Friends oblivious to nutrition?

Does it ever amaze you how little some people know about nutriton/calories of stuff (especially the ones who think they know stuff)? At lunch today myself and a group of friends had some chips and salsa out and one of them said, "Did you know that chips and salsa are like one of the healthiest snacks you can eat? They are because the salsa is only like 20 calories and 20 calories for like 10 chips." I so wanted to tell her how off she was, but I didn't feel like starting a big discussion about it, so I just blew it off. But it caught me off guard. I guess some people underestimate the amount of calories in stuff to justify eating more of it or not feeling guilty about eating it? Or maybe they just don't have a clue? Anyway, it just caught me off guard and I didn't know if anyone else felt the same way or had a similar experience. What did you do?

My mom always said (and still does) that ice cream, yogurt, milk, wine, any 'liquidy' thing will be 'flushed' away once you have peed.

I tried to explain to her she was wrong, but no, since she's an adult AND a mom, she's HAS to be right.

So eat all the ice cream you want. xD

yep. the other day i was eating melon and cantaloupe and my friend was like "i hope you know melon has a ton of fat in it." and i was FLOORED that she actually thought this. I asked her if maybe she meant sugar, or water...but no, she insisted that she meant fat. I honestly thought she was kidding.

I know that i've taken some nutrition courses for school, but I still feel some people are so incredibly out of the loop when it comes to nutrition information, which is fine, as long as they aren't going around making comments like these as if they are positive of their facts and all-knowing.

so many of my friends will pig out on junk food, then turn down the healthiest things! and a lot of them will comment on how "healthy" my lunch looks today or how i didn't go back for a third (or second) cupcake like in a negative way. it's so annoying! especially if my friends don't eat breakfast and the first thing they eat all day is a nasty mini pizza from the cafeteria. the worst was when my friend turned down a kashi bar i offered her because she did not have a lunch and she turned it down, saying it was too healthy.

Too funny. Proof that some people can't read.

Oh, man, I can totally relate! Do any of you have those people in your lives (usually older people...in my experience anyways) who say that you can have unlimited quantities of fruits and vegetables cause they have NO CALORIES? My friend's grandma eats atleast like 7 big apples a day and says "they're TOTALLY healthy, no calories!"...uhhh sugar overload, much?

I also have those friends who don't eat ALL day, cause they're not hungry, but then they'll have a HUGE piece of cake or a HUGE muffin for lunch and three slices of pizza or a poutine and call it a "good day". Then make fun of ME for having 8 healthy snack a day (cause I'm trying to gain).

*Eyeroll*

Some people don't want to know either.  We were having a pot roast that some of us noticed was very salty.  So, my dad checks the label and tells us how much sodium per serving.  My sister than pipes up with "It's annoying when people read labels out loud" and bitches about me supposedly doing it all the time.  (I don't.  I read the labels but not out loud.  She is really annoyed/aggressive about me eating healthier and makes negative remarks about it whenever she sees the opportunity.  She also thinks all the fat in eggs is in the whites.)

My friend is on a diet program that counts food items as points.  She has lost 150+ lbs.  Good for her and all BUT it doesn't make her a food expert.  Anytime she sees someone eating anything, she starts talking about the points.  Irritates me to no end! 

The other day she stopped in when I was giving my kids their afternoon snack.  They each had some celery, baby carrots, and apple slices.  I gave them two tablespoons of natural peanut butter and some sunflower seeds.  She asked if it was their lunch and when I told her it was snack, she pulled me outside to talk.  She went on and on about how I should let them eat that much.  My kids aren't overweight.  My kids eat a primarily vegetarian diet.  I explained that it is important to give them the calories/nutrients/vitamins and fats they need to grow.  She was upset that I gave them peanut butter and sunflower seeds.  Too much fat! This coming from the same girl that skips breakfast and has a salad for lunch on Friday's so she can use her points on beer.

your story is funny. one of the things north americans and the british are most interested in is dieting. but the problem is that this information may start out good, but gets condensed and released in the form of some news article or something, then it gets spread around by word-of-mouth, thus screwing it up, and so on. it's the interest in nutrition, or more, the interest in weight loss, that is what causes all this bad information to get spread around. most people listen/read when they see something related to dieting. it drives me crazy because i have done a lot of research on nutrition from reliable sources, not just google or a-friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend, but people still insist i'm wrong. the worse one out there right now is that all carbs are bad. people have totally misinterpreted the facts and they INSIST they haven't. i want to be a nutritionist, but i don't know if i can handle all the misinformation and the "i know more than you do because i heard it on the six o'clock news" attitude without smacking my future clients!

augustnkate,

ack!!!  i hate that!! yes, it's true there are people who overdo it on healthy fats.... but i can't count the times i have heard someone say not to eat nuts, avacados, or olives because they are high in fat.  and then they go on to eat something much crappier. 

haha all this is soo true.... and it can be really annyoing!!! melon has fat... that makes me laugh!

