Hi, cholesterol. Bye, meals I knew.

[pointless]

Cheerios and oatmeal for the next few years. Yum.
It'd be quicker and more merciful to shoot yourself now.

screw that. raisin bran is the shit. lots of fiber. makes for good pooping.

 

[Sinny]

I just eat the oatmeal from the packet, only thing I add is the hot water.

I never heard of Stevia before this post. Is there a brand name for it that I might have heard of.

30G of carbs per meal. That is useful, I can look that up. Not sure I believe that carbs will kill you dead, but I am willing to believe that fewer are better. How can you tell what is a complex carb and what is a simple carb?

And it just occurred to me to ask: Why is there no healthy fast food chain? Someone could make a fortune setting it up and franchising it, I would think. I'm sure there are lots of people like me who just want to go in, order the food, pay for it and eat it. Not make it our life's work. I'm not that fond of food. I don't want to get to know it well. Food is not a reward for me.

I don't know what candies are agave or stevia flavored. I'm pretty sure M&M's aren't. Hopefully the agave flavored stuff tastes better than it sounds.

And I don't drink sodas, I have water with my meals. Sometimes milk. And no, not fat free, skim or 2%. Real, vitamin D moo cow fuck milk. That other stuff makes me gag. I am not the least bit lactose intolerant. Somehow I suspect that most of the people who claim to be are more into it as a fashion statement than a medical reality. It is amazing how many people suffer from the disease du jour.

Okay, back on topic.

I keep hearing about walnuts. I'm not that crazy about them. What about other nuts? Such as peanuts, which I usually have a quarter cup of per day. Are the honey roasted good? The nutrition info on the packages looks pretty much the same to me as with the dry roasted.

While typing this, I am snacking on some raisins. Does that get me a pat on the back or a slap upside the head with a dead carp?

Raisins are pretty good, so long as you don't have blood sugar issues. Do you know if you do? I frequently eat dried fruits: cherries, blueberries, apricots. I mix them into salads or put them on salads with nuts. I don't eat a lot, maybe a tablespoon at a time. Too many = too much sugar, even if it's natural sugar. I avoid that.

Skip the oatmeal with sugar in the packet and buy Truvia, a brand name stevia product. It's the shit. It's sweet, but flavor neutral. That means no aftertaste. I fucking love it. I sprinkle it on my oatmeal and sweeten my tea with it.

Carbs are tricky. If you have blood sugar issues or diabetes in your family, you should not eat many. If you don't, then you're probably ok eating some.

Simple carbs are usually white. White flour. White sugar. Processed foods of any kind, mostly. Corn syrup is a simple carb. Basically, your body digests it quickly and your blood sugar spikes, and that's just no good for you. The more even your blood sugar, the more healthy you'll be, and how you keep your blood sugar even is by eating foods rich in complex carbs and vegetables and other high fiber foods.

Complex carbs are veggies with fiber, they're grains like quinoa or farro (I eat both all the time, they're fantastic), and barley, and oatmeal. They're also whole wheat and other whole grain flours.

And you can't go wrong eating nuts at all. Ever. All of them. I'd say honey roasted or salted nuts have their own problems with sugar and salt, but you can't go wrong eating nuts -- in MODERATION. Just because they're good for you, doesn't mean they're good for you in large quantities, eat less than 1/4 cup in a sitting. And beans are good for you. The more beans you have in your diet, the better your health will be. And you can eat lots of them because they're fat free and low cal, high fiber and lots of nutrients.

And there are plenty of chains in my part of the world that offer healthy eating. Quizno's and Subway are decent (just avoid processed meats and too much cheese and mayo), and do you have Qdoba where you live? The food there is prepared fresh and fairly decent. Do you have a Chipotle Grill? That's better than the alternatives.

Have you checked out the sandwich and soup delis of your local grocery store? Sandwiches and soups are a LOT better for you than fries and burgers at a fast-food restaurant.

 

[Balladeer08]

Fish sandwiches! They're fried! Avoid. At Burger King, the fish sandwich has fucking 32gs of fat. THIRTY TWO.

