How do I talk my Mom off the "Sugar is Toxic" ledge?

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Replies

  • Packerjohn
    Packerjohn Posts: 4,855 Member
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    Fructose separated from the fruit is just like eating any other sugar, but that's completely different than eating fruit where the fructose is not separated. Straight sugar has zero nutrition, there's no healthy amount because it isn't nutritious.
    1houndgal wrote: »
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    Mom keeps seeing these types of articles in the Times:

    https://www.nytimes.com/guides/smarterliving/how-to-stop-eating-sugar
    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17Sugar-t.html

    She also has a book on brain health with the same attitude. (I don't know the title off hand.)

    I've started by asking her how many grams of added sugar she consumes per day. (I already know the answer is a lot less than the average American. For starters, she doesn't drink sweetened beverages.)

    Now, I'd need more than "Lustig is a quack" or "Taubes is a quack." I'd need something reputable debunking their theories. (Not random blog posts.)

    I've read here a lot that our bodies don't know the difference between sugar from fruit and sugar from added sugar - are there reputable sources for this?

    BTW, she's not trying to lose weight and in fact struggles to stay above Underweight because she is very very active, especially for her age (80).

    TIA

    On fruit, fruit has vitamins/bioflavnoids/minerals and some fiber, than does refined sugar. Sugar are empty calories, devoid of healthy nutrients except for carbs.

    You guys DO know that there's a minimum amount of calories your body needs, right? If you were only eating the nutrients your body needs, the essential fats and proteins, and carbs only from the most nutritious, green vegetables for their minerals and vitamins... you'd starve to death eventually because that's something like 800 calories.

    I'm betting the guy in your profile picture doesn't get most of the calories he needs above the 800 you mention that are needed for minimum nutrition from foods with a lot of added sugar.

    Nothing wrong with added sugars. The WHO and several other respected organizations provide guidelines on the amount of added sugars in a healthy diet.

    Personally I try to stay about that level overall, but will splurge on occasion.

    The WHO provides guidelines on the amount of sugar because of its calories vs. nutrition provided in an average person so as to not overeat calories. That's not really a problem in a situation where you've got all your nutrient needs checked already and still need 1000+ calories in your day.

    So you would agree the 10% of calories from added sugars is reasonable for the vast majority of people?

    Your original post said an person needs around 800 calories for basic nutrition. My point was successful athletes, people with 5% BF like your profile picture, etc aren't getting most their remainding caloric remaining needs over the 800 you've identified from nutritionally less dense foods. Maybe 1,000 calories or so if they need 4-5000 a day, but most of the extra calories are coming from nutritionally dense foods.

    Googled the diets of some high level athletes:

    JJ Watt
    https://www.gq.com/story/jj-watt-real-life-diet

    Jeff Engleston (2:10 marathoner)
    https://runnersconnect.net/detailed-look-diet-elite-marathoner/

    High level basketball players:
    http://www.stack.com/a/basketball-nutrition-habits

    Yeah, 10% is definitely a reasonable amount.
    I'm just pointing out that there's no reason besides "not wanting to use your calories on it" for minimizing the amount of sugar you consume when your nutrient intakes would allow for eating it. You aren't getting nutrition brownie points for eating even more vegetables, even more healthy fats, even more protein than you need.

    Oh, also guys like the one in my profile picture have higher needs for protein than the average person anyway.

    Also I always have huge doubts about the accuracy of those "typical" meals for athletes or other celebrities. Just looking at the marathon runner, his breakfast is water (0 calories), black coffee (0 calories) and muesli with nonfat yogurt. Yet somehow that is supposed to come up at 650 calories. Müsli has about 450 cals for 100 grams, non-fat yogurt about 60-ish. If that's all the food he eats for breakfast, that's a lot of müsli, a lot of calories from added sugar in the müsli. And his typical day is only 2400 calories total. And I wouldn't count müsli as a particularly nutrient-dense food. It's better than cereal I guess. So, maybe not the best example of athletes who are eating so much in nutrient-dense foods.

    The first link too, I'm too lazy to count the calories up, but for that guy to get to 4000-5000 calories or whatever from the listed foods, there has to be a lot of added butter etc. or really big portions for the meats. Depending on who you ask, that's not particularly healthy either.

    Actually if you look at the article, the 2400 calorie day is the lowest of the 3 sample days for the marathoner. His higher days are 3000+ calories. He's 125 lbs

    The first guy, JJ Watt is an American football player, about 6'5, 290 hovers around 10% BF. It's reported eats anywhere from 5-9000 calories a day, depending on training cycle. I've seen this a typical day for him. Huge quantities of generally nutrient dense food.

    First Breakfast Oatmeal with blueberries and strawberries Six eggs Banana and apple Second breakfast Four eggs Two slices of wheat toast with peanut butter and banana and honey Two slices of wheat toast with jelly Lunch Three chicken breasts with whole wheat pasta and Italian dressing Side of broccoli Second lunch More chicken breasts with mashed sweet potatoes Steamed carrots Dinner Lamb chops with whole wheat pasta Grilled asparagus Second dinner Filet with whole wheat pasta Steamed broccoli
  • stevencloser
    stevencloser Posts: 8,911 Member
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    Fructose separated from the fruit is just like eating any other sugar, but that's completely different than eating fruit where the fructose is not separated. Straight sugar has zero nutrition, there's no healthy amount because it isn't nutritious.
    1houndgal wrote: »
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    Mom keeps seeing these types of articles in the Times:

    https://www.nytimes.com/guides/smarterliving/how-to-stop-eating-sugar
    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17Sugar-t.html

    She also has a book on brain health with the same attitude. (I don't know the title off hand.)

    I've started by asking her how many grams of added sugar she consumes per day. (I already know the answer is a lot less than the average American. For starters, she doesn't drink sweetened beverages.)

    Now, I'd need more than "Lustig is a quack" or "Taubes is a quack." I'd need something reputable debunking their theories. (Not random blog posts.)

    I've read here a lot that our bodies don't know the difference between sugar from fruit and sugar from added sugar - are there reputable sources for this?

    BTW, she's not trying to lose weight and in fact struggles to stay above Underweight because she is very very active, especially for her age (80).

    TIA

    On fruit, fruit has vitamins/bioflavnoids/minerals and some fiber, than does refined sugar. Sugar are empty calories, devoid of healthy nutrients except for carbs.

    You guys DO know that there's a minimum amount of calories your body needs, right? If you were only eating the nutrients your body needs, the essential fats and proteins, and carbs only from the most nutritious, green vegetables for their minerals and vitamins... you'd starve to death eventually because that's something like 800 calories.

    I'm betting the guy in your profile picture doesn't get most of the calories he needs above the 800 you mention that are needed for minimum nutrition from foods with a lot of added sugar.

    Nothing wrong with added sugars. The WHO and several other respected organizations provide guidelines on the amount of added sugars in a healthy diet.

    Personally I try to stay about that level overall, but will splurge on occasion.

    The WHO provides guidelines on the amount of sugar because of its calories vs. nutrition provided in an average person so as to not overeat calories. That's not really a problem in a situation where you've got all your nutrient needs checked already and still need 1000+ calories in your day.

    So you would agree the 10% of calories from added sugars is reasonable for the vast majority of people?

    Your original post said an person needs around 800 calories for basic nutrition. My point was successful athletes, people with 5% BF like your profile picture, etc aren't getting most their remainding caloric remaining needs over the 800 you've identified from nutritionally less dense foods. Maybe 1,000 calories or so if they need 4-5000 a day, but most of the extra calories are coming from nutritionally dense foods.

