Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with health 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.

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)

Are there any safe workout supplements?

ascetic — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:01:47 -0800

Are there any *safe* supplements I can take for added muscle gain/weight loss/etc? I'm only 20 years old... Perhaps I don't "need" supplements but I sure would like to get more out of my workouts without comprimising my health and wellbeing.

I eat clean 90% of the time - fresh fruits, veggies, home cooked meals, etc. I RARELY eat McDonalds or any other kinds of junk food. Currently I make a protein shake after working out... Two scoops protein powder, nonfat milk, and 1 tbps of flax seed oil... Sometimes some berries and banana.

Nutritious Water Additives?

Phyltre — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 09:05:44 -0800

Are there any good nutritional/metabolic water mixes out there for sedentary desk workers who are perhaps over-reliant on fast food? I consume several bottles of water a day at work. Normally I use Propel mix in the water, since it only has 20 calories per serving and it makes the decidedly plasticky water more drinkable. My diet is probably a little more reliant on fast food than it should be, especially with the economic crunch lately, and I was wondering if there is anything on the market to mix in the water to help me with nutrition or metabolism. I'm working two jobs, which means on 3 weekdays I work straight from 8AM to 9:30PM with just a lunch break. This also predictably lowers my will for exercise.

I know that there are lots of snake-oil products out there on the market, but I'm curious if there's anything to help me along health-wise without jamming in too many calories. I certainly don't feel ill, but I know my lifestyle isn't necessarily optimal and I'm wondering if I'm missing an opportunity with all the water I'm taking in.

Do my crumbly nails indicate a problem?

toomuchkatherine — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 14:08:24 -0800

Normally healthy and strong, my fingernails are now peeling, flaking, and crumbling a bit near the tips. Is this a sign I'm missing something in my diet? (I'm a 29 y.o. female and I eat pretty healthfully, home cooking, plenty of vegetables. I do not take vitamins.)

Looking for a website to track daily water intake, fruit/veg eaten, mood, steps.

jrholt — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 13:32:23 -0800

Looking for a website to track daily water intake, fruit/veg eaten, mood, steps. I'm looking for a simple website to track the following health/nutrition things:

* How much water I drink each day.
* How many servings of fruit/vegetables I eat.
* My mood for the day
* How many steps I've taken
* How many hours I slept the night before

I don't need the complexity of calories or portion sizes. (i.e. I don't want to enter 50g of broccoli, but just that I've had one serving of vegetables.)

Something similar to Joe's Goals would work, but it doesn't really have the flexibility for things like mood or steps taken.

Any ideas?

Idle hands are eating a devils food cake

abdulf — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 09:55:48 -0800

I have the opportunity to exercise in the morning, at lunch and in the evening. Does it matter if I do certain exercises in order? I have an hour to workout before work, around 7-8am in the morning. Then another hour at lunch from 12-1pm. Finally, I have about 2 hours in the evening, typically 5-8pm or 7-10pm.

This is about 5 hours a day, possible more, that I could be using to reach my fitness goals. Right now I use 1 hour of that time.

I already follow a 3 day a week lifting routine from a Men's Health book. That typically takes about 20 to 40 minutes. Once or twice a week I attend a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu class in the evenings that lasts 45 minutes.

I could do this indefinitely (have been doing this for almost a year) but it's not helping me reach my goals of weightloss. It has helped me maintain my weight and it has improved my fitness levels, but that isn't enough. My goal is to reduce weight (I'm 25 years old, 5'10, 240lbs).

Can you point me to extended exercise routines for people with a lot of time on their hands? Maybe the routines used for Olympic athletes or "the biggest loser tv show"? The only exercise I hesitate to do a lot of at this weight is running for extended periods since it tends to cause pain in my shins and knees.

I know nutrition matters. The issue on the nutrition end is not daily things like sodas or cookies. Rather, it's things like eating an entire box of cookies out of boredom. Being aware of this problem, combined with burning that spare time staying physically active, I think, will help me with this.

Food me.

Nonce — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 20:11:46 -0800

Imagine you are an alien with a pet human. Now tell me the simplest, quickest, and/or cheapest mix of commonly available in America foodstuffs and/or supplements that will provide this pet with all necessary and potentially helpful nutrients, with no attention wasted on things like variety, taste, or any other aesthetic factors. I want to be able to purchase (metaphorically) 50 lb bags of pure, scientifically validated, lifespan-increasing, healthy coat producing humanfood.

(In other words, I'm a bachelor low on time and fridge/freezer space. Tell me how to min/max my way into an uncomplicated but amazingly healthy eating regimin that I don't have to think about, but that covers all the bases that scientific consensus agrees may be helpful to have covered.)