I'm looking at the websites at the nutritional data, and these seem somewhat smart choices, although sodium is SKY HIGH at both these restaurants:

For Burger King, try the veggie sandwich: 410 calories, 16gs of fat and 22 gs of protein. Carbs are a little high at 44gs, BUT because the patty is whole grains, some of that are good carbs (complex carbs). And you can decrease the fat and calories by ordering just with ketchup. The mayo adds the fat.

Also at Burger King, the tendergrill salad looks decent: 230 calories, 7g fat and 9g carbs, with 33gs protein. Get the low-fat or fat-free dressing.

For McDonald's, try the premium grilled chicken sandwich, at 420 calories, 10gs of fat, but carbs are high at 51g. The honey mustard grilled snack wrap looks fairly decent at 260 calories, 9gs of fat and 27 carbs. The Premium SW salad looks like a better choice than the others, it's got 320 calories, 9gs of fat and 20gs of carbs (mostly decent carbs from the veggies). Get the low-fat or non-fat dressing.

Okay, I take it that 32 g of fat is high.

Normally, whatever I order I tell them to hold the sauce. I know those are pretty much all fat. I get a lot of crap from people who seem upset that I make tuna fish sandwiches without mayo. As if it is any of their damn business. Kind of like the people who go insane if you put ketchup on a hot dog instead of mustard. You eat yours, I'll eat mine. Fucking nazis.

I never looked at the salads at BK. I tend to ignore them as I don't like any of the salad dressings. Thousand Island is the most tolerable to me, and I am pretty sure it is the worst of all of them. Mostly mayo, isn't it?

How about chicken enchiladas? I like those. And I order them with only the rice, ever since I found out the refried beans are beans and lard.

Or the chicken soft taco at Taco Bell? It even has lettuce. And tomatoes...

Hey, you might get a laugh out of this "cooking" experiment I did. I was making a cup of coffee one morning when my eye caught on the container of honey. So I tried some honey in my coffee. It was a bitter-sweet experience.

 

[thør]

screw that. raisin bran is the shit. lots of fiber. makes for good pooping.

And people once said Coke was the pause that refreshes. I say it's a good dump.

 

[pointless]

And people once said Coke was the pause that refreshes. I say it's a good dump.

it's definitely better than the alternative.

 

[glynndah]

You need to make an appointment with a registered dietitian.

 

[thør]

it's definitely better than the alternative.

Oat bran cookies will cure that.......

 

[Balladeer08]

Okay, the profit and pointless have covered pee and poo.

Now lets get back to input, I'm sure the output will take care of itself.

 

[Balladeer08]

You need to make an appointment with a registered dietitian.

I'll check to see if the V.A. has those.

You'd think the Dr. would have mentioned it. Probably too specific for him.

 

[pointless]

Okay, the profit and pointless have covered pee and poo.

Now lets get back to input, I'm sure the output will take care of itself.

learn about fiber, dude. it is important to you. best carb ever. it absorbs fat and cholesterol. it is goodness. fucking eat it.

and stop being a bitch.

 

[pointless]

Oat bran cookies will cure that.......

i miss bran muffins.

 

[Sinny]

You need to make an appointment with a registered dietitian.

This.
I had a session with an RD/nutritionist about 10 years ago. It was a two-hour session and cost me nothing, my health insurance paid for it.

 

[Saint Peter]

Shit food! Yay!!

 

[Sonny Limatina]

You have a Trader Joe's near you and you still eat all that shitty fast food all the time?

 

[Balladeer08]

Oat bran cookies will cure that.......

Cookies! Hadn't even considered those.

Oat bran sounds like something they'd approve of. I think I've had them with raisins. Not great, but edible.

How about fig newtons?

Any other "good" cookies. I'm sure the ones I like the taste of are not good for me. Those fudge covered sugar wafers? Yummy. But real bad, especially since I eat the entire package at one sitting. I've never taken those cookies home. I always ate them in the car on the way. Stopped buying them, only thing I could do. But sometimes when I go down that aisle they taunt me from the shelves. Bastards.

