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[Meiko]

This can be a serious topic or not. Up to you to decide.

Eating is a pleasure for most, for some is connected with the idea of dieting, being fit etc. We all eat food that isn't healthy sometimes, our modern lifestyle includes that too. Some countries are famous for their well-balanced and healthy diets that include very natural food, for example Japan and Italy are the first two countries following these criteria, and people from those countries are known to live longer (we're speaking of average, not aobut single cases) thanks to that. Some eliminate from their diet specifical food categories, like sugar, red vegetables, carbs, milk, both for personal principles or for health reasons ... We see the oddest things! Then there are the vegetarians, the follower of raw food diets, those who can't eat certain typology of food for religious beliefs and so on.

We are what we eat, a man once said. And some philosopher also said that the cruel man is the one who lives for eating, while the virtuous man is the one who eats for living.

How much do you know about healthy food, about nutrition, do you follow suggestions you find in magazines or books, do you follow what experts say, or you say "what the hell! you only live once!" and eat whatever you like without worrying to much about it?

Do you have particular needs when it comes to eating, like you have your own rituals, you like more eating alone or in company?

Whatever you like to discuss about food, you can do it here. This truly interests me!

[Rei]

Originally Posted by Meiko

you say "what the hell! you only live once!" and eat whatever you like without worrying to much about it?

Yeah, that's me! I don't have time to worry about anything, I don' have interest in becoming paranoid because of food. Food is necessary but there's nothing wrong in seeing it as a pleasure too. I like eating in company most of all, but when I'm alone I'm fine. I like eating something tasty, but when you have to eat you can't always be 100% pleased. It's important to eat when you're hungry, but some extras aren't a tragedy like some people think. I mean c'mon! We think about pleasing our senses with music, with a good movie, with flowers that smell good, why not pleasing taste too? Being too much worried is insane, not doing what you like and enjoying life in all its aspects!

[Faile]

A few years ago I used to have problems with eating and was quite underweight via undereating.
However, situations and minds change and now I'm a lot better at eating and enjoying food. In fact I am indeed overweight by my reckoning. Which is a real killer on my mind but doesn't lead to the same results that it would have led to a few years ago. Not happy with it, but I'm not tearing myself apart over it now.

Says a lot about me really, lazy even in my problems. Lazy in losing weight too.

"Once I remember well, my life was a feast where all hearts opened and all wines flowed. Alas, the gospel has gone by; suppose damnation were eternal! Then a man who would mutilate himself is well damned, isn't he?"
- Arthur Rimbaud

[merylsilverburg]

I'm not exactly fanatical about food calories but at the same time, I am. I have a very low body image of myself (due to my upbringing with my mother being considered as "one of the most beautiful woman" in her hometown, she constantly "jokes" around about weight and fatty foods around myself and my sister), so I try to watch whatever I eat. Only at times, when I'm feeling irritated or stressed, I do just say "Oh, who gives a sh*t?" and eat whatever. Unfortunately, I haven't been doing a good job with my weight, so like Faile, I consider myself overweight right now and I haven't been exercising much...because, like Faile again, I'm lazy.

[Mannofiron]

Haha...I'm a wrestler and we're always slimming down to weight.

I love food and have come to appreciate it after missing it for a good 4 months of the year. I think that diets are stupid: everyone is different and one formula will not work for everyone. Besides, if you have less calories eaten then you burn off, you will lose weight slowly but surely. Exercise is of utmost importance to stay fit, and I hate magic diet pills that claim to do it for you. Everyone wants something for nothing I guess though, for me it's music online...

I love ribs, and pretty much anything off the grill. Recently I've been really getting into seafood for its high protein. Plus, it makes me feel cultured and all.

Doom

[happy_doughnut]

I'm one of those people that always reads the food labels. I mean, for most things that I eat (and given that they have the "nutrition" facts) I just have to read it - I do this to know how many calories I will be eating with that food. Then, I proceed to add up the present calories to the ones I've already eaten. This way, I know how many more calories are "Ok" to eat before I reach the average 2,000 daily calorie diet.

Now, the thing is that even though this may sound crazy, I really do do this. BUT, the awkward thing is that I do this just for doing it.

I mean, I eat whatever. Really. If I'm hungry, I eat something. I'm not about to deprive myself of something I want to eat just so I can look "better" (okay, okay... "decent" ) or anything. So long as I'm pretty healthy, I'm ok!

