So, making every attempt to eat clean, i find myself wondering if the foods i think are okay, truely are?
Things like cheddar cheese, choloclate milk, tuna, natural peanut butter, yogurt and the list goes on!
Are these things okay? What is your criteria?
Please respond with your favourite eating clean foods/m eals as well, it will help!
and i'm a biiiiiiig fruit fan...i have a lot every day :)
I pretty much look at fat content, sodium content, and sugar content.
It all depends on the mass of the serving of the given food, but usually foods that are clearly "bad" are especially high in these three criteria. Anything with Trans Fat is out, no questions. I try to strictly minimize refined sugars. I also try to minimize sodium. It's disturbing how much sugar and sodium are in otherwise "low cal" food, and the main reason I try to stay away from eating food other people or restaurants prepare is because I don't know how much of what they put it in it.
Another thing to do is look at the list of ingredients. If I see things like enriched flour or high fructose corn syrup I won't eat it. I'm not really "there" yet with regards to really optimizing my diet but I'm still working it out.
Still there are things that people swear are bad but I still eat it in moderation. I was raised on steamed white rice and while it's not an optimally nutritious option for the amount of calories it packs, I think I would go a little crazy if I had to omit it completely.
You don't get much in the way of vital nutrients (vitamins and minerals) from cheese, milk, tuna, and yogurt. You'll find that they are packed with calories (even the low fat varieties of the dairy products - which aren't really low fat at all) and come with a catch. Animal proteins require your body to produce an excess amount of stomach acid to digest. This, in turn, increases the acidity of your blood. Your body corrects this higher acidity by pulling calcium from your bones. So by consuming dairy and meat you're actually causing your bones to become more brittle, not less - that's one of the catches. There are others that are at least as disturbing.
If you want this stuff, it's best to make sure you get all your micronutrients for the day first and then have a small treat if you want. Don't waste your daily calorie limit on things that are missing vital nutrients.
low fat milk is low fat.
skim is fat free.
and if you buy it in a store, it is vitamin fortified.
I don't consider hardly anything "bad for you." It's all a matter of the combinations and making sure you don't go overboard (or... underboard?) on anything (protein, fat, sugar are what I watch) throughout the day. For example, many people consider peanut butter good. however, it does not fit into my diet because it has way too much fat. Cheese is seldom part of my diet for the same reason. Here are my lists:
My "good" list:
Fruits & Veggies (natural sugar is OK, plus some fiber)
Fish (Tuna, Salmon, Tilapia...)
Skim Milk
Cold Cuts
Chicken breasts
Eggs (even better are the Egg Beaters without the yolks)
My "bad" list:
Chocolate cake with peanut butter icing
lower on the food chain the cleaner it is usually
organic foods lacking pesticides are usually better than the "normal" version because of less carcinogen expose.
unprocessed foods are easier and cleaner to consume
unprocessed means it looks like what it did when it was harvested/killed.
like...its better to have turkey breast...than turkey sausage
its better to have raw organic milk than bleached out processed milks. its is better to have sugar cane juice or raw honey than white sugar.
peanut butter turns me off as i know they peanuts in the soil to absorb pesticides. cashew butter is better anyway.
apples are good for you..but have a heavy pesticide load.
:food guide based on pesticide use:
also how you prepare the food. like heating things in plastic in the microwave is bad as the plastic leaches chemicals into the food.
those chemicals are linked to cancers. it can even seep in from just being in a plastic bottle.
Oh thanks 'kunfushuss', for that most temping picture of chocolate cake and peanut butter icing.
In moderation right?
Actually, in general, be careful of something that claims to be "lite" (especially with the mis-spelling) - it might not be as good as you think - perhaps less cals, but more sugar. It could even be better to have the regular, so that you don't crash later.
low fat milk is low fat.skim is fat free.
and if you buy it in a store, it is vitamin fortified.
2% milk contains 122 calories and 4.8g of fat per 1 cup serving. 1g of fat contains 9 calories so 4.8g of fat has 43.2 calories. That means that about 35% of the calories in 2% milk come from fat. Whole milk contains 146 calories and 7.9g of fat per cup. That means that 49% of calories in whole milk are from fat. Low-fat milk is not low in fat.