I think the biggest obstacle is finding things I will eat. There are not a lot of foods I like, but lots and lots of them I don't like. Probably why i've been skinny all my life.

I like the oat bran cookie suggestion. Thanks.

Hmm, bran... bran muffins? Are those okay?

 

[Sinny]

You have a Trader Joe's near you and you still eat all that shitty fast food all the time?

Dude. Seriously.
I could live off TJ's salads, sandwiches and sushi. They're all nutritionally sound, even the sodium content. I sometimes fantasize about moving into a Trader Joe's and living there.

 

[Balladeer08]

This.
I had a session with an RD/nutritionist about 10 years ago. It was a two-hour session and cost me nothing, my health insurance paid for it.

Yep, I'll check into that. Hopefully I can wring some specifics from them.

I'll buy different foods. I just need to know which ones.

This whole "everyone must learn to cook and eat sea salt" thing reminds me too much of Pol Pot and his attempts to force Cambodia to become an agrarian society. Didn't work out so great.

Really, why has no one started up a line of restaurants for high cholesterol people? Or a line of food products? Is it impossible to make a healthy meal and put it in a can? That does not seem likely to me.

So far the cookies are one of my favorite pieces of advice.

 

[Balladeer08]

Dude. Seriously.
I could live off TJ's salads, sandwiches and sushi. They're all nutritionally sound, even the sodium content. I sometimes fantasize about moving into a Trader Joe's and living there.

I've never been in a Trader Joe's. Guess I'll have to visit one. No particular reason I haven't. Just inertia, I guess. They didn't have them when I was growing up, and I was never really close to one. So it hasn't been convenient and it was never a habit.

I'll try that Friday.

Ew. Black Friday. Will I be mobbed?

 

[Sinny]

Yep, I'll check into that. Hopefully I can wring some specifics from them.

I'll buy different foods. I just need to know which ones.

This whole "everyone must learn to cook and eat sea salt" thing reminds me too much of Pol Pot and his attempts to force Cambodia to become an agrarian society. Didn't work out so great.

Really, why has no one started up a line of restaurants for high cholesterol people? Or a line of food products? Is it impossible to make a healthy meal and put it in a can? That does not seem likely to me.

So far the cookies are one of my favorite pieces of advice.

I'm an avid cook and I love knowing how my food is made when I dine out, so what you wrote bothers me immensely, but there seems to be more eaters like you than like me. Years ago, restaurants were a place for people to splurge on a special meal, or replace an occasional meal. Now? Now, it's where some people eat a majority of their food. That's a big problem. Food at restaurants has to taste good, or people won't buy it. What tastes good? Fat and sugar. That's why restaurants use a lot of it. That's also why restaurant food, especially fast food, is not very good for you.

You can make small changes and have it all add up. You don't have to become a lacto ovo vegetarian tomorrow who only eats quinoa and sprouted barley sandwiches for lunch every day, but if you replace one takeout meal a day with a homemade tuna salad (spinach, tuna from a can, a squeeze of lemon and capers. Try it), you're going to see your numbers move in the right direction.

I've never been in a Trader Joe's. Guess I'll have to visit one. No particular reason I haven't. Just inertia, I guess. They didn't have them when I was growing up, and I was never really close to one. So it hasn't been convenient and it was never a habit.

I'll try that Friday.

Ew. Black Friday. Will I be mobbed?

Black Friday probably won't suck at a grocery store. Nobody will be shopping for food because their fridges are too full

At Trader Joe's, look for the wraps and the Mediterranean platter with the hummous and veggies. Super healthy, and quite delicious. Trader Joe's has a great selection of brown rice sushi that is really tasty. And their salads ARE AWESOME. They have low-fat dressings that actually taste good and the veggies are fresh and plentiful. Meats are lean. Many salads come with grains like farro and quinoa. When I'm in a super hurry or forgot my lunch, a quick trip to Trader Joe's gives me a healthy lunch for around five bucks.

 

[Sonny Limatina]

Yep, I'll check into that. Hopefully I can wring some specifics from them.

I'll buy different foods. I just need to know which ones.

