Is My Diet Affecting My Energy Levels?

[Howers]

Lately I've noticed I've been eating really bad food. I'm always eating things out of boxes/bags and washing it down with sugar.

My typical day goes like this, with the / meaning OR:

Breakfast: [insert cereal brand] + 2 cups of OJ / Poptarts / Donuts / Icecream (yes icecream)

Lunch: Chips / KD (Kraft Dinner Macaronis) / canned Tuna / one of the breakfast items

Dinner: [rarely a real dinner] / Pizza / Fishsticks / 5min rice / Burgers / Fastfood / French Fries

+multivitamins and lots of water

This is what I have grown up for the last few years. I've been getting these "hyper" moments and I think its related to the food. I do go to the grocery store but honestly don't know what to buy, so I do the same thing over and over. Can anyone recommend some dishes or web pages with food ideas?

 

[Monique]

Few years?? Start with cutting out all the processed stuff. Cereal is great, but don't eat the sugary stuff. For lunch a sandwich tastes great with lettuce, tomatoes, mustard and cheese. For diner try making your own stir-fry: simple and quick.

 

[seycyrus]

Get rid of the two cups of OJ for breakfast. Substitute water and an orange. Scrap the poptarts and donuts.

Scrap the chips during lunch.

Your trouble seems to stem from a reluctance to cook. Is this true?

 

[turbo]

Cut out all the high-fat, high-sugar stuff. Really - chips, donuts, poptarts, ice cream, French fries should be rare treats, not staples.

A healthy day could start out with oatmeal (REAL oatmeal, not the prepackaged sweet stuff) or a poached egg on toast with a small glass of juice (don't overdo that) and/or a piece of fruit. Fruits and berries go well with oatmeal Lunch should be light enough so that you don't crash in the afternoon. Consider something tasty but light like a tuna salad sandwich (easy on the mayo) with some lettuce, with unsweetened iced tea. Make your own iced tea with teabags and cold water in a jar and get some Rubbermaid water bottles to take your tea to work/school. Buying bottled iced tea is ridiculously expensive and most of the available ones are sweetened. You can roast a chicken breast for dinner. Scramble an egg in a bowl, roll the breast in it to coat it with egg, and roll the coated chicken parts in bread crumbs mixed with curry, paprika, black pepper, and other seasonings as desired. Roland brand Panko bread crumbs are very light and they make a crispy crust on your chicken. The egg wash will keep the chicken moist so even white meat comes out juicy. Make lots more chicken than you will eat for supper because you can use it for sandwiches for lunches. Never waste the energy to heat up an oven to bake chicken parts without throwing in a few potatoes to bake, and perhaps a pan with yellow onions and garlic. These can be combined with the baked potatoes and a little butter, salt and pepper to make a really tasty accompaniment to the chicken. I could go on and on, but you see where this is going. You have to learn to cook for yourself, and watch your own diet.

 

[oedipa maas]

If you could eat at a fancy restaurant, what kind of meals would you get? You can probably think of a few recipes to try based on that.

Instead of pop tarts and donuts you can try weaning yourself onto frozen bagels - buy a dozen, cut them in half and then freeze them. They are then ready for you to pop them in the toaster in the morning. Fruit yogurt is sweet and filling too. You can eat it out of the tub every morning with muesli and only dirty a spoon... (if you live by yourself!)

For dinner it's often faster to cook something at home than it is to go out, even for fast food. If you make extra dinner then you can often get one or two lunches as well. Do you have access to a microwave and fridge at work/school? You can also buy single servings of canned soup to take with you.

You can also try turning dinner into a social event and invited friends over to cook something together. This makes cooking a lot of fun and you can also learn some recipes and techniques from your friends. If you see somebody eating something tasty-looking from tupperware, consider making them your friend!

When you are shopping buy fresh vegetables with one or two recipes in mind. If you have leftover vegetables you can often use them up by sauteeing them and adding them to pasta sauce (spinach, mushrooms and zucchini are especially good). In my opinion pasta and rice meals make the best microwaveable leftovers.

