It's always a tough crowd when you vary from what's some consider the norm. Eating unprocessed food is the norm. American's have gotten so lazy and want everything fast. I just shake my head when I walk into the grocery store and what's waiting for us at the door. Simple carbs galore. I sometimes feel like we're treated like cattle heading to the slaughter. Just corn feed us until we're nice and fat.

Denial is not just a river in Egypt...
A lot of people think they are making good food choices and put way too much faith that foods are not being modified - chemically, genetically or otherwise. I've tried talking to some of my friends and relatives about simply reading labels to understand what they are putting into their bodies. The typical response is either a deer-in-the-headlight stare or stubborn resistance. Most of them glom onto one data point to justify the 'healthiness' of a food item and disregard everything else that's potentially bad about it; for example, my mother-in-law once picked up a bag of Doritos and told me, "SEE?! Zero trans fat...they're GOOD for you!" People believe what they want to believe - it's maddening sometimes!

Pop Tarts - I think you can buy them here - but thankfully I don't think are that common.

Ingredients of a pop tart?

ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, VITAMIN B1 [THIAMIN MONONITRATE], VITAMIN B2 [RIBOFLAVIN], FOLIC ACID), CORN SYRUP, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, DEXTROSE, SOYBEAN AND PALM OIL (WITH TBHQ FOR FRESHNESS), SUGAR, CRACKER MEAL, CONTAINS TWO PERCENT OR LESS OF WHEAT STARCH, SALT, DRIED BLUEBERRIES, DRIED GRAPES, DRIED APPLES, LEAVENING (BAKING SODA, SODIUM ACID PYROPHOSPHATE, MONOCALCIUM PHOSPHATE), CITRIC ACID, MILLED CORN, GELATIN, SOYBEAN OIL, MODIFIED CORN STARCH, MODIFIED WHEAT STARCH, SOY LECITHIN, XANTHAN GUM, CARAMEL COLOR, RED 40, VITAMIN A PALMITATE, NIACINAMIDE, REDUCED IRON, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, BLUE 2, BLUE 1, VITAMIN B6 (PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE), COLOR ADDED, TURMERIC EXTRACT, VITAMIN B2 (RIBOFLAVIN), VITAMIN B1 (THIAMIN HYDROCHLORIDE). - from Kelloggs website.

Nutritional content of a pop tart?

Serving Size 1 Pastry
Calories 200
Total Fat 5g
Sodium 170mg
Sugars 16g
Dietary Fiber less than 1g
(Also from kelloggs)

Price of pop tarts? Funnily I had a look at where you could buy them here and found them at Lollyworld - at least Australia does seem to recognise the fact that these things are, well lollies. We don't manufacture pop tarts here so they have to be imported from America.

Box of 8 (416 grams) $10.00 (AUD)

But hey the box says they are made with real fruit so they must be health food - yes? Oh and the colour added is apparently titanium oxide - I actually use titanium oxide a lot - I have a big tube of titanium white paint here - but I hadn't thought about eating it before.

BLUEBERRIES

Ingredients
Blueberries

Nutritional Info per 100g serving

57 Calories
Total Fat 0.3 g 0%
Saturated fat 0 g 0%
Polyunsaturated fat 0.1 g
Monounsaturated fat 0 g
Cholesterol 0 mg 0%
Sodium 1 mg 0%
Potassium 77 mg 2%
Total Carbohydrate 14 g 4%
Dietary fiber 2.4 g 9%
Sugar 10 g
Protein 0.7 g 1%
Vitamin A 1% Vitamin C 16%
Calcium 0% Iron 1%
Vitamin D 0% Vitamin B-6 5%
Vitamin B-12 0% Magnesium 1%

(Straight from Google)

Price of Blueberries?

In Australia - $39.84 per kilo. (from Woolworths online).

I don't need to say anything else do I?

Yep I picked a frosted blueberry one - at least it had something in the name of it that resembled a food.

But apparently you can't give people healthy food advice on the board unless you fit into what they consider to be the perfect example of whatever their idea of clean eating is. As the OP found out the vultures will circle and pick your food diary apart. I wasn't aware that clean eating required absolute 100% perfection all of the time - my own aim is to do the best I can most of the time.

I have one day a fortnight when I don't have a choice - when I travel to the nearest big town to shop (it's a 140 kilometre round trip) and I eat at McDonalds on that one day and when I get back home I will get myself and the children Subway for dinner mainly because I am too tired to cook. It's like a treat for them - and me to have a night off from cooking but I doubt very much that I would be able to go on the main board and give any sort of clean or healthy eating advice because I put McDonalds and Subway in my diary which is public. If I made it private it would probably be something like why is your diary private what have you got to hide? It's definitely a double standard because you wouldn't get the same reaction if you went through their diary and picked out that they actually did eat fruit or vegetables.

