8 ms·

I'm not a scientist, and my experience is anecdotal. But there is something very very wrong with most of the food in our grocery stores. I had nearly debilitati

I'm not a scientist, and my experience is anecdotal. But there is something very very wrong with most of the food in our grocery stores. I had nearly debilitating GI issues and body composition problems until I completely cut out processed foods and started cooking from scratch. My symptoms cleared up within weeks, I lost 35 lbs almost effortlessly, and I've never felt better. I think what we're feeding the general public is a health hazard and should be much more strongly regulated.

brightball 7y ago
Similar here. For me I was able to correct most GI issue and lost 16lbs just by cutting out gluten. I don’t have celiac, but the effect was undeniable.
- amluto 7y ago
  It’s very hard to just cut out gluten since almost no one eats straight gluten as a major part of their diet, unless they really really love tempeh. My personal hypothesis is that most non-celiac people who do this and get a major benefit actually get the benefit from removing wheat from their diet. This is consistent with people who entirely incorrectly claim that sourdough bread is GF. Traditional sourdoughs give bacteria and yeasts a lot of time to eat various sugars and starches.
  - tunesmith 7y ago
    Tempeh isn't gluten, you might be thinking of seitan.
    - amluto 7y ago
      Indeed. Whoops!
  - astura 7y ago
    Tempeh is fermented soybeans; seitan is wheat gluten.
  - notfromhere 7y ago
    non-celiacs who this inadvertently benefit from cutting down on easy calories. no matter the theory, it's still just about energy in vs energy out
    - amluto 7y ago
      Huh? This discussion is about GI issues, not weight gain/loss. I don't think I've ever heard anyone say that GI issues are about energy in vs energy out. There is a moderately well supported theory that most "gluten intolerance" issues are actually intolerance of FODMAPs: certain fermentable sugars and short-chain starches found in a wide range of foods, most notably wheat. If you remove gluten from diet, you have likely also significantly reduced your FODMAP consumption. But gluten itself isn't a FODMAP, and I once baked an experimantal loaf of low-FODMAP bread using spelt flour and vital wheat gluten. (It wasn't very good.)
- krupan 7y ago
  Went gluten free at my house for quite a while. Nobody lost weight. Ice-cream, chocolate, potato chips, GF pizza crust, all kind of GF junk food out there if you look for it.
  - jfk13 7y ago
    Yes indeed. A lot of commercial GF food is, if anything, higher in fat and sugar than the "regular" gluten-containing equivalent. Just because a product is "free from" something-or-other (whether gluten, lactose, nuts, whatever) doesn't mean it's healthy. We've gone GF at our house because my wife has coeliac disease. But we use very few commercially-prepared GF products; we cook at home from basic ingredients, and simply avoid the gluten-containing grains. If you basically went gluten free by relying on products from the supermarket "free from" section, I can imagine it's easy to gain rather than lose weight.
  - brightball 7y ago
    Not going to say it works for everybody. I was having a lot of GI issues and was diagnosed with IBS. Decided to try GF before committing to taking medicine 4 times a day, indefinitely...and it just happened to work. The weight loss was an unexpected side effect.
  - imtringued 7y ago
    You can drop the "if". Almost everything sold by a supermarket is junk food. Avoiding junk food at the supermarket is almost impossible.
vorpalhex 7y ago
A lot of it is that processed foods are cheaper since they're more shelf stable, but to be more shelf stable you add either a lot of fat (which isn't currently consumer desirable) or a lot of other crap (which consumers don't seem to mind as much). Plus color preservatives and everything else, and you end up with a weird food facsimile. I buy raw meats, cheese, some yogurt and a bit of bread and that's about it. Sometimes I break down and get some hot sauce. It's cheap, I eat like a king, and I'm effective at weight management aside from the occasional restaurant visit or party with friends. The only downside is the time I spend cooking - while it's an enjoyable hobby for me, I suspect most people can't dedicate that kind of time to meal prep or dinner.
- adwi 7y ago