Explain my gain (weight) and my loss (motivation/sanity).

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 11:49:57 -0800

I gained 6 lbs. overnight. WTF! I am a committed runner and healthy eater who lost 50 lbs. over the last year by changing my lifestyle and eating habits completely. I am now at a weight I am happy with and work to maintain it.

On Saturday night I snacked A LOT because I was, heh, a tad inebriated and stopped policing myself so damn vigilantly. I ate chips, bean dip, salsa, carrots, grapes, even some m&m's. A LOT of all of it especially considering I'd had a big, indulgent dinner.

All the stuff I ate was from Trader Joe's and so it was mostly the not so bad for you kind of bad for you food--flax seed chips, blue corn tortilla chips, bean dip, salsa and crackers with good ingredients, etc. However, I ate a ton and I felt totally manic while doing so. Having lost a lot of weight and becoming somewhat obsessive about maintaining not just my weight, but my commitment to eating mindfully (I used to be a wicked bad emotional/bored/anxious/angry eater), it feels horribly bad to overdo it like this.

I guess my question is how did I gain 6 lbs in one night? Will this weight stick or is it water retention weight from salty snacks? I'm already 2 lbs. lighter, so I guess it's already showing itself to be not "real" weight gain. I am trying to think of this as "relapse is part of recovery" and use it as a good reminder to not go crazy like this. My other question, if it's kosher to ask something related, is can you help me see this in a different way and not be so down on myself about it that I lose motivation or beat myself up? Obviously I need to lighten up a bit on myself and not let it run the rest of my weekend (which, yeah, it did) because I'm obsessing about what I ate or what I should eat/not eat to "compensate" for the binge.

Thanks, a lot, hive mind. I'm going a little crazy.

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!

Help me stop being so OCD about my eating habits.

Anonymous — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 14:11:56 -0800

I've reached my goal weight. Now, please help me stay sane with diet and nutrition. Sorry this is long. In a bit under a year through dietary changes and exercise, I've lost about 50 lbs. and am at my goal weight. I now love exercise, mostly running, and am really excited to do it every day. I love the way I look and feel have so much confidence that I never had.

I like eating healthy--low fat, whole grains, lots of fresh fruit and veggies, lean meat and fish. However, I go through periods of being very obsessive about what I eat and how much and/or how much/hard I am exercising. I know that with an active lifestyle and healthy diet I don't need to obsessively count calories, and I'd love to stop doing it, but I can't really help myself. Like, I really like this non-fat vanilla/granola/fruit parfait at a local coffeeshop but I never let myself have it because since eating healthily and getting familiar with nutrition, I know how full of sugar and fat most granola is and how carb-y and full of sugar most nonfat yogurt is. I wouldn't get a fruit smoothie I really want because of how full of (natural) sugars and simple carbs it has. Or I'll get a salad with no cheese because of the added fat. Is this totally crazy? I mean, these are healthy indulgences, right? It's also very difficult for me to do anything impromptu because I plan my eating so much. For example, I love going out for drinks and small plates/tapas with friends and it's the kind of thing where the more you drink, the less inhibited you are and you end up ordering all kinds of stuff you normally wouldn't and then I'm utterly guilt ridden the next day even though I want to be able to say "I eat well 99% of the time and exercise regularly so that I can enjoy this kind of indulgence." I just can't get there mentally.

I stopped using my online diet tracker for a few days to see if it would make me less obsessive, but it actually made me more obsessive because I couldn't be sure I was staying within caloric/fat/carb/protein boundaries. I rarely let myself have desserts or an extra helping of something I really want. I know that when I really want something I should just have it because if I deprive myself, I will only end up gorging later (this hasn't happened yet--I generally have incredible self control, but I fear it will). However, it's really difficult for me to give myself allowances as I am afraid that it's just a slippery slope to going back to my old ways. I feel like I need a "system" because that is sort of what keeps me sane in most areas of my life. Like, once per week I can indulge in something relatively, well, indulgent. Like, not an extra large pizza with all the fixings or a whole ice cream cake, but, say, something I used to love that I never let myself have anymore, like frozen yogurt with nuts or a burrito or a vanilla latte or some Thai food. My cravings are not for hugely unhealthy, fatty, fried, yucky stuff but more for stuff that is higher in simple carbs and fat than I'd normally have.

My main concern is that if I feel continue to control myself so strictly I will one day just break and gorge on all the stuff I've been missing and gain all the weight back. I rarely miss a lot of stuff, but when I miss something, it kind of builds and builds and builds.

