Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with food and nutrition

Why do I always get so hungry late at night?

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:32:35 -0800

Why do I always get so hungry late at night? I tend to go to bed around 12:30-1 am, though it usually takes me a long time to fall asleep. I always get hungry around 11-12, and if I stay up later than usual I get especially hungry. I usually eat something, but even then I don't feel full. I've been this way for several years, if not forever; I don't remember ever not being like this.

Maybe-relevant info: I'm 23 and male. I don't have any relevant health problems except a tendency to fall asleep late and wake up late (for which I take melatonin). I eat pretty nutritiously, mostly vegetarian. (I may lack some protein, but I try to get it from legumes; I might also lack some kind of vitamin, but I'd have no idea how to tell). I don't exercise much, though I think I had the same problem back when I did exercise more. I tend to consume a lot of caffeine, mostly tea (which I usually avoid drinking after 8 pm unless it's decaf).

Does this happen to anyone else? It seems like everyone else I know eats dinner somewhere between 6 and 8 and then doesn't eat anything after that until falling asleep, so it seems pretty weird! It's supposedly unhealthy to eat late at night, so is there anything I can do about it?

Anonymous just because I included a lot of identifying information.

Can I fuel my human body off just SPIZ (nutrition drink), water, and the occasional "recreational" meal?

mikee — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:26:56 -0800

Has anyone ever attempted or documented using a "nutritionally complete" drink such as SPIZ that has all your daily values over a long period of time? I've read some other threads here, but not finding much. It is nearly impossible to Google anything diet related these days, too much spam and nutjobs. My goal here is to think of food merely as fuel, and just scrap the whole eating what I crave thing.

Going to talk to my family MD and ask for a referral to a nutritionist, too. But before I do, and because I know I'll be met with some criticism to my desires, I wanted to get some more info.

Where is the food pill already?!?

need more fewd

WeekendJen — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:05:18 -0800

Help me eat better / more often... I have problems with anxiety (diagnosed) and adult ADD (not diagnosed officially - yet) and sometimes this causes me to not eat.

I do not have a classical eating disorder, I love to eat and savor all kinds of food.

My problem is that sometimes (err...often) I get really worked up and anxious and feel overwhelmed and too busy with whatever I need to accomplish in a day. I end up putting off getting something to eat until I calm down, which usually isn't until I clear most of the tasks from my to-do list. This is especially bad with lunch at work. I almost never eat lunch because of this.

When I get home, I am usually too exhausted to really cook or eat anything (and also to prepare any lunch food for the next day). Sometimes I fall asleep on my couch before I even eat anything. Other times, I'll have something super quick like a microwave personal pizza or burrito.

I do not get feelings of hunger when I am anxious or exhausted, but I do, obviously, feel like crap. I just seem to be missing the brain trigger to remind me that if I ate something, I would feel a little better.

The only time I consistantly eat every day is breakfast. I love breakfast and I am a cranky crab if I don't eat something within an hour of waking up.

I was recently hospitalized and told that I need to up my caloric intake and eat more nutritious food. My question is how can I chill out and remind myself to eat? What are some techniques you use to make food prep not feel like more work after a day of work? Any general advice pertaining to adequate nutrition with budget and time constraints? What kinds of foods keep well and are easy to carry around all day (with my comute factored in, I'm usually away from home about 12 hours a day). Thanks.

Nutrition books for my favorite ballerina?

corey flood — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 07:12:42 -0800

What books/websites about nutrition would you recommend for a serious ballet student in her teens? My beautiful and talented niece dances anywhere from 6-25 hours a week, depending on the season. In addition, she's 15 years old and still growing. Can you recommend any dance-specific resources for helping her maximize her food choices? (I say 'dance-specific' because if it's not, she will dismiss it outright.)

The family is looking around for nutritionists, but in the meantime, I'd like to try and find some kind of book/website/etc. for dancers that doesn't try to pass off a stalk of celery and a glass of water as lunch.

