Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with Nutrition

Book recommendation for cycling nutrition

blueplasticfish — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 17:47:33 -0800

Book recommendation for cycling nutrition: looking for something that details on and off the bike nutrition and cites studies and the physiology of what's happening when you ride/train. Something that seriously discusses supplementation, but steers clear of the hard stuff. I am an avid, but amateur, cyclist that wants something readable but not totally dumbed down.

Weight Watchers PointsPlus Fail?

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 15:45:04 -0800

WeightWatchers has ceased to work. What are my non-surgical options. I am morbidly obese. At my highest I pushed 400 lbs (5'6"). Surgery was looking to be my only option but as a last ditch effort I joined Weight Watcgers (for the sixth time) in 2009.

They were on the points system and I held to it and lost about 140lbs. In 18 months. The. The weight loss then slowed. To try and pick it up I got a personal trainer but it didn't work. There were comments made about building muscle but at least I was still losing if it was ounces per week if not pounds.

So in late 2011 when they switched from points to points plus I really hoped for a kick start. But the opposite happened--as soon as they went to points plus o started to gain weight. Tracking and working out 3 times per week I gained 20 lbs back in a year.

I will admit to frustration with that gain - maximum effort with negative results. So I quit working out and quit tracking. I quickly gained back another 30 lbs.

I had to think it was me (self blame is common for fat people) so I recommitted. For three weeks I've reuthrned to being devout. I'm following the weight watchers program, tracking every bite, staying in my points, not even using any activity points or extra points. I am eating a moderate amount of fruit, just about 3 or 4 servings fresh fruit per day. I'm having vegetables with every meal.

My workouts are not intense, mostly a power walk for 40-50 mins 2-3x per weekas its what my joints and stamina Can Endure.

But I am still gaining.

I am really feeling the WeightWatchers Pointsplus system is broken. I have talked to my leader and just gotten platitudes of "stick with it" and "keep eating power foods" but I'm losing motivation.

I'm looking for advice. I either need to somehow modify the program to work for me or find another program. I really don't want surgery but I'm back considering that option. I'm looking to MeFites for some direction.

Help me interpret my elimination(ish) diet results

Vatican Cameos — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 14:30:33 -0800

I suspect my diet is causing me chronic health problems. How can I confirm this and fix it without health insurance? Semi-elimination diet results inside - please help me interpret my observations. In essence, I inadvertantly had great results with a month on a semi-elimination diet. I recently spent a month living and working in a place with shared meals prepared by cafeteria staff. This was in a Central American country, and the food provided included a ton of rice and beans, a few veggies, plenty of meat, not a lot of spices/onions/garlic, and a fair amount of dairy and gluten. There wasn't much salt in the food, but there was a decent amount of processed wheat flour & sugar (in desserts, daily PB&J's for lunch, crackers, cookies, etc). I didn't drink as much water as I should have, but I did drink a ton of beer, tea, and coffee.

After a month on this diet, I felt better than I've ever felt before, and a number of chronic health issues that had been plaguing me had suddenly vanished. I was also doing a ton of exercise during this time, but I have mostly continued the exercise after returning home and the symptoms have all come back after about 2 weeks. My diet at home is fairly terrible and I know that there are plenty of things I can change (lots of processed/salty foods, high-fat, too many carbs, not enough vegetables).

However, I will have a lot more energy to cook and overhaul my overall diet once I have eliminated the ongoing health issues, so I want to focus on the specific health problems that improved as a first step. Those issues are:

Lower abdominal pain, painful gas, and bloating 1/2-3 hours after eating, often such that I can't stand up for ~1/2 hour during an attack.
Gross distension of the lower abdomen during attacks - makes me look super pregnant.
Skin problems: excema on sides of nose, seborrheic dermatitis, breakouts on neck/chin
Water retention / water weight, which makes me look puffy all the time. It gets worse around my period but is pretty annoying all the time. The amount of water weight seems to fluctuate fairly quickly, too - one day my clothes will fit fine, the next day they're too tight all over, and a couple of days later things will fit again. Other people have even commented on how labile my weight seems.
Low energy, sleeping a lot
Brain fog
Depression & anxiety

For the first few symptoms, I think I've been eating too much fructose/sugar and that this is the cause of the serious post-prandial pain - I'm having fructose malabsorption problems. Since returning home, I've noticed that when I consume no fructose and try to limit my daily load of fructans (from tons of onion & garlic mostly), I don't have attacks and I feel generally fine, though the water weight has definitely still stuck around.