This whole "everyone must learn to cook and eat sea salt" thing reminds me too much of Pol Pot and his attempts to force Cambodia to become an agrarian society. Didn't work out so great.

Really, why has no one started up a line of restaurants for high cholesterol people? Or a line of food products? Is it impossible to make a healthy meal and put it in a can? That does not seem likely to me.

So far the cookies are one of my favorite pieces of advice.

There is a whole line of food products for high cholesterol people. It's all the stuff we'd be eating if food didn't come in cans or in $1 jumbo-buckets.

Fruits, vegetables (the green kind), fish, lean meats, even wine.

Count the ingredients. Personally, I aim for one (1), and I eat pretty good (meaning, I'm not a dainty California "wanna just split a salad" type, I eat real meals).

Look at the name of the food--say, "turkey dog." If the thing it's named after (turkey, not dog) isn't in the first couple of ingredients, put it back.

Instead of buying Del Monte cans of fruit, walk two aisles over and buy fruit.

Instead of KFC grilled chicken, get some of TJ's precooked chicken.

Buy lean red meat and make your own hamburgers. They're about 120,000 times better than McD's, it's the easiest food on the planet to make, and you can chop up the leftovers and throw it in spaghetti sauce.

Fish is easy as a motherfucker to cook. Buy a piece of salmon, shake some salt and pepper on it, maybe some basil flakes, and cook it for 20 minutes in the oven. It's 137,000 times better than the filet-o-feces at BK.

Stop eating instant oatmeal, it's just sugar. Get steel cut oats. Use Sonny's patented Lazy Man's MethodTM: boil a pot of water at night. Pour in the oats. Turn the stove off and go to sleep. In the morning, your breakfast is done and it tastes 159,000 times better than those stupid packets.

Etc, etc.

Once you go a week without eating shit, you won't want to eat shit.

 

[glynndah]

Even easier oatmeal recipe

1 cup water
1/2 cup old-fashioned oats {the kind in the round box}
a dash of salt {optional}
a handful of dried fruit, raisins, blueberries, cherries, etc. {also optional}

Boil water, salt and dried fruit in small saucepan on the stove or in a bowl in the microwave. Add oats. Stir once, if you feel the need to "cook". Remove from heat. Cover. Let sit 5 minutes. Drain remaining liquid. Add sweetener, if desired. Eat.

 

[Balladeer08]

I'm an avid cook and I love knowing how my food is made when I dine out, so what you wrote bothers me immensely, but there seems to be more eaters like you than like me. Years ago, restaurants were a place for people to splurge on a special meal, or replace an occasional meal. Now? Now, it's where some people eat a majority of their food. That's a big problem. Food at restaurants has to taste good, or people won't buy it. What tastes good? Fat and sugar. That's why restaurants use a lot of it. That's also why restaurant food, especially fast food, is not very good for you.

You can make small changes and have it all add up. You don't have to become a lacto ovo vegetarian tomorrow who only eats quinoa and sprouted barley sandwiches for lunch every day, but if you replace one takeout meal a day with a homemade tuna salad (spinach, tuna from a can, a squeeze of lemon and capers. Try it), you're going to see your numbers move in the right direction.



Black Friday probably won't suck at a grocery store. Nobody will be shopping for food because their fridges are too full

At Trader Joe's, look for the wraps and the Mediterranean platter with the hummous and veggies. Super healthy, and quite delicious. Trader Joe's has a great selection of brown rice sushi that is really tasty. And their salads ARE AWESOME. They have low-fat dressings that actually taste good and the veggies are fresh and plentiful. Meats are lean. Many salads come with grains like farro and quinoa. When I'm in a super hurry or forgot my lunch, a quick trip to Trader Joe's gives me a healthy lunch for around five bucks.

This process is like learning a foreign language. Farro? Quinoa? Stevia?

Harry Truman was President when I was born. I don't think those things existed then. From my point of view, this has many weird aspects to it.