 

[Moonbear]

If you need recipe ideas to get over the resistance to cooking, check out the Food Thread on this page. There are both easy and complex recipes throughout that thread, including homemade substitutes for that boxed Mac and Cheese (I think that's in that thread) and probably instructions in there somewhere on how to cook your own hamburger, etc.

For lunch, canned tuna isn't that bad, the rest isn't though. You can make a decent sandwich out of any meats or veggies, so no need to resort to the same canned tuna all the time, or boxed mac and cheese.

For dinner, avoid the frozen food aisle!

Do you know how to cook? Are you avoiding cooking because you don't know how, or because you're just not motivated to do it?

 

[Daniel Y.]

Congratulations! Your diet parallels that of a typical American!

There are things you need to know about to see if a food is decent or not:

Protein:

- You need your protein! I'll exclude the list of all the uses protein has for your body, since I'm sure you know it's important. Just make sure each day you get at least .3 times your bodyweight in protein, and much more than that if you work out! Oh, and get your protein from animals, not plants. I know I'll probably piss off a vegetarian saying this, but meat protein is much richer and superior (higher concentrations of important amino acids) than plant proteins.

Carbohydrates:

- No simple carbs! The difference between simple and complex carbohydrates is the time it takes for them to break down. Simple carbs break down quickly, giving you a short burst of energy (think sugar), and leaving you pooped afterwards, whereas complex carbs take much longer to digest, give you constant nutrients to keep you fueled for the day, and are generally healthier for you (many whole foods are good examples of this). Another good think to look at is the GI of the food (glycemic index), which tells how quickly it's digested (100 fastest, 1 slowest). The slower the better.

- Eat your fiber! It makes you feel more full, and makes trips to the bathroom go faster. Many foods have fiber, but a supplement does just fine (like Benefiber).

Fat:

If I hear another soul tell me they got a food because it's fat free I'm going to scream at the top of my lungs. FAT IS NOT BAD FOR YOU, JUST BECAUSE YOU EAT SOMETHING CONTAINING FAT DOESN'T MAKE YOU FAT ANYMORE THAN EATING A CARROT MAKES YOU A VEGETABLE! Roughly 10% of the fat you eat gets turned into carbs (sugars); the rest goes to things like testosterone production.

However, there are fats that are bad for you. Saturated and Trans fats are bad for you, period. You need only look at studies to find that out. What are good fats? Monounsaturated and Polyunsaturated fats.

So there you go. Read the nutritional values on the back of what you eat, have a few looks at a GI table, whatever suits you best; now you can't say you don't know roughly what to look for in foods.

 

[wolram]

Baked potatoes are my staple, they go with every thing even salad, so i buy a big bag of baking spuds that last for about two weeks, then buy stuff to eat with them daily.

 

[turbo]

Baked potatoes are my staple, they go with every thing even salad, so i buy a big bag of baking spuds that last for about two weeks, then buy stuff to eat with them daily.

Good bachelor food is: Baked potatoes with baked unpeeled garlic cloves. Split the potatoes and mash up the innards a bit, then nip the ends of the cloves and squeeze the garlic into the potato halves like squeezing toothpaste. Add a bit of salt and pepper and top with some sharp cheese. Put them back into the oven to melt the cheese and enjoy. It is so easy to bake chicken the way I described above that it's a shame not to do that while you've got the oven hot to make these potatoes.

 

[rootX]

Eating Well with Canada's Food Guide today

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/alt_fo...ide-aliment/view_eatwell_vue_bienmang-eng.pdf

 

[Monique]

Baked potatoes are my staple.

I always 'bake' my potatoes in the microwave: really easy and fast, it tastes good too. Time it one minute per average sized potato, when the time is up turn all the potatoes around and do another one minute per potatoe.