this isn't exactly about people thinking they know about healthy but during cooking class im in a group of four and everyone was staring at the recipie going 'what does season taste mean' i seriously cracked up laughing! i told them it means salt and pepper so they get it out and say what do we do now, how do we season it..... what does it mean to taste.... argh i was soo annoyed. how can some people not know this kind of stuff???

my friend was eating a special k bar... loaded sugar, additivies you know ingredients you can't read and starts saying 'wow how do they make something healthy taste so good' i hate that people think healthy food tastes grose and have no flavour. it really frustrates me.... of course i had to point out it wasn't necessarily the healthiest thing and shes just like hmph....

it is really true about how people dont want to know about ingredients. i took a nutella jar to school (kg) and my friend ate a 1/3 of the jar and goes wow a serving is a tablespoon i then had to point out that the first ingredient was sugar and shes like mmph.... by the end of the  day the jar was half empty.... and my friend was on a sugar rush! lol!

Haha good thread!

I have a friend that seems oblivious to nutrition. Whenever I stay over he forgets to provide me with breakfast or, if he does, offers me a sugary cereal bar. He's currently trying to lose weight (he's overweight) and told me excitedly that his new healthy eating plan involves having fruit for lunch. Just fruit. Alarmingly, he keeps trying to advise me about gaining weight (which I need to).

A girl he lives with is also pretty bad; she only eats sweets and chocolate. I'm not even joking... Everyone is quite concerned about her.

No kidding! My friends all think I'm LYING when I tell them that what they said is false! Like this girl talking to me and a group of three or four other people who was saying that thin people are anorexic because they are thin and bring their own lunch to school and have just about a small jar of apple sauce, half a small bag of pretzels and a little more than half of a cheese and turkey sandwich without the crust. The only reason they think that basically is because the movies portray thin pretty girls to be obsessed with dieting and stuck up snobs.Oh, and did I forget to mention that the girl saying this weighs 74 pounds and never eats lunch and you can count the bumpy things on her neck (the adams apple?) and see her ribs through her shirt? Well, she did.

My mother is on a diet and she says all the time how she can't it pasta, bread or sweets because their carbs and carbs means she won't lose weight and then the next day she says "I'm hungry!" and eats  a whole chocolate bar and several pieces of buttered toast! It's nutso-crazio! o.O And then she gets real quiet when she realized I thought she made a bad decision and offer her a more healthy food, like a pear or carrots so that her brain won't crave more of the bad food.

A more closely related thing was that a guy I know told me that he got to eat 3 doughnuts at breakfast because the people around him didn't want theirs because they didn't like the doughnuts. So then a girl who was eavesdropping I guess pipes up and says to him "You know you'll have to run like, 27 miles to that off?" and he just says "Why would I care?" And this is talking about a guy who goes to the gym everyday, can do one-arm push-ups, and definitely does not need to watch how much he eats, practically being told that he needs to watch his weight. I don't think she knows that doughnuts only have 200 calories per pastry, not 1000 like most people seem to think.

Have you ever noticed that people who do this are usually on/need/have been on a diet? I actually know a lot about what I'm talking about when I talk about food and exercise but I do get urges to tell people that what their eating has a lot of calories in it and saturated fats and lots of sodium and is not going to do anything good for them, but I guess my difference is that I realize they won't care and sometimes its someone who is already fit and doesn't need to care as much as say, someone with diabetes, when they have a triple chocolate fudge bar. Plus, it's none of my business!

You shouldn't control someone right down to what they put in their mouth unless they have some kind of mental condition that would make them make a bad decision, like Prader Willi. (Literally always feeling hungry, they will eat out of the garbage can they feel soo hungry.People with Prader Willi could eat until they exploded and still feel like they are starving. Most people with Prader Willi are severely overweight too.)

People can be so funny when they are misinformed! 

that looks (pause) healthy - i swear thats all people can think of to say!

my co-workers have finally figured out that 9 times out of 10 i will skip the free cokes and the chocolate and the donuts and the bread and the dessert so have quit asking me if i would like some - THIS is progress. :)

my boss was on atkins at one point and still freaks! over popcorn - which he used to eat everyday and walk around the office and share - but he will repeatedly find reasons to walk by the candy jar so he can grab a 50 cal nugget - huh? one entire bag of popcorn equals 5 or 6 nuggets - how is this inconceivable? my office keeps a cooler full of cokes and chocolate and popcorn stocked. i will have the popcorn occasionally when i dont have a lunch. and yes (gasp) i eat the entire bag!

Oblivious? No. Misinformed, probably.

Many of the things you have described here were things that I believed in, too, before I sat down and re-educated myself, because I realized my eating habits had gone seriously awry. I, too, eliminated almost all pasta and rice and bread, buying into all the low carb crap about diets. I, too, thought that I could eat all the fruit I wanted and it would be "healthy" and I would lose weight. In fact, I did lose weight on low carb, and I did lose weight when I cranked up the fruit and ate less of other things. The Scarsdale diet was my best friend for many years. But the weight never stayed off, because I never adopted healthy eating habits, and I didn't listen to my mother or my teachers about things like a balanced diet.

