Five Myths About Healthy Eating

POSTED BY: Geezer
UPDATED: Monday, June 25, 2012 22:59
VIEWED: 8234
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PHOENIXSHIP

Monday, October 17, 2011 5:18 AM

You said it better than I did!

"Why're you arguin' what's already been decided?"
Mal to Jayne, "Jaynestown"

AURAPTOR

Monday, October 17, 2011 9:56 AM

MD - nothing you stated in the least bit changes the fact that it comes down to one's individual choices, and or the choices of the adult for their child.

Parents have, for a large part, control over what their children watch and eat. This idea that we're all brainless programable robots, falling victim to the whims of some heartless, faceless ad agency's dark, insidious intentions, is comical rubbish.

" I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend. "

DMAANLILEILTT

Monday, October 17, 2011 11:56 AM

I think that H. L. Menken and George Orwell would argue that we are brainless, programmable robots.

"I really am ruggedly handsome, aren't I?"

BYTEMITE

Monday, October 17, 2011 1:42 PM

I find myself not entirely in agreement with either side, but that's probably not anything new around here.

I don't believe we're programmable robots - obviously kids will get influenced by commercials they watch on television (the supermarket tantrum point), but in most of the overweight families I've seen, the parents have equally appalling eating habits. Which means the kids are emulating the parents, who probably are a far bigger influence than the television. We have to take into account that mainstream 1950s was a ridiculous time of overeating, new parents who were around during the time of the depression were desperate to not have their kids experience the kind of hunger they did, and all this wasn't helped by nutritional guidelines from the government that recommended a truly excessive diet (the food pyramid). By the 1970s and 80s, those kids were themselves having children, passing on the bad habits without the same reason for it. And that kind of proclivity trickles down from the middle class into the poor communities.

For the kind of overeating we see in the country today, we're talking lots of food, different types of food and not the same thing all the time, and people are just pounding it down. Addiction could be part of it, but even that doesn't fully account for the amount and range of the binge.

I would suspect that the biggest problem of all is portion control. Addiction to food, even certain types of food is not a bad thing, food is needed for survival and humans are hardwired to crave carbohydrates and fats wherever we can get them. The problem comes up when instead of just having one bagel for breakfast, you maybe have an entire bag of store bought bagels (six or so), then a half a box of reheated eggo waffles, all of those smothered in butter, jam, and/or syrup, then an entire box of cereal with milk. That perhaps is an extreme take on that addiction. But honestly, while yes, most of the processed food we eat are bad for us, drinking an 8 oz can of something made with high fructose corn syrup is a different thing than drinking a big gulp.

I do wonder though if there isn't something to be said about the stress of our modern lifestyle. People who are stressed feel tired. People who are stressed feel like they need a big hit of sugar and caffeine. People who are stressed think they need a lot of energy, and so eat a lot, but as a contradiction eating that much food puts on weight and makes simple tasks that much harder to accomplish (making them more tired).

GEEZER

Monday, October 17, 2011 1:49 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 1kiki:
And then we have Geezer. Who's fine with all that.

What?

Aside from citing an article to start a discussion, all I've said in this thread was that you can get healthy food that's not expensive.

Maybe you should lay off the sugar and caffine for a while.

"Keep the Shiny side up"

GEEZER

Monday, October 17, 2011 1:55 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Bytemite:
I don't believe we're programmable robots...

Thinking about it, we kind'a are.

Not so much by the fast food outlets and advertising, but by genetics and evolution.

As noted, we have a craving for fat and protein. I suspect that this is because, until quite recently on the evolutionary scale, we had to use tremendous amounts of energy just to stay alive. Even as recently as 100 years ago, most work was done by muscle power instead of machinery. We're programmed to stoke the boiler for a full day's manual labor, but for some folks who work at a desk, or are not working at all, the ability to cut back just isn't there.

"Keep the Shiny side up"

BYTEMITE

Monday, October 17, 2011 2:11 PM

Strictly speaking, when you're programming something you're putting in an inclination that wasn't already there. What we have is a tendency to act on some natural instincts that can be exploited.

The same can be said for our tribal tendencies to be hijacked into routing for one party or another.

What's programming is when we cease to be able to question the actions of our "tribe" due to indoctrination. Some people are programmed, but not everyone, therefore saying we're all programmable robots is incorrect.