What Rei said was awesome: why should we please all our other senses, but not our taste? Sure, when taken over the limit, serious consequences can come about. However, I personally think that this over eating or what not is a form of gluttony. But then again, anything can be abused. This is why we should be conscientous about what we eat, and this means being conscious about what we should and shouldn't eat.

All in all, I think food is cool. ^__^ What a better way to sweeten life than by chocolate? I think that food is something that we should enjoy (properly), but there are those who disagree, and to them - hey, more food for me.

So yeah, I strangly look at the nutrition panel, like I care, when I really... well, I guess I just want to read something, you know? :p

[Pu the Owl]

My relation with food is pretty bad. Let's say it's horrible. I'm obsessed. I started a diet 6 years ago because I felt I was too fat and I was going to be even fatter (but I wasn't that fat, frankly..), I went to a dietist and diligently followed his directions, but after that I discovered I was trapped. I felt that if I could lose weight eating less, I could eat less and less and less... First I started eating only few vegetables (I was vegetarian, but I could eat eggs, cheese, honey and stuff like that). Then I started skipping few meals, just in case... I ended avoiding food completely. At that point it was obvious my relation with food was distorted and that I developed eating disorders. Now I'm underweight. I should gain a lot to reach my ideal weight. With a lot I really mean a lot. But whenever I think about it I feel dizzy. People are always telling me I look like a 12 years old girl, that I'm ugly, that I should gain weight. I don't weight myself anymore, I don't count calories anymore, I threw away scales because I was going crazy. I had that phase, but now I feel I just don't care or simply I don't want to know. I have something like... 2 meals every week. During the rest of the week I don't eat anything. I don't feel like I'm allowed to have anything, and anyway if I eat more than twice I lose control and feel sick or paranoid.

The sad thing is I love food. But I hate it at the same time. Makes me feel weak, powerless. But I realize being trapped like that, keeping on living with this state of mind is what makes you powerless. I'd like to be pleased, like Rei said, I wouldn't want to deprive myself of the freedom to do what I like, which includes food too, but at the moment I don't think I can.

Well... I'm being pathetic now, so I'll just shut up

[merylsilverburg]

Originally Posted by Panuru

My relation with food is pretty bad. Let's say it's horrible. I'm obsessed. I started a diet 6 years ago because I felt I was too fat and I was going to be even fatter (but I wasn't that fat, frankly..), I went to a dietist and diligently followed his directions, but after that I discovered I was trapped. I felt that if I could lose weight eating less, I could eat less and less and less... First I started eating only few vegetables (I was vegetarian, but I could eat eggs, cheese, honey and stuff like that). Then I started skipping few meals, just in case... I ended avoiding food completely. At that point it was obvious my relation with food was distorted and that I developed eating disorders. Now I'm underweight. I should gain a lot to reach my ideal weight. With a lot I really mean a lot. But whenever I think about it I feel dizzy. People are always telling me I look like a 12 years old girl, that I'm ugly, that I should gain weight. I don't weight myself anymore, I don't count calories anymore, I threw away scales because I was going crazy. I had that phase, but now I feel I just don't care or simply I don't want to know. I have something like... 2 meals every week. During the rest of the week I don't eat anything. I don't feel like I'm allowed to have anything, and anyway if I eat more than twice I lose control and feel sick or paranoid.

The sad thing is I love food. But I hate it at the same time. Makes me feel weak, powerless. But I realize being trapped like that, keeping on living with this state of mind is what makes you powerless. I'd like to be pleased, like Rei said, I wouldn't want to deprive myself of the freedom to do what I like, which includes food too, but at the moment I don't think I can.

Well... I'm being pathetic now, so I'll just shut up

Yikes! That's terrible Panuru. No wonder you look so thin in your photos. I just thought you were naturally that way.

The situation you're in now is very bad and you probably don't need me to say what you already know, but you really need to get yourself back and healthy again. It's definitely not good for you to be so underweight and so obsessed...the fact that you're only having 2 meals a week or that you feel dizzy thinking about food or eating more really shows you're having a psychological anorexia disorder. That's dangerous, I'm surprised you haven't ended up in the hospital or something!

Maybe you can try to take it a step at a time...of course, it's going to be difficult and you may not want to try it, but if you definitely want to get healthy and gain the weight you need, it doesn't hurt to give it a try or set your mind to it. Take it a step at a time...eating small or large quantities is definitely going to make you sick (throw up) because your body hasn't had so much food for a long time and your stomach is probably the size of a golf ball, so it's going to be tough. If eating makes you feel very sick, you can try to drink liquids, like shakes or smoothies or something that has the nutrition you need (vitamins, vegetables, fruits, etc.). I would highly suggest you still see a doctor since this is something you won't be able to get over by yourself (it's very rare that people do it on their own).