    Googled the diets of some high level athletes:

    JJ Watt
    https://www.gq.com/story/jj-watt-real-life-diet

    Jeff Engleston (2:10 marathoner)
    https://runnersconnect.net/detailed-look-diet-elite-marathoner/

    High level basketball players:
    http://www.stack.com/a/basketball-nutrition-habits

    Yeah, 10% is definitely a reasonable amount.
    I'm just pointing out that there's no reason besides "not wanting to use your calories on it" for minimizing the amount of sugar you consume when your nutrient intakes would allow for eating it. You aren't getting nutrition brownie points for eating even more vegetables, even more healthy fats, even more protein than you need.

    Oh, also guys like the one in my profile picture have higher needs for protein than the average person anyway.

    Also I always have huge doubts about the accuracy of those "typical" meals for athletes or other celebrities. Just looking at the marathon runner, his breakfast is water (0 calories), black coffee (0 calories) and muesli with nonfat yogurt. Yet somehow that is supposed to come up at 650 calories. Müsli has about 450 cals for 100 grams, non-fat yogurt about 60-ish. If that's all the food he eats for breakfast, that's a lot of müsli, a lot of calories from added sugar in the müsli. And his typical day is only 2400 calories total. And I wouldn't count müsli as a particularly nutrient-dense food. It's better than cereal I guess. So, maybe not the best example of athletes who are eating so much in nutrient-dense foods.

    The first link too, I'm too lazy to count the calories up, but for that guy to get to 4000-5000 calories or whatever from the listed foods, there has to be a lot of added butter etc. or really big portions for the meats. Depending on who you ask, that's not particularly healthy either.

    Actually if you look at the article, the 2400 calorie day is the lowest of the 3 sample days for the marathoner. His higher days are 3000+ calories. He's 125 lbs

    The first guy, JJ Watt is an American football player, about 6'5, 290 hovers around 10% BF. It's reported eats anywhere from 5-9000 calories a day, depending on training cycle. I've seen this a typical day for him. Huge quantities of generally nutrient dense food.

    First Breakfast Oatmeal with blueberries and strawberries Six eggs Banana and apple Second breakfast Four eggs Two slices of wheat toast with peanut butter and banana and honey Two slices of wheat toast with jelly Lunch Three chicken breasts with whole wheat pasta and Italian dressing Side of broccoli Second lunch More chicken breasts with mashed sweet potatoes Steamed carrots Dinner Lamb chops with whole wheat pasta Grilled asparagus Second dinner Filet with whole wheat pasta Steamed broccoli

    It's still over a quarter of his calories in müsli for that day. Now, I don't care, he can do that, but that's not something I'd personally think of when someone told me he gets all those great nutrient dense foods.

    JJ Watt the same. The food looks nice, but I'd bet you he doesn't get 6000 of his 9000 calories from asparagus and broccoli, but from the meat, starches and added oils. Which is also fine in my eyes but I know for a fact there's people who would argue that that is not healthy.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    jgnatca wrote: »
    Maybe your mother will like this article from the New York Times. A woman nearly dies from Scurvy from eliminating all fruit from her diet.

    https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/02/28/magazine/a-painful-bruise-wouldnt-heal-it-took-several-hospital-visits-to-discover-why.html?referer=https://www.google.ca/

    Bookmarking, thanks!
  • Packerjohn
    Packerjohn Posts: 4,855 Member
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    Fructose separated from the fruit is just like eating any other sugar, but that's completely different than eating fruit where the fructose is not separated. Straight sugar has zero nutrition, there's no healthy amount because it isn't nutritious.
    1houndgal wrote: »
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    Mom keeps seeing these types of articles in the Times:

    https://www.nytimes.com/guides/smarterliving/how-to-stop-eating-sugar
    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17Sugar-t.html

    She also has a book on brain health with the same attitude. (I don't know the title off hand.)

    I've started by asking her how many grams of added sugar she consumes per day. (I already know the answer is a lot less than the average American. For starters, she doesn't drink sweetened beverages.)

    Now, I'd need more than "Lustig is a quack" or "Taubes is a quack." I'd need something reputable debunking their theories. (Not random blog posts.)

    I've read here a lot that our bodies don't know the difference between sugar from fruit and sugar from added sugar - are there reputable sources for this?

    BTW, she's not trying to lose weight and in fact struggles to stay above Underweight because she is very very active, especially for her age (80).

    TIA

    On fruit, fruit has vitamins/bioflavnoids/minerals and some fiber, than does refined sugar. Sugar are empty calories, devoid of healthy nutrients except for carbs.

    You guys DO know that there's a minimum amount of calories your body needs, right? If you were only eating the nutrients your body needs, the essential fats and proteins, and carbs only from the most nutritious, green vegetables for their minerals and vitamins... you'd starve to death eventually because that's something like 800 calories.

    I'm betting the guy in your profile picture doesn't get most of the calories he needs above the 800 you mention that are needed for minimum nutrition from foods with a lot of added sugar.

    Nothing wrong with added sugars. The WHO and several other respected organizations provide guidelines on the amount of added sugars in a healthy diet.

    Personally I try to stay about that level overall, but will splurge on occasion.

    The WHO provides guidelines on the amount of sugar because of its calories vs. nutrition provided in an average person so as to not overeat calories. That's not really a problem in a situation where you've got all your nutrient needs checked already and still need 1000+ calories in your day.

    So you would agree the 10% of calories from added sugars is reasonable for the vast majority of people?

    Your original post said an person needs around 800 calories for basic nutrition. My point was successful athletes, people with 5% BF like your profile picture, etc aren't getting most their remainding caloric remaining needs over the 800 you've identified from nutritionally less dense foods. Maybe 1,000 calories or so if they need 4-5000 a day, but most of the extra calories are coming from nutritionally dense foods.

    Googled the diets of some high level athletes:

    JJ Watt
    https://www.gq.com/story/jj-watt-real-life-diet

    Jeff Engleston (2:10 marathoner)
    https://runnersconnect.net/detailed-look-diet-elite-marathoner/

    High level basketball players:
    http://www.stack.com/a/basketball-nutrition-habits

    Yeah, 10% is definitely a reasonable amount.
    I'm just pointing out that there's no reason besides "not wanting to use your calories on it" for minimizing the amount of sugar you consume when your nutrient intakes would allow for eating it. You aren't getting nutrition brownie points for eating even more vegetables, even more healthy fats, even more protein than you need.

    Oh, also guys like the one in my profile picture have higher needs for protein than the average person anyway.

    Also I always have huge doubts about the accuracy of those "typical" meals for athletes or other celebrities. Just looking at the marathon runner, his breakfast is water (0 calories), black coffee (0 calories) and muesli with nonfat yogurt. Yet somehow that is supposed to come up at 650 calories. Müsli has about 450 cals for 100 grams, non-fat yogurt about 60-ish. If that's all the food he eats for breakfast, that's a lot of müsli, a lot of calories from added sugar in the müsli. And his typical day is only 2400 calories total. And I wouldn't count müsli as a particularly nutrient-dense food. It's better than cereal I guess. So, maybe not the best example of athletes who are eating so much in nutrient-dense foods.

    The first link too, I'm too lazy to count the calories up, but for that guy to get to 4000-5000 calories or whatever from the listed foods, there has to be a lot of added butter etc. or really big portions for the meats. Depending on who you ask, that's not particularly healthy either.

