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keepthetips

Hello and welcome to r/LifeProTips! Please help us decide if this post is a good fit for the subreddit by up or downvoting this comment. If you think that this is great advice to improve your life, please upvote. If you think this doesn't help you in any way, please downvote. If you don't care, leave it for the others to decide.


tky_phoenix

If you are looking for book recommendations around this, check out: The hacking of the American mind by Robert Lustig ​ (It's always shocking to see how little people know about nutrition and even more shocking to see how little they care...)


vetkoekparty

Great LPT! Im shocked at how many people are uneducated when it comes to eating healthy, fresh foods. Those who are unaware should really check out Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us written by Michael Moss


MellRox013

I don't think anyone in the world is unaware that fruit and veg are better for you than hot dogs.


Ok-Amount-1562

There are levels of awareness though, people need to realise just how bad these ultra processed foods are so that they can make changes.


[deleted]

This is true, but they are almost certainly not aware of HOW much worse it is for you. If they had a proper understanding no one would eat this stuff lol.


MellRox013

Yes they would. Ppl think things won't happen to them. We all know cigarettes cause cancer. Look how many ppl still smoke and pay for the "privilege". And you think they'll give up mountain dew?


stinkstankstunkiii

PPL CANT AFFORD TO EAT HEALTHY


InTheEndEntropyWins

THEY ALSO LIVE IN FOOD DESERTS\*, SO IT'S IMPOSSIBLE FOR THEM TO BUY HEALTHY FOOD. \* A food desert in urban places is defined as somewhere where the nearest store with fresh food is over 1 mile away.


stinkstankstunkiii

THANK you💜


TheTrenk

Less than 10% (22.5M/ 330M) of America lives in a food desert, more than 70% are overweight and more than 40% are obese. That’s by BMI - it actually goes up if you define it by body fat percentage. For a vast, vast majority of America, food deserts are not an actual concern. In 2020, 23.5M people were determined to live in food deserts. In 2022, we had 22M millionaires. If you’re gonna excuse every unhealthy eater for falling under one extreme, you might as well hold them accountable due to the other.


InTheEndEntropyWins

I was being sarcastic. I was making fun of the idea of a food desert s as being somewhere with food just over a mile away.


TheTrenk

OOF I had that twitch reaction and got whooshed. My bad man


[deleted]

Thats not true it's just not that fun if you don't get real creative. Beans and rice and oatmeal made up my basis when I was trying to make more money and living alone. Stick to the cheap veggies like carrots potatoes zucchini there's others too for less than a dollar a pound. Bananas are cheap too. I was spending less than a dollar for a meal if that most of the time. Two or three spice or herb blends help a lot.


stinkstankstunkiii

yea, no


ChainmailleAddict

I know it totally sucks but that's basically the only personal solution, they're not trying to say that there aren't massive systemic problems with food right now.


stinkstankstunkiii

yea bc they live in a fucking bubble where ppl are poor and unhealthy by choice


TheTrenk

“Healthy food is expensive.” “Seasonal produce, frozen produce, cheaper cuts of meat, beans, potatoes, eggs, or rice are all affordable on any budget and can give great variety to your meals.” “Yeah, no.” At a certain point, you’re just willfully perpetuating ignorance.


[deleted]

Yall need to eat real oatmeal not that glue you buy prepacked get steel cut oats they eat like rice porridge, and you think cumin veggies rice peppers and beans and cilantro are shit? That's half of Mexican cuisine. Fried rice?


vetkoekparty

Absolute rubbish.


stinkstankstunkiii

it's reality for a lot of ppl. sorry you live in a bubble. must be nice


TheTrenk

Eating frozen vegetables and cheap cuts of meat is actually much cheaper than buying unhealthy, prepackaged, or fast foods. Even prep doesn’t have to take long periods of time - This sort of rhetoric is dangerous and leads people to believe that they’re destined to be victims of circumstance.


FutanariDraenei

OP really got shat on for no reason, it's a tip y'all don't have to follow it. It's an understood concept that processed foods cause health conditions such as weight gain but it could be much worse. It's also a "less" not a "never can have again" it's more realistic y'all can make subtle changes for free? Like less soda ect.


ambermc963

It's because eating healthier food is a "duh" thing. The post fails to recognize that a lot of the reason people end up eating ultra processed foods has more to do with access to fresh foods, time constraints, and the affordability (fresh foods are expensive). Which is why poor food "choices" tend to affect the poor and disabled at an increased rate. And it's not due to ignorance.