 

[Evo]

Cooking for one can be difficult. If you aren't into cooking, it's even worse.

Sandwiches like Monique mentioned can be very satisfying and healthy.

For dinner, the frozen food section will often have single serve portions of fish ready to be tossed into the microwave or frying pan, just cook with a bit of butter and lemon, a dash of herbs if you are creative.

Also, most grocery store meat departments have pre-prepared single portions of meat and chicken dishes ready to be cooked, along with cooking instructions which gives you variety and you don't have to worry about a recipe, and the deli has cooked foods that have healthy choices.

Think frozen for vegetables. These come either plain or seasoned and you can buy either individual portions or a big resealable bag. Those frozen skillet dinners like the Bertolli ones are sooooo tasty!

http://recipeeps4us.blogspot.com/2008/01/review-bertolli-frozen-meals.html

For breakfast, cereal, fruit, & eggs are all easy. Also, there is now an assortment of frozen breakfast foods available. Frozen isn't bad anymore.

When you consider that when you buy pre-prepared or frozen individual portions, you have no waste, there aren't a bunch of ingredients to buy that you only need a tiny bit of, the cost isn't any higher than buying a fat laden burger and fries. Of course, sometimes we NEED a fat laden heavenly thick burger and seasoned curly fries. :!)

 

[BryanP]

Lean cuisine.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

It's fairly easy to eat right. Here are some ideas from my plate:

Breakfest: Turkey Sausage, Organic Wheat Waffle, Bagel, Two Eggs, OJ, Apple Juice

Lunch: Ham Sandwich, Organic Mac n Cheese with added Chicken or Tuna, Milk, Blueberries, Raspberries, Banana

Dinner: Chicken Breast, Stir Fry Veggies, Blackberries, Red Wine

Snacks: Pretzels, Natty PB, Vanilla Yogurt


I am super lazy and I think this is fairly balanced. This is my normal diet give or take. Try to limit sugars, sodium and fats. It's easy really. You can still eat some ice cream or cookies, just pick some that are organic and compare nutrition labels to get lesser of the evils.

 

[turbo]

Lean cuisine.

Disgusting stuff. Some ladies that I used to work with ate that crap, and the whole break-room reeked when they opened the door of the microwave. Reading the list of ingredients was slower-going than a chapter of War and Peace. Please do not put this crap in your body! It's easy to cook healthy stuff.

 

[Moonbear]

For dinner, the frozen food section will often have single serve portions of fish ready to be tossed into the microwave or frying pan, just cook with a bit of butter and lemon, a dash of herbs if you are creative.

Also, most grocery store meat departments have pre-prepared single portions of meat and chicken dishes ready to be cooked, along with cooking instructions which gives you variety and you don't have to worry about a recipe, and the deli has cooked foods that have healthy choices.

Think frozen for vegetables. These come either plain or seasoned and you can buy either individual portions or a big resealable bag. Those frozen skillet dinners like the Bertolli ones are sooooo tasty!

http://recipeeps4us.blogspot.com/2008/01/review-bertolli-frozen-meals.html

For breakfast, cereal, fruit, & eggs are all easy. Also, there is now an assortment of frozen breakfast foods available. Frozen isn't bad anymore.

When you consider that when you buy pre-prepared or frozen individual portions, you have no waste, there aren't a bunch of ingredients to buy that you only need a tiny bit of, the cost isn't any higher than buying a fat laden burger and fries. Of course, sometimes we NEED a fat laden heavenly thick burger and seasoned curly fries. :!)

