7 ms·

With the audience on here, I doubt that internet is considered "non-essential". It sounds to me that he ate a pretty balanced diet. Not gourmet by any stretch

With the audience on here, I doubt that internet is considered "non-essential". It sounds to me that he ate a pretty balanced diet. Not gourmet by any stretch of the imagination, but plain, and for the most part, healthy food.

ryanwaggoner 17y ago
I agree that it sounds like he ate pretty healthy, but stuff like this really freaks me out: Lard is the highest calorie per cent food you can buy. That just seems to be the epitome of penny-wise and pound-foolish for 99.9% of people, who would be far better off trimming their budget in other categories so they could eat healthier instead of viewing food as just a source of calories.
- cpach 17y ago
  I don't think I would ever eat lard, but some proponents of the low-carb diet surely would approve.
  - biohacker42 17y ago
    I may be wrong, but I think lard has less saturated fat then butter and possibly even cream cheese. So while not good for you in anything other then tiny quantities, it may be less bad for you then other stuff you have problem putting on your bagel.
  - jonknee 17y ago
    It's a natural fat used around the world, nothing to be scared of. If you get "real" lard (not hydrogenated), it has no trans fats and can be quite useful in the kitchen. Hispanic grocery stores or butcher shops are a good spot to find it.
    - 321abc 17y ago
      So what that it's "natural"? All sorts of things that can harm or even kill you are "natural". - Cyanide is "natural". - Hemlock is "natural". - Mercury is "natural". - Cobra venom is "natural". But none of these are things I'd want to spread on my toast in the morning.
      - derefr 17y ago
        The word "natural" doesn't mean "part of nature" when speaking of nutrition, it means "part of our evolutionary history." We ate lard in the past(and survived because of it, and evolved toward making use of it.) We did not eat cyanide.
        321abc 17y ago
        That's not the meaning of the word "natural" in the context of nutrition, from my understanding. Perhaps the word you're looking for is "traditional". Semantics aside, I'll gladly grant you that lard is a food that has been eaten in the past. But, once again, that doesn't mean it's necessarily better than other foods that haven't been eaten in the past. An good example is "golden" rice. An argument could be made (and has been made) that golden rice could save millions of people from devastating vitamin deficiency which they would continue suffer from were they to avoid golden rice for their "traditional" foods. Plenty of traditional foods just aren't very nutritious or healthy.
        stinkytaco 17y ago
        I know that HNers will scoff at the citing of popular literature, but I find the arguments in "Diet for a Small Planet" and "In Defense of Food" quite compelling when it comes to "traditional" foods. Traditional diets are developed to make best use of the ingredients available in a region and are often the healthier than "scientific" diets. A good example is Mexican food. Corn and beans together make a complete protein. I think that tradition, like cuisines, is an ever changing thing, however.
      - whatusername 17y ago
        Also - do a quick google for B17 -- Since this whole chain of comments is a bunch of anecdotes - I've met two people who have been 'cured' of cancer taking that. After chemotherapy had failed / they had been written off. (B17/Laertrile is banned in a lot of places US/Aus/etc - for links/containing/Cantbebotheredreadingthestudies Cyanide).
  - wvl 17y ago
    If you're losing weight, you're at a calorie deficit. Where does your body get the extra calories from? You got it, your own lard. http://www.marksdailyapple.com/saturated-fat-healthy/ http://www.marksdailyapple.com/saturated-fat-healthy/
- ellyagg 17y ago
  In fact, you can eat all "unhealthy" food and be far healthier than 95% of the people around you by keeping a calorie budget and exercising enough. In my case, I buy vats of lard at the local grocer and use it liberally. It tastes delicious. I also work out at least an hour a day. No one feels the need to moralize about people failing to work out an hour a day, and yet that will have 10 times the benefit of micromanaging the nutrients in your diet. I'm strong and fit and my cholesterol is low. Despite the fact that everyone knows I'm fit, they still say, "Imagine how much healthier you would be and how much more energy you would have if ate "better"?" !! Since, I'm the one who's fit, shouldn't you be asking me for advice? Moralizing about people's diets is part of the same line of thinking as the Progressive movement that sprung Prohibition on us. And, of course, the Progressive movement can trace its philosophical lineage to the Puritans, so there you go. Eating lots of fruits and vegetables and low-fat foods is not a good in and of itself. A diet is only healthy or unhealthy to the extent that its quality is reflected in your own health.
  - ryanwaggoner 17y ago
    In fact, you can eat all "unhealthy" food and be far healthier than 95% of the people around you by keeping a calorie budget and exercising enough. So you're telling me that if you eat McDonald's for every meal for thirty years, you'll experience no health issues as long as you exercise enough? Tell you what: let's have this conversation again in thirty years, provided you're still around. An anecdote about a personal experience over a relatively short period of time is of limited value to me. Study after study has shown that the western diet has severe detrimental effects in the long run, including diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Can you mitigate some of that by exercising more? Absolutely. But thinking that you can put whatever you want into your body with no ill effects as long as you exercise enough is ridiculous.
    - randallsquared 17y ago
      In spite of the faux-documentaries like Super-Size Me, eating McDonald's food doesn't actually make you fat and unhealthy.
metachris 17y ago
yes! i'd much rather save $30 somewhere on food than cutting off internet, if i had to

ryanwaggoner 17y ago

I agree that it sounds like he ate pretty healthy, but stuff like this really freaks me out: Lard is the highest calorie per cent food you can buy. That just seems to be the epitome of penny-wise and pound-foolish for 99.9% of people, who would be far better off trimming their budget in other categories so they could eat healthier instead of viewing food as just a source of calories.

