Five Myths About Healthy Eating

POSTED BY: Geezer
UPDATED: Monday, June 25, 2012 22:59
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BYTEMITE

Monday, October 17, 2011 4:39 PM

Quote:
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.

I guess it would depend on the kid's own tastes and how much they really paid attention to commercials.

I hate greasy food and fat, always have, and now that I'm older I'm not sure I digest it properly. So I never liked the fast food restaurants, except for Mexican (beans, rice, corn, tomatoes, not so greasy) and I only liked very specific brands of pizza that weren't as greasy as the other brands (and I liked lots of vegetables on them too).

So I never really asked for that stuff.

But I am addicted to sugar, and as a kid I'd ask for ice cream, candy, and confections all the time. But the thing is, even though there were times I'd eat a whole quart of ice cream in one sitting (and even with several spoonfuls of sugar on top), that wasn't the television asking for it. I wasn't asking for a particular brands or flavour I saw advertised. I just knew what I liked, partially informed by what my parents liked and what they bought for us to try.

Also, we lived out in a rural area, so after I binged on sugar, well, "hummingbird" is an apt description.

SIGNYM

Monday, October 17, 2011 4:50 PM

Oh, and CHOLINE.

When a nutritionist examined the several latest versions of what the FDA said was "healthy eating" she found there was NO source of choline.

Choline is extremely important, and most ppl are deficient in it. Best source is eggs.

I sometimes wonder if the reason why there are so many autistic kids nowadays is the lack of vitamin D (sunshine) or choline or some other obscure deficiency.

GEEZER

Monday, October 17, 2011 5:23 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SignyM:
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).

Don't need to buy a side of beef. Buy 20 pounds when it's on sale somewhere (most anyone should be able to carry 20lbs in a cart, bag, or backpack) and cook it up and freeze it in something like this.

http://www.homedepot.com/Appliances-Kitchen-Appliances-Freezers-Chest-
Freezers/h_d1/N-5yc1vZbv40/R-100598963/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

At $198.00 delivered, it's not that expensive. Also a great place to put frozen veggies you buy on sale.

Quote:
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?

We were able to do our cooking in bulk when we were working. Most of it isn't actual work, just waiting for it to cook. My chili takes maybe 20 minutes to cut the beef, measure the spices, and put it in the pot. Then an occasional stir and another 15 to package it for the freezer.

Also, when you have it prepared ahead, it only takes a few minutes heating up to prepare, saving time over several days.

Quote:
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.

Healthy Choice Complete Meals on sale five for $10.00. Green Giant Create a Meal Stir Fry for $3.69. Both at my local Giant Foods. Or you can make a cheap, healthy,tasty meal with some frozen veggies and cheap chicken pieces that doesn't take much longer than thawing the pre-prepared stuff.

"Keep the Shiny side up"

BYTEMITE

Monday, October 17, 2011 6:36 PM

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44835708/ns/health-health_care/t/taking-ex
tra-vitamins-it-could-be-too-much-good-thing/

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/diet-supplements-harm-older-women-study/s
tory?id=14706684

I will only take supplementals if I have had my blood tested and it shows I am deficient with that vitamin.

I had my blood tested last February.

I am not deficient.

Unfortunately, my behaviour on this board is my own particular eccentricity, you're probably stuck with the way I am.

1KIKI

Monday, October 17, 2011 6:46 PM

"... and freeze it in something like this ..."

You forget, the poor are RENTERS. Most are sharing the place with another family, or more. They don't have the option to install appliances.

"At $198.00 delivered, it's not that expensive."

At $198.00 it's too expensive for those making minimum wage and paying rent. Let's do the math. A minimum wage job generally brings home less than $1,000 per month, after SSI and state taxes. Rent is minimally $600 per month (in a cheap state, for a 1 bedroom). Then there are utilities and transportation, minimally $100 per month. Not counting any other expenses, that leaves $300 per month for food, for a family of three. And you are proposing that this family spend $200 for a freezer. Tell me, which month should they stop eating in order to get this 'not that expensive' freezer?

I can tell you have never been poor, really really poor. I have. There are all sorts of things you COULD do - to save time, and money, and effort - if only you could get ahead by a few hundred dollars here or there. But you are always right on the edge of going under. So you can't.

Instead of making judgments about what 'they' could do and how 'they' could be as well off as you would be, if only 'they' were as smart and ambitious as you, I suggest you read 'Nickel and Dimed', listed above. This was written by an investigative reporter - certainly a smart and ambitious person - who got various minimum wage jobs in different areas of the country and who TRIED to live on those wages. It's an excruciating account of what it means to be poor.

"We were able to do our cooking in bulk when we were working... and another 15 to package it for the freezer."

Ah yes, the freezer that would be handy, if only you could have one.

"Healthy Choice Complete Meals on sale five for $10.00."

Assuming one had a freezer and could stock up on sale items, and had the time and transportation to shop the sales, one would need to eat 4/day to get the necessary amount of protein. That's $8/ day or $24/day for a family of three, or $720/ month for a family of three. OOPS. That's $420 more dollars per month than you have, for food. On top of that, you would have to supplement with extra food for extra calories. And the sodium content is high, making this an undoable (that freezer thing, that sale thing, that time and transport thing), unaffordable and not very 'healthy choice'. A Burger King double Whopper 'value meal' OTOH, despite being light in protein and vegetables, and very heavy on salt and fat, supplies your calories for the day at $4.89. And, you don't have to shop sales for it, store it, or prepare it. It may be unhealthy. But when it comes to shear day to day survival, it is the rational choice.