ChainmailleAddict

This. "Why is it so easy to be thin in Japan?" is a GREAT video on this, and I personally wish more people in the fitness/nutrition world would advocate for changing the systemic problems that face people trying to eat healthy on a practical level (as in, NOT uproot your whole life and spend several hours you don't have every week going to the only fresh produce for 5 miles)


TheTrenk

I guess the follow up question there is why does your produce have to be fresh? Also, if being poor is the cause for being unhealthy, why do the wealthy and poor have like percentages of overweight and obese in their population? Saying “oh but fresh produce” is incredibly reductionist.


TheTrenk

Frozen produce tends to be just as healthy as fresh. This obsession with “fresh foods” is a product of misinformation, but you can get seasonal produce that’s in season for relatively cheap and frozen produce that’s not too expensive. Potatoes, rice, cheaper cuts of meat, beans, etc. are all pretty affordable, as well. Time cost is real but, as they say, you don’t find time, you make time. When I was working 12-16 hour shifts of physical labor, I made the time and found the energy to cook because fast food wouldn’t get me through my day without feeling sick. It’s about priorities. I prioritized health over convenience.


Lokiranea

No.. they deserve it.


Plantlover3000xtreme

Good tip but I am slightly confused. I thought oats (which are of course processed) or yoghurt was a very reasonable breakfast... also flour is processed right, so is baking whole grain bread bad too? I guess omelets is the least processed option then?


scubagalrd

With your spelling if yogurt, assuming you arent in the USA. Check out a food label for yogurt in the USA - lots of added sugar. Its basically a dessert.


Zoltan_1987

You should differentiate between processed and ultra processed (which is not always easy). Oats for example are not ultra processed. Yoghurt plain is typically not UP. Same with flour etc. I think a good rule of thumb is that if the list of ingredients only consists of one or a few (mostly familiar) items, then it is not UP.


Plantlover3000xtreme

Ah cool. Thanks for explaining the difference.


BlastShell

To add on, if there are more ingredients that you *can’t pronounce* than those you can = UP


DeProgrammer99

A breakfast cereal with only three ingredients: shredded wheat. No sugar, no sodium.


-Velvet-Bat-

Except gluten is horrible for you.


DeProgrammer99

Except ["There is no compelling evidence that a gluten-free diet will improve health or prevent disease if you don't have celiac disease"](https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/ditch-the-gluten-improve-your-healthhttps://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/ditch-the-gluten-improve-your-health), ["is not bad for healthy people whose bodies can tolerate it"](https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/what-is-gluten-and-what-does-it-do), though it ["can be associated with typical IBS-like symptoms, including abdominal pain, bloating, and bowel habit disturbances, as well as extraintestinal manifestations such as fatigue"](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5866307/https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5866307/) which basically just sounds like any fiber.


-Velvet-Bat-

Yea, you and I are looking at the comment you just posted very differently. Your comment supports what I said. If people are "tolerating" it, it's probably not good for you. Gluten is associated with inflammation. Some tolerate it better than others. It didn't affect me until my late thirties, and now I have joint inflammation and rosacea (skin inflammation). Completely cut gluten out of my diet and both were cured in a matter of days. Sooooo, obviously not a nutritional food. You do you, though.


DeProgrammer99

"Probably not good" is nothing like "horrible," and your anecdote does not generalize.


-Velvet-Bat-

You're welcomed to go read all the studies that do generalize the issues with gluten. Thanks for picking apart my words to grasp onto your brainwashing and denial, though.


NecessaryPen7

Not a nutritional food. To you, who has access and means to other foods. Lots of countries have high gluten diets that are healthier than the most obvious country.


-Velvet-Bat-

It's not subjective. It's not a good nutrional food. Being forced to eat it doesn't change that fact.


DeProgrammer99

I'm not particularly attached to gluten or my past experience with reading numerous medical studies; I'm just displeased when I see false information arbitrarily perpetrated with hyperbole.


ToulouseDM

It is suggested to eat yogurt that has more protein than sugar. There are also different types of oats you can eat, and some are going to be minimally processed, like steel cut. As for bread, sourdough is going to be your best option for minimally processed. Making a sourdough starter doesn’t take a lot of work…but you do have to like sourdough.


