Shopping for healthier food. Need Help.

[jespah]

Hope I'm not too late to chime in.

You can get delivery of some foods from Amazon (quality and prices vary, understand that). One good company is Bob's Red Mill. They sell a lot of grains and many of them are either free shipping or you can get them as subscribe & save which means free shipping + a discount for signing up for continuing buys (which you can put off). We eat the quinoa, bulgur and flaxseed from them.

 

[sojourner]

What the hell was the "paleo" fad?

 

[thestrangequark]

What the hell was the "paleo" fad?

It's an exceptionally stupid fad diet called the Paleo Diet. Basically, some idiots picked an arbitrary point in the history of human evolution and decided that the way they imagined people ate back then is the way we are "meant" to eat. The diet itself is perfectly healthy -- your standard low carb, high in fruit and veg, no processed foods, no refined sugars and grains diet. But the reasoning, if one can call it that, is solidly idiotic, and its proponents are very preachy. Preachy and stupid.

 

[Kenbushway]

Thanks for all the suggestions, I will definitely pay attention to herbs and spices over fats for flavoring. I didn't pay much attention to the pasta's on here so I can understand turning away from the spaghetti one. I went with this site because it wasn't asking for fancy ingredients(like all recipes/food network) For the most point what we eat now is all packaged so eating actual food is healthier in my view. I know what you are talking about with organic vs regular; its not the nutrition its the shit put in the soil that people worry about. Overall not having synthetic chemicals in your system is better.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

In the summer:

Buy a variety of vegetables that are good raw, (zucchini, peppers, beans, tomatoes, carrots.. avoid iceberg lettuce, it is only water) and cut them into bit sized pieces. Add cubes of cheese, sprinkle with lemon juice or balsamic vinegar. Have the most wholemeally or rye-ish bread you can find on the side and eat.

In the winter:

Buy vegetables good for baking, potato, squashes, beets, onions, turnips, and bake them in the oven. Shake some herbs on them towards the end, and some grated cheese towards the end and eat.

If you don't have any idea what you're doing start with basic foods and get into the flavours and textures and familiarize yourself with them. A meal doesn't always have to be something with a name and a sauce.

Also if you don't have one buy a slow cooker for the winter months. You can't fail with them and it will make a lot of food.

 

[Tora Ziyal]

^ My kind of cooking (though I also use a lot of frozen veggies, because I'm too likely to let fresh ones wilt). Especially this:

A meal doesn't always have to be something with a name and a sauce.

 

[MacLeod]

Not sure how healthy the recipes are on a site where the main page has chicken and waffles, creamed chicken and biscuits, and peanut butter chocolate cake as the first things presented.

That doesn't look like what my grandma cooked at all.

Also, as soon as I saw some abomination called "spaghetti lasagna", I stopped reading.

Don't blame you, don't think it's something I would try. And I don't mind either spaghetti or Lasagna.

But back to the OP question. Healthy eating doesn't mean you have to cut out your favourite food or comfort food. Just that you have to have it in moderation. Check nuturtional information on packing, after all a product might be lower in say fat or salt but could be higher in something else.

You've also got to consider what of life style you use, there are guidlines for recommended daily intake of vitamins, minerals, salt etc.. but that's the average.

If you use full fat milk, go to half-fat milk.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Whatever they've done to improve frozen vegies is impressive. Last time I had some I noticed they were frozen pretty much raw, snap locked broccoli that defrosted crispy and tender.

Oh and the bread thing, you know you can freeze bread kbushway? If you manage to find a really good wholesome bread slice it and freeze it so you always have something healthy to have with your meal if you are wanting carbs. I'm going to assume that since you are a young male you are going to be wanting carbs. Myself, I could eat a bowl of snow peas for dinner and be happy. I know this is odd advice but I've had a lot of people act shocked that you can freeze bread over the years.

 

[thestrangequark]

Thanks for all the suggestions, I will definitely pay attention to herbs and spices over fats for flavoring. I didn't pay much attention to the pasta's on here so I can understand turning away from the spaghetti one. I went with this site because it wasn't asking for fancy ingredients(like all recipes/food network) For the most point what we eat now is all packaged so eating actual food is healthier in my view. I know what you are talking about with organic vs regular; its not the nutrition its the shit put in the soil that people worry about. Overall not having synthetic chemicals in your system is better.

Everything is chemicals, dear. The "organic" versus traditional is a very complex debate, but really, it's nothing you have to worry about in regards to your health. In a very well-conducted systematic review, the only difference found between organic and traditional produce was a possible slightly lower amount of exposure to inorganic pesticides on organic produce, though none of the studies reviewed amounts of organic pesticides, and the amount of pesticide on traditional produce was well below safety limits. Remember, the idea that some things are "natural" and some are "chemical" is a false dichotomy, and the idea that something "natural" is automatically good for you is an Appeal to Nature, and not true.
"Organic" as a label in the US doesn't tell you anything about the healthfulness of the food item. What it does tell you is that the farm where the food came from adhered to a list of completely unrelated standards that fall under the legal umbrella term "organic." This is more about politics and marketing than anything else.