The water weight is still a mystery to me, though. Here are my hypotheses - could anybody help me narrow this list down based on my observations? Anything I can watch for to narrow it own further? Things I haven't thought of?

Sodium-potassium balance - at home, I tend to eat very salty foods and eat very few foods that are high in potassium. I ate a lot less salt and a lot more potassium on the good diet.
Dehydration - I know that I rarely drink enough water at home, and I've heard that this can cause your body to hold on to excess water. It's entirely possible that my increased intake of coffee and beer on the diet still shifted my fluid balance toward the positive, even with its diuretic tendencies - seriously, I drank a lot of coffee and beer. Does it make sense that water consumption could be making such a big difference?
Fructose malabsorption side effect - I've read that the high concentration of solutes in the small intestine caused fructose malabsorption can cause water retention because it changes the osmotic balance. I'm not sure how this would affect my entire body at once, though - does this seem plausible?
Carb overload - I'm not sure about this, because I actually ate a fair amount of carbs there. I had two PB&J's for breakfast/lunch and plenty of rice/beans/potatoes with dinner, often followed by a bready dessert. I also had plenty of carbs in the beer (though it was a fairly light beer). I have had decent results with low-carb diets in the past, though.
Some sort of exercise effect - while I've been keeping up most of the exercise, I haven't been working myself quite as hard or as regularly as I did down there. Would it make sense that exercise would have such an immediate and drastic effect on the amount of water weight I'm carrying?

Does anyone have any insight? Which of these hypotheses seems most plausible? Cheers and thanks.

Supplements and friends

mister_kaupungister — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 14:54:07 -0800

What to do in the face of a friend's exhortations to take nutritional supplements? Hello Mefites, I need some advice in dealing with a friend’s exhortations to take nutritional supplements.

Friend X came to stay at my house this weekend. In general it has gone well. She is however, very attached to certain ideas about health, supplements and nutrition. I am not especially well informed about nutrition. I have heard that one should try to eat a balanced diet and that it may be the case due to circumstances that one is deficient in certain nutrients – in which case supplements might be a good idea, but I am not inclined to take them willy-nilly. I have heard that one can also take too much of certain things. I myself am generally healthy.
Friend X frequently recommends different nutritional products on the basis that they can help one’s mental agility and general and physical wellbeing. Although I am sceptical I have not really challenged her on these claims in the past, partly because I am not especially well-informed. I can’t really debate friend X on these issues in a very scientific way, citing specific studies etc, but I don’t want to take supplements at random for problems that I don’t even know about.
This weekend we have had two conversations about supplements. The first was on Saturday. This time I decided to express my scepticism. She told me that I should try certain supplements as they would help increase my mental agility. She told me that many people in her home country have tried them with positive results. I tried to explain that I don’t want to go just on anecdotal evidence on these matters. The matter dropped eventually.
After dinner this evening we had another debate. She told me that everyone was deficient in Omega 3 and vitamin C and that I should start taking it. (She also mentions other internet products that are for sale.) She told me to try some tonight and see if I felt better in the morning. I said no, this wasn’t a scientific test and this wouldn’t really mean anything as a test even if I did feel better. She said the science was settled already and I should just try them and see how I feel. (Friend X knows about placebo effects and controlled experiments but thinks I should just try it out anyway.) She wouldn’t let it drop and I got a bit snappy. (I did not shout but I said that I would not take any supplements just on her recommendation like that without any evidence that I have a deficiency, and wish she would just drop it.) I went away to another room. A while later she came to see me, evidently a bit hurt at my reaction. (I am usually calm.) She said she had just tried to have a reasonable debate with me. She said she didn’t think she had done anything to provoke me to be angry. I said no - I didn’t either.
Actually I find it rude to be told to take supplements like this, I wish I had said that now (although I’m not sure she would agree or understand). Also, deep down I think that friend X is very keen to believe that people are generally deficient in nutrients and have lots of potential that taking extra supplements can unlock. Ever since I have known her she has often talked passionately about the idea of personal optimization through nutrition. I don’t really think that the debate will go anywhere – it looks like neither of us will change our minds and so I would rather not discuss it at all. Deep down I know I am not especially well informed about this stuff either, so I can see that to friend X I must seem pig-headed. Some questions: Am I wrong or right in my view supplements don’t help unless you are deficient in something? What should I say when friend X starts this kind of conversation? Any experience with these sorts of issues and conversations that could be useful? Thanks.

