Some food questions

[Matt281]

I generally try to eat healthy, but I don't stick to a strict diet and I'm not exactly fanatic about what I eat. Mostly chicken, oatmeal, pasta, cereal, bananas, eggs, and so on.

Recently I've been trying to step it up a little bit in terms of what I eat. From what I've read, the first big step is staying away from processed **** and eating more whole/organic foods (staying away from fad diets/catch words).

The thing is, a lot of the stuff is absurdly expensive, often only carried at the local co-op, so I'm trying to figure out what's most important. Here's a few things either in my diet, or what I'm trying to incorporate, and I'm curious which ones I should focus more on.

1. Chicken - already buy locally grown stuff (within my state or an adjacent one) that's natural - whatever that means - and generally free of perservatives. Free range organic is like twice as much...worth it?

2. Eggs - Organic are pretty cheap, so I get those.

3. Penut butter - been just getting Jif, but the natural stuff is probably a lot better (just peanuts and a little salt, rather than a bunch of **** in the name brands). Dunno if organic is worth it. Ideal alternatives like almond butter are ridiculously expensive, especially if organic.

4. Milk - Been getting the costco 2 gallons for 3.50. Just so cheap. Thinking of getting organic milk though. I've heard Raw milk is best, but how important is it? Also, 2% or whole?

5. Coconut oil - I've read a lot of really good stuff about this. Prices range from slightly expensive to insane though. Is it important that it's Organic? Raw?

Finally, is there any other relatively cheap things that are really important in your diet?

Thanks!

 

[ENIGMA16]

Recently I've been trying to step it up a little bit in terms of what I eat. From what I've read, the first big step is staying away from processed **** and eating more whole/organic foods (staying away from fad diets/catch words).

The whole "organic" thing is just a selling point, sort of like how companies will put "Low Fat!" or "Fat Free!" on their products when they're packed with carbs. And "organic" doesn't mean that they don't use pesticides, which is a common misconception. So why do you want to eat organic?

The thing is, a lot of the stuff is absurdly expensive, often only carried at the local co-op

What stuff? Organic stuff or other stuff too?

1. Chicken - already buy locally grown stuff (within my state or an adjacent one) that's natural - whatever that means - and generally free of perservatives. Free range organic is like twice as much...worth it?

"Whatever that means?" So you're spending more money on stuff and you don't even know if it's justified? Did you know that anything can be natural? Pick up Eric Schlosser's book Fast Food Nation. In it he explains how there is essentially zero difference between "natural" and "artificial" flavors.

In this case, "all natural" chicken makes absolutely no sense, so I don't see why you'd put emphasis on it.

If you want to buy truly "clean" chicken then get Halal chicken. Halal is basically like Kosher for Muslims, so they are incredibly clean about slaughtering the chickens and strict about the entire process. I buy it sometimes because I think it tastes much better than what you can get at the store (I'd buy it more often but the place I get it is so far away).

2. Eggs - Organic are pretty cheap, so I get those.

Non-organic are cheaper, and they're just as good for you.

3. Penut butter - been just getting Jif, but the natural stuff is probably a lot better (just peanuts and a little salt, rather than a bunch of **** in the name brands). Dunno if organic is worth it. Ideal alternatives like almond butter are ridiculously expensive, especially if organic.

Smuckers makes an amazing "Natural" peanut butter. I get it because I think it tastes infinitely superior to that crap like Jif, but you might have trouble getting used to it (it's basically just peanuts, whereas Jif has a lot of sugar and other stuff in it to make it taste different). Here it is, in case you want to look for it.

4. Milk - Been getting the costco 2 gallons for 3.50. Just so cheap. Thinking of getting organic milk though. I've heard Raw milk is best, but how important is it? Also, 2% or whole?

Milk can be filled with a lot of things due to the way that the cows are treated. However, these things are not really that big of a deal. "Raw milk" doesn't really exist (i.e. they have to go through some kind of homogenization/pasteurization or it wouldn't last long enough to get to the store), but there are some small companies that make milk without all of the stuff you'll find in regular milk. I get it sometimes because it tastes much better IMO, but I usually buy store brand milk because it's cheap and good enough for me.

Listen, you're falling into all of the traps that these companies set to fool customers into buying their products. "Low fat," "organic," "free range," "All Natural," "Good for your heart," etc... The majority of these are marketing ploys. Have you seen those commercials for Activia with Jamie Lee Curtis about how their yogurt has L Casei Immunitas which helps do something healthy for you? Guess what? Every yogurt has that exact same culture! It's just that different companies have patented different strains so they could promote their yogurt as "special" or better than the others. It's all marketing.

