Eating clean

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Replies

  • RosyTea
    RosyTea Posts: 49 Member
    None of these things are really super clean eating, but they work for me when I need a "junk" fix. I find that bananas are very helpful for cravings, as well as stevia. I don't use too much of either, but also keep all natural cocoa powder around the house as well as a small bag of semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips to help me curb sweet cravings.

    For my sweet craving mid-day (pretty much everyday) I typically add 2 tbsp of natural peanut butter and 1-2 TBSP of cocoa powder along with1/2 a banana to my vega protein shake. Mmmm-mmm so yummy! This tend to keeps sweet cravings at-bay, all day.

    Sometimes for those really bad chocolate cravings at night I will make a rich hot cocoa using my cocoa powder, some stevia and an unsweetened nut milk (this is a lower carb fix). Sometimes I also make banana "nice-cream" for dessert. It has become a favourite of mine, hence keeping some choco chips around. I love mint chip ice cream so I add a little peppermint extract and a tablespoon of chocolate chips to my recipe.

    Pomegranate seeds also give an incredible sugar fix (though they have actual natural sugars in them), as well as making your own jam or compotes. Dates give a very good fix for sugar cravings as well.

    Obviously as everyone else has said everything in moderation but I totally understand the needs for sweets that comes about once and a while. My true weaknesses are Swedish Berries. I allow myself a few of these every once and a while to keep sane.

    Good luck!
  • SymbolismNZ
    SymbolismNZ Posts: 190 Member
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    a small example "Yeah, they use lots of butter to make it taste good" - yet ingesting butter (so long as you're not also pounding a ton of carbs at the same time) and being within your calorie limit is absolutely fine.

    Well, you ARE ingesting carbs at the same time in this example, or in a standard restaurant meal.

    You are distorting what I said, though, because I did not say butter was bad. It is high cal, which is one reason why eating the same foods you'd eat at home in a restaurant are likely to result in much higher calories.

    I know for a fact that if I ate indulgently at restaurants all the time (even lower carb, no dessert), I'd gain weight.

    Of course, it's also true that sat fat still is recommended to be limited and the same correlation studies used against added sugar bear that out. Doesn't mean butter should be avoided, IMO. The butter in question was part of a meal I said I thought could be included in a healthful diet, after all. (Then again, I'd say the same thing of ice cream.)

    It depends on the restaurant, a lot of top quality bistros and steak houses these days separate out the protein portion from the vegetable/side selection portions to allow you to choose a meal that fits the structure you're looking for.

    If you're going to "Joe's Pasta House" then sure, you'll be getting the holy dosage of carbs + fat and probably an overload of protein too.

    Most of the "saturated fat is evil" research papers are starting to be questioned and discredited by a consistent range of research indicating that it was a scapegoat for other aspects in the diet and also an abundance of calories. The research is very scattered as to whether or not consumption of saturated fats like butter have any association with heart disease risk.

    Now the problem with butter for instance usually lies in the fact that it's added to an already calorie dense portion; i.e a cheese scone, or bread, or in soups, sauces and desserts; a typical 50G cheese scone + butter will be around 300-400 calories yet people often have that as a "starter" to their lunch meal - conversely, garlic bread or bread with butter in general as part of their dinner.

    I'd argue most of the research would correlate more towards a combination of carbohydrate + saturated fat causing issues personally, because your digestive system, in particular your liver, can only do so much. In this case, it's saying "Well, I've got an abundance of glucose in the blood stream that I can use for cell growth/repair, and also now an abundance of glycogen in the muscles should you want me to do anything hard... this fat you've given me, you must want me to store it because your body doesn't actually need it at the moment" - so it processes them into fatty acids and distributes them around the body, a lot of which then gets stored in fat tissues.

    In essence your body is being ultra efficient, it's burning up all of the easily available glucose you're feeding it in the form of carbohydrates and it's placing the fat (and excess protein that isn't converted to BCAA) aside, owing to the fact that it wants to ensure it can keep producing glucose if you have a shortage of carbohydrates or calories.

    Now if you moderate intake, in particular of carbohydrates - your body starts to say "Hey... those carbs that I was converting to glucose aren't present... but I've got fats and proteins that I can access, I'll now process those through gluconeogenesis and ketone production and attempt to give you glucose, or in absence, ketones so you can continue to function"

    Going back to butter, there are a ton of really good benefits of butter; the right type of saturated fats, a bunch of fat soluble vitamins (as well as helping your system to absorb other vitamins ingeested), a bunch of good fatty acids) - the negative is that a small amount is still a lot of calories and therefore on a piece of bread, or a cheese scone, or slathered over potatos, or included in a sugary sauce - you're putting calories ontop of calories and a small portion becomes a massive, also like anything, you're wanting a balance of the fats that you're ingesting as they each play a different purpose.

