Warning! Here is The First Bad Red Egg. The first forbidden treat. One that most healthy diets would not allow!

If Granny McAdam was still alive she would be a great, great granny. She would be delighted to know her recipe for Scottish tablet was appearing on something that would bamboozle her – The World Wide Web. She would be a bit amazed to learn that a recipe brimming with all the diet nasties was being used in a healthy eating diet. Granny McAdam lived till she was nearly a hundred but I’ve no idea how much of her own tablet she ate and how much she gave away. Consequently, I can’t say that her tablet was related to her longevity. However, I know she always had some stored away in a tin box, and visitors were given a little bag of it as they went out the door and a little hand-picked bunch of flowers from her garden.

Probably most doctors and dietitians would disapprove of me having Granny McAdam’s tablet as part of a healthy eating/weight reduction diet. The beauty of having a blog that is not affiliated to anyone apart from myself means that I can tell you about my own approach to my own healthy eating, eccentric though it may be.

The aim is to eat absolute everything I like, but to adjust the amounts and frequency of consumption of each item until weight loss occurs (I am hoping to lose two stones slowly but steadily and keep that weight off for the rest of my life). If you follow any diet pyramid, tablet, sugar and butter will always be near the top – to be eaten in small amounts. Like Granny McAdam, I’m going to have treats available at all times. None of this “don’t have it in the house – it will tempt you” approach. The diet is not gong to control me, I’ll control the diet.

So here is the recipe:

GRANNY McADAM’S TABLET

UTENSILS

Scales or other measuring things
A big thick based pot
A long handled wooden spoon.
A greased square baking tray with edges high enough to prevent the fluid tablet from overflowing.
A knife.
A tin storage box

If you want to give it away some clear bags suitable for food.
If you want to make it really, really pretty, some ribbon to tie them with.

INGREDIENTS

1/4 lb butter
1 cup water
2 lbs white sugar
Vanilla pod or vanilla essence to taste.
1 tin Fussel’s condensed milk.
(Granny McAdam always used Fussels. Nothing else would do. However, since then companies have been buying each other over and nobody knows who’s who nowadays when it comes to condensed milk. They’ll need to use Carnation Light Condensed milk seems to be much the same recipe as Fussels NOT Carnation Evaporated milk…… THIS WON’T WORK)

PROCEDURE

Put butter and water in the pan and melt.
Add sugar then condensed milk.
Bring to the boil, stirring all the time.
(Granny McAdam used to say the secret was in the stirring. You must stir and stir without ceasing she said. For half an hour if necessary.)
When getting sugary at the sides of the pan, stir in vanilla pod and remove when flavour is right, or add vanilla essence to required taste.
Test consistency by spooning out a little into a cup of cold water. It should set sugary not runny.
Keep stirring all the time – it should turn into a deep golden colour.

When consistency and colour is just right, pour into greased tin.
Before it has cooled completely mark into even squares.
Break up into pieces when cold
Scrape every bit that remains in the pot, store it in a jar and use it for sprinkling on ice cream – another treat!

Enjoy!

It might take a bit of practice to get the consistency, colour and texture right. This is NOT fudge and it is NOT toffee. It is Scottish tablet, and this recipe once mastered, if you keep stirring according to Granny McAdam’s instructions, makes the best tablet in the world!

A real treat!

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Here is yet another food pyramid with loads of carbohydrate on the base.

Once more, I am of the opinion that I could not under any circumstances devour a diet with such a large proportion of carbohydrate and have already decided that fruit and vegetables will be the predominant food in my own Webwhispering Diet.

What interests me is that there seems to be a nutrition expert questioning the wisdom of following a diet so rich in carbohydrates. He seems to think it might be making the American population fat. He also emphasise the needs for diets to reflect the individual rather than “one size does all.”

Cell Biology Professor Richard Feinman Discusses the ‘Food Pyramid’ Dietary Guidelines: MyFoxDC.com

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This food pyramid, like the previous one, has pasta, bread and other carbohydrates at the base.

This is definitely not for me. I could never have a diet that predominates in these foods. Fruit and vegetables will need to be at the base of my pyramid, but I’m not sure yet what the middle layers will be.

One thing for sure though. Chocolate and sweets are bound to feature on the top layer of anyone’s food pyramid. The secret is to restrict these but at the same time not be aware that they are being rationed. At the moment my plan is to give myself a daily treat and look forward to this.  Because only small quantities are eaten they will become more and more of a treat.

