Hands up if you're FED UP with being told SUGAR IS THE DEVIL !!

[csgohan4]

A moment on the lips, lifetime on the hips,

TBH i stopped eating KFC, Burger king e.t.c because one day i was queing up for my special bargain Bucket, took a look round at the people sitting down and 90% were morbidly obese, felt ill after eating the KFC after wards too.

There are several shows in the UK as well which are done by 'nutritionist's' who show a person's whole week's of food on a table for them to see and that made me wake up as well.

Veggie diet at home and a treat once in a while outside in a restaurant not fast food.

[wasabi]

mixed with meat and vegetables...?

I get a meal fullfilling what my body needs

Mixed -works- because the meat and veg supplies what you need despite the added junk. Getting rid of he sugar/starch works better. Especially after a few months when your body gets used to running on fats..

[TooNice]

Perhaps the issue is a lot of people don't know how to balance and moderate. Just look at the obesity statistics. Perhaps those saying that X or Y (which is typically found in calorie dense food) is bad are hoping that those who consume in excess would cut more drastically, which is needed in some of those case? *Shrug*
Like I said in another thread, while I don't think that cooking *needs* to be taught at school, but a course in nutrition may do some good.

[Saracen]

I'm in the "all things in moderation" camp. I don't each much refined sugar, directly. Just occassionally on certain cereals, and that's typically maybe once a month. But I DO like my cereal for breakfast. Sometimes, with about a teaspoon on honey, but mostly, with either fresh or dried fruit.

And while I'm on about cereal, kerp one eye on salt levels. It's not just sugar that can be very bad for you. So, some cereals are MUCH higher in salt than others.

As for fizzy drinks, I'll have a glass of coke from time to time, but it's rare. By far the thing I drink most is water. And two or three cups of coffee, per day.

Where I do use, and consequently eat, sugar is when I bake cakes and/or biscuits. Ir bread, but generally it's a tiny amount in that. I don't bake cakes or biscuits all that often.

[Saracen]

....

TBH i stopped eating KFC, Burger king e.t.c because one day i was queing up for my special bargain Bucket, took a look round at the people sitting down and 90% were morbidly obese, felt ill after eating the KFC after wards too.

....

TBH, with either burger on chicken, it's far better to either buy high quality burgers, or (better yet) make your own. And ditto fried chicken, though you won't get quite the KFC spice blend. But so what, you can still do "southern fried" and tweak it to taste.

In most things, quality ingredients = quality results, given what can be surprisingly modest time and effort.

[wasabi]

But what is moderation? To a Chinese person your diet would probably seem very odd.

I'm in the "all things in moderation" camp. I don't each much refined sugar, directly. Just occassionally on certain cereals, and that's typically maybe once a month. But I DO like my cereal for breakfast. Sometimes, with about a teaspoon on honey, but mostly, with either fresh or dried fruit.

And while I'm on about cereal, kerp one eye on salt levels. It's not just sugar that can be very bad for you. So, some cereals are MUCH higher in salt than others.

As for fizzy drinks, I'll have a glass of coke from time to time, but it's rare. By far the thing I drink most is water. And two or three cups of coffee, per day.

Where I do use, and consequently eat, sugar is when I bake cakes and/or biscuits. Ir bread, but generally it's a tiny amount in that. I don't bake cakes or biscuits all that often.

[aidanjt]

Why do you eat rice and grains? What nutritional benefit do you get?

Energy, fibre, proteins, iron, vitamin b6, magnesium, potassium and more.

[aidanjt]

But what is moderation?

Moderation is not eating twice, or three times as much as the RDA of any one nutrient type, but rather try to satisfy them all around their respective RDA values.

To a Chinese person your diet would probably seem very odd.

I'm not sure what that kind of cultural difference has to do with anything.

[Lil-Diabo]

As said before, and probably will be said again - I kinda believe it's all about moderation.

I love coke, to the point where I can't actually drink plain water as it tastes awful (addicted is perhaps a more appropriate word)
I easily go through about two cans a day, but then again I don't have any sweets, cakes, breads (unless it's the occasional burger) or chocolates (and usually my tea/coffee is made with just a splash of milk and no sugar.

I've convinced myself I probably need the coke to survive as it's probably the only sugar I do intake (I'm having trouble convincing others though)

[Phage]

Carbs became normal because it's a more efficient way if growing calories. Agricultural revolution - we can't support this many people with fats and meat.

[mikeo01]

I think you need to know the individual to understand their tolerance levels of certain nutritions.

