Do you eat junk? why or why not?
Replies
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realityfades wrote: »Need2Exerc1se wrote: »
Your fat macro is junk food?
Junk food: foods that are low in vitamins and minerals and often high in calories. Cookies, cake, candy, potato chips. That is the definition. It's called junk food due to the lack of nutrients.
Not saying they're inherently bad. Just saying that it's important to have balance.
Potato chips are not junk. They meet every definition i know of "Clean" and are one of the best sources of potassium you can get your hands on.
What makes them better than say tomato juice or sauce? Or a baked potato? Or a banana?0 -
realityfades wrote: »I don't label food as junk. All food provides energy.
I get where you're coming from, but the definition of junk food is food that is low in nutrients, like cake, cookies, etc. and typically high in calories. They don't really provide vitamins and minerals compared to fruit and veg. Maybe you don't like to label foods and that's ok. But junk food typically doesn't provide energy. At least not sustainable energy. A donut and a sweet potato certainly don't act the same.
That said, I see nothing wrong with eating things in moderation. Especially if I log it.
whole wheat, apples, bananas, coconut, and whole grain rice would also have to be examples of foods meeting the "junk" classification...
Seriously???
Apples and bananas both have fiber and potassium.
Brown rice has magnesium.0 -
realityfades wrote: »But junk food typically doesn't provide energy. At least not sustainable energy. A donut and a sweet potato certainly don't act the same.
Oh, but that's what it does provide. Not much else, perhaps, but easy to access energy, sure. Gels are basically "junk" but work great for fueling athletic activity in the right circumstances.0 -
I eat what I please as long as it is within my calorie goal. If I didn't eat some of the "junky" foods that I really enjoy I'd never succeed in the long term. Based on what I've read both on MFP forums and other places, people who completely deprive themselves of "junk" food that they love often fail in the long term - they either lose the weight and then gain it all (and more) back, or they give up because it's too hard.0
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Need2Exerc1se wrote: »realityfades wrote: »Need2Exerc1se wrote: »
Your fat macro is junk food?
Junk food: foods that are low in vitamins and minerals and often high in calories. Cookies, cake, candy, potato chips. That is the definition. It's called junk food due to the lack of nutrients.
Not saying they're inherently bad. Just saying that it's important to have balance.
Potato chips are not junk. They meet every definition i know of "Clean" and are one of the best sources of potassium you can get your hands on.
What makes them better than say tomato juice or sauce? Or a baked potato? Or a banana?
They got crunch! Plus you can take them anywhere.0 -
realityfades wrote: »realityfades wrote: »Need2Exerc1se wrote: »
Your fat macro is junk food?
Junk food: foods that are low in vitamins and minerals and often high in calories. Cookies, cake, candy, potato chips. That is the definition. It's called junk food due to the lack of nutrients.
Not saying they're inherently bad. Just saying that it's important to have balance.
Potato chips are not junk. They meet every definition i know of "Clean" and are one of the best sources of potassium you can get your hands on.
Oatmeal cookies are no "junkier" than a bowl of oatmeal with honey.
Potato chips are certainly junk. At least the ones you buy from Lay's and other companies. Let's compare a white potato to potato chips.
Potato chips [Lay's brand]: no vitamin A, calcium, 6 percent vitamin E, 6 percent niacin, 4 percent magnesium - based on RDA values.
Whole russet potato:
Vitamin content:
1 percent vitamin A, 64 percent vitamin C, 1 percent vitamin E, 16 percent protein, 7 percent vitamin K, 13 percent thiamin, 8 percent riboflavin, 20 percent niacin, 53 percent viatmin b6, 19 percent folate, 12 percent pantothenic acid, choline and beatine.
Minerals:
5 percent calcium, 18 percent iron, 22 percent magnesium, 21 percent phosphorous, 47 percent potassium, 7 percent zinc, 16 percent copper, 34 percent maganese, 2 percent selenium , 135 mcg flouride
Like I said. Junk foods don't typically contain the necessary vitamins and minerals as whole fruits and veggies.
