How do you build a diet without High Fructose Corn Syrup and Trans Fat?

[queenrobot]

It seems that everything I buy has this sh*t in it! I don't want this in my diet anymore. Any suggestions?


Thanks! 🙂

 

[dealmaster00]

Here's what I've been eating 90% of the time.

For carbs - fruit, veggies, oats, breads, pasta.

For protein - chicken breast, steak, beef, canned chicken/tuna/salmon. (When I'm not in college I'll grill 5-6lbs of chicken breast, put 4 oz. servings in plastic baggies, freeze them, and put 3-4 in the fridge every day to eat. Now that I'm in college I've been eating a lot more canned tuna/chicken breast.)

For fat - nuts, cheeses, olive oil.

Make some combination of these for meals (i.e. - chicken sandwich, cheese ravioli with salmon + olive oil, tuna salad sandwich are what I eat a lot).

I also love drinking milk.

edit: forgot about Eggs.

 

[queenrobot]

It is just kind of a bummer when you want to get "bang for your buck" but don't want to eat processed food with genetically modified foods. Should I just go with all organic and "fresh". It is so expensive. 🙁

 

[Deeko]

God no, organic food is such a waste of money.

Don't worry about it too much - there's always something in your diet that's the current "evil", give it a few months and the trend will have moved somewhere else. Just keep the overall diet in check and you'll be fine.

 

[KoolDrew]

Just keep the overall diet in check and you'll be fine.

:thumbsup:

 

[Special K]

Choose foods from this list and you should be good:

link

 

[Capt Caveman]

Originally posted by: queenrobot
It is just kind of a bummer when you want to get "bang for your buck" but don't want to eat processed food with genetically modified foods. Should I just go with all organic and "fresh". It is so expensive. 🙁

Sounds like you like to eat crap. Buy fresh food and learn to cook.

 

[queenrobot]

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman

Originally posted by: queenrobot
It is just kind of a bummer when you want to get "bang for your buck" but don't want to eat processed food with genetically modified foods. Should I just go with all organic and "fresh". It is so expensive. 🙁

Sounds like you like to eat crap. Buy fresh food and learn to cook.

I know how to cook, but even simple ingredients like some fresh breads contain high fructose corn syrup. In today's economy it is easy to fall into the trap of buying things that are less expensive. Unfortunately, that food is awful for you.

 

[chalmers]

I eat fresh/canned/frozen vegetables and lean cooked meats such as turkey and chicken breasts every day. For breakfast I eat oatmeal and whole grain bread with natural peanut butter on it, perhaps with a couple eggs. I doubt any of this has any crap in it, and it tastes fine to me. So I doubt you'd have much trouble if you just read the labels.

 

[dealmaster00]

Originally posted by: queenrobot
It is just kind of a bummer when you want to get "bang for your buck" but don't want to eat processed food with genetically modified foods. Should I just go with all organic and "fresh". It is so expensive. 🙁

Skinless chicken breast is a great "bang for your buck". It's only $2 a pound and you can make tons of dishes with it (I'm a lot less creative and usually just end up eating it with sandwiches or pasta. 😉). That's why I'd buy so much of it over the summer.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Originally posted by: queenrobot

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman

Originally posted by: queenrobot
It is just kind of a bummer when you want to get "bang for your buck" but don't want to eat processed food with genetically modified foods. Should I just go with all organic and "fresh". It is so expensive. 🙁

Sounds like you like to eat crap. Buy fresh food and learn to cook.

I know how to cook, but even simple ingredients like some fresh breads contain high fructose corn syrup. In today's economy it is easy to fall into the trap of buying things that are less expensive. Unfortunately, that food is awful for you.

Usually you can get whole grain breads that don't have it in it. It's not that hard to find, but you'll definitely pay more.

 

[NGC_604]

..

 

[chalmers]

Agreed, any 100% grain bread is fine. Don't eat that regular white bread crap...it's the 'angel food cake' of breads 🙂

 

[HannibalX]

Why do people worry more about high-fructose corn syrup than regular old sugar?

 

[queenrobot]

Originally posted by: iFX
Why do people worry more about high-fructose corn syrup than regular old sugar?

I think mainly because it is a genetically modified substance found in SO many things you eat. It is made from genetically modified corn and enzymes.

 

[Deeko]

Originally posted by: iFX
Why do people worry more about high-fructose corn syrup than regular old sugar?

As I said above - it's just the current "evil". The real reason so many people are fat/unhealthy is because they eat too much and are lazy, but it makes them feel better if they can blame those dirty food producers for using a certain ingredient. At one point it was fat, then saturated fat, and when they stopped using that, the food companies "manufactured" fake saturated fat (trans fat), so then that became evil and no one cares about saturated fat anymore. It was carbs for awhile too (in between the saturated fat and trans fat fads), it looks like HFCS is the next one.

If people would get through their heads that there is no quick fix to their diet problems, and focused on fixing the diet as a whole rather than eliminating one TERRRRRIBLE ingredient, they'd be a lot healthier.

 

[queenrobot]

Originally posted by: Deeko

Originally posted by: iFX
Why do people worry more about high-fructose corn syrup than regular old sugar?