You may have one person who eats burgers all day, drinks coke, smokes and is still somehow healthy, thin and fit. Whilst on the other hand another person practising a healthy lifestyle to get the life kick out of them if they even look at chocolate

It is also physiological as well, the mind is a powerful tool and somewhat determines what foods we are "OK" with and what foods we "aren't OK" with.


Again this comes down to the person's metabolic rate (metabolism).
Another is inheritance - you may inherit a gene that tells your body "right, we like storing fat, so any fat we get we store" whilst someone else's genes may simply say "we will try and burn fat at the chance we get" - metabolism.


Which comes to the conclusion it completely depends on the person. Know your own limits but be sensible about it. The more you try and follow "guidelines" the more robotic you become. Know your own body (I'm not saying eat burgers all your life but you get what I mean, if you're better with certain types of foods than others, eat it).

Moderation is key. You can still have a treat once in a while your body can deal with it. If people stop starving themselves and eating very little to try and fit into the "healthy" lifestyle they'll soon find out that essentially your body is putting itself into "starving" mode and storing everything, which makes sugar and fat look really bad because as soon as you eat it you get a rush which your body cannot handle.

So fat and sugar now and again is needed for a healthy lifestyle, your body needs to know what it is and how to handle it from time to time so you don't overload yourself when you do have it.


Besides, I say to simply enjoy life and tasty food!!!!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I think you need to know the individual to understand their tolerance levels of certain nutritions.

You may have one person who eats burgers all day, drinks coke, smokes and is still somehow healthy, thin and fit. Whilst on the other hand another person practising a healthy lifestyle to get the life kick out of them if they even look at chocolate

It is also physiological as well, the mind is a powerful tool and somewhat determines what foods we are "OK" with and what foods we "aren't OK" with.


Again this comes down to the person's metabolic rate (metabolism).
Another is inheritance - you may inherit a gene that tells your body "right, we like storing fat, so any fat we get we store" whilst someone else's genes may simply say "we will try and burn fat at the chance we get" - metabolism.


Which comes to the conclusion it completely depends on the person. Know your own limits but be sensible about it. The more you try and follow "guidelines" the more robotic you become. Know your own body (I'm not saying eat burgers all your life but you get what I mean, if you're better with certain types of foods than others, eat it).

Moderation is key. You can still have a treat once in a while your body can deal with it. If people stop starving themselves and eating very little to try and fit into the "healthy" lifestyle they'll soon find out that essentially your body is putting itself into "starving" mode and storing everything, which makes sugar and fat look really bad because as soon as you eat it you get a rush which your body cannot handle.

So fat and sugar now and again is needed for a healthy lifestyle, your body needs to know what it is and how to handle it from time to time so you don't overload yourself when you do have it.


Besides, I say to simply enjoy life and tasty food!!!!

Also I would add lifestyle too,ie,things like stress and lack of sleep also can affect your metabolism too.

[jim]

and now that's bonkers too.....

so no carbs....?

no spuds, no pasta.. no bread.. no rice....

why is that good?

veg and fruit have carbs throughout them.. natural sugars.. so surely to goodness you'll get carbs eating a normal diet and you'll use them.

Thing is, they don't really serve much purpose, in dietary terms. There's far more nutritional goodness in vegetables than in pure starch products - spuds, flour, rice etc are more cheap fillers than anything else.

If you eat it in moderation, then yeah, you'll be fine. Ultimately though, we were never meant to eat the vast quantities of carbs that we do these days, and I think it's causing far more problems for overweight people than they realise.

[aidanjt]

...and I think it's causing far more problems for overweight people than they realise.

The cause is people being far too sedentary. Western food availability is excellent, but western life being dominated by being chained to a desk for most of their waking hours, and driving/busing to/from home, and sitting in front of the telly with dinner on their lap however, isn't good at all. Even when we count calories and balance our diet so we don't turn into complete lard asses, the way we live is still desperately unhealthy. If we had a healthy level of physical activity we'd actually have to eat far more calories to maintain a healthy weight.

[TheAnimus]

I'm not sure what that kind of cultural difference has to do with anything.

There is a huge difference!

Many will eat 5 small meals a day, every meal is communal, there is no personal snacking.

[aidanjt]

There is a huge difference!

Many will eat 5 small meals a day, every meal is communal, there is no personal snacking.

Yes, but we're talking about health and nutrition. Pure physiological needs. Cultural culinary/dining differences, no matter how small or great, are not relevant in the slightest.