Cape Cod Potato chips. Ingredients: Potatoes, Canola Oil, Salt.
Apparently if you cook and salt a plain old potato it becomes junk.
Comparing a 1oz serving chips to an entire 10-oz potato is not valid. Normalize your data before making a comparison. The chips have all the exact same nutrients as a potato. Because they're potatoes.0 -
Need2Exerc1se wrote: »realityfades wrote: »Need2Exerc1se wrote: »
Your fat macro is junk food?
Junk food: foods that are low in vitamins and minerals and often high in calories. Cookies, cake, candy, potato chips. That is the definition. It's called junk food due to the lack of nutrients.
Not saying they're inherently bad. Just saying that it's important to have balance.
Potato chips are not junk. They meet every definition i know of "Clean" and are one of the best sources of potassium you can get your hands on.
What makes them better than say tomato juice or sauce? Or a baked potato? Or a banana?
They got crunch! Plus you can take them anywhere.
Where can I take potato chips that I can't take a can't take the other foods I mentioned?0 -
realityfades wrote: »I don't label food as junk. All food provides energy.
I get where you're coming from, but the definition of junk food is food that is low in nutrients, like cake, cookies, etc. and typically high in calories. They don't really provide vitamins and minerals compared to fruit and veg. Maybe you don't like to label foods and that's ok. But junk food typically doesn't provide energy. At least not sustainable energy. A donut and a sweet potato certainly don't act the same.
That said, I see nothing wrong with eating things in moderation. Especially if I log it.
whole wheat, apples, bananas, coconut, and whole grain rice would also have to be examples of foods meeting the "junk" classification...
Seriously???
Apples and bananas both have fiber and potassium.
Brown rice has magnesium.
A snickers bar has fiber and potassium. your point?0 -
realityfades wrote: »realityfades wrote: »Need2Exerc1se wrote: »
Your fat macro is junk food?
Junk food: foods that are low in vitamins and minerals and often high in calories. Cookies, cake, candy, potato chips. That is the definition. It's called junk food due to the lack of nutrients.
Not saying they're inherently bad. Just saying that it's important to have balance.
Potato chips are not junk. They meet every definition i know of "Clean" and are one of the best sources of potassium you can get your hands on.
Oatmeal cookies are no "junkier" than a bowl of oatmeal with honey.
Potato chips are certainly junk. At least the ones you buy from Lay's and other companies. Let's compare a white potato to potato chips.
Potato chips [Lay's brand]: no vitamin A, calcium, 6 percent vitamin E, 6 percent niacin, 4 percent magnesium - based on RDA values.
Whole russet potato:
Vitamin content:
1 percent vitamin A, 64 percent vitamin C, 1 percent vitamin E, 16 percent protein, 7 percent vitamin K, 13 percent thiamin, 8 percent riboflavin, 20 percent niacin, 53 percent viatmin b6, 19 percent folate, 12 percent pantothenic acid, choline and beatine.
Minerals:
5 percent calcium, 18 percent iron, 22 percent magnesium, 21 percent phosphorous, 47 percent potassium, 7 percent zinc, 16 percent copper, 34 percent maganese, 2 percent selenium , 135 mcg flouride
Like I said. Junk foods don't typically contain the necessary vitamins and minerals as whole fruits and veggies.
Cape Cod Potato chips. Ingredients: Potatoes, Canola Oil, Salt.
Apparently if you cook and salt a plain old potato it becomes junk.
Comparing a 1oz serving chips to an entire 10-oz potato is not valid. Normalize your data before making a comparison. The chips have all the exact same nutrients as a potato. Because they're potatoes.
Not really. Per calorie, the potato chips will have much less micronutrients because most of the calories come from the fat. If you ate enough potato chips to get the same amount of potassium as a baked potato you'd likely blow through most of your calories for the day.0 -
Love me some McDonald's. Especially that double quarter pounder. I've eaten two of them in one sitting numerous times the past few months along with a fish filet and fries. Always bulking.0
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I overindulged this morning on a "junk food" and now feel yucky. I'm going to eat some carrots to try to make up for it. I may have to run off some bad decisions later.
