|
My co-worker eats the same lunch every day: two cup-a-soup cream of chicken sachets and a small cup of milk. Apart from that I've only seen him eat crisps and drink coke. I asked him what he eats at home: twice a week he has a pepperoni pizza from Dominoes and on the other days he has beige oven food like chicken nuggets and fries. He looks like poo poo and is frequently ill (he's been off all week), but I don't think he's actually suffering from scurvy or severe anaemia. Is there a baseline level of nutrients in his diet keeping him alive? When I ask him why he doesn't eat other stuff, he just says he isn't interested or something like "Yeah, I tried a banana once and I don't want another one".
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2015 14:58
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 05:15 |
|
|
I think what's worse is that diet sounds completely unappetizing. But yeah it can take a good while before eating habits catch up to you.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2015 15:34
|
|
|
Yeah, I find it depressing. I always look forward to eating, especially at work. Two cup-a-soups mixed up in a giant Sports Direct mug is nothing to look forward to. I guess he saves quite a lot of money.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2015 16:05
|
|
|
I think a lot of people who eat exclusively garbage just never learned to take care of themselves. I once had a roommate who spent a lot of time at home but didn't want to learn how to cook. So his diet consisted of Chinese food, pizza, and greasy hot sandwiches from a local deli with a heaping side of fries, all of which he would order in. Sometimes twice a day he'd get a pizza delivered, often with wings and fries. He'd rarely finish any of it and instead would leave it in the fridge until it got moldy or on his dresser until it dried out. One day he asked me if I'd teach him how to cook -- I think he realized how much money he was wasting on uneaten food -- and I agreed, so he went grocery shopping and came home with a 12-pack of Kraft mac and cheese and a bunch of hot dogs. He ate that for a couple weeks and then started buying those frozen meals-in-a-bag where you dump everything into a skillet with a cup of water and simmer for 10 minutes. (Those things are just as bad for you nutritionally as a supreme pizza and not a lot cheaper.) But even this no-thought cooking scheme was too much of a hassle for him to put up with long-term. Within a month he was back on a takeout-only diet. Now, you might be thinking this dude sounds like any other guy who is in college and couldn't care less about his health because he feels young and invincible. But he was actually in his mid-to-late 20s when I lived with him, and he was super concerned about his future health because his dad had started to develop crippling health problems in his 40s -- high blood pressure, diabetes, heart problems, classic Fat American syndrome. My roommate couldn't figure out that the way to avoid that is to start when you're young: eat right, exercise, get a good amount of sleep, and don't drink heavily 3-4 nights a week. It didn't matter that he always felt like poo poo, looked pale and gaunt, had chronic smoker's cough, etc. He just wasn't interested in taking care of himself.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2015 19:44
|
|
|
They generally don't in the long run. People's shitass diets invariably lead to cardiovascular health problems later in life, among many other things. These problems take years or decades to manifest so there's a fundamental disconnect between short-term reward and long-term punishment that most people can't handle.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2015 20:26
|
|
|
That isn't even close to super bad. I've lived all over Texas all my life and you'd be impressed with the abuse the human body can handle food-wise. "Handle" is subjective.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2015 21:01
|
|
|
The human body has a certain amount of built-in resistance to lovely eating and exercise habits. I think of it as everyone having a certain amount of credit limit they can draw against by not looking after themselves. People with good or lovely genetics can draw more or less against that limit, but eventually it will run out.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2015 22:24
|
|
|
Soylent Yellow posted:The human body has a certain amount of built-in resistance to lovely eating and exercise habits. I think of it as everyone having a certain amount of credit limit they can draw against by not looking after themselves. People with good or lovely genetics can draw more or less against that limit, but eventually it will run out.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2015 01:58
|
|
|
