everything in moderation? i respectfully disagree

turbogirl4christ

a lot of people seem to be insinuating that i don't enjoy food, that i am probably choking down raw kale and wheat grass all day in an attempt to be healthy, getting no enjoyment whatsoever from what i eat. so not true. i LOVE food. really really love it. that's why i spend hours in the kitchen prepping my veggies, i take the time to make them taste amazing. this is going to sound weird but whatever: one of my favorite foods on earth is brussels sprouts. it's not because i like the taste, they taste like *kitten*! but i cook them in such a way that makes them really, seriously delicious. i roast them with unrefined coconut oil, oregano, rosemary, salt and cinnamon, and sometimes if i'm feeling crazy i'll toss them with maple glazed pecans. i almost died when i tried one. i realize some of you are dry-heaving right now but hear me out. healthy food can taste good if you prepare it right! everyone seems to think that a life without snickers would be a hellhole. and they'd rather die than eat brownies made with barley flour. but the thing about your taste buds is they are extraordinarily adaptable, as is your entire body. if you cut sugar out of your diet, you will crave it less. if you start eating clean, and get your sweet fix from bananas, or barley brownies, or coconut date rolls instead of twinkies and candy, your body will start to recognize these healthy alternatives as sweet. eventually (it does take time) these foods will be too sweet for you! look, if sugar rules your life, if you are ADDICTED to it, then my advice (not that you asked) is no, i don't think it's a good idea to enjoy those trigger foods in moderation. you are keeping them constantly in your system, and you're never going to break that addiction. if you don't want sugar ruling your life anymore, if you're sick of obsessing over food and yo-yoing with your weight, then you should consider eliminating all junk from your diet. but hey, if you can enjoy that snickers "in moderation" and it doesn't screw up your entire life, then go for it. this post isn't for you and i'm not going to argue with you. but to a lot of people, these foods are dangerous.

i noticed a lot of excuses as to why a lifestyle like this wouldn't work for everyone, time and money being the main ones. i get it, we're all busy and poor. especially me! i'm a freaking preschool teacher, i barely make above minimum wage. i have to go to the free clinic at the hospital for routine checkups and such because i make so little money and my job doesn't offer insurance. but i make it work, i just choose to spend less on things like clothes, entertainment, getting my nails done, etc. and i make my own cleaning products, which saves a ton of money. and as for time, i understand that too, believe me. including my commute i work 8 am - 7 pm everyday, then i go to the gym on my way home for 1.5 - 2 hrs. i get home around 9 - 9:30 pm each night. i just choose to spend my free time cooking, as opposed to watching TV, or whatever it is other people do in their free time. to me it's worth it, the food i cook makes me feel so, so good. so i make sacrifices for it.

i'm not at all saying this is the only way to live, i never said that. this is what has worked for me, worked exceedingly well, so why wouldn't i share it on a site where people are supposedly trying to make healthier choices in their lives? and i mean... junk food IS bad for you! i can't apologize for saying that - but i will absolutely apologize if anyone felt like i was attacking them, or if i came off as condescending. it doesn't bother me if people want to attack my lifestyle, the drink in my hand, my past issues with food, or any of that. but i do find it odd that telling you something you already know caused such an uproar.

and will you all stop knocking the barley brownies already, they are really good. i based my recipe off this one if anyone is BRAVE ENOUGH to try them:
http://edibleperspective.com/2010/07/hungry/

AMEN sister! I totally agree with you...I may not live it, but I would sure like to...I do try to feed my family clean..i am a stay at home mom to 3 boys and my husband only makes $12.75 an hour and never gets over time... and I know I dont always make good food choices but I do try...and I think your brownies sound heavenly!!

H_82

Isn't all of this stuff common sense!? I sure as heck think so... It's a good thing that we're all adults & can make the decision for ourselves of what to eat. Whether it be good or not so good for us.

I love healthy foods, but also love my treats. So I DO say "everything in moderation". I pesonally don't agree w/ one extreme or another. But I do think that *some* people should be careful, b/c they could just as easily die from falling off of the high horse they're on rather than some chemically enhanced processed food... :laugh:

Grokette

Eating well may prevent you from getting some illnesses associated with eating badly, but there are things that are not treatable by diet. Cholesterol, for one! My father had a stroke 7 years ago, eating well and losing 4 stone didn't make a jot of difference to his cholesterol. Statins did.
Eating well (and I do eat very healthily) has never stopped me getting bronchitis, or tracheitis, or pneumonia or pleurisy. Having a good diet doesn't treat those things. Antibiotics and steroids do. Without those I'd be dead many times over. Eating well didn't stop me getting appendicitis either. Despite not having even been born to eat anything, my son was born with a deformed kidney, and will always have problems with them. That won't be reversed by eating cleanly. It needed surgery.