I’m going to choose two of my home made favourites that will always be in my box of treats. By making them myself in my own kitchen, it will continually reinforce to me how much fattening stuff they contain – a reminder to restrict them.

The first treat will be “Granny MacAdam’s tablet.”

The second will be “Mum’s orange and biscuit no-bake cake.”

Oh, how I love these two fattening treats!

Recipes to follow soon.

I won’t start on this lifelong healthy eating diet until The Treat Tin is full.

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It is fashionable to turn healthy eating into the form of a pyramid.

There are several types of food pyramid and each relates to cultural eating patterns. For example, there is a Mediterranean pyramid, an Asian pyramid etc.

It seems to me there is a problem. Nowadays in the UK we enjoy a multicultural diet, so what pyramid do we follow? Do we flit form one pyramid to another? If so, will that prevent losing weight to a healthy level because we convince ourselves we can eat all the foods freely from the bottom level of all the food pyramids?

I’ll need to prepare my own food pyramid before I start dieting. One thing for sure, it won’t be the one shown here. My “base” will be fruit and vegetables. There are two reasons for this. I love fruit and vegetables and wouldn’t want to restrict them much. Furthermore, a diet with a basis of fruit and vegetables means that it is possible to have very quick meals without any cooking involved at all – and this has a huge advantage if you don’t have much free time to spend in the kitchen.

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I’m in no hurry to start this diet. The planning is important and a diet that suits me will take shape gradually over the next few weeks or months.

Some of the things going through my mind are very clear.

1. There will be no weighing of food or calorie counting. My eye will work it out using knowledge and common sense.

2. I will eat absolutely anything I want to eat. The skill will be knowing how much and how often I eat the foods that are likely to prevent weight loss.

3. Chocolate and home baking will not be excluded.

4. I will control the diet. The diet will not control me.

5. The Webwhispering Diet will be enjoyable.

6. It will become a way of life.

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The previous post linked to an educational website designed to help children learn how to eat healthily. Much of this information will be useful for adults too.

It has set me thinking a bit about the weight loss / diet industry.  And industry it is. It must be worth billions of pounds.

Recently too, there has been a new “movement”….surgery for weight loss. Celebrities talk on TV and to the press about their experiences with gastric banding and other procedures.

Private hospitals in the UK advertise their bariatric surgery. Named surgeons are given space on their websites. Their photos appear there. These are not cowboy surgeons although I suppose some may be. The ones I’m thinking about are good competent surgeons some of whom also hold consultant posts in the NHS. Just do a Google search for “bariatric surgery” or “obesity surgery.” You’ll find them.  Smooth, well designed websites made credible by photos of the surgeons themselves. I won’t be linking to them directly.

I hate this. Partly because I hate the idea of doctors advertising their wares. By appearing on these websites that is what they are doing. Old fashioned? Maybe. However the Hippocratic Oath taken by me all these years ago forbade advertising and what we are seeing nowadays is more than simple advertising. It is advertising for personal gain .. profit ….money in the bank for that individual doctor. The individual doctor is now using marketing strategies. He / she is piggy-backing on the now fashionable UK health jargon of “Patient Choice.” One has to wonder if “Patient Choice” is  jargon that is being deliberateley introduced for the purpose of creating a market in UK healthcare. Time will tell.

I hate this marketing, and although am fully aware it is common practice in other parts of the world, it never was so in the UK.

In fact, surgical procedures were always available for the treatment of obesity within the NHS. In the past, it was restricted to patients who were morbidly obese often with some deep rooted psychological problems too. Surgery was the last resort. Nowadays the hurdle is lower.

Another thing that bothers me about the “Surgery for Fatties” movement is that it assumes an individual will not have the willpower to adopt a healthy eating pattern on their own.  It assumes dependency on the medical profession and the huge diet industry.

All of this sticks in my throat.

As it happens, I have been unable to exercise properly for some time now (severe back problem) and so find it necessary to shed a couple of stones in weight without adequate exercise to burn off calories. I don’t know how I am going to do this, but am damned sure it won’t be by gastric banding or any other surgical procedure, buying specific dietary products, or following some quick fix diet. I also know it will be done slowly but surely over the next year or 18 months.

After giving some thought to this, I will post intermittently about what I intend to do. It might help somebody else too.

I’ll file all these posts under “The Webwhispering Diet.” so they can all be accessed by clicking on that category at the side.

And yes, by putting this in writing, it gives me an incentive. I’ll feel a fool if it doesn’t work for me.

I hope what will become  ”The Webwhispering Diet” will be a good one, will be easy, will be enjoyable and will last a life time.

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