  • SymbolismNZ
    SymbolismNZ Posts: 190 Member
    I think a major issue actually in restaurants is that they over-feed you protein, i.e 250-350g sizes of steak producing 60-90g of protein, your body just doesn't need that much and unlike broscience weightlift myths where "Oh its cool bro, your body uses the protein later" - it gets converted into glucose just the same as carbohydrates do.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    I think a major issue actually in restaurants is that they over-feed you protein, i.e 250-350g sizes of steak producing 60-90g of protein

    Steakhouses do, yeah, often crazy amounts. Some others with large portions in general too. Lots of more fine dining ones will actually have reasonable portions (but still higher cal than you would assume).

    I always think of steakhouses when people say you can't overeat steak/protein. I see people do it, and restaurants certainly think huge sizes are an attraction.
  • SymbolismNZ
    SymbolismNZ Posts: 190 Member
    edited January 2017
    Just a thing to mention; the next time you see a research paper (published after say 2005) say that saturated fats aren't good for you and the research history of those involved doesn't include any background in cardiovascular research, or even biomedical nutrition, it's to be taken with a grain of salt (and a lump of butter)

    Dr Krauss is one of the few that has studied cardiovascular risk and nutritional science and made his entire research career about those two things; time and time again, like I mention above, his research and many other research papers indicate that saturated fat isn't as evil as it's made out to be by the health community.

    http://profiles.ucsf.edu/ronald.krauss

    Counter to that, and contrary to Krauss' findings, there is a good line of research done by John Hopkins medicine, in particular the health benefits of a low carb, higher fat, moderate protein diet as it relates to cardiovascular diseases, they however continue the caution on saturated fats, although their reasons is that other fat sources have much better nutritional value than saturated fats.

    http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2005/11_15c_05.html

    I lie somewhere in the middle, if you're on a high fat diet, I think you're reasonable safe to consume 25% of those fats as saturated, butter itself is about 60% saturated fat, 25% monounsaturated (i.e the wonder fat that most nutritionists now suggest you include more of in your diet)

    I'd still like to see more research in the middle, looking solely at how the body consumes fat in abundance/moderation/absence of different macronutrients as that's what interests me.

    The other thing to keep in mind is that research scientists once reported the benefits of smoking cigarettes, in particular for throat issues and to build healthy lungs; we know for a fact that the conglomerate food companies have a massive amount of production tied up in various formats of refined sugar (syrups, cane, corn, etc) and a massive amount of food that is high in sugar out on market... we also know for a fact now due to recent information releases that these companies actively paid off research scientists during the formation of the recommended daily intakes.

    I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I do wonder if the entirely contrasting views you see in the research has something to do with particular agendas being pushed by billion dollar entities who would stand to lose billions in revenue.

  • SymbolismNZ
    SymbolismNZ Posts: 190 Member
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    I think a major issue actually in restaurants is that they over-feed you protein, i.e 250-350g sizes of steak producing 60-90g of protein

    Steakhouses do, yeah, often crazy amounts. Some others with large portions in general too. Lots of more fine dining ones will actually have reasonable portions (but still higher cal than you would assume).

    I always think of steakhouses when people say you can't overeat steak/protein. I see people do it, and restaurants certainly think huge sizes are an attraction.

    Yeah; that's the ridiculous thing I even see in people adapting keto diets to help them lean out as part of their body building, they start eating ridiculous amounts of protein in ridiculous servings and wonder why their piss test never has them in ketosis.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    natashab61 wrote: »
    Hi all,
    I am no perfect clean eater but as I enter my mid 20s I would really like to make my diet to be predominantly healthy. I have a HUGE sweet tooth and I am aware sugar is an addiction. So any help or suggestions as to how to do this?

    You don't need to eat clean and sugar is not addictive...

    If you want to be healthy eat within your calorie goal , hit your macros, and micros and don't worry about bs good /bad foods
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    "Everything in moderation" is just as vague as "clean eating"... OP, for overall health just make sure the majority of your food comes from nutrient dense sources such as fruits, vegetables, and unprocessed meats. The occasional treat is fine to keep your cravings away.

    So consume calories moderately, got ya
  • suzesvelte
    suzesvelte Posts: 134 Member
    Hi newbie alert - well new to this forum, not new to dieting (50 years of effort) and looking for support.

    Think fitness pal will help me, but can someone tell me what IIFYM means? Thanks
  • GottaBurnEmAll
    GottaBurnEmAll Posts: 7,722 Member
    suzesvelte wrote: »
    Hi newbie alert - well new to this forum, not new to dieting (50 years of effort) and looking for support.

    Think fitness pal will help me, but can someone tell me what IIFYM means? Thanks

    IIFYM = If It Fits Your Macros. Some people misinterpret it to mean eat whatever you want. It's basically a balanced approach to eating. Choose a macro balance that promotes satiety and meets your goals for fitness and dietary compliance.

