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Yea, no news for the HN crowd I guess. Good to see that more and more sources report on the dangers of sugar. Low-fat mentality is still the common opinion for

by zyb09 16y ago

Yea, no news for the HN crowd I guess. Good to see that more and more sources report on the dangers of sugar. Low-fat mentality is still the common opinion for healthy food and this non-sense really needs to change.

chipsy 16y ago
Nobody deserves to have to go so far out of their way and do tons of research to achieve a healthful diet, though, and most people can't or won't due to ignorance, stress, money, or any number of other problems in their life. Real solutions should be coming top-down to the consumer, so that you would have to really go out of your way to eat a "vice meal." As it is, companies seem to have barely budged for any of the trends of the last decade - it's easier to sell addiction, after all. But I've often thought that there's probably a lot of room for innovative approaches to the food service business that try to take on these problems and make it sexy to eat greens and drink tea.
- karzeem 16y ago
  One big issue is that health advocates spend 99% of their time telling people what not to eat. That doesn't work because, as you say, people aren't going to think, "Now that I know not to eat x, I'll take the initiative to figure out what I should be eating instead." I think Whole Foods (among others) has realized this and capitalizes on it. It eliminates the guesswork. "Come into the store and get whatever you want. You can't mess up because it's all healthy/sustainable/whatever." (Of course, it's not really all healthy/sustainable/whatever, but it's certainly harder to go wrong at Whole Foods than it is at Safeway.)
  - starkfist 16y ago
    I dunno about Whole Foods. I find it pretty easy to "go wrong" every time I shop there. The percentage of food at Whole Foods that is actually "healthy" is probably the same percentage as Safeway.
    - pyre 16y ago
      At Whole Foods a lot of the things that end up being really cheap from no-name brands at traditional markets are coming from brands that have extra mark-up for being organic or slightly out of the norm. So it's easier to not buy it due to the price? In general, most of the cheap bulk food that you can get out there ends up being not so great for you from a health standpoint. It's a lot less expensive to buy a bagged cereal knock-off of some highly sweetened cereal (Cocoa Puffs, etc) than to buy some sort of granola cereal. [That said, I haven't done any direct comparisons to the bulk pricing on oatmeal or grits.]
      - starkfist 16y ago
        What I meant is that Whole Foods carries just as much junk food as Safeway. There are entire sections of chips, cookies, candy, beer, cheese, ice cream and so forth. You can easily go in and buy nothing that's good for you. I do it all the time. Sadly, organic vegan potato chips aren't really any better for you than Ruffles... Slightly off-topic. I've lived in the alternate universes of NYC and SF for the past 10 years, and for many staples, Whole Foods has the cheapest options. The canned house brand beans have almost no sodium and cost 89 cents a can. In comparison, Goya brand, the cheap option at Safeway, wloaded with sodium, cost about the same. Produce at WF and Safeway can be about the same, especially if you buy organic. It really depends on the season and location. The house brand seltzer is about the same as any house brand seltzer and much cheaper than Schweppes or Canada Dry. Safeway in SF is really only cheaper if you are loading up on junk food for the superbowl game. I don't really make any meat at home and I'm allergic to dairy so I don't know how meat, milk and cheese compares. WF is actually FAR cheaper than any of the bodegas or small grocery stores in Brooklyn for any item. Buying fruit or vegetables in Brooklyn is usurious almost anywhere besides Fairway foods in Red Hook, or the Farmer's Market.
  - robryan 16y ago
    It's a good point, without spending a lot of time looking into it myself I always get the impression that nearly everything I can make is considered unhealthy in some way. I know there are so many recipes and cookbooks out there but it is hard to know what attributes you should be aiming for in food.

by zyb09 16y ago

chipsy 16y ago

Nobody deserves to have to go so far out of their way and do tons of research to achieve a healthful diet, though, and most people can't or won't due to ignorance, stress, money, or any number of other problems in their life. Real solutions should be coming top-down to the consumer, so that you would have to really go out of your way to eat a "vice meal." As it is, companies seem to have barely budged for any of the trends of the last decade - it's easier to sell addiction, after all. But I've often thought that there's probably a lot of room for innovative approaches to the food service business that try to take on these problems and make it sexy to eat greens and drink tea.

karzeem 16y ago
One big issue is that health advocates spend 99% of their time telling people what not to eat. That doesn't work because, as you say, people aren't going to think, "Now that I know not to eat x, I'll take the initiative to figure out what I should be eating instead." I think Whole Foods (among others) has realized this and capitalizes on it. It eliminates the guesswork. "Come into the store and get whatever you want. You can't mess up because it's all healthy/sustainable/whatever." (Of course, it's not really all healthy/sustainable/whatever, but it's certainly harder to go wrong at Whole Foods than it is at Safeway.)
- starkfist 16y ago
  I dunno about Whole Foods. I find it pretty easy to "go wrong" every time I shop there. The percentage of food at Whole Foods that is actually "healthy" is probably the same percentage as Safeway.
  - pyre 16y ago
    At Whole Foods a lot of the things that end up being really cheap from no-name brands at traditional markets are coming from brands that have extra mark-up for being organic or slightly out of the norm. So it's easier to not buy it due to the price? In general, most of the cheap bulk food that you can get out there ends up being not so great for you from a health standpoint. It's a lot less expensive to buy a bagged cereal knock-off of some highly sweetened cereal (Cocoa Puffs, etc) than to buy some sort of granola cereal. [That said, I haven't done any direct comparisons to the bulk pricing on oatmeal or grits.]
    - starkfist 16y ago
      What I meant is that Whole Foods carries just as much junk food as Safeway. There are entire sections of chips, cookies, candy, beer, cheese, ice cream and so forth. You can easily go in and buy nothing that's good for you. I do it all the time. Sadly, organic vegan potato chips aren't really any better for you than Ruffles... Slightly off-topic. I've lived in the alternate universes of NYC and SF for the past 10 years, and for many staples, Whole Foods has the cheapest options. The canned house brand beans have almost no sodium and cost 89 cents a can. In comparison, Goya brand, the cheap option at Safeway, wloaded with sodium, cost about the same. Produce at WF and Safeway can be about the same, especially if you buy organic. It really depends on the season and location. The house brand seltzer is about the same as any house brand seltzer and much cheaper than Schweppes or Canada Dry. Safeway in SF is really only cheaper if you are loading up on junk food for the superbowl game. I don't really make any meat at home and I'm allergic to dairy so I don't know how meat, milk and cheese compares. WF is actually FAR cheaper than any of the bodegas or small grocery stores in Brooklyn for any item. Buying fruit or vegetables in Brooklyn is usurious almost anywhere besides Fairway foods in Red Hook, or the Farmer's Market.
- robryan 16y ago
  It's a good point, without spending a lot of time looking into it myself I always get the impression that nearly everything I can make is considered unhealthy in some way. I know there are so many recipes and cookbooks out there but it is hard to know what attributes you should be aiming for in food.