instead of creating a single pill that would give you all your food for the day

[Cristatus]

Wouldn't it be better if you could just eat a certain portion of food.

For example, some cereals advertise themselves as having most of the vitamins need for the day.

In front of me, i have a Kellogg's Coco Pops box, and the %RDA (Recommended Daily Average) is as follows:

VITAMINS:
THIAMIN(B1): 85%
RIBOFLAVIN: 85%
NIACIN: 85%
VITAMIN B6: 85%
FOLIC ACID: 85%
VITAMIN B12: 85%

MINERALS:
CALCIUM: 55%
IRON: 55%

These values are for 100 grams of the cereal on it's own.
The cereals also provide 1624 kj, and 383 kcal, from 100 grams of only cereal.

Wouldn't it be much cooler though, if you could satisfy all your needs with something natural? For example, dates have enough iron to last you a day. If you had one date per day, then your iron level should be alright. There are some other fruits and vegetables that are just as helpful (half a lemon gives you all the Vitamin C needed for the day). Now if you made a dish out of everything that you need during the day, and split those so that you got the most energy during breakfast, and the least during dinner, wouldn't this be good for your body?

 

[302efi]

I've thought about that myself...

 

[sao123]

Heres what the part of your list might look like

2 Bowls of dried wheat plants for Dietary Fiber
2 Pennies, 1 Nickel, 1 Dime, & 1 Quarter for Copper, Nickel, Chromium, Silver & Zinc
1 Tsp shavings from Iron Bar & Soup Can for Iron & Tin
1 Cup of Mountain Stalagmite for Calcium & Magnesium & Phosphorous



Why not just eat 1 bowl of total...

 

[Cristatus]

at sao123. i'm serious about this, why would you want to have Pennies, Nickels, Dimes and Quarters etc, when you can find them in real food?

 

[Gibsons]

Most nutritionists will tell you it's better to get your vitamins and minerals from foods rather than pills. And by food, I don't mean Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs (tm Calvin & Hobbes ).

Not sure what (or whose) point of view you're arguing against.

 

[jagec]

There was a study about this a while back, I believe...

they fed one rat a "perfectly balanced" meal, with all the vitamins, minerals, and other necessities that science knows about.

they fed another rat normal rat food (grains, fruits, whatever it is....).

The rat with the "natural" feed was much more healthy. Cereals, dietary supplements, etc. are certainly not as good for you as going to the source.

 

[klaviernista]

wouldn;t you still have to eat enough real food to provide sufficient calories to provide energy for your bodily functions? Seems like you are saying eat just enough to meet your vitamin requirements, but you still need othjer stuff to convert into actual ATP. Seems like your saying eat 1 date, half a lemon, and whatever other portion of food that would give you your RDA of some vitqamin and exclude evertyihg else

 

[Cristatus]

klaviernista: you could easily take calories in the form of a power bar, or a protein shake.

jagec: can you find the article? i think it seems perfectly natural that that would happen, but i wanna know why it did really happen

Gibsons: that's what i was trying to get to anyways. why would you want to take pills when you can get something like that naturally.

 

[sao123]

Ok more seriously on to the topic....

klaviernista: you could easily take calories in the form of a power bar, or a protein shake.

Werent you just arguing against Pills and Dietary Suppliments? Definately NOT all natural.


If you were to eat pure natural foods....Lets eliminate all processed foods.

Ok, You'd have meat & Eggs. Hunt, kill, skin, cook.

You'd have your fruits, nuts, and vegetables, & untreated dairy products. The problem with this is most of the all natural foods you eat today, have been have been genetically modified or treated with chemicals to add nutrition(fortification) or added shelf life(preservatives). So the all natural ones are not even close to what you eat today.

Just a few examples:
Most of the nutrients in milk & OJ are added during the processing. (fortified with Vitamin D3 or calcium.)
Banannas were genetically modified to not grow seeds, thus leaving more simple sugars to store in the fruit instead of what went into seed formation.
Most full farmed vegetables are grown in industrial strength synthetic fertilizer. Not your everyday run of the mill compost.
Your tap water, is fortified with flourine and other minerals for your health.
Heck, even Kentucky Fried Chicken even admits to using genetically engineered chickens. (BTW... a lawsuit now prevents them from calling it "chicken")


You would be completely lacking in complex cerials & breads...as youd only have untreated wheat flour & bran. You'd have bread & cerial, but not what you think of bread today.


All natural just isnt all its cracked up to be.

 

[Gibsons]

Heck, even Kentucky Fried Chicken even admits to using genetically engineered chickens. (BTW... a lawsuit now prevents them from calling it "chicken")

Urban legend.

