Diet and mental health

Ya I agree with this.

I am slightly anemic, because of iron deficiency. I grew out of it for the most part when I was in high school but every now and then I HAVE to have red meat. The craving is unavoidable, and it is only satiated after consuming red meat.

 

I eat out probably 90% of my meals, I try to avoid fast food but sometimes it's inevitable. Homecooked stuff is great but it has to be hearty. If it's too healthy I will feel like I'm starving and weak all the time. I demand a lot of energy out of my body.

Today I ate at a local diner for breakfast - 2 eggs, bacon, grits and a belgian waffle. Then another local place for dinner, some kind of alfredo pasta with a grilled chicken breast in it. And some sweet potato fries. 3 pints of a local IPA and 4 pints of blue moon.

I probably eat like shit but oh well. A lot of times if, for example, most places are closed except for fast food.. I will just starve.

 

The Western diet is pretty crapola - all the dairy, trans fats, sugar and additives.

Since I moved overseas to my my boyfriend's mum's house and have been just eating all the home-cooked food she makes I have noticed such a difference and am losing my excess weight. She makes SUCH healthy, delicious food and they just eat fruit if they want something sweet. Korean food is quite spicy and has a lot of flavour so they don't need to coat everything in oil or fat for it taste good.

I'm actually scared for when I get my own place and have to cook for myself as I don't yet know how to cook Korean food and it seems that although it all tastes amazing - there is a quite a lot of time spent preparing the food. When I lived in China I didn't know how to cook proper Chinese food (fried rice doesn't count) so I ended up eating a lot of crap - basically tried cooking Western food with the ingredients I could find in China - or ate the junk food and takeaways. I felt really tired all the time and got sick a lot. I don't wanna go back to that.

 

Living in a different culture is a way of directing oneself away from an unhealthy eating regimen.

The article below mentions the same points that you have in your post. The modern U.S. culture is heavy in refined, nutrient-depleted grains, refined sugars, omega-6 fats (dairy), cheap industrialized fats from vegetable oil (trans fats), cheap industrialized 'sugar' from grain (high fructose corn syrup), cheap fillers and emulsifiers made from refined soy, and sodium. Many of those substances are also overused for flavoring instead of using healthier items such as spices.

http://heidilore.wordpress.com/2010/01/24/inflammation-example-one-way-comfort-food-poisons/

 

An article that mentions how the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio has increased greatly over the decades in the modern industrialized culture.

http://www.amsa.org/healingthehealer/antiinflam.cfm

 

Part of the reason some of those substances are so cheap is because the products (dairy, corn, soy) are subsidized by the federal government. Part of it is also due to the nature of the land and ease of growing cash crops (corn, soy). Such products and other products derived from them become embedded in the eating regimen of the culture

 

This fine product from Kraft for children brags that it's "A Good Source of Protein!" It's fake juice (with high fructose corn syrup), the lovely trademarked Real Kraft cheese (cheese product), smoked processed ham (with plenty of nitrite and sodium), and crackers (with partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil).

It's probably great for mental health too.

Kraft loves to use the term 'Real Kraft Cheese'. That doesn't mean real cultured cheese by Kraft. It means Real Kraft cheese 'product'. There's less than 2% cultured cheese in it.

Lunchables Lunch Combinations, Cracker Stackers, Ham & American

http://www.wegmans.com/webapp/wcs/s...play?productId=674319&storeId=10052&langId=-1

61 ingredients in the list.

Cherry Flavored Water Beverage with Other Natural Flavor: Water, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Citric Acid, Sucralose (Splenda Brand Sweetener), Natural Flavor. Cooked Ham - Water Added - Chopped and Formed - Smoke Flavor Added: Ham, Water, Contains Less than 2% of Sodium Lactate, Potassium Chloride, Modified Cornstarch, Sugar, Sodium Phosphate, Salt, Sodium Diacetate, Sodium Ascorbate, Flavor, Sodium Nitrite, Smoke Flavor. Candy Bar: Corn Syrup, Sugar, Ground Roasted Peanuts, Hydrogenated Palm Kernel Oil, Cocoa, Molasses and Less than 2% of Whey (From Milk), Confectioner's Corn Flakes, Nonfat Milk, Salt, Lactic Acid Esters, Soy Lecithin, Soybean Oil, Cornstarch, Artificial Flavors, TBHQ and Citric Acid (to Preserve Freshness), Yellow 5, Red 40. Pasteurized Prepared American Cheese Product: Milk, Water, Milkfat, Milk Protein Concentrate, Whey, Whey Protein Concentrate, Contains Less than 2% of Sodium Citrate, Salt, Lactic Acid, Sorbic Acid as a Preservative, Cheese Culture, Enzymes, Oleoresin Paprika (Color), Annatto (Color), with Starch Added for Slice Separation. Crackers: Unbleached Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate [Vitamin B1], Riboflavin [Vitamin B2], Folic Acid), Whole Grain Wheat Flour, Soybean Oil, Sugar, Partially Hydrogenated Cottonseed Oil, Salt, Leavening (Baking Soda and/or Calcium Phosphate), Whey (From Milk), Soy Lecithin, Natural Flavor.