    Actually if you look at the article, the 2400 calorie day is the lowest of the 3 sample days for the marathoner. His higher days are 3000+ calories. He's 125 lbs

    The first guy, JJ Watt is an American football player, about 6'5, 290 hovers around 10% BF. It's reported eats anywhere from 5-9000 calories a day, depending on training cycle. I've seen this a typical day for him. Huge quantities of generally nutrient dense food.

    First Breakfast Oatmeal with blueberries and strawberries Six eggs Banana and apple Second breakfast Four eggs Two slices of wheat toast with peanut butter and banana and honey Two slices of wheat toast with jelly Lunch Three chicken breasts with whole wheat pasta and Italian dressing Side of broccoli Second lunch More chicken breasts with mashed sweet potatoes Steamed carrots Dinner Lamb chops with whole wheat pasta Grilled asparagus Second dinner Filet with whole wheat pasta Steamed broccoli

    It's still over a quarter of his calories in müsli for that day. Now, I don't care, he can do that, but that's not something I'd personally think of when someone told me he gets all those great nutrient dense foods.

    JJ Watt the same. The food looks nice, but I'd bet you he doesn't get 6000 of his 9000 calories from asparagus and broccoli, but from the meat, starches and added oils. Which is also fine in my eyes but I know for a fact there's people who would argue that that is not healthy.

    JJ Watt is a $100M investment by his employer. You better believe they have the best medical care, dietitians money can buy watching over him.

    IMO, somebody arguing that his diet isn't directionally correct for him isn't worth listening to.
  • stevencloser
    stevencloser Posts: 8,911 Member
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    Fructose separated from the fruit is just like eating any other sugar, but that's completely different than eating fruit where the fructose is not separated. Straight sugar has zero nutrition, there's no healthy amount because it isn't nutritious.
    1houndgal wrote: »
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    Mom keeps seeing these types of articles in the Times:

    https://www.nytimes.com/guides/smarterliving/how-to-stop-eating-sugar
    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17Sugar-t.html

    She also has a book on brain health with the same attitude. (I don't know the title off hand.)

    I've started by asking her how many grams of added sugar she consumes per day. (I already know the answer is a lot less than the average American. For starters, she doesn't drink sweetened beverages.)

    Now, I'd need more than "Lustig is a quack" or "Taubes is a quack." I'd need something reputable debunking their theories. (Not random blog posts.)

    I've read here a lot that our bodies don't know the difference between sugar from fruit and sugar from added sugar - are there reputable sources for this?

    BTW, she's not trying to lose weight and in fact struggles to stay above Underweight because she is very very active, especially for her age (80).

    TIA

    On fruit, fruit has vitamins/bioflavnoids/minerals and some fiber, than does refined sugar. Sugar are empty calories, devoid of healthy nutrients except for carbs.

    You guys DO know that there's a minimum amount of calories your body needs, right? If you were only eating the nutrients your body needs, the essential fats and proteins, and carbs only from the most nutritious, green vegetables for their minerals and vitamins... you'd starve to death eventually because that's something like 800 calories.

    I'm betting the guy in your profile picture doesn't get most of the calories he needs above the 800 you mention that are needed for minimum nutrition from foods with a lot of added sugar.

    Nothing wrong with added sugars. The WHO and several other respected organizations provide guidelines on the amount of added sugars in a healthy diet.

    Personally I try to stay about that level overall, but will splurge on occasion.

    The WHO provides guidelines on the amount of sugar because of its calories vs. nutrition provided in an average person so as to not overeat calories. That's not really a problem in a situation where you've got all your nutrient needs checked already and still need 1000+ calories in your day.

    So you would agree the 10% of calories from added sugars is reasonable for the vast majority of people?

    Your original post said an person needs around 800 calories for basic nutrition. My point was successful athletes, people with 5% BF like your profile picture, etc aren't getting most their remainding caloric remaining needs over the 800 you've identified from nutritionally less dense foods. Maybe 1,000 calories or so if they need 4-5000 a day, but most of the extra calories are coming from nutritionally dense foods.

    Googled the diets of some high level athletes:

    JJ Watt
    https://www.gq.com/story/jj-watt-real-life-diet

    Jeff Engleston (2:10 marathoner)
    https://runnersconnect.net/detailed-look-diet-elite-marathoner/

    High level basketball players:
    http://www.stack.com/a/basketball-nutrition-habits

    Yeah, 10% is definitely a reasonable amount.
    I'm just pointing out that there's no reason besides "not wanting to use your calories on it" for minimizing the amount of sugar you consume when your nutrient intakes would allow for eating it. You aren't getting nutrition brownie points for eating even more vegetables, even more healthy fats, even more protein than you need.

    Oh, also guys like the one in my profile picture have higher needs for protein than the average person anyway.

    Also I always have huge doubts about the accuracy of those "typical" meals for athletes or other celebrities. Just looking at the marathon runner, his breakfast is water (0 calories), black coffee (0 calories) and muesli with nonfat yogurt. Yet somehow that is supposed to come up at 650 calories. Müsli has about 450 cals for 100 grams, non-fat yogurt about 60-ish. If that's all the food he eats for breakfast, that's a lot of müsli, a lot of calories from added sugar in the müsli. And his typical day is only 2400 calories total. And I wouldn't count müsli as a particularly nutrient-dense food. It's better than cereal I guess. So, maybe not the best example of athletes who are eating so much in nutrient-dense foods.

    The first link too, I'm too lazy to count the calories up, but for that guy to get to 4000-5000 calories or whatever from the listed foods, there has to be a lot of added butter etc. or really big portions for the meats. Depending on who you ask, that's not particularly healthy either.

    Actually if you look at the article, the 2400 calorie day is the lowest of the 3 sample days for the marathoner. His higher days are 3000+ calories. He's 125 lbs

    The first guy, JJ Watt is an American football player, about 6'5, 290 hovers around 10% BF. It's reported eats anywhere from 5-9000 calories a day, depending on training cycle. I've seen this a typical day for him. Huge quantities of generally nutrient dense food.

    First Breakfast Oatmeal with blueberries and strawberries Six eggs Banana and apple Second breakfast Four eggs Two slices of wheat toast with peanut butter and banana and honey Two slices of wheat toast with jelly Lunch Three chicken breasts with whole wheat pasta and Italian dressing Side of broccoli Second lunch More chicken breasts with mashed sweet potatoes Steamed carrots Dinner Lamb chops with whole wheat pasta Grilled asparagus Second dinner Filet with whole wheat pasta Steamed broccoli

    It's still over a quarter of his calories in müsli for that day. Now, I don't care, he can do that, but that's not something I'd personally think of when someone told me he gets all those great nutrient dense foods.

    JJ Watt the same. The food looks nice, but I'd bet you he doesn't get 6000 of his 9000 calories from asparagus and broccoli, but from the meat, starches and added oils. Which is also fine in my eyes but I know for a fact there's people who would argue that that is not healthy.

    This is a good point. I think people are coming from different starting points. When I hear of someone being neurotic about eating only healthy foods, I definitely assume they'd likely be adverse to eating lots of cals from muesli or pasta (whole wheat or no) or bread or sometimes maybe red meat or oils, and the diet posted above -- which seems quite balanced to me (although way more calories than I'd eat) has lots of those kinds of foods, plus jelly and dressing (which the anti processed crowd and the anti sugar crowds might object to), plus honey, peanut butter (doesn't specify "all natural"), and probably fewer veg than I eat in far fewer calories.

