Blokes are eating their way to longer lives

Lea Stening: The familiar healthy food pyramid chart which shows a sturdy base of vegetables and carbohydrates, a smaller middle tier of dairy and protein, and a tiny tip reserved for fats and treats. Stening says what many forget is that this is supposed to be our template for every meal.

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Whose thoughts don't turn to eating better after Christmas gorging? JOHN McCRONE investigates what appears to be a successful approach to turning back middle- aged spread.

Does the diet start today? Mine should have started three weeks ago. And not just a trimming of the quantity, but a radical overhaul of how I eat - the structure of my daily meals. Have I succeeded?

Men of a certain age do seem to be getting themselves sorted. I have been seeing it in my friends, neighbours and work colleagues as they hit 50.

It is often the wake-up call of a cholesterol reading. Or the realisation that, as Queenstown writer Martin Hawes puts it, you only have 20 good summers left. Time to do something about that slack diet and those lazy habits that have been creeping up on you.

Around The Press office, one who has successfully slimmed right down this year is Al Nisbet, our cartoonist. Nisbet was actually worrying me. One day I noticed he had developed cheekbones. Indeed, he was looking quite gaunt. Just as I was about to congratulate him on his dramatic weight loss, I caught myself. Oh my goodness, I thought, the poor guy could have cancer.

A few months later - when he still seemed to be around - I thought it safe to casually remark upon his trimmer physique and Nisbet told me it was just a diet, sparked by a cholesterol alert.

Well, "just a diet". I'm afraid those words do not compute. We may all know what we need to do, but doing it is a completely different matter. Somewhat unkindly, I suggested to Nisbet he did not look the type with a lot of willpower. So what was his secret?

Then he lost me. Nisbet started describing exactly how much, or rather how little, he has by way of carbohydrates, proteins and fats for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Every portion religiously broken down and weighed out - 60 grams of this, 30g of that.

He had Christmas lunch mapped out. Soup and a roll for starters, to take the edge off the hunger, then a few shavings of turkey, a lot of vegetables and maybe a meringue and fruit salad to follow. Accompanied by a celebratory thimble of wine.

I nodded agreement, as if this were a good idea. But privately, my man reasoning was already kicking in. Who would want 20 good summers if it has to mean two decades of self-denying abstinence? A half-formed resolve to join the office's over-50 dieting bandwagon was fading fast.

Nisbet confessed his own first go at dieting was a fizzle. He certainly has the willpower, he said, looking me sternly in the eye, but not the know-how. So he did the sensible thing and went to an expert, spending a few hundred bucks to get himself sorted professionally. "Take off your socks and shoes and stand on that," commands Lea Stening, the no-nonsense dietitian who runs Ilam- based Lea Stening Health, and the woman who helped rebuild Nisbet.

Stening is used to dealing with athletes, children and those with medical conditions. But perhaps 50-plus men who sort of know they could be healthier, but are not so sure they want to make the effort, are her toughest clients.

According to the dieting folklore I read in preparation, men and women have quite different approaches to dieting. Men have some advantages. They can just say no to problem foods. It is all part of their compartmentalisation of things, apparently. And it has been checked out with brain scanners.

When the brain activity of men is monitored, the areas connected to cravings are quiet, while in women they are still nagging away in the background. The thinking and emotion is not so easy to suppress.

Men also find it easier to throw themselves into the exercise half of the equation. Once they make the commitment, they will get out and sweat off some pounds on the road or in the gym.

But on the other hand, men tend not to care as much. A beer gut is not such a big deal. Moobs are a downer, but as to how big their butts look, most have probably never checked their rear view in a mirror.

And they are dumb when it comes to the facts of nutrition. It is not manly to fuss about the detail of what goes in the gob. Past 50, the fine print on the supermarket food labels is going to defeat their eyesight anyway. Even if they had the required chemistry degree to make sense of the ingredients.

Yet a further difference is that men would normally deal with their weight concerns in private. Unless they can turn it into some kind of competition, they are not going to compare and contrast with their mates.

Stening feels at least some of this is on the mark. When men turn weight loss into a project, there is a strong chance they will succeed. But getting them to the table, so to speak, is the hard part. So today, I am her guinea pig.

Stening's initial assessment is quicker than I expected. She has me hop up on a fat-o-meter. Or rather, an electric impedance analyser, which runs a mild current up one leg and down the other to measure the bioelectrical resistance.

My results do not seem too bad at all. My body fat level is 18 per cent - comfortably within the 11 to 22 per cent acceptable range. I have to be dubious about whether the current reached up as far as my love handles. However, I'm thinking I might not have much of a story to tell here. Stening may be about to kick me out the door already.

On the ordinary scales, I register 85 kilograms, which with my height gives me a body mass index (BMI) of 25. This is bang on the borderline of normal and overweight. But then all those years of tennis, biking and running have given me some extra muscle. That could be a reason for being at the top end of my BMI limit.

Yet before I can thank Stening and apologise for wasting her time, she says I could do with losing 5kg, although it is not completely essential. More importantly, she asks, what about what I eat and when I eat? What about the structure of my diet?

We need some blood tests to see what is going on inside you, she says firmly. This is the routine. And also a week of food charting. Stening wants a record of every meal and snack over the next seven days. It is this kind of data, this detailed knowledge, that is the key. New Zealand has become a fat nation. Well, we know that is true of other countries. The United States is the land made by corn syrup, salt and palm oil, the dirt-cheap ingredients of junk food. But I had a feeling Kiwis were still fitter and slimmer, on the whole.

Yet according to Ministry of Social Development statistics, our obesity rate of more than 26 per cent beats even Britain and Australia. It is only the US, at 34 per cent, who top us.

Someone must be cooking the books. Either that or our eyes have become adjusted to the fatness that exists all around.

