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What are your unpopular opinions about health / fitness?

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Replies

  • Packerjohn
    Packerjohn Posts: 4,855 Member
    TonyB0588 wrote: »
    Dessert after meals is unnecessary and does nothing good for your health.

    Unnecessary, true. Does nothing good for your health, that depends. If you really like having dessert after a meal and having it helps you moderate your calories and reduce your stress level, then it can be very healthy.

    Is eating to reduce stress, dessert or anything else for that matter, really a good way to cope with stress?
  • Bry_Fitness70
    Bry_Fitness70 Posts: 2,480 Member
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    TonyB0588 wrote: »
    Dessert after meals is unnecessary and does nothing good for your health.

    Unnecessary, true. Does nothing good for your health, that depends. If you really like having dessert after a meal and having it helps you moderate your calories and reduce your stress level, then it can be very healthy.

    Is eating to reduce stress, dessert or anything else for that matter, really a good way to cope with stress?

    Food is fuel, first and foremost. Ideally, it is the fuel that tastes good. Any type of emotional importance attached to food (aside from ceremonies (like birthdays, holidays) or food that has religious or ethnic meaning ) is of no benefit.
  • Bry_Fitness70
    Bry_Fitness70 Posts: 2,480 Member
    Bry_Lander wrote: »
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    TonyB0588 wrote: »
    Dessert after meals is unnecessary and does nothing good for your health.

    Unnecessary, true. Does nothing good for your health, that depends. If you really like having dessert after a meal and having it helps you moderate your calories and reduce your stress level, then it can be very healthy.

    Is eating to reduce stress, dessert or anything else for that matter, really a good way to cope with stress?

    Food is fuel, first and foremost. Ideally, it is the fuel that tastes good. Any type of emotional importance attached to food (aside from ceremonies (like birthdays, holidays) or food that has religious or ethnic meaning ) is of no benefit.

    Oh I so disagree with that last sentence. I spend a lot of time and money on food and derive great pleasure from it. Pleasure is beneficial.

    I think I'm just wired differently when it comes to food, perhaps that is why I have never really been overweight. I enjoy expensive food out occasionally - but if plans change and I have to eat something ordinary, life goes on. I have other outlets for pleasure that aren't oriented around food, lol.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    (Was it this thread where someone mentioned gazpacho? THANK YOU!!!)

    Gazpacho is one of my favorite parts of summer.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    (Was it this thread where someone mentioned gazpacho? THANK YOU!!!)

    Gazpacho is one of my favorite parts of summer.

    Mine too.
  • Bry_Fitness70
    Bry_Fitness70 Posts: 2,480 Member
    edited August 2017
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    Bry_Lander wrote: »
    Bry_Lander wrote: »
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    TonyB0588 wrote: »
    Dessert after meals is unnecessary and does nothing good for your health.

    Unnecessary, true. Does nothing good for your health, that depends. If you really like having dessert after a meal and having it helps you moderate your calories and reduce your stress level, then it can be very healthy.

    Is eating to reduce stress, dessert or anything else for that matter, really a good way to cope with stress?

    Food is fuel, first and foremost. Ideally, it is the fuel that tastes good. Any type of emotional importance attached to food (aside from ceremonies (like birthdays, holidays) or food that has religious or ethnic meaning ) is of no benefit.

    Oh I so disagree with that last sentence. I spend a lot of time and money on food and derive great pleasure from it. Pleasure is beneficial.

    I think I'm just wired differently when it comes to food, perhaps that is why I have never really been overweight. I enjoy expensive food out occasionally - but if plans change and I have to eat something ordinary, life goes on. I have other outlets for pleasure that aren't oriented around food, lol.

    Why does it have to be black or white? Can't a person have multiple outlets for pleasure, including food? I love eating food and I really enjoy it, I enjoy it now just as much as I did 120 lbs ago. The only difference is that now I have system in place that allows me to enjoy food just as much but still lose weight. I'm simply pickier now.

    This is how I think about it too. Preparing and eating food is a big source of pleasure in my life. The difference now is that I balance that with my other goals and pleasures. As long as it isn't causing problems in your life or health, I don't see anything wrong with finding pleasure in food.

    This is a good point.

    I often react to stress by thinking "too tired to deal with anything, just want to order delivery and veg." What I typically do instead, even if I get home at 10 pm, is make a quick dinner. Cooking is enjoyable for me and tends to de-stress. So that's healthy.

    There's a lot more involved -- the creativity, the ritual, the taste, knowing I can take ingredients and make them delicious -- than just fuel, and even if Soylent were a perfect food replacement I'd think there was something better (for me, at least) about enjoying food and food preparation.

    And as others have said, I enjoy food more and am much more picky now that I am focused on staying fit. When I had unlimited calories I ate the same in many ways (I was a foodie, I liked cooking, I've always liked vegetables), but I was more likely to just eat because food was there and eating something seemed good in itself (weirdly).

