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What are your unpopular opinions about health / fitness?

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Replies

  • jessiferrrb
    jessiferrrb Posts: 1,758 Member
    tiasommer wrote: »
    History is chock full of formerly believed to be safe products. It took people standing up and saying something about it before it stopped.
    If you think the food industry isn't putting things in your food that are harmful, you just keep believing that.
    If we all stopped accepting it, it wouldn't be the norm and prices of less chemically treated and processed foods would come down. Companies would be forced to make better food.
    But, well, who cares anyway. Accept the norm. Don't question things. It is the way it is. I like my chemically flavored and sweetend sodas. And if it fits in my calories, I'll eat it. Good for you. It's just not for me. It's unpopular. That's why I posted in this thread.

    ok, but what ingredients specifically? i think a few people have asked what chemicals and additives you're rallying against, but i haven't seen if you've addressed it.
  • DamieBird
    DamieBird Posts: 651 Member
    CSARdiver wrote: »
    peleroja wrote: »
    tiasommer wrote: »
    The link between sodium nitrites and cancer

    CTCA
    May 31, 2013


    A study by the Cancer Research Center of Hawaii and the University of Southern California suggests a link between eating processed meats and cancer risk. The study followed 190,000 people, ages 45-75, for seven years and found that people who ate the most processed meats had a 67% higher risk of pancreatic cancer than those who ate the least amount.

    Did you know that celery, cabbage, beets, carrots, radishes, and spinach are all naturally high in sodium nitrate? I found a University of Minnesota study when I googled to check my recollection of this that stated that the average person consumes 90% of their intake of nitrite from vegetables and 10% from processed meats.

    Welp, I'm dead. I eat cabbage and carrots just about every day. :D

    I keep telling people to avoid those vitamin/mineral contaminated vegetables, but does anyone listen? How many children do we have to lose before broccoli is banned once and for all?!

    Anyone know a screenwriter? I feel like that could be the plot for a kid's movie told from the perspective of a kid trying to vanquish an evil villain named Broccoli, lol.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    tiasommer wrote: »
    I do use organic, unbleached whole grain flour. I also use raw unbleached sugar. I use organic chocolate chips with milk, cocoa, butter, sugar and that's it. To me, it's more "natural" means it's closer to its original form.

    None of those are meaningfully closer to the original form: cocoa beans, wheat, sugar cane.

    A cookie made with them is not healthier than a cookie made with King Arthur white flour and non raw sugar (I think raw sugar is basically a scam: http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/difference-between-brown-sugar-sugar-raw-9244.html).
    Cookies in packages from Duncan Hines or whatever have a whole lot more ingredients in them than you would use yourself.

    Depends on the cookie, and if you look up what the added ingredients are they often aren't ones that would bother me. I prefer homemade because I am a cookie snob and if I'm spending the calories I want something that tastes amazing. (That said, my current favorite cookie is not homemade, but the macarons from a bakery sadly, sigh, near my house.) ;-)
    Did you know some boxed cakes contain a chemical used in anti-freeze? It makes them more moist. Not what I want to put in my body, but that's me.

    Well, you must have been more interested in store-bought cakes than I am to bother researching this, but being somewhat familiar with FoodBabe (as someone else said) this pings my "probably distorted" radar, but whatever.
    "Natural" does get thrown around a lot and I suppose is has different meanings to different people, but to me it just means less processed, less fillers, less additives.

    Like I said before, processed food (frozen, canned, available out of season, flour, sugar, dairy, meat from a butcher even) all makes things easier and healthy food more available all year, and cheaper. Same with farming existing, etc. Same with the fact I can go out for Indian or Ethiopian or a good Italian place or a farm-based seasonal place.
    I eat good food. I indulge. I've had Doritos! I'm an American and I'm human. I just don't make that the mainstay of my diet. I don't eat just half a mcdonalds meal because it fits in my calories and claim I'm being healthy. I believe in season produce is better. I think the chicken running wild eating what chickens eat makes better eggs. Natural, I think it's a healthier option because I know what I'm putting in my body. To me, it's nutrition and health, not just weight. That was my point.

    You are confusing nutrition (which no one is discounting) and this "natural" thing. I buy chicken only from local farms (buying free range doesn't necessarily mean a lot), but as janejellyroll says in many ways that is a luxury and something that is worthwhile to me (and for others not ethically sufficient and they'd consider 100% plant based important, even if the food was in some ways more processed). I DON'T think broccoli in January is NOT healthy because where I live it's not natural or seasonal. (Again, local and seasonal would mean I don't get much produce in the winter -- is that healthier?)
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    tiasommer wrote: »
    History is chock full of formerly believed to be safe products. It took people standing up and saying something about it before it stopped.
    If you think the food industry isn't putting things in your food that are harmful, you just keep believing that.
    If we all stopped accepting it, it wouldn't be the norm and prices of less chemically treated and processed foods would come down. Companies would be forced to make better food.
    But, well, who cares anyway. Accept the norm. Don't question things. It is the way it is. I like my chemically flavored and sweetend sodas. And if it fits in my calories, I'll eat it. Good for you. It's just not for me. It's unpopular. That's why I posted in this thread.

    It's interesting to me because I see a lot of people trying to question things and you saying no, accept the norm that this is healthier because I say so. This is still the debate board, after all. If you don't want to debate the actual additives you're talking about it might be best not to bring them up.

    Google suggests you mean Propylene glycol: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propylene_glycol
  • tiasommer
    tiasommer Posts: 36 Member
    It's pointless. It will inevitably be argued otherwise. After all, they've been approved for use in food. But I don't believe that necessarily means they are safe. I still have my concerns.
    If you must know, some of the additives I try to avoid BHA or BHT, artificial sweeteners, food dyes like blue # 1 & 2, red # 3 - just to name a few -sodium nitrate, sulfur dioxide, sodium benzoate, potassium bromate, high fructose corn syrup, MSG, and of course trans fats. Pesticides, artificial hormones, antibiotics… And the list goes on.
  • stevencloser
    stevencloser Posts: 8,911 Member
    tiasommer wrote: »
    I do use organic, unbleached whole grain flour. I also use raw unbleached sugar. I use organic chocolate chips with milk, cocoa, butter, sugar and that's it. To me, it's more "natural" means it's closer to its original form. Cookies in packages from Duncan Hines or whatever have a whole lot more ingredients in them than you would use yourself. Did you know some boxed cakes contain a chemical used in anti-freeze? It makes them more moist. Not what I want to put in my body, but that's me. "Natural" does get thrown around a lot and I suppose is has different meanings to different people, but to me it just means less processed, less fillers, less additives. I eat good food. I indulge. I've had Doritos! I'm an American and I'm human. I just don't make that the mainstay of my diet. I don't eat just half a mcdonalds meal because it fits in my calories and claim I'm being healthy. I believe in season produce is better. I think the chicken running wild eating what chickens eat makes better eggs. Natural, I think it's a healthier option because I know what I'm putting in my body. To me, it's nutrition and health, not just weight. That was my point.

    Water is used in anti-freeze...
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