I probably (and don't mean to!) sound like a nutritionist or some kind of health expert, but it's just that I was on the brink of anorexia about 6/7 years ago. It's was stupid of me since I was just reaching the young adult age where I should be eating more, but I felt I was too fat so I just started eating puny, micro-meals a day (like oh, a small box of fish or some crackers for dinner....let's just say I was on the South Beach Diet even before there was a South Beach Diet!). It was very bad and I started getting all pale and sickly looking and lacked energy all the time (plus, I was slightly depressed which didn't help). After that, my sister finally convinced me to eat more, so I did and now, I felt so ashamed for being so foolish and so "girly" back then. There's a difference between being healthy and being under-weight, which is why I'm concerned.

[IcyMourdor]

Food is a weird thing to me. I would eat and eat all the time. However, I didn't do much exercise other than football practice. I built up a load of weight (was 230 pounds at one point) while I was a lineman for the team. I am pretty short compared to most males (5'8"), so I showed almost every pound of it.

It didn't change my mood about food. Might have been depression, lonelyness, or whatever. I would just eat and eat.

Now, I eat a lot better. Food isn't one of my main things in my day anymore. I finally eat healthy (oddly enough it was after I moved out of my parent's place). Food is just something I eat to surpress hunger now. I don't go and eat junkfood or fast food much anymore. Since then, I am down to 185-190 (screw you Jarod) and look a lot better.

Food, just like any other drug. Addictive and can be a hazard if you have too much of it.

[Berserker]

I'm always well aware of what I eat and what it contains nutritional-wise.
I've been bodybuilding for almost 3,5 years now and through that time I've become more and more fanatical concerning my nutrition since it's THE most important part of bodybuilding. I have to eat and I have to eat a lot but only "clean" food. During bulk I eat a lot of complexe carbs and protein during cut I eat mostly protein and I never eat a lot of saturated fats. Every once in a while I have a cheat day and I'll eat pizza, burgers etc.
With me moving out of house recently I haven't trained for 4/5 weeks and I've been eating worst than ever, I've started dieting and training two days ago and I really missed the feeling(hard to believe for some people maybe).
Sometimes I get tired of myself reading every nutritional value before I buy something in the supermarket, but it's worth it in the end.

[tempted]

Let's see, food huh? well I love to eat and I’m not really picky about it either, ok maybe I am but I still love to eat... people used to think I didn't eat, and it was a complete stupidity because I always ate a lot and I mean a lot but until I turned 18 food seemed as if it didn't work on my body because I was so skinny...now after I turned 18 I gained a lot of weight..(Didn’t get fat or anything...but I gained a lot of weight)...but now I’m back at being skinny again...and I didn't do and I don't do diets of any sort...and I usually don't pay much attention to what I’m eating, like if it has too many calories or not, or if it's too fat or not. I love to eat so who cares if it's bad ...it tastes good ...I guess I’m lucky because I can eat anything that it doesn't makes me feel bad or gain weight cause well I seem to lose it afterwards...without any effort ...yay me!

[RobHardo]

well let me say this, food is one of my best friends, but you wouldnt think so by my physique(spelling?) My metabolism burns stuff dow to fast so i gain steady weight, healthy weight. I eat like 3 servings of food at every meal(5 bowls of cereal on average, or 6 waffles) I am guessing I got lucky on the wheel of fortune which is life genetics. I'm sure my metabolism will slow, but until then I am going to indulge one of the seven deadly sins, gluttony(though im not gluttonous).

[squirms_619]

I'm a very picky eater. I've been trying to change that and its going pretty well. I have expanded my food range to seseme chicken, ramen noodle soup, beef, burger king, any kind of Italian food, that's pretty good considering i only ate ramen noodle soup and chicken before. Chicken is my fav!!!

[Faile]

On the subject of food, is anybody here a vegan? I'm thinking a lot about becoming vegan at the moment. Guilt is kicking in over meat and the way we exploit animals.

But yes, Is anyone here a vegan? If so, would you consider the transition across to be easy or will it fry my mind?

