Try and get rid of one bad food choice at a time. Chocolate is a no brainer. What makes you say cereal and muesli are healthy? That is one of the biggest food cons going back to the nut case Dr Kellogg who started the whole concept. Google what he was trying to achieve by getting people to eat cereals. Very funny. Cereals are not healthy. They are highly processed. Bread is another highly processed food, way over spruiked on the health benefits. “Whole” grain cereals/breads are an advertising con. The bran is removed very early in the processing as it plays havoc with the processing equipment. It is then “put” back right at the end in products advertised as “whole” grains. Any benefit of wrapping the endosperm/germ part of the grain with fibre has long been lost. My views may appear extreme but a quick visit to the maintenance section of this forum and ask the maintainers how much cereal products they incorporate into their diets may convince you.

Good luck with it.

Hi Squig and welcome:

Here are the basics – most of the 5:2 information you will need to be successful on 5:2: https://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/the-basics-for-newbies-your-questions-answered/

Good Luck!

I take the view that when wheat products are advertised as “wholegrain” it is based on a very lose definition. View the term wholegrain almost like a trademark rather than an accurate description of the content. This article gives a reasonable explanation. Cant find the original article I read. I didn’t bookmark it.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/whole-grain-foods-not-always-healthful/

The best analogy I can come up with is baking a cake. If I place the individual components of a cake recipe into a bowl; the eggs, flour, sugar etc and I don’t mix the ingredients and place the mixture into the oven, the chances of that mixture turning into a great cake are slim. So if I want to advertise my product as “wholegrain” because it has perceived health benefits I need to add the germ and fibre back in. Is it really the same as the original product? So how was your wholegrain product produced? Almost impossible to know as the definition is very loose.

If you want carbohydrates locked up in fibre eat vegetables as your primary source rather than “wholegrains”.

I know Im conflating your question but this is how easy it is to confuse/mislead people with trademarking a product. People associate Weightwatchers with healthy products. I mean the whole reason that weightwatchers exists is to make people lose weight right? So any product they sell must be designed to do that right? The “healthy” muesli bar has over 36% sugar content.

https://www.catch.com.au/product/4-x-weight-watchers-choc-delight-indulgent-bar-105g-5pk-384167/?iv_=__iv_p_1_a_876727627_g_43047374094_c_205608443709_k__m__w_aud-296349592699:pla-340213159858_n_g_d_c_v__l__t__r_1o2_x_pla_y_11248162_f_online_o_384167_z_AU_i_en_j_340213159858_s__e__h_1000422_ii__vi__&gclid=CjwKCAjw2ZXMBRB2EiwA2HVD-K3bUQqVi8dvIHJpwcjfImSf_c_8t7OGWjx13JVPXOc01njVZHc40BoCI2MQAvD_BwE

Bigbooty, there is no way that I’m aware of to put a stripped endosperm back together and if that were possible it would be too expensive and time consuming. But I see what you’re trying to get at, and I mostly agree. There are very few breads and cereals that I consider healthy. It’s not because I think that whole grains are unhealthy, on the contrary, I think they are full of fiber and nutrients and unless you are allergic to them, are a healthy addition to a diet. The problem is that many food labels are not just confusing but misleading. And many processed foods have way too many highly refined ingredients.

“Made with whole grains” is meaningless. Unless a bread is “100% whole wheat” or whole grain I am unlikely to buy it. There are whole grain cereals available, but most involve long cooking times are aren’t the ones you see in most cereal aisles. Some whole grains such as barley can be very challenging to eat with its hull intact. Not only is it very chewy, but even my cast iron stomach and intestines have trouble digesting it.

There seems to be a trend in eliminating one or more of the major food groups such as cereals and grains, or dairy, vegetables or fruit from diets these days. Their nutrients are found in other foods or in supplements or just missed altogether.The protein group (meat, poultry, seafood, beans and legumes, nuts and seeds) would be the only one that couldn’t be eliminated.

I think @bigbooty does a good job of providing an alternative perspective to the advice that has been fed to us for years by the food industry and the many nutritionists who effectively spread their message.

I know what works for me, and that is avoiding processed carbs and eating a lot of vegetables that are low in simple carbs. Easier said than done for many of us, of course.