“Bad” foods?
mcbed471
Posts: 1 Member
I thought there were no “bad” foods, according to many leading nutritionists and dieticians. Is this a value we need to be mindful of? And can it lead to disordered eating if it’s not monitored?
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Answers
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There are only foods we need to prioritize and foods we need to minimize.,6
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There are in fact bad foods.
I remember A table-size sentient Blancmange from planet Skyron of the Andromeda Galaxy that would eat people. Scary stuff! There's also some poisonous mushrooms, like Amanita phalloides, that you should absolutely never ever eat! That doesn't make them bad, though. They don't really want to kill you like the blancmange.
Otherwise, it's about moderation. If there's a food you like, you have to find a way to fit it into your calories while still getting adequate nutrition and not excess calories.
Anything can probably lead to disordered eating. If you have trigger foods, maybe stay mostly away from them if you can't be moderate with them.4 -
There are no bad foods in that food is not a moral thing. There are, however, foods which will make it harder to achieve your weight loss goal because it's really easy to eat too much of them. Like oreos, cheetos, and the like.6
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There are also foods that can be bad for certain people’s health outcomes, e.g., sugar for people with or at risk for diabetes, grapefruit for people who take any of a whole host of medications (I’m on one of them), etc. So any nutritionist making that claim should make sure they know someone’s medical history thoroughly.
Beyond that - and yeah, I guess this is a value judgement - I try to avoid “foods” that I think are more like garbage or fake food than actual food (I would put things like Doritos and Twinkies and pop tarts in this category, probably, because I find them gross now even though I grew up on all that crap in the ‘70s and loved it as a kid - though not Doritos or Cheetos, which I never could stand).
But otherwise I think the point about “is it bad for your weight-loss and health journey” makes sense. I don’t think of ice cream as bad - the problem is that it’s so good! - but I have had to mostly kick it to the curb except in very small doses if I want to make any headway. Someday I hope to have a more normalized relationship to stuff like that. But for now, I’d have to say it’s bad for me to have a whole pint in my freezer.2 -
^^ so, yes, foods bad for individuals - foods one is allergic to or interfere with medications or medical conditions etc
But just like the fact some people are allergic to penicillin doesnt make penicillin a bad medication, nor does the fact that some people have peanut allergy, for example, make peanuts a bad food..7 -
Celery = bad food. The most disgusting veg on the planet 🤮
Aside from that, there are no bad foods - “good and bad” are value judgements and nothing to do with food. I tend to think of food in terms of the whole package ie I should get fruit and veg with each meal, but it’s okay to eat chocolate in moderation. Cake is fine, but not if it replaces food with more nutrients that my body needs. As with everything in life, it’s about balance and moderation.2 -
Peanut butter is very bad! Its smell is just diguisting, and what for? A massive amount of calories! 🤢
But no, there's no inherently bad food. Also a bag of crisps is not bad every now and then. You just have to accept that it contains a lot of calories and hence you either can't eat as much for the day or you accept you'll go over for the day.1 -
It depends on the meaning behind “bad foods”. I don’t believe in any off-limit foods ( bad foods) on my journey to take off lbs. I believe that any foods - including “healthy” foods can turn “bad” if you over indulge. Way back in the early days of Weight Watchers- they used to have a saying - “legal cheating” which refers to the good turning bad. On the other hand - there are certainly better foods than others. A homemade salad vs a pop tart or Big Mac.
You know what I mean. Moderation is the key. But to lose the weight- stick to the more healthy calories.0 -
There are foods that are "bad" for us- high calorie, highly processed foods definitely trip people up, and when they become habitual definitely cause health issues. But I don't eat those and I still have a problem with weight gain.
For me, mindless eating is the problem and leads to weight gain/lethargy/poorer health. If I pull a box of Triscuits out and take 4, I'm fine- if I mindlessly graze my way through 1/2 a box, I'm in trouble. It's easier to resist eating too many apples. Speaking personally, of course :-)3 -
I always think of it like this: We all having rebellious teenagers that live in our brains - tell them not to do something and they say “watch me!”