 

You eat out 90% of your meals? Damn, brah, I never knew you got so much pussy.

I don't know why so many people associate healthy with not tasting good. And if you're eating the right healthy foods, you're not going to be starving. I eat healthy, and approximately 50-60% of my calorie intake is from fat, so I'm never hungry, even when I go without eating for 20 hours as I often do.

My body is what they call "keto-adapted." What this means is that I have shifted my metabolism to burning fat instead of glucose for energy. The results? Well, I used to be a 260+ lb. fat man, and now I am 170 and completely lean. Any weight I have gained in the last year is from muscle. (I have gained about 30 lbs. of muscle in the last year alone, since I was approximately 140 this time a year ago.)

What makes so many people hungry all the time is that they eat too much sugar and starchy carbs, and their blood sugar is out of whack. When your blood sugar is out of whack, you're going to be hungry around the clock. This partly explains the obesity epidemic of western cultures -- too much sugar, white flour and starch, and not enough fat. Fat satiates, whereas carbs keep you hungry.

Also, I don't know why so many people are hung up on the notion that red meat is inherently bad. It's not. Fat isn't bad, either, if it's the right kind of fat. Fat is actually one of the most nourishing things for your body, which is why I consume so much of it. Ironically, people's fear of fat is one of the things that keeps so many people fat. More fat in a person's diet equates to less fat on their body. People can't seem to wrap their minds around that simple fact, but it's absolutely true.

 

Amazing. Omega 6's are inflammatory, and this explains why there is so much disease today that is a direct result of inflammation (heart disease, etc.)

Spot on!

Plus, these are things that keep people sick, and therefore keep the population in check while making people dependent on big pharma and the medical industry. Sounds conspiratorial, I know, but it's absolutely true. I have no doubt there is an agenda aimed at making people chronically sick, and that is why so many people are (chronically sick).

 

A little of what you fancy does no harm.

 

Nobody said it does. The problem with a lot of people is that they eat too much of what they fancy, and this is where the problems begin.

 

what if you fancy polonium-210?

 

I hear it's good if you want glowing skin.

 

While glowing skin does tend to be a sign of good health I do not recommend the consumption of polonium-210.

Those who eat a balanced diet will be able to cope with the good old junk food far more efficiently than those who do not.

I am with BBAD in that the key to overall health is a balance and if you are so concerned all the time with health it is not healthy. It causes other issues that may not even be dietary.

Eat well, exercise and anything that is not so healthy do in moderation.

 

Ultimately, there are consequences of unhealthy regimens on a societal scale. It's bizarre that the federal government in the U.S. for decades subsidized farm practices and industrialized food products that are partly to blame for the unhealthy eating regimens that got embedded in most of the society. Now the government is forcing the public to pay into a health care system to treat widespread and long-term health ailments, many of which are rooted in the poor food products and eating habits that were indoctrinated into people and became pervasive during the previous decades. It's a collective cost that the public, healthy and unhealthy, will be paying for over the next couple decades.

For all those who felt it was their patriotic duty to consume all the latest junk foods that were introduced to them by industries that were subsidized and supported by the government, have fun being forced by the government to pay for the treatment of the health consequences resulting from those choices and what you were tricked into thinking was a benevolent exercise of your liberty.

 

Well said, Cynthy.

 

I agree with what you have stated but there are also many other factors other than just additives or junk.

There is a lack of funding regarding teaching proper nutrition and that needs to change. This needs to be implemented at all levels from schools, social systems right through to medical students.

We need to make exercise not a dirty concept. We also need to make it more affordable for some to be able to do so. While you do not need to go to a gym it can be beneficial for those who are just starting to take their health seriously so that they also have guidance about healthy exercise.

We need to address those who live in poverty as they are a large sector of those that will have ill health in the coming years due to their diet. The poverty level needs to change and access to viable healthy food needs to be made affordable for lower income earners.

 

I go to the grocery store and it makes me sick to see all the disgusting people (some of whom cannot even walk they're so fat and out of shape) I have to pay for, who, when I look in their carts, have nothing but soda, chips, cookies and microwaveable junk on board. These are the first people to cry about health care usually.

I would like for Obama to take his communistic, fascistic health care plan and shove it up his ass.

 

I'm not so sure about this. Most people know that fast food and high-fructose corn syrup are bad, yet they continue to shovel the shit down their throats like there are no consequences for doing so. The problem is that most people lack personal responsibility, then they expect other people to come running to their aid when they get sick.

 

Most people who know that something is not good for them or bad still will tend to do what ever that is be it eating, not exercising, excessive behaviours, addictions. That does not mean that they are not worthy of help or education or medical assistance.

That does not mean at some point in their lives they may not decide to attempt to make a change for the better for their health.

The points I made are not going to change anyone who does not wish to make one but it may help those who would like to make a change but require some form of support to do so.