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The NEEDNT List
The non essential, energy dense, nutritionally deficit (NEEDNT) list was recently published in the New Zealand Medical Journal. This is a list of foods identified by researchers at the University of Otago, that lack nutritional value while providing unnecessary calories. These foods should be avoided by anyone wishing to control their weight.
The list has received much media attention as it contains foods that many people could be fooled into thinking are health foods such as muesli bars, fruit juice, and frozen yogurt.
These foods fool people who are trying to lose weight into thinking they are making a healthy choice where they are actually swapping one calorie dense food for another calorie dense food. In this situation there is no calorie deficit created and thus no weight loss.
The full NEEDNT list of foods follows…
- Alcoholic drinks
- Biscuits/cookies
- Butter, lard, dripping or similar fat (used as a spread or in baking/cooking etc.)
- Cakes
- Chocolate
- Coconut cream
- Condensed milk
- Cordial
- Corn chips
- Cream (including creme fraiche)
- Crisps/chips (including vegetable crisps)
- Desserts/puddings
- Doughnuts
- Drinking Chocolate, Milo etc.
- Energy drinks
- Flavoured milk/milkshakes
- Fruit tinned in syrup
- Fried food
- Frozen yogurt
- Fruit juice (except tomato juice and unsweetened blackcurrant juice)
- Glucose
- High fat crackers
- Honey
- Hot chips/fries
- Ice cream
- Jam/jelly
- Marmalade
- Mayonnaise
- Muesli bars/granola bars
- Muffins
- Nuts roasted in fat or oil
- Pastries
- Pies
- Popcorn with butter or oil
- Quiches
- Reduced cream
- Regular luncheon sausage
- Regular powdered drinks
- Regular salami
- Regular sausages
- Regular soft drinks
- Fruit roll-ups
- Sour cream
- Sugar (added to anything including drinks, baking, cooking etc.)
- Sweets/lollies/candy
- Syrups such as golden syrup, treacle, maple syrup
- Toasted muesli and any other breakfast cereal with more than 15g sugar per 100g cereal
- Whole milk
- Yogurt type products with more than 10g sugar per 100g yogurt
Eating Healthy on Budget
In these tough economic times it can sometimes be difficult to justify buying healthy food. We live in a time where coke is cheaper than milk and children go to school to learn all day, often with sugary cereals in their tummy’s and limited nutrients in their lunch boxes. Food security is continuing to decrease which means families are finding it more and more difficult to afford basic food yet obesity rates are continuing to rise rapidly. However it is not all doom and gloom.
It’s How Much You Are Eating That Counts
We all know that to live a healthy lifestyle we need to eat healthy food and exercise. So you may be asking yourself, why do you still hold on to unwanted weight when you are doing all the right things?
The answer lies in HOW MUCH you are eating.
The Weight Equation Goes Like This…
- energy in – energy out = the amount of energy your body has to store.
Your body needs energy just to get through the day which is known as your basal metabolic rate. Exercise adds to the amount of energy your body utilises and the food you eat acts as this energy source.
Even though eating a healthy diet is important, it is really the overall calories you consume every day that count. So yes if you eat more energy from a healthy diet of fruit, vegetables, yogurt, lean meat and whole grains than you expend, you will gain weight. It is that simple.
Move It or Lose It
Gentle Movement
Part of the DietDitch lifestyle is to add gentle movement into your day and we like to do this with walking. Having said this there are walks and there are walks. It is lovely to go on a stroll on a sunny afternoon, maybe along the beach or at your local park. All that fresh air can only be good for you.
To increase your cardiovascular fitness however, there has to be a bit of huff and puff and some effort. We do not want you to overdo it so make sure your ‘puff’ is a light one. If you feel you want to step it up a bit maybe you could try the walk, jog, walk sequence – walk for a minute or two, jog for a minute or two. Carry this sequence on for 20 to 30 minutes and you will soon find your fitness increasing. When your fitness level improves you may want to add a minute sprint into the equation as well.
Do You Buy Into Diet Guilt?
Ditch The Guilt
Guilt is a biggy for many people who are on the diet bandwagon. How many times has someone said to you “Don’t eat that, you will get fat”. Has this statement in ground itself into your subconscious to be there forever?
Do you still feel like you will be overweight forever if you have just one piece of cake or a chocolate bar.
Our Belief System
Statements of this type have helped forge our beliefs that food is either good or bad. These beliefs may be the reason why we are holding ourselves back.
Along with this goes fear and guilt which many of us are now associating with food. How did it get to this?
How did it become so complicated – life is all about opposites, both positive and negative and of course there will be times when you will feel guilty about certain things in your life, but do we really need to associate this negative emotion to food because you eat a piece of cake when you are ‘not supposed to?’ Why do we do this? It is just cake.