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realityfades wrote: »I don't label food as junk. All food provides energy.
I get where you're coming from, but the definition of junk food is food that is low in nutrients, like cake, cookies, etc. and typically high in calories. They don't really provide vitamins and minerals compared to fruit and veg. Maybe you don't like to label foods and that's ok. But junk food typically doesn't provide energy. At least not sustainable energy. A donut and a sweet potato certainly don't act the same.
That said, I see nothing wrong with eating things in moderation. Especially if I log it.
whole wheat, apples, bananas, coconut, and whole grain rice would also have to be examples of foods meeting the "junk" classification...
Seriously???
Apples and bananas both have fiber and potassium.
Brown rice has magnesium.
I think we have a hard time accessing the nutrients in brown rice, so there's a decent argument that white rice is not much different from a nutrient standpoint (neither being great, but also not terrible, and neither being especially high cal). Fried rice is much higher cal and more likely to be considered junk food in colloquial usage, but also is more likely to contain more nutrients, like vegetables and protein.
It's hard to draw a hard line, although I don't mind the term.
I said above I'd consider fries "junk food" (unless I made them myself and baked them), but if so wouldn't naan also be? And if naan, why not rice? And if we apply the term to most staple dishes (rice, grains) which were used mainly to supply calories to societies where food was more scarce and people more active than ours, does that make sense?
I'm honestly not sure and am interested in what others think.
I'm inclined to say these staple foods aren't high cal enough and provide some nutrients, so I'd be more likely to call them "junk" if they were higher cal (like the fries -- because of the frying).0 -
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I mean I can see times when eating that would help me hit my nutritional targets
Does that mean it's junk or ok?
As for the emotional benefit of eating food for the delight of eating food, is that part of the equation..you know the hedonic pleasure from something highly palatable
By the way that is the nutritional breakdown of 100g of cake, creme filled, chocolate with frosting
Personally I'd prefer cheese or chips ..just making a point0 -
realityfades wrote: »realityfades wrote: »Need2Exerc1se wrote: »
Your fat macro is junk food?
Junk food: foods that are low in vitamins and minerals and often high in calories. Cookies, cake, candy, potato chips. That is the definition. It's called junk food due to the lack of nutrients.
Not saying they're inherently bad. Just saying that it's important to have balance.
Potato chips are not junk. They meet every definition i know of "Clean" and are one of the best sources of potassium you can get your hands on.
Oatmeal cookies are no "junkier" than a bowl of oatmeal with honey.
Potato chips are certainly junk. At least the ones you buy from Lay's and other companies. Let's compare a white potato to potato chips.
Potato chips [Lay's brand]: no vitamin A, calcium, 6 percent vitamin E, 6 percent niacin, 4 percent magnesium - based on RDA values.
Whole russet potato:
Vitamin content:
1 percent vitamin A, 64 percent vitamin C, 1 percent vitamin E, 16 percent protein, 7 percent vitamin K, 13 percent thiamin, 8 percent riboflavin, 20 percent niacin, 53 percent viatmin b6, 19 percent folate, 12 percent pantothenic acid, choline and beatine.
Minerals:
5 percent calcium, 18 percent iron, 22 percent magnesium, 21 percent phosphorous, 47 percent potassium, 7 percent zinc, 16 percent copper, 34 percent maganese, 2 percent selenium , 135 mcg flouride
Like I said. Junk foods don't typically contain the necessary vitamins and minerals as whole fruits and veggies.
Cape Cod Potato chips. Ingredients: Potatoes, Canola Oil, Salt.
Apparently if you cook and salt a plain old potato it becomes junk.
Comparing a 1oz serving chips to an entire 10-oz potato is not valid. Normalize your data before making a comparison. The chips have all the exact same nutrients as a potato. Because they're potatoes.
I'm not talking about the ingredients. I am talking about vitamins and minerals.
So you don't think any food is junk....great. Others do.
Cooking a plain potato is not the same as frying potato slices in a deep fryer and stripping the flesh off it.0 -
Need2Exerc1se wrote: »realityfades wrote: »realityfades wrote: »Need2Exerc1se wrote: »
Your fat macro is junk food?
