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1. Don't smoke, it causes deadly diseases. 2. Don't be immobile and stationary all day. 3. Don't buy food that comes in a plastic wrap or a cardboard box. Mak

• afarrell 11y ago
  You've somewhat contradicted yourself with #3. Many primary ingredients are sold in cardboard or plastic packaging. Also, #3 requires enough wealth to have the time to spend on it.
  • adrianN 11y ago
    Preparing somewhat healthy food takes a few hours a week. It's not so hard that you need to be particularly wealthy to do it.
    • afarrell 11y ago
      You don't need to be particularly wealthy, but it does require you to allocate: * Fridge & pantry space for ingredients. This is significantly easier if you are not splitting that space with 2 roommates. * Time and Executive Function to keep track of what you need to shop for. This is significantly easier if you spend $5 on an app like Paprika. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/paprika-recipe-manager-for/id406732590?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/paprika-recipe-manager-for/i... * Money to spend on cooking tools. This is significantly easier if you have friend who also cook and can recommend things. * Time and skill to spend organizing your kitchen so that you can work reasonably efficiently. * Time and patience to spend doing a skill poorly because you are learning. This is made easier if you have a snack before you cook dinner because trying to do an unfamiliar multi-threaded task is harder when you are hungry. * Money to spend on ordering food to be delivered when you fuck something up. * Time to spend going to the grocery store more frequently for fresher ingredients. This is significantly easier if you own a car or are willing to pay higher rent to live near a grocery store. * Time to spend actually doing both the cooking and cleaning. All of this is doable on a software engineer salary, but it does require making a deliberate decision to allocate resources.
      • adrianN 11y ago
        While I was studying I was living on 800 Euros a month. That's 20 Euro more than poverty level. I had a tiny apartment with a tiny fridge and no proper kitchen. Making rice or lentils, heating some frozen veggies in the microwave and frying some meat or opening a can of fish takes about 15 minutes and anybody can do it. You need a pot, a pan and a microwaveable bowl. Ikea has all of that for like 50 Euro.
  • djhn 11y ago
    > Many primary ingredients are sold in cardboard or plastic packaging. Ok yes, a rhetorical failure on my part. The distinction was of "meals coming in wrapping" vs. making them out of primary ingredients. I'm thinking butchered meat and fish from the counter, fresh produce by weight, grains by the weight. But yes, those same things can be sold in boxes and plastic. But with #3, you don't have to make complicated meals - those indeed are a luxury. My bachelor rule of thumb was 3 "foodthings", 3 minutes, add spice to taste. Or 5 of each, if you splurge. Of course, with higher income, you can buy even higher quality primary ingredients, and the contrast to the cheapest basics are remarkable. But the difference is mostly limited to freshness, texture, taste - at the moment research doesn't suggest they are better from a fundamental nutrititional value standpoint.
• forgetsusername 11y ago
  4, and possibly the most important: Don't overeat, regardless of the ingredients.
  • djhn 11y ago
    Sticking with primary ingredients pretty much guarantees that. While it's possible to go overboard with fatty meat, lots of nutritionally dense seeds/nuts or drinking lots of calories in milk and beer for instance (which is probably how rich lordlings got fat in the centuries preceding ready meals), most people would struggle to consistently overeat meat, vegetables and non-wheat carbs.
  • nibs 11y ago
    Our bodies are designed to continue eating until we obtain the nutrients we need - which is why junk food is not satisfying and we eat more of it. Try and overeat a meal consisting of pumpkin seeds, spinach, quinoa and berries.
    • unfamiliar 11y ago
      I think the explanation for this is not that your body miraculously detects the nutrients you need, but rather if something tastes of fat/salt/sugar we will eat as much of it as humanly possible.
    • dspillett 11y ago
      Even if you get the right balance of everything else, there is evidence that too much of certain sugars can impede the body's ability to manage this as can the presence of certain common chemicals in the modern diet (caffeine, some sweeteners and other additives). It isn't just that the modern diet of many people fails to provide what the body is looking for, it also breaks the body's ability to manage things (in some cases due to not processing it properly, in others due simply to hunger signals being present unnecessarily) even if it is provided with what it wants.
    • pigpaws 11y ago
      or try eating something that tastes good.