Sequential Eating, Metabolism, and Digestion

JamesBlakeAV — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 22:41:05 -0800

I was researching sequential eating and would like some advice, here are my thoughts and questions: It seems that it takes (on average) 2-4 hours for foods or beverages to leave the stomach. I was wanting to eat/drink something specific every two hours. I have 8 hours to sleep every night, and I like to eat right before sleep as well. This leaves me with 16 hours in a wakened state. Or, 9 segments of eating/drinking. (I drink water right when I wake up) On the basis of sequential eating, what are some useful tips/advice I could keep in consideration while putting together snacks of 1-3 things? It's looking like 4 meals a day, 5 drinks a day, alternating every two hours. OR, what I would rather prefer, is eating 9 meals a day (fruit in the morning with my water), and drinking 6oz of water every hour on the dot. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I'll Grind Their Cereals-and-Grains to Make My Bread!

julthumbscrew — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 11:40:24 -0800

Quick question for the food science-y folks out there: lately, I've been pulverizing a lot of my baking ingredients in the spice grinder before using them in recipes (oat bran, wheat bran, wild rice, wheat germ, buckwheat groats, etc.). Does reducing these ingredients to a fine powder change any of their caloric/nutritional properties? Obviously, they'll be denser and more caloric cup-for-cup, and I'd imagine they'll have a higher glycemic load (not that I especially care about that). But does super-fine fiber still ACT like fiber in the body? Is super-fine buckwheat just as healthy as the un-pulverized stuff? I like the finer texture of powdered ingredients, but if I'm making them less-healthy, I'll suck it up and leave 'em whole.

another weight loss question

peachfuzz — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 09:36:58 -0800

In which I ask questions about optimizing minor weight loss (and maintaining weight loss); Very low calorie diets and exercise; Set points and starvation; Am I doin it rong? I am 5'2". Female. I have a fairly sturdy build and look/feel best around 115lbs. If I eat "normally", without thinking too much about it, my body seems to stick tenaciously to about 125. What with the holidays and some winter cocooning, I weigh 130 right now. I tend to eat very clean, mostly lean protein and colorful vegetables, with the occasional but not frequent meal that includes grain, legumes, or dairy. Paleo-ish, I guess. I mostly cook for myself.

I absolutely cannot lose weight without cutting to 800 calories a day. This is well below the "OMG NEVER GO BELOW" threshold, usually 1200, that people talk about. Is this a problem? At 800 calories a day, I see steady, slow loss right around two pounds a week, so that seems right. But am I hurting myself in the long run? I don't understand the science of metabolism and weight loss; it seems like it changes all the time. Can you explain to me why my caloric needs seem to be so low, and if it's a problem? If it's because my metabolism is slowed down, how do I speed it back up?

Other relevant info and questions:

800 calories is easy and sustainable for me (lots of raw vegetable-heavy salads and brothy soups, though not as much beer as I would like, sadly). Yes, I weigh everything on a scale and count everything—everything—I put in my mouth. I'm not grouchy or tired or obsessing, so I figure it's enough for my body to run on...right?

If I'm not counting, I'd estimate that I "naturally" eat about 1500 calories a day. This is what keeps me around 125. If I want to maintain at 115, obviously I'd have to eat less...right?

I sit at a desk all day but am training for a May marathon (currently running about 25 miles per week, that will go up) and do at least three 90-minute bikram yoga classes each week. So far I haven't adjusted my intake for training, since I feel strong and am not having any bad workouts. I'm worried, though, about how I do this once I reach my goal weight and don't want to lose any more—last summer, when I was training for an olympic-distance triathlon and a half, I couldn't seem to find the right balance and would eat too much, then too little. It's especially hard because the weight falls as the training ramps up and your caloric needs seem to be pulled in two opposing directions. What is a sane approach to doing this?

I know this works for me, but I still feel like I'm doing it wrong. My friends express horror and concern at the numbers. Everyone else seems to be able to lose weight on several hundred more calories and several fewer hours of exercise than I seem to need. I guess I'm slightly bitter about it, but also, does this indicate that something really is wrong that should be fixed?

