Bad tasting, healthy food.
Replies
-
crzycatlady1 wrote: »Christine_72 wrote: »
Ha, yes I probably am a bit repetitive by this point lol. The whole 'processed' foods thing is such a big pet peeve of mine though, drives me batty!
Processed is too hard a term to pin down. To me, it means those frozen ready meals, twinkies and packet convenience foods. To others, processed could mean yogurt, cottage cheese, cheese, which personally i think are healthy things. Maybe we could call them healthy processed foods to make things even more confusing lol2 -
Some people to differentiate between "processed" (like yogurt, bread, etc.) and "ultraprocessed" (like ready meals, twinkies, etc.)1
-
SusanMFindlay wrote: »Some people to differentiate between "processed" (like yogurt, bread, etc.) and "ultraprocessed" (like ready meals, twinkies, etc.)
Yeah, that would make more sense.0 -
I am not sure what you consider to be "healthy" food, processed foods of any kind is not "healthy."
Because technically if I pluck a strawberry from my garden, stem it, and toss it in the freezer I have processed it, here on MFP i say "ultra processed" and refer to the Brazilian definition: http://189.28.128.100/dab/docs/portaldab/publicacoes/guia_alimentar_populacao_ingles.pdf1 -
Try looking here in MFP in the thread http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/823358/what-do-your-meals-look-like-show-me-pictures#latest to see what others are fitting into their daily eating. The pictures alone can make you drool, haha. And also the posts under the Main forums title http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/categories/recipes
There are some great ideas under both of these. I would make the guess that no one posts things that don't taste good to them!0 -
The issue I personally have with people, particularly new posters, bringing up "processed" food stems from the belief fostered by diet gurus (and further capitalized on by opportunists like Food Babe) that what people eat is responsible for the obesity crisis, rather than how much. It is the underpinning of the fervency with which people believe you need to adhere to to specific way of eating to be healthy.
And that is simply wrong.
Obesity is a complex issue that all the healthy habits and fervent beliefs in the world won't save you from if you're still eating too damned much clean food.
7 -
Yes, but it's much easier to rack up thousands of calories eating pizza, Mcdonalds et al everyday V homecooked veggies, salads and lean meats.
Yes, it's possible to gain weight only eating "whole, clean,fresh unsuperprocessed foods", but it would be alot harder than eating mostly the aforementioned foods for the majority of ones diet. In my experience anyway.1 -
Christine_72 wrote: »Yes, but it's much easier to rack up thousands of calories eating pizza, Mcdonalds et al everyday V homecooked veggies, salads and lean meats.
Yes, it's possible to gain weight only eating "whole, clean,fresh unsuperprocessed foods", but it would be alot harder than eating mostly the aforementioned foods for the majority of ones diet. In my experience anyway.
You nailed it when you said in your experience. People have this misconception because they often come from a background where fast food is associated with carelessness and weight gain and unprocessed food is associated with dieting.
When you look at traditional meals prepared from minimally processed foods you will notice they aren't that much better than pizza and McDonald's. When your veggies are cooked in cups of sesame butter, your salads are loaded with olive oil and your meat is anything but lean (in fact suet is added for extra juiciness), and your snacks are nuts and dried fruits, hummus and olives, the calories are comparable if not higher than fast food. Those are the kinds of foods I gained weight on, and when I first started dieting I was pleasantly surprised how low in calories pizza and McDonald's are in comparison to some of the minimally processed dishes I grew up eating.
We aren't talking about your typical dieter's grilled chicken breast and steamed broccoli. People tend to look at minimally processed foods through dieting glasses for some reason when things like mashed potatoes and gravy, shepherd's pie, dishes cooked in coconut milk (the real kind not the watery diet mess) or ghee...etc are all predominantly based on whole foods or types of processing that are generally considered more "natural" than the store bought stuff (making dairy products, making sauces, grinding or chopping something...etc). Heck, even peanut butter is not ultra processed (that's just ground peanuts!).
Sure, it's harder to gain weight on lean meats and green salads dressed with lemon juice, but then you are talking about foods typically associated with dieting that just happen to be minimally processed, just a subset of a large more calorically diverse set of foods.5 -
JaydedMiss wrote: »prioritize. If i crave fried chicken i eat fried chicken, Just pair it with a veggie instead of fries and a full calorie pop from the store. No need to waste calories on the things i dont really want, Whether that be healthy or unhealthy food
that part1 -
Christine_72 wrote: »Yes, but it's much easier to rack up thousands of calories eating pizza, Mcdonalds et al everyday V homecooked veggies, salads and lean meats.
