Curiosity-- How do you know about nutrition?
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lemurcat12 wrote: »I decided to learn about it around age 30 (when I also decided to get serious about learning to cook) when I realized that my old "can eat anything and it doesn't really matter" metabolism was a thing of the past (being less active was probably more of the issue), and when I also realized that I had somehow managed to reach that ripe old age as a woman and yet have no idea at all or experience in how to diet. (I consider this a blessing, actually.)
So I did lots of research, discovered all the interesting debates and theories and changes of mind (low carb, low fat, etc.), and how losing weight worked and more significantly discovered some of the basic things about health and nutrition that seemed to be widely agreed upon, some which I applied, some which I did not. I've remained interested as an academic matter since then, even during the period when I gained a bunch of weight and didn't apply much of anything related to weight loss or maintenance.
Also, having grown up in a family that I'd describe as "meat and potatoes Midwestern" (although that always included vegetables too), I find it interesting that you connect that to your husband's lack of knowledge, since one thing that I discovered was that the food habits I'd grown up with were pretty healthy and pretty easy to return to. (My bigger problem was that I hadn't gotten more experimental with food through cooking, but through going out/ordering a lot, something my job paid for, while expecting me to work very late instead of going home for dinner.)
I also do remember learning a bit in school about the four food groups and all that, but I didn't really retain anything from that.
On the other hand, I did grow up with various decent exercise habits/being encouraged to be active, although looking back I wish I'd been more encouraged to stick with the sports I tried. Ah, well, I probably wouldn't have agreed at the time.
Here's an example of my husband's meals at home (and the way my MIL still cooks for Sunday dinners). Fried steak ( like chicken fried steak), mashed potatoes with butter, macaroni and cheese, and fruit salad (fruit salad=canned pineapple, mandarin oranges with whipped cream and vanilla pudding mix). Unless you count the mashed potatoes, not a vegetable in sight! This next part is completely literal- my husband had never even tried a salad until we started dating five years ago. I have slowly broadened his food horizon, but there are still less than 10 vegetables that he will eat. He had also never tried broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes.. I could go on.
I think in his situation the blame is not necessarily completely on the "meat and potatoes" diet, but the fact that he was never offered or made to try any new foods. I do actually think that his mom might have had a salad or some vegetable with her meal, but he never did.
Additionally, I'm from the South, so a basic southern meal doesn't generally contain fresh vegetables. Occasionally side salads will be served, but you're more likely to see creamed spinach, corn with butter, or green beans with bacon and marinated in grease!
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cwolfman13 wrote: »lots of research and self study. Most people don't know or understand nutrition or calories, etc because it's not a particularly valued piece of knowledge. I think there was one semester in high school in an elective class that touched on the subject...maybe.
Most people just eat...a lot of what is consumed also comes with particular cultures and values of that culture beyond any understanding of nutritional quality or lack there of.
When people want to lose weight and get in shape, they turn to the diet and fitness industry which doesn't really teach anything about proper nutrition or fitness...rather, the industry preys on the desperate and ill informed and is generally only out to make a buck...which confuses these issues even further.
Everything he just said
Bingo.
Plus, I'm a researcher by trade and by temperament. Even if I'd had decent nutritional education earlier, I'd have ended up on PubMed looking up and critiquing sources sooner or later.0 -
I've learnt everything I do know from my friends on MFP and the discussions in the forums here. I'm sure I still have more to learn though...
I'm not really the type of person who would read a diet book (not when I could be reading a romance novel instead!).
Oh, I did see an anti-sugar documentary the other day which was really good. I can't remember what it was called though.0 -
I went to college for both Culinary Management and then later for Food and Nutrition Management and worked in food service/nutrition field for over 10 years. So, I have a LOT of knowledge. Did it stop me from becoming overweight? NOPE. Unfortunately, just because you know something is unhealthy, does not always stop you from doing it. I had the tools but I did not use them on myself. I would create healthy meal plans for seniors (retirement home) and then go home and eat a pizza. Funny how that works. I also have know many dieticians who are either very over/underweight. It all starts with self-awareness.0
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In order for me to succeed at something (whether it be knitting, soap making, weight loss, whatever I've wanted to learn) I've always had to be well informed. As someone who has had on and off weight issues over the years I've spent many, many hours learning all I can about nutrition. Years ago I went to the library and devoured books, today I spend a lot of time on the internet learning as much as I possibly can. I'm a firm believer in "you are what you eat" and it's crucial (for me, anyway) to be as informed as possible. Knowledge is power!