It is a complicated relationship we have with our food and our health. Wouldn't it be nice to be perfect? Just imagine a life devoted to crunchy salads, Pilates, eight hours' regular sleep and a daily spot of meditation.

But think about it some more and instead we see the deprivation. Rather than a workout, I want to be lying in the hammock.

Tell me alcohol is bad and I wonder what life is for if not the pleasure of a malt whisky (or two). It is just too hard to be completely good. And if you are a little bad, then why not be a little more bad. Until you find yourself back where you started.

A week later, I've done my homework. The food chart and blood test results are in. So I make the return trip to Stening to hear how she can't understand what all the fuss was about.

From the look in her eye, I can see that is not what she is thinking. Stening starts by slapping down the paperwork in front of me.

Total calorie intake is a little out of line as we suspected. Stening calculates I eat 117 per cent of what I need - if I was telling the truth about every square of chocolate and glass of wine.

My veggie consumption is good and my vitamin levels mean I can toss away the supplement pills (not that I ever bothered). But selenium is always a problem for New Zealanders, so two brazil nuts a day please. And start paying attention to calcium. Drink more milk. It is not just 50-plus women who need to worry about the density of their bones.

Then Stening pulls out the blood test and starts circling in angry red ink. You are fit, so the good cholesterol is high. But so is your bad. The overall ratio is within bounds, however, the results should be an alarm bell for you. Blood glucose is also higher than it ought to be. Diabetes is a huge health issue these days. Stening says it is clear my body is going through some typical aging related changes. The slope you are on is slippery, action is required. It is not a diet you need. We prefer to call it a healthy eating plan. However, of course, it is your choice, Stening says, falling suddenly silent and sitting back in her chair.

Resuming, Stening says mine is a very common problem in modern life. The quantity of my food intake (and the alcohol which totals 8 per cent of my calories) is a modest worry. But the structure of my eating is the simply dreadful thing.

The week's food chart shows it clearly. I skimp breakfast, having just toast and coffee. Lunch is a quick sandwich and a few biscuits. More empty calories. Then I arrive home starving. And often head off for some mountain-biking or golf.

Finally I sit down to a big cooked meal. And having worked hard, played hard, all day, I want to treat myself. After the meal come the chocolate and brandy, a few biscuits, later some cheese, crackers, and perhaps a nightcap. Food and drink become the day's reward. Which is why when someone mentions diet, I hear deprivation. You are talking about taking away something I have actually earned.

What we have to do, Stening says, is change your eating structure so that you start the day right. She drags out the familiar healthy food pyramid chart which shows a sturdy base of vegetables and carbohydrates, a smaller middle tier of dairy and protein, and a tiny tip reserved for fats and treats. Stening says what many forget is that this is supposed to be our template for every meal.

The reason is that your energy levels depend upon your blood glucose, and foods digest at different rates. Sugary stuff and simple carbs go straight into your system, so they have peaked and gone in an hour. Grainy carbohydrates with a higher glycemic index, a tougher digestive process, last another hour or so. Then you need some protein and even a little fat to carry you through the following three or four hours.

Just toast and marmalade for breakfast and your morning energy levels will soon plunge. You will start to crave a quick sugary fix. Out will come the shortbreads and anzacs. The story gets repeated at lunch. By the evening, this is why you can eat a belly-busting meal yet still feel the craving for something sweet and rewarding on top.

So, says Stening, start your mornings instead with a bran-based muesli. The bran does double duty in packing out your stomach so you feel fuller, and also has special cholesterol scrubbing properties. Add a slice of edam and other food that balances your pyramid, smoothing your path to lunch.

"If you eat right during the day, you just won't feel the cravings for sweet things in the evening," says Stening.

"People say I don't understand. They couldn't ever give up their chocolate. But there's no such thing as a sweet tooth. You won't feel the need to binge if you haven't starved yourself all day." Who can deny the logic? Nisbet says he had the same pattern.

"For breakfast I might have toast and a scrape of Marmite. A sandwich for lunch. Then I'd get home and pig out. A big plate of veggies and spuds. After dinner, I'd eat these 'lite' crackers. But not one or two. Over the evening, I'd have half the box." Nisbet took what Stening told him and applied it religiously. He says he trimmed down from 86kg to 73kg , his first goal, in six months. But he had got the bug and kept going. Over the past three months he has reached 68kg. Those cheekbones have appeared.

Nisbet says his cholesterol levels have plunged too, falling from over 6 to touching 4. Pretty darn good on the millimole per litre measuring scale. His doctor nearly fell off his chair at the extent of the change.

So now he feels super-charged with energy all day, I ask? Here Nisbet seems less certain. He supposes he must be feeling better he says. But probably like being trimmer, you simply get used to the new way you are.

Nisbet says Stening is right that smoothing out the protein and fat consumption reduces the cravings. It takes some willpower to get started. Straightening up, looking more manly as he senses my doubt, Nisbet says yes Mr McCrone, even you can just cut out the chocolate, the biscuits, the butter and the booze, if that is what you decide.

However, Nisbet adds this is the difference between a diet and a food plan. One leaves you feeling hungry and deprived, so you will be lucky to last a week. That is how he failed the first time round. But the other should leave you with steady energy levels and no need for that reward of a quick sugary fix.

I am convinced by the theory, but so far have only tentatively started putting it into practice. A solid bran-based breakfast is working. My energy levels seemed markedly more stable in just a few days. And biscuit and chocolate snacks have been cut to at least half.

I'm still breaking plenty of the other rules though. Stening says I will need a few more straight-talking sessions with her. She will straighten me out soon enough. So cheekbones rediscovered in the New Year? It is just possible, perhaps.

- © Fairfax NZ News