That's not to say that all practices labeled "organic" are arbitrary. Some of the agricultural practices under that umbrella term are better for the environment, but the lobbying and litigation involved in labeling mean you never really know what you're getting -- as I said before, the label is all about making you pay more, not about your health or the environment's. So, if you really care about sustainable practices and really are scared of "chemicals" (but again, everything is chemicals, and traditional produce are perfectly safe and healthful), then you need to research the farms from where you buy and choose biodiverse, sustainable farms. This is very time consuming, though. If all you're worried about is your health, and you see a bag of apples for $.99/lb and a bag of organic apples for $2.99/lb, get the cheaper bag. The difference in your health comes from eating fresh apples as a snack over frozen apple fritters, not from eating "organic" apples over traditional apples.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

http://www.grandmaskitchen.com/recipes/tasty-side-dishes/quick-corn-pudding

This is so disgusting sounding!

Creamed corn (blech), canned corn, sour cream (there goes your heart) and packaged corn muffin mix. That's the first veg thing I saw there.

Just make corn bread with polenta, flour, eggs and milk.

It really disgusts me how simple things are now in pre-made mixes pumped full of salt and weird ass sugars.

 

[thestrangequark]

^Yeah, KB you might want to try a better website for healthful recipes. Or check the Going Veggie thread here, there are a lot ove healthy recipes in there.

Whatever they've done to improve frozen vegies is impressive. Last time I had some I noticed they were frozen pretty much raw, snap locked broccoli that defrosted crispy and tender.

Oh and the bread thing, you know you can freeze bread kbushway? If you manage to find a really good wholesome bread slice it and freeze it so you always have something healthy to have with your meal if you are wanting carbs. I'm going to assume that since you are a young male you are going to be wanting carbs. Myself, I could eat a bowl of snow peas for dinner and be happy. I know this is odd advice but I've had a lot of people act shocked that you can freeze bread over the years.

My mom lives alone but loves to bake, so she ends up baking a few different loaves of bread, and sometimes little cakes for dessert, and then freezing them in single serving containers, which is super convenient. She always has the most amazing options: beer bread, pretzel bread, low sugar zucchini bread, wheat bread, herman (sort of a cake-like sourdough apple bread), etc. I don't really eat bread, as I get all the carbs I need from fruit, veggies, and beans, but it's great when I'm on vacation for a treat.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Seriously this grandmas kitchen is the most disgusting recipe site. I see "Chilled Watermelon Salad", that sounds promising. Now where I live that means cubes of watermelon and balls of some kind of cheese like boccocini or slices of salty haloumi for contrast. OR maybe it is cubes of watermelon with mint and some cucumber.

Here we get something that I thought was put out of its misery in the 70's.

http://www.grandmaskitchen.com/recipes/memorable-salads/chilled-watermelon-salad

Watermelon entombed in strawberry jello covered with cream cheese and whipped cream.

This is not a salad.

 

[Miss Chicken]

Re: Shopping for healthier food. Need Help

A better source for recipes is Sparkpeople Recipes. It lists the number of calories, grams of fat etc for every recipe.

 

[Kenbushway]

In the summer:

Buy a variety of vegetables that are good raw, (zucchini, peppers, beans, tomatoes, carrots.. avoid iceberg lettuce, it is only water) and cut them into bit sized pieces. Add cubes of cheese, sprinkle with lemon juice or balsamic vinegar. Have the most wholemeally or rye-ish bread you can find on the side and eat.

In the winter:

Buy vegetables good for baking, potato, squashes, beets, onions, turnips, and bake them in the oven. Shake some herbs on them towards the end, and some grated cheese towards the end and eat.

If you don't have any idea what you're doing start with basic foods and get into the flavours and textures and familiarize yourself with them. A meal doesn't always have to be something with a name and a sauce.

Also if you don't have one buy a slow cooker for the winter months. You can't fail with them and it will make a lot of food.

I will try the ideas definitely, seems simple enough even for me. I'vebeen looking into slow cookers. Thanks for the advice.

 

[Sector 7]

Sorry if someone already mentioned this. Check out the "Going Veggie" thread in Miscellaneous. I've been learning quite a lot about healthier foods, getting recipe ideas and more.

 

[cultcross]

Thanks for all the suggestions, I will definitely pay attention to herbs and spices over fats for flavoring. I didn't pay much attention to the pasta's on here so I can understand turning away from the spaghetti one. I went with this site because it wasn't asking for fancy ingredients(like all recipes/food network) For the most point what we eat now is all packaged so eating actual food is healthier in my view. I know what you are talking about with organic vs regular; its not the nutrition its the shit put in the soil that people worry about. Overall not having synthetic chemicals in your system is better.