Help me satisfy a sweet tooth on a low sugar/low carb diet!

mattholomew — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 16:00:21 -0800

Help me satisfy a sweet tooth on a low sugar/low carb diet! I have been put on a low carb/low-to-no sugar diet because of high blood glucose. I will be meeting with a nutritionist, but my biggest concern is my ravenous sweet tooth. I love me some ice cream and cookies, and chocolate. I'd like to hear what y'all recommend - recipes would be fabulous, any prepackaged food suggestions would also be great, and anything at restaurants that's good is also, um, good.

I have no other dietary restrictions, but if you have a tasty vegan recipe, I'm open to it.

(I realize this type of question has been asked before, but there are always new recipes and products coming out)

One potato, Two potato, Three potato, Four!

latch24 — Wed, 13 May 2009 22:27:02 -0800

If I had ½ cup of sweet potato and ½ cup of potato, boiled and mashed (w/ 1 tablespoon of full cream/fat milk) with 1 cup of frozen vegetable (peas, corn, carrot) for dinner what type of nutritional value would it hold? So, if I had this for dinner each night for a week would this be a really, really BAD thing? What should I be adding if it is (even if only 2 out of 5 work nights)?

I just ask because cooking food for myself at the end of a very long day is getting hard, yo. I seem to end up doing this dinner a lot and I don't want to have limbs suddenly fall off* because I'm eating too much sweet potato / not getting enough of something.

*Or just general unhealthiness

I feel like I'm absolutely terrible at cooking. How can I become better at it?

decrescendo — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 16:39:30 -0800

I feel like I'm absolutely terrible at cooking. How can I become better at it? I think my lack of recipes/ideas is what's killing me. I just stick to spaghetti and frozen dinners because I'm not sure what else to do. If I had things to make I'm sure I'd eventually become better at it. I feel like I definitely do not eat enough. I'm always hungry and the problem is I never have anything around my apartment to eat. If I was better at cooking I think I'd eat more/feel better because I'd enjoy making things that I like. I also cannot afford to be eating out every night either (even though I'd love to). It's time to learn to do this by myself.

Do you all know of any websites where I could for recipes or ideas? I'm sick of not having anything good for dinner every night.

Where can I look up calorie information for typical Japanese foods?

Vorteks — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 10:24:26 -0800

I'm looking for a website or perhaps a printed book that gives typical nutritional values for a large variety of Japanese foods. I'm counting calories, and logging everything I eat. For most typical American foods and restaurants, it's pretty easy to get a rough estimate of the nutritional value of what I eat. If I eat out, most major restaurant chain provide nutritional info on their websites. And if not, or I'm eating at home, places like The Daily Plate and Calorie King can be used to find similar foods and make a reasonable estimate.

But, when I eat Japanese foods, I'm totally lost. The above sources might be useful for foods well-known in America, like "california roll" or "shrimp tempura". But what about okonomiyaki? unagi? katsu curry? chanpuru? natto? I'm lost. Does anyone know where nutritional information for these sorts of foods might be obtained? A website is preferable, but if there's some sort of guidebook or something I could buy that'd be helpful too.

I read Japanese at perhaps a 5th-grade level and I have dictionary tools to help me out, so I don't mind using a Japanese website if you know of one.

How much stuff is in my food?

awenner — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 10:13:05 -0800

How much stuff, proportionally, is in my food? What proportion of the ingredients listed on my food are actually present? When my 2 litre bottle of Coke puts "high fructose corn syrup" right after "water," is it possible to estimate (or be reasonable certain about) how many grams of HFCS I'm actually consuming?

This question isn't particular to HFCS. I'm trying to keep to the take Michael Pollan's advice to heart, and I'd like to eat as much real food that my great-grandparents would have recognized as possible. Are reasonably precise amounts of ingredients publicly available information? Is the USDA nutrition info all we have to rely on?

What disease do cats get from a lack of people food?

nzydarkxj — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 19:27:56 -0800

What risk does a cat take in not eating people food? A month ago I found a kitten a couple weeks old abandoned in the street. (She weighed about 1 kilo and was an estimated 5ish weeks old, if it matters)

I took her to the vet about an hour after I found her because she had an infection, and she got all cleaned up and a shot for the infection, all better now etc... Anyway, the vet stressed that it is important to mix people food with the cat food, otherwise cats can get diseases.