Food is not magic. There is nothing mystical about it. Check the nutrition facts because this will tell you about 90% of what you need to know. You don't need to look at anything else. Ignore the hype on the box because it was put there to get you to buy it and not to truthfully outline the positives and negatives. All they care about is that you buy it, and they will go as far as they legally can to get you to do that. Remember that.

You should base your opinions on whether to get the cheaper or more expensive items on your own personal taste preferences. If you like it that much more than the cheap one to justify the extra cost, then get it. If not, then don't. There are things that I get that are more expensive because I think they're that much better. The peanut butter, for example, to me is infinitely superior to Jif (to the point where I can't really eat Jif on a PB&J anymore).

However, there are things that you could justifiably avoid, and these are the things you should be focusing on if you want. High fructose corn syrup and artificial sweeteners, for example, have a dubious history, and if you want to remove them from your diet after extensive research then do so. I took HFCS out of my diet for a few months to see how hard it would be; it wasn't that hard at all. Some things I had to buy that were more expensive but that was about it. I stopped, though, because I didn't really see the point. I don't care enough to get that indepth because I just don't think the effort is worth the reward.

Just buy fresh whenever you can, make sure to wash everything off and you'll be set.

 

[Matt281]

Thanks. I've read fast food nation and a lot of other stuff on that matter. I know "natural" really doesn't mean anything, but I find that sometimes (rarely) it entails that there's less processed **** in it (I always check the label). For example, the natural penut butter has a lot less weird stuff in it that Jif.

I know "natural" and "organic" fall into the same scheme as the rest of the fad things, but the way I understand it, organic requires that the manufacturers use much less perservatives/pesticides/chemical altered stuff. When it comes to chicken, I know "cage free" is just a BS term, but I've heard that free range chickens often have access to a more regular diet, and there's a lot of good research that supports how animal diets affect the quality of their meat.

As for milk, I've read a lot of stuff that talks about how the pasterization and homoginization processes mess with a lot of the proteins and other nutrients in it. Also, the cheap store brands often come from sick cows on growth hormones and fed a corn-based diet that's far from what they natural eat.

The toughest thing for me is the labels though. I always read them, but at this point they're BASED around taking out stuff that everyone and their mother has heard they shouldn't eat, like HFCS, and replacing it with stuff that most people don't know anything about. It's really hard to actually know what you're getting. For example, I pick up a bag of muffins that say "whole grain" and on the back the main incredient is "enriched whole wheat" or something. 99% of people have no idea what that is, by if you research it, it basically just means they take out a lot of the natural nutrients in it and replace it with cheap garbage that tastes better. There's TONS of ingredients like that.

And speaking of taste...man, double cheeseburgers at mcdonalds taste good. Sick chickens that get their meat pumped full of flavor enhancers after they get slaughtered taste good. Are they good for you? Not a chance.

 

[Quagmire911]

I generally try to eat healthy, but I don't stick to a strict diet and I'm not exactly fanatic about what I eat. Mostly chicken, oatmeal, pasta, cereal, bananas, eggs, and so on.

Recently I've been trying to step it up a little bit in terms of what I eat. From what I've read, the first big step is staying away from processed **** and eating more whole/organic foods (staying away from fad diets/catch words).

The thing is, a lot of the stuff is absurdly expensive, often only carried at the local co-op, so I'm trying to figure out what's most important. Here's a few things either in my diet, or what I'm trying to incorporate, and I'm curious which ones I should focus more on.

1. Chicken - already buy locally grown stuff (within my state or an adjacent one) that's natural - whatever that means - and generally free of perservatives. Free range organic is like twice as much...worth it?

FROM WHAT I'VE SEEN THE HEALTHIER THE ANIMAL THE BETTER- WHICH MAKES COMPLETE SENCE. TWICE AS MUCH IS A LOT THOUGH, BUT IT SHOULD BE BETTER QUALITY.

2. Eggs - Organic are pretty cheap, so I get those.

GOOD

3. Penut butter - been just getting Jif, but the natural stuff is probably a lot better (just peanuts and a little salt, rather than a bunch of **** in the name brands). Dunno if organic is worth it. Ideal alternatives like almond butter are ridiculously expensive, especially if organic.

PEANUT BUTTER HAS PHYTOESTROGEN WHICH ISN'T GOOD. IF YOU MUST TAKE IT, AVOIDING PRESERVATIVES IS A GOOD IDEA.

4. Milk - Been getting the costco 2 gallons for 3.50. Just so cheap. Thinking of getting organic milk though. I've heard Raw milk is best, but how important is it? Also, 2% or whole?