    For me, focusing on food as tasty, pleasurable, something I will really enjoy (including breaking a day up into 3 meals and dessert) makes it more special, ritualistic, sometimes social, and also something that for me makes me LESS likely to overeat.

    Thinking of it as either food is 100% utilitarian and any food for pleasure is BAD is for me likely to result in me eventually overeating (and not really enjoying that either) and feeling crappy.

    Thinking of food as about ritual and pleasure and taste, as well as nutrition, makes me more likely to be satisfied and healthy in my approach.

    I think pleasure in food is normal and natural, so telling yourself that you are wrong to feel it for many of us backfires.

    No one is suggesting that enjoying food is wrong or that food should be only be considered fuel. I stated that I consider the fuel aspect first - that is my primary way of looking at food. Having stated that, I certainly consume my share of food purely because it tastes good, I'm not a robot, lol. If this perspective is unhealthy for some, they shouldn't consider food the way that I do.
  • stanmann571
    stanmann571 Posts: 5,727 Member
    mph323 wrote: »
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    @theresejesu are you turing complete?

    ManOman . . . @stanmann571: You and I aren't always on the same wavelength, to say the least . . . but that's hilarious as baby feline, right there. Thanks for the belly laugh!.

    Code breaker?

    T.D.i.P.: Alan Turing. Turing test. Google it. There's a hoot in there.

    I was actually half serious, there were some peculiar inconsistencies beyond normal human response.

    And yes very interesting that the comments stopped as soon as you posted that. In all the threads. Like "test over, humans 1, AI bot 0, back to the drawing board."

    @jessiferrrb
  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    (Was it this thread where someone mentioned gazpacho? THANK YOU!!!)

    Gazpacho is one of my favorite parts of summer.

    Mine too.

    Just make a mean Watermelon Gazpacho last weekend. Yummy!
  • estherdragonbat
    estherdragonbat Posts: 5,283 Member
    And stir-fries!
  • OliveGirl128
    OliveGirl128 Posts: 801 Member
    Bry_Lander wrote: »
    With almost 70% of the US considered obese, I think we can safely conclude that people are utilizing food as something more than a means to fuel themselves. Emotional/psychological eating is an epidemic and diminishing the prevalence of this type of relationship with food is crucial to reducing destructive eating habits. If you are in control of your eating and at a healthy weight, I don't think you really need to be concerned if you are occasionally eating "emotionally" ;)

    I have a hard time seeing it that way, personally. I grow a substantial amount of our food, as in several hundred pounds a year, and also donate a large portion to the food bank. I make my own jam and cheese when I get a whim to do so. We also have hunters, fishermen, and hobby farmers in our family--when they throw a fish fry, or they get a deer and have their freezer packed full, or pass out fancy eggs at family get-togethers, there is an incredible amount of emotion, particularly pride and love, along with a considerable amount of despair and high dudgeon*, wrapped up in that food.

    My daughter just caught her first really nice keeper bluegill this year, and my brother in law cleaned it, stuffed it (the whole fish, head on) with sliced lemons and thyme, and grilled it. Something so special, beautiful and delicious is pretty much a sacrament in the Church of Nature.

    From my perspective, I think a bigger problem is that food has become too meaningless. It is debased and cheap. I would think people who have had to sweat and bleed for their food would tend to be very respectful toward it.

    Regarding the discussion on desserts, I have a peach tree and a rhubarb patch that are cranking out copious amounts of food. I suppose there is something joyless and "healthy" that I could make with them, but why on earth would I want to do that when I have my great-grandmothers' recipes for assorted pies, crisps, and cobblers? If I grew them, why wouldn't I want to eat them, in the most respectful and glorious manner possible? A hand-made, home-grown peach pie, rolled out and sliced as my kids loiter about and steal scraps of crust to make their own "jam mini tarts" is a thing of absolute beauty. I think it is very necessary.

    Here is why that works: I can shove pies in my pie-hole because we also have, for example, 10 cucumber vines that my daughter grew that are cranking out an insane amount of cucumbers, so I am forcing down at least one calorie-sparse, extremely filling cucumber a day. (Was it this thread where someone mentioned gazpacho? THANK YOU!!!) This is not to mention all the kale, collards, green beans, tomatoes, hot and bell peppers that are suddenly all coming on, all of which are prolific and low-calorie, and all of which required a very high amount of energy inputs to grow (people on my friends list can see that most weekends through the summer my "cardio" consists of hours upon hours of heavy duty garden work).

    So the food IS fuel, but to me and my family, it also has a transcendent, very emotional, importance. (In a way that Froot Loops and Ding-Dongs should not.)

    *Which may or may not result in me running after the deer loitering about my garden with a pair of garden shears to stab them in the butt as they mockingly trot away. NOTE: This does not work.

    May I come live with you please and thank you.

    I was thinking the exact same thing lol. Sounds amazing!
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