That sounded strange to me. What diseases is the vet talking about? If its not really that necessary I'd prefer to NOT feed the cat people food other than an occasional fish treat or something. At the follow up visit the vet said the same thing and our conversation got derailed before I got more information.

Purina Pro Plan Kitten formula was the food she recommended

What type of foods should I be eating in order to bulk up?

decrescendo — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 15:49:51 -0800

What type of foods should I be eating in order to bulk up? In reference to this question.

It seems that the common response to my previous question was I need to eat better and eat more before I can really gain muscle/bulk. I feel that I don't eat enough or well enough.

My daily meals are as follows:
breakfast: 3 hard-boiled eggs
lunch: Chipotle
dinner: whatever I can easily find to stop being hungry

Can anyone give me some help on how to immediately turn my eating habits around to make myself able to build muscle (or at least bulk up)?

I'm sick of feeling like I'm wilting away to nothing. I've been lazy about this for too many years and it's time to turn it around. (Yes, I'm pissed off at myself.)

I am not a very good cook at all so I'm kind of at a loss for where to begin. Any help would be fantastic. Thanks!

What are your favorite high-protein, low-fat, quick and easy recipes?

Pontius Pilate — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:33:57 -0800

What are your favorite high-protein, low-fat, quick and easy recipes? In looking through the archives, it seems like people have given some great advice with regard to good protein bars, protein shakes, and the like - however, I haven't found much in the way of actual cooked meals. I'm trying to eat healthier and exercise about 4x a week (mostly lifting), but am finding it difficult to get the recommended daily dose of protein of 1 - 1.25 grams per pound of weight.

So - if anyone has good high-protein, low-fat, quick and easy recipes, let's hear them: ground beef, chicken, salmon, whatever you got! The best would be something that's palatable, could be cooked in large quantities and kept in the fridge for a while, and not requiring particular culinary skills. Thanks, all!

It's just like being in school again! But with better food!

pdb — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 13:32:00 -0800

Help me grade myself on my new lifestyle. I'm not a new year's resolution person, normally, but this year I turn 40, which has occasioned a fair bit of stock-taking of who and where I am and all that good stuff. One of the things I decided to focus on this year was my diet - it needs improvement, I need to lose weight (the number isn't significant, but it's a larger number than I want it to be, thus the impetus to lose it), and I'm ready to take on the challenge of losing the weight.

There are two things I need to overcome to make this happen - my poor history of food choices (specifically as regarding portion sizes), and my constant beating myself up when I do make bad choices, which leads me to make more bad choices, etc. and so on.

So, I came up with an idea that needs some refining. I'm going to grade myself on a weekly basis, using the standard A-F grade scale (with +/- as needed), on the food choices I make during the week. If I can keep up at least a B average in a given week, I plan on rewarding myself with something non-food (a couple CD's, books, or whatever), and if I fall below that B average, I have resolved...not to punish myself and to spend the time to figure out how to get back to the B level.

So my question is, what in your minds would constitute each letter grade? There are the obvious ones (fast food is a D or an F, eating cheese and crackers for dinner because I'm lazy and can't be bothered to cook would be the same), eating one or two servings of vegetable per meal would be a B or an A, but then there are the "finesse" type questions, like:

1. Today at lunch, I had a six-inch Subway turkey breast (only additions were spinach and green peppers) with no spread - but with cheese. I decided to give myself a B - an A in my mind would have been the same sandwich but with no cheese. But, I thought to myself as I ate, what if I would have gotten a foot-long version of that same sandwich, with chips? Would that be a B or even a C grade, based on portion size?

2. Alcohol. I don't drink a ton, but I like to have a couple beers with dinner two or three times a week - it's not realistic that I cut it out entirely, so if I have one beer with an otherwise healthy dinner, would that require a reduction of letter grade? Does having one or two glasses of wine on a Friday night out also necessitate a grade drop?