    So while I think that's a good diet, I'd assume the critical types who are always saying we need to eat only healthy foods or avoid all added sugar (let alone people -- as in this thread -- saying fruit is bad) or avoid processed foods would NOT think that's a good diet.

    Packerjohn seems to think we are suggesting a diet really different than the one identified when talking about things like not overstressing, eating basically healthfully, so on.

    I think this is one of the reasons there is miscommunication here.

    Someone struggling to eat enough calories isn't just eating mostly healthfully and keeping added sugar low. Indeed, kshama said her mom has ALWAYS done that, and that doesn't seem to cause her concern.

    I was questioning the following from @stevencloser

    You guys DO know that there's a minimum amount of calories your body needs, right? If you were only eating the nutrients your body needs, the essential fats and proteins, and carbs only from the most nutritious, green vegetables for their minerals and vitamins... you'd starve to death eventually because that's something like 800 calories.

    I may be misunderstanding his assertion, but to me, he's saying eat 800 calories to get "your nutrition", then implying eat whatever.

    Personally, I believe, like the CDC, most mainstream dietitians, etc the vast majority of people should be getting 80-90% of their calories from nutrient dense foods, the rest from whatever. 800 calories isn't going to be 80-90% of the daily intake for most people.

    My advice to the OP was to ensure that her mom is getting adequate nutrition and calories to support her health/activities. Whether or not those calories include added sugar is not important.

    My assertion was that they were talking as if the only thing that matters are essential nutrients. That is obviously wrong, since you can get all essential nutrients within less than 1000 calories if you really tried to avoid anything non-essential like the plague and you'd end up dying if you did that, so that's silly.

    So we're in a situation where on one hand, all your nutrition needs come up to at most half your calories, what are the rest going to be made up of? Obviously non-essential things.
    What can those be? More nutrient-dense foods, non-nutrient-dense foods or a mix of the two.
    What should you eat of those? Is there a right answer provided you do meet your nutritional needs?

    A normal person won't min-max their essential nutrients, so they won't get to sub-1000 calories and have all their needs met. Their food will contain redundancy (more of some nutrients than they need) and non-essentials, basically always. Say there's another 50% markup for that. So we're at something like 1200 calories, give or take.
    What should they eat to meet the rest of their calorie goals which could range anywhere from 1500 to 3000 and more?
    More fruit/vegetables sounds nice. But the vitamins and minerals won't do anything for you if you're already meeting your needs. The water-soluble ones get excreted, the fat-soluble ones stored, which can in extreme cases lead to toxicity. So that's neither good nor bad in a normal situation, have them if you like.
    More protein sounds nice too. There's actually a good amount of science showing that more protein, to a point, is beneficial above a person's minimum needs. So depending on your goals, that's a good idea to invest some extra calories in.
    More fat? Can't say I've ever heard of benefits to eating significant amounts of fat above the body's needs, but they're also not bad to get more of, so have some if you like.
    Carbs? Those obviously aren't essential so the amount you eat of them should be dependent on the amount of calories you have left after meeting your other needs and the amounts you get from things that meet your micronutrients.

    So, apart from protein, I don't see any inherent benefit for a person to avoid certain foods in order to eat another above and beyond the body's needs because of a perceived "healthiness". Basically the "Clean eating" argument.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    Haven't read the replies, so I don't know if this has been said before, but why do you want to change her mind about this? She's 80, chances are she's not going to change her mind now, and there is no harm in not wanting to eat sugar if it's not affecting other aspects of her life. With family and real-life friends, I'm usually a live and let live kind of person. If they're not hurting themselves, what they believe and do is none of my business. They're adults and are entitled to their own choices. These kinds of discussions do more harm than good because they usually turn into headbutting sessions. I only discuss them here because this is a forum full of people who are here to lose weight and learn more about this elusive process.

    If I were you I would leave it be unless these beliefs about sugar are causing issues like her being afraid of food, not wanting to socialize, or is outright stressed about the topic. In my experience, if an 80 year old says they will not eat something for whatever reason they're usually pretty set in their ways and this belief has become completely habitual and harmless, but I don't know your mom. Wanting to change her mind for the just sake of changing her mind you'll be fighting an uphill battle with little return on investment, in my opinion.

    If there are details in this thread that I have missed which make my reply inapplicable, pretend you didn't read this, and my bad for replying without reading.
  • Packerjohn
    Packerjohn Posts: 4,855 Member
    edited March 2018
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    Fructose separated from the fruit is just like eating any other sugar, but that's completely different than eating fruit where the fructose is not separated. Straight sugar has zero nutrition, there's no healthy amount because it isn't nutritious.
    1houndgal wrote: »
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    Mom keeps seeing these types of articles in the Times:

    https://www.nytimes.com/guides/smarterliving/how-to-stop-eating-sugar
    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17Sugar-t.html

    She also has a book on brain health with the same attitude. (I don't know the title off hand.)

    I've started by asking her how many grams of added sugar she consumes per day. (I already know the answer is a lot less than the average American. For starters, she doesn't drink sweetened beverages.)

    Now, I'd need more than "Lustig is a quack" or "Taubes is a quack." I'd need something reputable debunking their theories. (Not random blog posts.)

    I've read here a lot that our bodies don't know the difference between sugar from fruit and sugar from added sugar - are there reputable sources for this?

    BTW, she's not trying to lose weight and in fact struggles to stay above Underweight because she is very very active, especially for her age (80).

    TIA

    On fruit, fruit has vitamins/bioflavnoids/minerals and some fiber, than does refined sugar. Sugar are empty calories, devoid of healthy nutrients except for carbs.

    You guys DO know that there's a minimum amount of calories your body needs, right? If you were only eating the nutrients your body needs, the essential fats and proteins, and carbs only from the most nutritious, green vegetables for their minerals and vitamins... you'd starve to death eventually because that's something like 800 calories.

    I'm betting the guy in your profile picture doesn't get most of the calories he needs above the 800 you mention that are needed for minimum nutrition from foods with a lot of added sugar.

    Nothing wrong with added sugars. The WHO and several other respected organizations provide guidelines on the amount of added sugars in a healthy diet.

    Personally I try to stay about that level overall, but will splurge on occasion.

    The WHO provides guidelines on the amount of sugar because of its calories vs. nutrition provided in an average person so as to not overeat calories. That's not really a problem in a situation where you've got all your nutrient needs checked already and still need 1000+ calories in your day.

    So you would agree the 10% of calories from added sugars is reasonable for the vast majority of people?

    Your original post said an person needs around 800 calories for basic nutrition. My point was successful athletes, people with 5% BF like your profile picture, etc aren't getting most their remainding caloric remaining needs over the 800 you've identified from nutritionally less dense foods. Maybe 1,000 calories or so if they need 4-5000 a day, but most of the extra calories are coming from nutritionally dense foods.

    Googled the diets of some high level athletes:

    JJ Watt
    https://www.gq.com/story/jj-watt-real-life-diet

    Jeff Engleston (2:10 marathoner)
    https://runnersconnect.net/detailed-look-diet-elite-marathoner/

    High level basketball players:
    http://www.stack.com/a/basketball-nutrition-habits

    Yeah, 10% is definitely a reasonable amount.
    I'm just pointing out that there's no reason besides "not wanting to use your calories on it" for minimizing the amount of sugar you consume when your nutrient intakes would allow for eating it. You aren't getting nutrition brownie points for eating even more vegetables, even more healthy fats, even more protein than you need.

    Oh, also guys like the one in my profile picture have higher needs for protein than the average person anyway.