I just finished up a WW at Work session and it amazed me how many people really are so clueless about nutrition. Like you, I'm not putting anyone down, just stating a fact.0 -
I grew up eating garbage but have worked out most of my life in some way or another.
I learned about nutrition the same way I learn about everything: I read the popular magazines, books, or blogs, then I read the source materials (usually peer-reviewed journals - I work in a library so I have access to a lot of databases others may not).
The main thing to look for if you do this is the methodology. Most people read the abstract or summary and take the "study" at face value. But the methodology will tell you whether the data gathered is useful or useless. (Unfortunately an awful lot of nutrition data is failry useless, because it tends to be self-reported and studies are difficult to reproduce with larger populations.)
In some cases (like the China Study, which was NOT peer-reviewed and is the basis for the absolutely fake "documentary" Forks Over Knives) the researchers will try hard to cover up the fact that their data doesn't support their conclusions AT ALL, and that's often difficult to spot unless you dig deep into the data. That's why it's important not to rely too much on any single study, and to pay more attention to patterns over multiple studies. Reading critiques of studies can also be very useful because, let's face it, digging through source data is BOOOORING.0 -
So, here's my question--- if you know a lot about nutrition, calories, weight loss, etc., how did you gain this knowledge? Was it through sheer research? Did you grow up in the environment? Did you take a class? If you also consider yourself "under informed", why do you think this is so? Were you presented the information when you were younger, but forgot how it all works? Were you just never given the opportunity? Have you learned, but found it hard to grasp/confusing?
I'm just very curious about this. If you're up to it, feel free to share your answer below.
I had a class in high-school on basic nutrition and it was interesting to me that I could actually learn how to manage my weight through proper nutrition, go figure right? I continued to self-educate over the years and then about 5 years ago I hired John Meadows of Mountain-Dog Training.Com to help me lose 10lbs. Not only did I lose the weight but I gained one hell of an education on managing one's nutrition. I read a lot from Dr. John Berardi and last year I went to school to pursue my Masters in Health Promotion & Exercise Science. Though this program I've had physiology, kiniesiology, advanced nutrition, and a host of classes related to wellness and of course exercise implementation.
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Pretty much what Sabine said. I was just ignorant and didnt know anything before I tried to lose weight. This was my first ever attempt to do so. I did a lot of research on my own and got pretty interested and now I read and watch everything I can get my hands on as well as trying to experiment on myself to figure out what really works0
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Here's an example of my husband's meals at home (and the way my MIL still cooks for Sunday dinners). Fried steak ( like chicken fried steak), mashed potatoes with butter, macaroni and cheese, and fruit salad (fruit salad=canned pineapple, mandarin oranges with whipped cream and vanilla pudding mix). Unless you count the mashed potatoes, not a vegetable in sight! This next part is completely literal- my husband had never even tried a salad until we started dating five years ago. I have slowly broadened his food horizon, but there are still less than 10 vegetables that he will eat. He had also never tried broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes.. I could go on.
I think in his situation the blame is not necessarily completely on the "meat and potatoes" diet, but the fact that he was never offered or made to try any new foods. I do actually think that his mom might have had a salad or some vegetable with her meal, but he never did.
Additionally, I'm from the South, so a basic southern meal doesn't generally contain fresh vegetables. Occasionally side salads will be served, but you're more likely to see creamed spinach, corn with butter, or green beans with bacon and marinated in grease!
I've known a few people that also grew up like this. From one friend, apparently his mother "got a deal" on Spaghettios... and bought an entire CASE of them when he was a kid. So the family ate Spaghettios regularly for dinner for two years (turning my friend off from Spaghettios forever). When I met him, he didn't know how to identify most vegetables. He also never had a salad before. Thankfully, introducing him to vegetables, he actually does like quite a few of them even if he's never had them before. But he still doesn't eat right at all. He's getting older gaining a lot of weight and is almost 300 lbs now with a BMI of over 35. I'm hoping he'll realize what he's doing and make a change soon. He's the kind of person that won't listen to anyone else until he comes to his own conclusions.
