The no-diet life

My family and I had full-fat yogurt smoothies this morning for breakfast. I am embracing the Turkish/Greek 10% fat lifestyle in yogurt, and we go through tubs of the stuff in the house – it is eaten for breakfast, used instead of crème fraiche in sauces, and generally incorporated into our daily diet. I used to eat the zero fat products, but I enjoy full fat a lot more and I think science is backing me on eating dairy fat.

I am uncertain about whether I am gaining/losing weight. However, since I swim a lot, my BMI is all over the place anyway – more muscle means I’m heavier and it’s not a bad thing to have a few pounds on you in the water – you’re less likely to feel a chill. I also operate on the basis of allowing myself to eat what I want if I am exercising a lot. This can fall down when you don’t keep it up, though. I did a two-miler last week in Lake Windermere, and am still rewarding myself a bit too much with biscuits, despite not having gotten back in the water since then. At this rate I’ll be a bit too buoyant for the next swim.

I appear to be reaching the same conclusions that the German public has been with diet and low-fat foods. Scepticism has been growing about diet and light products, and the additions used to get them to that state, Mintel reports. Plus, the word is getting out about the beneficial fats in butter and milk and yogurt. The less processing in a product, the better, consumers seem to be saying.

Which is a good thing. Weight and diet shouldn’t be boiled down to just intake and output in calories, and perhaps the light and diet products can be enjoyed for themselves, rather than as a means to a lighter end.