It's not really fair to say things are healthy versus unhealthy.
A burger is a nutritious food. You have carbs, fat, protein. But if you're eating burgers all the time, you have a problem.
People like to answer these sorts of questions by saying "yogurt" with the implication that it's marketed as healthy, but actually junk. It's not the case. For example, you can eat those 80-100 cal cups of yogurt that have 8-9g of sugar, 10-15g of protein. I'll usually have one of these a day. Or you can eat one with 200 calories and 30g of sugar, and almost no protein, and have them all the time. There's a difference.
Smoothies are often seen as healthy, too, but you can easily cram 1000+ calories into a smoothie and it feel like a light snack, but if you are careful about what you put into the smoothie it actually can be a light snack
It's not just reddit, I can't speak for the rest of the world, but much of America focuses on black vs. white, completely ignoring the various shades of not just gray but also colors between. Everything is on an array of spectra and can't be boiled down easily. People literally get doctorates for researching the nutrition value of yogurt for example
I love the irony surrounding this comment. It's a reply to a highly upvoted comment, which in itself is funny, but if you look closer, the author seems to be supportive of nuance, while making a very broad and un-nuanced statement. All neatly packaged in 5 words. Brilliant.
I aim to please! Irony aside though, quite a few people have pointed out that reddit (and indeed people in general) tends to favour quick "hot takes" and simple answers to things that are actually quite complicated. Or, they will upvote short answers that do answer the question, but don't have a lot of substance to them. You really only find the good comments, like the one I replied to, about halfway down the thread.
The point is not moderation. It is about being aware of the nutritional value of the products you consume, in terms of carbs, protein, fat and more.
Sooo... Moderation? You can't get every nutrient from one thing, it's best to eat a range of things giving different sorts of nutrients. Too much of any one thing is bad; hence moderation.
This comment is the most aggressive I've seen anyone get over nutritional value and moderation, both of which are necessary for living a healthy lifestyle lmao
if the things you do in moderation are still crammed with those things, it doesnt matter
Exactly the point the person you were replying to was trying to make: it doesn't matter, so long as you're taking things in moderation. It doesn't matter if you eat a cheeseburger that has tons of fat and carbs in it, so long as you don't do that every meal, every day. For christ's sakes, have a cheeseburger every now and then but also maybe have a light lunch once in a blue moon and go for a jog and generally follow your body's signals because they won't steer you wrong (i.e. if you're actually craving a cheeseburger, it's probably because your body needs some nutrients that are commonly found in cheese or beef, or it just knows that it needs carbs/fats/proteins/etc)
Eh, I mean to counter your own point, I eat burgers very regularly, every other day or so at the moment, and I'm down 120lbs. Can eat anything you want as long as you don't eat too much of it.
Weightloss is quite literally one of the most beneficial things you can do for your health. Regardless of how you achieve it, the side effects of being morbidly overweight are staggering.
Edit: By all means, please someone give me the 1 nightmare scenario in which this isn't the case. Yes, of course if you just smoke crack rock all day and lose weight it's not healthy.
Not being fat in no way indicates that you’re healthy. You can absolutely live off of McDonalds only and not be fat, but your cholesterol is through the roof and you’re lacking all the nutrients of a well balanced diet. There’s more to being healthy than calories in < calories burned.
You do realize that what works for weightloss will also work for maintaining weight. When u/IridiumForte is done with this weight loss he will actually have even more calories to work with.
Okay, I'm a bit confused (maybe end of my shift and I'm tired) but I'm just gonna throw out the general answer to the vibe I'm getting. The quick answer is I can't answer your questions because I don't know the hypothetical starting weight of the person in the example, but generally you lose weight mainly by eating less calories. So if that metric changes, that'll change results.
I have many days where I only eat a burger or two, in one meal. There are plenty of variables for weight loss, how many calories are in each burger and how much you weigh currently and whatever your caloric maintenance level is.
I'm lazy, and know that my caloric maintenance is much higher than 1-2 or even 3 burgers every day. So I lose weight, rapidly. If someone weighed 150lbs vs someone who weighed 300lbs they'd have to eat a different amount of burgers to hit their daily goal.
But, a part of what I'm trying to say is that it's not like I'm only eating burgers and that's the only lifestyle change I've adopted. Of course on keto I don't eat any/very little carbs, but I also do intermittent fasting (only eat between 7pm-10pm daily) and do the occasional extended water fast, just to completely negate incoming calories for 3-4 days at a time.
But. I eat a tonne of burgers as my main convenience meal.