Any and all ideas to further refine this concept would be welcome. I don't really need menu/recipe/cooking tips, I've got a pretty good handle on that side of things, I'm more looking for ways to help myself reinforce good eating behaviors.

A taste of poison paradise?

gensubuser — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 22:04:20 -0800

How can I test my family's garden vegetables for nutrition/toxins? My father just finished canning 70 quarts of green beans. I like them (really) and I am glad that my kids may end up liking vegetables too through their consumption. But, seeing as how I grew up eating them and I will probably be dining on them occasionally for the next 10 (!) years, it might be nice to reassure myself that they are harmless at worst.

Is there a program or company somewhere that offers to test food or vegetables for harmful content and nutrition?

Yes, I cook for my dog. How can I do it better?

taz — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 09:39:17 -0800

I'd like nutritional advice for homemade dog food and maybe treats, using easy-to-find ingredients. I haven't been able to find high quality commercial dog food where I live, so I make most of her food myself, but I would like to make her homemade food as healthy as I possibly can with the resources I have, which are somewhat limited. Current routine, and many(!) more details inside. Our dog is a rescue that we've had for five months, and she's a completely different animal than we got - in the best way, so I know we are doing pretty good now, but I'd like to know more and do better.

We don't have access to most fancy health food ingredients, so I want to use ordinary ingredients as much as possible.

I currently feed her one of: turkey, chicken, fish, or liver, + brown rice or crumbled whole wheat bread, + vegetables (shredded carrot and zucchini with a bit of cooked spinach, or cooked and lightly mashed frozen veggie combo - peas, green beans, carrots, potato, lima beans). I portion these (protein, carb, veg) as roughly 1/3 each. At one point I upped the protein, but she began straining to poo and her poop was very hard. Normally her poop is very good/solid - never soft or runny, but not too hard, either. That may have just been an adjustment thing, so I'm not averse to increasing the meat to veggie/carb ratio if it's a better diet. I once tried cooked oatmeal instead of rice, and she seemed to really dislike it, but it was probably just because it wasn't what she expected, and we can give that another shot - if it's better for her. (She's really not picky or spoiled - she'll eat what we give her to eat, though I might have to feed her from my hand a bit at first to get her going...)

To this I add a spoonful of nutritional yeast, a small bit of chopped or dried garlic, a half a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar, a small splash of olive oil. About once a week I give her a scrambled egg or two instead of meat/fish, and a couple of times a week I give her a few spoonfuls of low(er)-fat yogurt as a treat.

Her regular treats are slices of banana, frozen peas (which she is inexplicably crazy for), or a small bit of feta cheese. She'll eat a couple of bites of pear and apple as well, though not her favorite stuff. She's not crazy about fruit, generally. We don't feed her our leftovers (we eat 'em ourselves!)

I worry, expecially, that she's not getting enough calcium. I don't really find the proper sorts of raw bones for her here (we once asked our butcher for a dog bone, and he gave us something that looked like it came from a dinosaur... really, there was no way that was happening). And she could probably benefit from other additives, but I can't find a lot of health food ingredients here. The nutritional yeast, which should be available as a powder, I have to buy from the one place I can find it in pill form (and expensive), which I then grind up. There just isn't a lot of health food stuff available here yet.

I got the very nice book Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs & Cats, but I can't find most of the holistic ingredients in the diet section. I ordered a book of dog food recipes that are supposed to be "Veterinarian approved" and the recipes were totally silly, plus even from my little knowledge, not really that healthy. So I'm up for a good book on this, but it has to be something that relies on regular ordinary ingredients that you could find anywhere, and of course it should actually have some canine nutrition science or background. I'm really, really not looking for something like "Bow-wow Brownies" with "Bow-wow Brownie Frosting" (actual, real recipes from the second stupid book I got).

I eat badly and I need to stop.