[Piggle_humsy]

Ooh what an interesting topic!
My relationship with food is as follows: I love food..food loves my hips!
I am forever on diets n stuff.. Although I don't really eat anything too bad, I love my veg n certain fruits..I just don't exercise enough, partly to do with me having no confidence so not wanting to leave the house..If I had more confidence then I'd walk my dogs and jog n stuff coz I'd like to do it I just can't bring myself to go outside. Hopefully that's gonna change soon..I'm getting better.
I've joined this thing called Fat Nation..which is a programme they've started over here to try and make the nation healthier ...
Fat Nation - Big Challenge
I find it really encouraging to watch as it shows that your not alone, and they set you tasks each week which you have to complete and you enter all the information in your personal locker.
Its very helpful.
I always manage to lose the weight but can never keep it off..Hopefully this time it'll stay off. *fingers crossed*

Piggle
x x x x

[merylsilverburg]

Originally Posted by Faile

On the subject of food, is anybody here a vegan? I'm thinking a lot about becoming vegan at the moment. Guilt is kicking in over meat and the way we exploit animals.

But yes, Is anyone here a vegan? If so, would you consider the transition across to be easy or will it fry my mind?

I'm not a vegan, but in my town, it's filled with vegans/vegetarians and they come into the restaurant where I work (or used to), so I know a little bit about their lifestyle: *NOTE: I do not claim to know their lifestyle 100% since I only know the eating style from working at the restaurant, so if a vegan/vegetarian is actually on these forums, please don't start shouting at me with "Why are you saying lies?!" or "What are you talking about?!"*

1. I believe the transition will be easy if your mind is definitely set to not eating meat for the rest of your life because of your reasons (animals, health, etc.). If these reasons become almost religious, the transition will be simple as pie.

2. It's not easy if you really love meat because the meat-eater-turned-vegetarian/vegan will definitely crave meat if they use to eat and love meat. Many, many couples have come in where one partner eats meat and the other doesn't. The one who eats meat must, all of a sudden, become a semi-vegetarian/vegan around their veggie eating girlfriends/boyfriends because they will be offended if they see their partner eat meat. So, the meat-eater will definitely have problems in this area since they normally (or used to) eat meat all the time and then the sudden transition causes their minds to go "haywire". So, they will start craving for burgers and chicken and the rest.

3. There's a difference between a vegan and a vegetarian, so Faile, you gotta make sure you know which one you want to be.

- A vegan eats literally everything organic and nothing else...they don't drink/eat dairy (because it comes from a cow), they don't eat eggs (because it comes from a chicken), they don't eat chocolate (because there's milk in chocolate), they don't eat fish (because a fish is an animal) and so on.

- A vegetarian can eat (depending on them) eggs, fish, chicken broth, etc. Just as long as the vegetarians don't see a face (like, a fish head, duck head, etc.) or see any part of the animal's body (like a chicken wing or a leg of ham), then they will/can eat it.

Um...I think that's about it. At least to my knowledge. Hope this helps somewhat.

[Faile]

Thanks for that. I am aware of the differences there between being a Vegan and Vegetarianism so I'm pretty sure of what I would be doing. I have a long list of foodstuffs that I would be allowed to eat. The partner thing wouldn't be a problem as my girlfriend is a vegetarian already. It's just me dragging us down.

It's just taking the step I guess. Still thinking it through. Am lazy at decisions.

[Berserker]

you can't wear leather, wool etc.etc. either as a vegan right???

[Hylas]

Originally Posted by beserker

you can't wear leather, wool etc.etc. either as a vegan right???

You're right, in theory vegans refuse to wear leather, but not wool I think. I know some vegans, they also pay attention to what soaps or shampoos they use etc. But they say sometimes they're forced to use products they wouldn't like to use, because it's difficult to be completely aware of what products are made with animal, because tags don't tell the truth, because stores and shops, often are against or don't pay attention to what they are really offering.


Back to topic: I eat anything, I love food, I've never really tried diets. I think my natural diet is already balanced and healthy enough. I like sweets and stuff like that, but I mostly like milk, honey and even when I eat sweets I prefer those which are not industrial products. I love cheese and grilled vegetables. I don't eat much meat, but lately I enjoy having fish, especially fresh salmon. I'm very picky when it comes to fruits. I want them to be biologically safe, same for most products containing cereals. They're a little more expensive than average products, but they taste better and you know what you're eating. I don't want to be poisoned by some apple like Snowwhite

[Berserker]

Over here they're a lot more expensive
But they're thinking of putting tax on unhealthy "bad" food, so maybe they can lower the prices of biological food but that probably won't happen.