I feel like I eat healthy for an average american. I limit my takeout fast food to once or twice per week, and eat frozen meals once or twice also. Otherwise, I cook real food. You have to keep in mind the human body has evolved to survive on a lot of poo poo. It's only within the last few thousand years that we have developed standardized diets. While it was unlikely that my great great great grandpa ate any potatoes deep fried in vegetable oil, he probably did eat things that were effectively garbage as far as the human diet is concerned. I think we are probably worse off today than our ancestors mostly due to the chemicals that are put into packaged foods, which some fast foods avoid. Especially pizza from a local pizza joint, which is relatively simple to make without weird ingredients to "preserve" color or flavor. I very rarely eat mcdonalds because it has a lot of saturated fat, but lunch at taco bell is probably better for you than a lean cuisine. What's sad is that even a simple homemade soup is healthier and often tastier than most of the packaged poo poo you buy. 1) boil pasta in chicken stock, top with parmesean cheese, wilted spinach and green onions: healthier replacement for ramen. 2) cream some corn and add a bit of pasta and fresh poblano pepper: badass creamy soup two cheap rear end meals that take about 10 minutes to make and have little fat and plenty of vitamins. Both can be made in a dorm room microwave.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2015 06:00
|
|
|
For most of history most people had access to about as much day-to-day dietary variety as your coworker or less OP, it's probably a sedentary office job combined with a diet of rich, greasy meats that's loving with him more than malnutrition. If people couldn't survive breaking with the FDA's recommended daily values there'd be no people surviving. Surviving's a different thing than being happy about the whole situation obvs but he's not even on the extreme end of hosed-up eating habits that people sustain their whole lives. I've probably run into more adults that didn't know how to prepare anything more complex than scrambled eggs than otherwise and it's never cause they're going out to amazing gourmet restaurants every meal; I knew a guy whose complete dietary repertoire every single day was 6-8 eggs and some microwave mac-n-cheese. A Wizard of Goatse fucked around with this message at 06:20 on Oct 24, 2015 |
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2015 06:11
|
|
|
adorai posted:You have to keep in mind the human body has evolved to survive on a lot of poo poo. It's only within the last few thousand years that we have developed standardized diets.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2015 06:18
|
|
|
have you ever looked at what "twigs and berries" in your local biome would entail, cause way back a few hundred years ago in the neolithic there were people living where you are now almost certainly subsisting on a less varied and nutritious diet than is contained in even one Dominos pizza
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2015 06:38
|
|
|
I'm not sure how to respond to that because I'm pretty sure we agree.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2015 07:53
|
|
|
Homeostasis and survival instinct is a powerful force and unless you're ill or there are large pressures the other way if your brain notices you are seriously deficient in a nutrient it will compel you to seek it out. For example, you mentioned anaemia, when you have an iron deficiency you can contract pica (be sure to read the symptoms) where you're effectively compelled to eat literally anything until you get the iron fix. Also, if you're living a normal and fairly healthy life otherwise, if you start getting fatigued etc it's not too had to deduce what the problem is and strive to fix it. Or if you complain about the symptoms of malnutrition it's quite possible your friends would tell you it's because you eat pizza 3 meals a day you fat gently caress. on the other hand, have a daily mail article
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2015 08:00
|
|
|
We're purpose built to eat scanty amounts of garbage and survive OP. Most of the Bill Maher eat healthy be well stuff derives from advertising that supermarkets use to get people to buy the pricier things. There are exceptions (diabetes, atherosclerosis) but in general if you eat whatever every day and don't feel sick your actual biological needs are being met just fine and you aren't hurting yourself doing this. Your body needs only a few select custom made materials, everthing else it can pretty much make in house from whatever scrap you give it.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2015 08:43
|
|
|
Sheep-Goats posted:We're purpose built to eat scanty amounts of garbage and survive OP. Most of the Bill Maher eat healthy be well stuff derives from advertising that supermarkets use to get people to buy the pricier things. There are exceptions (diabetes, atherosclerosis) but in general if you eat whatever every day and don't feel sick your actual biological needs are being met just fine and you aren't hurting yourself doing this. Your body needs only a few select custom made materials, everthing else it can pretty much make in house from whatever scrap you give it. I dunno, if you're malnourished it can lead to things like chronic fatigue which you don't necessarily link to diet and counter with a ton of coffee instead. Yeah you'll survive and maybe you're not even "hurting yourself" but your quality of life will probably be less than if you ate a balanced diet.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2015 09:02
|
|
|
Crack posted:I dunno, if you're malnourished it can lead to things like chronic fatigue which you don't necessarily link to diet and counter with a ton of coffee instead. Yeah you'll survive and maybe you're not even "hurting yourself" but your quality of life will probably be less than if you ate a balanced diet. yeah there's a large space between not dead and operating at 100% where most people reside, cause optimizing your eating habits beyond basic survival is neither easy nor intuitive also while you're unlikely to develop any critical vitamin deficiencies in the first world a constant overdose of normally trace stuff like sodium or refined sugars or saturated fats will absolutely gently caress you in the long term and there's nothing your natural instincts are gonna do about it. It still takes decades to die of diabetes or hypertension A Wizard of Goatse fucked around with this message at 09:24 on Oct 24, 2015 |
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2015 09:20
|
|
|
I was active duty Navy and ate normal servings of ship food which is nutritionally sound, but I never worked out or went to the gym unless it was mandatory. I maintained a OK weight health-wise, but constantly on the bubble on the high end for military standards. Failed 2 physical fitness tests due to tape/BFA. After I was discharged I got a job that while not physically demanding, did require me to be active at a moderate rate the entire shift. I ate from a super greasy pizza place for lunch 3-4 days a week for 2 years, lots of take out, and fried food/processed crap at home. I maintained a decent weight, even lost 10-15 pounds over the 2-yr period. Then I stared running 3-5 miles a day. Still ate the pizza that you had to dab with a napkin to remove excess grease for lunch, and same home cooking Mom taught me (Southern Fried Goodness), but lost 25+ pounds in 4 months. Junk food/Take out, while not the wisest choice will maintain your health/weight if taken in moderation (one Big Mac/med fries/diet coke as a meal, not 2 super-size meals plus liter of regular Coke & ice cream pint). "Nutritionally sound" meal choice taken in moderation will maintain your weight as well. It's the amount of food intake vs. physical activity that matters. BTW, the movie "Super Size Me" is full of poo poo on several levels.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2015 10:39
|
|
|
I've basically lived off of ramen noodles, pizza rolls, coffee, and whiskey for years, and every day when I wake up I wonder how I'm not dead. The human body is an incredible machine.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2015 10:57
|
|
|
dead in real life posted:The human body is an incredible machine. gears greased with pizza, engine regulated with stimulants and depressants, the machine relieves the high pressure in the fuel tank by releasing gas into the environment, causing local ecological agitation. The machine wishes for a better controller. The controller is filled with self loathing.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2015 11:14
|
|
|
It's practically impossible to get malnutrition on a western diet, especially if he eats stuff like pizza. Pizza is nutritionally very rich. It sounds like he is just a manchild, which is not something that a banana can help with. I think the only solution here is to get him a 60's style housewife that will take care of him like a child. Maybe try a Malaysian mail order wife? They have a very good reputation.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2015 12:15
|
|
|
A Wizard of Goatse posted:yeah there's a large space between not dead and operating at 100% where most people reside, cause optimizing your eating habits beyond basic survival is neither easy nor intuitive My wife has some nerve problems. They apparently started years ago due to a prescription she was taking for an unrelated problem. A few times a month she'll wake up with excruciating arm and wrist pain. It was more like every day during her last month of pregnancy. You'd have to dead inside not to by sympathetic to her cry over not being able to hold our baby for feedings due to the carpel tunnel. ...and yet doctors have told her to eat more fruits and vegetables. As a vegetarian that shouldn't be a problem at all, right? Except she won't eat any fruit. It's a "texture thing" that she refuses to work on. She won't even eat a apple pie where the baked fruit has a completely different "texture" than fresh. Won't eat pancakes if I put blueberries in them. You can count the vegetables she will eat on your hand. No mushrooms, no eggplant, nothing remotely different than her five items. "How about we try arugula instead of/in addition to spinach?" "Ugh, it's too bitter". One of her vegetables is asparagus so over the summer when the local grocery store had a white variety (that I've never tried before) I thought surely she'd be up for. Wouldn't even try it. Instead, she eats a largely carbohydrate and dairy diet and insists she "eats healthily" because she eats cooked vegetables or a salad a few times a week. I'm can't profess to know for certain that adding more fruits and vegetables into her diet will help with the nerve pain. But given the advice from doctors, medical references, etc. it's hard for me understand not trying to expand your food palette to see if it helps. Worse case scenario, it doesn't help your maladies and you still have to seek medical attention but you eat healthier than you did.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2015 14:01
|
|
|
Crack posted:
We are trapped in the belly of this horrible machine, and the machine is bleeding to death.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2015 14:57
|
|
|
Cheesus posted:This. Cripes, what kind of person doesn't like strawberries, or cantaloupe, or freakin' grapes. Your wife is wack
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2015 19:18
|
|
|
Yeah, did she have some traumatic experience with food as a child or something? A vegetarian who won't eat 99% of fruit and vegetables... Please tell me she at least eats beans / lentils and takes vitamin pills? Honestly in this specific situation I would say stop being a vegetarian as it sounds like she is eating terribly and it's a lot easier to get valuable nutrients from meat. It's subjective but in my experience based on all the vegeterians and non vegetarians I know vegetarians are sicker (more susceptible to illness and are ill more frequently) than meat eaters. I'm sure it's possible to have a perfectly healthy and balanced vegetarian diet but it's 100x harder to do than with a meat inclusive one, and if you severely limit the vegetables you can eat you can add an exponant to that. Carbohydrate based diet is just the worst too, especially if it includes a load of simple carbohydrates.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2015 22:46
|
|
|
Not a Children posted:Cripes, what kind of person doesn't like strawberries, or cantaloupe, or freakin' grapes. Your wife is wack Or watermelon. I feel like every weirdo fruit hater makes an exception for watermelon.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2015 23:11
|
|
|
I don't get it either. I used to hate a lot of fruit because as a kid in Alaska a lot the fruit we got was tasteless. But then I came to the Lower 48 and found out holy poo poo fruit has flavor it's great give me more.
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2015 00:58
|
|
|
Cheesus posted:This. I hope she at least eat yo dick because drat son your wife a retardo
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2015 01:05
|
|
|
I grew up with a dude who ate like that, turns out he had an intense version of this going on: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supertaster
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2015 05:18
|
|
|
Personally, I like Michael Pollan's advice from In Defense of Food:quote:Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants Obsessing over the perfect diet is probably more detrimental in the long run that simply making sure you have a varied diet of less processed or non-processed foods, and that many people in Western countries get more protein than they really need. It's also perfectly reasonable if there are specific foods you don't like, as long as you're not like Cheesus's wife who only eats a handful of things. It's not THAT difficult - hell, even if you eat out every single meal, portion control goes a hell of a long way towards maintaining a healthy weight. This shouldn't be so difficult.
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2015 05:20
|
|
|
Cheesus posted:This. Your wife is weird, but she isn't really doing herself extra harm. Vegetables are generally more nutritious than fruits, apart from the carbs, which she probably gets enough of. If her problem originates from her diet, it'd only be because she's eating things in the wrong proportions. Spinach is a good vegetable.
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2015 06:19
|
|
|
Slim Jim Pickens posted:Your wife is weird, but she isn't really doing herself extra harm. Vegetables are generally more nutritious than fruits, apart from the carbs, which she probably gets enough of. If her problem originates from her diet, it'd only be because she's eating things in the wrong proportions. Spinach is a good vegetable.
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2015 06:33
|
|
|
What does a nearly all-beer diet do to ya? When I'm not working I tend to stick to a diet of mostly stout and porter with some pickles and lettuce thrown in for roughage. How much earlier will I die?
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2015 06:51
|
|
|
I'm sure you've probably already explored this, Cheesus, but have you tried juicing fruits? If she doesn't like fruit juice either, I don't think it's the 'texture' that's the problem.
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2015 07:02
|
|
|
Grand Prize Winner posted:What does a nearly all-beer diet do to ya? When I'm not working I tend to stick to a diet of mostly stout and porter with some pickles and lettuce thrown in for roughage. How much earlier will I die? it's a ton of carbs so at age 35 you'll turn into a sitcom dad, minus the inexplicably hot long-suffering wife
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2015 07:51
|
|
|
Grand Prize Winner posted:What does a nearly all-beer diet do to ya? When I'm not working I tend to stick to a diet of mostly stout and porter with some pickles and lettuce thrown in for roughage. How much earlier will I die?
