They acted like that shit was so important, but it was like super influenced by food lobbyists and misleading or whatever
Apparently in 2011 they changed it to "myplate" and I haven't heard anything about it since then
In Soviet north china the government lies about what a "healthy meal" is comprised of
I remember that by the food pyramid, pasta alfredo was like the perfect health food lol
People wonder why people have no faith in "experts" meanwhile the US government was blatantly bullshitting something as simple as "what foods are healthy" in the 21st century
Grains have been the #1 component of most people's diets for over 5,000 years.
You can make a good argument against Wonder/Bunny style bread, but it'd be silly to suggest that staple grains should not make up a substantial fraction of the food we produce and consume. What else is going to provide that many calories?
getting enough calories in really isn't a problem for the vast majority of people in the developed world. what is a problem is getting quality in those calories and bread really isn't that great nutritionally.
It's largely not a problem because of the amounts we produce. Supporting the world's population on a hunter-gatherer diet, or even vegetables, would require a huge transformation. Though don't get me wrong, that transformation needs to happen at some point.
We wouldn't be able to feed 7B people without the Green Revolution, or something similar in scope.
8 Glasses of water a day too, I mean I might do like 5 or 6 but that's on a good day.
I noticeably feel better when I make it a point to drink more water. Sure I have to pee like every two hours, but i do feel better.
This is the worst kind of measurement, worse than Imperial units. A "glass" could be as little as 180 mL or as much as 400.
Just drink 2 liters, it feels easier that way. If you mainly drink water, and drink before and after eating, and carry a water bottle nearby, it's not hard.
Trust the science. Scientists don't lie. Especially ones who work for the government.
Yeah, the sugar lobby was shown to have influenced the folks at Harvard who made that. Obviously the interests of the dairy/whitebread/pasta/meat industries were considered too, but if I remember correctly the sugar industry literally funded the study that made the food pyramid.
If the sugar lobby can wield that kind of power, imagine what weapons/auto manufacturers can do (I know we already know this, but I have to mention that to libs whenever this topic comes up).
They paid for studies to have fats blamed for health issues previously. In the food pyramid, fats are also at the top even though we know fats (especially nuts, avocados, legumes) aren't unhealthy and keep people feeling full longer.
Lots of candy is still labeled "fat free" in the USA.
but but grain producers really need you to eat five servings a day of bread
Lol yes! I remember as a kid wondering how anyone was supposed to eat so much bread and still have room for the other categories.
The recommendations weren't totally unreasonable, just like poorly communicated. The way a serving was defined was really small, so like 6 servings might be one bagel or so.
I remember it at one point being six (6) to eleven (11!) goddamned servings of grains a day.
I don't think anyone actually followed those guidelines tho, since the way a serving is defined a bagel is like 4-6 servings of grains. And idk, having a bagel a day is probably a fine amount of grains.
Yeah that shit was dangerously inaccurate and now they wonder why they can’t get everyone to get vaxxed
We can only be sure it's either Trump's fault or Russia's fault.
The problem with getting advice from people like this is they already assume everyone is on the same page as them and thus they can speak in shorthand and not explain anything. What's a "healthy fat"? What's "protein"? What is "added sugar" and how much is too much? What if going outside is a concrete jungle full of hostile humans? So many assumptions here, all unwarranted.
I'm not looking for a wall of text copied from Wikipedia. I'm asking that people explain themselves when speaking to a general audience.
Damn alcohol, why are there no nutritional labels on beer and wine and such?
Healthy fats would be like, fish, avocadoes, eggs, nuts, cheese, olive oil, beans. Proteins that are good would be eggs, beans, and fish again, as well as poultry, soy, yoghurt, oats, broccoli. Additional options can be searched for pretty easily online. Great search terms would be "Healthy fats" and "Healthy proteins"
"Added sugar" would be candy, soda, fruit juices, carbohydrate loaded snacks like chips or really any prepackaged snack food from the snacks aisle, as well as things that have added sugar in general such as some condiments like ketchup. The correct amount is "Less than you want, by far. Consume only as a rare and special treat." You can get alternatives to some of these, like ketchup, that do have no sugar added, or even sugar free options. I generally go for these, because they genuinely taste better to me.
The humans in the concrete jungle probably aren't as hostile as you think, but even if they are, getting outside in the concrete jungle is better for you than being inside and inactive, especially if you can get away from roads. Somewhere a bit more green, like say, an urban park, is great. Even if not, if you can head to an area with fewer cars, the air quality will be a bit better and it's great to go for a walk or jog on the sidewalk. I did this regularly in downtown Toronto, and never got a second look, and I'm a tiny woman.
This is not a wall of text copied from wikipedia. I've provided a list of things that I personally recommend in the hopes that someone in the aforementioned general audience will find this to be helpful. If you don't find this helpful, then I'm sorry. Hopefully someone else will.
You raise a good point that we know intuitively what whole foods are but not what food molecules are. A big ruse that the government experts played was changing simple language like "eat less red meat" to "choose foods that will limit your saturated fat intake", and now we're led on this wild ride of faith about saturated fats and what contains them.