Be careful with pasta generally. Theres nothing wrong with it at all, don't get me wrong, but watch your portions - pasta is very calorie dense and it's really easy to overeat with it. Check the portion size on the packet and measure it out until you're used to the right amount. It was definitely a source of 'hidden carbs' for me for years, I never realised how much I was eating!

 

[jespah]

I'll second Miss Chicken re SparkRecipes and teacake re a slow cooker. I swear by both.

This week, we are having chicken soup for dinner. I swear these are the ingredients - a package (maybe 2 lbs.?) of boneless chicken thighs, cut into strips; a whole celery, cubed; a small bag of baby carrots; 2 small packets of low-salt chicken broth (be careful with these as they are often salty; we get a kind called Pacific Natural. Pritikin is also low salt, or you can just go with water and maybe a tablespoon of salt but no more); 2 large white onions, cubed small; and water to fill whatever room remains in the slow cooker.

Cook on high for 4 hours.

In the bowl, add maybe a quarter of a cup of cooked starch of some sort. This week, we're using quinoa as we had extra around that we'd frozen. Bulgur, pasta, matzoh, matzoh balls, potato - any of that is fine; then add the soup and, if it's out of the fridge, nuke it on high for maybe a total of 2 1/2 minutes.

With a modest-sized Greek salad (light on the feta), about a quarter cup of fresh fruit and a cup of milk, a tablespoon of homemade no salt guacamole, 2 rice cakes and a pair of Laughing Cow cheese wedges, that's dinner for me.

According to SparkPeople, it works out to -
632 calories
65 grams of carbs
24 grams of fat
47 grams of protein
657.6 milligrams of sodium

It is freakin' enormous, I do not feel deprived and I love it.

I have also lost over 100 pounds since 1997 and kept it off, and I run a dozen 5Ks every year.

 

[Squiggy]

What the hell was the "paleo" fad?

It's an exceptionally stupid fad diet called the Paleo Diet. Basically, some idiots picked an arbitrary point in the history of human evolution and decided that the way they imagined people ate back then is the way we are "meant" to eat. The diet itself is perfectly healthy -- your standard low carb, high in fruit and veg, no processed foods, no refined sugars and grains diet. But the reasoning, if one can call it that, is solidly idiotic, and its proponents are very preachy. Preachy and stupid.

I'm doing it, but not because I want to live like a caveman with an average life expectancy of a couple of minutes. It tastes really good. People tend to forget that for the entire length of human history, we didn't really crack living past the 50 year old mark until the last century. Watch "The Supersizers Go..." For a week they eat the diet of a Briton from different periods (Medieval, Restoration, Edwardian, etc). By the end of the week their livers are shot and their poop is passing raw fat because their pancreas has been blown out by the amount of meat they've been eating.

Wife and I have signed up for a couple of CSAs at the farmer's market and co-op. At this point I'm only eating grass-fed, wild-caught, or organic food.

Really coffee is the worst thing I partake in these days...that and the massive piles of cocaine.

 

[thestrangequark]

What the hell was the "paleo" fad?

It's an exceptionally stupid fad diet called the Paleo Diet. Basically, some idiots picked an arbitrary point in the history of human evolution and decided that the way they imagined people ate back then is the way we are "meant" to eat. The diet itself is perfectly healthy -- your standard low carb, high in fruit and veg, no processed foods, no refined sugars and grains diet. But the reasoning, if one can call it that, is solidly idiotic, and its proponents are very preachy. Preachy and stupid.

I'm doing it, but not because I want to live like a caveman with an average life expectancy of a couple of minutes. It tastes really good. People tend to forget that for the entire length of human history, we didn't really crack living past the 50 year old mark until the last century. Watch "The Supersizers Go..." For a week they eat the diet of a Briton from different periods (Medieval, Restoration, Edwardian, etc). By the end of the week their livers are shot and their poop is passing raw fat because their pancreas has been blown out by the amount of meat they've been eating.

Interesting, I'll have to check it out! It sounds a bit dramatic, though - were the diets really that bad?

Wife and I have signed up for a couple of CSAs at the farmer's market and co-op. At this point I'm only eating grass-fed, wild-caught, or organic food.

Really coffee is the worst thing I partake in these days...that and the massive piles of cocaine.

I usually buy from the farmer's market as well, along with my local supermarket and sometimes Whole Foods (mainly because they have the most options for things like seafood and cheeses -- and they're actually cheaper for some things, which is disturbing). I don't make a fuss over whether or not something is "organic" though, for the reasons I mentioned earlier.

 

[Squiggy]

I try to avoid Whole Foods. The owner is a dick. Trader Joes is an acceptable alternative.