And funnily dieting is exactly what they are doing.

I suppose it has something to do with the mindset that dieting means that you have to eat just lettuce leaves and drink only water and do a lot of rigorous exercise. Of course that sort of diet would never work in the long term because it would be impossible to stick to. So I suppose "diets don't work" does make sense in that context.

I saw a thread yesterday - this woman said she didn't want to change her lifestyle, wanted to eat whatever she wanted, didn't want to be a gym junkie etc etc and I did notice that one poor low carber got shot down. It was apparently obvious from the initial post that she was having a huge dig at anything that she considered a "fad" diet.

I was admittedly curious and posted on her thread - just to see what happened. I thought I was polite - just simply gave some advice about swapping higher calorie foods for lower calorie foods (didn't even mention vegetables once). I would consider the replies I got both aggressive and defensive. At one stage she even tried to make out that I was some sort of creep for asking what the thread was really about.

The reactions I got have me somewhat intrigued.

Yep it is a really tough crowd.

What I really hate is the constant "Give me the science" or "I can eat pizza and McDonald's and still lose weight as long as I keep under budget" and the "it's calories in, calories out - that's all that matters".

The thing is if they actually looked at the science they would be really surprised at what they would find.

The thing is I'm sure there are some people out there that want to get actually healthy not just slimmer - but you get drowned out by the vocal minority and it just makes me want to scream.

I was probably a bit naive thinking that well we're all here with almost the same goal in mind - ie to get fit and I thought that eating healthily would be a part of that but it would seem not. I've been on MFP for three whole weeks and am very disillusioned by the general community boards and attitude out there.

It can be a bit discouraging out on the main-boards at times. I like to think the majority are the quiet members that skip responding to those threadss....because really why should anyone have to justify eating healthier when looking to lose, gain, or maintain.

Congrats on being here for your health, glad you joined up 3 weeks ago...try not to be discouraged by the negative talk but sometimes it is easier to stay away from the main-boards for a bit. I take breaks from it or I'd be needing a hat as I'd have pulled all my hair out by now!:laugh:

The pop tart brigade has actually been a bit quieter lately. Where's jonnythan been? He's one of the primary folks who proudly declares that his diet is fueled by processed crap.
These fellows have gone so far as to say there are vital nutrients in the crap they eat and that we don't need to worry because the processed foods they love are "fortified" and "enriched". They really put their faith in the food industry.

But then, they are of the mind that macros and calorie counts are all that matter.

pop tart brigade.. yes it does seem there is one! I noticed too that it's been quieter on the pop tart front...

Finally posting in the group...should have jumped in much sooner... enjoying the conversation and nice to be among ppl that don't worship pop tarts!:drinker:

It's open season on clean eating on the boards today. Yesterday they announced the new mods and one of them promptly mocked clean eating in one of his posts. I commented on it on the now locked thread about the new mods and it was removed... but it doesn't bode well (and is odd given his user name is about minimalist shoes).

Oh well. I should spend less time here anyway.:drinker:

And I now know what you meant about Jonnythan........ he is apparently back.

Late to the party ( this thread, that is!)! I recently posted about the number of carcinogens still allowed in our food....I wasn't trashed nearly as badly as I thought I could/would be. But I also stay on point when discussing on forums too. There are many many many yahoos who want to taunt you into arguing. And I love when the tinfoil hat gifs come flying out too!

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1147808-donuts?page=5 .....btw that jonnythan was part of the "conversation"....ermergosh....I would like very much to quiet that one with a well placed twinkie! ; )

Suffice it to say: People on the forums literally want to have their poptarts and eat them too. They don't want to believe that we have things readily sold to consumers that can be harmful. The Marketers from these companies have done an outstanding job in terms of "snow job" on the masses.

I support clean eating 100%, till those people eat clean they will not know how their health is being affected. I have read everything on clean eating and how beneficial it is. Some think that they can eat anything and stay fit, but truth is they may look good on the outside but the inside doesn't look great. I have had many people question me about my clean eating usually I don't even answer with a response because it is my health I am working on and they may never get that until they realize that I was right. Keep doing what you are doing.

And then don't forget that the testing of artificial sweeteners was done on specially bred rats that are prone to cancer anyway so the results of the studies aren't correct - so they have to be safe, right? ....... (Yes, I am being sarcastic)