The problem with labeling foods as “bad” is that we tend to avoid them even though we’re craving them and ultimately that leads to overeating them in a moment of weakness and then feeling bad because we ate a “bad” food. But if food is just food, then we can remove restrictions which reduces the “forbidden” appeal of that food.
Many of us grew up with this good/bad food narrative and lots of other unhelpful messages so it does take time to change. But it’s part of a whole reversal of diet culture messaging. I still struggle with it too.2 -
Nutrition is important, but nutrition is about the totality of one's eating, not about individual foods.
Sure, some foods are more nutrient dense, some are more calorie dense, and our best health outcomes result from getting a reasonable overall balance of nutrition and appropriate calories (and pleasure, practicality, affordability, etc.), while staying mostly full and happy the majority of the time. Balance.
Disordered eating can be triggered in various ways, when it comes to thinking there are foods that are inherently and always "bad" or "good".
1. Trying to eat only "good" foods and no "bad" foods, taken to an extreme, is orthorexia. That's a form of disordered eating.
2. Thinking that there are no distinctions between foods, so just shoveling in whatever's tasty and available, taken to an extreme, leads to excess bodyweight and compromised health. That's a form of disordered eating.
Demonizing particular foods doesn't make much sense to me. Getting overall good nutrition is important, but not every food choice needs to be a so-called "superfood". Calories and nutrition matter, but they're not the only things that matter about food, if I want a happy life.
Whether a food is useful to a person or not depends on context and portion sizes (dosage).
For a diabetic, sugar might be "bad" if unmanaged, but it's also a necessity if blood sugar drops dangerously. Pure sugar can be a near-perfect choice for an endurance athlete (like an ultra-marathon runner) to carry as fuel to consume during a long training session or race. Eating way too much sugar is bad for any of us, because we'll either consume too many calories, get poor nutrition, or both.
Obviously, no one should eat foods to which they're allergic or otherwise sensitive in unpleasant ways, that conflict with their medications, or that trigger their health conditions. But that means a food is bad for a specific person (context again), not "bad" in some absolute sense.
Context matters.
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As someone who has come from UK to US, I do not understand the American fascination with peanut butter. And I really don't understand this "peanut butter and jelly" nonsense. Yeah let's have a million calories all carbs, sandwiched between carb heavy bread too, and call that a meal.Peanut butter is very bad! Its smell is just diguisting, and what for? A massive amount of calories! 🤢
Meanwhile, try to get someone in the US to try baked beans on toast, while they already admit to a) liking baked beans, b) liking toast, and it's impossible.2 -
Retroguy2000 wrote: »
As someone who has come from UK to US, I do not understand the American fascination with peanut butter. And I really don't understand this "peanut butter and jelly" nonsense. Yeah let's have a million calories all carbs, sandwiched between carb heavy bread too, and call that a meal.Peanut butter is very bad! Its smell is just diguisting, and what for? A massive amount of calories! 🤢
Meanwhile, try to get someone in the US to try baked beans on toast, while they already admit to a) liking baked beans, b) liking toast, and it's impossible.
Heyyyyyy, while I prefer sunflower seed butter, *any* nut butter makes it so it's hard to chew after you've eaten it so...win win
(It's also more fat and moderate protein than carbs 
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I would totally eat beans on toast. Lord knows, I tried fish fingers and custard because of Doctor Who 3 -
LOL. Although... that's not actually a thing though. It was made up for the show. You're brave to try it! Next up, haggis! Unless you're in the US, where it is illegal. I'm being serious.I would totally eat beans on toast. Lord knows, I tried fish fingers and custard because of Doctor Who
Yeah I realized later that PB is a lot more fat than carbs, still my overall point stands :-)0 -
Retroguy2000 wrote: »As someone who has come from UK to US, I do not understand the American fascination with peanut butter. And I really don't understand this "peanut butter and jelly" nonsense. Yeah let's have a million calories all carbs, sandwiched between carb heavy bread too, and call that a meal.
Meanwhile, try to get someone in the US to try baked beans on toast, while they already admit to a) liking baked beans, b) liking toast, and it's impossible.