    Also I always have huge doubts about the accuracy of those "typical" meals for athletes or other celebrities. Just looking at the marathon runner, his breakfast is water (0 calories), black coffee (0 calories) and muesli with nonfat yogurt. Yet somehow that is supposed to come up at 650 calories. Müsli has about 450 cals for 100 grams, non-fat yogurt about 60-ish. If that's all the food he eats for breakfast, that's a lot of müsli, a lot of calories from added sugar in the müsli. And his typical day is only 2400 calories total. And I wouldn't count müsli as a particularly nutrient-dense food. It's better than cereal I guess. So, maybe not the best example of athletes who are eating so much in nutrient-dense foods.

    The first link too, I'm too lazy to count the calories up, but for that guy to get to 4000-5000 calories or whatever from the listed foods, there has to be a lot of added butter etc. or really big portions for the meats. Depending on who you ask, that's not particularly healthy either.

    Actually if you look at the article, the 2400 calorie day is the lowest of the 3 sample days for the marathoner. His higher days are 3000+ calories. He's 125 lbs

    The first guy, JJ Watt is an American football player, about 6'5, 290 hovers around 10% BF. It's reported eats anywhere from 5-9000 calories a day, depending on training cycle. I've seen this a typical day for him. Huge quantities of generally nutrient dense food.

    First Breakfast Oatmeal with blueberries and strawberries Six eggs Banana and apple Second breakfast Four eggs Two slices of wheat toast with peanut butter and banana and honey Two slices of wheat toast with jelly Lunch Three chicken breasts with whole wheat pasta and Italian dressing Side of broccoli Second lunch More chicken breasts with mashed sweet potatoes Steamed carrots Dinner Lamb chops with whole wheat pasta Grilled asparagus Second dinner Filet with whole wheat pasta Steamed broccoli

    It's still over a quarter of his calories in müsli for that day. Now, I don't care, he can do that, but that's not something I'd personally think of when someone told me he gets all those great nutrient dense foods.

    JJ Watt the same. The food looks nice, but I'd bet you he doesn't get 6000 of his 9000 calories from asparagus and broccoli, but from the meat, starches and added oils. Which is also fine in my eyes but I know for a fact there's people who would argue that that is not healthy.

    This is a good point. I think people are coming from different starting points. When I hear of someone being neurotic about eating only healthy foods, I definitely assume they'd likely be adverse to eating lots of cals from muesli or pasta (whole wheat or no) or bread or sometimes maybe red meat or oils, and the diet posted above -- which seems quite balanced to me (although way more calories than I'd eat) has lots of those kinds of foods, plus jelly and dressing (which the anti processed crowd and the anti sugar crowds might object to), plus honey, peanut butter (doesn't specify "all natural"), and probably fewer veg than I eat in far fewer calories.

    So while I think that's a good diet, I'd assume the critical types who are always saying we need to eat only healthy foods or avoid all added sugar (let alone people -- as in this thread -- saying fruit is bad) or avoid processed foods would NOT think that's a good diet.

    Packerjohn seems to think we are suggesting a diet really different than the one identified when talking about things like not overstressing, eating basically healthfully, so on.

    I think this is one of the reasons there is miscommunication here.

    Someone struggling to eat enough calories isn't just eating mostly healthfully and keeping added sugar low. Indeed, kshama said her mom has ALWAYS done that, and that doesn't seem to cause her concern.

    I was questioning the following from @stevencloser

    You guys DO know that there's a minimum amount of calories your body needs, right? If you were only eating the nutrients your body needs, the essential fats and proteins, and carbs only from the most nutritious, green vegetables for their minerals and vitamins... you'd starve to death eventually because that's something like 800 calories.

    I may be misunderstanding his assertion, but to me, he's saying eat 800 calories to get "your nutrition", then implying eat whatever.

    Personally, I believe, like the CDC, most mainstream dietitians, etc the vast majority of people should be getting 80-90% of their calories from nutrient dense foods, the rest from whatever. 800 calories isn't going to be 80-90% of the daily intake for most people.

    My advice to the OP was to ensure that her mom is getting adequate nutrition and calories to support her health/activities. Whether or not those calories include added sugar is not important.

    My assertion was that they were talking as if the only thing that matters are essential nutrients. That is obviously wrong, since you can get all essential nutrients within less than 1000 calories if you really tried to avoid anything non-essential like the plague and you'd end up dying if you did that, so that's silly.

    So we're in a situation where on one hand, all your nutrition needs come up to at most half your calories, what are the rest going to be made up of? Obviously non-essential things.
    What can those be? More nutrient-dense foods, non-nutrient-dense foods or a mix of the two.
    What should you eat of those? Is there a right answer provided you do meet your nutritional needs?

    A normal person won't min-max their essential nutrients, so they won't get to sub-1000 calories and have all their needs met. Their food will contain redundancy (more of some nutrients than they need) and non-essentials, basically always. Say there's another 50% markup for that. So we're at something like 1200 calories, give or take.
    What should they eat to meet the rest of their calorie goals which could range anywhere from 1500 to 3000 and more?
    More fruit/vegetables sounds nice. But the vitamins and minerals won't do anything for you if you're already meeting your needs. The water-soluble ones get excreted, the fat-soluble ones stored, which can in extreme cases lead to toxicity. So that's neither good nor bad in a normal situation, have them if you like.
    More protein sounds nice too. There's actually a good amount of science showing that more protein, to a point, is beneficial above a person's minimum needs. So depending on your goals, that's a good idea to invest some extra calories in.
    More fat? Can't say I've ever heard of benefits to eating significant amounts of fat above the body's needs, but they're also not bad to get more of, so have some if you like.
    Carbs? Those obviously aren't essential so the amount you eat of them should be dependent on the amount of calories you have left after meeting your other needs and the amounts you get from things that meet your micronutrients.

    So, apart from protein, I don't see any inherent benefit for a person to avoid certain foods in order to eat another above and beyond the body's needs because of a perceived "healthiness". Basically the "Clean eating" argument.

    So you don't agree with the CDC/USDA and most dietitian's recommendation of 80-90% of calories from nutrient dense foods for most people?
  • xhunter561
    xhunter561 Posts: 77 Member
    amuse: you didn't miss much it kinda fell off topic for the most part don't feel bad over it.

    kshama2001 wrote: »
    This thread has been funny, eyerolling, informative, and helpful.

    I love this place!

    Hug-Meme-Super-hug.jpg?resize=625%2C468

    even though it seemed to get off topic too much lol. i know i probably didn't help much their. :D

    but anyways its always great to hear that people like your mom is still doing great at that age and hopefully she will have many more great years but let her have her fun she will figure it out. hopefully at lest you got something good out of this silliness even if its a good laugh.
  • stevencloser
    stevencloser Posts: 8,911 Member
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    Fructose separated from the fruit is just like eating any other sugar, but that's completely different than eating fruit where the fructose is not separated. Straight sugar has zero nutrition, there's no healthy amount because it isn't nutritious.
    1houndgal wrote: »
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    Mom keeps seeing these types of articles in the Times:

    https://www.nytimes.com/guides/smarterliving/how-to-stop-eating-sugar
    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17Sugar-t.html

    She also has a book on brain health with the same attitude. (I don't know the title off hand.)

    I've started by asking her how many grams of added sugar she consumes per day. (I already know the answer is a lot less than the average American. For starters, she doesn't drink sweetened beverages.)