Yes, it's possible to gain weight only eating "whole, clean,fresh unsuperprocessed foods", but it would be alot harder than eating mostly the aforementioned foods for the majority of ones diet. In my experience anyway.
I gained 20lbs while I was a vegetarian and have lost 20lbs eating a variety of foods including my beloved big mac and pizza. My experience was vastly different from yours.3 -
amusedmonkey wrote: »Christine_72 wrote: »Yes, but it's much easier to rack up thousands of calories eating pizza, Mcdonalds et al everyday V homecooked veggies, salads and lean meats.
Yes, it's possible to gain weight only eating "whole, clean,fresh unsuperprocessed foods", but it would be alot harder than eating mostly the aforementioned foods for the majority of ones diet. In my experience anyway.
You nailed it when you said in your experience. People have this misconception because they often come from a background where fast food is associated with carelessness and weight gain and unprocessed food is associated with dieting.
When you look at traditional meals prepared from minimally processed foods you will notice they aren't that much worse than pizza and McDonald's. When your veggies are cooked in cups of sesame butter, your salads are loaded with olive oil and your meat is anything but lean (in fact suet is added for extra juiciness), and your snacks are nuts and dried fruits, hummus and olives, the calories are comparable if not higher than fast food. Those are the kinds of foods I gained weight on, and when I first started dieting I was pleasantly surprised how low in calories pizza and McDonald's are in comparison to some of the minimally processed dishes I grew up eating.
We aren't talking about your typical dieter's grilled chicken breast and steamed broccoli. People tend to look at minimally processed foods through dieting glasses for some reason when things like mashed potatoes and gravy, shepherd's pie, dishes cooked in coconut milk or ghee (the real kind not the watery diet mess)...etc are all predominantly based on whole foods or types of processing that are generally considered more "natural" than the store bought stuff (making dairy products, making sauces, grinding or chopping something...etc). Heck, even peanut butter is not ultra processed (that's just ground peanuts!).
Sure, it's harder to gain weight on lean meats and green salads dressed with lemon juice, but then you are talking about foods typically associated with dieting that just happen to be minimally processed, just a subset of a large more calorically diverse set of foods.
+1
I was eating minimally processed foods. I had a very liberal hand with olive oil when I roasted vegetables and poured it over beans for a touch of flavor at the table as well. I dressed all of my salads with plain olive oil and lemon juice.
I also have a great fondness for nuts and nut butters and ate them freely. Almond butter and apples was a favorite snack, and I was pretty liberal with what I thought was 2 tablespoons of the stuff.
2 -
Christine_72 wrote: »crzycatlady1 wrote: »Christine_72 wrote: »
Ha, yes I probably am a bit repetitive by this point lol. The whole 'processed' foods thing is such a big pet peeve of mine though, drives me batty!
Processed is too hard a term to pin down. To me, it means those frozen ready meals, twinkies and packet convenience foods. To others, processed could mean yogurt, cottage cheese, cheese, which personally i think are healthy things. Maybe we could call them healthy processed foods to make things even more confusing lol
Processed has a meaning and it includes a very diverse group of foods, including yogurt, cottage cheese, soy sauce, sriracha, vinegars, olive oil, dried pasta, canned tomatoes, canned and dried beans, smoked salmon, rotisserie chicken, frozen fish, store bought sauerkraut and kimchi, pickles, mustard, on and on, up to and including boneless, skinless chicken breast (which is a processed food I personally rarely eat).
Sure, it also includes protein powder, candy bars, protein bars, energy drinks, frozen tater tots, the White Castle burgers you can buy from the freezer section, Twinkies, and a huge variety of pre-made meals, some of which have terrible macros (IMO) and lots of added things I am not interested in eating, and some of which are actually not a bad comparison to many made at home meals (although I still don't buy them since I am a terrible snob about such things and tend to like my own cooking best anyway).