I can't believe how important it is for parents to teach their kids how to eat. Being a parent is a tough job. I'm so grateful my mother has done well giving me a fairly healthy diet, even if she let me have sweets a little bit too often! My dad was a good influence, too... he wanted to be a chef when I was growing up, but just became a fabulous home cook instead.
I learned what I know about nutrition from grade school (though now everything is different!) and from college biology classes (BS in Biology as well), and doing my own research. I don't think I'm an expert or even close to being really well informed about nutrition, but I also don't think that eating healthy is as much of a rocket science as people make it out to be. People have been eating since the dawn of our species, and doing it well. I think food science and manipulative marketing tends to make everything more complicated and difficult for people that really could just follow their common sense and be fine; and the fact that we can't rely on common sense anymore is a sign that our culture is failing us.
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I feel like I grew up hearing a lot about eating healthy foods. My mom had a lot of ups and downs in weight, but I think most of her problems were emotional eating and binging, not so much eating a lot of unhealthy things. We've always had a lot of salads, veggies with most meals, whole wheat bread instead of white, oatmeal for breakfast, etc. My mom likes to cook, I think the only prepackaged meals I had growing up were pizzas and breakfast sausages.
I've learned more from a LOT of reading and basically experimenting on myself since I moved out on my own. I know what works for me, I just have trouble sticking to it because I
all the carbs and have trouble with portions when you bring out the french bread
I definitely know a lot of people who know nothing about nutrition. One young lady at my mom's church threw out all of her pans because they were "frying" pans, so she assumed anything cooked in them must be "fried", and therefore unhealthy. At the same time, she was feeding her family huge portions of Stouffer's lasagna and freezer meals basically every night, and her "healthy" salads were about equal ratios of Iceberg and ranch/cheese/ham. She really was trying, but she had no idea where to start.0 -
Here's an example of my husband's meals at home (and the way my MIL still cooks for Sunday dinners). Fried steak ( like chicken fried steak), mashed potatoes with butter, macaroni and cheese, and fruit salad (fruit salad=canned pineapple, mandarin oranges with whipped cream and vanilla pudding mix). Unless you count the mashed potatoes, not a vegetable in sight! This next part is completely literal- my husband had never even tried a salad until we started dating five years ago. I have slowly broadened his food horizon, but there are still less than 10 vegetables that he will eat. He had also never tried broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes.. I could go on.
I think in his situation the blame is not necessarily completely on the "meat and potatoes" diet, but the fact that he was never offered or made to try any new foods. I do actually think that his mom might have had a salad or some vegetable with her meal, but he never did.
Additionally, I'm from the South, so a basic southern meal doesn't generally contain fresh vegetables. Occasionally side salads will be served, but you're more likely to see creamed spinach, corn with butter, or green beans with bacon and marinated in grease!
I've known a few people that also grew up like this. From one friend, apparently his mother "got a deal" on Spaghettios... and bought an entire CASE of them when he was a kid. So the family ate Spaghettios regularly for dinner for two years (turning my friend off from Spaghettios forever). When I met him, he didn't know how to identify most vegetables. He also never had a salad before. Thankfully, introducing him to vegetables, he actually does like quite a few of them even if he's never had them before. But he still doesn't eat right at all. He's getting older gaining a lot of weight and is almost 300 lbs now with a BMI of over 35. I'm hoping he'll realize what he's doing and make a change soon. He's the kind of person that won't listen to anyone else until he comes to his own conclusions.
I can't believe how important it is for parents to teach their kids how to eat. Being a parent is a tough job. I'm so grateful my mother has done well giving me a fairly healthy diet, even if she let me have sweets a little bit too often! My dad was a good influence, too... he wanted to be a chef when I was growing up, but just became a fabulous home cook instead.
I learned what I know about nutrition from grade school (though now everything is different!) and from college biology classes (BS in Biology as well), and doing my own research. I don't think I'm an expert or even close to being really well informed about nutrition, but I also don't think that eating healthy is as much of a rocket science as people make it out to be. People have been eating since the dawn of our species, and doing it well. I think food science and manipulative marketing tends to make everything more complicated and difficult for people that really could just follow their common sense and be fine; and the fact that we can't rely on common sense anymore is a sign that our culture is failing us.