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 14:37:36 -0800

Help me make better choices, food-wise. I eat very, very badly. I know this. Yet, for some reason, I cannot stop eating badly. Portion size, food type, everything - I cannot be counted on to make good food choices, and I can't figure out why. It's starting to affect my health (I've gained some weight, and I have a family history of high cholesterol, which is getting higher).

When faced with the choice of, say, fast food or a reasonably healthy turkey sandwich, I will almost always choose the fast food - and if I do choose the healthier option, I eat that healthier option in a portion size that all but defeats the health benefit that I would have gained had I eaten a "normal" amount.

I understand, intellectually, the correlation between eating right and health - yet I cannot, for some reason, bring myself to do it. I exercise - I bike to work every day (13 miles round-trip), I go to the gym a couple times a week - but it doesn't seem to help because I can't overcome my food stupidity.

I'm not particularly depressed - I have a wonderful wife, a nice house, and a reasonably steady job, so there's no stress there. I just can't seem to make myself make good eating decisions, so I guess that in itself is really starting to depress me.

Anyway. Does anybody have any ideas on how I can help myself make better food choices? Understanding the consequences of making bad decisions isn't enough - I understand them fully, and yet I still make these bad decisions. I need something...more. I don't want this to become a major health issue, but I fear that if I continue down this road it will.

I'm posting this anonymously because family and friends read askme regularly and I want to start down this road myself, without worrying them. I've also got a throwaway email address (helpmyhealth@gmail.com) if you have any tips/advice you'd rather email.

What is a good no-effort online weekly meal planner?

cprompt — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 07:30:21 -0800

I am looking for a meal planner online, or downloadable (preferably for Mac or iPhone) that will give me an aggregated shopping list and recipes for the week. Hi folks. I am trying to get in the habit of cooking my own meals, so I can be more healthy and save money. My cooking repertoire is somewhat limited, but I can follow directions.

I am looking for a meal planner online, or downloadable (preferably for Mac or iPhone) that will give me an aggregated shopping list and recipes for the week. I saw one on Google a while ago that sort of accomplished that, but it was a subscription service and was not customizable at all. The more effort involved, the less likely I am to do this.

A book that accomplishes the same might also be helpful. However, I'm a big guy, and a book based around a 2000 calorie diet would probably be dangerous for me at first.

Thanks!

Vitamin for teenagers?

sandra194 — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 07:50:11 -0800

Can you recommend a good vitamin for a 16 year old? My teen daughter is active in sports, theatre, takes advanced courses in school, and doesn't eat the veggies that she should--not to mention eating junk food at school.

What should I eat in the morning?

reenum — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 08:50:06 -0800

RamadanFilter: I'm fasting and I need to know what to eat so I'm not ravenous and faint by the sunset. I've been fasting for the last week and have been able to keep it up pretty well.

The one problem I'm having is with what I should eat in the morning. I've been trying to eat what I would normally eat during the day, but I find it's not enough. I drink plenty of water, but my blood sugar seems to dip really low by the end of the day.

I've been eating roast beef sandwiches, waffles, grapes, and turkey bacon. Sometimes I switch out the waffles for oatmeal.

So, I need suggestions as to foods that will keep my blood sugar up, or at least not make me feel as hungry.

X% of my Recommended Daily Amount of Y

fishmasta — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 17:54:50 -0800

How do I figure out how nutritious my meals are? So every packaged food in the supermarket and everything at a restaurant chain has, somewhere, a nutrition chart stating the calories, vitamins, fat, etc. found in a serving of that food. But what about when I cook for myself? How can I replicate that sort of easy to comprehend nutrition information when I'm putting a meal together from many different ingredients? Or is that nutrition information not that great anyway and I should focus on broader nutrition goals? What do we even really know about nutrition? Please help me make sense of the overload of conflicting information that exists out there.

How do I maintain a healthy lifestyle...

prunes — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 13:38:55 -0800

How do I main a healthy lifestyle while traveling for work? I work for a major multinational. Recently I was blindsided by the news that I had "volunteered" for a project that will involve significant travel, upwards of 75%, for around six months. There will be many different locations, so I don't think I will be staying in extended stay suites.