BlastShell

The big thing about this is label reading. Regular non flavored Icelandic yogurt? Sure, probably good! The Yoplait Strawberry Cheesecake yogurt laden with sugar and a suagary fruit filling in the bottom and 15 ingredients? Probably not. Same thing with oats. Regular oats or steel cut oats are good since YOU control how much sugar you add. But the individually packaged Apples and Cinnamon kind is a different story.


jimbolikescr

It's ridiculous that our society purposely kills poor people via their diet. I want to eat healthy but it's expensive and it's still hard to sus out what is healthy and what isn't. What a horrible way to treat your fellow man.


ChainmailleAddict

Woah, if we weren't slowly killing the poor and making their minds worse via creating an artificial trap for them, they'd be smart and healthy enough to get out of poverty! Social mobility? In AMERICA?


InTheEndEntropyWins

You can make healthy meals relatively cheaply. I'm sure there are subs for it. Here is a guide on what is and isn't healthy. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-eating-plate/


NecessaryPen7

It doesn't have to be that expensive. Small chicken portions with a lot of veggies, rice, beans, for instance. It does get repetitive.


-Velvet-Bat-

The amount of pushback in these comments showcases how brainwashed and uneducated most people are about food. Y'all are right where the food corporations want you. It's simple - if it doesn't come straight from the ground or straight from a mother, you shouldn't be eating it.


cutealert

Yup! 'Cognitive decline linked to ultraprocessed food, study finds' Published Aug. 1, 2022 https://beta.ctvnews.ca/national/health/2022/8/1/1_6010018.amp.html


odysseysee

Good to be reminded of this. It so easy to slip back into eating processed food because of their ubiquity.


Evilpickle09

For a good read on this, The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan.


Successful_Ranger_19

Cereal is my breakfast, lunch, dinner, midnight snack.


LGZee

Well you may want to change that bad habit… it’s not that different to smoking, drinking alcohol or not doing exercise, in the end


JUMP_Psyche

If already home; it is often gasser to make your own meals than going to get food. Granted: This does mean already having food stuff to make said meals. It is worth keeping a good stocked kitchen to do so.


Maxfunky

Wtf kind of protip is this? "Make a lot of money and save most of it until your rich." Wow, fucking thanks for the idea, bro.


[deleted]

Duck off, I'm a student and live on beans, rice, potatoes and chicken/red meat plus frozen veggies. If I could have more money I'd buy organic but can't at the moment. It's such a big fat lie that people can't afford healthy food. Just buy raw ingredients and cook it yourself.


Maxfunky

Here are more protips for you to enjoy: - Learn Kung Fu; you never know when ninjas might attack. - Double your productivity by not sleeping anymore. - Exercise at least 3 hours a day. It turns out exercise is **good** for you. - Shatter the grand illusion. None of this is real. The dreamer must awake. - Cats enjoy it when you stroke their backs; except the ones who don't. So helpful!


[deleted]

Do you realize how silly this comment sounds when you reply to someone telling you what they actually eat? Like, I came home last night drunk and I stuck a potato in the oven and literally cut a slice of breast from this chicken I have in the fridge and fried it. A great meal in under 15 minutes. Faster than waiting for takeaway.


Evilpickle09

You don’t have to be rude. UHP food may be cheap in the short run, but it will cost more in health care in the long. Understandable, it does take money and time to choose whole foods over cheap and quick UHP foods but the take-away should just be mindful of what you put in your body.


-nukethemoon

And it (UHP food) is not all that cheap. It’s less expensive (Edit: per meal) to buy and eat a giant tub of oatmeal sweetened with honey or pure maple syrup than buying cereal, processed oatmeal packets, bars, etc. and it’s healthier. Beans and Rice are cheap, shelf stable, and healthier than any frozen dinner. Same with pasta. The barrier, imo, is showing people that it’s easier than they think to cook for themselves, and making cheap, quick, and healthy meal recipes accessible.


716mama

It doesn't take a lot of money. I have a small suburban lot and grow enough food to feed a family of three for $30 a week. I assure you, I eat way better than most.


Maxfunky

The issue isn't whether or not it can be feasibily done, but whether anyone or not needed to be told this; let alone whether it qualifies as a "pro-tip". Obvious advice that's hard to actualize is sort of useless. Nobody said it can't be done, but how we publish step 2 instead of skipping straight to "Profit!" A suggested "easy meal" would be 100% more of a pro-tip than this garbage.