I remember we had to take Home Economics and Health when I was in grade school and we learned about proper eating, the four food groups etc. It's scary that parents aren't being educated in proper nutrition because if they aren't then their kids won't have good eating habits and they are going to have to fight to get the knowledge later in life. Too bad we don't take proper nutrition more seriously since it's one of the biggest issues now with so many dietary issues turning into health care issues.
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Wheelhouse15 wrote: »
I remember we had to take Home Economics and Health when I was in grade school and we learned about proper eating, the four food groups etc. It's scary that parents aren't being educated in proper nutrition because if they aren't then their kids won't have good eating habits and they are going to have to fight to get the knowledge later in life. Too bad we don't take proper nutrition more seriously since it's one of the biggest issues now with so many dietary issues turning into health care issues.
It is a strange world we live in now that there are so many "food dangers", and not because of poisonous plants. Omnivore's Dilemma is a good book.
Some dear friends of mine had their first child, and they both struggle with diet and weight, but they do know about proper nutrition and eating right because of those struggles. I'm curious what their child's relationship with food will be; if they'll be able to break the cycle of their parents (their parents are obese or near obese; some with obesity-related diseases). He's barely a year old and they gave him a taste of French Fries from a fast food place, and of course he was immediately hooked. It's their decision and I respect them as parents, but it made me realize that when I have children I'm not going to give them food like that ever when they are so young (not eating it myself especially). There is no good in it to me.0 -
Chaskavitch wrote: »I feel like I grew up hearing a lot about eating healthy foods. My mom had a lot of ups and downs in weight, but I think most of her problems were emotional eating and binging, not so much eating a lot of unhealthy things. We've always had a lot of salads, veggies with most meals, whole wheat bread instead of white, oatmeal for breakfast, etc. My mom likes to cook, I think the only prepackaged meals I had growing up were pizzas and breakfast sausages.
I've learned more from a LOT of reading and basically experimenting on myself since I moved out on my own. I know what works for me, I just have trouble sticking to it because I all the carbs and have trouble with portions when you bring out the french bread
I definitely know a lot of people who know nothing about nutrition. One young lady at my mom's church threw out all of her pans because they were "frying" pans, so she assumed anything cooked in them must be "fried", and therefore unhealthy. At the same time, she was feeding her family huge portions of Stouffer's lasagna and freezer meals basically every night, and her "healthy" salads were about equal ratios of Iceberg and ranch/cheese/ham. She really was trying, but she had no idea where to start.
This saddens me!!
I have stepchildren whose mother is also overweight (also, as in, I am too) but she doesn't seem to know a thing about nutrition or, perhaps, care (where we differ-- I KNOW, I just prefer ice cream!), so I have been fighting a losing battle with my stepchildren for years now! They are 10 and 6 and I can't get the oldest to eat a single vegetable. He will sit at the table for HOURS if we tell him he can't leave until he eats his food. The youngest will eat a few vegetables, but she is definitely still very picky. Both of them survive on a diet of cheeseburgers, chicken nuggets, chips, and French fries. This is almost exactly how my husband ate as a child. Once his mother found something that he liked, she wanted to please him and not fight with him, so that's what he ate, which is why he never tried a salad until he was 28. I now have a 9 month old son and I plan to try my hardest to teach him about nutrition and have him eat nutritiously. I do not want him to battle his weight when he is older.
The salad part is also where a lot of people get stuck- it's a little crazy that you can order a cheeseburger and fries at a restaurant for fewer calories than a lot of the salads on the menu. As for at home, that ranch dressing and cheese is killer!
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research! once I started learning, I can't stop researching and couldn't believe how little I'd always known0
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I learned through research. With my first weight loss go-around a few years back, my trainer gave me an eating plan with approved foods. It was the first time that I saw healthy fats as part of an eating plan, including real butter. From there, I just kept reading and researching. I am on my second weight loss go-around (health issues and love of fattening foods had me gaining half of the weight I lost originally) and I am still learning.