End-to-end nutrition book

jarekr — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 03:17:27 -0800

I would like to finally find a routine I can follow to eat healthy during the week and I am looking for book recommendations. Unfortunately, most nutrition/cooking books are very one-sided (only contain recipes, only discuss cooking skills, or only nutrition theory) and very biased towards some radical approach (vegatarian/vegan, very low-carb, very high-protein etc.). I am looking for the opposite - ideally a single book for learning about nutrition, cooking and planning your groceries and cooking so all the good advice is actually actionable considering having a 40-hour workweek; also without going into any dietetic extremes and based on sound science and actual practice. Details inside. I would like the following info:

A) balanced and evidence-based discussion of nutrition principles (again, I am not interested in going 100% vegetarian, very low-carb, very high-protein etc., I think the current consensus along reasonable people is something like: stick to unprocessed foods, avoid simple carbs, eat a lot of vegetables, eat some fish, eat a bit of meat; I am interested in something along those lines but more in detail)

B) reasonably easy recipes for healthy dishes (I have successfully cooked quite fancy dishes but I cannot afford to spend 20 hours a week for cooking)

c) advice on mastering basic cooking skills (knife-skills, methods of preparation like stir-frying and what not, here I even don't know what I don't know)

D) practical implementation advice, for example about organizing time for cooking in your weekly routine, cooking and storing food for a couple of days in advance etc. This is what I am especially interested in, I know a bit about A, B and a really tiny bit about C already, but have trouble putting it into practice because of lack of time.

I guess books covering at least three of the above points would already be really interesting.

How to use up peanut butter?

macsigler — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 00:27:43 -0800

I have a bunch of peanut butter that I need to use up, but I'm running out of ideas. I would particularly appreciate recipe ideas that I can use in meals, though all I can ever really think of is perhaps Thai-style chicken/noodles, or PB&J sandwiches, or fruit with peanut butter dip. I know there's also stuff like peanut butter cookies and other baking goodies, but I'm trying to avoid sugar-bombing my diet too badly. Please help me with ideas!

Can I give my cat Sustagen?

mule — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 17:19:21 -0800

Can I give my cat Sustagen? My cat is at least twenty years old, and is obviously slowly getting towards the end of her life. Over the last few months she has been eating much less and has lost a lot of weight and muscle tone. Apart from this she is very happy.

Is it safe to give her a nutritional supplement like Sustagen to give her a bit of a boost?

Why am I losing gums around my teeth so rapidly if my dental health is good?

wanderingchord — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 12:22:35 -0800

Why am I losing gums around my teeth so rapidly if my dental health is good? I'm a 27 year old male. In the past four years, and the past year especially, I've lost a lot of gum tissue around the outer side of my teeth. I can actually see gaps now where none existed previously, and many of the teeth are looking a lot "longer" than they used to.

This worries me. It also confuses me, because I can't seem to pin down a reason. The obvious culprit is periodontal disease, but I've brushed regularly my entire life, and while my flossing wasn't the best, I have been doing it more regularly the past five years or so as well, along with mouthwash. And my mouth looks healthy, as far as I can see. No inflammation or bleeding (save around one canine, which I'll have checked as soon as I can afford another dental visit), everything is pretty white, bubblegum pink (the gums) and healthy. I haven't had a new cavity in years. But my gums are disappearing.

During high school I would have some minor bleeding if I fell behind in flossing, but this would go away fairly quickly once I got back into my flossing again. Now, eight years later, I don't even have enough gum around the teeth to have that issue any more.

I've been mentioning this to my dentists for the past four years with increasing worry, but I never get anything other than "Teeth look great, floss more, brush more gently, use mouthwash." Four years later, after using the softest brush I could find, flossing, and a heck of a lot of mouthwash, some of my lovely white teeth are actually starting to feel loose in their sockets from the lack of gum tissue. Obviously something else is going on here.

Is there some kind of medical or nutritional issue that could be causing this? I suspected a mild form of scurvy for a bit, but I've been pumping myself full of vitamin C for a few months now and there's no noticeably difference. The way things are going I'm afraid I'm going to start losing teeth by 35.

General principles for maintaining weight while traveling globally

infini — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 10:21:52 -0800

Help me figure out a way to eat healthily, without gaining weight, while traveling on work, across climates, geography, cuisines and hotels. Gained 7lbs/3kg in just the past 2 weeks of travel for work. I just spent 2 weeks working in Europe (Holland) and came back to Singapore today to find that I've brought some excess baggage. And I was trying to lose a few pounds!