LOL. I'm an American who didn't take her first bite of a PB&J until I was in my 30s and promptly handed it back to it's owner. Ugh. I do like peanut butter as an ingredient however, chicken satay, for example. And I would eat baked beans on toast. I'll even eat Marmite on toast, but I will not touch a chip butty. Nope. Nope. Nope.0 -
Retroguy2000 wrote: »
LOL. Although... that's not actually a thing though. It was made up for the show. You're brave to try it! Next up, haggis! Unless you're in the US, where it is illegal. I'm being serious.I would totally eat beans on toast. Lord knows, I tried fish fingers and custard because of Doctor Who
Yeah I realized later that PB is a lot more fat than carbs, still my overall point stands :-)
And fish fingers and custard should NOT be a thing. Good separate. Bad together.
I have no desire to try haggis.
*sigh* There was nothing like a peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich on Wonder Bread when I was a kid.
I can't keep any nut butters in my apt tho. I do the whole "take a little taste that ends up being half the jar and still not logging it" thing.
Edited to add: So yeah! Peanut butter kinda *is* bad! 1 -
Retroguy2000 wrote: »
LOL. Although... that's not actually a thing though. It was made up for the show. You're brave to try it! Next up, haggis! Unless you're in the US, where it is illegal. I'm being serious.I would totally eat beans on toast. Lord knows, I tried fish fingers and custard because of Doctor Who
Yeah I realized later that PB is a lot more fat than carbs, still my overall point stands :-)
Haggies is totally delicious! Nothing to be afraid off, unless you really don't dare to try offal. Which still is a bit odd as haggis is basically a meatloaf with much more tasty meat than usual and some oats and a small amount of spices. Damn, I want haggis now! (on that note, I also want Haggis and cracked black pepper crisps even though it tastes nothing like haggis)0 -
There are in fact bad foods.
I remember A table-size sentient Blancmange from planet Skyron of the Andromeda Galaxy that would eat people. Scary stuff! There's also some poisonous mushrooms, like Amanita phalloides, that you should absolutely never ever eat! That doesn't make them bad, though. They don't really want to kill you like the blancmange.
Oh my good merciful heavens. You just made me laugh loudly and hysterically in a very public place.0 -
claireychn074 wrote: »Celery = bad food. The most disgusting veg on the planet 🤮
Aside from that, there are no bad foods - “good and bad” are value judgements and nothing to do with food. I tend to think of food in terms of the whole package ie I should get fruit and veg with each meal, but it’s okay to eat chocolate in moderation. Cake is fine, but not if it replaces food with more nutrients that my body needs. As with everything in life, it’s about balance and moderation.
You got that exactly right except for the spelling.
It's not CELERY, it's spelled SPINACH.1 -
There are foods that are "bad" for us- high calorie, highly processed foods definitely trip people up, and when they become habitual definitely cause health issues.
I don't agree with that.
For many people, me included, high calorie, highly processed foods, even habitually, are fine - in moderation.
I can habitually intake such things in small dosage and frequency and have no health issues.
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springlering62 wrote: »There are in fact bad foods.
I remember A table-size sentient Blancmange from planet Skyron of the Andromeda Galaxy that would eat people. Scary stuff! There's also some poisonous mushrooms, like Amanita phalloides, that you should absolutely never ever eat! That doesn't make them bad, though. They don't really want to kill you like the blancmange.
Oh my good merciful heavens. You just made me laugh loudly and hysterically in a very public place.
We're similar in age, and you might actually remember the Blancmange.
Another example, perhaps, of "Bad Food." It's Gracie Allen's recipe for cooking a roast beef. It's simple: Get a large roast and a small roast and put them in the oven. When the small roast is burned, the big one is done.
And now for something completely different....3 -
If I want something "bad" I measure or weigh it and enjoy it at end of meal so I don't overeat it and don't feel bad about eating it2
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springlering62 wrote: »There are in fact bad foods.
I remember A table-size sentient Blancmange from planet Skyron of the Andromeda Galaxy that would eat people. Scary stuff! There's also some poisonous mushrooms, like Amanita phalloides, that you should absolutely never ever eat! That doesn't make them bad, though. They don't really want to kill you like the blancmange.
