The tone of the comments in this thread terrify me. We have exchanged one set of preachers trying to tell us how to live with a new set of preachers telling us how to live and it is just as bad or worse. Always a group of people trying to suppress your freedom and advertise their virtue.
Foods for healthier people and a healthier planet [pdf]
81–90 of 137 posts
Re: Foods for healthier people and a healthier planet [pdf]
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, you are not the bad guy but it's good to be concerned. I focus on companies when I shop. If there are two similar choices of big 2.5 gallons of water, I don't choose arrowhead. I think that's what they are trying to get at.
I really don’t want to come off as some sort of condescending euro-snob, but is the state of tap water in the US so bad so that you have to purchase plastic bottles of water?
In some parts of the US, notably coastal California, the taste, smell, and color(!) of the natural water supply can be quite poor. It has more to do with geology than tap water safety and remediating the natural chemistry is cost prohibitive in extreme cases. For example, in the western volcanic regions of the US, pristine water sometimes has an unpleasant sulfur taste -- perfectly safe to use but no one wants to drink that because it tastes awful due to natural water chemistry.
Many parts of the US have excellent tasting tap water, and in those places everyone drinks it. California is one exception, and many parts of it have infamously discolored and poor tasting/smelling water. When I lived in California I drank bottled water, most everywhere else I drank tap water. California water is safe, it just tastes terrible and is sometimes discolored because of where it comes from.
Re: Foods for healthier people and a healthier planet [pdf]
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
Meat is very calorie dense due to the fat content -- if you don't eat it, you need to substitute a plant food that is also relatively calorie dense (like beans, lentils, or potatoes) but also, probably just eat more of it. I found that I needed to eat more when I became a vegan, and even more now that I'm trying to put on muscle mass. Also, beans are a good substitute because they tend to dampen blood sugar swings, d…
> you need to substitute a plant food that is also relatively calorie dense (like beans, lentils, or potatoes) I tried this; not much help. I was used to a diet of essentially no carbs (and had found it beneficial for me), and actually switched because I had a friend who would not shut up about not eating meat and wouldn't stop until I did. I can indeed eat more, but occasionally I would get full and still not feel "…
> I tried this; not much help. I was used to a diet of essentially no carbs (and had found it beneficial for me), and actually switched because I had a friend who would not shut up about not eating meat and wouldn't stop until I did. I can indeed eat more, but occasionally I would get full and still not feel "full".
The question I ask when people bring this up is always: what type of carbs? Generally you know you're eating junk carbs when the ratio of carbohydrates to fiber is greater than 5 to 1 [0]. Processed carbs will help you pack on the weight fast, especially since most processed carbs are all coming from non-whole grains.
A lot of my friends/colleagues like to claim they're on a low/no carb diet. When posed with the question of how they get fiber or critical vitamins/nutrients they're failing to understand that all plants have carbs. A cup of kale has 6 grams in fact. The better approach should be to look at what type of carbs you're consuming vs eating less of all of them. The SAD consumer is often getting very little dietary fiber, unfortunately and even more so now with a lot of the misinformation about how carbs are blanket bad.
[0] https://nutritionfacts.org/2018/05/08/follow-the-5-to-1-rule...
Re: Foods for healthier people and a healthier planet [pdf]
#84It's worth noting for anyone that advocates this sort of diet that it is a luxury. Many people mention that you can make good food on such a diet, but it is doubtless time-consuming. What of those who work by the hour? And the ingredients are expensive. Many of the fancy foods on here come from Whole Foods, not HEB. Even if they become affordable, the time aspect is still important; most don't want to spend 2 hours c…
> Honest question for those who follow such a diet: how do you not feel hungry? If I don't have meat, I tend to stay hungry. It's a matter of making sure you eat enough. I've noticed when playing around with a mostly, but not entirely, vegetarian diet that there's no magic at all if you're already in the habit of counting calories. I've known some people for whom it's more of a problem, for a few reasons. For starter…
That's probably part of the issue; I fall more into the athletic 3-meal-a-day category, and I really just don't do well otherwise. I never counted calories, before or after, but gained a good bit of weight in a month when I tried a plant-based diet. I was used to eating very few carbs, and didn't do well having more. I basically tried eating enough to feel "satiated" (I actually got physically full on salad once or twice while still rather hungry and not satiated), and ended up doing much worse in terms of productivity, feeling, and weight on the plant diet.
Re: Foods for healthier people and a healthier planet [pdf]
#85Of the five Guiding Principles on page 52 only about 1.5 of them are primarily concerned with the nutrition content of the food. The rest are mostly focused on their environmental impact. Not that there's anything wrong with that. And clearly that's aligned with the mission of the WWF. But I think you'd get a much different list if it was just about maximizing the health of the eater. E.g. meat. When I choose food at…
Is anybody the "bad guy?" Is anybody not? The Earth will fix itself, eventually, no matter what we do to it. It's seen worse. I mean it apparently went from a ball of lava pelted with meteorite-nukes to the only verdant garden we have ever known, and it has already been through at least a few cataclysms. Even if the planet disappears overnight, the universe at large will still go on as if we never existed. You choose…
>The Earth will fix itself...