I have a few questions on this challenge:

1. Climate variations are extreme - it was snowing in Holland and its a tropical 32 Celsius here.

2. Food is either eaten on the go, in restaurants or readymeals unless I get a chance to cook in a service apartment.

3. Cuisines are so different and the ones I'm most commonly exposed to are never listed in all the thousands of websites on calorie counting. i.e. North and South Indian, Malay, Chinese, Dutch, whatever, its not possible to follow a formal (western style) diet such as a lettuce leaf and a boiled egg type of thing.

4. I need general principles rather than diets - such as "cut out all sugar"; "don't eat cheese"; "coconut milk is out" or some such

5. What else can I do? I have never formally dieted or calorie counted but only started gaining weight in this past year.

Links to calories of non Western/American foods/brands appreciated! I don't even know if kuay teow is an artery choker or not!

Thanks!

Raw buttermilk vs. raw whole milk

lmpatte2 — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 18:13:17 -0800

Anybody know how the nutritional profile of REAL pastured buttermilk compares to that of fresh pastured whole milk? I'm talking about the stuff that's actually a byproduct of the butter making process... Not the thick, cultured stuff you would buy in a grocery store. I buy two gallons of raw cow milk every week from my local dairy farm for $10/ gallon. I'm more than happy to spend the extra money because I know the benefits of raw vs. pasteurized, but lately my farmer has been offering raw buttermilk for a fraction of the price. Since cream is more nutrient dense than whole milk, and buttermilk is derived from churned cream, it got me wondering about whether buttermilk might be nutritionally superior or at least comparable to whole milk. If so, I could definitely learn to love the taste for $1.00 a pint! Does all the good stuff in the cream end up in the butter, or is there enough fat and vitamins left in buttermilk to make it worth drinking? When I search for the nutritional content of buttermilk online, everything that comes up is referring to the cultured milk product that most people think of when they hear the word "buttermilk," which is an entirely different food.

Good resources for nutrition information

vignettist — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 10:52:45 -0800

I feel awful. Please share your resources for reasonable, safe and sane information about nutrition. First off, YANMD, I understand. I plan to work with my GP and have some bloodwork done to see if anything is off in that respect.

I have been feeling tired, run-down, low energy. I have put on about 10-15 pounds in the last year. I just don't feel like myself. I have a toddler and I am still nursing, so sleep deprivation and extra demands on my body are definitely contributing factors. But I know a lot of moms with kids that are the same age that mine is, and I just don't feel like I have bounced back the way that most of them have.

I feel that a lot of how we feel can be reasonably controlled through the way we eat. I eat reasonably well most of the time; I prepare most of my own meals from fresh ingredients, eat steamed veggies as opposed to fried or sauce-laden, etc. Most of my fluid intake throughout the day is water.

My question is, there is so much noise out there with regard to how to eat well. I feel like I have only seen either Follow This Diet! type literature, or books that are just too dense with the science behind whatever theory they are putting forward to be easily read and understood. I would like to find some reasonable, not extreme type of nutrition education (example: I recently learned from a tv program that the body can more easily absorb iron from meat if the meal contains veggies that have more vitamin C, such as peppers or tomatoes. Which leads me to wonder if some of my tiredness could be attributed to borderline low iron due to poor food combinations).

I would appreciate hearing about whatever resources you found helpful; books, textbooks, podcasts, websites, youtube videos... Thanks.

Seeking supplements for a dog that only eats human food.

dottiechang — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 14:00:18 -0800

Seeking supplements for a dog that only eats human food. My 92 year old grandfather has a prized toy poodle that is basically his child. This very spoiled pup only eats people food. Grandpa basically makes two of whatever he is eating and puts one plate on the floor. The dog never eats dog food. He doesn't like getting told what to do and attempts to educate him about dog nutrition and health fall on deaf ears.

I know this is horrible and I have tried in so many different ways to get him to stop. I even bought dog food (Natural Balance Rolls) and told him they were dog treats in an attempt to get him to feed at least some dog food to the dog. He is aware of foods that are poisonous to dogs and avoids those.

The reality is that this table feeding is not going to stop.

** My question is, are there minerals and other ingredients that the dog needs that could be given to him though a supplement? Please let me know if there are particular brands that you can suggest. **

I'd rather starve!

dynamiiiite — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 14:30:47 -0800

How can I make my healthy meals taste less, well...healthy? I need to figure out ways to eat "clean" without going insane or just resorting to not eating enough. I want to make like Staci from Nerd Fitness and go from my present 15 lbs over fighting weight to bounce-quarters-off-me fitness.