  If you’re worried about the hot sauce from processing or preservative standpoint it’s shockingly easy (and fun) to make yourself [0]. Jam a bunch of peppers of your desired heat, a few cloves of garlic, and salt water in a mason jar. Close it and keep it on the counter and it will lacto-ferment. Let the CO2 out every morning for a couple weeks, then just let it hang out. They’ll become delicious pickled peppers after a couple weeks, and become unbelievably complex and delicious after a couple months. When they taste how you want, blend it up for sauce or eat the peppers whole (I’d do a couple jars at once so you don’t have to choose) You can add a little bit of vinegar at the end to stop the fermentation and make it shelf-stable—and maybe a little xantham gum to thicken if you’d like—or just keep it in the fridge. Great for your gut flora and you’ll be shocked it came out of your kitchen with such little effort. [0] http://phickle.com/we-can-phickle-that-hot-pepper-sauce/ http://phickle.com/we-can-phickle-that-hot-pepper-sauce/
  - logjammin 7y ago
    This is terrific and I can't wait to try it. Thanks!
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
- 7y ago
chrisco255 7y ago
I think what people choose to eat is extremely personal to them. I'm glad you made a lifestyle choice that benefitted you, but I would shudder the thought of living in a society where the government tells you exactly what you can and can't eat. Education, public awareness, these kind of initiatives I can get behind. Regulation of food intake, is a step too far. FWIW, I've eaten processed, fried, GMO foods my whole life (and consume fast food drive thru at least 5-6 times a week) and have no health issues whatsoever. But I try to not eat to excess and I exercise regularly.
- moorhosj 7y ago
  Don’t we already regulate what can be put in foods via the FDA?
  - homonculus1 7y ago
    "Don't we already" is an excuse, not an argument.
    - moorhosj 7y ago
      There were food and drug products that were unsafe, “adulterated” and mislabeled. This created health problems in the United States so we created the FDA to regulate food and drugs. Do you have any argument why they shouldn’t do this?
      - homonculus1 7y ago
        Toxicity and fraudulent misadvertisement is a far cry from sugar being bad for you if you choose to eat too much of it. And to reiterate my point, advocating X based on "don't we already Y" instead of the actual merits of X is a big part of how dangerous slippery slopes occur, even if Y was a good thing.
        moorhosj 7y ago
        In this case, the poster said: "Education, public awareness, these kind of initiatives I can get behind. Regulation of food intake, is a step too far." I merely pointed out that the thing identified as "a step too far" already exists. I wasn't advocating for anything so there isn't a slippery slope to fear.
simonebrunozzi 7y ago
What's "GI"? Please don't use acronyms that people might not understand.
- fwip 7y ago
  Gastro-intestinal.
- 52-6F-62 7y ago
  gastro-intestinal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastrointestinal_tract https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastrointestinal_tract
- jolmg 7y ago
  It took me some time to figure it out, but I think it's "gastrointestinal".
- str33t_punk 7y ago
  GI is a pretty common acronym for 'gastro intestinal' 'The GI Doc', 'I have GI issues', etc
  - jolmg 7y ago
    First time I've seen it. If it weren't for this discussion, my first thought on a GI Doc might be that it's a doctor in a military zone or is otherwise related to the military. The first 5 results on https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=gi https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=gi say that it's either "Government Issue" or "General Infantry". Gastrointestinal isn't even among the results. Google's first few results are likewise about the military. Keep in mind that HN is a global community.
- pault 7y ago
  General Infantry.
nickbauman 7y ago
Matches my experience cutting out "white carbs" completely. Now I get all my carbs from raw plant sources. After a few months, the bread aisle in the grocery store smells like a hardware store. I'm leaner, stronger and faster than I've been my entire life. And I eat more than I've ever eaten in my life. I probably eat double what I used to.
- thomasahle 7y ago
  Bread in "bread aisles" also feels and tastes very different from bread from a bakery or home made. It's so weird and soft.
  - jjeaff 7y ago
    You can make bread from scratch that pretty much feels like store bought. As far as light and fluffy. But it definitely won't stay soft and fluffy for nearly as long without the preservatives.
- kasperni 7y ago
  If you miss bread occasionally I can only recommend this recipe https://nordicfoodliving.com/stone-age-bread/ https://nordicfoodliving.com/stone-age-bread/
  - oftenwrong 7y ago
