A Week of Fiber-Rich Meals as a Runner: Not! Deplorable advice

JimLund52

I just looked at the article entitled, "A Week of Fiber-Rich Meals as a Runner." I was shocked that this is promoted as a worthy week of eating. Every breakfast included instant oatmeal, redeemed by blueberries and a banana. The rest of the meals also included a disturbing amount of ultraprocessed food. They included subs with processed meats, pepperoni pizza, chicken wings, chips, french fries, bagel with cream cheese, and so on. Certainly not fiber rich--instant oatmeal has virtually none, for example. I love being able to track macros and calories, but if this article is an example of MFP's dietary advice, I will look elsewhere.

AnnPT77

I read the article. It's an interview with a specific actual person, a runner, who's trying to improve fiber. Further, that person has some dietary limitations because of food sensitivities. The subject also reports eating a lot of sandwiches - and does - which I wouldn't, personally.

But the article doesn't seem intended as a blueprint for all? If anything, I'd interpret it as showing a real world example, warts and all . . . maybe a counter-balance to what seems like the general blogosphere trying to convince people that weight loss requires miserably restrictive eating, no treats, all superfoods, "one weird trick", you name it.

But sure, it's not an example of optimal nutrition for runners, or anyone else. It's certainly not how I eat, but you probably wouldn't want to eat how I eat either, and odds are good that vice-versa is also true. That's not a diss; it's a statement that individuals tend to be unique in their goals and preferences, which to me is part of what makes interacting with others interesting.

In general, I've found the MFP blog articles quite generic, and a little simple, but in recent years not way click-bait stupid. Good and bad. Nutrition is important to me, and I don't look there for nutrition advice either. I like Examine.com. (I don't work for them or get compensated to link them, but I do have a subscription myself because it's useful to me.) I read peer-reviewed research on topics I'm curious about. Sometimes I look at content on mainstream-ish consumer-facing sites, like major hospital systems, non-profits focused on support for health conditions I have or had, major universities' actual official content (not just "Joe Faculty says on his personal blog"), outfits like USDA/NIH/WHO/NHS, etc.

In general, to me MFP's blog content seems like a reasonable, non-extreme on-ramp to more technical sources. I've been on MFP for nearly 10 years. I've been interested in nutrition far longer, starting very inexpertly probably back in the late 1970s. Your profile photo suggests you may be close to my age-group, so maybe you've been learning about that kind of thing for decades, too.

Reading posts in the general Community here, some people are brand new to the topic, and some believe a lot of the extreme, click-bait blogosphere myths. The MFP blogs I've read seem OK for that kind of starting point in general, to me.

This thread probably belongs in the Debate Club section, even though it is about Food and Nutrition. I'm not flag/reporting it to be moved there, though.

E.T.A. This is one of the MFP blog's actual recommendation articles about fiber:

https://blog.myfitnesspal.com/essential-guide-to-fiber/

It seems generally reasonable to me as an introduction.

P.S. I don't work for MFP, nor am I compensated by them for being nice to their blog, either.

JimLund52

I didn't see much fiber in the diet.

AnnPT77

JimLund52 wrote: »

I didn't see much fiber in the diet.

Agreed. In that sense, I'd say the headline was clickbait, misleading. I'd fault that.

In the article, the fiber mention just seemed like part of the interviewer getting answers about what the interview subject's goals are. If I ate that little fiber, I'd think it was a good goal to have, too. (Sez the woman who averages 40g+ most of the time. That guy needs to eat more fruit/veg, too. Yikes. And he says he needs to limit wheat, but eats lots of sandwiches, no mention of avoiding the fast-food bread/buns except in the Unwich case. Hmmm. Darn human! )

I wouldn't suggest they should only interview perfect people. Reading here in the Community for a long time, there are already too many people who think they need to be perfect in all ways in order to reach a healthy weight, be more physically fit, or improve health markers. Some of them feel like failures if they don't, even say they want to give up because they can't reach the high standard consistently.

Would it be ideal to do all things perfectly? Sure. But having some content that underscores that perfection is more a process, not a strict gatekeeper to improvement . . . that seems like a helpful thing, honestly.

BTW, if anyone else is reading this and is curious, the blog post is here: https://blog.myfitnesspal.com/food-diaries-week-of-fiber-rich-meals-as-a-runner/