The Eating-Well Thread

One of the friendlier newer members as of late told me recently that he is moving out of home soon and for the first time will be solely responsible for his food choices. After telling him that I try to eat with a small footprint, he started asking me more about it. I suggested that we discuss with the community and maybe provide something in off topic to discuss which does not include an ideological battle. After my suggestion to make a thread, he then suggested that I be the one to make the thread, so here it is :)

My basic food philosophy is this - try to be responsible both to my own health and the health of others and the health of the planet. This means buying locally as much as possible, and generally this includes cutting out a lot of fast food type of items. I am not advocating cutting everything, I still occasionally go out for food which is not good for me or the planet, but as someone soon to be living on their own, I simply suggested that anyone living on their own should really think about learning a few easy recipes, to make food from scratch. I far prefer food made from scratch myself. For instance, last year for Thanksgiving I made a pumpkin pie where I started with a pumpkin and a bag of flour and all the other ingredients. Although it ended up taking a couple of hours to make, it was a very rewarding (and tasty) experience. The same can be done with any food really, and the more so when it is made at home.

So anyone feel free to share any food suggestions or even recipes if you like. I am not advocating a healthy food discussion either, even if you all want to discuss better burger recipes go ahead. On that subject though, for burgers, crush up some of your favourite crackers into the meat mix. It makes them more moist and less prone to dry out when frying them. Also hummus is a great topping for burgers.

Hummus, I'm learning, is a great topping for many things. I wonder how hard that is to make?

My mother once made a pumpkin pie from scratch but (she says it's because "the kids distracted her") managed to forget to add sugar. This has affected my appreciation for all other homemade pumpkin pies I've had the pleasure of eating (and being able to swallow) ever since then.

Anyway, looking forward to what this thread might become!

@Nelomaxwell: @jhazzroucher: Thanks.

@Decoy Elite: Tacos can be super fast at home, like under ten minutes and so much better, both in taste and in nutrition. Also made at home then you know what goes into them.

@akbogert: Hummus is extremely easy. Some tahini and a can of soaked chick peas. Then some garnish (roasted pine nuts are awesome). That is too bad about the pie.

@RazzaTazz: I don't think I've ever even heard of tahini before. I'll make that my first project, then (though I live really close to Sabra, which almost makes buying their stuff eating locally...also, their Chipolte hummus is amazing). As for the pie, it makes for a good joke around the holidays, and on the positive side we had whipped cream to compensate, albeit as necessity rather than perk.

@Decoy Elite: I know the feel. It is extremely cheap. But I don't know about you; I always feel a deep sense of regret (in more ways than one) whenever I have eaten there. The whole thing feels a bit masochistic, even before you factor in the health/impact aspects :)

Something to think about, there are only seven menu items at McDonalds that do not have added sugar. And two of those (coffee and tea) are items that people often add sugar to. By added sugar I mean not naturally occurring sugars. So for instance an apply has no added sugar. Just to illustrate this, all of the salads have added sugar, as do all of their sandwiches. Surprisingly one of the sugar free items are the chicken nuggets, though these are often dipped into sugar sauces (all of the sauces for the nuggets are extremely high in sugar)

@Nelomaxwell: It can be done with just chick peas, but then you would be better off to garnish it with some cumin or paprika.

@Decoy Elite: Thats reverse laziness though. Its like the people who walk out of their way and expend more calories to use the handicap door button so that they dont have to open the door.

@akbogert: Chipotle is good to mix in with stuff. I don't use it much as I have never added it to my usual choice of spices, but it can be quite good.

Also in my experience cooking is 98% knowing how to use spices, 1% being able to read a recipe and 1% checking on the food to make sure it doesnt burn.

@Floopay: Thanks for sharing that is pretty amazing.

@ChaosBlazer said:

lol I'm a teenager... I eat pretty unhealthily and barely work out yet I am super skinny and have no fat on my body at all. Well, no significant amounts of fat. My metabolism will definitely level off in a few years, and I guess I should be developing more healthy habits, but oh well. I wouldn't really mind being kinda fat later on in life, I don't think.