I suppose this depends on your definition of "fix," but this sounds suspiciously like the Gaia hypothesis:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_hypothesis
Which is closer to wishful thinking than science. Sure, Earth will go on, because Earth doesn't care. But humans are facing a climate catastrophe if they do not course-correct their impact on the planet, and that is what we mean by "good for the Earth" -- that is, good for the maintaining the planet as a place where we want to live.
Re: Foods for healthier people and a healthier planet [pdf]
#86This is a joke, right? Call me when they sell this at my local groceries' (for cheap).
Well it depends. For example cacti grow all over the place where I am from, even though cacti is not native from there.
People usually harvest the fruits but this document made me question whether the kind of cactus I've always seen walking around is actually edible (and if not, whether edible cacti could be grown as easily as the non-edible one).
Re: Foods for healthier people and a healthier planet [pdf]
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It's worth noting for anyone that advocates this sort of diet that it is a luxury. Many people mention that you can make good food on such a diet, but it is doubtless time-consuming. What of those who work by the hour? And the ingredients are expensive. I will disagree with this statement from personal experience. The first claim is that this is a "luxury diet", of which it is not. Grains, legumes, and most all lea…
> I used to spend more time in meat than almost any dish I prepare now. From overnight smokes of pulled pork or half day cooks of meats in sous vide with a finish on grill was, by far much more work. Most people don't do this, and I certainly don't. Most people don't have the time to do it with meat either. I just roast chickens from costco or some turkey. Fish I don't do as often, because it's slow. > I don't cast j…
> Yuck. These are worse than the veggie option. I've tried the impossible burger once; never again. I think it was the smell that was wrong, but am not quite sure. It's the uncanny valley of meat, and I don't like it.
While I don't consume the alternatives all the time I don't find them repulsive either. Both Impossible and Beyond Meat have a compelling product in my personal opinion having eaten meat and been somewhat of a "picky" burger consumer. Then again we all have different pallettes.
I'm curious of what your opinion of the Impossible Whopper at Burger King would be. Back in my younger days I enjoyed a Whopper from time to time and am excited to see how close it comes. Seems to be a rather large investment in fast food these days to validate this path as consumers look for the "healthier" alternatives.
Re: Foods for healthier people and a healthier planet [pdf]
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
> you need to substitute a plant food that is also relatively calorie dense (like beans, lentils, or potatoes) I tried this; not much help. I was used to a diet of essentially no carbs (and had found it beneficial for me), and actually switched because I had a friend who would not shut up about not eating meat and wouldn't stop until I did. I can indeed eat more, but occasionally I would get full and still not feel "…
> I tried this; not much help. I was used to a diet of essentially no carbs (and had found it beneficial for me), and actually switched because I had a friend who would not shut up about not eating meat and wouldn't stop until I did. I can indeed eat more, but occasionally I would get full and still not feel "full". The question I ask when people bring this up is always: what type of carbs? Generally you know you're…
> what type of carbs?
When I say carbs, I mostly mean grains, potatoes. I know most everything contains at least some, but it's a bit of a colloquialism and hard to avoid. Some occasional beans, oats, etc. I tried eating more of these as part of a diet, and beans were somewhat of a help, but I still didn't feel the same.
> A cup of kale has 6 grams
I hate kale. Everyone pushes it as a superfood, but the texture is disgusting. Also, a recent report showed it had tons of pesticides. I can't help wondering if people eat it out of the same mentality that makes us think medicine should taste bad.
> dietary fiber
I think I put this above, but I ate beans, nuts, some oats, and fruits and veggies. I just had a lot of meat as well (as in, half to three-fifths of my plate). I wasn't on the typical Western-pattern diet by any means.
I honestly believe a plant-based diet just doens't work for everyone. And I will continue eating what works best for me, though I'm always open to trying something that could be better (the entire reason I tried plant-based in the first place).
Re: Foods for healthier people and a healthier planet [pdf]
#89I think the problem for most people not eating healthier is lack of knowledge in preparation, cooking and storing. Recently I purchased an instant pot and it makes cooking healthy food extremely easy with decreasing prep & cleaning time. I just throw everything into this pot with water, hit a few buttons and wait 30mins to an hour. All goes into containers in the fridge and can be reheated in the microwave. I can make a good week worth of food in a few hours. I'm still trying to perfect different meals since I never used to cook.
Re: Foods for healthier people and a healthier planet [pdf]
#90It's worth noting for anyone that advocates this sort of diet that it is a luxury. Many people mention that you can make good food on such a diet, but it is doubtless time-consuming. What of those who work by the hour? And the ingredients are expensive. Many of the fancy foods on here come from Whole Foods, not HEB. Even if they become affordable, the time aspect is still important; most don't want to spend 2 hours c…
I follow a plant based diet, although I eat only a small subset of the foods on the list I think I can answer some of your questions. > how do you not feel hungry? Lots of starch. Carbs and eating more volume vs. when I ate meat is what fills me up. It's a bit of an adjustment but you get used to it. After doing this for three years I don't feel a need to eat meat/cheese/eggs etc. > What of those who work by the hour…
I'm sorry, what's a "sad" diet?
Edit: found it: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAD tells me it's a "standard american diet", which I take to mean big portions of mainly burgers, fries, and sugary drinks.