(no subject)

[ringsandcoffee]

I'm sick of being told/reading about things that are "bad" for me. Salt. Butter. Margarine. Refined sugar and flour. High fructose corn syrup. Dairy products. Coffee/caffeine. Red meat. ANY meat. Pasta. Fruit juice (even 100%). Additives. Nitrates. Pesticides, growth hormones, animals fed antibiotics, don't eat raw egg products, genetically modified soy will make hair grow in your mouth (at least if you're a rat). Do you really know what's in your chicken nuggets or your hamburger? This, that, and something else. Shoot, in college I got news stories emailed to me. I think I got general news, entertainment, and health and science articles. In the same email, one article would tell me the newest thing that will give me cancer, and then another article saying I can avoid cancer by doing XYZ.

My iced latte is a trifecta of poison - caffeine, dairy, and refined sugar! I'm sure the water used to make the ice and coffee is tainted too. Someone posted a link about the health evils of dairy. If I believed everything I read or was told, I might kill myself or become a severe hypochondriac. Shoot, I don't know how I survived this long, or how my grandparents lived as long as they did.

A big part of this is probably my pride rebelling. Who likes to be told what to do? Some order is good, and making good choices. But when one video claims dairy is poison and another video tells about how Swiss cheese has been made for centuries, what is a person to think? I tend toward thinking the former is crazy. Thousands of years, people. Yes, all the processed food we eat now is not good, but foods that have been eaten for THOUSANDS of years? Suddenly some scientist decided that's basically wrong?

I think I'm just in a bad mood tonight, even after baking lemon pound cake. Don't know what my problem is. Oh maybe that the field I would like to enter, cooking, seems to be limited by all the food someone's going to say I shouldn't make or serve.

Comments

[ewanspotter.livejournal.com]

You'd never eat anything tasty if all those (naturally skinny nutrition) have their say.

[ringsandcoffee.livejournal.com]

To her credit, my nutrition professor was one of the people who found compounds in dark chocolate are good for your heart. She even wrote a book that included this!

I have White Blank Page, Sigh No More, and The Cave on repeat. :D

[ewanspotter.livejournal.com]

... as you should.

So I take it you enjoyed the concert?

[ringsandcoffee.livejournal.com]

Yes, very much. :D

[roseleaf.livejournal.com]

All thing in moderation. Those studies all test such HUGE amounts of things; it's ridiculous. And then the media takes the recommendations and exaggerates ridiculously. Like caffeine in pregnancy. Studies have found some possible correlation between caffeine in the first trimester and miscarriage. So now people think you're horrible for drinking caffeine while pregnant, but the actual recommendation is that you not drink over 200 mgs a day. If you've got a five latte a day habit, it might be problematic, but a medium espresso drink or a couple of cups of coffee easily fit into that limit.

The things that concern me are the things that would naturally be in moderation, but in processing become ridiculously higher amounts that what we'd ingest otherwise, like sodium, high fructose corn syrup, antibiotics in meat. We're not crazy about it, though, just trying to cut back reasonably and gradually. And I only buy cage free eggs after watching Napoleon Dynamite. :-)

[ringsandcoffee.livejournal.com]

Yes, moderation! That and more physical activity. I remember when the caffeine/miscarriage article came out. It was a small correlation, NOTHING pointing to a cause. Unfortunaltely, many people don't know that correlation does not equal causation.

I need to watch Napoleon Dynamite all the way through. I've seen most of it in the two times it was on.

[sewcute.livejournal.com]

It's SO tough!!

I read an article about the sun today and it made me think of you :)

So how do you know what to do?! Life's a bitch!

[ringsandcoffee.livejournal.com]

Oh gosh, I spent 2 days in the sun this week, one without sunscreen on. Yay for getting a tan early.

I consider myself pretty well read and informed, and know who to believe and who to blow off. Still, I get sick of the extremists who tell me I'm baically eating poison. Um, it's cheese.

[bowiechaser.livejournal.com]

AMEN, sister. While I naturally have opinions about what's healthier, I am also tired of hearing all this stuff.
That said, last night I treated myself to a ridiculous dinner:
prime rib w/a loaded baked 'tater plus green beans & bacon, bread with "butter" (was likely margarine), a blended alcoholic beverage, and a warm choc chip cookie w/a scoop of ice cream. OH, and part of a sampler platter that had crispy fried cuke strips, buffalo chix strips, shrimp, and 'tater skins. I think that meal, all by itself, was over my daily ration of calories & fat!! BUT IT WAS DEEEEEEELICIOUS! As my mom would put it: just don't do it all the time, but once in a while? Who cares? lol I think she's right.

Mmmm, lemon pound cake!