So, when you describe those funny people and all their funny comments, you are describing me. Please be patient with folks, spread the word about things like Calorie Count and the principles of a balanced diet and healthy eating. Continue to set a good example. Continue to read labels and show others how you chose foods. Continue to kindly and diplomatically dispel the myths surrounding eating.

There is a reason that 2/3 of Americans (and other countries?) are overweight. We are a very unenlightened group of people.

Original Post by anniepook:

Oblivious? No. Misinformed, probably.

Many of the things you have described here were things that I believed in, too, before I sat down and re-educated myself, because I realized my eating habits had gone seriously awry. I, too, eliminated almost all pasta and rice and bread, buying into all the low carb crap about diets. I, too, thought that I could eat all the fruit I wanted and it would be "healthy" and I would lose weight. In fact, I did lose weight on low carb, and I did lose weight when I cranked up the fruit and ate less of other things. The Scarsdale diet was my best friend for many years. But the weight never stayed off, because I never adopted healthy eating habits, and I didn't listen to my mother or my teachers about things like a balanced diet.

So, when you describe those funny people and all their funny comments, you are describing me. Please be patient with folks, spread the word about things like Calorie Count and the principles of a balanced diet and healthy eating. Continue to set a good example. Continue to read labels and show others how you chose foods. Continue to kindly and diplomatically dispel the myths surrounding eating.

There is a reason that 2/3 of Americans (and other countries?) are overweight. We are a very unenlightened group of people.

 I wasn't trying to be rude and I wasn't even inpatient or frustrated with my friend. I was just caught a little off guard and wondered if this happened to other people. I'm sorry if I offended you.

Oh, no, not offended at all! Just trying to put some perspective on it. I was not proud of being so misinformed about nutrition, but I think I am one of many.

Just want to add that this website has been a HUGE help to me in my quest for better information!

Original Post by meganwilliams2:

Original Post by anniepook:

Oblivious? No. Misinformed, probably.

Many of the things you have described here were things that I believed in, too, before I sat down and re-educated myself, because I realized my eating habits had gone seriously awry. I, too, eliminated almost all pasta and rice and bread, buying into all the low carb crap about diets. I, too, thought that I could eat all the fruit I wanted and it would be "healthy" and I would lose weight. In fact, I did lose weight on low carb, and I did lose weight when I cranked up the fruit and ate less of other things. The Scarsdale diet was my best friend for many years. But the weight never stayed off, because I never adopted healthy eating habits, and I didn't listen to my mother or my teachers about things like a balanced diet.

So, when you describe those funny people and all their funny comments, you are describing me. Please be patient with folks, spread the word about things like Calorie Count and the principles of a balanced diet and healthy eating. Continue to set a good example. Continue to read labels and show others how you chose foods. Continue to kindly and diplomatically dispel the myths surrounding eating.

There is a reason that 2/3 of Americans (and other countries?) are overweight. We are a very unenlightened group of people.

 I wasn't trying to be rude and I wasn't even inpatient or frustrated with my friend. I was just caught a little off guard and wondered if this happened to other people. I'm sorry if I offended you.

haha yes but if you cant find the wonder/humor/mystery in it - whats the freakin point? people are weird and funny and scary and amazing. laughing at ourselves is just as vital as eating healthy imo - it too is a progression towards health.

great thread

i know this was not meant to be a funny post, but i cracked up at most of these, its hilarious, I would definitely tell them though, you dont want them to gain 50lbs eating magic chips, or miss out on eating melons bc of the fat hahaha

I adore my boyfriend, but he was shocked to discover one day that mayonnaise has calories. He thought it didn't because "it's just a spread... Like, it's not even really food!" I eat mayo on my sandwiches most days and I too wish it had no calories. Worse luck!

He also believes that cutting out his 4 cups a day soda habit wouldn't make the slightest bit of difference in his quest to shed a few pounds. I have to say, I mention my opinion once and then leave him to it. It's his life and I have no desire to be the nagging girlfriend.

My pet hate is people equating low calorie with healthy, and thinking high calorie is automatically unhealthy... So wrong!

I have also been told I eat a lot, and lots of people have "no idea how I can stay slim when I eat so much!" I don't have an amazing metabolism, and yes it's true I do have a big appetite and eat a lot. But it's healthy most of the time - your Big Mac combo adds up to my lunch plus a few decent snacks.

merylwhite1:

I completely agree! High calorie really doesn't mean unhealthy! it really bothers me when people associate the amount of calories something has as being how healthy it is, too. If health was related to how many calories were in something it would go like this.... "Jack and Bob are in the kitchen making themselves sandwiches with whole grain bread and Bob cuts his bread in half and throws away the other half. "Hey, my meal is healthier because half a slice of bread has less calories than a whole slice of bread. Hahaa!" Bob says."

And with the size related calories, how people think that if its big it has a lot of calories and if its small it has very few. How many calories would be in a stick of celery as big as a baseball bat compared to a snickers bar about the size of your middle and index finger together? Which one has more calories? I guess the person would say it is the celery.