Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Logic - What a Concept

Reading snippets of news on Yahoo is part of my morning routine. Some of my favorites are the weight loss and healthy eating articles. Most of the time, it's just not news. It's logical. Our society has so completely confused the average person with regards to what to eat or not eat, what to do for exercise, what's good, bad, and in between, that if you asked 100 people how to lose weight - you would get such varying responses it would make your head spin.

I happened first upon this article, discussing the amounts of sugar in popular foods. And although I'm not shocked by the fact that processed foods and restaurant foods are filled with sugar and calories, I AM shocked at just how much more than in a home-made baked good. I can bake cookies and muffins at home, and they're delicious. And they don't contain even half the fat, calories, and sugar that those purchased at a chain bakery would be. How is that possible? I don't skimp, I use butter and sugar. But my recipe has a shelf life, first off. And secondly, I don't use the cheapest of the cheap ingredients. Sure, white sugar isn't the healthiest thing you can ingest - but it's a lot, a LOT, A LOT better than high fructose corn syrup. Label reading is becoming a huge past time of mine, and I've decided that the only treats and desserts we'll have in our home are the ones I make myself, period. I can make it better, tastier, and healthier at home, and since it takes time to bake a cookie - I guess we'll have to REALLY want it to be able to eat it. No convenience packaged cookies, easy to swipe and stuff. And I guess the thing is - isn't it logical that those additives are what's causing our health and weight problems in this country?

The second article I read was this one, which talks about fat calories versus carb calories. What they're basically saying here, in regards to weight loss, is a calorie is a calorie is a calorie. Period. You cut back the number of calories you eat - you lose weight. Doesn't matter how you're choosing to cut back, you will lose. BUT - the real question is whether you're going to keep the weight off. And the answer, resoundingly and logically, is NO. If you "diet" by the current sense of the word (in other words, you follow a plan that cuts back on one thing, or you follow some wacked out eating plan that makes no nutritional sense, or use pills, or crash cut your calorie intake) you will lose, at first. But then you will find that you gain back. Because you cannot expect to lose eating one way, and keep it off eating normally. So low-fat, and low-carb, and the grapefruit diet, and any of those weird and strange food-combination or ultra-low-cal diets have one thing in common. It is this - rare is the person who can eat like that the rest of their life. And once a person stops eating the way the diet says to eat, the pounds will come back. And often, the pounds you lost will bring friends with them.

The bottom line? LOGIC. Except somehow, we have to retrain ourselves to think about food rationally and logically. Basically, eat food. Don't eat too much. If you have pizza, have pizza - but 2 slices, instead of 4. Incorporate fresh, unprocessed foods as much as possible, both for the benefit of filling you up with less calories, but also for the healthful side effects. Eat to be healthy, not to lose weight. Eat to be balanced and have energy. Food is fuel. You deserve premium.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ha ha...I was just looking for some chocolate (my nemeiss) and couldn't find any. the only thing I have it mixes to make and I don't want to take the time to make those...that saved me calories just not having the snacks in the house!

 
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