    Eat mostly nutrient dense foods. If it helps with dietary adherence and you like them, go ahead and don't feel bad about including foods you like such as pizza, hamburgers, or things like cookies and ice cream. Just make sure to get plenty of things on balance like lean protein, vegetables, whole grains, beans, legumes, and healthy fats.
  • snickerscharlie
    snickerscharlie Posts: 8,578 Member
    suzesvelte wrote: »
    Hi newbie alert - well new to this forum, not new to dieting (50 years of effort) and looking for support.

    Think fitness pal will help me, but can someone tell me what IIFYM means? Thanks

    Welcome. It means "If It Fits Your Macros" :)
  • suzesvelte
    suzesvelte Posts: 134 Member
    suzesvelte wrote: »
    Hi newbie alert - well new to this forum, not new to dieting (50 years of effort) and looking for support.

    Think fitness pal will help me, but can someone tell me what IIFYM means? Thanks

    Welcome. It means "If It Fits Your Macros" :)

    Thanks -- looking at macros is the "new" thing I want to try this time ... so Fitness Pal should be useful for that

    onward and upward
  • J72FIT
    J72FIT Posts: 6,009 Member
    natashab61 wrote: »
    Hi all,
    I am no perfect clean eater
    Don't sweat it, clean eating is a myth...
    natashab61 wrote: »
    but as I enter my mid 20s I would really like to make my diet to be predominantly healthy.
    What do you eat now?
    natashab61 wrote: »
    I have a HUGE sweet tooth and I am aware sugar is an addiction. So any help or suggestions as to how to do this?
    It's not...
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    Clean eating is a myth??
  • J72FIT
    J72FIT Posts: 6,009 Member
    Clean eating is a myth??

    Yes. It does not exist...
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    J72FIT wrote: »
    Clean eating is a myth??

    Yes. It does not exist...

    You mean because there are multiple definitions for the term? That doesn't really make it a myth. It makes it a diet related term because almost all have multiple definition, including things like plant-based, low carb, healthy food. If clean eating is a myth, what isn't?
  • J72FIT
    J72FIT Posts: 6,009 Member
    J72FIT wrote: »
    Clean eating is a myth??

    Yes. It does not exist...

    You mean because there are multiple definitions for the term? That doesn't really make it a myth. It makes it a diet related term because almost all have multiple definition, including things like plant-based, low carb, healthy food. If clean eating is a myth, what isn't?

    IMO it does. Agree to disagree.
  • suzesvelte
    suzesvelte Posts: 134 Member
    suzesvelte wrote: »
    Hi newbie alert - well new to this forum, not new to dieting (50 years of effort) and looking for support.

    Think fitness pal will help me, but can someone tell me what IIFYM means? Thanks

    Welcome. It means "If It Fits Your Macros" :)

    Thanks -- looking at macros is the "new" thing I want to try this time ... so Fitness Pal should be useful for that

    onward and upward
  • suzesvelte
    suzesvelte Posts: 134 Member
    suzesvelte wrote: »
    Hi newbie alert - well new to this forum, not new to dieting (50 years of effort) and looking for support.

    Think fitness pal will help me, but can someone tell me what IIFYM means? Thanks

    IIFYM = If It Fits Your Macros. Some people misinterpret it to mean eat whatever you want. It's basically a balanced approach to eating. Choose a macro balance that promotes satiety and meets your goals for fitness and dietary compliance.

    Eat mostly nutrient dense foods. If it helps with dietary adherence and you like them, go ahead and don't feel bad about including foods you like such as pizza, hamburgers, or things like cookies and ice cream. Just make sure to get plenty of things on balance like lean protein, vegetables, whole grains, beans, legumes, and healthy fats.

    Thanks. I already eat a very nutrient dense diet - I've had cancer for ten years so I did lots of research on carcinogens and anti-cancer foods -- this has saved my life I reckon .. currently cancer free despite being told I was on a palliative pathway 6 years ago -- so health and micronutrients are well rehearsed. No alcohol, virtually no meat, all wholegrains, low GI carbs lots of green tea, berries, brassiacas and curry spices - weclome to my world.

    but
    I have also always been in a battle with my size, and "healthy" eating alone is not enough .. I have a soft spot for sweet stuff and find that battle against sweets and biscuits etc harder than all the other stuff I manage to stick to pretty routinely.

    I wont be eating any pizza or burger, cos I haven't done that for many years. What I will be doing is shifting the balance away from carbs and onto protein in the hope that this change will help me focus on the pattern of my eating in a different way and maybe its true that eating more protein speeds your metabolism a bit! Cancer wise there are fears around the way meat and fish are produced so I more or less stopped cooking with these, tho I do eat them out sometimes. Am going to source some top quality meat and fish to eat a bit more of it at home for a while. And get rigrous with the CICO sums.
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