This is an interesting point, and I guess at some point obesity will be brought up in this thread but it is important to note. A lot of people talk in recent years about the obesity epidemic, but obesity is in itself not a health problem (well ... this is not entirely true, just mostly). What obesity is is symptomatic of other health problems. That is to say that if you are obese then you are probably doing bad stuff to your body to make it so. The thing to remember here though is that not everyone that eats poorly gets obese, and so they don't see this obvious marker for their own health problems. Instead they can develop problems associated with the metabolic syndrome without even knowing it. So the perpetually skinny people are not dodging the health effects while still eating poorly. They just don't have as prominent of a physical indicator of the stuff they are doing to themselves internally.

@ImmortalT1000: That is one of those things that people say when they want people to do nothing. A food revolution is possible.

@Floopay: Definitely taking notes here ^_^

Question: you said you've cooked Tandoori. I've always been under the impression that one needs a special kind of oven to pull off Tandoori (say, chicken). Is that true? Or is there a way to approximate with a conventional oven? Just in general I'd love to pick up some Indian recipes because that food tends to be quite expensive to buy at restaurants in my experience. Though I also understand Indian cooking tends to use rarer, more expensive spices. Anyhow I'd love advice on that cuisine in particular, from anyone who's done it.

@Mercy_: The only risk, I've discovered, is how quickly it disappears. I complained about this a friend recently and he shrugged and said "What can I say? Hummus is the new Pringles."

@ImmortalT1000 said:

@RazzaTazz said:

@ImmortalT1000: That is one of those things that people say when they want people to do nothing. A food revolution is possible.

Thats like saying if you don't smoke, you wont get cancer. Not true. I've had 2 people in my family die of cancer, they ate healthy meals and never took a puff a day in their lives and now they're dead. Thats why half the crap they blame on smoking and blame on fast food, I don't believe a word of it.

It is not like saying that at all. There are to be certain some people that cannot escape some diseases, but to act as a passive victim to environmental factors is ridiculous. It is a matter of risk analysis and removing as many bad things as possible.

@god_spawn said:

You make a healthy eating thread and don't immediately contact the Shaman of Sexy?

How droll of you people.

Welcome Shaman, any input is welcome.

@ImmortalT1000 said:

Eat right might sound right and drinking water might sound right, but at the end of the day, we're all gonna die, something will go wrong with all of us and our bodies will shut down.

Right but we have control over this. The so-called obesity epidemic in North America is not caused by environmental factors, but rather by food choices, a lot of which aren't really even choices.

@god_spawn said:

Heat up some eggs. There have been studies of people's cholesterol actually being lowered or not staying the same. Of course, if you eat a carton a day, you will get high cholesterol. Moderation is key. 100% whole wheat bread. Toast that sunab*tch up. Cook some of those veggies in the microwave and they will be done in less than 5 minutes. The whole process brings a nutritious breakfast and can be done in less than 10 minutes.

This is a huge part of the problem that people have with nutrition. There are nutrition falsehoods which are perpetuated because they are societal norms. One is the four food groups, another is that all calories are the same, and another is that all cholesterol is bad. This is good advice, too many people base their knowledge of food off of faulty information, and eggs are good in moderation as you say (also they taste good).

@ImmortalT1000 said:

@RazzaTazz said:

@ImmortalT1000 said:

Eat right might sound right and drinking water might sound right, but at the end of the day, we're all gonna die, something will go wrong with all of us and our bodies will shut down.

Right but we have control over this. The so-called obesity epidemic in North America is not caused by environmental factors, but rather by food choices, a lot of which aren't really even choices.

Well I respect your opinion, but we'll just have to agree to disagree.

I don't think so, I am actually not saying anything which you are disagreeing with. I was talking about healthy food options and then you said that all food is the same because we die when we die and that we can't trust doctors. There is no continuity on your half of the discussion. I am sorry to hear that about your father though.

@ImmortalT1000: Generally speaking (allowing for some extravagances every now and then) you should never drink something that is neither milk or water as it is going to be bad for you.