Oh my good merciful heavens. You just made me laugh loudly and hysterically in a very public place.
We're similar in age, and you might actually remember the Blancmange.
Another example, perhaps, of "Bad Food." It's Gracie Allen's recipe for cooking a roast beef. It's simple: Get a large roast and a small roast and put them in the oven. When the small roast is burned, the big one is done.
And now for something completely different....
lol. At aquafit yesterday, the old possums kept asking the new instructor’s name.
Gracie
Tracy?
Gracie.
Macy?
Gracie!
She was getting gently frustrated (she’s such a doll), so I turned around and yelled “Gracie! Like Steve Allen!”
Ohhhhhhh and not a problem since.
Grey headed possum solution.
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It's basically about context and dosage. The context is based on the health status of the individual, and where nutrients will effect people positively and negatively. I will go out on a limb and say the "Standard American Diet" is not healthy for the vast majority of people.0
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Only food that's really bad is rotten food.
Ideally, you want to eat whole foods as much as you can and moderate others. One thing I've been staying away from more is processed meats (lol, except SPAM) a lot more.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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Only food that's really bad is rotten food.
Ideally, you want to eat whole foods as much as you can and moderate others. One thing I've been staying away from more is processed meats (lol, except SPAM) a lot more.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
Unless you’re making jelly from medlars, in which case you need to let them blet (start to go rotten) 😀
And for all those who are unsure about haggis; it’s the food of the gods. Particularly when served with neeps and tatties 🤤2 -
Retroguy2000 wrote: »
LOL. Although... that's not actually a thing though. It was made up for the show. You're brave to try it! Next up, haggis! Unless you're in the US, where it is illegal. I'm being serious.I would totally eat beans on toast. Lord knows, I tried fish fingers and custard because of Doctor Who
Yeah I realized later that PB is a lot more fat than carbs, still my overall point stands :-)
Haggies is totally delicious! Nothing to be afraid off, unless you really don't dare to try offal. Which still is a bit odd as haggis is basically a meatloaf with much more tasty meat than usual and some oats and a small amount of spices. Damn, I want haggis now! (on that note, I also want Haggis and cracked black pepper crisps even though it tastes nothing like haggis)
@Retroguy2000 @yirara i love haggis!! Every time I’m in Scotland .. I have a few places in Edinburgh and in the highlands I have to order it. I’ve tried to make it in the US.. I can get all the ingredients from my butcher except for lung. Though, my family has always made offal. Someone needs to make a haggis thread. ☺️1 -
SafariGalNYC wrote: »Retroguy2000 wrote: »
LOL. Although... that's not actually a thing though. It was made up for the show. You're brave to try it! Next up, haggis! Unless you're in the US, where it is illegal. I'm being serious.I would totally eat beans on toast. Lord knows, I tried fish fingers and custard because of Doctor Who
Yeah I realized later that PB is a lot more fat than carbs, still my overall point stands :-)
Haggies is totally delicious! Nothing to be afraid off, unless you really don't dare to try offal. Which still is a bit odd as haggis is basically a meatloaf with much more tasty meat than usual and some oats and a small amount of spices. Damn, I want haggis now! (on that note, I also want Haggis and cracked black pepper crisps even though it tastes nothing like haggis)
@Retroguy2000 @yirara i love haggis!! Every time I’m in Scotland .. I have a few places in Edinburgh and in the highlands I have to order it. I’ve tried to make it in the US.. I can get all the ingredients from my butcher except for lung. Though, my family has always made offal. Someone needs to make a haggis thread. ☺️
Aww, bless! I wish I could get haggis here. And neeps, but they aren't a thing here either.
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Peanut butter is very bad! Its smell is just diguisting, and what for? A massive amount of calories! 🤢
*munches on spoon of peanut butter while reading this* What are you trying to say, exactly?
Look at my food diary (open to the public), and I enjoy peanut butter multiple times per week. Granted, I'm trying to slowly gain weight (unlike the vast majority of MFP members), but I grew up on PBJ's as a kid yet graduated school underweight. And you're gonna have to arm wrestle me to take away my Reese's Pieces!1
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