What is it with people and potato chips? Talk about junk food. I grew out of that junk, so I don't understand why adults still eat it.
In general, why would you eat something you know will harm you instead of help you, whether it's potato chips, Pop-Tarts, an ice cream sandwich, etc. Is it ignorance -- i.e., people aren't really aware eating junk is worse than eating nothing? Are people just that lacking in self-discipline? Or what?
I don't get it. If I eat something that tastes good, but I know it's bad for me, I'm not going to enjoy it. The knowledge that I'm poisoning myself hurts more than the ice cream taste feels good. I would think it'd be the same for everyone. What about you, Anonymous? Do you ever think about this stuff?
In my case, it's because I live with my family and that's what they eat.
When I move out (hopefully in fall), I plan to buy no foods that come pre-packaged, except maybe tofu.
>>1
I don't think it's about self-discipline. I think it's more of a matter of ignorance and being too used to it to think twice about it.
For instance the grandmother of a friend of mine.. I'm amazed she still lives, because she loves using mountains of lard, butter, salt and sugar in her cooking, sees vegetables as poor-man's food and frequently uses HUEG slabs of meet, and loves really refined white bread and pasta - because it's "the fancy and really high quality stuff"...
Her daughter cooked pretty much the same way all her life, and because of that my friend (the daughter's son) had serious medical conditions by the time he moved out.. The level of fats in his blood were many times above the normal.. He probably would have been dead by now had he not adopted a really healthy diet.
Even though most people (unlike the grandmother) would realize that the unhealthy snackfood they eat is really bad in the long run for them, I don't think they actually ever think about it. It's a bit similar to how too many see voting in that case, I think: "Tsch, it's not as if I always eat [insert a very specific kind of unhealthy snackfood], this doesn't really matter." and fail to think of what it looks like in the bigger picture. I think most people are too wrapped up in their day to day lives to think properly about such "small" details until someone points it out to them.
It's addictive, from what I've experienced. You eat it as a kid because it tastes good, everyone eats it and almost no one cares about their health when they're kids. Then, as you grow older and wiser, you just keep eating it, I guess, because it's a habit too hard to kick, even though by then you'll probably realise it's bad for you.
Forgot to mention...some people turn to junk food when they feel depressed. I used do that myself, just eat and eat and eat when I felt down. When I stopped eating sugar, I just felt bad again.
I am 15; I have gotten to a point in my life where refined sugar is getting virtually eliminated from my life, save the occasional doughnut - I live in Portland, OR, which means Voodoo Doughnuts (yum!). I actually feel the same way you do, and as soon as I move out and have control over my life, I am going to structure my meals very carefully as a pesciterian. My primary source of protien will probably be lentils, and processed sugar will be void from my household. Oh, and screw refined wheat.
I have thought about it much. It's very personal.
I eat 'junk food' often (understand, Fast-food during daytime, and often cookies instead of a regular meal for dinner). And that's basically because I'm a busy student, with few free time, and I must admit I don't really want to spend even 30 minutes of cooking every evening. Paradoxally, when I decide to do a good meal, I can cook for ranges from 2 hours to 2 days.
So I guess it's probably out of lazyness when I turn to junk food. Plus a good proportion of it tastes quite good.
For potato chips, I think it's biological.
I think we naturally like salty things. Our ancestors probably had been in times where food was scarce, so in order to survive, they ate fatty foods to have fat stores when food was not available.
We like sweet things. If you put something sweet in a baby or child's mouth, they'll probably smile.
So considering salty, sweet, and fatty, I think the perfect food is french fries with ketchup.
I just crave salt, fat, and sugar, and I'm too lazy to raise myself up to better foods.
Food is not medicine, nor is it simply fuel; its purpose should be both functional and sensual. Is it wrong to eat nothing but heavily processed artificial food, or ice cream sandwiches, or McDonald's? Of course. But to abstain 100%, condemn those who sometimes indulge, or call such things "poison" is probably as silly as living on a diet of crap, albeit mildly more healthful.
It sounds to me like the OP, like many self-professed health nuts, feels an extreme need to exert control over what he or she take in. Most people who exert extreme control over their diets that I've known -- vegans, raw foodists, and others -- have actually had a very unhealthy relationship with food and their bodies, bordering on an eating disorder or similar obsessive tendency.
There are some truly visceral pleasures to be taken from our food, and there is an absolute biological response to strong, basic flavors like salty, sweet, and rich/fatty. Taken in moderation, things like potato chips don't harm our bodies as much as they enrich our lives.