Junk food: foods that are low in vitamins and minerals and often high in calories. Cookies, cake, candy, potato chips. That is the definition. It's called junk food due to the lack of nutrients.
Not saying they're inherently bad. Just saying that it's important to have balance.
Potato chips are not junk. They meet every definition i know of "Clean" and are one of the best sources of potassium you can get your hands on.
Oatmeal cookies are no "junkier" than a bowl of oatmeal with honey.
Potato chips are certainly junk. At least the ones you buy from Lay's and other companies. Let's compare a white potato to potato chips.
Potato chips [Lay's brand]: no vitamin A, calcium, 6 percent vitamin E, 6 percent niacin, 4 percent magnesium - based on RDA values.
Whole russet potato:
Vitamin content:
1 percent vitamin A, 64 percent vitamin C, 1 percent vitamin E, 16 percent protein, 7 percent vitamin K, 13 percent thiamin, 8 percent riboflavin, 20 percent niacin, 53 percent viatmin b6, 19 percent folate, 12 percent pantothenic acid, choline and beatine.
Minerals:
5 percent calcium, 18 percent iron, 22 percent magnesium, 21 percent phosphorous, 47 percent potassium, 7 percent zinc, 16 percent copper, 34 percent maganese, 2 percent selenium , 135 mcg flouride
Like I said. Junk foods don't typically contain the necessary vitamins and minerals as whole fruits and veggies.
Cape Cod Potato chips. Ingredients: Potatoes, Canola Oil, Salt.
Apparently if you cook and salt a plain old potato it becomes junk.
Comparing a 1oz serving chips to an entire 10-oz potato is not valid. Normalize your data before making a comparison. The chips have all the exact same nutrients as a potato. Because they're potatoes.
Not really. Per calorie, the potato chips will have much less micronutrients because most of the calories come from the fat. If you ate enough potato chips to get the same amount of potassium as a baked potato you'd likely blow through most of your calories for the day.
So only boiled and baked potatoes (with no butter or cream) are good, and grilled potato wedges with canola oil and salt are junk. got it.0 -
Need2Exerc1se wrote: »realityfades wrote: »realityfades wrote: »Need2Exerc1se wrote: »
Your fat macro is junk food?
Junk food: foods that are low in vitamins and minerals and often high in calories. Cookies, cake, candy, potato chips. That is the definition. It's called junk food due to the lack of nutrients.
Not saying they're inherently bad. Just saying that it's important to have balance.
Potato chips are not junk. They meet every definition i know of "Clean" and are one of the best sources of potassium you can get your hands on.
Oatmeal cookies are no "junkier" than a bowl of oatmeal with honey.
Potato chips are certainly junk. At least the ones you buy from Lay's and other companies. Let's compare a white potato to potato chips.
Potato chips [Lay's brand]: no vitamin A, calcium, 6 percent vitamin E, 6 percent niacin, 4 percent magnesium - based on RDA values.
Whole russet potato:
Vitamin content:
1 percent vitamin A, 64 percent vitamin C, 1 percent vitamin E, 16 percent protein, 7 percent vitamin K, 13 percent thiamin, 8 percent riboflavin, 20 percent niacin, 53 percent viatmin b6, 19 percent folate, 12 percent pantothenic acid, choline and beatine.
Minerals:
5 percent calcium, 18 percent iron, 22 percent magnesium, 21 percent phosphorous, 47 percent potassium, 7 percent zinc, 16 percent copper, 34 percent maganese, 2 percent selenium , 135 mcg flouride
Like I said. Junk foods don't typically contain the necessary vitamins and minerals as whole fruits and veggies.
Cape Cod Potato chips. Ingredients: Potatoes, Canola Oil, Salt.
Apparently if you cook and salt a plain old potato it becomes junk.
Comparing a 1oz serving chips to an entire 10-oz potato is not valid. Normalize your data before making a comparison. The chips have all the exact same nutrients as a potato. Because they're potatoes.