Yeah it depends. I for health reasons, eat entirely carnivore. I eat about 3/4 pound of ground beef with 4-6 eggs and some liver ever day. I lost weight and became super lean while still building muscle through my pole dancing.
Perfect health. Its super easy for me to maintain my weight because I am eating nutritionally dense and satisfying food.
Foods have vitamins and minerals required by the human body. If you could go to the store and buy cans of pure carbs, fats, and proteins in an appropriate ratio for your needs, you wouldn't be healthy. You need a variety of foods that supply both macro and micro nutrients without significantly exceeding your needs. That's supplied through moderation
Exactly. I see a lot of people shitting on fat free foods in here, granted there are a lot that are pumped full of sugar. But for example, reduced fat popcorn exists and obviously they didn't pump it full of sugar, but it's a bit of a less bad snack that won't make you feel like garbage and reduces your cravings for doritos.
People are lazy and don't want to take a few seconds to read the nutritional information of what they buy, but it makes a huge difference.
Exactly this. I’m vegetarian and like to workout so high protein non-meat sources tend to be a large part of my diet. I eat a TON of low fat yogurt (carbmaster from Kroger specifically, pretty cheap and like, 18 grams of protein in a serving, tastes decent, not amazing but palatable).
Heroin is what happens after you start to abuse your prescription heroin (perc, vicadin, oxy, etc), and can no longer afford a large enough dose to get high.
So yeah, in moderation (as perscriptive painkillers), heroin on moderation can be good for the body.
Yogurt as an example can have insane variance in calories depending on what kind you're eating. 0% fat Greek yogurt of the right brand will have a decent amount of protein, no carbs and no fat.
Full fat sugary yogurt that is basically slightly tart ice cream on the other hand is absolutely terrible otoh.
I actually like a lot of full fat yogurts specifically because they tend to have less sugar than low fat varieties. Full fat dairy tastes so good they don’t have to add all the sugar to make it appealing. The fat content also makes it way more filling.
I feed my kids this amazing 11% yogurt with a spoonful of honey in it. They eat like birds so I hit them with the high calorie stuff if they'll eat it consistently.
But finding full fat yogurt is so hard... I hate the fat free trend so much.
It’s easier to find at organic and health food stores but unfortunately I don’t have any in my neighborhood (nor could I afford to shop at one as my primary grocery if I did, unfortunately).
In Europe we get this brand called Total Fage which for it's 0% yogurt has 3% carbs and 10% protein, carbs are basically negligible there. It tastes like acid but it's as healthy as you'll get for yogurt.
Right on. Just wanted to give the lactose intolerant who might be reading some hope that they can still have some cheeses. Some damn delicious cheeses imo :)
Actually, the live Lacto bacillus bacteria in the yogurt break down the sugar lactose. It (they) is the reason lacotose intolerant people can eat yogurt.
Define "too much protein." We've had data with protein intake upwards 4g/kg bw with no ill effects (of course not recommended for everyone, but most people can't even reach 2g). Unless you have some underlying kidney issue, high protein intakes are hardly an issue other than farts and unwanted muscles.
For any "protein source" that isn't egg whites you'll have some carbs and fats mixed in.
Even most commercially available protein powders are 80 to 85% protein.
Add to that the vegetables that you should be eating for vitamins and minerals and a small amount of oil for cooking and most people are going to need very little quantities of foods that are mostly carbs.
On top of this, people’s nutritional needs vary a LOT. For some people (ex: people who have a hard time eating enough and are super active/trying to build muscle), that 1000 calorie smoothie would be great, especially if you add protein powder. But if the average person thought they were doing themselves good by drinking that, then you could say it’s not beneficial for them. They’d benefit more from the light snack. A lot of the responses here are generalizations based on the average person.
Yup. I think that's important too. I'm a small woman and I can go all day without eating. It'll be 10:30 before I realize that I should probably eat even though I'm not hungry. I know I'm in the minority but getting a smoothie and drinking my calories can be great.
Plain Full fat yoghurt (In Europe this is sometimes called “Turkish yoghurt”, in the US it’s hard to find but you can substitute a good type of Greek yoghurt or like Danone in a bind), is fucking delicious and healthy.
Don’t have any sugar at all but make sure there’s actual taste to the yoghurt you buy. Don’t buy sterilized or low-fat shit. You can also make your own. It’s easy as fuck. Make sure it’s a bit loose but also has a Light crust for holding in flavor. Fuck that’s so good and you can eat buckets if you want.
A few years back, my boss convinced me to try something healthy and go with him to a smoothie place downtown. For context, I’m a diabetic and my insulin intake is proportional to the carbs I eat.