When people announce that processed foods are all one thing, they are using the term incorrectly or have bought into some misinformation. That's why I think it is worthwhile to ask them what is wrong with the many processed foods that I think even the most "eat only good foods" kind of eater should have no issue with. I usually want to know if they are using the term "processed" wrong or if they genuinely think that there's something wrong with Fage plain greek yogurt just because it's processed. (Then if they say it's what mama cow feeds baby cow to make him fat, I know we have a different issue.) ;-)0 -
Christine_72 wrote: »Yes, but it's much easier to rack up thousands of calories eating pizza, Mcdonalds et al everyday V homecooked veggies, salads and lean meats.
Yes, it's possible to gain weight only eating "whole, clean,fresh unsuperprocessed foods", but it would be alot harder than eating mostly the aforementioned foods for the majority of ones diet. In my experience anyway.
But why is the question.
It's perfectly possible to cook from whole foods and make them high cal.
And it's also perfectly possible to cook from premade things and keep it within your calorie goals and macros.
The thing is that it takes more work and thought to eat if you cook for yourself and if you avoid "processed" (by which you mean ultra processed, really) things you can't run to the store and buy a Twinkie if feeling hungry (and although I could go to a farm to table restaurant where the food is high cal and cooked with lots of butter, I'm less likely to do that in the middle of the night when I shouldn't be eating, but instead as part of a planned outing with other people).
Point is that it's not really that the "processed" food has terrible additives that make you fat and the homemade stuff is "clean" and "non-addictive."
It's that you are creating barriers and structure when focusing on homemade or unprocessed stuff. And for those most likely to have been eating lots of ultra processed stuff (i.e., people who aren't particularly good or frequent cooks), they are also less likely to recreate high cal stuff when cooking at home. I mean, it took work for me to learn to make a really good pie and I'm lazy, so even though I can I don't do it that much.3 -
GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »Some people can eat "bad" food in moderation but for those of us with carb and sugar addictions its not so easy. I understand her point completely and have found ways to make the healthier options of things I love and have the real thing maybe once a month and its an all out dinner night out with my kids. Other than that home cooking and taking your time to meal prep can help keep you track and gives you flexibility to add flavors to make your food taste better. Best of luck to us all = )
Having it once a month is a way of moderating.
My current way of deficit eating is just like that ... except I indulge once a week.
I recently went through a phase where I found it difficult to moderate. I'm working on getting back to it. So far, so good. I'm doing well portioning out the dark chocolate and caramels I have on hand.
My favourite little perfectly portioned treat in the world:
3 -
snickerscharlie wrote: »GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »Some people can eat "bad" food in moderation but for those of us with carb and sugar addictions its not so easy. I understand her point completely and have found ways to make the healthier options of things I love and have the real thing maybe once a month and its an all out dinner night out with my kids. Other than that home cooking and taking your time to meal prep can help keep you track and gives you flexibility to add flavors to make your food taste better. Best of luck to us all = )
Having it once a month is a way of moderating.
My current way of deficit eating is just like that ... except I indulge once a week.
I recently went through a phase where I found it difficult to moderate. I'm working on getting back to it. So far, so good. I'm doing well portioning out the dark chocolate and caramels I have on hand.
My favourite little perfectly portioned treat in the world:
Now that I know I'm getting good at moderating things again, I will add them to my next shopping list. They look amazing.1 -
GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »snickerscharlie wrote: »GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »Some people can eat "bad" food in moderation but for those of us with carb and sugar addictions its not so easy. I understand her point completely and have found ways to make the healthier options of things I love and have the real thing maybe once a month and its an all out dinner night out with my kids. Other than that home cooking and taking your time to meal prep can help keep you track and gives you flexibility to add flavors to make your food taste better. Best of luck to us all = )
Having it once a month is a way of moderating.
My current way of deficit eating is just like that ... except I indulge once a week.
I recently went through a phase where I found it difficult to moderate. I'm working on getting back to it. So far, so good. I'm doing well portioning out the dark chocolate and caramels I have on hand.
My favourite little perfectly portioned treat in the world:
Now that I know I'm getting good at moderating things again, I will add them to my next shopping list. They look amazing.
They really are!
And each square is individually wrapped, so it's not like you open up a whole bar which then magically disappears.
One square is 70 calories, and I find two is the perfect amount.3 -
Speaking of chocolate, did anyone get it as holiday gift?