    Seems to be down. Here's a snapshot: https://web.archive.org/web/20181005033813/http://nordicfoodliving.com/stone-age-bread/ https://web.archive.org/web/20181005033813/http://nordicfood...
  - AdmiralAsshat 7y ago
    When I think of "bread", I think of something light and fluffy, with large bubbles in the structure and a good bit of chew. The "stone age bread" looks more like a granola bar. Not bad, mind you, but I don't think it would fulfill that craving very well.
- matwood 7y ago
scythe 7y ago
The principal "weird ingredients" in our food can be largely segregated into preservatives, thickeners, and emulsifiers. Preservatives have been very heavily scrutinized because their purpose is, essentially, to kill things or stop them growing, so they're obviously potentially dangerous. The list of acceptable preservatives has been essentially whittled down to sorbate, propionate, sulfite and benzoate, and propionate might get the axe pretty soon. Thickeners and emulsifiers are subject to basic biochemical tests in vivo and in vitro before being allowed in food, and those tests have generally proven them to be safe. But what worries me sometimes is that people focus too much on the chemistry of these compounds and not so much on the mechanics. Thickeners thicken liquids and emulsifiers mix them. The gut is not just a reaction flask; it's sheathed in muscle and innervated in such a way as to be responsive to the forces within it -- to continue peristalsis. Then again, a surprising amount of irritation can be traced back to a single, innocuous, natural and very popular ingredient that happens to be a lot more irritating -- specifically, it produces gas -- than people give it credit for: garlic powder. https://www.monashfodmap.com/blog/cooking-with-onion-and-garlic-myths-and/ https://www.monashfodmap.com/blog/cooking-with-onion-and-gar...
sneak 7y ago
You were able to stop eating things that made you feel badly. Why do you assume that others cannot reach the same conclusions given the same circumstances? Why do you believe that people must be forced to have fewer options? Give them some credit. Regulation (threat of force) is not the answer, unless you consider yourself inherently superior to the next guy, who couldn’t possibly figure out what you managed to.
1290cc 7y ago
Years ago I was in my mid 20s and out of shape with a history of failing to lose weight, I went to a trainer who worked with bodybuilders, my logic at the time was "I should get guidance from people that dedicate their lives to controlling how they look and get so much from their diets". The no. 1 piece of advice he gave me.... "If you can't grow it or kill it, don't eat it". I've been in incredible shape for over a decade following this simple rule and its also exposed to me just how hard it is to follow this rule when traveling in the US.
dekhn 7y ago
I lost 35 lbs effortlessly by drinking protein shakes which are about as processed as you can get. We both have fine anecdotes.
withoutclass 7y ago
The other day I did a quick experiment, and checked all the available loaves of bread at my grocery. There was not a single loaf that did not contain added sugar. I imagine most people buy bread thinking that it's healthy, but they're basically just buying candy in bread form. It bums me out.
- Aloisius 7y ago
  Mmm. Adding a tiny amount of sugar is pretty common to improve the rise and texture of bread. As long as the bread dough is proofed for at least a couple hours, the vast majority of added sugar in non-sweet bread recipes will be consumed by the yeast leaving little residual sugar. Yeast will consume sucrose, glucose and fructose first before moving onto the maltose from the broken down flour starch. (In sweet breads where added sugar >5%, the sugar actually retards the fermentation process leaving a considerable amount of residual sugar, but you can't easily tell how much residual sugar from added sugar is in bread from the list of ingredients)
XorNot 7y ago
The US food supply in general needs to be cleaned the hell up...but, I think people ascribe way too much agency to "processed foods" and not enough to the fact that all the lifestyle changes they say definitely worked for them probably also just resulted in them eating a lot less food. Convince yourself you absolutely shouldn't eat pre-packed whatever, and then if your kitchen's empty you're pretty likely just to power on through it on less.
2OEH8eoCRo0 7y ago
I agree. And look at what's marketed as for children as well. It's disgusting. All different sugar waters and processed packaged foods. Get children hooked early on these sugar-infused dopamine hits. It's one of those things that once you notice it you start noticing it everywhere and it's quite upsetting. It's hopeless.