I'VE READ RAW MILK IS A BIG STEP UP FROM THE CRAP WE ARE USED TO. IS THIS MARKETING OR FACT? WELL THESE ARTICLES I READ WEREN'T FROM PEOPLE SELLING MILK. YOU WANT WHOLE MILK AS WELL. SOME PEOPLE DON'T TOLERATE MILK SO WELL AND THIS IS SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT. I DON'T KNOW IF THIS CHANGES AT ALL WHEN YOU CONSUME IT RAW INSTEAD.

5. Coconut oil - I've read a lot of really good stuff about this. Prices range from slightly expensive to insane though. Is it important that it's Organic? Raw?

COCONUT OIL IS GOOD STUFF, AND IT IS IMPORTANT THAT IT IS VIRGIN/ORGANIC. YOU DON'T WANT THEM DEODERIZING IT AND ANY OTHER S***.

Finally, is there any other relatively cheap things that are really important in your diet?

Thanks!

RESPONSES IN CAPITALS ABOVE.

Coconut oil is more of a luxury. It would be a good idea to get the basics sorted out before buying things like this.

You said you eat cereal, most cereal is utter crap. Watch the top video:

http://www.tomlevymd.com/video/video.html



Generally you want to be eating lots of meat, fruits and vegetables. Eggs, raw milk, butter, nuts, and healthy oils are good too. Natural yoghurt as well. You need to see how well you tolerate dairy though.

You can definitely add in some more meats, the biggest one being BEEF. However I would definitely stress that it would need to be grass fed. http://www.eatwild.com/

This stuff is mostly common sense to be honest. Eating natural foods, that haven't been processed, refinied, or had things added to them or have been altered in any way.

Quagmire911

 

[Matt281]

Thank you! that was the kind of response I was hoping for.

A few questions though:

PEANUT BUTTER HAS PHYTOESTROGEN WHICH ISN'T GOOD. IF YOU MUST TAKE IT, AVOIDING PRESERVATIVES IS A GOOD IDEA.

So phytoestrogen is inherent in penuts, correct? What about other nut butters? I know almond butter gets a lot of positive attention, but it's like 5 times as much as penut butter.

I'VE READ RAW MILK IS A BIG STEP UP FROM THE CRAP WE ARE USED TO. IS THIS MARKETING OR FACT? WELL THESE ARTICLES I READ WEREN'T FROM PEOPLE SELLING MILK. YOU WANT WHOLE MILK AS WELL. SOME PEOPLE DON'T TOLERATE MILK SO WELL AND THIS IS SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT. I DON'T KNOW IF THIS CHANGES AT ALL WHEN YOU CONSUME IT RAW INSTEAD.

Milk is tricky. I was actually allergic to milk when I was like 3 or 4, then it went away and I started drinking a lot of it. I've had raw milk before, so I know I don't have any sort of strong reaction to that (our friends used to raise cows), but I've heard that some people who drink a ton of milk can develop lactose intollerance eventually.

I think this ties in to the cereal thing too though, because that's how I end up having most of the milk. Cereal is probably the most important thing for me to change right now, and I think it would be good for me to drink less milk, but switch to raw or at least organic.

Anyway, thanks a bunch.

 

[Quagmire911]

Peanut butter is the only one I've really heard of, so I can't say on other butters. How much are you going to consume anyway? I think it would be hard to eat enough to mess you up.

The majority of your diet should come from sources that were easily available 10,000 years ago anyway. That's meat, eggs, nuts, fruits and veggies.

 

[Matt281]

I mix peanut butter into oatmeal, which I eat pretty often. About the same quantity as a scoop of ice cream. I guess for now I'll just switch over to a butter that's just peanuts and salt, and do some more research on other butters.

Thanks again

 

[Drum&Bass]

if you dont tolerate milk drink FAT FREE LACTOSE FREE milk its the only milk I recommend anyone drink.

 

[rusejery]

Hello.
I want to increase my weight. I am vegetarian. I want to know some vegetable items which can help me to increase my weight.

 

[Matt281]

Try cooking with a lot of olive oil.

 

[Throttle]

Matt>> also read Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma if you got a lot out of Fast Food Nation. They're both featured in the movie Food, Inc.

I think you're on the right track. Industrially produced eggs taste like ****. If you can tolerate milk, go for it. You're right about dropping the cereal, though.

Other keys (and these are cheaper than what you have above): frozen or fresh veggies (as many varieties as you can stand), dried beans (cheapest protein on the planet), avoid anything with white flour or ingredients you can't pronounce.