes and will probably wake up around 10 hours later . . .
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Another important principle if you’re really serious about losing weight in a totally healthy way is to stop eating foods containing gluten and lactose. That means no wheat or milk products whatsoever. Gluten and lactose don’t prevent you losing weight but they can give you symptoms which make you feel uncomfortable and more likely to give up your diet. Gluten does not just affect your digestive system but in some cases it exacerbates your arthritis as it does mine. Lactose tends to blow you up and make you think you are not losing weight when in fact you are. Once you have lost some weight and are confident your diet is working you can try putting these items back into your diet slowly and observing the effect. Personally I have given them up forever because without them I don’t blow up and I don’t have any arthritis. That means I can continue to wear 36 inch jeans and dance salsa 5 times a week for up to 5 hours on each occasion even though I‘m 73 years old!
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However, forever is not the opposite of never. Having anything occasionally is not going to do you any harm whatsoever and will in fact help keep you motivated because the prime ingredient in life is to bloody well enjoy yourself whatever you do! However, I do not miss not having milk products apart from it making porridge taste nicer – so I occasionally use some unsweetened Soya Milk instead of just water and use 120ml of granulated sweetener (sucralose) to make the porridge taste just as good as with real milk. I’ve grown to like black coffee so I don’t miss the many cups of cappuccino that I used to drink! Also I do not miss eating lots of bread as I used to but I do now occasionally have two slices of toast with two poached eggs or a tin of drained baked beans because there’s something about that crispy taste . . . A small amount of anything in your diet occasionally does not normally have the same effect as a greater amount often and in many cases your sensitivity or allergy to gluten or lactose goes away when you give them up for a period of months. If the symptoms return you just give them up again for a while.
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Eating only Natural Low Density food is guaranteed to make you lose weight because it is impossible for most people to eat more calories than they need. The meals are just too filling for that and there’s something about eating natural food that makes your body do what it’s supposed to do and that is maintain your fitness no matter how much you eat without having to exercise! It will also make you live longer – a lot longer . . .
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LACTOSE FREE MILK PRODUCTS
You could use lactose free products instead of giving up milk products altogether but there is nothing natural about drinking the milk from a cow or any other animal. We are meant to drink milk from mum and only when we are young! Also the process of pasteurisation destroys the enzymes (particularly lactase & lipase) that make it possible for a person over 5 years old to digest the sugar & fat components and although the casein proteins in milk are soluble in milk they form insoluble curds once they reach the stomach thus making it hard for digestive enzymes to break them apart. Although the whey proteins in milk are more easily digested, pasteurisation does means that milk is a processed food which needs to be avoided in Natural Low Density Eating. If you really can’t do without milk try a soya alternative milk instead. I have discovered that the only one that is a reasonable price, tastes creamy like milk and does not curdle when you add it to hot tea or coffee is Unsweetened Soya Drink from Asda at 59p a litre!
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GLUTEN FREE PRODUCTS
You could use gluten free wheat products instead of giving up bread altogether but the flour from which it is made has been highly processed and is therefore not the least bit natural. We have just been eating it for so long we think it is! Also it is anathema to my wallet to pay £1.50 for 14 small slices of alternative bread which simply doesn’t taste as good as the real thing costing only 55p for 20 large thick slices (that’s the SP version at Asda of course)!
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CONVERTING TO THE LESS INTERESTING TASTE OF NATURAL FOOD
I know frying in butter makes things taste wonderful and there’s nothing like a bacon sandwich but it really is worth your while to reprogram yourself as you will find the way you feel after eating natural food for a month is amazing let alone how you feel after a year! The secret for some of the main meals is to make your own delicious sauce which will make each meal taste as you wish. See here for my sauce recipe! You can combine natural foods in such a way as to simulate the texture of any processed food and then use an appropriately flavoured sauce to make it taste like that food! See My Recipes for a list of my NLD recipes but be imaginative and invent your own using your own favourite natural foods! I happen to love pulses – particularly chickpeas!
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COMPARE THE CALORIFIC DENSITY OF AN NLD MEAL WITH COMMON MEALS
(Originally published as a facebook note on 19 April 2016 – transferred here on 21 June 2018.)