Clean eating isn't a replacement for medicine. Without medicine a lot of people would die a lot sooner than they needed to.

Diet can cure cholesterol issues, giving up grains and other forms of sugar and inflammatory foods is what will have the cholesterol come down. Statins are not good for us.

Funny also that since I have given up all processed foods I have not gotten a cold, allergies, bronchitis or any other illness that would require antibiotics.

I don't believe in conventional wisdom or main stream medicine any longer and I never will again as long as doctors rely on pharmaceutical companies.

I also find it funny that my dad has had multiple strokes and a recent heart attack. The doctor put him on a high fat, moderate protein and low carb plan that is similar to how my sister and I both eat and feed our families and all damage in his heart has been healed.

I also have a couple of friends that one parent or another has had cancer and healed themselves through nutrition.

I don't buy into the pharmaceutical stuff, nature is best.

agdeierl

I get what the original poster was trying to say. But in my opinion, there is no excuse for HOW it was said, with anger, judgment, and disdain. WHEN WILL PEOPLE LEARN TO STOP TRYING TO INFRINGE THEIR EATING PHILOSOPHIES ON OTHERS? Some people eat things that aren't healthy, some people eat things that are, and some people eat everything in moderation -- PLEASE GET OVER IT.

agdeierl

And I also want to say that whoever brought up the issue of affording healthier food, I agree with you! Unfortunately, healthy food is quite a bit more expensive than unhealthy food. That doesn't mean that we should all eat crap just because it's cheap, but it DOES mean that MOST people simply cannot afford the "creme de la creme" of every food group. And yes when you're talking about food that is organic, contains no preservatives, artificial anything, that's "creme de la creme". It shouldn't be that way, but that's just the way it is. I'm all for spending extra for healthy food, but I come from an upper-middle class family and even we cannot afford to shop that way all the time. Now that I am graduated from college and moving in with my boyfriend who has a full-time job as a substance abuse counselor (makes a lot less than my dad does), I cannot afford to shop that way most of the time. My boyfriend does his best to shop the way you describe, and he can very easily spend $100+ if he's not careful on groceries for JUST him! So it is simply not realistic or compassionate to DEMAND that everyone, regardless of socio-economic status, eat this way. In a perfect world, prices would be lower and all food would be made with the kind of integrity you speak of.

Mtsidad

WHEN WILL PEOPLE LEARN TO STOP TRYING TO INFRINGE THEIR EATING PHILOSOPHIES ON OTHERS?

Never.

Because it's a religious thing. They have to tell us how to do things their way, and no other way will work.

I'm more of a dietary eclectic going through a process. So I don't really even read their stuff. It just makes me sleepy like I'm in church.

Me, I want to read people who are real and who aren't trying to stuff their mania down my throat. So I won't "friend" the maniacs, because they literally have nothing to offer me but their judgment and condemnation.

Who needs that?

Furrytreats

Wow, I can't believe this is still going!

Mtsidad

/duplicate deleted/

H_82

Funny that I do eat in moderation & have only had one cold in over a year...but didn't require anitbiotics. Guess what, if you're by snotty, sneezing, coughing people, chances are you're going to get something.

For all of your other antics, it could've easily been coincidence. Just sayin'.

mikeyml

Just for clarification, what do folks mean when they say that they have cured their (or a loved one's) diabetes? It was my understanding that diabetes is a permanent condition once the pancreas has reached that point. If you mean that you are managing it without insulin shots, that's a fantastic accomplishment, I just feel like a lot of the claims in this thread are sounding somewhat overstated.

I have avoided this thread from the beginning because I knew it would turn into a heated debate. (As a side note, I happen to agree with the overall premise of the original post and everything the OP wrote in her post on page 13. I just would have worded it differently if I wrote it.)

But to answer your question, you're right to think that diabetes is a permanent disease. I'm fairly confident that everyone in this thread is talking about Type 2 or "adult onset" diabetes as opposed to Type 1 or "juvenile" diabetes. Both conditions are lifelong diseases but type 2 can be managed much easier than type 1. Some people with type 2 are able to improve their diet and control their blood sugars well enough that they no longer need any medication at all (pills or insulin shots). I'm certain that this is what people mean when they say they've "cured" diabetes through their diet.

However managing your diabetes without medication and curing it are two different things. Perhaps the person no longer needs to check their sugars as often, or their A1C is below 6, or they no longer require meds; but that doesn't mean that the disease is gone. It means their their pancreas still produces insulin naturally and that their cells aren't insulin resistant. Many people with type 2 can prevent or reverse the need for insulin shots by improving their diet. However if they went back to eating the way they did, the disease would come right back.

You're right that if a person has this type of control over their disease then they've made a "fantastic accomplishment." But to say the disease is completely cured is without a doubt an overstatement.

agdeierl

WHEN WILL PEOPLE LEARN TO STOP TRYING TO INFRINGE THEIR EATING PHILOSOPHIES ON OTHERS?

