vowing to not eat like white trash

[Kai]

The problem I've found with using olive oil in cooking is not only that its flavor is unwanted in many dishes I make (and simple things, eggs for example) but it has low tolerance of high heat, and tends to smoke quite a bit. I could use corn oil, but there's way too much corn in the modern diet and it doesn't taste very good, so I end up using canola, or some other neutral tasting vegetable oil.

Also, @NIGEL, <3 to your offspring 

[P3nT4gR4m]

Today my son extracted from me a promise to never feed him anything that wasn't once alive. It reminded me of this thread.

And then I remembered salt. I haven't told him yet.

Lemon juice or vinegar is an adequate salt substitute, sometimes.


LMNO
-Is intrigued with the possibility of an all-corpse meal.

Wrap everything in bacon. You get actual salt but it used to be alive.

Once again bacon saves the day 

[Pope Pixie Pickle]

I'm at my mother's house cos she's ill and there is nothing but processed shite in the cupboards, gods the shopping habits have got worse since i left home.... if i eat any of this crap my lower intestines will stage a revolt. my bowels are more irritable than me...

No caffeine or sweetners mean.... i can drink milk.... or tapwater... no processed white bread means... no breakfast... and im sure the blueberry yoghurt has saccarine or some crap.

tommorrow im going home to get my Miso.

[Corvidia]

You guys wouldn't survive living with me
I was raised in a french Canadian environment
IE put butter on absolutely everything
or at least cook with it

When I cook potatoes I slice them into thin slices. Lightly fry them in butter, then saturate them in salt and white vinegar. MMM Just typing this makes my calorie intake go up

^ THIS. This is probably the only remnant of the French Canadian culture in my family. I use butter more than any kind of oil, but given how low my calorie intake usually is, I can get away with it.
When I do use oil, it's either olive oil or canola. Canola for baking, olive oil for everything else.

Not eating like white trash:
-try not to fry very much
-metric fuck tons of red meat isn't a good idea
-less soda
-as Khara said, less high fructose corn syrup. I personally feel much better when I avoid it for long periods of time.
-eat out less. The stuff you cook at home tastes better, is cheaper, and is better for you.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

God, I feel like I eat like some kind of stupid hippie. Whole grains, whole foods, low fat, scratch cooking fresh veggies and shit all up in there.

But VEGETARIAN NEVER.

[Eater of Clowns]

Yeah, there's not much of a need to be a vegetarian unless for ethics reasons, but if you're that worried about ethics then you're going to have a hard time eating just about anything modern agriculture has to offer.  We eat far too much meat, so cutting back in general is a good idea health wise, but there's no need to eliminate it.  Fish is very good for you, but watch for eating those higher on the food chain for mercury bioaccumulation.

Like everyone else said, avoid fast food altogether.  Minimize soda, if not eliminate it completely.

It also doesn't hurt to just eat less, that is if you're eating poorly.  Americans tend to use visual cues to tell when they're done eating while healthier cultures use physiological cues.  Stop eating when you aren't hungry anymore instead of when your food is gone.  Leftovers are great anyway.  Try to eat more slowly in general.  Take a bite, not a huge one, put down your utensil, chew thoroughly, and swallow.  Really pay attention to the eating experience.  Your body takes a while to process how much you've eaten, 20 minutes maybe, and slowing down your consumption will decrease it.  This is really hard, I'm just starting to be able to do this myself.

Sorry, In Defense of Food is still pretty fresh in my mind.  If you're looking for a really easy guide on healthy eating, check it out.  It didn't blow my mind (I'd studied the subject before) but it's a basic look about how Westerners think about eating.

[Kurt Christ]

I would advice avoiding artificial sweeteners. Sugar is fine in small doses and you would be eating it naturally if you still lived in a hunter/gather society, but artificial sweeteners are intentionally unable to be processed by the human body. Several have had proven ill effects such as cancer, and I don't really find it worthwhile to take a chance on one that doesn't have any known side effects yet rather than sticking with good old sucrose.

[Pope Pixie Pickle]

I would advice avoiding artificial sweeteners. Sugar is fine in small doses and you would be eating it naturally if you still lived in a hunter/gather society, but artificial sweeteners are intentionally unable to be processed by the human body. Several have had proven ill effects such as cancer, and I don't really find it worthwhile to take a chance on one that doesn't have any known side effects yet rather than sticking with good old sucrose.

artificial sweetners mess with my digestive system. pure eeevil.

Also has a pavlovian effect as to weight gain.

[Corvidia]

Something I noticed back when I was a barista was that artificial sweetners like Splenda and Equal (but especially Splenda) puffs up like chalk dust when you rip open the packets. It's a very fine, very light dust and it plumes up a good 18 inches, which makes me wary.

[AFK]

They also taste awful.  Splenda is particularily horrible in coffee. 

[Kai]

God, I feel like I eat like some kind of stupid hippie. Whole grains, whole foods, low fat, scratch cooking fresh veggies and shit all up in there.

But VEGETARIAN NEVER.

No, its okay, so do I. Sometimes I feel like some sort of hippy throwback, hair and everything.



Somewhat related, if some vegetarian ever accosts me for eating the little meat I do, I'll politely say, "I'm sorry, vegetarianism is against my religion". And then explain how, and leave them standing catatose cause the wheels are locked in a recursive loop, trying to understand.

[Iason Ouabache]

Something I noticed back when I was a barista was that artificial sweetners like Splenda and Equal (but especially Splenda) puffs up like chalk dust when you rip open the packets. It's a very fine, very light dust and it plumes up a good 18 inches, which makes me wary.

Try dumping 15 pounds worth of the stuff into a tank. I'm sure my lungs are coated with the stuff right now.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Speaking of fast food, I stopped at Dairy Queen twice today, on my way to and from picking up EFO from camp at the coast. It's a tradition. Usually I just get a vanilla cone, but today I was starving so I got a small chicken strips.

I'm trying to lose a few pounds so I'm logging my calories to give me a better idea of what and how much I should eat, and when I looked that motherfucker up, it was 560 calories! Fuck! It was snack-size, basically... the whole chicken strip meal, which I might be tempted to order for lunch, is 1350 calories, which is more than HALF my daily requirement! According to my tracking, I typically eat meals... full meals... of 300-400 or so calories, which leaves me plenty of room for snacks and alcohol should I desire. The thought of someone regularly eating a 1300+ calorie single meal leaves me flabbergasted.

[Bruno]

I had 200 calories before even getting out of bed this morning.

Note to self: Invent caffeinated granola bars.

[Triple Zero]

i found out last week that dr pepper has 66% of the calories compared to most cola brands (except the ones with artificial sweeteners, of course)