I am sorry that my not wanting to cook bothers you, although I can't imagine why it should. I'm pretty sure your standards for ab exercises don't meet mine, most people's don't. But I don't give anyone shit about it and it doesn't bother me. Tolerance is a true American trait. One that seems to be going away, unfortunately. I am quite willing to let others live their lives as they please, pretty much. I have no urge to legislate morality, or force others to be like me in other respects.

Notice how politely I have not made any references about sushi? Let's just say that I'm agin it. 8)

I will check out TJ, see what I like, try something I haven't had before to see if I can find something "healthy" that I like.

Does it ever bother you that the docs keep changing their minds about what is healthy? It does me. Sort of sounds like they don't know what they are talking about. Maybe they shouldn't be so strident about what is "good". Then they wouldn't seem so foolish when they change it. Remember eggs? Or bacon? Loved the bacon one. "Bacon causes cancer". They figured that out by feeding rats a bacon extract that was the equivalent of a 150 lb person eat 75 lbs of bacon a day, or something absurd like that. Not much of a risk of that happening....

Then there are those stories that keep coming up about people who eat all the wrong stuff, drink, smoke, and live into their 90's and 100's.

I don't think this stuff is set in stone.

Remember when jogging was the key to heart health? Jim Fixx made a lot of money writing books about it and speaking about it etc. Died of a heart attack on a run. So apparently it isn't a guarantee. I like running, but my knees don't any more. I've become very fond of my Trikke. I'm pretty sure aerobic exercise is good for you, in general. I do some almost every day. But I don't think I could ever be evangelical about it like Fixx was.

Pretty much the same thing with food. I'll try to make diet changes in line with the current thinking on the subject. If it doesn't change the numbers, that could be a clue. If it does, that would be positive reinforcement and I will work harder at conforming to the diet that works.

But I am not going to get all worked up about it and take a leap of faith until I am sure I am not leaping off a cliff.

I doubt you remember when Thalidomide was "good" for pregnant women. Not so much, actually.

 

[Sonny Limatina]

This process is like learning a foreign language. Farro? Quinoa? Stevia?

Harry Truman was President when I was born. I don't think those things existed then. From my point of view, this has many weird aspects to it.

I am sorry that my not wanting to cook bothers you, although I can't imagine why it should. I'm pretty sure your standards for ab exercises don't meet mine, most people's don't. But I don't give anyone shit about it and it doesn't bother me. Tolerance is a true American trait. One that seems to be going away, unfortunately. I am quite willing to let others live their lives as they please, pretty much. I have no urge to legislate morality, or force others to be like me in other respects.

Notice how politely I have not made any references about sushi? Let's just say that I'm agin it. 8)

I will check out TJ, see what I like, try something I haven't had before to see if I can find something "healthy" that I like.

Does it ever bother you that the docs keep changing their minds about what is healthy? It does me. Sort of sounds like they don't know what they are talking about. Maybe they shouldn't be so strident about what is "good". Then they wouldn't seem so foolish when they change it. Remember eggs? Or bacon? Loved the bacon one. "Bacon causes cancer". They figured that out by feeding rats a bacon extract that was the equivalent of a 150 lb person eat 75 lbs of bacon a day, or something absurd like that. Not much of a risk of that happening....

Then there are those stories that keep coming up about people who eat all the wrong stuff, drink, smoke, and live into their 90's and 100's.

I don't think this stuff is set in stone.

Remember when jogging was the key to heart health? Jim Fixx made a lot of money writing books about it and speaking about it etc. Died of a heart attack on a run. So apparently it isn't a guarantee. I like running, but my knees don't any more. I've become very fond of my Trikke. I'm pretty sure aerobic exercise is good for you, in general. I do some almost every day. But I don't think I could ever be evangelical about it like Fixx was.

Pretty much the same thing with food. I'll try to make diet changes in line with the current thinking on the subject. If it doesn't change the numbers, that could be a clue. If it does, that would be positive reinforcement and I will work harder at conforming to the diet that works.

But I am not going to get all worked up about it and take a leap of faith until I am sure I am not leaping off a cliff.

I doubt you remember when Thalidomide was "good" for pregnant women. Not so much, actually.

