Reviving the Diet and Weight Loss discussion

Denny · Post by **Denny** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 7:43 am

Might have something to do with the Washington growers...

djm · Post by **djm** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 7:54 am

BC apples are a type of apple (I can never find references when I want them). BCs are dark red with tiny white spots on them. They narrow down to the bottom and end in a row of bumps. Sweet but with a dry sort of taste. I think some people also call them Red Delicious.

djm

Redwolf · Post by **Redwolf** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 8:02 am

djm wrote:BC apples are a type of apple (I can never find references when I want them). BCs are dark red with tiny white spots on them. They narrow down to the bottom and end in a row of bumps. Sweet but with a dry sort of taste. I think some people also call them Red Delicious.

djm

Yes...they're marketed as Red Delicious in the U.S. They're the #1 market apple in Washington State, followed closely by Golden Delicious.

Redwolf

mvhplank · Post by **mvhplank** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 8:04 am

Lambchop wrote:Really? We never see BC apples here!

We get them from New York, Washington, and New Zealand (in the off season). I really like the ones from New Zealand! Yum!

The Pennsylvania county I live in is the largest apple-producing county in the state. And while Pennsylvania doesn't out-produce Washington, it still puts out a lot of apples. So I buy local whenever I can.

When I went back to Alabama to visit Mom last fall, I shopped around in the grocery store and only saw two varieties of apple--red and golden delicious. (Local apple fanciers never buy those.) In the stores and farm markets around here, you can get more types of apples than I've ever heard of. I particularly like the Cameo, which I think may have been developed in N.Z. but is now being grown regionally. I won't turn down Fuji or Gala (or Honeycrisp) and like to cook with Granny Smiths. There's a tiny orchard over the state line in Thurmont that has a tree or two of Transparents. They're tiny heirloom apples that make terrific applesauce--smooth and buttery.

M

TomB · Post by **TomB** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 9:39 am

mvhplank wrote:
TomB wrote:Well, here are a few places that provide some information.

http://www.rockefeller.edu/pubinfo/news ... 1305_b.php

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 072417.htm

http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/scien ... 4#continue
Thanks!

I scanned through them and they seem to make sense. They also seem to be primarily talking about obesity, and I'm willing to concede I don't know nothin' about that. And I also don't know what percentage of overweight people (some perhaps on their way to obesity, some perhaps not) is affected by genetic factors, but I don't think everyone who's overweight has a genetic problem, or is affected by the factors described.

I'm just overweight. My thyroid's fine. No one in my family's obese. It was really tough losing post-baby weight and getting in shape when I was 30-something, and it's even tougher now--which tells me there's some other factor affecting my metabolism or whatever. But I'm making progress by eating less and exercising more. But I didn't make progress until I took more time to educate myself on what my basal metabolism was, and how many calories I was actually eating in a day.

Can we agree that diet and exercise is the place to start? And if it doesn't work, go see a specialist.

M

Oh, I completely agree that not everyone is affected by genetics, or other medical issues. I did not mean to imply that.

Yep, diet and exercise is a good thing.

Tom

TomB · Post by **TomB** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 9:41 am

Lambchop wrote:
djm wrote:
MVHP wrote:Can we agree that diet and exercise is the place to start?
Not if I can't have chocolate!

djm
Nobody said you cannot have chocolate! How horrible and unreasonable that would be!

I recommend, though, that you develop a taste for high-end chocolate rather than el-cheapo varieties like Hershey's. It has more of the mood-enhancing factors and less of the cheap fillers and sugar.

For optimal dosing, try dark baking chocolate . . . unsweetened can be a real delight at times.

A nibble a day keeps the mood swings at bay!

I agree with this. my bro-in-law tries to stay away from stuff like chocolate, but when he does indulge, he makes sure it is for the very good stuff.

Lambchop · Post by **Lambchop** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 9:54 am

Red Delicious, eh? They're the "standard" type here. Unfortunately, by the time we get 'em, they've been gassed and refrigerated so that the interior gets all mealy. I've had fresh ones up north, though, which I thought were good.

We don't get "new" apples here anymore, it seems. The mass-packaging industry seems to have a time lag, so that we only get apples after they've sat in refrigerated warehouses for six months or more.

I did see new Fuji's from Washington yesterday, though. They were double the price of all the others. Worth it, too.

mvhplank · Post by **mvhplank** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 11:05 am

Lambchop wrote:Red Delicious, eh? They're the "standard" type here. Unfortunately, by the time we get 'em, they've been gassed and refrigerated so that the interior gets all mealy. I've had fresh ones up north, though, which I thought were good.

