We might need to define “unhealthy” here. Mine is going to be different from other people’s.
Regarding food, I believe the pop definition of “unhealthy” is wrong. As far as I can tell, after having worked in the food industry on the regulatory side, and after having tried to understand nutrition from a truly scientific standpoint, the biggest goof people make is portion size, and, less commonly, having too “small” a pool of foods they’ll eat so certain vitamins/minerals are lacking. The rest of it with added sugars or fat or this or that ingredient being “bad” is smoke and mirrors. Portion size is really, really, really fucking important.
You can be healthy eating just about anything (even McDonald’s) as long as the portions are appropriate for your size and amount of exercise, and so long as your diet is varied enough overall to bring in enough vitamins and minerals. So, eating 3 super-sized meals at McDonald’s might screw you up because the calories are too much for your level of activity, but if you scale it back to 1 a day and keep the meal size “small”, or even eat a happy meal as an adult, you’ll be ok.
Regarding vitamins and minerals…in the modern day, people tend to be deficient in vitamin D because they don’t get enough sun, so that sometimes needs to be supplemented. And individuals will sometimes be deficient in iron or vitamin C. I supplement with C because I tend not to eat many foods with it, and D because I’m a vampire-like nerd that stays away from the sun.
Anyway. To get back to the question, I basically eat what I want, without regard for whether pop culture thinks it’s bad or not, but I pay attention to portion size and I do not snack. I’ve sometimes fallen into keto behaviors or one-meal-a-day but I don’t follow either with any dedication, my natural patterns just fall close to those.
Do I sometimes buy and eat things that are unhealthy for me? Well, by MY standards…not really. I understand nutrition, and I understand portion sizes, and it’s not all that hard for me to eat appropriately for my size without worrying about whatever the latest health food fads are blabbing on about. And because I understand what I’m doing, and I have control of it, I don’t feel guilt.
Man I was going to agree with you until you brought up that you can be healthy eating McDonalds as long as you can control the portions. Eating hyper processed food WILL lead to worse health outcomes, just filter out industry sponsored studies and look at the results.
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I occasionally will get fast food. I gave it up for the most part like 2 years ago, but I still get it like once every 3 months or so. It’s usually because I’m stressed out or depressed. It never tastes as good as I think it will, and I always feel kind of sick afterwards.
Nutella breakfast. I just love it so much. Also a lot of sitting because of PC gaming.
Upvoted this comment while eating Nutella for breakfast lol
I never buy food that is unhealthy for me… but part of how I measure health is mental health. Something that’s modestly unhealthy for my body but enjoyable (like sweetened chocolate) is, on the balance, healthy for me as long as it’s in moderation.
Yup. Healthy is such a funny term. Kings Hawaiian rolls certainly aren’t a super nutritional food, but the dopamine hit I got from enjoying 3 last night brought me back after managing my partner’s mental breakdown, and also helped me fall immediately to sleep. Which is less healthy for me: chronic poor sleep and stress or 3 sweet delicious pieces of bread?
I make occasional efforts to be healthy and proceed congratulate myself about it.
Oh yeah. Most of the time it’s just because I’m buying something I don’t actually need and I feel like I’ve given into consumerism.
Buying vaping stuff was a big money pit especially around the quarantine
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I’ve kindof been on a journey of doing less and less stuff that is bad for me since I was about 20.
The only recreational drug I do is chamomile. No alcohol. Not even caffeine. No fast food. Nothing with added sugar. Very rarely anything with any significant mount of natural sugar. My rule of thumb is nothing sweeter than a tomato or red bell pepper.
(Full disclosure, sugar gives me really bad acute symptoms. So that helps the motivation.)
I maintain a weight not terribly far from my ideal weight most of the time. It’s getting close to the holiday season now (Thanksgiving is basically Halmark brand hedonism in the U.S.) and I’m loosening my restrictions a little bit and indulging in things that are a little more caloric. I bought some almond butter the other day. That’s very caloric to the point that I don’t usually eat it, but I’ll go slow on it and cut it back out around January 2nd.
Lest you think I’m some kind of saint, I’m a lot better at not doing things that are bad for me than at doing things that are good for me. I don’t maintain a regular fitness routine, for instance, which is very far from optimal.
