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Help Me Healthify My Diet
Hexmage-PA
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I've got a problem: I'm terrified of heart disease to the point that I sometimes have panic attacks at night just from laying on my stomach and feeling my heart beat. I go to a psychiatrist, and he's helping me with the anxiety part, but I still want to take measures to prevent heart disease.
I don't smoke, I'm not overweight, and I've begun riding my bike every other day for several hours. However, I love meat. In fact, I hate most foods that don't include meat. I can't stand any vegetables other than potatoes, pinto beans, black-eyed peas, and english peas. By contrast, I've even tried and enjoyed frog and alligator meat (My parents had taken me to a "Critter Cookout", and yes, I live in the South).
I bought some Boca brand meatless burgers last week and tried them yesterday. At first I thought "Eh, this isn't that bad." By the time I had finished my first patty, though, I was sick of it, and by halfway through the second patty I couldn't even stand the smell of them and had to throw them away. Last night I actually shuddered as I thought about the taste of those meatless burgers.
Is there anything a carnivore like me can do? Are there other meat substitutes that I may like more? Is there a point I could lower my meat consumption to that would render possible health consequences negligible, or is ingesting anything that includes saturated fat and cholesterol basically the same as taking small doses of poison?
I don't smoke, I'm not overweight, and I've begun riding my bike every other day for several hours. However, I love meat. In fact, I hate most foods that don't include meat. I can't stand any vegetables other than potatoes, pinto beans, black-eyed peas, and english peas. By contrast, I've even tried and enjoyed frog and alligator meat (My parents had taken me to a "Critter Cookout", and yes, I live in the South).
I bought some Boca brand meatless burgers last week and tried them yesterday. At first I thought "Eh, this isn't that bad." By the time I had finished my first patty, though, I was sick of it, and by halfway through the second patty I couldn't even stand the smell of them and had to throw them away. Last night I actually shuddered as I thought about the taste of those meatless burgers.
Is there anything a carnivore like me can do? Are there other meat substitutes that I may like more? Is there a point I could lower my meat consumption to that would render possible health consequences negligible, or is ingesting anything that includes saturated fat and cholesterol basically the same as taking small doses of poison?
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Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
Stay away from fried foods, high sodium foods, and fatty cuts of meat.
Eat fiber - aim for about 40-50 grams a day, with about an equal mix of soluble and nonsoluble fiber.
And eat vegetables. Seriously, you need to man up and eat some greens.
Is there a reason for this fear of heart disease? family history?
I'd be a lot more worried about lack of fiber and green leafy vegetables, and other veggies in your diet. "I can't stand any vegetables except potatoes and pinto beans, black-eyed peas, and english peas" is a pretty broad statement. You really don't like anything else that grows in the ground? It's not like all vegetables taste the same and have the same texture. Do you at least eat fruit? At this rate you should be much more worried about colon cancer than heart disease.
What makes you say that?
My mom has to take medicine to slow her heart beat, her mother died of heart failure (she smoked, though), and her sister has had a heart attack.
I also have anxiety disorder, which has caused me to worry obsessively about different things for most of my life. This is the third time I've worried about my heart this way: the first time I wore a heart monitor for a while and they said everything was fine, the second time I had some sort of scan done and they said everything was fine.
I also tend to see things as being either bad or good, which is why I asked if eating anything with saturated fat and cholesterol was the same as slowly poisoning myself.
I eat apples and bananas, and that's it for fruit. I do eat lettuce sometimes, but that's usually only when it's on a taco, and I forgot about corn. I do eat corn. I also take several supplements, such as a multivitamin and cod liver oil pills.
my wretched tendency towards facts over ignorant scaremongering
Links plz?
If you're going to be obsessive like this you're going to give yourself a heart attack.
Cholesterol is not poison. Saturated fat is not poison.
In excess, either one can be bad for you, but not at the point to which you worry about them.
Eat what you want if it's not an entire 50 pound pig for every meal.
A 50 pound pig every once in awhile isn't going to kill you either.
If a 50 pound pig isn't your thing, try chicken and roast beef.
They cast a shadow like a sundial in the morning light. It was half past 10.