cpach 17y ago
I don't think I would ever eat lard, but some proponents of the low-carb diet surely would approve.
- biohacker42 17y ago
  I may be wrong, but I think lard has less saturated fat then butter and possibly even cream cheese. So while not good for you in anything other then tiny quantities, it may be less bad for you then other stuff you have problem putting on your bagel.
- jonknee 17y ago
  It's a natural fat used around the world, nothing to be scared of. If you get "real" lard (not hydrogenated), it has no trans fats and can be quite useful in the kitchen. Hispanic grocery stores or butcher shops are a good spot to find it.
  - 321abc 17y ago
    So what that it's "natural"? All sorts of things that can harm or even kill you are "natural". - Cyanide is "natural". - Hemlock is "natural". - Mercury is "natural". - Cobra venom is "natural". But none of these are things I'd want to spread on my toast in the morning.
    - derefr 17y ago
      The word "natural" doesn't mean "part of nature" when speaking of nutrition, it means "part of our evolutionary history." We ate lard in the past(and survived because of it, and evolved toward making use of it.) We did not eat cyanide.
      - 321abc 17y ago
        That's not the meaning of the word "natural" in the context of nutrition, from my understanding. Perhaps the word you're looking for is "traditional". Semantics aside, I'll gladly grant you that lard is a food that has been eaten in the past. But, once again, that doesn't mean it's necessarily better than other foods that haven't been eaten in the past. An good example is "golden" rice. An argument could be made (and has been made) that golden rice could save millions of people from devastating vitamin deficiency which they would continue suffer from were they to avoid golden rice for their "traditional" foods. Plenty of traditional foods just aren't very nutritious or healthy.
        stinkytaco 17y ago
        I know that HNers will scoff at the citing of popular literature, but I find the arguments in "Diet for a Small Planet" and "In Defense of Food" quite compelling when it comes to "traditional" foods. Traditional diets are developed to make best use of the ingredients available in a region and are often the healthier than "scientific" diets. A good example is Mexican food. Corn and beans together make a complete protein. I think that tradition, like cuisines, is an ever changing thing, however.
    - whatusername 17y ago
      Also - do a quick google for B17 -- Since this whole chain of comments is a bunch of anecdotes - I've met two people who have been 'cured' of cancer taking that. After chemotherapy had failed / they had been written off. (B17/Laertrile is banned in a lot of places US/Aus/etc - for links/containing/Cantbebotheredreadingthestudies Cyanide).
- wvl 17y ago
  If you're losing weight, you're at a calorie deficit. Where does your body get the extra calories from? You got it, your own lard. http://www.marksdailyapple.com/saturated-fat-healthy/ http://www.marksdailyapple.com/saturated-fat-healthy/
ellyagg 17y ago
In fact, you can eat all "unhealthy" food and be far healthier than 95% of the people around you by keeping a calorie budget and exercising enough. In my case, I buy vats of lard at the local grocer and use it liberally. It tastes delicious. I also work out at least an hour a day. No one feels the need to moralize about people failing to work out an hour a day, and yet that will have 10 times the benefit of micromanaging the nutrients in your diet. I'm strong and fit and my cholesterol is low. Despite the fact that everyone knows I'm fit, they still say, "Imagine how much healthier you would be and how much more energy you would have if ate "better"?" !! Since, I'm the one who's fit, shouldn't you be asking me for advice? Moralizing about people's diets is part of the same line of thinking as the Progressive movement that sprung Prohibition on us. And, of course, the Progressive movement can trace its philosophical lineage to the Puritans, so there you go. Eating lots of fruits and vegetables and low-fat foods is not a good in and of itself. A diet is only healthy or unhealthy to the extent that its quality is reflected in your own health.
- ryanwaggoner 17y ago
  In fact, you can eat all "unhealthy" food and be far healthier than 95% of the people around you by keeping a calorie budget and exercising enough. So you're telling me that if you eat McDonald's for every meal for thirty years, you'll experience no health issues as long as you exercise enough? Tell you what: let's have this conversation again in thirty years, provided you're still around. An anecdote about a personal experience over a relatively short period of time is of limited value to me. Study after study has shown that the western diet has severe detrimental effects in the long run, including diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Can you mitigate some of that by exercising more? Absolutely. But thinking that you can put whatever you want into your body with no ill effects as long as you exercise enough is ridiculous.
  - randallsquared 17y ago
    In spite of the faux-documentaries like Super-Size Me, eating McDonald's food doesn't actually make you fat and unhealthy.

metachris 17y ago

yes! i'd much rather save $30 somewhere on food than cutting off internet, if i had to