Edit: Oh. One amendment. About twice a year, I’ll do grocery store sushi. (Usually a rainbow roll.) And I think it’s fair to say those have some added sugar. And when I eat at restaurants, I mostly avoid places that don’t have things on my diet and then always get the thing on the menu that’s most in line with my diet, but I’m usually not strict about checking the ingredients for things like added sugar. Whatever the case, none of the things mentioned in this amendment ever cause me any noticeable guilt.
No alcohol. Not even caffeine. No fast food. Nothing with added sugar. Very rarely anything with any significant mount of natural sugar. My rule of thumb is nothing sweeter than a tomato or red bell pepper.
(Full disclosure, sugar gives me really bad acute symptoms. So that helps the motivation.)
SAME! It’s taken me decades to finally stop craving sugar but the last 10 years definitely I noticed every time I ate sugar,
within 30 minutes I’d get symptoms like a cold with a runny nose and severe aches and pains in all my joints and muscles, and severe depression and brain fog. I’m serious these symptoms set in within 30 minutes of eating this stuff, because I was feeling perfectly fine before I ate it. The correlation was undeniable. It’s the sugar.
The last time it happened to me I simply ate a bowl of fruit.
Same all around with anything bread products. So I can’t eat sugar, bread, not even eat fruit anymore!
Weirdly, the symptoms I get from sugar consumption are incredibly painful abdominal cramps and lower-GI issues. And the last things I’ve eaten to trigger those were granny smith apples and bing cherries.
Regarding grains (including wheat), I gave those up when I was about 20, about the same time I quit sugar. All my symptoms went away when I quit both of those and honestly I’ve never tried enough wheat/grains since to see if it even bothers me. But then again, I don’t really feel like reintroducing wheat would enrich my life to speak of, so I haven’t ever really felt motivated to even test if grains give me symptoms. I just don’t eat it.
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Ah! You had to mention those delicious grocery store sushi rolls. Those are one of my weaknesses too. And I do them more than twice a year! Okay I just went out and got one haha
Instructions unclear: buying more beer! There’s years of jeers and cheers and no need for fears or leers or what have you
Your rhyming words 😆 I shit you not, I was literally just watching a Dr Seuss documentary before I came back here & read your comment 😆
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I keep lengthy shopping lists and that lets me keep a handle on what I buy and therefore what I eat. So I’ve cut right down on UPF, added sugar and snacks. That does make it a bit tricky for guests as I now just buy what I eat. When my uncle stayed last Christmas I said, if he wanted anything other than porridge for breakfast, he’d have to bring it. Lo and behold on Boxing Day, “what’s for breakfast?” “Surely you have some bread…” “No biscuits to go with my tea?”. 🤷
Behaving in a way that is ethical and preserves good health is completely alienating in our sick and cruel society.
I also plan to help reduce food waste and recycle packaging. So I usually know roughly what I’m going to eat in the next week or two and buy what I need accordingly. I also make sure I have plenty of frozen fruit and veg, as well as tins of pulse and tomatoes. Plus plenty of herbs and spices. It’s really helped cut down on what gets thrown away.
Canned pulses are convenient but you can’t beat dry for price and quality! Obviously much less packaging and other waste, also
Unfortunately, yes. My relationship with food in particular has always been kind of messy since I was a kid, especially when I’m going through an especially difficult time mental health-wise. But I try to be mindful of that, and eat healthily for the most part.
If I feel like I’ve overeaten that day/the past few days, I can definitely feel pretty guilty. But IMO, most things are fine in moderation. Food is a crucial and wonderful part of life, and I’m uninterested in completely cutting out something I genuinely enjoy.
Candy! I’m an adult male in my 30+ and i always try to have some lollipops or candy in my desk even had go to dentist after some months of abuse.
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I vape, so, yeah. It stopped me from smoking, and I’m spending less per month on juice and cartridges than I did on smokes. I don’t smell like an ashtray from 8:00 to 20:00 either. But it’s still something I kinda sorta would like not to spend money on.
I took it up after I developed GAD, and despite doing the rounds on meds and picking up healthy habits, I still can’t shake GAD. Probably won’t be able to kick my habit until that’s over and done with
Don’t really mind the adverse health effects. The city I live in is probably doing numbers on my lungs just with car smoke alone.
I just try to remind myself that I don’t have money to spend on the unhealthy stuff. Doesn’t work all the time