NIKI2

Monday, October 17, 2011 3:11 PM

Kiki, I think you've nailed some things that aren't considered in the article:

Quote:
Many people are 'working poor'. Each day is an effort to > try < to get by. Most are renters. Some live in hotels. A rising portion are homeless. Many people are living with other people in a single residence and don't have regular access to working kitchens. Taking a mosey on down to the supermarket to comparison shop and THEN prepare the food at home are luxuries of time and effort. And fast food is - well - fast. And easy to find.

There is another factor - food addiction. About 40% of people have brains that light up to fat, sugar and carbs, and salt in the exact same way a crack addict's brain lights up with crack.

The increase of families with both parents working just to get by means there is less time to prepare foods, so fast-food is, as you said, fast and easy to get.

And all the education in the world doesn't change people quickly. I posted before about sitting in a waiting room while waiting for paper work when we bought our last car, and watching a thing on TV about a family of very obese people. They were trying to educated them about the dangers of the way they were eating. They took them to the doctor and discovered one of the sons was already diabetic, which made both parents cry. They got educated on why they should change their habits and how; six months later they were back to eating just the way they had before. None of those things in the article mention how difficult it is to get people to ACT on what they learn. By that time the son was on medication, and his continued poor eating habits were seriously affecting his health.

While we're certainly not programmable robots, I would use the word "indoctrinated". Can anyone actually argue that the TV kids watch, with it's massive advertising for "yummy" food flies at them every few minutes, doesn't have an effect? It takes effort on the part of the parents to fight this tide, and of course most of the "other kids eat that!", so there's that battle, too.

And our systems HAVE changed, as Geezer noted. In Japan and other places, poverty has kept people living on rice and beans and such, with little red meat, so I think their systems would take longer to change to what our systems are like.

I would say the article omits some important facts, and even within it are caveats that not all those "myths" are completely false. I think it's too complex an issue to be broken down into a couple of "reasons", in part because all the things we've discussed are different for different segments of the population.

Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off

SIGNYM

Monday, October 17, 2011 4:23 PM

Well, the whole "You can eat food that's good and cheap" relies on a whole bunch of things, including a large working freezer (or two) separate from the frig. Like the "working poor" are going to have one of THOSE! With a large freezer or two, sure- you can buy a half side of beef (of course, you may need three or four paychecks to do it, but who's counting?), put it in your car (or lug it with you on the bus, but who's counting?) and prepare foods in bulk (which may take a day or two, but who's counting?) and have healthful meals which are cheap (less the time and up-front investment).

The other point... and I suppose this will bring up a whole raft of criticism of "the poor"... but many of the poor, beside being WORKING poor... are also single parent households. So aside from working a job, and keeping a crappy car running (or taking public transport) and trying to keep up with your kids, there is somehow supposed to be time leftover for cooking in bulk?

What would be REALLY helpful would be pre-prepared foods that are kind of good for you, that don't cost an arm and a leg.

SIGNYM

Monday, October 17, 2011 4:39 PM

BYTE:

If you are really living on beans, rice, and corn, your problems may be due to a serious lack of B12.

Humans NEED B12. There is no way around it. And there is NO plant-based source.... none, zip, nada. Even the yeast which has B12 gets it from supplementation. If you are not supplementing with B12 please please please go out and get pills with big doses... 2000 mcg or more... B12 is not always efficiently absorbed.

As a general comment about nutrition:

Rue pointed out that humans NEED TO EAT BOTH B12 (meat) and vitamin C (fruit, vegetables). As such, we are OBLIGATE OMNIVORES... we are required to eat BOTH MEAT AND VEGETABLES/FRUITS. Furthermore, compared to other apes humans need significantly higher amounts of omega-3 fatty acids, iodine, and vitamins A and D.

Yes, poor people "can" live on rice, beans, corn, bananas, and coconut oil, but they will be overall deficient in B12, iron, zinc, omega-3, D, A, niacin, iodine, etc. The most common micronutrient deficiencies worldwide are vitamins A, D, and the mineral iodine. Whole populations have suffered from nutritional deficiencies- iodine ("mongoloid" idiocy), vitamin A (blindness) and vitamin D (rickets)

With the advent of cheap food-oils, poor people all over the world are now getting fat- but malnourished- on a combination of cheap starches and oils- just like our junk food here at home.

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