I'd love some practical advice about how to utilize a "steam valve" type thing where I can eat some delicious, not-so-healthy stuff every once in a while so I don't feel so deprived. If people have read books that address this kind of stuff, I'd love to get recommendations. Or, feel free to reassure me that I'm not totally nuts.

Please be gentle :)

And, yup, I'm in therapy and I have begun discussing this.

Thank you.

p.s. Feel free to contact me at this.is.a.throwaway.2008@gmail.com

Is Juice Feasting for Real?

hulahulagirl — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 21:34:26 -0800

Who has experience on an extended juice feast? I have to admit that initially a 92-day juice fast/feast (see website) sounds a bit like overkill. But also, a good way to detox while still getting all your vitamins and minerals. I'm not talking about a Master Cleanse, but an actual rather balanced diet of fruit and veggie juices. Um, and enemas?!
Does anyone have any actual experience with a long juice fast/feast because as inspiring as the testimonials are, I'm a little suspect.
Or maybe it's just that I'm lazy and I want to hear that these people are quacks?
They claim juice feasting accomplishes:
1. Ending the addition of toxic/foreign/depleted foods into our bodies.
2. Drinking Nutrient Dense Living Juices with Superfoods/Supplements
3. Physiological Rest
4. Removing Uneliminated Waste Matter in Small Intestine and Colon
5. Hydration
6. Removing Uneliminated Toxins in the Blood, Lymph, and at the Cellular Level throughout the body
7. Alkalinization
8. Reduction/Eradication of Inflammation/Chronic Pain
9. Oxygenation
10. Rejuvenation of Metabolism and Digestive System
11. Restoration of Nutrients
12. Rebuilding
I'd like to hear good and bad experiences from people who have tried this. Is it worth it?

Lose Weight Now, Ask Me How

mippy — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 08:53:30 -0800

How can I lose weight, not through dieting, but through acquiring good and non-punitive habits? There is a lot of diet advice out there - don't eat dairy, don't eat meat, don't eat bread, take up our new diet and spend £70 on supplements each month - and what I want is to know how to have a balanced diet that doesn't involve cutting out most foods I enjoy, cutting out whole food groups altogether, or feeling guilty because I have a square of milk chocolate rather than dark?

Relevant information:
- I work in an office, and at the moment cannot take on the financial commitment of gym membership. I occasionally swim but in practise this is once a month if that. I want to start walking the 20mins to and from the train station during the week rather than taking the bus to give me a bit of activity. I would very much need a sports bra for anything more intensive than this, plus my once-fractured metatarsal gives me gip occasionally. I recently learned to cycle but am not ready for the road yet.

- I've put on two stone this year, partly from a broken foot and partly from taking sodium valproate - if you're unfamiliar with this, the side effects cause weight gain and seem to increase my appetite. Therefore any diet too restrictive (ie. to get rid of the extra weight) would be torture! I am quite tall so can carry extra weight without it having a huge impact on my health, but I don't *feel* healthy and my self-image is pretty sucky.

- I've previously put on weight from taking Depo-Provera a few years back at the same rate, most of which just dropped 'naturally'. I've never embarked on a determined weight-loss program and tend to fluctuate a lot. More gain than lose on balance.

- I eat meat, although not very much. Not a big sweet snacker but I love houmous, cheese and toast (though don't buy as much cheese). I don't tend to spend a lot on my food and know I could up my veg intake. I tend to make my own lunches at home to bring into work, and have museli in the morning and maybe yogurt or a cookie as a sweet snack int he afternoon.

- We get a few chocolates from time to time at work. I also like pizza and fast food, but have this once a fortnight if that. I don't tend to buy ready meals and try and make healthy choices if I can.

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.

Is Vitamin Water Good For Me?

Locative — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 03:04:10 -0800

Is Vitamin Water actually good for me, or am I fooling myself? Beyond avoiding High Fructose Corn Syrup and anything partially hydrogenated, I don't really know how to read a nutrition label intelligently. I drink a lot of Glaceau brand Vitamin Water because I don't like drinking plain water, but I wonder if it really has any benefit for me at all.

The ingredients on the label of my "xxx" flavor Vitamin Water are the following, in order:

-vapor distilled, deionized, and/or reverse osmosis water
-cane sugar
-crystalline fructose
-citric acid
-vegetable juice (color)
-ascorbic acid (vitamin c)
-natural flavor
-berry and fruit extracts (acai, bluberry, pomegranate and apple)
-magnesium lactate (electrolyte)
-monopotassium phosphate (electrolyte)
-niacin (B3)
-pantothenic acid (B5)
-pyridoxine hydrochloride (B6)
-cyanocobalamin (B12)

I see some vitamins towards the end there. I know cane sugar is better than HFCS, and I know crystalline fructose is just another type of sugar.