I have a GREAT trainer helping me with the lifting part, but I'm not going to get there without the fastidious attention to diet part. I know, because I've tried: lifting + eating in "moderation" = better muscle tone and slightly looser pants, then plateau; intense cardio + eating in moderation = slow road to joint injuries; intense cardio + eating barely anything = lose weight quickly and then gain it all back immediately plus 5-10%. Lifting and a strict but nourishing diet until I get to goal weight looks like the only effective route FOR ME. Complications ensue.

I am a live-to-eat person rather than an eat-to-live person, and I'm pretty picky about the quality of my food, to the extent that I occasionally end up in situations where I'd rather eat nothing at all than eat food that doesn't taste good. I'm not picky about healthy food, per se - I eat a wide variety of foods and can't think offhand of a fruit, vegetable, or common protein that I am averse to - but the ways that I enjoy preparing or eating many foods are just not conducive to an extended period of eating for fat loss, because they're either too time-intensive to sustain over several weeks or months or they've got too many extra calories. I am a decent home cook, but I feel like I just have nothing to work with to make this healthy food taste good!

What am I doing wrong? People manage to eat "clean" all the time. Are those people just less picky about eating tasty food than I am, or is there some secret treasure trove of tasty, healthy, AND time-efficient recipes out there? Please share your advice and recipes -- encouragement is also welcome! (Let's assume for the purposes of this question that "clean" means fruit, veg, meat, dairy, seafood, and whole unprocessed grains that aren't wheat.)

Insulin, sugar and the food pyramid

Leenie — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 13:36:22 -0800

Our sugar and carbohydrate consumption causes our bodies to store the glucose as fat. Why does the food pyramid tell us to eat more of that food? Keep in mind I am not a scientist/nutritionist.

I was helping my daughter with homework and noticed something. I am sure I read it when I was in school, but it did not click like it did this time…

Insulin is a hormone that regulates fat tissue. Consuming food high in sugar and carbohydrates causes an insulin release that tells your body to store the blood sugar/glucose in fat cells.

Why then does our food pyramid tell us to eat so many carbohydrates? We are to eat many servings of food types that helps make us fat. Bread, cereals, pasta, potatoes, etc., while eating less of the food that does not contain the sugars to tell our body to make us fat, primarily meat, cheese, eggs, etc.

Am I missing something here? Biology and evolution tells us one thing while the government, nutritionists, and "common knowledge" tell us something else.

(I know I simplified the information here, but I am curious...)

Why does sustained exercise sometimes make me very unwell for hours or even days?

surenoproblem — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 05:42:42 -0800

Why does sustained exercise sometimes make me very unwell for hours or even days? I lift heavy weights at the gym three times a week with no problems, I get enough sleep, I eat very healthily (but perhaps my intake is low on carbs like bread, pasta or rice). But every now and then, when I do a sustained cardio type exercise for about an hour or a little more (playing a sport, taking occasional breaks for water, etc), I start to feel fatigued before everyone else does, then I feel extremely sick to the point of having to sit down, not wanting to move. In extreme cases, I've been unwell for more than two entire days after. I thought it might have been lack of pre-exercise nutrition, but today I had a great hearty meal with plenty of protein, a little bit of carbs and some vegetables about an hour an a half before, and yet it still happened.

Is it likely to be dehydration? I was pausing to drink water, and the exercise itself wasn't very strenuous at all, but it was sustained for more than an hour. I had a Gatorade afterwards, and I felt better, but I don't know if those two have any causality; it may have just been the passing of time.

I looked at these previous threads:

Running
Runner's Low
Grumpy

but none seemed to be exactly what I'm experiencing. Any suggestions? Thank you.

Nutrition intro

devnull — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 07:10:48 -0800

I know next to nothing about nutrition. Help! I started doing more and eating less recently.

Is there a good, easy to read short book on nutrition based on scientific fact, rather than personal recommendations? Covering what foods do what, and why. Getting rid of myths and concentrating on up-to-date evidence based information?

(This eight year old question seems to be what I'm looking for: "Updated, skeptic, scientific nutrition & exercise guides?").

How healthy is my seemingly healthy soup diet?

the foreground — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 09:54:20 -0800

Just how healthy is my Chunky Campell's Vegetable soup? I've taken to eating a lot more canned soup lately, which at roughly $3/meal (or less on sale) seems like a good alternative to the expensive salad bars in my office's neighborhood. The soup is filling and the ones I choose are packed with vegetables.

