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Healthy food can be fattening and unhealthy food can be not fattening. It has very little to do with the type of food and everything to do with the density of c

Healthy food can be fattening and unhealthy food can be not fattening. It has very little to do with the type of food and everything to do with the density of calories in the food, and the amount of that food eaten. No one ever got fat eating only vegetables. But you can't eat only vegetables and get all the necessary nutrients(at least not easily).

stametseater 4y ago
> No one ever got fat eating only vegetables. But you can't eat only vegetables and get all the necessary nutrients(at least not easily). Throw some eggs or lean chicken meat into the mix and you've got a complete diet that would be very difficult to become fat on.
vjk800 4y ago
You can, it's called veganism and lots of people do it. However, you don't have to be that "extreme". Just eating mostly vegetables and cutting out all the obvious crap will do. The fact that this is somehow unimaginably strict to many people just shows how completely fucked up our relationship with food is. Most of the foods that make us fat didn't even exist a hundred years ago (at least in its modern, highly processed form) and now people somehow can't imagine living without them.
- mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y ago
  Sure, but to be vegan you have to know wtf you're doing, because it's really easy to get malnourished in various ways. And unless you want to eat nasty fermented beans or something you need b12 supplements at the very least. Getting iron from non-heme sources is also kind of hit-or-miss.
pkolaczk 4y ago
Our bodies are not adjusted to eating food with high calory density. Junk food messes up the system the way you feel hungry despite eating enough calories, and that leads to eating too much and becoming obese. You're right that eating the right number of calories in junk food won't make you obese, but it is extremely hard to eat the right number of calories when eating mostly junk food. Eat healthy food, and eat only when you're hungry, and most likely your body would auto-regulate the calory intake just fine.
- mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y ago
  Oh yeah eating mostly junk food is not gonna cut it. But I also managed to lose 30kg eating (lean) meat, full-fat dairy and almost no green vegetables, just a lot of oats for starch/fibre and nuts for extra protein/vitamins/minerals and healthy fats. But it's also just really hard to tell what food is actually healthy. Some foods are obviously healthy. Some are obviously unhealthy. But a lot is in the middle somewhere, having both healthy and unhealthy aspects. Some foods are even controversial in the research, like butterfat which many people lump into the group "saturated fats", which is universally thought to be unhealthy by laypeople. But there are multiple types of saturated fat(ty acids), so it's actually really complicated. My rough intuition based on reading a bunch of research is that dairy fat is actually quite healthy in small amounts(it's very calorically dense). I could go into a lot more detail on why but the gist is butterfat has a lot of short- and medium-chain fatty acids, which are good. It's the long and very-long you want to avoid.
- dogma1138 4y ago
  I’m not sure that is true, it seems like the preference was always for small highly calorically dense meals. The 3-4 meals + the constant availability of food is definitely new.
  - mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y ago
    Yeah, humans are evolved to go long periods without food and then to have massive feasts and gorge on food when a prey is caught, say. The human brain's ability to use ketones(byproducts of fat metabolism) for energy is actually unique to humans, suggesting a selective pressure towards surviving starvation in our evolutionary past.
    - dogma1138 4y ago
      Looking at a more recent history last 3-5000 years it seems that having 1-2 large meals a day even if simple ones and very highly caloric dense food. You aren’t marching in a legion, working in the fields or building a giant monument without proper food. Since food preparation took much more time and the logistics were complicated the number of meals and choices were limited but pretty much every meal was packed with carbs and often with fat too (lard, oils etc). Sweeteners whether it’s honey or other sugars were also quite common and very much so not limited to the ruling classes.

stametseater 4y ago

> No one ever got fat eating only vegetables. But you can't eat only vegetables and get all the necessary nutrients(at least not easily). Throw some eggs or lean chicken meat into the mix and you've got a complete diet that would be very difficult to become fat on.

vjk800 4y ago

You can, it's called veganism and lots of people do it. However, you don't have to be that "extreme". Just eating mostly vegetables and cutting out all the obvious crap will do. The fact that this is somehow unimaginably strict to many people just shows how completely fucked up our relationship with food is. Most of the foods that make us fat didn't even exist a hundred years ago (at least in its modern, highly processed form) and now people somehow can't imagine living without them.

mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y ago
Sure, but to be vegan you have to know wtf you're doing, because it's really easy to get malnourished in various ways. And unless you want to eat nasty fermented beans or something you need b12 supplements at the very least. Getting iron from non-heme sources is also kind of hit-or-miss.

pkolaczk 4y ago

Our bodies are not adjusted to eating food with high calory density. Junk food messes up the system the way you feel hungry despite eating enough calories, and that leads to eating too much and becoming obese. You're right that eating the right number of calories in junk food won't make you obese, but it is extremely hard to eat the right number of calories when eating mostly junk food. Eat healthy food, and eat only when you're hungry, and most likely your body would auto-regulate the calory intake just fine.

mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y ago
Oh yeah eating mostly junk food is not gonna cut it. But I also managed to lose 30kg eating (lean) meat, full-fat dairy and almost no green vegetables, just a lot of oats for starch/fibre and nuts for extra protein/vitamins/minerals and healthy fats. But it's also just really hard to tell what food is actually healthy. Some foods are obviously healthy. Some are obviously unhealthy. But a lot is in the middle somewhere, having both healthy and unhealthy aspects. Some foods are even controversial in the research, like butterfat which many people lump into the group "saturated fats", which is universally thought to be unhealthy by laypeople. But there are multiple types of saturated fat(ty acids), so it's actually really complicated. My rough intuition based on reading a bunch of research is that dairy fat is actually quite healthy in small amounts(it's very calorically dense). I could go into a lot more detail on why but the gist is butterfat has a lot of short- and medium-chain fatty acids, which are good. It's the long and very-long you want to avoid.
dogma1138 4y ago
I’m not sure that is true, it seems like the preference was always for small highly calorically dense meals. The 3-4 meals + the constant availability of food is definitely new.
- mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y ago
  Yeah, humans are evolved to go long periods without food and then to have massive feasts and gorge on food when a prey is caught, say. The human brain's ability to use ketones(byproducts of fat metabolism) for energy is actually unique to humans, suggesting a selective pressure towards surviving starvation in our evolutionary past.
  - dogma1138 4y ago
    Looking at a more recent history last 3-5000 years it seems that having 1-2 large meals a day even if simple ones and very highly caloric dense food. You aren’t marching in a legion, working in the fields or building a giant monument without proper food. Since food preparation took much more time and the logistics were complicated the number of meals and choices were limited but pretty much every meal was packed with carbs and often with fat too (lard, oils etc). Sweeteners whether it’s honey or other sugars were also quite common and very much so not limited to the ruling classes.