Never.

Because it's a religious thing. They have to tell us how to do things their way, and no other way will work.

I'm more of a dietary eclectic going through a process. So I don't really even read their stuff. It just makes me sleepy like I'm in church.

Me, I want to read people who are real and who aren't trying to stuff their mania down my throat. So I won't "friend" the maniacs, because they literally have nothing to offer me but their judgment and condemnation.

Who needs that?

Well said! Yep, I don't know why I bother chiming in. You can't reason with loonies!

pittielover23

WHEN WILL PEOPLE LEARN TO STOP TRYING TO INFRINGE THEIR EATING PHILOSOPHIES ON OTHERS?

Never.

Because it's a religious thing. They have to tell us how to do things their way, and no other way will work.

I'm more of a dietary eclectic going through a process. So I don't really even read their stuff. It just makes me sleepy like I'm in church.

Me, I want to read people who are real and who aren't trying to stuff their mania down my throat. So I won't "friend" the maniacs, because they literally have nothing to offer me but their judgment and condemnation.

Who needs that?

Well said! Yep, I don't know why I bother chiming in. You can't reason with loonies!

I have a hard time letting things like this go, obviously LOL I just do not get why people can not accept that we don't all fit into their neat little box; but I realize I am talking in circles.

I should just go and take the 45 different medications that one poster assumes I must be on

Sezmo83

While I'm skeptical that cancer can be cured simply by healthy eating I do think that what we eat can help with illnesses. I've cured abscesses with garlic and orange and use garlic as a flea and tick repellent for the dog. My dog gets bad skin and ear infections if fed cereals so is fed a food that's free of those things. I use Rescue Remedy for stress, both for me and the dog. I genuinely feel better when I'm eating properly rather than when I eat like I have today. What we eat certainly does have an impact on our health but I don't believe it will cure everything. I'm epileptic and no matter how I eat I'm going to have seizures.

And we're all different. My mum has high cholestoral no matter how she eats (her doctor was absolutely gobsmacked when he saw her food diary) yet my dads is fine despite him living on junk food. My brother never ails a thing despite a diet of potato and nothing else. He doesn't even get a common cold! I gained 80lbs on a medication that according to my doctor makes most people lose weight. It also made my seizures more frequent when it's supposed to do the opposite of that. What works for one isn't going to work for everyone.

pauljsolie

I agree that it's important that people realise how bad these things can really be for the body (and I'm throwing in frozen lunches, because I see so many people thinking that's health food- no it isn't), but eating McDonald's once in a blue moon is not going to kill you, it's not even going to harm you. I'm a big believer in eating as close to the earth as possible, the real stuff, but sometimes I want the crap and every once in a while, I'll have some. It's the having it all the time and not knowing the difference which will hurt you.

Be in control of your choices and always be aware of what you're putting in your body, but you don't need to be a vegan subsistence living in the untouched rainforest to be healthy.

AMEN to that!! I indulge about once a month and it is usually on White Castle sliders. Mmmmm so good. The rest of the time it's healthy and organic all the way. Close to being a vegan but I still like my boneless skinless chicken breast.

hbrekkaas

For those who are talking about how "cheap" and "easy" it is to eat organic and unprocessed foods, I don't understand what planet you are living on. Or how huge your food budget is. I don't know about America, but eating all organic and raw foods in Canada is EXPENSIVE. There's a reason the only Whole Foods I know of in Toronto is in Yorkville - where all the rich people/celebs hang out.

THANK YOU!!! I live in a small town in Northren BC. Its not easy. Just buying regular fruits and veggies takes up a big chunk of our budget.

Hearts_2015

stop knocking the barley brownies already, they are really good. i based my recipe off this one if anyone is BRAVE ENOUGH to try them:
http://edibleperspective.com/2010/07/hungry/

carolynmittens
Great recipes on this site! Yummy looking AND Healthy! Thanks so much for sharing the link Hon:flowerforyou:

thkelly

i keep seeing this phrase thrown around all over the place. "it's ok if you ate a quarter pounder from McDonalds last night, everything in moderation!" "don't feel guilty about eating that Snickers bar, everything in moderation right?" i don't really understand this frame of mind - why would anyone want to put anything unhealthy into their body, ever? i mean is it ok to poison yourself in moderation? because that's what junk food does to you. especially genetically modified, heavily preserved or artificially sweetened junk food.

to indulge is one thing. i make some seriously delicious and indulgent dark chocolate brownies from time to time. but they're made out of whole grain barley flour, 100% dark chocolate, and sweetened with applesauce or dates. if i'm in the mood for pancakes i make buckwheat pancakes. i'm not saying everyone should cut out desserts or treats, not at all. you can absolutely indulge in chocolate, cookies, pancakes, etc in moderation. but people, there are healthier versions of these foods that taste just as good and won't kill you!

