Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What Google's Famous Cafeterias Can Teach Us About Health

theatlantic.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 72 posts

Re: What Google's Famous Cafeterias Can Teach Us About Health

#41

Post by grannyg00se »

FaceKicker wrote: post #12
dekayed wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately it seems to penalize people who choose to eat more fat vs. carbs.

That's a problem with the entire green/yellow/red color-coding system at Google as well - the labels seem to be in line with the common belief that whole grains = always good and dietary fat = always bad. Then again, it's not really difficult to figure out from the list of ingredients whether food is in line with your personal dietary belief system, so the color-coding system isn't really all that valuable to begin w…

It's not the whole grains I'd be worried about. "Granola bars" are sugar/candy bars disguised with some granola and "healthy" labelling (usually upselling the fiber content).

Re: What Google's Famous Cafeterias Can Teach Us About Health

#42

Post by oasisbob »

TheSOB88 wrote: post #29
tomerico wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well technically, sugar costs more per calorie than fat. As one gram of sugar is 4 calories and one gram of fat is 9 calories.

Right, but it's not the total calories that folks like me and mslyuter are worried about. Sugar and other carbs, when digested, raise blood sugar levels, which in turn raises insulin. Then, blood sugar gets sucked into fat cells and converted into fat simply because of the insulin. So those calories don't even get a chance to be used in their original form before they're stored as fat. IMO the various ways blood suga…

So those calories don't even get a chance to be used in their original form before they're stored as fat.

Sure they do! Don't forget about glycogen.

Re: What Google's Famous Cafeterias Can Teach Us About Health

#43

Post by Troll_Whisperer »

ciupicri wrote: post #34
Tharkun wrote: post #16

I do wish more companies would take lessons from this. Sadly it seems like this will only ever work for relatively big companies. Having to hire someone to cook for a team of 10 doesn't really seem worth it. And feeding a team of 10 anything other than sandwiches seems impractical. There are many catering services out there that (pardon the pun) cater to smaller crowds, but in my experience their food is invariably c…

Why not bring your own food? Some sandwiches for example. Nuts and seeds (flax, hemp) or (canned) fish (salmon, sardines, mackerel, tuna) are also a good option.

Laziness!

Re: What Google's Famous Cafeterias Can Teach Us About Health

#44

Post by die_sekte »

acconrad wrote: post #35

Trying to include vegetables in everything? Smart. But in no way are SunChips "eat anytime" food...certainly not healthier than walnuts. You don't see a page like this ( http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=99 ) about SunChips. If you want sound nutritional advice, I would tweak the Harvard pyramid in two ways: there's nothing you can gain from whole grains that you can't gain from fruits and vegetable…

Canola oil is basically the only mainstream cooking oil with a somewhat healthy omega-3/6 ratio. Why do you think it's unhealthy?

Re: What Google's Famous Cafeterias Can Teach Us About Health

#45

Post by [deleted] »

edw519 wrote: post #33

The pricing strategy is based on nutrient content, again according to the Harvard pyramid plan. For the vended products, you pay: one cent per gram of sugar, two cents per gram of fat, four cents per gram of saturated fat, one dollar per gram of trans fat... Reminds me of the time I encountered a world renowned nutritional expert... edw519: "I'm having trouble understanding these food labels." expert: "Don't eat anyt…

[deleted]

Re: What Google's Famous Cafeterias Can Teach Us About Health

#46

Post by etruong42 »

jackowayed wrote: post #11
scottyallen wrote: post #9

The vending machine isn't quite what the article makes it out to be. For starters, it's one vending machine in all of Google (as far as I know). It magically appeared one April Fool's day, and has been attributed to some of the SREs in charge of keeping web search running, but credit has never been claimed. There was a rather funny "I am spartacus" thread about the vending machine that appeared on a major email list…

Does Google have a culture of pranks/hacks? It certainly makes sense, but I've never really heard anything about it

I'd say so. The most recent which I am aware of was the nyan cat youtube video had a nyan cat progress bar. http://venturebeat.com/2011/06/17/youtube-nyan-cat-progress-...

Re: What Google's Famous Cafeterias Can Teach Us About Health

#47

Post by Afton »

Hisoka wrote: post #32
FaceKicker wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a problem with the entire green/yellow/red color-coding system at Google as well - the labels seem to be in line with the common belief that whole grains = always good and dietary fat = always bad. Then again, it's not really difficult to figure out from the list of ingredients whether food is in line with your personal dietary belief system, so the color-coding system isn't really all that valuable to begin w…

That problem stems from the source that Google chose to base their system off - the Harvard Pyramid. They wanted to be as least controversial as possible (aka popular conventions) so whole grains are viewed as healthy, and fatty foods aren't. That's the principle we've been hammered from the government and food associations since forever. Unfortunately, it's wrong, and just a little research reveals it. But people wi…

I'm very very sympathetic to this view. I eat a high-fat diet, and have for over a year. But Google is probably right to act conservatively here. Don't blame Google for following the Harvard Pyramid, blame the Harvard Pyramid. They're the ones with the responsibility to update the status quo.

Re: What Google's Famous Cafeterias Can Teach Us About Health

#48

Post by TheSOB88 »

oasisbob wrote: post #42
TheSOB88 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, but it's not the total calories that folks like me and mslyuter are worried about. Sugar and other carbs, when digested, raise blood sugar levels, which in turn raises insulin. Then, blood sugar gets sucked into fat cells and converted into fat simply because of the insulin. So those calories don't even get a chance to be used in their original form before they're stored as fat. IMO the various ways blood suga…

So those calories don't even get a chance to be used in their original form before they're stored as fat. Sure they do! Don't forget about glycogen.

I don't know if we're understanding each other... I'm saying that there are carbs that get transformed into fat. These calories, by definition, do not get used until the fat is released from that cell. Which could be a loooong time.

You're right, glycogen is another place that carbs can go. But unless you're exercising there probably isn't a lot going there.

Re: What Google's Famous Cafeterias Can Teach Us About Health

#49

Post by Shorel »

die_sekte wrote: post #44
acconrad wrote: post #35

Trying to include vegetables in everything? Smart. But in no way are SunChips "eat anytime" food...certainly not healthier than walnuts. You don't see a page like this ( http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=99 ) about SunChips. If you want sound nutritional advice, I would tweak the Harvard pyramid in two ways: there's nothing you can gain from whole grains that you can't gain from fruits and vegetable…

Canola oil is basically the only mainstream cooking oil with a somewhat healthy omega-3/6 ratio. Why do you think it's unhealthy?

It stops being healthy if you heat it enough. Like frying stuff with it.

Re: What Google's Famous Cafeterias Can Teach Us About Health

#50

Post by nitrogen »

culturestate wrote: post #26
Tharkun wrote: post #16

I do wish more companies would take lessons from this. Sadly it seems like this will only ever work for relatively big companies. Having to hire someone to cook for a team of 10 doesn't really seem worth it. And feeding a team of 10 anything other than sandwiches seems impractical. There are many catering services out there that (pardon the pun) cater to smaller crowds, but in my experience their food is invariably c…

These are beginning to pop up. A couple of ex-Google chefs started Gastronaut ( http://www.gastronautsf.com/ ), and I swear I saw something about YC funding a similar concept recently but I can't for the life of me find the name.

Were you thinking of ZeroCater?

http://www.zerocater.com/

Post reply on HN