    Now, I'd need more than "Lustig is a quack" or "Taubes is a quack." I'd need something reputable debunking their theories. (Not random blog posts.)

    I've read here a lot that our bodies don't know the difference between sugar from fruit and sugar from added sugar - are there reputable sources for this?

    BTW, she's not trying to lose weight and in fact struggles to stay above Underweight because she is very very active, especially for her age (80).

    TIA

    On fruit, fruit has vitamins/bioflavnoids/minerals and some fiber, than does refined sugar. Sugar are empty calories, devoid of healthy nutrients except for carbs.

    You guys DO know that there's a minimum amount of calories your body needs, right? If you were only eating the nutrients your body needs, the essential fats and proteins, and carbs only from the most nutritious, green vegetables for their minerals and vitamins... you'd starve to death eventually because that's something like 800 calories.

    I'm betting the guy in your profile picture doesn't get most of the calories he needs above the 800 you mention that are needed for minimum nutrition from foods with a lot of added sugar.

    Nothing wrong with added sugars. The WHO and several other respected organizations provide guidelines on the amount of added sugars in a healthy diet.

    Personally I try to stay about that level overall, but will splurge on occasion.

    The WHO provides guidelines on the amount of sugar because of its calories vs. nutrition provided in an average person so as to not overeat calories. That's not really a problem in a situation where you've got all your nutrient needs checked already and still need 1000+ calories in your day.

    So you would agree the 10% of calories from added sugars is reasonable for the vast majority of people?

    Your original post said an person needs around 800 calories for basic nutrition. My point was successful athletes, people with 5% BF like your profile picture, etc aren't getting most their remainding caloric remaining needs over the 800 you've identified from nutritionally less dense foods. Maybe 1,000 calories or so if they need 4-5000 a day, but most of the extra calories are coming from nutritionally dense foods.

    Googled the diets of some high level athletes:

    JJ Watt
    https://www.gq.com/story/jj-watt-real-life-diet

    Jeff Engleston (2:10 marathoner)
    https://runnersconnect.net/detailed-look-diet-elite-marathoner/

    High level basketball players:
    http://www.stack.com/a/basketball-nutrition-habits

    Yeah, 10% is definitely a reasonable amount.
    I'm just pointing out that there's no reason besides "not wanting to use your calories on it" for minimizing the amount of sugar you consume when your nutrient intakes would allow for eating it. You aren't getting nutrition brownie points for eating even more vegetables, even more healthy fats, even more protein than you need.

    Oh, also guys like the one in my profile picture have higher needs for protein than the average person anyway.

    Also I always have huge doubts about the accuracy of those "typical" meals for athletes or other celebrities. Just looking at the marathon runner, his breakfast is water (0 calories), black coffee (0 calories) and muesli with nonfat yogurt. Yet somehow that is supposed to come up at 650 calories. Müsli has about 450 cals for 100 grams, non-fat yogurt about 60-ish. If that's all the food he eats for breakfast, that's a lot of müsli, a lot of calories from added sugar in the müsli. And his typical day is only 2400 calories total. And I wouldn't count müsli as a particularly nutrient-dense food. It's better than cereal I guess. So, maybe not the best example of athletes who are eating so much in nutrient-dense foods.

    The first link too, I'm too lazy to count the calories up, but for that guy to get to 4000-5000 calories or whatever from the listed foods, there has to be a lot of added butter etc. or really big portions for the meats. Depending on who you ask, that's not particularly healthy either.

    Actually if you look at the article, the 2400 calorie day is the lowest of the 3 sample days for the marathoner. His higher days are 3000+ calories. He's 125 lbs

    The first guy, JJ Watt is an American football player, about 6'5, 290 hovers around 10% BF. It's reported eats anywhere from 5-9000 calories a day, depending on training cycle. I've seen this a typical day for him. Huge quantities of generally nutrient dense food.

    First Breakfast Oatmeal with blueberries and strawberries Six eggs Banana and apple Second breakfast Four eggs Two slices of wheat toast with peanut butter and banana and honey Two slices of wheat toast with jelly Lunch Three chicken breasts with whole wheat pasta and Italian dressing Side of broccoli Second lunch More chicken breasts with mashed sweet potatoes Steamed carrots Dinner Lamb chops with whole wheat pasta Grilled asparagus Second dinner Filet with whole wheat pasta Steamed broccoli

    It's still over a quarter of his calories in müsli for that day. Now, I don't care, he can do that, but that's not something I'd personally think of when someone told me he gets all those great nutrient dense foods.

    JJ Watt the same. The food looks nice, but I'd bet you he doesn't get 6000 of his 9000 calories from asparagus and broccoli, but from the meat, starches and added oils. Which is also fine in my eyes but I know for a fact there's people who would argue that that is not healthy.

    This is a good point. I think people are coming from different starting points. When I hear of someone being neurotic about eating only healthy foods, I definitely assume they'd likely be adverse to eating lots of cals from muesli or pasta (whole wheat or no) or bread or sometimes maybe red meat or oils, and the diet posted above -- which seems quite balanced to me (although way more calories than I'd eat) has lots of those kinds of foods, plus jelly and dressing (which the anti processed crowd and the anti sugar crowds might object to), plus honey, peanut butter (doesn't specify "all natural"), and probably fewer veg than I eat in far fewer calories.

    So while I think that's a good diet, I'd assume the critical types who are always saying we need to eat only healthy foods or avoid all added sugar (let alone people -- as in this thread -- saying fruit is bad) or avoid processed foods would NOT think that's a good diet.

    Packerjohn seems to think we are suggesting a diet really different than the one identified when talking about things like not overstressing, eating basically healthfully, so on.

    I think this is one of the reasons there is miscommunication here.

    Someone struggling to eat enough calories isn't just eating mostly healthfully and keeping added sugar low. Indeed, kshama said her mom has ALWAYS done that, and that doesn't seem to cause her concern.

    I was questioning the following from @stevencloser

    You guys DO know that there's a minimum amount of calories your body needs, right? If you were only eating the nutrients your body needs, the essential fats and proteins, and carbs only from the most nutritious, green vegetables for their minerals and vitamins... you'd starve to death eventually because that's something like 800 calories.

    I may be misunderstanding his assertion, but to me, he's saying eat 800 calories to get "your nutrition", then implying eat whatever.

    Personally, I believe, like the CDC, most mainstream dietitians, etc the vast majority of people should be getting 80-90% of their calories from nutrient dense foods, the rest from whatever. 800 calories isn't going to be 80-90% of the daily intake for most people.

    My advice to the OP was to ensure that her mom is getting adequate nutrition and calories to support her health/activities. Whether or not those calories include added sugar is not important.

    My assertion was that they were talking as if the only thing that matters are essential nutrients. That is obviously wrong, since you can get all essential nutrients within less than 1000 calories if you really tried to avoid anything non-essential like the plague and you'd end up dying if you did that, so that's silly.

    So we're in a situation where on one hand, all your nutrition needs come up to at most half your calories, what are the rest going to be made up of? Obviously non-essential things.
    What can those be? More nutrient-dense foods, non-nutrient-dense foods or a mix of the two.
    What should you eat of those? Is there a right answer provided you do meet your nutritional needs?