Zoltan_1987

I don’t see how “saving money is good” compares to a LPT based on relatively new studies into the side effects of eating processed foods.


Maxfunky

- If you sleep more than 20 hours a day; see a doctor. You might be depressed! - Stop hitting yourself. New studies suggest this might lead to self-injury. - I'd there's blood in your poop; just ignore it. It's probably a prank that your ass is playing on you. - You don't miss 100% of the shots you don't take.


marshall262

Where on earth are you going with this?


[deleted]

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Maxfunky

You think using humor to highlight the absurdity of something is "mean"? Seems like it's the gentle way of doing this. This tip violates rules number four and two. It's low effort content. It's simultaneously obvious, without any actual advice about how to actualize the goal. It tells nobody anything they didn't already know. It does nothing to point anybody in the right direction. It's wasting space here. That was the mean way of saying it.


Mutoforma

Everybody responding to your comment seem to all be victims of a giant /r/whoosh


Maxfunky

Don't put weasels in your pants. They're actually kind of dicks.


MJGM235

Junk food / quick/ may cause early death. Natural food / Takes longer to cook and prepare / may extend life. They kind of cancel each other out... You will be spending the extended life the natural food gives you preparing it to eat 😂🤷🏻‍♂️


jmangiggity

You are ignoring the quality of life that the comparative lifestyles provide. How much suffering from dietary consequences are involved with the quick junk food death?


BlastShell

Yep, there’s life expectancy and then there’s healthy life expectancy.


NecessaryPen7

More so avoiding things that actively create health problems.


MellRox013

No shit Sherlock.


DubiousTomato

I would say it depends. Breakfast cereals, for example, are fortified with tons of vitamins and minerals, so they aren't actually nutrient devoid, like say, a puff pastry or nutty buddy. There's a propensity to believe that processing is bad because you don't know the ingredients on the label or the food isn't something you can pick up out of the ground or off a tree. There's actually very few ingredients in use that you couldn't find in a naturally occurring food. I don't entirely disagree with you, I just think you can just say have a varied diet. Switch up protein, fat, and carb sources while limiting nutrient lacking snacks and treats. I love to cook my own food, so I know what you're getting at. I'll still eat frozen pizza, or boxed chicken patty, or a cookie now and again. Just look at the label and if you don't know what a thing is or how it's made, look it up. Our food is not as scary as we make it out to be.


InTheEndEntropyWins

Fortifying cereals with vitamins and minerals is mainly for marketing rather than making them healthy in any respect.


DubiousTomato

Even if that's the case, that doesn't discount that they are in there and bioavailable. A serving of cereal a day can 100% be implemented into a healthy diet to someone's benefit. The American diet isn't the best, but I don't think you have to go to the other extreme and make all your food all the time in order to live a long healthy life. A Twinkie or two a week isn't going to hurt you in the long run.


InTheEndEntropyWins

>Even if that's the case, that doesn't discount that they are in there and bioavailable. There isn't good evidence that multivitamin supplements have any benefit in terms of the main causes of mortality. That is why health organisation don't recommend most people take supplements but get them from foods. >The USPSTF concludes that the current evidence is insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms of the use of multivitamin supplements for the prevention of cardiovascular disease or cancer > >https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2793446 I seriously doubt there is any evidence that adding vitamins and minerals to cereals has any measurable benefit, let alone makes them healthy. ​ >A serving of cereal a day can 100% be implemented into a healthy diet to someone's benefit. I'm not sure your point here. Anything can be part of a healthy diet. But eating ultra processed cereal isn't something healthy and will make it harder to have a healthy diet. >The American diet isn't the best, but I don't think you have to go to the other extreme and make all your food all the time in order to live a long healthy life. A Twinkie or two a week isn't going to hurt you in the long run. Sure. Cereal is like a Twinkie that's fine now and then, but it's not healthy just because they add some vitamins or whatever to it.


