Healthy Eating Thread

[alphanguy74]

I think what has always bothered me about campaigns is that billboards around here that say "You should be ashamed to wear fur"... but you never see one that says "you should be ashamed to buy rat poison". It seem that so many times, it's framed as if the cuddly and cute furry animals are always used for publicity literature. And then I see the difference in the news coverage between a young, pretty debutante being mudered, and a black grandmother in the inner city. Draw the parallells, it's always bothered me that in every aspect of life, be it human or animal... if your'e pretty, and/or young .... your life seems to be worth more.

[Toups]

I really like the discussion on healthy foods here, so I re-named the thread.

So I watched a documentary called "Food Inc." today, and it got me thinking about what kind of meat I should be eating/buying. Apparently cows are fed corn (I had no idea the corn industry was huge) so they get get fatter quicker and are less healthier than cows that are grass fed. There was also a segment about cloning meat - I'm not sure if they said that there is regulation or not about labeling cloned meat. But that freaked me out! Cloned meat? Nasty!

I also realized that the food and drug industry are in cahoots! The more faster, cheaper, unhealthy foods are making people unhealthy which leads to people being dependent on drugs to keep them "healthy." They showed this family who didn't have time to cook and didn't have much money, so they would usually get fast food. Then they reveal that the father is on so many prescription drugs. That makes no sense!!!!! This whole thing is scam!

[SFK]

The thing that's got me going crazy is the great milk debate. I am naturally slim but I began to hold on to pounds in my late twenties and started working out more. I supplement my diet with protein shakes that I sometimes make using a weight loss shake base. These shakes will tell you to use skim milk. Mens Health said 1% is better for men, and 1% chocolate milk is just as good as a protein shake. Now, Dr. Oz is saying go full fledge 2% because the fat that they take out of milk to make skim leaves an abundance of sugar which the fat would normally absorb, so you end up gaining more weight from all that sugar!

My solution? Unsweetened almond milk. I hate to pay extra and I wish I could just be happy with cow's milk but lately I'm getting paranoid about all the hormones and such and I guess the almond milk is a step towards a more vegan diet (I love steak too much to ever cross over completely!).

I also love eggs and think they are the perfect little protein punch of a meal, and now we're back to yolks being the devil, as bad as a pack of cigarettes with artery clogging material. You can't win! I also always go for the biggest egg I can get because I just figure it's more food, but now I'm paranoid because my jumbo eggs are probably pumped with hormones (I've had three yolks in one egg!). I try to buy the large organic Omega-3 eggs even though they're more expensive.

All in all, I just hate how it costs more money to invest in healthier eating and how conflicting info. seems to come out every other week. Someone really needs to develop some healthy organic fast food joint, because after pulling my hair out at the grocery store trying to be all healthy, I just feel like, "[!@#$%^&*] it! Dollar menu, here I come!"

[Toups]

I just stick with skim milk since taste is not a priority for me - I chug milk down and then shove cereal in my mouth so I won't taste the milk. LOL I hate the taste of milk. I don't use milk for my protein shakes, I just use crushed ice, a little bit of water, bananas and an assortment of berries. My uncle recently recommended using flaxseed oil in my shakes. I have no idea what flaxseed oil is or how it taste, so I'm gonna do more research on that.

Yeah, I try to stay away from sugar as much as I can. I use to drink juice every day, three times a day, and I can't believe I use to do that. I don't think juice anymore and when I have kids, they're not going to be drinking juice. LOL

Never tried almond milk before. It's healthier than cow's milk? Maybe I should give it a try, even though I won't taste it. Might try it just for the nutritional value. LOL

I love eggs too. I so don't believe that report that eggs are bad as cigarettes. Like that makes any sense. I usually eat eggs on days I work out. Three yolks in one egg?? What kind of eggs is that?

There was segment about that in "Food Inc" - there's no way the price of vegetables and fruits should be more expensive than a burger!