brightball 7y ago

Similar here. For me I was able to correct most GI issue and lost 16lbs just by cutting out gluten. I don’t have celiac, but the effect was undeniable.

amluto 7y ago
It’s very hard to just cut out gluten since almost no one eats straight gluten as a major part of their diet, unless they really really love tempeh. My personal hypothesis is that most non-celiac people who do this and get a major benefit actually get the benefit from removing wheat from their diet. This is consistent with people who entirely incorrectly claim that sourdough bread is GF. Traditional sourdoughs give bacteria and yeasts a lot of time to eat various sugars and starches.
- tunesmith 7y ago
  Tempeh isn't gluten, you might be thinking of seitan.
  - amluto 7y ago
    Indeed. Whoops!
- astura 7y ago
  Tempeh is fermented soybeans; seitan is wheat gluten.
- notfromhere 7y ago
  non-celiacs who this inadvertently benefit from cutting down on easy calories. no matter the theory, it's still just about energy in vs energy out
  - amluto 7y ago
    Huh? This discussion is about GI issues, not weight gain/loss. I don't think I've ever heard anyone say that GI issues are about energy in vs energy out. There is a moderately well supported theory that most "gluten intolerance" issues are actually intolerance of FODMAPs: certain fermentable sugars and short-chain starches found in a wide range of foods, most notably wheat. If you remove gluten from diet, you have likely also significantly reduced your FODMAP consumption. But gluten itself isn't a FODMAP, and I once baked an experimantal loaf of low-FODMAP bread using spelt flour and vital wheat gluten. (It wasn't very good.)
krupan 7y ago
Went gluten free at my house for quite a while. Nobody lost weight. Ice-cream, chocolate, potato chips, GF pizza crust, all kind of GF junk food out there if you look for it.
- jfk13 7y ago
  Yes indeed. A lot of commercial GF food is, if anything, higher in fat and sugar than the "regular" gluten-containing equivalent. Just because a product is "free from" something-or-other (whether gluten, lactose, nuts, whatever) doesn't mean it's healthy. We've gone GF at our house because my wife has coeliac disease. But we use very few commercially-prepared GF products; we cook at home from basic ingredients, and simply avoid the gluten-containing grains. If you basically went gluten free by relying on products from the supermarket "free from" section, I can imagine it's easy to gain rather than lose weight.
- brightball 7y ago
  Not going to say it works for everybody. I was having a lot of GI issues and was diagnosed with IBS. Decided to try GF before committing to taking medicine 4 times a day, indefinitely...and it just happened to work. The weight loss was an unexpected side effect.
- imtringued 7y ago
  You can drop the "if". Almost everything sold by a supermarket is junk food. Avoiding junk food at the supermarket is almost impossible.

vorpalhex 7y ago

A lot of it is that processed foods are cheaper since they're more shelf stable, but to be more shelf stable you add either a lot of fat (which isn't currently consumer desirable) or a lot of other crap (which consumers don't seem to mind as much). Plus color preservatives and everything else, and you end up with a weird food facsimile. I buy raw meats, cheese, some yogurt and a bit of bread and that's about it. Sometimes I break down and get some hot sauce. It's cheap, I eat like a king, and I'm effective at weight management aside from the occasional restaurant visit or party with friends. The only downside is the time I spend cooking - while it's an enjoyable hobby for me, I suspect most people can't dedicate that kind of time to meal prep or dinner.