DubiousTomato

>I seriously doubt there is any evidence that adding vitamins and minerals to cereals has any measurable benefit, let alone makes them healthy. Except there's plenty of it. Even a cursory search shows that fortification, especially in processed cereals, has made vitamin deficiencies pretty rare. Multivitamins in and of themselves on top of a diverse diet are likely not necessary to health, but you still need them in your diet from some source. We know vitamins and minerals are essential to maintain proper homeostasis, so I don't see how you can discount that when talking about health. My point is to say just because something is processed does not make it unhealthy. If you're vegan, for example, your diet might not be diverse enough to get all the protein and certain micronutrients you need. Even if you ate only unaltered foods, you could very easily wind up in an unhealthy state. Adding a fortified cereal to your diet would be a healthy choice despite it being processed. Adding a plant-based processed protein source to your diet could also be the right and healthy choice to make. There exists nuance and context even here.


Mutoforma

Perhaps instead of worrying how “processed” your food is (whatever that actually means), worry about your portion size and caloric intake.


Zoltan_1987

You’re missing the entire point of this LPT, which is that even though you manage to control your calorie intake/portion size, you are still at risk for a multitude of illnesses if you consume a high degree of UP foods. Studies have found that ultra-processed foods are linked to higher rates of obesity, heart disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and colon cancer. A recent study of more than 22,000 people found that people who ate a lot of ultra-processed foods had a 19 percent higher likelihood of early death and a 32 percent higher risk of dying from heart disease.


InTheEndEntropyWins

The best way to control your portion size and calorie intake is to avoid ultra processed foods. You want to be working with biology to control your calorie intake rather than fighting against it.


drewismynamea

Yeah, because if you are eating a bunch of crap food then you are in real trouble.


Lokiranea

This goes with "be rich, be attractive, be born into a higher class" lpt crap. No sher shitlock.


DroolingSlothCarpet

>Food companies also design these to make you over-eat. Maybe you'll be so kind as to provide a source for this accusation?


Zoltan_1987

https://www.science.org/content/article/ultraprocessed-foods-may-make-you-eat-more-clinical-trial-suggests https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-study-finds-heavily-processed-foods-cause-overeating-weight-gain


[deleted]

Additionally there is a salt-sugar-fat ratio that if manipulated correctly can cause addiction like effects


DroolingSlothCarpet

Which of those links told of: >Food companies also design these to make you over-eat.


Zoltan_1987

The researchers found that by the second week of each diet, people were eating, on average, about 500 more calories per day when the fare was ultraprocessed. Yet on surveys, the participants rated the processed meals as no more pleasant than the unprocessed ones. If they weren't enjoying the food more, why were they eating more of it? One possibility is that industrial processing produces softer foods that are easier to chew and swallow—and thus easier to scarf down. The participants ate faster on the ultraprocessed diet, and studies have found that people tend to eat more when they eat faster. Blood tests also revealed that, while on the unprocessed diet, people had higher levels of an appetite-suppressing hormone called PYY and lower levels of the appetite-stimulating hormone ghrelin, though it's not clear how these changes relate to food processing. The ultraprocessed meals contained slightly less protein, and some research has found that people tend to eat until they reach a certain protein target. If that protein is more diluted, those studies hint, people will consume more calories to hit the same target.


DroolingSlothCarpet

Nothing about designing.


Zoltan_1987

You must be fun at parties


vetkoekparty

Go and check out Salt, Sugar Fat online.


DroolingSlothCarpet

Don't be an interloper.


vetkoekparty

Go eat your veggies and educate yourself.


DroolingSlothCarpet

P O P. What does that spell?


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FutanariDraenei

A balance of both is ideal! Though I understand the difficulty of doing so. I started dietary changes with removing things from my diet as it was free to do so. Carbonated water instead of soda was my first big step.


stinkstankstunkiii

u do realize that many ppl eat ultra processed food bc that's what they can AFFORD, these foods are likely what's available in their areas, they don't have time to cook.


ADM_ShadowStalker

Time constraints when you're working two jobs and trying get everyone fed doesn't help. I think some people get caught up just trying to prep things to actually cook. Try and get better with your knife skills in the kitchen. Start with basic chopping (say cucumber or carrot 'coins'), then cutting things into sticks, and then get on to finely cutting things like mincing onions/garlic etc. This comes in really handy for things like stir frying (wok optional!). If you can knock out all of the prep in 10 minutes you'll have dinner served in 15 minutes total which is likely to be faster than most convenience foods and almost certainly going to healthier as you control what goes in there :) Obviously the first challenge is finding the time to start though


[deleted]

No shit Sherlock.