Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Saatchi on the OD?

I happened on Front Row (BBC radio 4) by accident an hour ago. They were discussing Charles Saatchi's new book. There was recounted an anecdote: Saatchi had been asked if it was true he had gone on a diet which required the eating of at least 6 egg yolks a day. The answer was yes, and that its effect was that he had gone from fat and ugly to being thin and ugly.

Too true, I can relate to this. The OD will not alter your face beyond weight change.... Can't think that any other diet involves that many eggs and works...

Peter

20 comments:

Mark said...

I'm still doing 7-12 egg yolks a day and feeling great. They have some trace amounts of T3 and T4. You've mentioned somewhere in the comments that there is the zeaxanthin and lutein which may be valuable, but that the exogenous cholesterol isn't going to have any effect on the brain. It's good brain food and it's nothing to do with the cholesterol.

Mark.

.^ said...

Reminds me of the time I asked my doctor if there was a way I could quickly lose 10 lbs of ugly fat.

"Well, yes," he said, "but I don't have the equipment here to perform a decapitation."

Sue said...

Do you know if he has put the weight back on?
It must be hard living with Nigella Lawson who loves her fat and sweets combo.

Sue said...

They describe his diet as vegetarian:
"Art collector Charles Saatchi is a fraction of the man he used to be after losing nearly four stone on a new vegetarian diet."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-542274/Nigella-gets-trainer-lick-shape.html

Yeh, some vegetarians eat eggs but I wouldn't call it a vegetarian diet.

Dream said...

Been eating a few dozen eggs per week for months now...loving it =).

-Anthony

lightcan said...

She (Nigella) got used to the fact that he doesn't eat her food, he doesn't even go in the kitchen when she bakes. The other thing that transpired was that he was eating a lot of vegetables, yes. So, I don't think he is on the OD.
BTW, Kwasnievski says that your skin on your body will not be wrinkly after you lose weight even if you're older. I beg to disagree...

LeonRover said...

I don't expect he'll OD on the OD . . . ?

Nelson Beads said...

What's the OD?

PJNOIR said...

4-6 eggs a day for about 4 months doing Atkins is not uncommon. I still eat about 15 a week- lost a lot of weight as part of a low carb High fat diet.

Nick said...

Joanne

It is Optimal Diet -- http://homodiet.netfirms.com/misc/cv_jk.htm

Bris said...

I assume our ancestors ate very few eggs. Wild birds only lay a few small eggs once a year in a very inaccessible spot. The eggs are fertilised and only palatable for a few days after being laid.

I doubt the average HG was particularly keen to risk his/her life climbing a tree or cliff to to eat a couple of marble sized eggs.

LeenaS said...

Why should the eggs be freshly laid? Not only chimps but also whole nations of humans prefer to eat their eggs after the embryo has been almost fully developed.

Only us (i.e. parasite free and oh so hygienic westeners) seem to think that anything we choose not to eat (including snakes, earthworms, embryos, insects, insect eggs, rats and hatched eggs, among other things) is not edible :)

Anna said...

Not all birds lay eggs only a year. I know the mockingbird romeos in my area are actively procreating an average of 6 times a year (keeping us awake far too often with their serenades, not to mention dive-bombing whenever anyone approaches the nest). Mourning doves or house finches are incessantly nesting in my front porch rafters. Domesticated chickens lay a daily egg for a good part of the year; perhaps this feature was a significant factor in their domestication. I'm no bird expert, but just these common examples would suggest to me that eggs, though perhaps often small, weren't rare as hen's teeth.

And eggs with semi-developed embryos are definitely a favored food in many parts of the world.

Bris said...

Humans evolved in the East African savannah during an ice age 100-200,000 years ago . This region was then a dry grassland with virtually no trees. Our ancestors living there certainly weren't eating either eggs or fruit in any significant quantity because both foods were highly seasonal and in very limited supply.

LeenaS said...

Humans have evloved for a long, long time and not only during the period you mentioned.

As for the savannah theory, it is already a hypothesis past. The fossiles supposed to lay in dry savannah had (surprisingy enough) jungle pollen with them. Too sad that the academics in the field don't like the more realistic alternative theory of aquatic (or strand) apes, where prehumans probably learned to eat fat and predate, while replacing fur for internal insulation. The eggs would have been threre, too :)

But, unraleted to academic disputes, there has been plenty of time for humans to adapt to eggs.

gallier2 said...

And even for the savannah theory one can think of birds laying eggs there. I suppose ostrich eggs would be relatively easy to get.
As for the aquan theory, I don't know, but that we were for a long time also shore dwellers is certain. I watched yesterday a documentary on Madagascar and there was a scene where the women gathered sea food on low tide, it was impressive what quantities of food they were able to find. In the comment it was told that they do that almost every day.

Anonymous said...

He may have lost weight, but would you want to share an elevator with someone eating six eggs a day?

Yes many bird species in the UK lay two or three clutches of eggs a year, and if they are predated will relay. Further south the breeding season (sufficient food for nestlings) is likely to be prolonged so I can imagine we've eaten eggs for millennia, though maybe not six a day, more likely a once in a while treat like some fruits or honey.

Peter said...

The only account of HG's I've read which discussed eggs specifically was the population on St Kilda, where eggs were seasonal but consumed in amounts which allowed the colonies of seabirds to survive, but only just. The feat of getting off of small boats then free climbing sea stacks to get at more eggs than were available on the main island was impressive. Not a feature of central Africa 100,000 years ago but then neither was chocolate.

I really like the Aquatic Ape theory, whether it's true or not. Elaine Morgan is quite up front about it being an hypothesis rather than received truth. Good.

Peter

Anonymous said...

The St Kildans used to catch a lot of the birds too, they probably contained high Omega 3 levels from eating all the fish.

Interesting point about the Aquatic Ape theory: many of our Western vegetables are derived from coastal species. Though people must have been pretty starving to tackle sea kale, sea cabbage, wild carrot etc. they probably had fairly high concentrations of bioflavinoids but humungous quantities of fibre.

James said...

trinkwasser said...

"He may have lost weight, but would you want to share an elevator with someone eating six eggs a day?"

If you're implying that eggs contribute to flatulence, I'll have to disagree with you. Without going into too much detail, since reducing my carb and fibre intake, my toilet and gas habits have only changed for the better!