>>8
While I wouldn't consider myself a "health nut", being at school is no excuse to eat poorly. I am a full-time student living in a university residence hall and, in the past year, I've actually lost ten pounds with greater control over what and when I'm eating. Being tied into a meal plan is tough, but most dining halls on my campus offer a salad bar and lighter fare like grilled chicken, soups, wraps, etc. I do work out atleast every other day-- some cardio and light lifting (with my primary mode of transportation here being a bicycle) and try to abstain from refined wheat and the fatty meat often used in institutionalized cooking. Sure, it's tough to keep a healthy diet under the restrictions of large scale, cheap catering with a tight schedule (I'm taking 23 credit hours this semester), but it IS entirely possible.
>>13
You could talk to your parents about giving you an allowance for groceries once per week, perhaps? That way, you could buy healthier snacks (if chips, baked tortilla chips and guacamole, trail mix, and apples and bananas can be purchased relatively inexpensively at around $2.50/lb.) and meals (bags of pre-cut, pre-washed mixed greens run around $4, tomato sauce and pasta can be purchased relatively inexpensively, chicken can often be cheaper and easier to prepare than red meat, etc.)
If nothing else, you should talk to your parents about switching to leaner meat (the difference in cost is nominal), offering salad as a side during dinner and offering fruit for dessert instead of candy and chips. And there is NO excuse for drinking soda: it doesn't taste good, it rots your teeth, spikes your blood sugar, and can easily be replaced with tap water and ice for NO cost.
>>14
Soda is good.
>>15
Agreed, soda tastes good. Especially if you take it with food (as opposed to just drinking it when you're thirsty). I went for years only allowing myself to have (non diet) soda once every month or so, but lately I've been going through about 3 liters of diet soda per week.
>>1
When I was younger I ate lots of junk food, but then when I started college I pretty much completely cut it out, but lately I've been eating a lot of the diet varieties of junk foods: diet soda, fat free potato chips, fat free no sugar added ice cream. I figure with the harmful stuff cut out (sugar and fat) they're nowhere near as bad for you, plus I can handle the extra calories since I have a pretty high metabolism to begin with.
>>16
Sugar and fat are only bad for you if you ingest them in excess.
>>17
I'm not totally versed on what the deal with fat is, but for sugar it's not so much the amount you get, but rather the rate at which it's metabolized by your body. Anything with refined sugar in it (pretty much all sweets) and white bread products raise your glycemic load by a substantial amount very quickly, putting strain on your pancrease as it works hard to release insulin so that your cells can metabolize the sugar. Eating whole grain foods like whole wheat bread or brown rice lowers the rate at which the sugar in those foods is introduced into the blood, which lowers the glycemic load (even though the total amount of sugar being consumed is roughly the same) and therefore lowers the strain on your pancreas.
That being said, sugar and fat are essential parts of your diet, you just need to make sure you're getting the right kinds in the right way (eating a pint of Ben & Jerry's is not the right way).
>>18
Some vitamins are of the fat-soluble kind, for instance. However, there are many different kinds of fat, some more needed by your body, others not really.
When I said sugar, I wasn't really talking about refined sugar.
because it takes way too much time to make food, does cereal out of the box count as junk food (like kix)?
>>20
Very often, yes. A large amount of all breakfast cereals are downright unhealthy. If you want a good breakfast or light meal, just make some Swiss Muesli (fresh muesli). The Swiss have it as evening meal, even.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muesli#Fresh_muesli
Really good stuff, quick and easy to make.
I'm pretty poor, and I go to a college out of state, so I've noticed that the area you live in really has a significant influence on your diet. In my college's town, there's a very cheap grocery store, and I get a lot of canned foods and cheap carbs(rice, pasta, etc) from there. Then there's a local farmer's market that's actually incredibly affordable, so I got very lucky with that.
However, in my hometown with my parents, everything's really expensive. I found the healthiest foods that'll actually fill you up and are basic, affordable staples to a diet are cheap non-brand name cereals(Cheerios-like products, they last a while, look for the bag cereals, they're usually cheaper, and they're whole-grain, so they're actually healthy compared to sugary counterparts), apples(usually pretty cheap compared to most fruits, I don't like them much, but that's just a matter of taste), clementines($5 a box, typically...oh so tasty, works as a dessert, too; keep them in the fridge and they last longer), rice, pasta, and general sandwich stuffs. Also, canned soup is cheap and tasty, and usually gives you enough nutrition to last you the day. Good for winter.:3
I usually just eat what I want whenever I want, but I'm definitely not unhealthy. My parents don't really keep anything healthy in the house to snack on, so I really have to dig around. If you look around enough, you'll probably find something healthy. Or else, maybe drink water a lot?^_^;;;
>>22
Water is a poor substitute for nutrition. One should always drink enough water every day, though.