Everything You've been told about How to Eat is Wrong - Alternet

[sense]

I'm sure the "woo sayers" will be here shortly, as usual when anyone posts something about diet and health that isn't the "standard". It's way past time to question everything and start looking at results.

http://www.alternet.org/food/we-dont-know-what-eat?page=0%2C0&akid=11007.244962.en9gu2&rd=1&src=newsletter905279&t=7


"If you go to the National Institute of Health’s website today, you will find a section on a “ Healthy Eating Plan.” That plan recommends a diet “low in saturated fats, trans fat, cholesterol, salt, and added sugars, and controls portion sizes.” These recommendations may well have been copied and pasted from 1977.

"Nothing has changed over the past 36 years, except for this: everyone is fatter.

[tridim]

1. Agreed 100%

I figured this out a few years ago and have been much healthier ever since.

IMO the NIH recommendation for sodium intake is dangerously wrong, especially while suggesting we drink more water. Lack of sodium is killing people, as is fat-free diets. Both are needed to survive and be healthy.

Don't get me started on Rx drugs that supposedly "cure" these issues.

[Iwasthere]

3. I agree salt is important

I also agree that the fat free craze caused a great deal of the obesity problem. I changed my diet rqadically over the last decade and have NEVER been healthier. I am 56 years old and getting younger everyday. Here is what I quit:

Fried foods (10 years ago)
Sugar (6 years ago)
Wheat products (this year, and the 2nd biggest help)
Meat (this year)
Dairy (this year, and the biggest help I think)
Most processed foods (a couple years ago)

All of these would be a bit extreme for most people but I firmly believe I am avoiding deseases (cancer) and serious illnesses now as a result. I will live much longer!! I am doing things I never thought I would do again, I weigh 50 pounds less now and am staying that way. Incedently I lost the weigh initially by using Medifast foods through the TSFL program, I never went hungry and it came off REALLY fast, it was great having a free coach to help me through. It is for LIFE! If you want to see it my wife is a coach (she was a local director at Jenny Craig for 22 years and moved over to TSFL, she LOVES coaching and she could be yours) http://ultrahealth4you.tsfl.com

[MannyGoldstein]

4. The salt data are so strong, yet ignored

Less than 3,000 mg or so a day gets bad, fast.

[hlthe2b]

2. SOme of the message still applies: eating a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables...

But it is clear that the emphasis on "Low Fat" came at the expense of adequate levels of "healthy fats" and future research will undoubtedly find (as has already begun) that this is impacting neurological function and predisposing some elderly towards diminished cognition or even senility.

Further the "fat above all" message has been accompanied by sugar--of all forms--incorporated in a desperate attempt to add flavor in nearly all processed foods. The combination of low fat, high sugar in our diets will have ramifications for years to come in terms of obesity, type II diabetes, and multiple other chronic illnesses.

[SheilaT]

5. The salt thing is huge, and too many people

think salt will kill them.

The truth is, we need salt just to stay alive. Among other things, it helps maintain blood volume, which is especially important for pregnant women, who need to increase their blood volume around 50% over the course of the pregnancy. In the 1950's and '60's, when doctors were universally advising severely restricted weight gain and drastic cut in salt intake for pregnant women the rate of pre-eclampsia and full eclampsia skyrocketed. As one book noted some years back, had there not been a large enough group of women who simply ignored this advice, we might never have figured out that about a 30 pound weight gain and adequate salt intake is vital to a healthy pregnancy.

The other thing that I think is the biggest problem with the way most people eat, is that they're consuming far too many prepared and processed foods, not to mention sugar water or worse yet, chemical water, by which I mean soft drinks and diet soft drinks.

I have no problem with sugar in moderation. I love to bake, and I'm a decent baker, with a limited repertoire: a few kinds of cookies, a couple of different cakes (including carrot cake), brownies. I make only from scratch. I live alone, so when I bake I generally share with my co-workers. It's incredibly obvious that most of them have never had any of these things actually baked from scratch. I no longer like to get goodies from a bakery, because they are often using mixes. And a boxed cake mix? Forget about it. I can clearly taste the chemicals and preservatives.

[NoOneMan]

6. "Nothing has changed over the past 36 years, except for this: everyone is fatter"

So what? Food is shittier. People eat more. People exercise less.

The premise of this article is only valid if everyone followed the NIH's advice. They don't. Does anyone?

[Squinch]

8. I agree. Other than the fact that everyone is fatter, there are many other changes:

Processed food options have exploded since 1970, so there are countless more ways to get your processed foods that are packed with calories and devoid of nutrition. Fresh fruits and vegetables are consumed less than in 1970. Meat consumption is way up since 1970.

"Everyone is fatter" is most definitely NOT the only change in 36 years.

[MineralMan]

7. People don't follow the NIH's recommendations.

If they did, they'd be much healthier. The rest is faddism.

I have zero reason to believe that the book this article is touting is any better, nor that people will follow its directions any better, either.

A lot of people eat too much crap. That makes them fat and unhealthy. That's the bottom line of all this.

[Warpy]

9. I figured that out at 30

The reasons everybody is fatter are complex. We can't blame one thing like processed foods or fast foods or a sedentary lifestyle (which few can actually afford). You see guys out laying asphalt and climbing utility poles with lots of lard on their bodies.

They've got to start looking elsewhere for the reasons. The whole pattern has been that of an epidemic disease, spreading out from the Gulf coast. Now Mexico is even fatter than we are, and don't try to tell me they're living on fast food, processed foods, and a sedentary lifestyle! It's spreading, too, and occurring overseas as fatties travel around and spread whatever it is that's being spread.

Blaming fatties for being fat is getting us nowhere. The morality police have got to be drowned out and when we get a government back, NIH grants need to be allocated to find the real reason.

[Mosby]

10. I think the problem is processed foods

35 years ago families sat down for dinner and ate meatloaf, mashed potatoes and veggies. Today they sit down and eat hamburger helper or fast food.

Another major factor is portion sizes, today's restaurants give you enough food for three people, it wasn't like that decades ago. people who have grown up with this might have no idea they are eating way too much at one sitting and they are stretching their stomachs which will just lead them to eat more and more often.