If you're eating ice cream, chocolate, fried burgers from mcdonalds, deep fried french fries and potato chips, you will be eating an enormous amount of saturated fat. If you are simply eating some lean red meat cooked in a healthy way (eg not fried in butter or lard) you won't have a problem. Saturated fat is part of a healthy diet. Saturated fat to ludicrously excessive levels isn't. People saying "OMG SATURATED FAT WILL CAUSE YOU TO FLAT OUT DIE" are confused and misinformed, but apparently nutrition is one of those things that everyone thinks they know all about without ever reading up on it.
I've suffered with obsessive anxiety for a long time now, and even with therapy I haven't been able to reduce it very much. However, I'm currently seeing one of the best experts on obsessive thinking in my state, so hopefully things will be different this time.
I'm pretty sure most pigs weigh more than 50 pounds... I love chicken, though.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stearic_acid
Stearic acid is a saturated fatty acid found in butter, and according to Alton Brown's Good Eats season 3, The Case for Butter, is actually heart friendly.
http://www.preventionisbest.com/site/saturatedfat.html
That's another article I quickly googled that outlines some of the health benefits of saturated fats. Things like helping maintain cellular structure, good digestion, and some of them actually help you lose weight.
I'm not advocating that you throw out all previous statements regarding fats and consume only saturated. That's nonsense. But you do need to consume some. Usually, if it's coming from a natural source (as in, it grew there, like in milk, or coconuts) and not added in manufacturing, it's ok for you.
Oh, and I haven't even mentioned the fact that some essential vitamins and minerals are only fat-soluble.
To the OP: You'll have to do the research yourself and come to your own, educated conclusions because I'm neither a dietitian nor a doctor. But based on my own research, if you want to minimize heart disease, you can do some of the following:
1. Drink red wine or properly brewed green tea. The French have fatty foods, and the Japanese are big smokers, yet they have the lowest incidence of heart disease. Re: the French Paradox
2. Increase your fruit and vegetable intake. Most importantly, your fibre. You should aim to eat between 25 to 35 grams of fibre a day. Ease yourself into it, so your digestive system can get used to it. Insoluble fibre will help with digestion, while soluble fibre will work to lower cholesterol and LDL (low-density lipoprotein) levels.
3. Watch your fat intake. And I don't mean minimize it. 20 to 30% of your daily caloric intake is a decent amount of fat. It's ok to have saturated fats, just make sure they're from good, wholesome foods. Also, taking things like flaxseed or fish oil will help increase your omega-3 fatty acid levels, which is very helpful. You can also do this by preparing your own food with things like olive oil. But, and you'll have to check Wikipedia to verify the exact numbers, try to keep your level of polyunsaturated to monounsaturated fats to 4:1. Most Americans actually consume way too much, I think it was something stupid like 10:1 or 20:1, I can't remember. Apparently studies have shown that this out of whack ratio contributes to heart disease.
4. Exercise. Do some weight lifting, do some cardio. Your body will feel great, and so will your heart and mind. It's good for the soul too.
5. Don't smoke. Smokers who quit smoking reduce their risk of sudden death syndrome to the levels of a nonsmoker due to the reduction in coronary vasoconstriction. The other effects of smoking remain for life though. So just don't.
Hope that helps and gets you started. Feel free to poke holes in my information if you feel it's necessary.
More fiber will not hurt (usually, unless you're eating like enormous amounts of it), but less fiber will definitely have negative health effects.
Good source of fiber = La Tortilla factory Low Carb Whole Wheat tortillas. When they're fresh, they taste pretty good, a little tougher, like any whole wheat tortilla. 80 calories, 12 grams of fiber, and 8 grams of protein, next to no fat.
You are just gonna have to suck it up and explore what kind of fruits and vegetables will work best for you. Experiment.
Try mixing vegetables with your meat to make them more palatable (i.e. stir fry, chicken salad).
Maybe give us an idea of what you like to eat, and we can help you to find how to make greens a part of your diet.
Your major problem (and don't think I'm being rude on this point) is your mental fixations. If you are healthy, in shape, and active, and have no personal indications towards heart disease, then you probably have little to nothing to worry about. Yes, family history factors into your risks, but when compared to your habits and health situation, means relatively little. Unless you have high cholesterol/LDL/VLDL, you shouldn't be drastically changing your diet. You need to focus on getting better mentally and emotionally before you try to fix your diet.