@ImmortalT1000: Drink only water or milk. Everything else is far too high in sugar (including juice)

@RazzaTazz: This is definitely true. There is no situation in which drinking soda (especially a non-diet soda, though even then...) is good for you. Granted, there's no situation in which eating a slice of cheesecake or a tray of poutine is good for you, but on occasion we splurge. But as a habit, and particularly when consumed as a drink to go along with meals or snacks (rather than as the snack) soda is just plain awful. I cut it out of my diet -- that was the only change I made, for a time -- and I lost 6 pounds.

@ImmortalT1000: Cranberry juice is good, because it helps your digestive system, but only pure cranberry juice, which most people would never drink because it is so sour. The stuff that you buy in stores is all sugar.

@akbogert: The calorie input is one bad part, another is what it does to your metabolism. Such an addition of sugar to your diet is extremely bad in health terms. Sugar consumption versus the same level of alcohol consumption has nearly identical long term health effects.

A huge problem, I didn't see anyone bring up, is also the time you eat certain foods. If you are going to be sitting in a desk or at a computer for an extended period, take into consideration what you are putting into yourself. There is no need to eat a high fat high sugar doughnut to start off your day if you may not do any activity for an extended period. As a general rule of thumb I try to only eat food with fat content < 25-30% and try to do at least one activity a day. Maintenance is the easy part of staying healthy you just have to condition yourself to get to your goals. Think of all the time you send on trivial tasks throughout your life and just try to make one change at a time. Whether its keeping some protein bars or a healthy snack alternative available to you at all times or just getting up and going for a walk. I am currently working out of a cardiologist office and I can tell you first hand, I have seen ex navy seals, army rangers, police officers, and former athletes that have just let them selves go over the years; so anyone thinking this could never happen to you think again. The longer you wait to improve the quality of your life the more "body debt", as I call it, you will build up and the harder it will be to make these simple changes.

@RazzaTazz said:

@ImmortalT1000: Drink only water or milk. Everything else is far too high in sugar (including juice)

Fun fact, Human Breast milk is the only consumable that humans can solely drink and survive without eating or drinking anything else.

@Captain_Awesome85 said:

A huge problem, I didn't see anyone bring up, is also the time you eat certain foods. If you are going to be sitting in a desk or at a computer for an extended period, take into consideration what you are putting into yourself. There is no need to eat a high fat high sugar doughnut to start off your day if you may not do any activity for an extended period. As a general rule of thumb I try to only eat food with fat content < 25-30% and try to do at least one activity a day. Maintenance is the easy part of staying healthy you just have to condition yourself to get to your goals. Think of all the time you send on trivial tasks throughout your life and just try to make one change at a time. Whether its keeping some protein bars or a healthy snack alternative available to you at all times or just getting up and going for a walk. I am currently working out of a cardiologist office and I can tell you first hand, I have seen ex navy seals, army rangers, police officers, and former athletes that have just let them selves go over the years; so anyone thinking this could never happen to you think again. The longer you wait to improve the quality of your life the more "body debt", as I call it, you will build up and the harder it will be to make these simple changes.

This is ultra true to a stupid amount of truth.

@Decoy Elite said:

I...I don't think I should be looking at this thread. It makes me so depressed about how unhealthy I am. ;.;

Well change.

One of the best pieces of advice I heard recently regarding eating healthy is to stick to the outer edge of the super market. That's where you'll find your produce, meats, and dairy. The inner aisles are where most of the heavily processed foods are located. Obviously, not everything on outer edge aisles are healthy, but that is where you'll find the healthiest items.

I make salads every day for my wife and me to take to the office. I usually hit the market twice a week for fresh vegetables and bake a bunch of chicken breasts on Sunday night to add to the salads for the week.

I highly recommend using the Lose It app for iOS and Android. It's a really good calorie tracker that let you scan bar codes of foods and has a lot of supermarket and restaurant foods' calorie, fat, protein and carb contents.

I cook dinner most nights. We don't eat red meat that often. It's not that we avoid it, but I know some great, easy recipes for chicken and fish...and an awesome vegetable curry. If anyone has questions about cooking, I'll gladly answer.