    A normal person won't min-max their essential nutrients, so they won't get to sub-1000 calories and have all their needs met. Their food will contain redundancy (more of some nutrients than they need) and non-essentials, basically always. Say there's another 50% markup for that. So we're at something like 1200 calories, give or take.
    What should they eat to meet the rest of their calorie goals which could range anywhere from 1500 to 3000 and more?
    More fruit/vegetables sounds nice. But the vitamins and minerals won't do anything for you if you're already meeting your needs. The water-soluble ones get excreted, the fat-soluble ones stored, which can in extreme cases lead to toxicity. So that's neither good nor bad in a normal situation, have them if you like.
    More protein sounds nice too. There's actually a good amount of science showing that more protein, to a point, is beneficial above a person's minimum needs. So depending on your goals, that's a good idea to invest some extra calories in.
    More fat? Can't say I've ever heard of benefits to eating significant amounts of fat above the body's needs, but they're also not bad to get more of, so have some if you like.
    Carbs? Those obviously aren't essential so the amount you eat of them should be dependent on the amount of calories you have left after meeting your other needs and the amounts you get from things that meet your micronutrients.

    So, apart from protein, I don't see any inherent benefit for a person to avoid certain foods in order to eat another above and beyond the body's needs because of a perceived "healthiness". Basically the "Clean eating" argument.

    So you don't agree with the CDC/USDA and most dietitian's recommendation of 80-90% of calories from nutrient dense foods for most people?

    What part of "above and beyond the body's needs" was hard to understand? Most people aren't going to be getting their body's needs if they don't do this.
  • Packerjohn
    Packerjohn Posts: 4,855 Member
    edited March 2018
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    Fructose separated from the fruit is just like eating any other sugar, but that's completely different than eating fruit where the fructose is not separated. Straight sugar has zero nutrition, there's no healthy amount because it isn't nutritious.
    1houndgal wrote: »
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    Mom keeps seeing these types of articles in the Times:

    https://www.nytimes.com/guides/smarterliving/how-to-stop-eating-sugar
    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17Sugar-t.html

    She also has a book on brain health with the same attitude. (I don't know the title off hand.)

    I've started by asking her how many grams of added sugar she consumes per day. (I already know the answer is a lot less than the average American. For starters, she doesn't drink sweetened beverages.)

    Now, I'd need more than "Lustig is a quack" or "Taubes is a quack." I'd need something reputable debunking their theories. (Not random blog posts.)

    I've read here a lot that our bodies don't know the difference between sugar from fruit and sugar from added sugar - are there reputable sources for this?

    BTW, she's not trying to lose weight and in fact struggles to stay above Underweight because she is very very active, especially for her age (80).

    TIA

    On fruit, fruit has vitamins/bioflavnoids/minerals and some fiber, than does refined sugar. Sugar are empty calories, devoid of healthy nutrients except for carbs.

    You guys DO know that there's a minimum amount of calories your body needs, right? If you were only eating the nutrients your body needs, the essential fats and proteins, and carbs only from the most nutritious, green vegetables for their minerals and vitamins... you'd starve to death eventually because that's something like 800 calories.

    I'm betting the guy in your profile picture doesn't get most of the calories he needs above the 800 you mention that are needed for minimum nutrition from foods with a lot of added sugar.

    Nothing wrong with added sugars. The WHO and several other respected organizations provide guidelines on the amount of added sugars in a healthy diet.

    Personally I try to stay about that level overall, but will splurge on occasion.

    The WHO provides guidelines on the amount of sugar because of its calories vs. nutrition provided in an average person so as to not overeat calories. That's not really a problem in a situation where you've got all your nutrient needs checked already and still need 1000+ calories in your day.

    So you would agree the 10% of calories from added sugars is reasonable for the vast majority of people?

    Your original post said an person needs around 800 calories for basic nutrition. My point was successful athletes, people with 5% BF like your profile picture, etc aren't getting most their remainding caloric remaining needs over the 800 you've identified from nutritionally less dense foods. Maybe 1,000 calories or so if they need 4-5000 a day, but most of the extra calories are coming from nutritionally dense foods.

    Googled the diets of some high level athletes:

    JJ Watt
    https://www.gq.com/story/jj-watt-real-life-diet

    Jeff Engleston (2:10 marathoner)
    https://runnersconnect.net/detailed-look-diet-elite-marathoner/

    High level basketball players:
    http://www.stack.com/a/basketball-nutrition-habits

    Yeah, 10% is definitely a reasonable amount.
    I'm just pointing out that there's no reason besides "not wanting to use your calories on it" for minimizing the amount of sugar you consume when your nutrient intakes would allow for eating it. You aren't getting nutrition brownie points for eating even more vegetables, even more healthy fats, even more protein than you need.

    Oh, also guys like the one in my profile picture have higher needs for protein than the average person anyway.

    Also I always have huge doubts about the accuracy of those "typical" meals for athletes or other celebrities. Just looking at the marathon runner, his breakfast is water (0 calories), black coffee (0 calories) and muesli with nonfat yogurt. Yet somehow that is supposed to come up at 650 calories. Müsli has about 450 cals for 100 grams, non-fat yogurt about 60-ish. If that's all the food he eats for breakfast, that's a lot of müsli, a lot of calories from added sugar in the müsli. And his typical day is only 2400 calories total. And I wouldn't count müsli as a particularly nutrient-dense food. It's better than cereal I guess. So, maybe not the best example of athletes who are eating so much in nutrient-dense foods.

    The first link too, I'm too lazy to count the calories up, but for that guy to get to 4000-5000 calories or whatever from the listed foods, there has to be a lot of added butter etc. or really big portions for the meats. Depending on who you ask, that's not particularly healthy either.

    Actually if you look at the article, the 2400 calorie day is the lowest of the 3 sample days for the marathoner. His higher days are 3000+ calories. He's 125 lbs

    The first guy, JJ Watt is an American football player, about 6'5, 290 hovers around 10% BF. It's reported eats anywhere from 5-9000 calories a day, depending on training cycle. I've seen this a typical day for him. Huge quantities of generally nutrient dense food.

    First Breakfast Oatmeal with blueberries and strawberries Six eggs Banana and apple Second breakfast Four eggs Two slices of wheat toast with peanut butter and banana and honey Two slices of wheat toast with jelly Lunch Three chicken breasts with whole wheat pasta and Italian dressing Side of broccoli Second lunch More chicken breasts with mashed sweet potatoes Steamed carrots Dinner Lamb chops with whole wheat pasta Grilled asparagus Second dinner Filet with whole wheat pasta Steamed broccoli

    It's still over a quarter of his calories in müsli for that day. Now, I don't care, he can do that, but that's not something I'd personally think of when someone told me he gets all those great nutrient dense foods.

    JJ Watt the same. The food looks nice, but I'd bet you he doesn't get 6000 of his 9000 calories from asparagus and broccoli, but from the meat, starches and added oils. Which is also fine in my eyes but I know for a fact there's people who would argue that that is not healthy.

    This is a good point. I think people are coming from different starting points. When I hear of someone being neurotic about eating only healthy foods, I definitely assume they'd likely be adverse to eating lots of cals from muesli or pasta (whole wheat or no) or bread or sometimes maybe red meat or oils, and the diet posted above -- which seems quite balanced to me (although way more calories than I'd eat) has lots of those kinds of foods, plus jelly and dressing (which the anti processed crowd and the anti sugar crowds might object to), plus honey, peanut butter (doesn't specify "all natural"), and probably fewer veg than I eat in far fewer calories.

    So while I think that's a good diet, I'd assume the critical types who are always saying we need to eat only healthy foods or avoid all added sugar (let alone people -- as in this thread -- saying fruit is bad) or avoid processed foods would NOT think that's a good diet.

    Packerjohn seems to think we are suggesting a diet really different than the one identified when talking about things like not overstressing, eating basically healthfully, so on.