In Defense Of Food is a really good book that examines trends like this. It's way longer than a Wikipedia article but will give you a much better overview/context.
Healthy fats would be like, fish, avocadoes, eggs, nuts, cheese, olive oil, beans. Proteins that are good would be eggs, beans, and fish again, as well as poultry, soy, yoghurt, oats, broccoli
no
if it's a pyramid, where are the other two sides?plus, I always claimed ice cream as a dairy so I could get more. I'm a big proponent of eat when you think you should eat, and try to get more fruits and vegetables than processed foods and starch.
Potatoes are actually surprisingly healthy. It's the toppings that ruin the effect, but roasted quartered potatoes tossed in olive oil and lightly seasoned with salt, pepper, onion and garlic powder are absolutely delicious. Great source of potassium which the American diet generally lacks.
Did you mean to respond to this comment? I didn't say anything about potatoes.
"Starch"
Aye but you did lad, you did. It's always about potatoes.
I am aware potatoes are starches, but I never explicitly warned against starch, just that more fruits and vegetables should be consumed. Your advice is appreciated, but it did sound like a non-sequitur.
I’m a big proponent of eat when you think you should eat
That's a terrible idea, though. Eating when you think you should eat is how you get an entire country (something like 70+%) overweight. Americans eat when they think they should eat and almost every single one of the fuckers eats way too much.
I love you just ignoring how that's cause americans are sold an empty diet everywhere they go, so they are constantly hungry and keep getting calories without enough vitamins. You shouldn't ignore your hunger, its a question of what food is available.
I love you just ignoring how that’s cause americans are sold an empty diet everywhere they go, so they are constantly hungry and keep getting calories without enough vitamins.
Your stomach isn't that smart, it's not telling you you're hungry because it needs more vitamin D, it's telling you you're hungry because it's used to you stuffing your face at this time of day.
You shouldn’t ignore your hunger
When your hunger is wrong and telling you to overeat, yes you absolutely should.
Learned this one in school. I remember at the time everyone knew that it was blatant lies, but the excuse for it was something like "it made more sense in the 1950s when more people had physical labor jobs".
Then my first attempt at college I took a health class and they taught us this one, which is still just terrible.
This seems to be the most recent one, but it seems that by the time the USDA got around to telling people to eat their vegetables and not load up on bread, the idea of nutrition guidelines had been completely de-legitimized in people's minds. Also you still really don't need that much milk.
That second one lmao - you should have more milk per day than vegetables
Just as bad as this is the recommendation to choose low-fat or fat-free stuff. If you're not getting the calories you need from fats, you're likely going to end up bridging the gap with something sugary. There's a reason why the sugar industry had such a big role in dietary recommendations, and why it took us over 50 years to realize "hey maybe eating sugar is really bad", and today we kinda paper over that.
The 68% of the world that has some degree of lactose intolerance: :die:
I don't think the big problem is that people doesn't know that vegetables are healthier than a bucket of fried chicken or that sugar will do nothing good for your health. The fact is that lots of people eat things knowing perfectly well how bad they are for them.
Food is more than just fuel for the body-machine. Very few people determine their food intake by strict nutritional considerations. For nearly all of us food is part of complex social and psychological contexts, part of our identity.
On top of that human biology is fine-tuned for survival in a near-starvation setting, not for health in a society with factory farming and cheap, abundant food. One should be cautious with biological determinism but I think it is fair to say that we all have a very deep-set desire to stuff ourselves with sweet and fatty foods.
Most modern health information doesn't take all that into account. It is still operating on the very naive assumption that if people just know what's good for them, they will also do it. And while factual information about nutrition is important it is not enough. Just imagine the effort it took to reduce smoking to the level it is today. It has been well known for decades and decades that smoking is really bad for you and the message "don't smoke or it will kill you" is a lot simpler and scarier than "eat less of certain foods or you will have increased risk of disease". Yet it took several decades of information and strict legal measures to change cultural norms about smoking and get people to quit.
A healthy lifestyle is not profitable, end of.
Health means plenty of sleep (time you should be grinding or consuming something), plenty of vegetables and fruit (that shit comes right out of the ground, where's the Value Add :scared: ), and regular movement of some kind (more time you should be working, consuming media, or making a purchase!). And if you are healthy, you're dependence on the healthcare industry goes down, which hurts profits even more!
Don't underestimate the creativity of capitalism. They will commodify health just as much as they do anything else. You want to live healthy? Here are some fancy exotic superfoods, supplements and vegan ersatz products! You want exercise? Here's an expensive gym membership, a personal trainer and a shitton of equipment you need to do it!
And none of that crap is as "healthy" as just eating 500 grams of produce a day, not inhaling fried meat by the truckload, 8 hours of sleep, and going for a walk every night.
Real talk I literally have the nutritional knowledge of a 10 year old. Does anybody have a good resource on the basics? Like my all fast food diet has to come to an end, I just have no idea where to start.
MyPlate is better but still obviously influenced by outside interests with the idea that every meal needs a dairy item and it barely mentions vegan alternatives if at all. It’s easier to explain to a patient but still has issues