[alphanguy74]

SFK, dairy producers are defaintely responding to consumer demand, at most any store around here, major brands may not be completely organic, but you can at least find one that is hormone free, and it's NEVER the store brand. WE even have an organic local dairy that sells premiuim milk in the old fashioned glass bottles, and theyv'e made quite a success of it. I like 1%.... I don't buy what Dr. Oz says.. I think he's an alarmist drama queen that many times puts forth dubious facts. Like that episode where he proclaimed that popping pimples on your nose can kill you. The condition he was referring to happens to an average TWO people per year in the US, and rare complications of sinus infection are the cause of it more times than not. Out of the Trillions of zits popped each year. BTW... me and my family have been dismayed lately with potato chips, the last 10 years, especially, we find them to be FAR too salty. So we saw the Lay's "Lightly Salted" in the store and tried them, and I HIGHLY reccommend them! They taste plenty salty, not that fishy sea salt, either.. just less of it (apparently 50% less), they taste like potato chips used to taste in the 70's, before companies starting burying them under a mountain of salt.

[Mr. Vixen]

I need to start eating a little healthier again. The problem is I hate it.

[alphanguy74]

There are TONS of ways you can make small changes that are healthier. Of course, cooking from scratch is always better than buying prepared foods, and WAY healthier. Instead of going to Kentucky Fried chicken, go to the grocery store and get a rotisserie chicken (I LUV those things) Anytime you make italian foods, make your own sauce with tomato puree, because canned sauce contains oil. One thing that saves a TON of fat, is I buy the little glass bottle of hormel real bacon pieces (It's next to the salad dressing) and substitute that for actual bacon. A teaspoonful mixed with scrambled eggs give you that bacon flavor, but those pieces have 50% less fat, because it's all the lean parts. And ground turkey can be used to substitute for sausage. They sell hot dogs, sausage, etc. in turkey form, and all of it is much lower fat. And BTW... Toups, there are studies that show one of the components of eggs, L-arginine, has the ability to help relax blood vessels and prevent plaque from building up. So there is definately conflicting data out there. I've just not that huge of an egg person. I have eggs for breakfast once a week, maybe.

[Toups]

I haven't had it or about 2 years now but I just love the smell of KFC.

I miss bacon too. Is bacon pieces actually good for you though? I never checked out the nutrition guide.

I just believe eggs has to be good for you. I mean, it comes from a natural source and isn't engineered, right?

[SFK]

Eggs, coffee, bacon, ice cream... things i won't give up no matter what they tell me. :-P In moderation, of course. What I'm finding very hard to give up is white sugar. Love it in my coffee, love it in my tea, and that first cup of joe in the morning is so essential for starting my day off right, it's hard for me to settle for a stevia or even honey sweetened cp when white sugar is the only thing that'll hit the spot.

[SFK]

alpha, what's this crap about popping nose zits killing you?? Okay, TMI, but I've only gotten pimples on my nose when I tried to extract blackheads and damaged the skin and got a zit as the result. If you squeeze the creases on either side of your nose, a lot of junk (dead cells/puss... gross, sorry, hope you're not eating) comes out of there, is he talking about that?

[All My Shadows]

I will destroy lives if someone were to ever stand between me and this

I've been eating fairly healthy over the last few months, but I *must* stop and get a pint on the way home from work/school at least once a week, and I probably will until I die.

[dragonflies]

I won't eat meat cause of how the cows are abused and tortured. If people knew what their meat really consisted of they'd never eat it LOL

I'm trying to eat healthier, cut out meat, occassionally eat poultry but not that often. switched to free range organic eggs. Thinking about switching to soy organic milk.

[Mr. Vixen]

I should have clarified:

I like eating healthy, but I also have a deep, deeeeeeeeeep love for fried food.

I'm also a vegetarian (though I do cheat and eat chicken sometimes....)

[alphanguy74]

If that's your only reason... at least around here, you can purchase grass fed beef from an organic farmer (which is what my grandpa used to be, he just called it "Not spending money on all that crap" to put into the cattle, and not buying corn for them to eat) and you can have it butchered by a mennonite owned meat locker. No torture invovled, clean, old fashioned and wholesome, just like it used to be done 100 years ago. And also... what about Kosher meats? Aren't those done with strict cleanliness and humane practices? I can tell you one thing for sure... Cattle are nearly the stupidest animals that have ever walked the planet. You have no clue,. Horses, pigs, smart as a tack. But Cattle are lucky to even make it as far as the slaughterhouse without weekly human intervention.

[SFK]

I watched a graphic film on YouTube narrated by Joaquin Phoenix and they showed "humane" Kosher slaughter which was far from. I mean really though, is there any humane way to slit a living creature's throat? I had such "faith" in those brain stunner things like in No Country for Old Men, but watching those dolts fumble and miss and have to shock the animals three and four times was pretty tough to watch. I swear, the minks in Denmark are treated a million times better than the food animals in this country.