Do you know how much you eat?

[Jon Miller]

just don't eat out

restuarants drench their food in salt

a dish at a restaurant will have several times the salt of something that my mom would cook

similiarly boxed food is also high in salt

much better to cook things yourself (and I don't mean use one of the box thingys)

JM

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov
That being said, they're an excellend source of potassium.

Bananas are great for hiking.

Put a bit of salt in the water, so you get potassium for the cells and sodium for your blood.

[Draconette]

Try some asian style food, meat combined with vegetables, i found that it's very easy to put on weight living in australia, because the food here lack of fresh vegetables very much!! and the fruit are so expensive in comparison to junk food such as chocolate and potato chips .. btw, i think that man are allowed to have a little bit overweight .. too skinny is not very healthy either

[MrFun]

It's not healthy for women to be too skinny either.

[Nostromo]

Originally posted by Jon Miller
just don't eat out

restuarants drench their food in salt

a dish at a restaurant will have several times the salt of something that my mom would cook

similiarly boxed food is also high in salt

much better to cook things yourself (and I don't mean use one of the box thingys)

JM

I rarely eat out. But I'm lazy: I don't like to cook very much, so it has to be kept very simple.

[Provost Harrison]

1/4 cup cottage cheese and some vegetarian sausage patties for breakfast

I enjoy food. I think I'd rather knock decades off my life than eat filth like this

[GePap]

The point is nort what you eat, but how much. That's were control is necessary.

A couple of eggs fried in olive oil, a couple of pieces of whole wheat toast and some fruit makes a great, healthy breakfast.

As for the Banana Issue- so what if your body prepares to store more fat? If you diet is relatively low in fat, and you use enough calories sop that fat stored is fat used Banana's won't make you fat.

[Provost Harrison]

Precisely, that is my point...if you get plenty of exercise you can get away with eating nice food

[MrFun]

here's to bananas

[Provost Harrison]

I eat a lot of bananas, and I don't think 100kcal is a lot to worry about...you need energy after all

[Boris Godunov]

The issue isn't "plenty of exercise," though. Most people don't have the time or wherewithal to exercise as much as someone like lightblue, so they can't maintain large-calorie diets no matter what.

And it's not just the number of calories--that's old, out-of-date FDA food pyramid stuff. It's a combo of three factors: quantity of food, what one eat's, and how one eats. These are all important factors in a diet.

If you're diet consists of high-glycemic food, you will get fat. If you consume the same amount of calories of low-glycemic foods, you will see better results. This has been verified in studies of high-protein, low-carb diets like Atkins and South Beach. These studies have found--much against what they expected to find--that people on such diets can eat more calories per day and still lose weight. They also, more surprisingly, lowered their blood pressure and bad cholesterol levels. Now, there are other problems with Atkins (die, kidneys, die!), but SB seems (so far) to be quite healthy and sensible.

Bananas are great for energy if you're going to be working out and for potassium. But one a day is plenty. Eating 4 is bound to be a problem in a balanced diet.

[Nostromo]

The problem is that there doesn't seem to be much consensus among scientists (and not all of them are scientists, some of them are quacks trying to sell their so-called diets) on these issues. I don't even know if there's consensus on why we become fat in the first place. There are two hypotheses that I know of: the two-much-calories hypothesis and the two-much-carbs hypothesis. The two-much-carbs hypothesis seems more plausible than the other one, but is it true? I couldn't say. They're all contradicting each other.

Reminds me of the Seinfeld joke. If cars needed as much maintenance as human bodies, would you buy them? I dont' think so.

[Nostromo]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov
Now, there are other problems with Atkins (die, kidneys, die!), but SB seems (so far) to be quite healthy and sensible.

What's wrong with the Atkins diet? Why its no good for the kidneys?

[lightblue]

Too much protein puts a lot of strain on your kidneys, and a lot of people use Atkins to eat a load of protein and not eat a balanced diet.

As for the amount of exercise i do, yes I don't think many people can invest the time, though most club level rowers for example will go out at 5.30-6ish for an hour/hour and a half and maybe go to the gym 3-4 evenings. I guess it depends if you want to spend your free time staying fit and healthy and creatinga good group of friends, or hang in front of the computer/TV

[Provost Harrison]

Hang in front of the computer/TV...going out to row at that time is utterly ridiculous...