I completely agree and I find it so frustrating this demonizing of food that goes on nowadays, especially with the big transition into "whole foods" and "natural/organic lifestyles". I am so sick of it! I find it absolutely exhausting feeling bad about all the "evil" food I eat.
We need to stop seeing food as good and evil or healthy and unhealthy. No single food is this way! I see a correlation between what we eat and disease but not causation. My motto: everything in moderation. This includes aspartame, hfcs, splenda, Doritos, ice cream, no sugar added jello, rice cakes, fake chocolate syrup, etc.
elvis, I'm so sorry to hear about that. Bless your heart. You have a huge challenge ahead of you. I had my hyste when I was 38. I welcomed it. I was done with having kids and was sick and tired of bleeding to death. I felt so much better.
Prayers are yours. Please keep us updated. You don't have to go through this alone.
Sorry to jack the thread but wanted to acknowledge elvis. I saw her post somewhere else on here and didn't comment then.
Thank you so much, cbmare. I plan on fighting this with all I have and hopefully will have a baby when all is said and done. Cancer has messed with the wrong chick. It just makes me sad to think I ate myself into cancer. None of the food was worth it, none of it.
Elvis so sorry you are dealing with such issues.
I am sending prayers and positive thoughts your way.
You are such a strong person and I think that helps when we are dealing with any health issues .
I have watched your progress and been impressed with your common sense and compassion and sense of humor.
Hoping all your dreams come true.
I would love to be your Fairy God Mother and wave by Magic Wand ...but since I can't....I'll send you a big Hug and know ...I will always be pulling for you and wishing you well
I enjoyed reading all the replies. Part of the reason for starting this topic was due to an aunt who passed away a month ago due to colon cancer at the age of 60. She was my entire world. She passed away in less than two months of her diagnosis. What bugs me the most about this is that she was someone who was active her whole life. Her diet wasn't perfect but she never smoke or drank and her diet was such that her cholesterol, blood sugar, pretty much everything has always been within the normal range. She was the type of person who would go see a doctor only if something was troubling her. So the cancer went undetected this entire time until she started to feel tired and experienced pain in her abdomen (the cancer had spread to many places, including her liver) so it was too late by then. What bugs me about this entire thing was that she was relatively healthy with no history of cancer in her family. But the pain was managed through painkillers and when it was her time she went very quickly.
I have a great aunt who passed away a few days ago as well. She was in her late 70s. This woman had been obese and battled diabetes her entire life and for the past 10-12 years had been in and out of the hospital constantly due to diabetes related complications related to her kidneys and having to go through dialysis for so long. She really, truly suffered.
Here's the thing. I understand that death is imminent and no diet in the world is going to keep us alive forever. And after reading all the replies I understand the absolute nitty gritty of it does not matter. Death is going to get you one way or another. But that we should do the best we can so that whatever life we do have isn't spent in suffering due to the diet-related choices we've made.
I completely agree and I find it so frustrating this demonizing of food that goes on nowadays, especially with the big transition into "whole foods" and "natural/organic lifestyles". I am so sick of it! I find it absolutely exhausting feeling bad about all the "evil" food I eat.
We need to stop seeing food as good and evil or healthy and unhealthy. No single food is this way! I see a correlation between what we eat and disease but not causation. My motto: everything in moderation. This includes aspartame, hfcs, splenda, Doritos, ice cream, no sugar added jello, rice cakes, fake chocolate syrup, etc.
I believe the whole food diet will save people's lives. I also used to think "everything in moderation" was the key to life but moderation turned out to be just an excuse. One day I eat cheetos, the next day chip, the next day cookies, the next day diet coke, and on and on and on. By the time I get around to having cheetos again I can safely say "I haven't had cheetos in weeks" so yes that's moderation from cheetos but all the other days in between were filled with moderately eaten crappy foods.
There is no single good excuse for eating sugar substitutes, ever ever ever. If I want chocolate, I'll eat a piece of real chocolate. If I allow myself to believe that fake chocolate syrup is anything other than plastic or whatever the heck is in there then I'd allow myself to eat it.
We can do so much better for ourselves. We deserve so much better than the cheap crap they try to sell us.
I believe most of the worry and confusion could be cleared up with experimentation and a daily health-focused journal Quarterly blood screening and check-ups would be an ideal addition.
Since using these tools, I've discovered that I fell best on a lowish carb, paleo diet. Unfortunately, I have a hard time sticking to the diet I feel best (and have the best bloodwork results) on. I also know the diet I feel worst on, a high carb diet especially one that's also high in fat, low in protein, and highly processed.
