7 ms·

Maybe we don't know what exact combination of foods is most healthy, but there are things we do know. For instance, we know that carbohydrates consist of a ton

Maybe we don't know what exact combination of foods is most healthy, but there are things we do know. For instance, we know that carbohydrates consist of a ton of readily available energy. And if you eat more energy than you burn, you store the energy as fat. Bad? Maybe not, but it can easily get you to a bad state of health. We also know that there are vitamins and minerals in leafy greens that we really do need. Since they are easy to eat and also contain fiber, yet are low in energy, they are very healthy. My best advice is to pick up on these sorts of tidbits, not the latest diet/trend/fad.

whiddershins 13y ago
We don't know why people gain weight, and there are no known essential nutrients which cannot be acquired through eating cows. So what with all this talk about leafy grens? IMHO it is pseudoscience. (Although, I gotta admit, I feel a lot healthier when I EAT some leafy greens rather than when making a pedantic point)
- farinasa 13y ago
  >We don't know why people gain weight We actually do. In simple terms, if you eat more than you can use, you will gain weight. It is slightly more complicated. I can explain more, but the web will do a better job than I can. The talk about leafy greens is that, we know they are low calorie, have essential vitamins and minerals, and provide fiber. Thus, they are definitely good for you. They don't harm you, they provide sustenance and other benefits and so your statement that we don't know what is healthy is just false.
  - whiddershins 13y ago
    I don't believe that to be true. I have researched the hell out of this for years and I don't believe there is a definitive answer about this weight gain/loss thing.
    - DanBC 13y ago
      Are you saying that someone eating 4,000 calories a day, but using only 2,000 per day will not gain weight? There are a small number of people with a bacteria that helps them gain weight. There are people with a bacteria that helps them not gain weight. There's a small number of endocrine disorders that make weight gain easy. There are some medications (eg some anti-psychotics) that increase weight gain (and it's not just increasing input). But even with all of that most weight gain is simple: people eat more calories than they use. The stuff about satiety doesn't address calories in, it just talks about feelings of fullness. What we don't know so much about is why some people over eat, and over eat to the extent they do. When a bariatric patient in a specialist weight-loss hospital smuggles in packets of crackers and jars of peanut butter (by hiding them under the folds of fat on their bodies) we can say that there's something weird going on. But again, 500 lb patients are not the norm and that kind of eating isn't the norm. Most people just don't know how much they're eating; don't know how many calories they're eating; and don't get enough exercise.
      - whiddershins 13y ago
        arguing by assertion doesn't make it true. You are referring to the caloric balance hypothesis, and it is sad that you guys are downvoting me for calling it in to question. It has not been experimentally verified. And yeah, some friends and I have tested on ourselves eating 4,000 calories without significantly altering exercise levels, and anecdotally have not gained weight.
        farinasa 13y ago
        I just spent the last year losing 60 pounds. I did so by reducing my food intake. At one point I began to exercise without reducing intake and I began to lose weight. Once classes started, I could not longer exercise as much and my weight loss stagnated. So I tried simply eating less and continued to lose weight. I lost about 40 by exercising only and about 20 reducing intake only. There is a difference between protein calories and carbohydrate calories and how each is processed, but beside that, calories represent energy. Energy that must be used. Otherwise, it will be stored.
- VLM 13y ago
  "leafy greens" Big corporations can make lots of money selling expensive salad dressings if I'm convinced to buy icky tasteless styrofoam iceberg lettuce. Therefore the intense push to get people to eat veg/fruit in the form of salad. "They" might not be selling profitable wheat flour in the form of twinkies anymore, but "they" are selling salad dressing for about the same cost per pound as chicken/beef (depending on dressing and meat cut, etc), gross fake bacon bits, etc. I occasionally eat salads but eventually I get burned out on the salad dressings (there really aren't that many) and stop for awhile. The most revolutionary thing you can do is just eat an apple or gnaw on a carrot or bake a potato. No dips or crusts or toppings or any other profit centers. Assuming you already have enough fiber in your diet, run your veg thru a juicer. That really pisses "them" off.
  - farinasa 13y ago
    Believe it or not, not everything is a corporate conspiracy. Iceberg lettuce is pretty useless, but there are hundreds of thousands of leafy green plants that are edible by humans. Romaine is a better simple alternative, but again there a vast amount of edible leaves. And you don't need to put any toppings on at all. Eat it dry. >The most revolutionary thing you can do is just eat an apple or gnaw on a carrot or bake a potato. Not if your goal is to lose weight. Those three plants are extremely high energy (carbs). If you want to do something "revolutionary", grow your own. Raise your own chickens. Pasture feed them. Eat their eggs. Butcher them. Feed them your vegetable scraps. Plant some apple trees. Eat a dandelion. Your brain is trained to rebel against these companies. All they have to do is encourage you to eat right and soon you'll be eating unhealthy just to "piss them off".

