I should probably mention, while I'm doing a little review here, that my eat-more-veggies plan for 2007 is pretty much a miserable stinking failure. Just so you all know. Mock me if you will. But maybe going from 0 to 1 per day right on up to 5 per day was too much a shock to my system.
BUT!
I've mentioned it before and I'll probably mention it again:
I love this blog.
I especially love a good debunking of pseudoscience and pop nutrition..
Here's just a snippet to whet your appetite:
"The large EPIC (European Prospective Investigation Into Cancer and Nutrition ) study of nutrition and cancer conducted in 8 countries among 285,526 women, ages 25-70, recently reported that after 1.5 million person-years there was no relationship between breast cancer and total or any specific fruit and vegetable consumption. Harvard School of Public Health researchers reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association the results of an analysis of 13 prospective studies of more than 725,000 men and women followed for 6 to 20 years which found no association between dietary fiber from fruits, vegetables and grains and risks of colorectal cancer."
Here's another good article from the NY Times, too. (Thanks for the link, Pem!)
10 comments:
That is a great blog. The number I've most often heard regarding the 'diet and fitness' industry is that it grosses about $12 billion a year. A book or product that captures one tenth of 1 percent of that market does really well. No wonder so many people publish false promises of health and fitness. A huge swath of the population keeps going for that magic bullet.
I think your taking this from a wrong approach. I do not eat fruit and vegetables because they're "good for me" or are going to help me beat cancer. I LOVE them! I love to eat them too! Right now, almost every single day I go out and buy fixings for fruit salad. I cut up into a bowl strawberries, black grapes, bananas, apples, pineappple, and oranges. It makes a HUGE bowl of fruit. I am usually only able to get one cupful since my two kids eat the whole thing up during the day. I also keep a salad (lettuce, grated carrots, sprouts, whatever, no dressing) all ready in a bowl in the fridge. I'll take some pics of where I buy my fruits and veggies. Visually a great shop to visit and inspires me to cook artichokes, baked zucchini, whatever. I keep big bowls of fruit on the kitchen table and serve veggies (sometimes two) with every meal. But again, I do that only because I truly love to eat them...
LOL! You're probably right! I'm not crazy about most vegetables. Really good fruit, yeah, but it's not so easy to keep in the house without shopping every day!!!
There's a lot of things I LOVE to eat, most of which don't contain a speck of fruit or vegetable, unfortunately.
I don't know... sounds like they're saying it doesn't make any difference what we eat as long as we eat enough food and enough variety. It's an area like politics and religion (and maybe associated with both)in inciting heated discussions, provoking reflex reactions, and on both sides garnering the unbending loyalty of proponents and suspicion of opponents.
Well, I tend to think of it more in terms of the scientific method and preponderance of evidence, myself. Far too many people are accepting of simple solutions put forth for profit without the weight of evidence behind their claims. That's the bread and butter of pseudoscience.
for me, it's balance. and of course, what I like to eat. : D
I happen to like veggies, I like them steamed and still crunchy.
What I do, because it's easy, is buy frozen veggies, the mixed bags. I buy a couple different brands so they have a different mix. Then I mix the two different bags. So I get odd mixes depending on what bags I bought that week. It works for me.
For fruit I admit I'm not the best. I buy the V8 Fusion. Since I work 12 hour shifts I'll add a half serving of soy protein into my Fusion, keeps my hypoglycemia balanced. And I get those little pop tops of canned fruit salad. Not as healthy as fresh fruit but that's what works with my schedule and life.
I keep the meat to a minimum but it's just because I don't feel the need to eat a whole lot of meat. If I find myself craving meat then I eat it, but mostly I find myself eating veggies, dairies, eggs, and various starches for filler (sweet potatos!).
Our bodies aren't only just what we eat, but what we do, how we live, how much we move, and at least 50% of what we are is genetic. Trying to isolate a single factor is pointless, especialy since there are so many variations among individuals in how they react to their lifestyles.
In my case the genetic stuff includes some nasty diseases, so I try to maximize any and all environmental factors that I can control as far as I can; I don't smoke, limit my exposure to toxins, and exercise as much as possible. That's about all we can do, I guess.
I love this message...it's what I have always said. Eat what your body is craving, in moderation of course, and eat everything you choose to also in moderation, even french fries! I don't think I will cut my lifespan much shorter by allowing myself that galss of wine, couple pieces of Godiva chocolate or handful of potato chips! I work and workout hard...I deserve to eat what I want when I want it! Yeah for eating and food....boo for fad diets and people making millions off of them! (Let's write our OWN book...what d'ya say!?)
I love this message...it's what I have always said. Eat what your body is craving, in moderation of course, and eat everything you choose to also in moderation, even french fries! I don't think I will cut my lifespan much shorter by allowing myself that galss of wine, couple pieces of Godiva chocolate or handful of potato chips! I work and workout hard...I deserve to eat what I want when I want it! Yeah for eating and food....boo for fad diets and people making millions off of them! (Let's write our OWN book...what d'ya say!?)
Yeah, I'm afraid the "eat moderately, work hard" campaign doesn't attract too many disciples....
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