While Wall St. is going through the roof, Main St. is paying all the bills.

Remember when teachers, public employees, Planned Parenthood, NPR and PBS crashed the stock market, wiped out half of our 401Ks, took trillions in taxpayer funded bailouts, spilled oil in the Gulf of Mexico, gave themselves billions in bonuses, and paid no taxes?

Yeah, me neither....

BYTEMITE

Monday, October 17, 2011 7:38 PM

I more agree with Kiki's assessment of poverty. I've done some number crunching and budget balancing and projections myself for $1,000 a month. And even with the cheapest imaginable apartment and ten cent ramen and no car or car insurance, it's tight.

SIGNYM

Monday, October 17, 2011 8:13 PM

Byte, have you had your blood tested for B12? By the time B12 shows up as aplastic anemia, it is already far too late to reverse other problems. Sorry to be a nudge, but I've dealt with people short B12 for a variety of reasons (two vegans, one with poor absorption due to iron-deficiency anemia, one with poor absorption due to old age) and when it was added as a supplement is made a HUGE difference. A person's need for B12 is non-negotiable; the body either gets what it needs or fails.

MAGONSDAUGHTER

Monday, October 17, 2011 8:28 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by AURaptor:
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. "

I am just responding to posts as I read them, so excuse me if I repeat what someone else says.

we are not mindless programable robots but we are certainly influenced by media and marketing, otherwise why the hell would they bother?

You are correct that it is a parent's responsibility what they feed a child, however I think it is worth looking at societal trends and trying to work out why they happen. Don't you? If you have one obese family in a street, then you might consider that they have made bad choices. If you have a whole street full of obese people, you might start to wonder what was going on. If you have a whole nation/culture then you might think that something more than poor individual choice was at play. Even if your argument is 'many parents make poor choices regarding food for their family' - it is a trend. Then you might want to ask yourself 'how can parents be encouraged to make good choices for their kids' given all the health problems associated with poor nutritian.

Great topic. Made me revisit Jamie Oliver and his quest to change entrenched poor dietary choices of the British - particularly some classes. Ministry of Food was compelling viewing and made me realise how much I love Jamie, despite his reckless disregard for his children's happiness by calling them all ridiculous names.

MAGONSDAUGHTER

Monday, October 17, 2011 8:36 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Bytemite:

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.

You could also say that 1950's was a time when TV watching became prevalent, and with it, exposure to ads. There is no doubt in my mind that a sedentry lifestyle + a diet filled with highly processed, high fat and sugary diets leads to obesity. Watching TV and eating junk food in other words. And I guess what we see now is generational behaviour, which is hard to crack.

Quote:
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 see it here as well. Sizes have definitely gotten larger. Ever seen a documentary called 'Supersize me' where this guy decides to only eat McDOnalds for a month and says yes to every supersize request.

From IMDB "Super Size Me is a 2004 American documentary film directed by and starring Morgan Spurlock, an American independent filmmaker. Spurlock's film follows a 30-day period from February 1 to March 2, 2003 during which he eats only McDonald's food. The film documents this lifestyle's drastic effects on Spurlock's physical and psychological well-being, and explores the fast food industry's corporate influence, including how it encourages poor nutrition for its own profit.

Spurlock dined at McDonald's restaurants three times per day, eating every item on the chain's menu. Spurlock consumed an average of 20.92 megajoules or 5,000 kcal (the equivalent of 9.26 Big Macs) per day during the experiment.

As a result, the then-32-year-old Spurlock gained 24½ lbs. (11.1 kg), a 13% body mass increase, a cholesterol level of 230, and experienced mood swings, sexual dysfunction, and fat accumulation in his liver. It took Spurlock fourteen months to lose the weight gained from his experiment using a vegan diet supervised by his future wife, who is a chef specialized in vegan dishes and gourmet.

The reason for Spurlock's investigation was the increasing spread of obesity throughout U.S. society, which the Surgeon General has declared "epidemic," and the corresponding lawsuit brought against McDonald's on behalf of two overweight girls, who, it was alleged, became obese as a result of eating McDonald's food [Pelman v. McDonald's Corp., 237 F. Supp. 2d 512].[3] Spurlock points out that although the lawsuit against McDonald's failed (and subsequently many state legislatures have legislated against product liability actions against producers and distributors of "fast food"), much of the same criticism leveled against the tobacco companies applies to fast food franchises whose product is both physiologically addictive and physically harmful.[4][5]"

BYTEMITE

Monday, October 17, 2011 8:40 PM

Sig: I appreciate what you're trying to do, but I don't think there's a problem, and even if there was, I wouldn't do anything about it.

Magons: Thing is, my grandmother is overweight, and her eating habits lead directly to one of her sons being seriously overweight and her other sons struggling with cholesterol issues. And in her case, it wasn't the fault of a sedentary lifestyle, she didn't watch much tv, she was a 50s housewife and busy cleaning the house, cooking breakfast lunch and dinner and watching five boys. She told me it was her experiences with the great depression that led to her overeating, and I believe it.

I will, however, agree that television and a sedentary lifestyle made a big difference with her sons.

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