whiddershins 13y ago

We don't know why people gain weight, and there are no known essential nutrients which cannot be acquired through eating cows. So what with all this talk about leafy grens? IMHO it is pseudoscience. (Although, I gotta admit, I feel a lot healthier when I EAT some leafy greens rather than when making a pedantic point)

farinasa 13y ago
>We don't know why people gain weight We actually do. In simple terms, if you eat more than you can use, you will gain weight. It is slightly more complicated. I can explain more, but the web will do a better job than I can. The talk about leafy greens is that, we know they are low calorie, have essential vitamins and minerals, and provide fiber. Thus, they are definitely good for you. They don't harm you, they provide sustenance and other benefits and so your statement that we don't know what is healthy is just false.
- whiddershins 13y ago
  I don't believe that to be true. I have researched the hell out of this for years and I don't believe there is a definitive answer about this weight gain/loss thing.
  - DanBC 13y ago
    Are you saying that someone eating 4,000 calories a day, but using only 2,000 per day will not gain weight? There are a small number of people with a bacteria that helps them gain weight. There are people with a bacteria that helps them not gain weight. There's a small number of endocrine disorders that make weight gain easy. There are some medications (eg some anti-psychotics) that increase weight gain (and it's not just increasing input). But even with all of that most weight gain is simple: people eat more calories than they use. The stuff about satiety doesn't address calories in, it just talks about feelings of fullness. What we don't know so much about is why some people over eat, and over eat to the extent they do. When a bariatric patient in a specialist weight-loss hospital smuggles in packets of crackers and jars of peanut butter (by hiding them under the folds of fat on their bodies) we can say that there's something weird going on. But again, 500 lb patients are not the norm and that kind of eating isn't the norm. Most people just don't know how much they're eating; don't know how many calories they're eating; and don't get enough exercise.
    - whiddershins 13y ago
      arguing by assertion doesn't make it true. You are referring to the caloric balance hypothesis, and it is sad that you guys are downvoting me for calling it in to question. It has not been experimentally verified. And yeah, some friends and I have tested on ourselves eating 4,000 calories without significantly altering exercise levels, and anecdotally have not gained weight.
      - farinasa 13y ago
        I just spent the last year losing 60 pounds. I did so by reducing my food intake. At one point I began to exercise without reducing intake and I began to lose weight. Once classes started, I could not longer exercise as much and my weight loss stagnated. So I tried simply eating less and continued to lose weight. I lost about 40 by exercising only and about 20 reducing intake only. There is a difference between protein calories and carbohydrate calories and how each is processed, but beside that, calories represent energy. Energy that must be used. Otherwise, it will be stored.
VLM 13y ago
"leafy greens" Big corporations can make lots of money selling expensive salad dressings if I'm convinced to buy icky tasteless styrofoam iceberg lettuce. Therefore the intense push to get people to eat veg/fruit in the form of salad. "They" might not be selling profitable wheat flour in the form of twinkies anymore, but "they" are selling salad dressing for about the same cost per pound as chicken/beef (depending on dressing and meat cut, etc), gross fake bacon bits, etc. I occasionally eat salads but eventually I get burned out on the salad dressings (there really aren't that many) and stop for awhile. The most revolutionary thing you can do is just eat an apple or gnaw on a carrot or bake a potato. No dips or crusts or toppings or any other profit centers. Assuming you already have enough fiber in your diet, run your veg thru a juicer. That really pisses "them" off.
- farinasa 13y ago
  Believe it or not, not everything is a corporate conspiracy. Iceberg lettuce is pretty useless, but there are hundreds of thousands of leafy green plants that are edible by humans. Romaine is a better simple alternative, but again there a vast amount of edible leaves. And you don't need to put any toppings on at all. Eat it dry. >The most revolutionary thing you can do is just eat an apple or gnaw on a carrot or bake a potato. Not if your goal is to lose weight. Those three plants are extremely high energy (carbs). If you want to do something "revolutionary", grow your own. Raise your own chickens. Pasture feed them. Eat their eggs. Butcher them. Feed them your vegetable scraps. Plant some apple trees. Eat a dandelion. Your brain is trained to rebel against these companies. All they have to do is encourage you to eat right and soon you'll be eating unhealthy just to "piss them off".