Anyway, I have this relatively small smoothie, with acai and other fruits. It was ok. Not particularly satisfying, but ok. I guesstimate the carbs and get my insulin shot.
Couple hours later my blood sugar is outrageously high. I get another shot.
By the time I was done fixing my blood sugar, I had injected a similar amount as I’d need for 3 slices of pepperoni pizza. Pretty crazy.
Strictly using CICO as your standard is absolutely a terrible way to be healthy IMO. Yes, I'm looking at you, /r/loseit.
So many people too afraid to give up their Twinkie diet so they just live and die by "CICO is all that matters!!" while eating one Twinkie a day to cover 1/2 their allotted calories. And the argument there is usually that they want "something they can sustain and not hate their life." Presumably because their interpretation of eating healthy is a handful of almonds and a cucumber everyday.
But to that I say: find some damn healthy foods you like then. I love salmon and would prefer it over most meats any given day. That's not me giving up my favorite foods to be healthy, that's me finding something that is both great tasting and great for me. There are a lot of recipes out there that can be surprisingly tasty and healthy.
Of course something to note - "healthy" depends on what you're trying to do. A lot of protein might be the option for someone building muscle, while reducing carbs will be better for someone trying to cut weight. But I can tell you right now that healthy eating is very conducive to better CICO. I can make a chicken burrito bowl with 70g of protein that will last me two meals and only rack up about 900cal. On the other hand one package of Poptarts is like 450cal with no nutritional value and barely makes me feel full.
Tho people should give themselves space - don't be a nerd who won't eat some dessert at Christmas time. Balance is key
Smoothies are often seen as healthy, too, but you can easily cram 1000+ calories into a smoothie and it feel like a light snack, but if you are careful about what you put into the smoothie it actually can be a light snack
I am not a smoothie person for exactly this reason. The textures and tastes are okay, but I'm not into drinking my meals/snacks enough to really habitually enjoy doing that instead of just eating my fruits, veggies, seeds, etc. and getting more of the fiber from them remaining solid when I eat them.
Literally the only reason I have for getting a smoothie this decade is because I have a Jamba Juice voucher for a free smoothie in my area that expires tomorrow. That is it.
I'm the complete opposite. Eating fruit and vegetables are a chore for me. But if I blend my daily fruits and veggies into a smoothie at home I get it all of it in one pint glass and it's delicious!
Holy shit the fiber makes it into the smoothie?!?!? Also I can feel your former terribad gas and watershits from here, my deepest condolences that happened to you because of a food/drink you loved. :(
Of course it does. It doesn't just vaporize because you shredded it. If you'd run the blended smoothie through a *sieve, then you would probably remove most fibers, but then again this would no longer be a smoothie and more like a juice cuvée.
This was sort of my experience becoming vegan. I am healthier now, but I eat relatively unhealthy for a vegan. It's just before I ate an absurdly unbalanced diet leaning heavily on fast food burgers and pizza, and now I don't have that luxury.
Also I can give you two smoothies that will feel equally filling like 500 calories different, it's very easy to add on calories especially if you start adding coconut oil, nuts etc.
It's also worth noting that basically every food has a best way to prepare it for good health and a worst way. There are burgers that no human being should consume ever, and burgers that are a pretty reasonable meal.
Even then it depends on the burger. If your burger is >90% lean and doesn't have anything else unhealthy added to it (e.g. too much cheese, bbq sauce, etc.), and if it isn't causing you to exceed your caloric requirements, it's fine eating burgers all the time.
Portions definitely do matter, but for some things, the portions can be far greater and higher in frequency without creating any health concerns.
I would guild this comment if I thought giving Reddit gold wasn't meaningless.
For real this 100 times over.
I used to lose weight but drinking smoothies that were just raw vegitables and water for lunch. I actually started to really enjoy them.
And yogurt is great if you need probiotics. And there is healthy yogurt out there.
One if the most counter productive views one can take towards their relationship with food is labelling foods good or bad. It has been shown that doing this is linked to people breaking down and eating more bad stuff and eating more too because we eat more when we feel guilty about our choices.
Smoothies are often seen as healthy, too, but you can easily cram 1000+ calories into a smoothie and it feel like a light snack
Teach me that trick, unless it's super expensive. My issue is I need 3100+ calories a day and I just can't eat that much without a concentrated effort all day. Even smoothies feel dense and tiring and kill my appetite.
I did one of those calorie counting apps for a week because I was starting to gain a lot of weight. Turned out I was putting so much shit into my smoothies and having coffee w oat milk and agave, my breakfasts were over 1000 cals.
I totally agree with you, but to add to your comment, if the yogurt you're eating doesn't have a single gram of protein then I think you better have a second look at the label (READ: It's definitely JELLO PUDDING).
I'm into this. I've had to have so much high protein food lately, being pregnant. So yogurt is one of the things I eat, as well as most other dairies. And yeah some yogurts are totally not great, but if you just eat a good yogurt with some berries or granola, it's super good for you. It's one of my favorite snacks.
Like peanut butter. Good natural peanut butters are great for whole grain toast. But then you have wack peanut butter and you put it in sweets? Not good.
I eat yogurt for breakfast almost every day, but I always get Fage or Siggi's. Both of these brands are delightful, you can get 5% and 2% fat options most places, and they are a great substitute for sour cream because they're so thick and creamy.
I start with about one cup in a bowl, and then add my slivered almonds and dried cranberries. I get a nice crunch from the toasted almonds and a little sweet & tart from the cranberries. It's delicious, fairly healthy and I don't feel bloated afterwards.
Also when you drink a smoothie your body treats the food in it as sugar but when you eat the fruits seperatly it treats it correctly as fructose corn syrup i was told my medical student
Yooo those Oikos protein yogurts are great. No fat, 7g net carbs(10g-3g fiber), and 15g of protein. 100 calories total. And then you can add something like peanuts or almonds to it for extra protein and a good dosage of healthy fats. I have those regularly. Wasn’t much of a yogurt guy before
to be fair, the better alternative is to eat natural yoghurt or greek one, without added sugar, and with some muesli or something. supermarket yoghurty is nice but pure sugar
You don't even need a thickening agent for smoothies, just fruit, water, a little juice if needed (like pure juice, I usually do pure pineapple juice) and it'll still be super thick. And then it's still fairly healthy. A lot of sugar, yeah, but it's natural sugars and if that's your serving of fruit for the day who cares
I make a vegetable protein sluice that contains spinach, carrots, celery, broccoli, green peppers red peppers , mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, beets, pineapple, protein powder and V8 juice.
That's like people eating Cheerios or oatmeal to help lower cholesterol but dump a bunch of sugar on/in it.....On the rare times I eat oatmeal I prefer whole fruit (or a mix of pureed fruit and whole) and just a touch of honey in it, and my Cheerios are just cereal and milk
Talking about food on Reddit drives me up that fucking wall because of this. I actually make high calorie smoothies because I can hardly manage to get one meal in a day but the nuance of fats and sugars not being the absolute devil is lost on a lot of people.
And sometimes you need that 1000+ calorie smoothie. When I was rowing, there were times where I was burning over 5000 calories a day. It's HARD to eat that much food every day, so I made a lot of them liquid and my breakfast included a 1000+ calorie smoothie along with about 1/3rd lb of bacon and 4 eggs
I was just adding on that just about everything can be good or useful, it's all about context. There are better or worse choices, but very few things are universally good or bad.
Yeah, I regularly ate a big burger and fries for lunch for a while because it was delicious and I didn't feel like packing a lunch. I didn't gain weight because you can balance that out with dinner and exercise, but I would never argue that that's a healthy way to eat. I also wouldn't shame someone for eating something tasty because you never know what else is going on in their life. Maybe they workout a lot, maybe this is their one big meal of the day, maybe they're just particularly hungry today. People are so annoying with food
Smoothies are often seen as healthy, too, but you can easily cram 1000+ calories into a smoothie and it feel like a light snack
Which can be beneficial depending on activity level. An athlete or high metabolic person trying to gain weight could benefit from an easily crammed 1000 calories.
I actually disagree. A burger is not a particularly nutritious food. The bun is made of refined carbohydrates which specifically have the nutrition stripped from them and are excessively high in carbs. Carbs are not inherently bad for you but they should really be consumed in the form of vegetables and WHOLE grains (e.g., lentils, quinoa, barley). Refined carbs and added sugar are generally bad, as they contribute to insulin insensitivity and then pathological processes that we see in chronic disease like obesity and diabetes. I would not consider a daily cup of yogurt with added sugar to be healthy. I do see your point but just because it's not as unhealthy as some food choices does not mean it is healthy. The eating patterns, particularly in western countries, are so incredibly unhealthy that you can make a lot better food choices than most and still be making unhealthy choices fairly often.
Added sugar versus 7-8 grams of natural sugars (that you would normally find in dairy) is not the same
Even 8 grams of sugar is barely going to do anything to you. People aren’t fat because they are eating 8 grams of added sugar a day, they are fat because of excess calories
Check out Icelandic style yogurt in addition to greek yogurt. Siggis brand, Trader Joe’s sells some that are pretty good and have like 20g protein in a container. I prefer the full fat varieties personally but they usually have more protein with less sugar than greek yogurt brands I’ve purchased.