Skim milk, may not contain nearly as much fat (though it does have some - 4% of calories come from fat); however, it does contain the milk protein casein (as do all dairy products). Casein has been clearly shown to promote cancer development.
Fortifying a food is nearly a pointless task. First off, there are thousands of chemicals both known and unknown that will never be able to be synthesized and added into foods. And the ones that do get added can lead to other problems:
A recent study indicates that vitamin A intake dramatically weakens bones. A recent meta analysis of 20 studies indicated that vitamin A (retinol) intake—whether from diet (cod liver oil and animal livers) or from supplements—was negatively associated with bone density. As more vitamin A was consumed, hip fractures went up accordingly. The conclusion was that vitamin A supplements should not be used in any dose. Your body can make all the vitamin A it needs from the natural carotenoids found in fruits and vegetables.
Again, you really shouldn't waste your calories on foods that are severely lacking in vital nutrients and fiber.
<> Stomach acid causes your *blood* to be more acidic?!?
<> Got any real info on this, since it goes against everything I've learned in my Bio and Chem classes? I'd love to read what you're reading.
Your blood uses buffers to keep your pH in the *very* limited range of 7.4-7.6. Much of a change beyond that and you are killing cells, not leeching calcium.
As for tuna, read up on Omega-3 Fatty Acids. Or vitamin uptake failure in low fat diets. About half of your necessary vitamins are fat soluble, so if you want that spinach salad to be anything other than insoluble fiber passing *through* you, you'd better add a touch of oil and vinegar or you lose the vitamins out the other end.
<> Cheese, while high in calories, my biggest concern, also contains high concentrations of essential nutrients, in particular high quality *digestible* protein and calcium, as well as other nutrients such as phosphorus, zinc, vitamin A, riboflavin, and vitamin B12.
Milk does not get "bleached" and if its actually 'raw' it means it has not been pastuerized, meaning the bugs that were on the teat and in the cow go straight into you. But, if you're *really* organic, I suppose a good dose of 'natural' salmonella or 'organic' cryptosporidium is just the thing for you.
Sorry for the rant, but I am amazed at what people will believe without bothering to do any research.
Watch the calories, watch the sodium, watch the sugar (comes with the calorie watching) and increase your intake of fiber, soluble and insoluble, and vitamins from a variety of sources including different kinds of fruits and veggies, grains, cereals, with or without pesticides, and limit your protien intake to a reasonable level, whether you get it from beans and rice, a good bloody steak, or processed turkey sausage.
-CD
Plus your blood will stay within its acidic range. Period. if it gets much higher then 7.6 it will start killing organs and make you extremely sick. If you like the chocolate milk go for it as a treat every now and then. Tuna is most certainly good for you and milk is.
Cheese is good for youhgh in calories but in moderation. Peanut butter while high in calories is an A 1 source of protien.
Original Post by angel_eyes:
could the meat and dairy bashers please stay on the meat and dairy-less forum? i.e. vegetarian. I have been told that if I dont 100%agree with the vegetarian forum I should stay off it and I had the rest of the site to respod to. Well there are two sides to the fence.
Plus your blood will stay within its acidic range. Period. if it gets much higher then 7.6 it will start killing organs and make you extremely sick. If you like the chocolate milk go for it as a treat every now and then. Tuna is most certainly good for you and milk is.
Cheese is good for youhgh in calories but in moderation. Peanut butter while high in calories is an A 1 source of protien.
Nope, sorry. I, for one, more than welcome you over to the vegetarian forum for any topic you want (as if I have any say in the matter). I disagree with the mods in that case.
Yes your body will most definitely keep your blood acidity to the proper level, no question about it. The problem is what it must do to accomplish this which is to pull calcium from your bones.
Dairy products are fine unless you have something that prevents you from digesting them properly, such as an intolerance to lactose or casein. Meat is fine, too, as is tuna, though I'd not eat a lot of albacore in a week. Of course, if you're vegan, never mind, but for those who are not, enjoy!