adwi 7y ago
If you’re worried about the hot sauce from processing or preservative standpoint it’s shockingly easy (and fun) to make yourself [0]. Jam a bunch of peppers of your desired heat, a few cloves of garlic, and salt water in a mason jar. Close it and keep it on the counter and it will lacto-ferment. Let the CO2 out every morning for a couple weeks, then just let it hang out. They’ll become delicious pickled peppers after a couple weeks, and become unbelievably complex and delicious after a couple months. When they taste how you want, blend it up for sauce or eat the peppers whole (I’d do a couple jars at once so you don’t have to choose) You can add a little bit of vinegar at the end to stop the fermentation and make it shelf-stable—and maybe a little xantham gum to thicken if you’d like—or just keep it in the fridge. Great for your gut flora and you’ll be shocked it came out of your kitchen with such little effort. [0] http://phickle.com/we-can-phickle-that-hot-pepper-sauce/ http://phickle.com/we-can-phickle-that-hot-pepper-sauce/
- logjammin 7y ago
  This is terrific and I can't wait to try it. Thanks!
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
7y ago

chrisco255 7y ago

I think what people choose to eat is extremely personal to them. I'm glad you made a lifestyle choice that benefitted you, but I would shudder the thought of living in a society where the government tells you exactly what you can and can't eat. Education, public awareness, these kind of initiatives I can get behind. Regulation of food intake, is a step too far. FWIW, I've eaten processed, fried, GMO foods my whole life (and consume fast food drive thru at least 5-6 times a week) and have no health issues whatsoever. But I try to not eat to excess and I exercise regularly.

moorhosj 7y ago
Don’t we already regulate what can be put in foods via the FDA?
- homonculus1 7y ago
  "Don't we already" is an excuse, not an argument.
  - moorhosj 7y ago
    There were food and drug products that were unsafe, “adulterated” and mislabeled. This created health problems in the United States so we created the FDA to regulate food and drugs. Do you have any argument why they shouldn’t do this?
    - homonculus1 7y ago
      Toxicity and fraudulent misadvertisement is a far cry from sugar being bad for you if you choose to eat too much of it. And to reiterate my point, advocating X based on "don't we already Y" instead of the actual merits of X is a big part of how dangerous slippery slopes occur, even if Y was a good thing.
      - moorhosj 7y ago
        In this case, the poster said: "Education, public awareness, these kind of initiatives I can get behind. Regulation of food intake, is a step too far." I merely pointed out that the thing identified as "a step too far" already exists. I wasn't advocating for anything so there isn't a slippery slope to fear.

simonebrunozzi 7y ago

What's "GI"? Please don't use acronyms that people might not understand.

fwip 7y ago
Gastro-intestinal.
52-6F-62 7y ago
gastro-intestinal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastrointestinal_tract https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastrointestinal_tract
jolmg 7y ago
It took me some time to figure it out, but I think it's "gastrointestinal".
str33t_punk 7y ago
GI is a pretty common acronym for 'gastro intestinal' 'The GI Doc', 'I have GI issues', etc
- jolmg 7y ago
  First time I've seen it. If it weren't for this discussion, my first thought on a GI Doc might be that it's a doctor in a military zone or is otherwise related to the military. The first 5 results on https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=gi https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=gi say that it's either "Government Issue" or "General Infantry". Gastrointestinal isn't even among the results. Google's first few results are likewise about the military. Keep in mind that HN is a global community.
pault 7y ago
General Infantry.

nickbauman 7y ago

Matches my experience cutting out "white carbs" completely. Now I get all my carbs from raw plant sources. After a few months, the bread aisle in the grocery store smells like a hardware store. I'm leaner, stronger and faster than I've been my entire life. And I eat more than I've ever eaten in my life. I probably eat double what I used to.

thomasahle 7y ago
Bread in "bread aisles" also feels and tastes very different from bread from a bakery or home made. It's so weird and soft.
- jjeaff 7y ago
  You can make bread from scratch that pretty much feels like store bought. As far as light and fluffy. But it definitely won't stay soft and fluffy for nearly as long without the preservatives.
kasperni 7y ago
If you miss bread occasionally I can only recommend this recipe https://nordicfoodliving.com/stone-age-bread/ https://nordicfoodliving.com/stone-age-bread/
- oftenwrong 7y ago
  Seems to be down. Here's a snapshot: https://web.archive.org/web/20181005033813/http://nordicfoodliving.com/stone-age-bread/ https://web.archive.org/web/20181005033813/http://nordicfood...
- AdmiralAsshat 7y ago
  When I think of "bread", I think of something light and fluffy, with large bubbles in the structure and a good bit of chew. The "stone age bread" looks more like a granola bar. Not bad, mind you, but I don't think it would fulfill that craving very well.
matwood 7y ago