I got this variety box. It's really hard to stop at 4th piece.1 -
"moderators" vs. "abstainers" -- I'm not saying such categories don't exist, but I don't think it's somehow built-in. I suspect it's a very cultural thing.
This article was really interesting:
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/an-adorable-swedish-tradition-has-its-roots-in-human-experimentation
(it's mostly about doing unethical nutrition experiments on institutionalized patients, but ends up by describing how the action that Sweden took on the results was a public health campaign stressing moderation. The result: Swedes eat more candy than most other nations, yet have amazing teeth, because of a national expectation of moderate behavior.)
In other words: You can learn to be moderate in partaking of junk food.2 -
In other words: You can learn to be moderate in partaking of junk food.
Which moderation are you talking about? Example stopping after 2 slices of pizza or not eating and then having a whole pizza in two weeks, both of which cases do not derail your weight control. My personality prefers the latter. I don't consider eating 2 slices as eating a pizza meal. That's sort of tasting pizza. LOL.
5 -
I'm definitely in the abstainer group, I am not into making this harder on myself than i have to just to prove that i can stop at a 1/2 cup of ice cream or just 2 slices of pizza. Not having certain trigger foods around doesn't affect me one way or the other, out of sight, out of mind for me. I still have those trigger foods, but nowadays they're a rare treat rather than an everyday or weekly thing.1
-
I am not sure what you consider to be "healthy" food, processed foods of any kind is not "healthy."
Others have pointed out that there are many "processed" foods which in fact are nutrient dense.
I'm curious how specifically you think processed foods, even ultraprocessed foods, are unhealthy? Meaning that in any quantity, they actively hinder a pursuit of health? How do Oreos, or potato chips, or the beloved #easymac prevent an individual from achieving a state of overall health?0 -
endlessfall16 wrote: »Speaking of chocolate, did anyone get it as holiday gift?
I got this variety box. It's really hard to stop at 4th piece.
Yes. The trick is to keep the unopened ones sealed and out of sight and reseal the opened and move them into some inconvenient location like under other boxes of stuff or something. The more inconvenient it is to get something the easier it is to moderate it. I'm still eating the chocolate my sister brought in November.
0 -
crzycatlady1 wrote: »unsuspectingfish wrote: »I don't know if I'm reading too much into this, but a lot of people here seem to think that skinnier automatically = healthier.
For me it definitely means that and I have years of hard data that shows this
My glucose number is directly tied to my weight. When I was overweight I was a prediabetic but as I lost weight the number trended downward. Didn't matter what I was eating though. Now I'm in maintenance and keeping my bmi in the 20-21 range keeps my glucose number in the 80s and 90s. I go in for blood work twice a year and the labs consistently show this. A nice side affect is that the lower weight also produces great cholesterol numbers and a nice blood pressure as well (the nurse always compliments me after she takes it lol).
And I was healthier at 230 than I ever was at any higher OR lower weight because I exercised more and ate very purposefully (only whole, fresh foods that added nutritional value to my day, and mostly vegetables).unsuspectingfish wrote: »Also, like, I don't know about anyone else, but whole foods, like fruits, veggies, whole grains, and fresh chicken/fish/eggs fill me up better and for longer than processed or fast foods, so I actually enjoy eating less because I'm not constantly starving.
That would fill me up as well, but my mental health would be taking a dive. I don't have great mental health to begin with and by cutting out my "fast food/junk foods/convenience foods/whatever you call them", I get depressed, anxious, and start trekking down the road of an ED. I would also be angry and lash out at people for no reason.
And I'm not talking about an all "fast food/junk foods/convenience foods/whatever you call them" diet either (depends on how you feel about canned/frozen fruits, veggies, and meats). I eat "whole foods", too, but I also have sweets.
Like I said, this works for me, mostly because my mental health suffers if I'm constantly starving. Also, I use a lot of frozen veggies, because they retain more nutrients, they're not all drowned in salt, these days (you can get no-salt ones), and they don't go bad as quickly.0
This discussion has been closed.
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 393.6K Introduce Yourself
- 43.8K Getting Started
- 260.3K Health and Weight Loss
- 176K Food and Nutrition
- 47.5K Recipes
- 232.6K Fitness and Exercise
- 431 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.5K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.6K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 153K Motivation and Support
- 8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.4K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.8K MyFitnessPal Information
- 24 News and Announcements
- 1.1K Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.6K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions