Question About Healthy Foods

[rpgsearcherz 5]

Hey all, I'm wondering if anyone fully understands what makes foods "healthy" or not healthy. Something I noticed not too long ago is that:The way I make ham and cheese sandwiches is around 120 calories each (ham, cheese, bread, pickles, lettuce)A beef taco is around 90 caloriesA single package of Ramen noodles is almost 400 calories (380 to be exact)So are the calories the things we should be the most worried about? Because based on those statistics it's more healthy to eat 4 tacos than one package or Ramen, or 3 ham and cheese sandwiches (with all the extras I add) than a package of Ramen, and almost as healthy to eat two tacos as a ham and cheese sandwich.Something just doesn't seem right with those numbers to me.

[truefusion 3]

Anyone who assumes that calories are a major concern or the only thing to be worried about when trying to stay healthy shouldn't assume they know how to stay healthy (and may have been fed by the wrong kind of media?advertisements). Calories should only be a worry if you are overweight (obiese) and your metabolism isn't that great. It should be noted, though, that foods high in calories tend to be high in fat also, mostly saturated fat?one of the worst kinds of fats. Out of the three items you list, the sandwich would (should) be the healthiest (though i am personally against ham). I would assume the second healthiest would be the taco (since you don't really mention much about it, and so the least i can assume about it is that it is made out of beef, spices and a fried crust).Are you overweight? Do you have mediocre metabolism? Why then do you worry about calories? There are plenty of other things to be concerned about when it comes to health. What are other things to be concerned about with the foods you eat? Fat content, sugar content, vitamin content, mineral content, fiber content, et cetera. Shouldn't you be concerned about what goes into your food also? Do you look at the ingredients when eating something already prepared for you? The nutrition facts label on the side of every container provides all the information it does for a reason. Try multiplying the servings per container with the nutritions listed, in accordance to what the package defines as a "serving." Many people tend to assume that the nutrition listed is for the entire container and not per serving. This will only lead them down the road of unhealthiness a lot quicker.

[mahesh2k 0]

Well i'm in my mid-twenties and i got diagnosed with kidney stones. I've lot to sacrifice. I mean anything with excess calcium is not healthy for me. Then there is suggestion for me to take lots of water intake. Because of large water intake my weight is increased which is beyond my height-to weight ratio. One more thing happened is that i was advised not to eat too much non-veg items. After going from lots of suggestion for food and the doctor advice. I learned that there is very hard to keep balance of healthy food. So i cut down rice, noodles and anything which has lots of fats in it. This does help too some extent but then again occasional(once in 3 months) unhealthy good is what i do prefer. This is to avoid starving and to get limited calorie intake once in while. Lol. But seriously if you catch any health issue which asks you to stop eating something to avoid pains in future makes you more sad than those pains. This is the reason i'm interested in knowing my body and what healthy food i should take without catching obesity.

[rob86 2]

Some foods have a lot of calories, but aren't necessarily bad for you (Beans for example). I think Fat is another thing you should be looking at. It's the stuff they say clogs your arteries. I think some fat/oil is good, but too much is getting into unhealthy territory. Trans Fat has been being phased out of food products in Canada for years. I don't know if other countries take the Trans-fat problem seriously.You should check out some Diet software that lets you log what you eat and shows statistics of the vitamins/fat you're getting. I used to use diet software not because I wanted to lose weight, but because I wanted to experiment with healthy eating. It shows where you're being excessively unhealthy too and don't want to admit it. For example, I like ice cream. I normally eat a huge bowl of it, but really 1/2 cup is a serving. Since I was logging my eating habits for all to see, I realized I was being a pig and cut it down to 1/2 cup and it satisfied me. I also noticed the importance of eating a bowl of Cereal.. Of course, my diet logging only lasted 2 or 3 months and I went back to eating unhealthy..but I digress...

[rpgsearcherz 5]

I actually am quite overweight at the moment which is why the calories thing has been brought into importance to me (for example, the understanding is that 3500 calories = 1 pound of fat).So if it's other things than calories I should focus on, that brings in the question of fats and why they are bad.For example, let us assume a food has (theoretically) 3500 calories and 0 fat. That would equal one pound of fat (if you burned 0 of those calories).Now another food has 3500 calories of pure fat. That's really what the item with 3500 calories and no fat ends up turning into anyways.So I guess I'm still neglecting to understand the difference between fats (saturated or unsaturated) and calories, considering the statistics show that calories create fat anyways.

[truefusion 3]

For example, let us assume a food has (theoretically) 3500 calories and 0 fat. That would equal one pound of fat (if you burned 0 of those calories).Now another food has 3500 calories of pure fat. That's really what the item with 3500 calories and no fat ends up turning into anyways.

So I guess I'm still neglecting to understand the difference between fats (saturated or unsaturated) and calories, considering the statistics show that calories create fat anyways.

As far as i understand calories when it comes to nutrition, calories are just the measurement of energy that food or edible products can provide. It is not necessarily only fat, and to say that it gets converted into fat by the body isn't necessarily correct. The calories of a product could include all the protein, vitamins, minerals, fiber, fat, et cetera, of the product. These are not necessarily converted into fat, though some may be stored in fat for later use. Some of these things may not even be used for their main purposes and may be converted into energy instead. But in those cases the body could be starving and is trying to keep itself alive.

[rpgsearcherz 5]

As far as i understand calories when it comes to nutrition, calories are just the measurement of energy that food or edible products can provide. It is not necessarily only fat, and to say that it gets converted into fat by the body isn't necessarily correct. The calories of a product could include all the protein, vitamins, minerals, fiber, fat, et cetera, of the product. These are not necessarily converted into fat, though some may be stored in fat for later use. Some of these things may not even be used for their main purposes and may be converted into energy instead. But in those cases the body could be starving and is trying to keep itself alive.

Ah, I think I get where you're coming from now. It's kind of like this:

100 Calories, 50 from fat -- the 50 from fat will become fat 100% of the time. The other 50 only if it's not used by the body
100 Calories, 0 from fat -- none of it will for sure become fat, only what the body isn't using


And then if the body runs out of energy, *then* it would start converting fat to energy (meaning in that case, the 50 noted before would start converting)

[truefusion 3]

Ah, I think I get where you're coming from now. It's kind of like this:

 

100 Calories, 50 from fat -- the 50 from fat will become fat 100% of the time. The other 50 only if it's not used by the body

100 Calories, 0 from fat -- none of it will for sure become fat, only what the body isn't using

 

 

And then if the body runs out of energy, *then* it would start converting fat to energy (meaning in that case, the 50 noted before would start converting)

 

If i understood you correctly here, then i think there may be a misunderstanding. Let's start with the first example: I would modify it like so: 50 calories from the 100 calories is fat, but the other 50 can be nutrients that is anything but fat and will not necessarily become fat even if it is not used by the body?not all nutrients can be absorbed by the body, saturated fat may turned into cholesterol, protein may be converted into energy, et cetera. For the second one, i would modify it like so: some of it may be turned into fat since the body has no need for it at that time and some of it may be stored in fat for later use, to mean two different things. But i would say you have that last part correct, though the body can convert more than just fat into energy.

[rpgsearcherz 5]

If i understood you correctly here, then i think there may be a misunderstanding. Let's start with the first example: I would modify it like so: 50 calories from the 100 calories is fat, but the other 50 can be nutrients that is anything but fat and will not necessarily become fat even if it is not used by the bodynot all nutrients can be absorbed by the body, saturated fat may turned into cholesterol, protein may be converted into energy, et cetera. For the second one, i would modify it like so: some of it may be turned into fat since the body has no need for it at that time and some of it may be stored in fat for later use, to mean two different things. But i would say you have that last part correct, though the body can convert more than just fat into energy.

 

That helps a lot with the understanding of what's going on. Thanks a lot!

[Dipika 0]

Yoga classifies into three categories- Satwik, Rajhasik and Tamasik. The food u eat detrmines your health. Yoga clearly believes in having Balanced Diet. Satwik Food consists of fresh fruits, vegetables, milk and milk products which is recommended by Yoga which keeps a person active and healthy. Rajhasik food consists of red meat and fried food which makes one aggressive and easily irritated. Tamasik food consists of stale food which makes one lethargic. So we must have good healthy food and enjoy everything in limitation.

[velma 6]

Healthy foods are those that supposedly keep us healthy and fit but in reality there is no way you can determine a general class of healthy and unhealthy foods because each body type handles a particular food in a particular manner, like the mahesh is not allowed calcium even though it is considered a building block for our body. Milk, a universally considered healthy food can caused uncontrollable diarrhea in many people if they cannot digest it. Even while managing calories, you cannot self doctor yourself because in reality we aren't trained to do such things. My mother's genetics gifted me the skinny gene so come what may, I cannot seem to put on weight but that doesn't mean I can eat anything and everything that comes by me, my brother has lived on Ramen for a month(bleh!) but I cannot withstand fast food, I almost dug myself a grave the one time I had to eat fast food for a week. I would say, in order to manage your diet properly, you first need to get your body evaluated by a doctor, then make a list of foods your body can withstand and the foods it cannot.. Present this list to a nutritionist and then coupled with right exercise manage your diet.