I don't know what farro is, I think it's some kind of wheat thing.

Quinoa ("keen-wah") is not really a grain, people just use it that way. It's a vegetable seed. People in health food stores seem to like it. It has more protein than grains.

Stevia: a natural "sweetener" that people who don't or can't eat sugar use instead. Personally I think it tastes like rotten ass.

TJ's isn't really a health food store, they just pay attention to ingredients and manufacturing. Lots of unnatural stuff there too (in fact, mostly).

Thalidomide was a fine drug that got a bad rap.

None of the "right" ways to eat are fads. They're how we've eaten for 200,000 years. It's the wrong ways that cause us trouble.

Whole foods, lots of greens, use salt and sugar if you want it but don't go crazy with it.

No one's legislating it. Your doctor says you'd better start eating smarter. Forget the libertarian argument. It's your body. If you don't care, don't listen to him. If you do, eat simpler foods.

 

[Sinny]

This process is like learning a foreign language. Farro? Quinoa? Stevia?

Harry Truman was President when I was born. I don't think those things existed then. From my point of view, this has many weird aspects to it.

I am sorry that my not wanting to cook bothers you, although I can't imagine why it should. I'm pretty sure your standards for ab exercises don't meet mine, most people's don't. But I don't give anyone shit about it and it doesn't bother me. Tolerance is a true American trait. One that seems to be going away, unfortunately. I am quite willing to let others live their lives as they please, pretty much. I have no urge to legislate morality, or force others to be like me in other respects.

Notice how politely I have not made any references about sushi? Let's just say that I'm agin it. 8)

I will check out TJ, see what I like, try something I haven't had before to see if I can find something "healthy" that I like.

Does it ever bother you that the docs keep changing their minds about what is healthy? It does me. Sort of sounds like they don't know what they are talking about. Maybe they shouldn't be so strident about what is "good". Then they wouldn't seem so foolish when they change it. Remember eggs? Or bacon? Loved the bacon one. "Bacon causes cancer". They figured that out by feeding rats a bacon extract that was the equivalent of a 150 lb person eat 75 lbs of bacon a day, or something absurd like that. Not much of a risk of that happening....

Then there are those stories that keep coming up about people who eat all the wrong stuff, drink, smoke, and live into their 90's and 100's.

I don't think this stuff is set in stone.

Remember when jogging was the key to heart health? Jim Fixx made a lot of money writing books about it and speaking about it etc. Died of a heart attack on a run. So apparently it isn't a guarantee. I like running, but my knees don't any more. I've become very fond of my Trikke. I'm pretty sure aerobic exercise is good for you, in general. I do some almost every day. But I don't think I could ever be evangelical about it like Fixx was.

Pretty much the same thing with food. I'll try to make diet changes in line with the current thinking on the subject. If it doesn't change the numbers, that could be a clue. If it does, that would be positive reinforcement and I will work harder at conforming to the diet that works.

But I am not going to get all worked up about it and take a leap of faith until I am sure I am not leaping off a cliff.

I doubt you remember when Thalidomide was "good" for pregnant women. Not so much, actually.

Farro and quinoa are ancient grains that predate us by centuries. So even if you're an old fart, it's still older than you. They're like beans. They've been around forever, but we just don't eat them anymore because of our industrialized culture where we eat pre-fab food more than whole foods and whole grains.

And I'm bothered by anyone who doesn't want to cook. It doesn't mean it makes any sense, it's just how I am. I love cooking and growing my own food, and it just confuses the hell out of me that anyone would pick a fast-food meal at McDonald's over my very full of awesome quinoa, roasted red pepper and feta salad with the lemon vinaigrette But I get that not everyone wants to eat like that or needs to eat like that. I'm just a weirdo.

Good luck with your diet changes. Your numbers aren't really all that scary. I have family members who have 100 points on you. My family has bad genes. I have to fight the genes constantly.

 

[thør]

Harry Truman was President when I was born.

You're only a couple years older than me. And your numbers aren't that bad.

Try a few things. Add an aerobic workout with your other work at the gym. Good luck to you.