My goal is to make more and more changes that move my woe (way of eating) closer and closer to my best WOE and further and further from my worst.
I think we're taught to ignore the obvious, and to judge food almost exclusively by flavor. If it tastes good and doesn't almost immediately result in severe illness, we tend not to look any further for clues as to how are diet is affecting our health. Since adolescence, I thought I had rosacea and very sensitive skin prone to breakouts. When I switched to low-carb, 90% of my skin issues vanished. For the first time since 5th grade, I had beautiful skin, and loved how I looked without makeup.
Sadly, if I hadn't experimented with diets are or at least have often been seen as unheathy and/or unrealistically extreme, I wouldn't have discovered the connection (and if I hadn't experimented further I wouldn't have learned that grains moreso than the carb content itself that was responsible for the skin issues).
Awwww, thank you so much for that Roo. You made my whole day.
Lady Petite, I am so sorry for your recent losses. I know how much your heart hurts. I hope you find comfort in your happy memories.
None of us know our future or how we will come to our end but I am determined to make the rest of my life the best of my life...diet-wise and everything else.
I believe the whole food diet will save people's lives. I also used to think "everything in moderation" was the key to life but moderation turned out to be just an excuse. One day I eat cheetos, the next day chip, the next day cookies, the next day diet coke, and on and on and on. By the time I get around to having cheetos again I can safely say "I haven't had cheetos in weeks" so yes that's moderation from cheetos but all the other days in between were filled with moderately eaten crappy foods.
There is no single good excuse for eating sugar substitutes, ever ever ever. If I want chocolate, I'll eat a piece of real chocolate. If I allow myself to believe that fake chocolate syrup is anything other than plastic or whatever the heck is in there then I'd allow myself to eat it.
We can do so much better for ourselves. We deserve so much better than the cheap crap they try to sell us.
It's going to be hard to explain myself but here goes. For me, "everything in moderation" is a personal thing and can be seen as having "balance" in life. I judge for myself what moderation really is and I think we all have a good idea of what that is (like a food concience) For some of us that tend to struggle with weightloss (me included) we ignore those. To make it easier, I lump "junk" together as a food group, I don't separate cheetos from chips. They are the same to me. If I indulge in a handful of chips on Tuesday, I'm not going to reach for Cheetos the next day because I already had "junk" the day before. Just like calorie counting, you have to figure out what works for you (whether it's 1200 calories a day or 1500, a handful of chips a day or once a week).
I enjoy sugar substitutes a great deal and use them as a tool in my weightloss. I still use real sugar but have done enough of my own research to feel fine with consuming Splenda and Aspartame IN MODERATION. I'll stay away from Stevia due to the lack of research and that it's a "natural product" and therefore is regulated differently.
I will go so far as to say that there is a great deal on this earth that is natural and NOT good for you.
Sadly, if I hadn't experimented with diets are or at least have often been seen as unheathy and/or unrealistically extreme, I wouldn't have discovered the connection (and if I hadn't experimented further I wouldn't have learned that grains moreso than the carb content itself that was responsible for the skin issues).
Grains? I realize they are high in carbs but I thought grains (quinoa and the like) were OK because they are a slow burning carb.
Do you avoid all grains? No high fiber cereal or anything like that?
Grains? I realize they are high in carbs but I thought grains (quinoa and the like) were OK because they are a slow burning carb.
Do you avoid all grains? No high fiber cereal or anything like that?
What do you eat to make you feel full?
Yep, no high fiber cereal or anything like that. The paleo-primal diet does avoid all grains and legumes if you go that route.
I myself tend to be low carb, I can't stay away from all grains because it kind of makes me..... into a crazy b*&^* and prompts me to binge. But I avoid wheat as much as I can and only dabble in a little rice and potatoes here and there to satisfy my carb cravings. Cereal is kind of like the devil, makes me hungrier even as I eat it. I get lots of fiber from the massive amounts of raw vegetables I consume. Protein makes you feel full too.
It's going to be hard to explain myself but here goes. For me, "everything in moderation" is a personal thing and can be seen as having "balance" in life. I judge for myself what moderation really is and I think we all have a good idea of what that is (like a food concience) For some of us that tend to struggle with weightloss (me included) we ignore those. To make it easier, I lump "junk" together as a food group, I don't separate cheetos from chips. They are the same to me. If I indulge in a handful of chips on Tuesday, I'm not going to reach for Cheetos the next day because I already had "junk" the day before. Just like calorie counting, you have to figure out what works for you (whether it's 1200 calories a day or 1500, a handful of chips a day or once a week).