So am I just drinking a fancy version of Crystal Light or Kool-Aid, or is there any benefit to drinking this stuff over plain water?

Super fiber bean? 32g per cup?

mhuckaba — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 12:36:50 -0800

"Small Red Beans". Do these really have 16g of fiber per 1/2 cup serving? I've seen them under the Goya, Iberia, and Wal-mart brands, all of them having 60 calories per 1/2 cup, with 16 grams of fiber. This is significantly more than every other type of bean. I found an example here.

However, here is another one that seems to be the same thing, "small red beans", but with drastically different nutritional content.

Someone please shed some light on this discrepancy!!!

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.) ?

heart health & my new diet

luriete — Fri, 16 May 2008 10:30:34 -0800

I am 37, 5'9", 185 & just had a minor heart attack. Diagnosis: diffuse coronary disease. I swim several times a week, and eat well. But I have questions about my new diet, the one that will help me lose 30 - 50 lbs in 2 years, as my cardiologist wants. Since the angioplasty & 3 stents, I'm changing the way I eat - eating more whole grains and fruit, hardly any meat. I am taking fish oil (1750 a day) plus my plavix and other drugs. My cholesterol is not particularly high, but my blood pressure was (I haven't smoked in 5 years and even then I never smoked more than a pack a week).

One thing a friend said was to eat lots and lots of sushi, which I love. I know that shellfish is high in cholesterol, but what about my favorite - unagi? It's very fatty, but is that the good kind of fat or the bad kind? I looked up how much fat was in it, but it didn't tell me if that fat was OK - are fish fats better than meat fats, or is it just a case of them being less bad for me, but not actually good?

I think I can do this new way of eating - lots of low-fat middle eastern, no salt, very little animal grease. But I am looking for other suggestions for interesting dishes and things I can order in restaurants that will keep me from getting bored of green salads when my friends are eating steaks and chicken wings (my favorite junk food!). Are turkey meatballs from trader joe's OK? I like them.

Anyway, just wondering if people could share their favorite low-fat recipes & tips for eating safe in restaurants. I have reservations at Incanto in SF in 2 weeks so I hope there's stuff I can eat there... :(

How can I find out the caloric info of Chinese chestnuts - without a food scale?

invisible ink — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 18:57:24 -0800

Now that chestnuts are in season, I've been buying sacks of freshly roasted Chinese chestnuts almost every week and eating them like crazy. Problem is, I cannot locate nutritional information in a format that's easy to understand. For example, I don't have a food scale, yet almost every listing I find on Google has one serving of chestnuts as 100 grams. Also, how do I know if the nutritional info is referring to nuts still in their shell, or the actual nutmeats? Thanks to everyone in advance.

What's recommended to consume right after a work-out ?

hboogz — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 13:31:10 -0800

What should i consume immediately after a work-out ? If i'm not a fan of powdered protein ? I've heard that consuming a high-glycemic carbohydrate after a workout is idea -- could anyone give me feasible ideas of this ?

Which cruciferous vegetables should I eat?

Kwantsar — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 15:59:38 -0800

Which cruciferous vegetables should I eat? I hate them, but science has convinced me of their nutritional necessity. I have further been convinced that they should be eaten raw. But I really, really hate them. Every last one of them, in fact. As I do not believe that I can mind-over-matter my way into enjoying these repulsive greens, I suppose that I ought to be tough, and find a way to put them down. Please help me find a way to do this painlessly as possible.

I'd like to maximize along a few variables:
1. Nutrient density-- The less I have to eat, the better. This is most important.
2. Shelf life-- If I can buy in bulk only twice per month, my life is easier.
3. Palatability-- Do any of these vegetables pair nicely with any specific sugarless and starchless foods?

What say you?

Fear of Catabolism

gmodelo — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 15:07:04 -0800

Is running 3+ miles 4 or more times a week hurting my muscle mass gains? I'm alternating jump rope in 1-2x a week with it for 30 minute sessions. The real question is: do any of you have experience with making terrific muscle gains accompanied by good fat loss? I know we gain, as well as lose, muscle and fat in tandem when we're in an anabolic state. What about you guys?

I am estimatedly around 16% bodyfat right now, looking to bring that down without losing (or while building more) muscle. My nutrition is great; only natural foods (occasional sweets, but never regularly, I don't like them much), good protein and carbohydrate sources, as well as moderate saturated fat intake. I shoot for around 60-20-20 macronutrient breakdown, but definately not always on target with that.

I also drink 1-2 cups of coffee a day (with honey), and unfortnately chew around 1/2 can of tobacco a day. Are these greatly affecting my results?