Therein lies my question: just what type of trade off am I making here with regards to the health benefits of those carrots, peas, green beans etc. that I eat in my soup rather than eating them fresh?

I realize fresh is typically better and there might be other health trade-offs in the soup I'm buying, such as high levels of salt (?). Aside from that I really know next to nothing about nutrition, so just looking for some guidance.

Bonus question: If there's a way to replicate this kind of soup at home in a healthier way and at a lower or similar cost, I would love your recipes. Thanks!

I invited strep throat to dinner, but he just won't eat!

Strass — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 14:28:30 -0800

Seems likely I have strep throat. I went to the doctor and they did rapid testing but it came back negative, now they're making a culture to make sure. This will take two days, but since I have all the symptoms of strep (and lack many of tonsillitis), I'd be willing to guess I have strep throat. They haven't put me on antibiotics yet, so it looks like I'm staying sick for a while. What can I eat to keep myself healthy and happy until I know more? Right now all I can fathom eating is cold and melty, but ice cream and yogurt doesn't seem like a balanced diet. What else can I include on my shopping trips? I normally eat fairly healthy, and honestly I would rather not come out of this with that habit broken.

It's quite painful to swallow, and I really am not a huge fan of pain so I want to make this easy on myself. I would love any advice about what to eat and how to get better!

Get thee behind me, refined sugar! Come forth, fruit!

Kitteh — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 12:43:34 -0800

I know fruit is delicious and good for you. But how to make my brain believe it and eat it more? I have not a damn thing against fruit, Nature's candy. Admittedly, I am picky about what fruit I like--citrus and melons are off the table, mostly for texture and definitely not for taste--but I want/need to reach for the fruit before I reach for the refined sugar.

I am a baker; I am usually excellent about not eating what I make because I want to move it as a product instead of hoarding it all on my own (and also because I sell it). I keep lots of fruit in the house in an attractive bowl on our dining room table. It's there. I see it. It looks good....but my body and brain steers me right to the cupboard where I inevitably end up having a tablespoon of Biscoff spread or some such instead a damn apple/banana/etc.

If you're a fruit lover, how do you incorporate more fruit and less added sugar into your diet? I am vegan so please keep that in mind when showering me with your genius ideas and suggestions.

what websites/apps for tracking the nutrition of my actual diet?

5Q7 — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 09:58:35 -0800

Nutrition website/app filter: I want to track the nutritional values of what I actually eat in relation to accepted norms of good health. I've used this website: http://www.myfoodrecord.com/mainnat.html, which sorta does what I want, but I'm left feeling there's probably something better out there these days. I tend to fall into habits with my food choices, which is fine except when I end up leaving out some important vitamin/nutrient, etc., then feel the effects over time without realizing the specific cause, so I'd like to track these patterns and compare them to different, accepted definitions of a "good diet."

As I mentioned, the website I linked above kinda does this, but the food choices listed in step #1 are somewhat limited and, more importantly, the nutritional recommendations under step #3 seem more vague than they could be. There must be something better, right?

FWIW, I'm not as concerned with the calorie counting/weight loss angle, which seems to be the focus for a lot of site/apps, and I'd prefer something really simple, uncluttered, and user friendly. I've only looked at websites thus far, but I guess there would be app options as well, since I have an iPhone and MacBook Pro (previous app questions focussed on Android).

It's not easy, drinkin' greens.

Kalatraz — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 13:40:06 -0800

Seeking "green powder" type supplement to add into my usual protein shakes. Can't be too nasty tasting, like the "green powder plus" I just gave away.

Expensive Coconut Flour Going to Waste!

thelastcamel — Sun, 27 May 2012 20:33:46 -0800

I got suckered into buying coconut flour; now I'm moving in four weeks and want to use it up. What can I make with this stuff? I made some pancake recipe I found on a bodybuilder forum and it was pretty horrible. I'm trying to lose weight and I'm hitting the gym for weightlifting and cardio, and counting calories, so less desserty recipes are especially appreciated. I know there are some brainy foodies around here so help me not waste what was a neat splurge! (Primarily this has to taste good, or I won't eat it, so load me up on dessert recipes too, if that's whatcha got. I do splash out on some refined carbs every fourth day or so, keeping within my high calorie day limit).