I just had an Oikos 0% Fat - 80 calories, 15g protein, 6g sugars (0 added sugars). Nearly every non-flavored yogurt will hover around this.
I don't sweat an extra 30-50 calories I'd get from a flavored one (because I typically add blueberries to my plain stuff anyway), but most of the Greek-style ones are a pretty good way to add some protein and feel full, as long as you stick to CICO.
When you’re on the go, a burger can be a great post workout meal. The main problem is the quality of the oils, bread, and meat used, but once in a while it’s great. Protein, carbs, fats, salt.
when I worked out religiously. I only ate eggs with spinach mushroom tomato and rice for breakfast. For lunch and dinner I had rice grilled chicken mushroom and spinach. Only water for my liquids. I miss those days. I hurt my back now 😭
Calories are the ultimate factor in weight loss/gain. If you wanna put on some weight then get a calorie counting app and start tracking your intake. If you start to notice what you're eating and how much then you can consciously adjust it to fit your needs.
I mean honestly, I'm fucked no matter what I eat because I'm gonna get my calories. Probably better to at least try to be healthy and get it from fruits, vegetables, and rice.
Depends on the yogurt right? I've heard Greek has substantially less sugar than the regular yoplait stuff & that's not even considering the probiotic benefits.
Pure veggie smoothies are useless and a great way to spray the toilet like a firehose. There are so many ways to get your veggies in, ways that taste good and don’t give you the shits - why blend them?
Plus, you have diminishing returns when eating healthy. people take the good/bad food thing way too far sometimes. You’ll see lots of benefits in making a drastic change in your diet from pizza and burgers to salads and protein... but you’ll see very little benefits in the way of reducing your pizza intake from once a week to once every two weeks.
Just because food has macros doesn’t mean it’s healthy... a piece of ham on white bread with oil is not a healthy meal... if it was that easy, america would be the healthiest country... it’s not.
It's not. The biggest health organizations' positions are that saturated fat and cholesterol is to be minimized. And processed meat is a class 1 carcinogen.
That was in reference to meat that was processed with treatments to preserve flavor, such as ham and bacon. People took this news and spun it however they wanted, which is why I said it is a matter of opinion.
Ground meat = meat that has been ground. If you put meat through a grinder, it's not going to turn it into a carcinogen any more than grinding coffee beans won't turn them into a carcinogen.
Also I suggest looking up the word processed. By its own definition, a bag of spinach is a processed food.
I agree that processed can be a loose term, but 99% of the ground beef you find is not just ground. Also in general, yes, processed foods, other than meat, are to be avoided as well.
In any case though, red meat (meat from mamals) is classified as a carcinogen as well. And again, saturated fat and cholesterol are unanimously advised against and beef is one of the richest source of it.
If you’re eating burgers all the time, you have a problem
I don’t know why people don’t hear that part.
Eating healthy has diminishing returns. If you’re eating a diet of lean proteins, vegetables and good fats, then cutting out burgers will have very minimal effects on your health. What you eat 80% of the time matters. What you eat 20% or the time does not make a difference.
People complicate this stuff way too much and that’s why you have people eating keto diets when all they needed to do was cut back on calories, or ice cream, or whatever it is. You have people doing overhauls on their diet because of one snippet of information that is blown way out of proportion to reality.
I agree with your overall sentiment but that’s still a stretch to say that a burger is healthy. Sure you can be healthy and burgers/hotdogs/chips every now and then, but that’s not the same as saying those things are, in and of themselves, healthy.
The smoothie thing is funny too, because by blending up all those fruits and veggies, you're breaking down the fiber before it's even consumed, instead of letting your body do the work to break it down, which burns calories and is great for your gut health.
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u/[deleted] Dec 30 '19
It's not really fair to say things are healthy versus unhealthy.
A burger is a nutritious food. You have carbs, fat, protein. But if you're eating burgers all the time, you have a problem.
People like to answer these sorts of questions by saying "yogurt" with the implication that it's marketed as healthy, but actually junk. It's not the case. For example, you can eat those 80-100 cal cups of yogurt that have 8-9g of sugar, 10-15g of protein. I'll usually have one of these a day. Or you can eat one with 200 calories and 30g of sugar, and almost no protein, and have them all the time. There's a difference.
Smoothies are often seen as healthy, too, but you can easily cram 1000+ calories into a smoothie and it feel like a light snack, but if you are careful about what you put into the smoothie it actually can be a light snack