Showing posts with label nutrition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nutrition. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Thanksgiving thoughts
Made a couple new dishes last night. Shredded Brussel sprouts with butternut squash and apples was one. The other was kale and olive oil mashed potatoes. I think they both came out nice, (and I loved that fact that the first dish reminded me of our wedding colors) but I'm trying to imagine the palette of a fourteen year old girl. I'll eat pretty much any vegetable so sometimes it's challenging to try and plan Thanksgiving food for other people. Well, back to the drawing board...
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
In a book and on the radio
I heard two food related things today that I thought were interesting:
1) A friend suggested the book In Defense of Food. I read a passage today that really stuck with me:
"Nutrition science has usually put more of its energies into the idea that the problems it studies are the result of too much of a bad thing instead of too little of a good thing...The epidemiologist John Powles has suggested this predilection is little more than a Puritan bias: Bad things happen to people who eat bad things."
It does seem like a historically negative take on diet and nutrition.
2) NPR noted that people tend to eat in front of the TV but people tend not to eat while listening to the radio. They went on to suggest that radio might just be good for your health.
Funny, but there is probably some truth to it.
1) A friend suggested the book In Defense of Food. I read a passage today that really stuck with me:
"Nutrition science has usually put more of its energies into the idea that the problems it studies are the result of too much of a bad thing instead of too little of a good thing...The epidemiologist John Powles has suggested this predilection is little more than a Puritan bias: Bad things happen to people who eat bad things."
It does seem like a historically negative take on diet and nutrition.
2) NPR noted that people tend to eat in front of the TV but people tend not to eat while listening to the radio. They went on to suggest that radio might just be good for your health.
Funny, but there is probably some truth to it.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Food thoughts
Today is the official end to my 12-week experiment with my diet. Now I have to decide where to go from here. I have lost 17 pounds which, of course, makes me happy. But I have also felt better in the last three months than in the last three years.
We use the term diet to mean two things. It is both the regular food one eats and the temporary change in the food one eats to lose weight. I wonder if the latter meaning for the word diet is a bastardization of the original term. Perhaps, diet used to mean an alternation to what one eats that is permanent, but we want a quick, easy, temporary fix--something we can change and then abandon after we get the result we want.
I know that cannot possibly work. I know I cannot go back to eating the way I was before. I really believe the preservatives, white flour, and high fructose corn syrup from the processed foods we ate some of the time is at least a component of the thyroid problem I was diagnosed with. I have no evidence, but I know that I've tried many different changes in food over the years and that people with thyroid problems cannot really lose weight without the help of medication. Suddenly, removing processed and artificial items, the problem seems to be reversing itself.
I have never been a health nut, and I would still not label myself that. However, this experience has opened my eyes to something disturbing. All the things we eat to make our lives more convenient are just messing us up. What if the rise in health issues from acid reflux to gall bladder problems are because of the artificial things that go into keeping our food in a state it was never intended to be in. I cannot be sure, but I know from now on I am going to air on the side of a less "convenient" food lifestyle.
We use the term diet to mean two things. It is both the regular food one eats and the temporary change in the food one eats to lose weight. I wonder if the latter meaning for the word diet is a bastardization of the original term. Perhaps, diet used to mean an alternation to what one eats that is permanent, but we want a quick, easy, temporary fix--something we can change and then abandon after we get the result we want.
I know that cannot possibly work. I know I cannot go back to eating the way I was before. I really believe the preservatives, white flour, and high fructose corn syrup from the processed foods we ate some of the time is at least a component of the thyroid problem I was diagnosed with. I have no evidence, but I know that I've tried many different changes in food over the years and that people with thyroid problems cannot really lose weight without the help of medication. Suddenly, removing processed and artificial items, the problem seems to be reversing itself.
I have never been a health nut, and I would still not label myself that. However, this experience has opened my eyes to something disturbing. All the things we eat to make our lives more convenient are just messing us up. What if the rise in health issues from acid reflux to gall bladder problems are because of the artificial things that go into keeping our food in a state it was never intended to be in. I cannot be sure, but I know from now on I am going to air on the side of a less "convenient" food lifestyle.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Food not so fast
I have been very interested in nutrition in the last few months. I have made some major changes like taking up a European shopping habit of buying small amounts of food every day. I have started cooking and even collecting recipes. Thinking about food is a big change for me.
This started back in September for a variety of reasons, but it's been quite enlightening. I have increased fruits, vegetables, and nuts. I have eliminated sugar, high fructose corn syrup, dairy, white flour, preservatives, and processed foods. I also decreased starches.
Some things I've learned:
1. If you change your food habits people may think you are having some kind of crisis.
2. If you stick to those changes many people will think you are having a major life crisis.
3. If you tell strangers that you are not eating this or that they will assume you are a health nut.
4. If you lose weight while doing this people are likely to tell you that you can't possibly be getting enough fill-in-the-blank in your diet.
I think Americans think that it's good to eat a fruit or a vegetable once in a while--and it's better to tell people that you try to get as many as possible--but if you actually do it that makes you a bit odd. I don't know. I wonder if others have had similar experiences trying to alter a diet.
This started back in September for a variety of reasons, but it's been quite enlightening. I have increased fruits, vegetables, and nuts. I have eliminated sugar, high fructose corn syrup, dairy, white flour, preservatives, and processed foods. I also decreased starches.
Some things I've learned:
1. If you change your food habits people may think you are having some kind of crisis.
2. If you stick to those changes many people will think you are having a major life crisis.
3. If you tell strangers that you are not eating this or that they will assume you are a health nut.
4. If you lose weight while doing this people are likely to tell you that you can't possibly be getting enough fill-in-the-blank in your diet.
I think Americans think that it's good to eat a fruit or a vegetable once in a while--and it's better to tell people that you try to get as many as possible--but if you actually do it that makes you a bit odd. I don't know. I wonder if others have had similar experiences trying to alter a diet.
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