Live data from Hacker News

The American Diet Has a Sandwich Problem

wsj.com

101–110 of 129 posts

Re: The American Diet Has a Sandwich Problem

#101

> Sandwiches are the number one source of sodium and saturated fat in Americans’ diets, making up about one-fifth of our daily sodium intake and 19% of our daily saturated fat calories 20% of sodium and saturated fat calories for a single meal doesn't really sound very alarming.

Yes but maybe Americans have high sodium and fat intake. The problem with a sandwich, and I love bread, is that it’s high in carbs, low in fibre and vitamins.

Can't use white bread, gotta go with whole grain. Throw a couple slices of turkey, a fist full of spinach, a few grape tomatoes and you've got a sandwich that's actually a worthwhile lunch and not a crushing disappointment

Re: The American Diet Has a Sandwich Problem

#102
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Carbs are terrible for diets, don't satiate you and most people eat too many. I think most people's experience is precisely the opposite with regards too satiety - non-sugary carbs are the most important component for satiety. Bread, rice, potatoes - these are all commonly eaten to increase the feeling of fullness.

I thought I heard somewhere giving bread at restaraunts makes people hungrier and order more somehow. Maybe it is just an urban legend if it really drives satiety more than other foods.

I have not felt hungrier after eating bread. I think its just served to buy the cooks more time.

Re: The American Diet Has a Sandwich Problem

#103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes but maybe Americans have high sodium and fat intake. The problem with a sandwich, and I love bread, is that it’s high in carbs, low in fibre and vitamins.

Can't use white bread, gotta go with whole grain. Throw a couple slices of turkey, a fist full of spinach, a few grape tomatoes and you've got a sandwich that's actually a worthwhile lunch and not a crushing disappointment

Use lettuce as the bun and ditch bread completely.

Re: The American Diet Has a Sandwich Problem

#104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bad habits are hard to break

What if a diet high in salt is fine for healthy patients but dangerous for patients with heart disease? You can make the same argument for a diet high in sugar for healthy active individuals. It wouldn't be good for those with diabetes.

The difference is, a diet high in (refined) sugar is terrible for all humans, both healthy and unhealthy.

Re: The American Diet Has a Sandwich Problem

#105
post #5

> Twenty years later, a turkey sandwich contained about 820 calories. Not sure where they got those numbers from. Just for comparison - in England, where many people eat sandwiches every day, the range is more like 300-500 for a supermarket sandwich. The meat is processed, but chicken is a fairly popular option, and the bread is thinner and less sweet. Really the main takeaway is to reduce your bread. Carbs are terri…

Modern bread tastes like cake to me.

Lots of American bread is full of added sugar, but if you look around in the bread aisle you can almost always find a loaf without sugar in its ingredients list. Sourdough is one of my favorites because it rarely has added sugar, and can still be found like that in some of the cheaper varieties.

Re: The American Diet Has a Sandwich Problem

#106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm actually curious about this: if that's true, why do hospitals still do low-salt diets for critical heart disease patients?

Because if you are a critical heart patient, salt then can matter a lot. Unfortunately a lot of people suffer from being per-diabetic, which really just means, "you have diabetes, we don't want to say that because: denial" and a lot of guidelines used for "healthy" people don't apply to you, because you're not healthy.

Well there is one aspect where pre-diabetes differs from being fully diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes, and that's the fact that you're not at the point of no return. Pre-diabetics, if they make appropriate lifestyle changes, still have a chance at reversing course and not living with diabetes for the rest of their life.

Re: The American Diet Has a Sandwich Problem

#107

No one's brought up keto bread?

Keto bread is an abomination and a horrible food to subject yourself to.

What do you mean? I've bought sola bread in the past and it... functioned exactly as bread in a sandwich. I just preferred larger sourdough slices so I stopped but it functioned the exact same as bread.

Re: The American Diet Has a Sandwich Problem

#108

This is strange to callout "saturated fats" as one of the primary issues, therefore "eat less bread". I generate, I agree that eating less bread is important (in general), specifically white bread, but the idea that "saturated fat" is bad is old and many studies in the last decade have actually reversed this opinion. The entire rise of keto diet is based on having as much saturated fat as possible, and to stay away f…

That book is pseudoscience. As are a lot of the books and videos promoting high fat diets. We don’t need to be afraid of fat, but replacing saturated fats with polyunsaturated fats has been shown to lead to better heart health outcomes by gold standard studies and meta reviews.

Re: The American Diet Has a Sandwich Problem

#109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because if you are a critical heart patient, salt then can matter a lot. Unfortunately a lot of people suffer from being per-diabetic, which really just means, "you have diabetes, we don't want to say that because: denial" and a lot of guidelines used for "healthy" people don't apply to you, because you're not healthy.

Well there is one aspect where pre-diabetes differs from being fully diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes, and that's the fact that you're not at the point of no return. Pre-diabetics, if they make appropriate lifestyle changes, still have a chance at reversing course and not living with diabetes for the rest of their life.

I don't disagree with you, but being pre-dabetic is an uphill battle to then get healthy again, as you are most likely trying to reverse many years of lifestyle habits that have lead you down the road towards diabetes. A car crash in slow-motion. That takes an incredible amount of will power and I applaud anyone that's on that journey, especially since you have to go well against the status quo.

I've at least heard that T2D is somewhat reversible given drastic diet changes, fasting, bariatric surgery - but a moon-shot for sure.

Re: The American Diet Has a Sandwich Problem

#110
post #5

> Twenty years later, a turkey sandwich contained about 820 calories. Not sure where they got those numbers from. Just for comparison - in England, where many people eat sandwiches every day, the range is more like 300-500 for a supermarket sandwich. The meat is processed, but chicken is a fairly popular option, and the bread is thinner and less sweet. Really the main takeaway is to reduce your bread. Carbs are terri…

> Carbs are terrible for diets, don't satiate you and most people eat too many. I think most people's experience is precisely the opposite with regards too satiety - non-sugary carbs are the most important component for satiety. Bread, rice, potatoes - these are all commonly eaten to increase the feeling of fullness.

> Bread, rice, potatoes - these are all commonly eaten to increase the feeling of fullness.

And then 2 hours later you're hungry again and craving the sugar hit you got from your last meal.

Post reply on HN