Now, I'm a very health conscious individual. I take great pride in not having succumbed to the obesity/grossness that plagues most people in my position. A large part of success is due to my near fanatical eating habits. I never eat fast food. I hate it. And after a day or two of eating out I feel gross. Daily I bring in to work multiple pieces of fruit; today I brought a pint of berries, two bananas, and a peach.

So my question, bluntly stated, is as follows: how will I be able to adapt to this new lifestyle with out my body turning to pudding?

Also, a related question while we're at it: given the great amount of responsibility and the crummy lifestyle I will be adopting, what demands should a person in my position reasonably be able to make (e.g. admiral club access, flying first class, health club access, etc.) ?

Pimp my oatmeal!

catlet — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 07:52:56 -0800

I eat oatmeal for breakfast pretty much every day. Help me build a bowl that is as jam-packed with nutrition as possible, while still tasty. I've never been much of a breakfast person, so whatever I eat in the morning has to be worth it in terms of nutrition and flavor, or I'll skip it and just drink extra coffee. Recently, I've figured out a process that works for me: I make a big batch of steel-cut oats in my slow cooker once a week or so, and store in serving-sized plasticware in my fridge. It's just oats, water, and salt. In the morning, I dump a serving into a bowl and add a fistful of frozen fruit from the various bags in the freezer - blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, peaches, or cherries - and microwave. After it's hot and the fruit is thawed, I add some raw walnuts or pecans, cinnamon, a spoonful of ground flaxseed, a spoonful of Benefiber (powdered guar gum supplement), and either unsweetened almond milk or regular cow milk. It's very "one from Column A, one from Column B" and it is delicious.

What else could I add that would boost the nutrition even more? I am interested in both sweet and savory approaches, vegetarian or not, that will fuel my day. (Bacon's nutritious, right?) Ideas involving other grains (rice, wheatberries, groats, but probably not kasha first thing in the morning) are also excellent.

Why eggs? Why now?

dmaterialized — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 20:59:13 -0800

In my family we've always said that if you have an intense craving for a food that you don't normally eat, it's because your body really needs something in it (and that all efforts should be made to acquire said food-- this has led to some funny stories). Following this (seeming) logic, I am curious if any nutritionists understand why I get insanely intense cravings (only about once every 6 weeks or so) for egg salad sandwiches. Because, you see, eggs normally make me really nauseated. Scrambled especially (I basically can't eat them, for whatever reason). But when I need egg salad BAD, it's literally the only food that appeals to me in the entire world. (And it's ALWAYS egg salad-- I don't have too many other of these sudden cravings.) It doesn't even need to be good egg salad. It can even be warm (yuck). But nothing else seems to fill the need. Any idea what might be in it that my body is so sorely missing? This is perplexing, since I have the cravings again tonight.

How do you naturally thin people eat?

tastybrains — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 09:00:07 -0800

I'm trying to find out how naturally thin people eat, so I can see if I can model some of my new habits after them. I'm also very curious (as someone with dysfunctional eating habits) just what is "normal" to some people. So...are you naturally thin/average in terms of weight? What is your typical day like in terms of meals and snacks? More specifically, I'm interested in:

1) What's your typical breakfast?
2) What's your typical lunch?
3) What are some typical dinners?
4) Do you eat differently on the weekends than you do on weekdays?
5) Do you snack? If so, how often and on what?
6) Do you eat differently on holidays? How so?
7) If you've eaten a bigger than usual meal, do you adjust your next meals at all?
8) What do you do if you find that you've put on a few pounds?
9) Do you exercise? If so, how & how often?
10) Do you use artificial sweeteners? In what situations & how often?
11) What beverages do you drink? Do you drink diet versions of soft drinks?

Also please feel free to let me know anything else about your daily diet / exercise that you think might be useful or interesting!

Thanks!

Interesting poems related to foods or eating?

sparrows — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 16:58:53 -0800

Interesting poems that A) are related to foods or eating in some way, B) would take less than two minutes to read out loud, and C) are in the public domain (or are otherwise available for non-commercial use without seeking permission)?