scythe 7y ago

The principal "weird ingredients" in our food can be largely segregated into preservatives, thickeners, and emulsifiers. Preservatives have been very heavily scrutinized because their purpose is, essentially, to kill things or stop them growing, so they're obviously potentially dangerous. The list of acceptable preservatives has been essentially whittled down to sorbate, propionate, sulfite and benzoate, and propionate might get the axe pretty soon. Thickeners and emulsifiers are subject to basic biochemical tests in vivo and in vitro before being allowed in food, and those tests have generally proven them to be safe. But what worries me sometimes is that people focus too much on the chemistry of these compounds and not so much on the mechanics. Thickeners thicken liquids and emulsifiers mix them. The gut is not just a reaction flask; it's sheathed in muscle and innervated in such a way as to be responsive to the forces within it -- to continue peristalsis. Then again, a surprising amount of irritation can be traced back to a single, innocuous, natural and very popular ingredient that happens to be a lot more irritating -- specifically, it produces gas -- than people give it credit for: garlic powder. https://www.monashfodmap.com/blog/cooking-with-onion-and-garlic-myths-and/ https://www.monashfodmap.com/blog/cooking-with-onion-and-gar...

sneak 7y ago

You were able to stop eating things that made you feel badly. Why do you assume that others cannot reach the same conclusions given the same circumstances? Why do you believe that people must be forced to have fewer options? Give them some credit. Regulation (threat of force) is not the answer, unless you consider yourself inherently superior to the next guy, who couldn’t possibly figure out what you managed to.

1290cc 7y ago

Years ago I was in my mid 20s and out of shape with a history of failing to lose weight, I went to a trainer who worked with bodybuilders, my logic at the time was "I should get guidance from people that dedicate their lives to controlling how they look and get so much from their diets". The no. 1 piece of advice he gave me.... "If you can't grow it or kill it, don't eat it". I've been in incredible shape for over a decade following this simple rule and its also exposed to me just how hard it is to follow this rule when traveling in the US.

dekhn 7y ago

I lost 35 lbs effortlessly by drinking protein shakes which are about as processed as you can get. We both have fine anecdotes.

withoutclass 7y ago

The other day I did a quick experiment, and checked all the available loaves of bread at my grocery. There was not a single loaf that did not contain added sugar. I imagine most people buy bread thinking that it's healthy, but they're basically just buying candy in bread form. It bums me out.

Aloisius 7y ago
Mmm. Adding a tiny amount of sugar is pretty common to improve the rise and texture of bread. As long as the bread dough is proofed for at least a couple hours, the vast majority of added sugar in non-sweet bread recipes will be consumed by the yeast leaving little residual sugar. Yeast will consume sucrose, glucose and fructose first before moving onto the maltose from the broken down flour starch. (In sweet breads where added sugar >5%, the sugar actually retards the fermentation process leaving a considerable amount of residual sugar, but you can't easily tell how much residual sugar from added sugar is in bread from the list of ingredients)

XorNot 7y ago

The US food supply in general needs to be cleaned the hell up...but, I think people ascribe way too much agency to "processed foods" and not enough to the fact that all the lifestyle changes they say definitely worked for them probably also just resulted in them eating a lot less food. Convince yourself you absolutely shouldn't eat pre-packed whatever, and then if your kitchen's empty you're pretty likely just to power on through it on less.

2OEH8eoCRo0 7y ago

I agree. And look at what's marketed as for children as well. It's disgusting. All different sugar waters and processed packaged foods. Get children hooked early on these sugar-infused dopamine hits. It's one of those things that once you notice it you start noticing it everywhere and it's quite upsetting. It's hopeless.