it is never ok to drink soda, regular or diet. it's never ok to consume snacks that contain more chemicals than real food. it is NEVER ok to consume BHT, hydrogenated oils, artificial colors like yellow 6 and red 3, high fructose corn syrup, sodium nitrite, or aspartame. check your favorite "cheat treats" - if it contains any of those ingredients, please don't eat it. i wish people would get out of this "everything in moderation" mind frame, and start asking themselves "what is this food going to do for my body?" instead. if there is nothing at all beneficial in the food you're about to eat, why are you eating it? food is meant to be fuel for our bodies, stop catering to your taste buds. your taste buds make up like .001% of your body, what about the other 99.999%? if you think you're satisfying your taste buds by eating that Twinkie, doesn't it bother you that you're hurting the other 99% of your body?

i understand cravings, and that if you deprive yourself of something you'll likely binge out on it at some point. i don't condone deprivation, i just think you can find a perfectly natural substitute. if you NEED a cheeseburger, make your own out of organic beef, please don't eat that artificially flavored chemical smorgasbord from McDonalds. if you need cookies, make your own, don't reach for a box of Entenmann's. every food in its natural state can be consumed in moderation, absolutely. but when you enter into the world of freaky genetically modified lab experiment foods/additives/preservatives, there is absolutely no reason to go near it, even in moderation.

your body is a temple, treat it with respect :flowerforyou:

give me a friggin' break. this coming from a girl driking a massive margarita in her profile picture. LOL

Hearts_2015

i keep seeing this phrase thrown around all over the place. "it's OK if you ate a quarter pounder from McDonalds last night, everything in moderation!" "don't feel guilty about eating that Snickers bar, everything in moderation right?" i don't really understand this frame of mind - why would anyone want to put anything unhealthy into their body, ever? i mean is it ok to poison yourself in moderation? because that's what junk food does to you. especially genetically modified, heavily preserved or artificially sweetened junk food.

to indulge is one thing. i make some seriously delicious and indulgent dark chocolate brownies from time to time. but they're made out of whole grain barley flour, 100% dark chocolate, and sweetened with applesauce or dates. if i'm in the mood for pancakes i make buckwheat pancakes. i'm not saying everyone should cut out desserts or treats, not at all. you can absolutely indulge in chocolate, cookies, pancakes, etc in moderation. but people, there are healthier versions of these foods that taste just as good and won't kill you!

it is never ok to drink soda, regular or diet. it's never ok to consume snacks that contain more chemicals than real food. it is NEVER ok to consume BHT, hydrogenated oils, artificial colors like yellow 6 and red 3, high fructose corn syrup, sodium nitrite, or aspartame. check your favorite "cheat treats" - if it contains any of those ingredients, please don't eat it. i wish people would get out of this "everything in moderation" mind frame, and start asking themselves "what is this food going to do for my body?" instead. if there is nothing at all beneficial in the food you're about to eat, why are you eating it? food is meant to be fuel for our bodies, stop catering to your taste buds. your taste buds make up like .001% of your body, what about the other 99.999%? if you think you're satisfying your taste buds by eating that Twinkie, doesn't it bother you that you're hurting the other 99% of your body?

i understand cravings, and that if you deprive yourself of something you'll likely binge out on it at some point. i don't condone deprivation, i just think you can find a perfectly natural substitute. if you NEED a cheeseburger, make your own out of organic beef, please don't eat that artificially flavored chemical smorgasbord from McDonalds. if you need cookies, make your own, don't reach for a box of Entenmann's. every food in its natural state can be consumed in moderation, absolutely. but when you enter into the world of freaky genetically modified lab experiment foods/additives/preservatives, there is absolutely no reason to go near it, even in moderation.

your body is a temple, treat it with respect :flowerforyou:

give me a friggin' break. this coming from a girl driking a massive margarita in her profile picture. LOL

OMG! :noway: Were you there, did you make the drink yourself? I think the drink issue was cleared up 100 pages ago. Tasty natural drink, nothing wrong with what she's got in the coconut Never safe to assume Dude...

smartmama4

So I admit I stopped reading at about page 3 or so.... I'd never get up from the computer if I had continued on! AND I so need to get up so I don't get fatter!! LOL I believe "to each his own...."

But I love the rat issue! ..... causes cancer in lab rats! That is were the "in moderation" comes in. Yes I believe some of those things did cause cancer in lab rats, BUT rats are tiny compared to humans. The ratio would have to be the same for it to harm a human.......
So "in moderation"

:flowerforyou:

dietfree2012

sounds good; but a little unrealistic and not fun! oreos and pizza and fries and all of the yummy fatty things in the world taste wonderful to most, but are not good for you. Therefore, moderation is key. Healthy is best, but sometimes you have to live a little. I personally think moderation is fine. but to each is own!