As I said above - it's just the current "evil". The real reason so many people are fat/unhealthy is because they eat too much and are lazy, but it makes them feel better if they can blame those dirty food producers for using a certain ingredient. At one point it was fat, then saturated fat, and when they stopped using that, the food companies "manufactured" fake saturated fat (trans fat), so then that became evil and no one cares about saturated fat anymore. It was carbs for awhile too (in between the saturated fat and trans fat fads), it looks like HFCS is the next one.

If people would get through their heads that there is no quick fix to their diet problems, and focused on fixing the diet as a whole rather than eliminating one TERRRRRIBLE ingredient, they'd be a lot healthier.

I agree that there will always be an "evil" out there. This thread was more about eating healthy then trying to lose a bunch of weight. I am just wanting to know if anyone else had made an effort to eliminate these things from their diet as well.

 

[scootermaster]

Another reason people hate the aforementioned two things:

They're completely useless.

Transfat is just for texture. It can -- and has; had an Oreo lately? -- be replaced by other substances that won't fucking kill you. There's no need for it.

HFCS pretty much exists because of subsidies to corn farmers and foreign trade agreements making it waaaaay cheaper than cane sugar (which, while not the greatest thing in the world for fitness, obviously won't fucking kill you).

So, yes Deeko, these two things, specifically, ARE in fact evil, if for no other reason than there is no reason for either to exist. It's one thing to eat something "bad" for you, like sugar, or saturated fat, or whatever, but it's entirely another to eat something genetically engineered to kill you just so some corporation can save money.

 

[Deeko]

Trans fats were added to replace saturated fats when they became "evil". That's the point. They replace one thing when some nutritionist decides it's going to "fucking kill you", with another that either does the same thing, or something just as "bad". Are you implying that if you replace tons of HFCS in your diet with tons of cane sugar, that you're going to be healthy? I think not.

Until people decide they're just going to eat healthy all around, there's always one thing or another in their diet that's supposedly going to "fucking kill them". The question is, which one is the flavor of the month? I mean, good lord, a few years ago feeding your child a slice of white bread made you the worst parent on the planet. Don't you understand how this works? Of course food companies exist to make money. Don't act like they're the bane of the Earth because Johnny McFatto can't controls his urges for sweets, and they're doing their job by providing what the public wants at a price the public wants to pay.

It's this magical little thing called "personal responsibility". Good for queenrobot for showing some, bad for everyone else that wants to cry about the evil food corporations.

 

[scootermaster]

Originally posted by: Deeko
Trans fats were added to replace saturated fats when they became "evil". That's the point. They replace one thing when some nutritionist decides it's going to "fucking kill you", with another that either does the same thing, or something just as "bad". Are you implying that if you replace tons of HFCS in your diet with tons of cane sugar, that you're going to be healthy? I think not.

Until people decide they're just going to eat healthy all around, there's always one thing or another in their diet that's supposedly going to "fucking kill them". The question is, which one is the flavor of the month? I mean, good lord, a few years ago feeding your child a slice of white bread made you the worst parent on the planet. Don't you understand how this works? Of course food companies exist to make money. Don't act like they're the bane of the Earth because Johnny McFatto can't controls his urges for sweets, and they're doing their job by providing what the public wants at a price the public wants to pay.

It's this magical little thing called "personal responsibility". Good for queenrobot for showing some, bad for everyone else that wants to cry about the evil food corporations.

I don't know if you've read up on Transfats, but their horrible.

You're missing the point (SHOCKER!), dude.

I'm not saying that if you cut out HFCS and Transfat you can mainline bacon grease and be cool. I'm just saying it's one thing to have a bad diet, or eat food that's "bad" for you, it's entirely another to eat something that despite being completely unnatural and having no nutritional value whatsoever, was put in your food for nefarious reasons.

Doesn't that make any sense? Like, if you want to have a hamburger, and you're willing to deal with what "having a hamburger" means (fat content, calories, etc) wouldn't it be nice to JUST deal with those issues, and not other issues created in some lab? I mean, is that so hard to understand?

So, yes, it's a great soundbite to make fun of nutritional "conspiracy" theorists, and then we can quote George Carlin and talk about how "germs" are making us all pussies, and then we can all vote Libertarian and jerk each other off in a wonderful frenzy of aint-we-fuckin'-awesomer-than-the-sheep-ness.

But that doesn't change the fact that transfat and HFCS are fucking evil, man.

 

[Deeko]

No, I think you're missing the point, and pretty much being an asshole about it for no reason, too.

Some nutritionist decided that saturated fats were terrible. So food companies either removed them or cut down on them, so they could advertise LOOK NO SATURATED FAT! But the public didn't like this new food - it lacked the texture that saturated fat provided. So some scientist found a way to alter unsaturated fats to provide that texture - what we now call trans fats - and everyone rejoiced! Their food was good again, and the label still was low on saturated fat. Then, uh oh! People realized that this replacement wasn't good for them either, in fact maybe it's worse! Thus, the cycle continues. You can't have your cake and eat it to.

As far as HFCS goes, both HFCS and cane sugar have similar adverse health affects. So HFCS is cheaper....last time I checked, most people like paying less money for things, which is why it became popular. Again....understand how business works before complaining about how "evil" they are. The food companies give people what they want. Maybe the average idiot should understand what's unhealthy and not eat those things. It's really, really simple.