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/food/kfc.htm

To venture off topic... Chicken genetics are pretty interesting though. For various reasons, chickens (and I suppose all birds) have a pretty well-studied immune system, they're the reason B-cells are call B-cells. Apparently, most (many?) chickens you get to eat are the hybrid progeny of two highly inbred (if not clonal) strains. The strains are proprietary, so the immunologists/virologists working on chickens have met with frustration with variability in genetic backgrounds; they can't get the original strains or a consistent hybrid. (All this told to me over drinks a few years back, so please don't flame me if I'm off base here. )

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: sao123

Banannas were genetically modified to not grow seeds, thus leaving more simple sugars to store in the fruit instead of what went into seed formation.

lol, no...natural mutations. You can also do it through crossbreeding.

But believe me, people were eating seedless bananas long before we could tweak a gene.

 

[Cristatus]

you could easily take calories in the form of a power bar, or a protein shake.

my bad. hows about resorting to something high in proteins? like eggs?

also, it doesn't matter if the food maybe slightly or completely GM'd, but at least you are putting something in your stomach that fills you up. (i think i just contradicted my self again). anyways, the point is, not eating pills, not about not eating GM'd food.

 

[imported_kouch]

as a medical student I thought I would chime in:

as long as you eat a normal diet (not just cheetos and pepsi) then you shouldn't be worried about any sort of deficiencies. You body is normally very good at making pretty much every kind of biochemical except a few essential aminoacids, vitamins and some metals. As far as metals like Iron etc, you body is almost 100% efficient at recycling them (for a man) and you don't normally have to worry about being deficient in these things as long as you dont have malaria, chemo or bleeding etc. As far as vitamins etc, requirements are so low that you can normally get plenty. My pharmacology professor says that the vitamin pills and such have pretty much no value for a normal person except the placebo effect. Quote: "they only make expensive urine." So don't believe everything you hear. Humans have been living for thousands of years without vitamin pills or a "scientific diet" and our bodies are very good at it. The excess energy (overeating) problem is much more significant as our bodies are not good at this sort of thing.

 

[Cristatus]

kouch: so then where would you get the "few essential" from? are they rare?

 

[dnuggett]

I wouldn't do it because:

1. You'd be eating the same thing every day.
2. I'm not sure I'd liek the taste of everything I'd need to eat or the combination I need to eat it it in.
3. I damn sure wouldn't like the repetition.

 

[bobsmith1492]

That's right, Kouch - a voice of reason for a change. Eat lots of food and not all the same kind and you'll be fine.

 

[Cristatus]

what about feeding your pet the same stuff everyday? (bbl later with more details)

 

[imported_Darthan]

I'm going to reply to a few people here at once.

1)sao123 it is very possible to eat food that hasn't been processed and added to. It's called organic and it's generally quite tasty. Also, there's nothing wrong with milk fortified with vitamins A&D.

2)I think the original point of this topic:

Originally posted by: logic1485
Wouldn't it be much cooler though, if you could satisfy all your needs with something natural?

is ironically hilarious. You know, once upon a time we did satisfy all our needs with something natural. Fruits, vegitables, nuts, berries, and meat from time to time (when we could get it) way back when in the hunter-gatherer days. This still describes a healthy diet today. High in fruits and vegitables, with occasional meat for protein and a fair amount of carbohydrates for energy if necessary.

3)kouch, I'm not sure where you're from but at least in the USA a "normal diet" is not healthy. I mean, McDonald's has served over 100 billion burgers to someone after all. This is not to say that vitamin pills are the solution (although vitamin supplements can be very important for vegetarians and such) but that you have to make a conscious effort to eat healthily, at least in the Western world (actually that's generally true around the world, it's just that it's only in the western world where you have to make a conscious effort not to overeat).

The main thing about eating healthily is variety, as bobsmith1492 said.

 

[Addis]

Whats even more interesting is that food gives you energy...
Think about that one

 

[NewBlackDak]

You need carbs and calories for energy. You need some fat for proper brain function. If you only eat one meal a day your metabolish would slow to a crawl. Your body would go into a hoarding mode to save every bit of energy it can, because it thinks it's about to come on hard times. Blood sugar/insulin balance is kept in a good state by a steady flow of fuel intake.

 

[dkozloski]

As soon as I encounter a natural food advocate I remember that Ewell Gibbons (famous natural food fanatic) died of ulcers. Merck & Co. had people on special diets for years before they developed symptoms of deficiency of any number of the common vitamins. The consensus was that it is very difficult to avoid getting sufficient nutrition if you eat anything.