A 50 pound pig is what a buddy of mine feeds to his 20 foot rock python bi-monthly, so they are available.
20 foot rock pythons are bad for your health though.
Do your own research and don't eat like a fat lard, and you should be ok.
They cast a shadow like a sundial in the morning light. It was half past 10.
this way the investment is low (a buck or two each and chopping-knife's worth of preparation time), you get an idea for the flavours of the veggie, but also they aren't totally sapped of their flavour and vitamins by poor cooking, which tends to be the main reason people are turned off their veg in the first place
Replacing meat with fake meat is not really the best solution here. As others have said, work on replacing meat with lean meats, never mind the fakery.
But, you really, really need vegetables. Corn, and a lot of the bean family (pinto, black bean) contain more starch than they do protein. Like potato/sweet potato they are not really giving you a daily vegetable intake the way green, leafy vegetables are. Peas are also fairly high in starch.
Personally, I would like to say that most people should be 2-4 cups of vegetables a day, and you can't include corn, potatoes (of any kind) or the aforementioned beans in that. You really, really need to go with the broccoli, spinach, lettuce, celery, leeks, brussel sprouts, asparagus, cucumbers even....
For instance, toss some baby carrots, green beans, or asparagus in olive oil. Spread in a single layer on a baking sheet. Season with salt and pepper. Throw in a 450 degree oven for 25 minutes. Mmmmm mmmm nom nom.
http://www.nasw.org/awards/2001/01Taubesarticle1.htm
Go for vegetables, protein and unrefined carbs. All of the sugar, corn syrup and refined flour crap in most of the prepackaged food out their just spikes your insulin levels and then makes you crash.
If you do eat meat, try to eat leaner meats or fish.
But yeah, as everyone else is saying: eat more veggies. My suggestion is you start hitting restaurants and order veg-heavy dishes. These dishes will probably be soaked in oil and otherwise not too healthy, but they will at least show you that it is possible to prepare veggies in a tasty manner.
Do you like ethnic food? Lots of Thai food has lots of veggies. Try curry, it's amazing. Ever had pho? So tasty.
One thing to remember is that the more veggies you eat, the more you'll like them.
EDIT: also, to include more fruit in your diet: try making smoothies. Most mornings I have a banana/peanut butter/ rice milk/ blueberry smoothy.
Also, how did you make your boca burger? For them to be good, in my opinion, they need to be cooked in a pan with a little bit of oil so they can get somewhat crispy and they need to be seasoned well. I put TexJoy(its kind of like season salt) or steak seasoning on it to give it more flavor. And then I put it on bread or a bun with lettuce, onions, tomatoes, mustard etc....everything you would put on a regular burger. It tastes a lot better that way to me. I think a lot of people want to make the "fake meat" and then just don't season it or put very many toppings on.
Also, I like the boca chicken patties too. Cook them in a skillet to make them crisp because they taste horrible in the microwave!
Broccoli/cauliflower is really good for you, but I never really liked them, until I discovered cauliflower mash (http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/489/BasicCauliflowerMash62883.shtml). It tastes almost like mashed potatoes. I love this. Search around for a better recipe if you want (I don't use this one particularly, I just eyeball mine).
It's gotten to the point now that I'd rather have a whole raw bell pepper (Mmmm, better than apples!!) than meat sometimes.
Once you prepare the veggies properly they are great if you don't like them raw.
You can saute Bell peppers and onions to the point they are caramelized and top your favorite meat with them and its amazingly good. Use olive oil to saute though, Olive oil is good.
And like others said, there is such a variety you should be able to find something.
My favorites, and how to prepare them:
Roast asparagus (olive oil again)
Grilled Squash(yellow)
Caprese (Sliced tomatoes, topped with FRESH mozzarella and fresh basil, drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar)
Add onions to anything! Raw, roasted, sauteed. Onions go with a lot of meats as well.
Collard(mustard) greens. You can sautee them as well, very similar to spinach. Add garlic and olive oil and you have some absurdly healthy and vitamin packed side dish. This is one of my favorites.