    I think this is one of the reasons there is miscommunication here.

    Someone struggling to eat enough calories isn't just eating mostly healthfully and keeping added sugar low. Indeed, kshama said her mom has ALWAYS done that, and that doesn't seem to cause her concern.

    I was questioning the following from @stevencloser

    You guys DO know that there's a minimum amount of calories your body needs, right? If you were only eating the nutrients your body needs, the essential fats and proteins, and carbs only from the most nutritious, green vegetables for their minerals and vitamins... you'd starve to death eventually because that's something like 800 calories.

    I may be misunderstanding his assertion, but to me, he's saying eat 800 calories to get "your nutrition", then implying eat whatever.

    Personally, I believe, like the CDC, most mainstream dietitians, etc the vast majority of people should be getting 80-90% of their calories from nutrient dense foods, the rest from whatever. 800 calories isn't going to be 80-90% of the daily intake for most people.

    My advice to the OP was to ensure that her mom is getting adequate nutrition and calories to support her health/activities. Whether or not those calories include added sugar is not important.

    My assertion was that they were talking as if the only thing that matters are essential nutrients. That is obviously wrong, since you can get all essential nutrients within less than 1000 calories if you really tried to avoid anything non-essential like the plague and you'd end up dying if you did that, so that's silly.

    So we're in a situation where on one hand, all your nutrition needs come up to at most half your calories, what are the rest going to be made up of? Obviously non-essential things.
    What can those be? More nutrient-dense foods, non-nutrient-dense foods or a mix of the two.
    What should you eat of those? Is there a right answer provided you do meet your nutritional needs?

    A normal person won't min-max their essential nutrients, so they won't get to sub-1000 calories and have all their needs met. Their food will contain redundancy (more of some nutrients than they need) and non-essentials, basically always. Say there's another 50% markup for that. So we're at something like 1200 calories, give or take.
    What should they eat to meet the rest of their calorie goals which could range anywhere from 1500 to 3000 and more?
    More fruit/vegetables sounds nice. But the vitamins and minerals won't do anything for you if you're already meeting your needs. The water-soluble ones get excreted, the fat-soluble ones stored, which can in extreme cases lead to toxicity. So that's neither good nor bad in a normal situation, have them if you like.
    More protein sounds nice too. There's actually a good amount of science showing that more protein, to a point, is beneficial above a person's minimum needs. So depending on your goals, that's a good idea to invest some extra calories in.
    More fat? Can't say I've ever heard of benefits to eating significant amounts of fat above the body's needs, but they're also not bad to get more of, so have some if you like.
    Carbs? Those obviously aren't essential so the amount you eat of them should be dependent on the amount of calories you have left after meeting your other needs and the amounts you get from things that meet your micronutrients.

    So, apart from protein, I don't see any inherent benefit for a person to avoid certain foods in order to eat another above and beyond the body's needs because of a perceived "healthiness". Basically the "Clean eating" argument.

    So you don't agree with the CDC/USDA and most dietitian's recommendation of 80-90% of calories from nutrient dense foods for most people?

    What part of "above and beyond the body's needs" was hard to understand? Most people aren't going to be getting their body's needs if they don't do this.

    You said earlier in this thread a typical person needs 800 calories to get their minimum basic nutrition.

    So are you saying someone that needs 2000 calories to maintain weight can/shouild be eating 1200 calories of low nutrient food and expect good health?

    Maybe I'm misunderstanding you.
  • nikkit321
    nikkit321 Posts: 1,485 Member
    My mom (78) has a typical breakfast of cereal, toast, and fruit. "But I don't eat many carbs." And she's a retired nurse.
  • SpanishFusion
    SpanishFusion Posts: 261 Member
    I missed something, I think. Is the OP's mother cutting out all sugar including fruit or just added granulated sugar? If she's cutting out fruit, that's not good, but I didn't read that.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    MGee65 wrote: »
    I have just joined a website called diet doctor, the doctor is from sweden, and it recommends a Low Carb, High Fat meal plan and to loose weight and states to remove most sugars for loosing weight. Your mum is in the complete opposite wanting to gain or retain weight. I know there are special protein drinks in poppers that are for seniors special dietary needs. Maybe she would enjoy these the come in juice or milk flavours. They are made to boost weight in seniors if needed.

    shows you how to make homemade products and sauces with no sugar, It is surprising now that I look on the products at the supermarket how many processed foods contain quite a high amount of sugar per serving.

    Can you give some examples of these processed foods that have high amounts of sugar that you were surprised by, and what that amount was?
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    MGee65 wrote: »
    I have just joined a website called diet doctor, the doctor is from sweden, and it recommends a Low Carb, High Fat meal plan and to loose weight and states to remove most sugars for loosing weight.

    Yes, Diet Doctor is one of the well-known ketoevangelist sites, although I don't personally think it has much credibility. Not sure how it's helpful for OP or her mother, as it basically spreads the idea that carbs are to be avoided -- hardly promoting not stressing about eating fruit, etc.
    I know there are special protein drinks in poppers that are for seniors special dietary needs. Maybe she would enjoy these the come in juice or milk flavours. They are made to boost weight in seniors if needed.

    It sounds like her mom wouldn't have an issue if could just eat her normal healthful diet without stress, and that her mom also isn't one for lots of processed stuff, which of course those special drinks for seniors are.

    (I suspect you mean something like Ensure, which is not senior specific, but when my grandmother was having trouble keeping weight on -- because she was depressed and had some eating issues -- it was recommended that she consume them.)
    It is surprising now that I look on the products at the supermarket how many processed foods contain quite a high amount of sugar per serving.

    Some do, some don't, but it's clear from the thread that OP's mom never consumed much of this kind of stuff.

    (Maybe I'm weird, but as discussed recently in another thread none of the processed foods I eat regularly have much or any added sugar. Well, except for the ice cream and occasional chocolate (I'm currently a fan of Chocolove Extreme 88%), but that would be expected, no?)
  • SpanishFusion
    SpanishFusion Posts: 261 Member
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    Leeg5656 wrote: »
    I missed something, I think. Is the OP's mother cutting out all sugar including fruit or just added granulated sugar? If she's cutting out fruit, that's not good, but I didn't read that.
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    I am both worried that 1. she will end up not eating enough and 2. that she is unnecessarily stressed, because she is already a very healthy eater.

    She has since clarified that it's not just added sugar she wants to cut down on, but sugar from fruits, etc. I will let her know that berries are lower sugar fruits.

    I know that you got this, so I am saying it for others who seemed to have missed this:
    * She never ate a lot of added sugar to start with, so reducing sugar will necessarily come out of healthy foods like fruits.
    * And this is new, so I'm not trying to change an 80 year old set in her ways, but someone recently succumbing to the current sugar alarmism, which is not applicable to her natural healthy eating habits.

    She has been reading "that there is a connection between sugar and insulin resistance and brain cells and Alzheimer's". Her goal is to get down to 25 g sugar total (total meaning including naturally occurring sugars.)

    She dropped into Underweight when she was following the suggestions in Dropping Acid: The Reflux Diet Cookbook & Cure. This did help her silent reflux - she no longer sounds like she has hairballs all the time. I think she went all out for a while and then pruned it back to just a few suggestions.

    She will probably do the same thing with the sugar thing - jump on this bandwagon full force for a while, and then taper off to something more reasonable.

    Maybe I am stressing more than she is :smiley:

    Ok. Yes I did miss that.
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