Do you check your diet?

[CaptainPanic]

My question is a spin off from another thread about sesame seeds. Phi for All replied, and my reply to him goes too far off topic to keep it in that thread.

 

I like [sesame seeds] for the calcium, manganese and copper content they represent, as well as being a great source of protein. The ones they put on bread are just dumb though, since seeds like that aren't digestible unless they're ground up pretty well. They're too small to be chewed whole, imo, and often end up just going through your system without benefit.

 

I don't think they give a satisfying enough crunch in whole form anyway, so they're best used as a garnish after you pulverize them a bit. I use them on salads and in oatmeal after a good crushing with a mortar and pestle.

 

Do you keep track of such things a lot?

 

Personally I don't keep track of anything at all. I just eat a varied diet, and get my daily weekly exercise, but I am totally unaware of quantities of certain elements in certain foods, and even of the amount of calories (Joules!) that I take in... And I have no idea about the quantities of any of the nutritional categories, like certain elements, proteins, fats, salts or vitamins. I never read the small print on the packaging. For certain elements (manganese, copper) I wouldn't even know how to find out. Google probably?

 

However, I do make conscious choices. Recently, I switched from having some cookies in the evening to having some fruit. Must say that I actually like the taste better, and I guess it's healthier too. My evening meal usually (not always) contains some veggies. And I also measure how much pasta/rice I boil for meals - because when I didn't do that, I always made too much (and ate it too).

 

And the only thing I care about on the packaging is the origin of the food: GMO or not. Locally grown or far away. Fresh or frozen. Fair trade or modern slave labor.

 

What's your dietary masterplan? Do you make conscious choices about anything?

[Greg H.]

I make conscious choices to avoid to much processed sugar, especially that bane of modern living, HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup). Mostly because diabetes tends to run in my family, and I'm trying to stave it off as long as possible.

[Phi for All]

Currently, I'm putting together another attempt at the small meals diet. The idea is to eat a small meal about every three hours, five times a day instead of larger meals three times a day, to avoid spiking glucose levels. It's supposed to be very satisfying (little or no hunger pangs), allow for a great deal of variety, controls caloric intake and keeps metabolism at a good rate.

 

The difficult part for me has always been how to plan the smaller meals effectively. Assuming meals at 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm and 7pm, I have no problems with some raw fruit and vegetables at 10am and 4pm, and breakfast at 7am can be yummy things like a hard-bolied egg, chopped up and mixed with a strip of crumbled bacon, diced tomato/onion/cilantro salsa and a tablespoon of Parmesan cheese, microwaved and spread over half a toasted English muffin (what real English people would call a sort of sourdough crumpet) for about 205 calories. No problems with breakfast, perhaps my favorite food meal.

 

The 1pm and 7pm meals are my problem. This is usually when people at work want to go out, or the family sits down for a normally larger meal. These are the meals that are typically the biggest in the old three-meals-a-day regimen, and it's hard to break the habit. I'm also trying to stay away from as much processed food as possible, and my daughter still has that "keep-food-groups-separate" prejudice that kids often do, so that makes casseroles and stews difficult at our house.

 

I haven't completely figured it all out, but I want to get away from the larger meals. My work isn't terribly physically punishing, and neither is my exercise routine, so I don't feel the need for the same amount or types of food a ditch-digger who pumps iron and runs marathons would eat.

[CharonY]

My eating schedule is pretty much determined by my job. But I cook everything I eat myself (from scratch) and I make an effort to balance things out a bit over the week. I.e. high vegetable/meat ratio etc (almost no processed food as I really dislike the taste). I do not keep track of calories, though. I found that I mostly gain weight when I have long stretches of just sitting (e.g. grant writing time), but I tend to lose it again when I am walking around more.

[Appolinaria]

I'm so picky with my diet :x

[Ben Banana]

I'm picky with my diet too. Unfortunately, if I only ate what I wanted, I would starve. We have no good food here! Agh!

[Appolinaria]

I'm picky with my diet too. Unfortunately, if I only ate what I wanted, I would starve. We have no good food here! Agh!

 

Where is that?

[alpha2cen]

Not processed food is good for intestine exercise. Human are originally designed to live on low calorie and large volume food. Small amount and high calorie food is not good for health.

[Ben Banana]

Where is that?

 

The various stores of culinary resources within my residence.

[iNow]

^You live with your mom, don't you?

[Appolinaria]

Don't jump to conclusions. Perhaps some kind of dungeon?

[CharonY]

Still does not contradict iNow's assumption.

[Appolinaria]

Haha. Well done sir.

[akh]

I mostly just try to eat things of color. Green things, red things, and orange things. Lean fauna but fatty flora. Recently, I have tried to avoid phytoestrogens. So no soy, and no hops! I miss my hops.

[Ben Banana]

You live with your mom, don't you?

Unfortunately, no. Otherwise, I wouldn't have said that.

[Appolinaria]

Unfortunately, no. Otherwise, I wouldn't have said that.

 

Second guess is at University?

[A Tripolation]

I make conscious choices to avoid to much processed sugar, especially that bane of modern living, HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup).

 

This always draws my ire a little bit. As far as I know, no conclusive research has been offered to show that HFCS is any more dangerous than other forms of sucrose. I mean...one comes from sugarcane, the other comes from corn. They are the same thing.

 

But now, there's this movement to demonize HFCS. It's a sweetener. Of course it's not healthy in large quantities. Guess what else isn't healthy in large quantities? Regular sugar.

 

I would be more than willing to read articles that show, conclusively, how HFCS is a dangerous ingredient. Dangerous enough to warrant a conscious avoidance, to be more precise.

[iNow]

This always draws my ire a little bit. As far as I know, no conclusive research has been offered to show that HFCS is any more dangerous than other forms of sucrose. I mean...one comes from sugarcane, the other comes from corn. They are the same thing.

 

But now, there's this movement to demonize HFCS. It's a sweetener. Of course it's not healthy in large quantities. Guess what else isn't healthy in large quantities? Regular sugar.

I think you're spot on, too.

 

60 Minutes did a piece on this in April. It was hosted by Dr. Sanjay Gupta and it suggested that sugar is toxic and backed it up. In that piece, the same argument that you've made here was also presented... HFCS is really no different than sugar. It has the same effect. It's just that we're exposed to more of it.

 

Watch for yourself: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7403942n

[CharonY]

Well there is data that the physiological effects of high levels of fructose may be different than equivalent levels of sucrose (i.e. the accumulation appears to be faster as the fructose exists in the free form). But obviously the overexposure is really the big issue. Exchanging it back to sucrose would do little to improve overall health status, if consumption stays at the high levels.

It has also to do with the preference of Americans for the sweet taste (and I recall a study linking it to exposure to sweetened baby food, but can't recall the reference).

What is of little doubt are the health effects of high levels of fructose consumption (by whatever source).

 

I suspect that the demonization of HFC is a bit of a marketing trick so that some (maybe even the same) manufacturer can slap "made with real cane sugar" on their product to make the consumers feel better. The only way to make it better would put less sugar into the products. But then the consumer won't like the taste...