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2015 15:14
|
|
|
surc posted:I grew up with a dude who ate like that, turns out he had an intense version of this going on: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supertaster How come these "supertasters" never use their godlike tasting powers to become wine critics or Michelin reviewers? Whenever someone calls themselves a supertaster it's always because they only eat french fries and chicken nuggets
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2015 16:23
|
|
|
gentle pete posted:How come these "supertasters" never use their godlike tasting powers to become wine critics or Michelin reviewers? Whenever someone calls themselves a supertaster it's always because they only eat french fries and chicken nuggets 'adult baby' makes them kick their little feet and scream until they turn purple
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2015 17:33
|
|
|
gentle pete posted:How come these "supertasters" never use their godlike tasting powers to become wine critics or Michelin reviewers? Whenever someone calls themselves a supertaster it's always because they only eat french fries and chicken nuggets Because they don't have exquisitely fine discrimination, or experience every food as a taste explosion -- most taste impressions are really smells, and their sense of smell is typically nothing out of the ordinary. The extra sensitivity is only to the five tastes that are carried on the tongue, with particular sensitivity to bitter and sour, plus 'astringency', which is the sensation you get when drinking something high in tannins. Supertasters don't tend to enjoy any of these three, which kind of puts a downer on enjoying wine and beer; also, gin and tonic, olives, capers, black coffee, and many other good things. And curries, apparently. Wine-tasting experts are generally of the opinion that being a supertaster is a disadvantage, it certainly seems to block some people from eating a balanced diet, and anything that diminishes the pleasure of eating curry is surely a minor curse at best. 'Supertaster' really needs a better name. But apparently around 25% of the population are supertasters, and 25% of the population don't live on beige pap even in nations with relatively bland cuisine. We do need vitamin C, but the actual minimum amount needed to fend off scurvy is 5-7mg per day (rather than the RDA which is usually about 10 times this) which chicken soup guy should easily get from his intake of pizza tomato sauce, crisps, and fries. The human body is very good at recycling iron and anaemia is commonest among menstruating women, who can lose more iron each month than they get from their diet. His amino acid profile can't be great, he's probably eating the least good types of fats, and his diet must be almost devoid of fibre. He's can't be a picture of nutritional health, but he's not eating badly enough to get really sick. Carnival of Shrews fucked around with this message at 23:05 on Oct 25, 2015 |
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2015 23:01
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 05:15 |
|
|
Chas McGill posted:Is there a baseline level of nutrients in his diet keeping him alive? Most food, even junk food, has enough basic nutrients to keep an average person from dipping into malnutrition territory. So it's livable, but eventually ill effects will start to catch up to him. Like other people have said, humans are adapted to eat absolutely terribly and still function at a base level. Your average first-world inhabitant has a diet that's more varied and nutritious, even if it's primarily junk food, than anyone who lived 100+ years ago except royalty (and even then, most of those dudes had gout or some other terrible loving disease caused by too much wine consumption or hereditary conditions that guaranteed an early death). And honestly, you can get away with eating terrible poo poo for years and still operate at a fairly high level. From ages 18-25 I ate nothing but pizza, canned soup, Hungryman dinners, random street food, fast food, and consumed copious amounts of booze daily, but could still run 6 miles a day and do all kinds of other active poo poo on like 5 hours of sleep. It's just as you get older that your body starts to slow down and you realize that eating poorly is generally not worth feeling like poo poo, high medical bills, etc. Keep in mind that attempting to eat super healthy or follow a diet can backfire and cause health problems too. I know plenty of vegans and vegetarians who go balls to the wall with it and end up giving themselves anemia or thyroid issues due to weight fluctuation or nutritional deficiency. The ideal is integrating healthy habits into your diet and routine so that you can eat healthy but also enjoy what you eat (which will help prevent binge eating as well).
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2015 23:20
|
|