Not really. Per calorie, the potato chips will have much less micronutrients because most of the calories come from the fat. If you ate enough potato chips to get the same amount of potassium as a baked potato you'd likely blow through most of your calories for the day.
So only boiled and baked potatoes (with no butter or cream) are good, and grilled potato wedges with canola oil and salt are junk. got it.
Obviously you don't. But nice spin.0 -
Need2Exerc1se wrote: »realityfades wrote: »I don't label food as junk. All food provides energy.
I get where you're coming from, but the definition of junk food is food that is low in nutrients, like cake, cookies, etc. and typically high in calories. They don't really provide vitamins and minerals compared to fruit and veg. Maybe you don't like to label foods and that's ok. But junk food typically doesn't provide energy. At least not sustainable energy. A donut and a sweet potato certainly don't act the same.
That said, I see nothing wrong with eating things in moderation. Especially if I log it.
whole wheat, apples, bananas, coconut, and whole grain rice would also have to be examples of foods meeting the "junk" classification...
How could fruit ever meet a classification that included the phrase "compared to fruit and veg."?
apples and bananas are very nutrient poor fruits.
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Need2Exerc1se wrote: »realityfades wrote: »realityfades wrote: »Need2Exerc1se wrote: »
Your fat macro is junk food?
Junk food: foods that are low in vitamins and minerals and often high in calories. Cookies, cake, candy, potato chips. That is the definition. It's called junk food due to the lack of nutrients.
Not saying they're inherently bad. Just saying that it's important to have balance.
Potato chips are not junk. They meet every definition i know of "Clean" and are one of the best sources of potassium you can get your hands on.
Oatmeal cookies are no "junkier" than a bowl of oatmeal with honey.
Potato chips are certainly junk. At least the ones you buy from Lay's and other companies. Let's compare a white potato to potato chips.
Potato chips [Lay's brand]: no vitamin A, calcium, 6 percent vitamin E, 6 percent niacin, 4 percent magnesium - based on RDA values.
Whole russet potato:
Vitamin content:
1 percent vitamin A, 64 percent vitamin C, 1 percent vitamin E, 16 percent protein, 7 percent vitamin K, 13 percent thiamin, 8 percent riboflavin, 20 percent niacin, 53 percent viatmin b6, 19 percent folate, 12 percent pantothenic acid, choline and beatine.
Minerals:
5 percent calcium, 18 percent iron, 22 percent magnesium, 21 percent phosphorous, 47 percent potassium, 7 percent zinc, 16 percent copper, 34 percent maganese, 2 percent selenium , 135 mcg flouride
Like I said. Junk foods don't typically contain the necessary vitamins and minerals as whole fruits and veggies.
Cape Cod Potato chips. Ingredients: Potatoes, Canola Oil, Salt.
Apparently if you cook and salt a plain old potato it becomes junk.
Comparing a 1oz serving chips to an entire 10-oz potato is not valid. Normalize your data before making a comparison. The chips have all the exact same nutrients as a potato. Because they're potatoes.
Not really. Per calorie, the potato chips will have much less micronutrients because most of the calories come from the fat. If you ate enough potato chips to get the same amount of potassium as a baked potato you'd likely blow through most of your calories for the day.
So only boiled and baked potatoes (with no butter or cream) are good, and grilled potato wedges with canola oil and salt are junk. got it.
No. The body needs fats, carbs and protein. I am only saying you can't say that fried sliced potato wit[hout the flesh is the same as eating a whole baked potato, no matter what goes on it. And grilled with canola oil is NOT the same as deep frying.0 -
I eat food. Food is good.0
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realityfades wrote: »Out of curiosity, who here eats junk food, and who doesn't? If you do or don't eat junk, why?
I feel like if I completely banned junk food, I wouldn't feel satisfied and would overeat. I also try to balance junk with fruit and veg. I think that's pretty sensible.