We don't get "new" apples here anymore, it seems. The mass-packaging industry seems to have a time lag, so that we only get apples after they've sat in refrigerated warehouses for six months or more.

I did see new Fuji's from Washington yesterday, though. They were double the price of all the others. Worth it, too.

I'm not sure it's the storage and gassing that makes Red Delicious mealy. Some of them are mealy even when fresh. A friend of mine who worked for a while at an apple tree nursery scorns them. They've got an intensely planted couple of acres with an incredible variety of apples--none Red Delicious.

M

djm · Post by **djm** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 11:55 am

The benefits of Red Delicious are health-wise, not taste- or texture-wise. For straight eating you just can't beat a Macintosh. For cooking an apple-pie my absolute favourite is Northern Spy because it is not too sweet.

djm

Lambchop · Post by **Lambchop** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 12:17 pm

djm wrote:The benefits of Red Delicious are health-wise, not taste- or texture-wise. For straight eating you just can't beat a Macintosh. For cooking an apple-pie my absolute favourite is Northern Spy because it is not too sweet.

djm

I saw that study, djm. Thought it very sad, too. Who would have thought that the worst apples -- the ones that are always mushy, mealy, and brown inside -- would be the ones with the most antioxidants (or whatever it was).

Mackintoshes are mushy by the time they end up in Florida, as well. Bleah!

We don't have Northern Spies here. Never seen one.

Although, thinking about it, I'm not sure why one would. Canadians are too polite to be caught snooping.

mvhplank · Post by **mvhplank** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 1:19 pm

The tree nursery at the north end of the county offers seventy varieties of apple trees (including Red and Golden Delicious and Northern Spy).

Fuji:

One of my office mates made a pie with Fuji apples and brought it to work this morning--delicious! I expected them to mush up but they held their body through cooking.

Curious about the antioxidant business.

M

JessieK · Post by **JessieK** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 1:45 pm

Hi. I never even look at the Pub forum. I came here hoping to find something like this thread, because I am frustrated! After I gave birth to my daughter, I lost all of the weight (40 pounds) I had gained during pregnancy, and I went off the formal diet. In literally a week and a half, I gained back 15 pounds and have not been able to lose it. Hmph! Well, we've been trying to conceive for six months now. We got Joey on the first try and I assumed this would happen quickly. Today I did some research and it seems extra weight can cause ovulation to stop happening! I track it and I have symptoms, but it's possible to have the LH surge and NOT release an egg, or for the extra estrogen caused by extra fat to keep the fertilized egg from implanting. Geez! My BMI is 28, which is overweight but not obese. So I am probably ovulating. But Geez, this is frustrating. Dieting isn't good for fertility either. I'm not sure what to do. I don't want to do medical fertility treatments. We have a kid and she's great. We would really like to give her a sibling. Geez.

djm · Post by **djm** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 2:01 pm

Exercise is the only way to balance your caloric intake. And not hard exercise, either. I don't know how many times I've seen women who exercise hard abort. Just something slow and steady. I read somewhere that a lot of people gain more benefits from exercising longer instead of harder, e.g. walking for 40 minutes instead of 30 minutes as opposed to weight training or ripping it up on a bicycle.

djm

Lambchop · Post by **Lambchop** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 6:42 pm

djm wrote:Exercise is the only way to balance your caloric intake. And not hard exercise, either. I don't know how many times I've seen women who exercise hard abort. Just something slow and steady. I read somewhere that a lot of people gain more benefits from exercising longer instead of harder, e.g. walking for 40 minutes instead of 30 minutes as opposed to weight training or ripping it up on a bicycle.

djm

Yup, most people go for too high a level of intensity. It works a lot better if you do moderate exercise for a longer period. Brisk walking or cycling for 45 minutes, perhaps, and two circuits of the weight stations with "do-able" weights, but lots of repetitions, taking maybe 20 or 30.

Less risk of injury that way, too.

Cynth · Post by **Cynth** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 7:05 pm

JessieK---I wonder if you could go to a recommended specialist, not for fertility treatments, but to find out if your weight concerns are valid---they can, I think, measure estrogen levels in blood, and things like that. It seems if your anxiety over this particular issue could be resolved, that would be helpful. I'm sure you've already thought of this, but it's just an idea.