To me, it is more than just burn more calories than you take in to lose weight. I want to know the biological and chemical processes my body goes through when I eat sugar, healthy fats, etc. The more knowledge I have, the better I follow a healthy eating and exercise plan. It helps me stop and consider: do I want to do an intense 20 minute cardio session (above and beyond what I have already done for the day) so I can eat that bowl of ice cream (if it is outside my allotted calories) ... the answer often times is NO! On those times, I tell myself yes, I am later in the gym working it off ... gotta pay the price for indulgences!0 -
allanakern wrote: »research! once I started learning, I can't stop researching and couldn't believe how little I'd always known
^This. For me it started in Feb. 2012 when I joined another weight management site, and I've been learning ever since. It really was an eye-opener.
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I think with me, growing up in the middle of nowhere played a big role in the foods I enjoy today. I had this obsession with going into the garden and eating raw vegetables. Being so far away from a major city, we never had the option of picking up drive-thru on the way home. Even when we went to local restaurants, the food was home cooked by someone you knew.
It's funny too, because growing up, lunch and dinner always had a dessert associated with it. Maybe you had a couple cookies, a piece of pie, pudding, etc. I was never one to like sweets, I'd prefer to run into the garden and steal a handful of snap peas. Maybe it was because I secretly "snuck" into the garden and thought I was being all sleuth-like, I dunno. Either way, it seemed to stick with me.
I do remember back in the 80's, the whole craze with diet pop and diet fads and whatnot. The only thing I ever remember getting scolded on was tossing out perfectly good food (whether it be considered "healthy" or not).
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I never really gave it too much though until maybe about 5 years ago. Growing up, I did eat a lot of fruits and vegetables (and was encouraged to do so). That being said, when I was younger, I would also consume vast amounts of cookies, for one, and nothing was said about that either. I also picked up some bad habits from some family members - snacking when not hungry, grazing on various snacks all night, etc, etc. The same family members (actually member) also seem to subscribe to fad ideas ("Egg yolks are sooo bad for you!"). I never really knew anything about macros, how many calories I should eat, etc, etc.
So anyway, I've mostly just picked it up on my own over the last few years especially. At first, I'd just learn from logging different foods and looking at the macros. I seek out information in articles and other publications as well. I am by no means an expert, but I feel much more knowledgeable than I did before. Maybe someday I'll take a formal course.
Edited to add: I grew up participating in a LOT of activities.. was always running around playing some kind of sport. So, I was at a really healthy weight all of my childhood. Once I got to those "awkward years", the food I binged on (like cookies mentioned above!) started to outweigh all of the sports I played. I wish I thought of food as "fuel" for my body back then like I do now. You live, you learn...0 -
I grew up in an environment where my family was well-intentioned but under-informed. It was difficult as a child and young adult to prioritize eating healthily when: 1) you balanced overall nutrition with "traditional" meals and "on-the-go" eating to accommodate busy schedules. 2) you didn't really understand nutrition, metabolism, digestion, what different food/ingredients do to your body, etc. -- my parents didn't pass on any reasoning on WHY I should eat x and y and not z, etc. so I never understood the value of a nutritious diet. 3) I was very active until I became a cubicle monkey so I could get away with eating poorly. 4) I never realized how sneaky and "technically accurate" advertising for many processed foods actually is, and the "healthy" food I was eating was really not as healthy as I assumed.
I took an interest in college in learning more about exercise, supplementation and general nutrition, and I was able to get in decent shape and lift decent weight -- since then I try to keep educating myself on emerging research, and find it increasingly difficult to practice what I preach as well, despite it being all the more crucial given the level of activity (and my slowing metabolic rate) I experience now compared to when I was in college working out 5x a week for a minimum of 90 mins per session!0 -
I am not well-versed in nutrition, but learned what I do know by:
1. Picking up books and reading them.
2. Asking people who are very knowledgeable.
I was raised on one of the most unhealthy diets possible. Mom really thought she was doing a good job, but she was clueless. The one and only thing she limited was pop and that was only because she thought carbonation couldn't be good for young stomachs, lol.
That's why I'm always congratulating people who teach their kids good habits. It's harder to adopt them when you're used to yummy junk food.
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I have learned through research and reading, but I can tell that it is hard to find real experts in the field of nutrition, ones that know what are they talking about and always link any study and reference. I have a group of experts that I always read/listen to and of course among all of them I make my conclusions, because there is some science that it needs to be done so you have to listen to your body as well.0
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