This is me. I eat *everything* in moderation. I eat a diet made of mostly nutritious choices, but find room for all the other things I enjoy as well. I have learned that the minute I try to ban something from my diet, that's all I want and I start obsessing and feeling deprived and end up binging. When I stopped looking at food as "good" or "bad" (or "junk"), and instead started looking at food as puzzle pieces that all had a place in my diet if I worked it right, things became so much simpler and easier and I lost that feeling of deprivation and started seeing a lot of success.0 -
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NikiChicken wrote: »realityfades wrote: »Out of curiosity, who here eats junk food, and who doesn't? If you do or don't eat junk, why?
I feel like if I completely banned junk food, I wouldn't feel satisfied and would overeat. I also try to balance junk with fruit and veg. I think that's pretty sensible.
This is me. I eat *everything* in moderation. I eat a diet made of mostly nutritious choices, but find room for all the other things I enjoy as well. I have learned that the minute I try to ban something from my diet, that's all I want and I start obsessing and feeling deprived and end up binging. When I stopped looking at food as "good" or "bad" (or "junk"), and instead started looking at food as puzzle pieces that all had a place in my diet if I worked it right, things became so much simpler and easier and I lost that feeling of deprivation and started seeing a lot of success.
Someone I know is currently doing a food ban with certain items. Items that she's prone to overeating on. And I get it, it's easier to avoid foods when the temptation is not around, but I know if I banned anything I'd just end up binging anyway.0 -
Need2Exerc1se wrote: »realityfades wrote: »I don't label food as junk. All food provides energy.
I get where you're coming from, but the definition of junk food is food that is low in nutrients, like cake, cookies, etc. and typically high in calories. They don't really provide vitamins and minerals compared to fruit and veg. Maybe you don't like to label foods and that's ok. But junk food typically doesn't provide energy. At least not sustainable energy. A donut and a sweet potato certainly don't act the same.
That said, I see nothing wrong with eating things in moderation. Especially if I log it.
whole wheat, apples, bananas, coconut, and whole grain rice would also have to be examples of foods meeting the "junk" classification...
How could fruit ever meet a classification that included the phrase "compared to fruit and veg."?
apples and bananas are very nutrient poor fruits.
Is there a reason why you think that? I don't like bananas but they are an excellent source of potassium and magnesium, both are good for heart health. Low potassium leads to heart arrythmias.
Apples are good for the vitamin C, it has some potassium and calcium, and a few other things. Though one could argue other fruits and veg provide the same minerals and vitamins.0 -
"Junk food" is a colloquialism that most people understand. If people want to be purposely obtuse about what it means that's fine with me, I'm not getting into a debate about it. I think that referring to it as the 20 part of 80/20 makes sense. If that bugs others in some way, oh well.0
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Yup, I eat "junk" food. A girl's gotta have at least one vice.
You know, people call this a lifestyle change. Why does that have to mean not eating what you like? For me, logging calories and no longer sitting on the couch watching tv for 5 hours a night was my lifestyle change.
(Also, snickers have protein and whenever I saw that huuuuuge snickers bar in Target, I'd think of the guy who ate a whole one in one day.)0 -
I eat junk food every now and again, especially sweets. However, for me, avoiding these foods isn't just about weight or calories. It's about saturated and trans fats (although those are being phased out they aren't completely gone yet) contributing to the risk of heart disease (the #1 killer of women and men in the US), and too much sugar (including from processed carbs) putting me at higher risk of diabetes.0
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Need2Exerc1se wrote: »realityfades wrote: »I don't label food as junk. All food provides energy.
I get where you're coming from, but the definition of junk food is food that is low in nutrients, like cake, cookies, etc. and typically high in calories. They don't really provide vitamins and minerals compared to fruit and veg. Maybe you don't like to label foods and that's ok. But junk food typically doesn't provide energy. At least not sustainable energy. A donut and a sweet potato certainly don't act the same.
That said, I see nothing wrong with eating things in moderation. Especially if I log it.
whole wheat, apples, bananas, coconut, and whole grain rice would also have to be examples of foods meeting the "junk" classification...
How could fruit ever meet a classification that included the phrase "compared to fruit and veg."?
apples and bananas are very nutrient poor fruits.
That's not true, nor does it answer the question.0
This discussion has been closed.
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