I enjoy sugar substitutes a great deal and use them as a tool in my weightloss. I still use real sugar but have done enough of my own research to feel fine with consuming Splenda and Aspartame IN MODERATION. I'll stay away from Stevia due to the lack of research and that it's a "natural product" and therefore is regulated differently.
I will go so far as to say that there is a great deal on this earth that is natural and NOT good for you.
Of course everyone has to do what works for them. I have a toddler though and I have to be very careful not expose him to sugar or sugar substitutes, these have caused a lot of damage to a lot of people, it has taken me a long time to not rely on them and a long time to see them as what they are - poison. I want my son to grow up without these looming over him as an addiction like I have. And for that I have to walk the walk myself.
Once in a blue moon I do indulge in a diet pepsi. But I'm not going to lie, quitting Equal and quitting diet soda was probably the hardest thing I ever had to do when I did it a few years ago. It is also one of my proudest accomplishments.
Grains? I realize they are high in carbs but I thought grains (quinoa and the like) were OK because they are a slow burning carb.
Do you avoid all grains? No high fiber cereal or anything like that?
What do you eat to make you feel full?
Sorry for taking so long to respond. I'm not on here as regularly as in the past for multiple reasons.
For me, I do try to eat very few grains (and very small portions when I do choose grain or high-carb foods).
As to whether high fiber grains are "ok" because they're slow-burning, that might very well be true for many, even most people. I tried to be clear that I was talking only about myself, not for everyone, and that really was my main point - that different people have different food issues making a food that's healthy for one person, not so healthy for another.
Some paleo and low-carb "experts" argue that the human digestive tract really isn't suited for any grains, but I'm not saying that, and I'm not even saying that grains aren't perfectly healthy for some people.
I used my food and health journal to look for patterns, and I found a link between grain eating and certain symptoms (such as gas, bloating, nausea, skin rashes, severe fatigue, pain and other arthritis and fibromyalgia symptoms... and just generally feeling crappy).
Even high protein, gluten-free grains like quinoa weren't completely safe (again for me).
I do eat small portions of grains several times a week, and if I notice symptoms, I'll go completely grain free for at least a week, just to get my system back in order.
I view grains the way some people view high-calorie desserts, as an occasional "cheat" or indulgence, and I try to pick those that are least likely to trigger symptoms (and I determined which those were through experimenting and documenting it all in my health/fitness/food journal).
It takes A LOT OF quinoa to trigger the symptoms of one bite of bread, so I avoid gluten grains first and foremost. I sort of have the hierarchy in my head. Of the grains and pseudograins quinoa, millet, and wild rice seem to be the "safest" for me. Potatoes (sweet and white) in reasonable amounts trigger far fewer symptoms, but they're very easy for me to overeat. If I'm going to have some potato, I try to choose either sweet potato or waxy potatoes (the smooth skinned potatoes, which are higher in water, lower in starch and calories, and I find them more filling). I also eat oatmeal (without sugar) occasionally. I've never had a reaction from oatmeal, but I never eat it frequently enough to notice a pattern.
As to what I eat to make me feel full, the answer is mostly vegetables. I once read that when the Dept of Agriculture recommended 5 servings of fruits and vegetables, based on research that actually found the most health benefits in diets containing 10 servings or more. Supposedly they went with 5 servings pr day because the average intake in the USA was less than 2. They didn't believe that Americans would take a 10 serving recommendation seriously.
I feel my absolute best when I have 8 to 12 servings of vegetables, and less than 1 serving of grain. In the winter, my fruit and veg intake tends to drop to 5 to 8 servings, and I have to increase it gradually because I have IBS (though when I'm grain-free I have much fewer and less severe flares - it's still a good idea to increase or decrease fiber intake gradually if you're going to make any changes).
The nice thing about eating 10 servings of fruits and vegetables (mostly veggies because most fruits tend to be too high in calorie to eat 10 servings), is that you get to eat a LOT.
My mom is a nurse and she has a favorite saying, "Living kills"
Might not be deep and meaningful but I think there is something to it. As far as my lifestyle goes I'm right there with the fellow paleo folks out there. It's hard to mess up on real food.
It just makes me sad to think I ate myself into cancer. None of the food was worth it, none of it. 
Elvis so sorry you are dealing with such issues.