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Stay away from the pre-prepared frozen foods, and ready-made yuck in the meat section or deli. That stuff has so much crap and chemicals added, you might as well eat the McDonald's. It's not that hard to get a piece of meat, add some seasonings that you can identify (salt, pepper, garlic, onion as simple basics) and broil or pan fry it (no fat needed). No need to buy that preservative-laden garbage. Just buy a box of Ziploc (or similar) freezer bags, so when you get 3 or 4 chicken breasts in a package, you cook one and freeze the rest for another week. Same for pork chops, steaks, etc. A few packages of meat will last you the month if you freeze single servings. Frozen vegetables are fine, but since it's summer, there are so many fresh, why eat frozen now? You don't even have to cook your vegetables. Get some that you can eat raw, or make a tossed salad...lettuce, tomato, cucumbers, carrots, mushrooms, celery can all be eaten raw. Or, just put a little water in a pan, add carrots, or zucchini, or asparagus, or any other vegetable that's in season, and lightly steam it. Eat while still crunchy...yum! No cooking or very minimal cooking, and much healthier than anything in the frozen food aisle. Or, grab some fresh fruits...peaches, pears, apples, avocado (technically a fruit, as is tomato) and have them as dessert.

Yes, as Monique pointed out, baked potatoes are quick and easy to make in the microwave. Running the oven in summer is not so pleasant. In winter, I'll bake them in the oven if I have the time. In summer, I often toss the potato on the grill. 40 min to an hour later, it's done to perfection.

If you prefer rice rather than potatoes (or want to mix it up), I never go wrong with this approach...put a splash of oil in a pot (maybe a teaspoon), add your rice (1/2 c is more than enough for one person), get the rice coated with the oil somewhat, add a bit more water than rice (i.e., 5/8 c water with 1/2 c rice), turn the heat on high and bring the water to a quick boil, as soon as it boils, give it a quick stir, put the lid on the pot and turn the heat down to the lowest setting, cook for 18 min exactly. Your rice will be perfect every time.

 

[MeJennifer]

Lately I've noticed I've been eating really bad food. I'm always eating things out of boxes/bags and washing it down with sugar.

My typical day goes like this, with the / meaning OR:

Breakfast: [insert cereal brand] + 2 cups of OJ / Poptarts / Donuts / Icecream (yes icecream)

Lunch: Chips / KD (Kraft Dinner Macaronis) / canned Tuna / one of the breakfast items

Dinner: [rarely a real dinner] / Pizza / Fishsticks / 5min rice / Burgers / Fastfood / French Fries

+multivitamins and lots of water

This is what I have grown up for the last few years. I've been getting these "hyper" moments and I think its related to the food. I do go to the grocery store but honestly don't know what to buy, so I do the same thing over and over. Can anyone recommend some dishes or web pages with food ideas?

My recommendations:

Eliminate refined sugars, restrict simple sugars except for fruits, minimize the use of flour based products, eat many raw or lightly steamed vegetables and limit the intake of meat products, infrequently eat eggs, soy and optionally some fish.

 

[lisab]

Cut out the high fructose corn syrup - the stuff is pure poison.

It's tough to do, though. It's everywhere.

 

[maze]

Lately I've noticed I've been eating really bad food. I'm always eating things out of boxes/bags and washing it down with sugar.

My typical day goes like this, with the / meaning OR:

Breakfast: [insert cereal brand] + 2 cups of OJ / Poptarts / Donuts / Icecream (yes icecream)

Lunch: Chips / KD (Kraft Dinner Macaronis) / canned Tuna / one of the breakfast items

Dinner: [rarely a real dinner] / Pizza / Fishsticks / 5min rice / Burgers / Fastfood / French Fries

+multivitamins and lots of water

This is what I have grown up for the last few years. I've been getting these "hyper" moments and I think its related to the food. I do go to the grocery store but honestly don't know what to buy, so I do the same thing over and over. Can anyone recommend some dishes or web pages with food ideas?

If you eat like this for years and years it will increase risk of serious problems like diabetes, heart problems, and so forth. Obviously this is not going to happen overnight, but if you keep eating junk food as a major source of food it for 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, then you are heading for trouble.

 

[Howers]

I guess I should have mentioned I'm at school most of the time, so most of these options don't apply.

 

[rootX]

I guess I should have mentioned I'm at school most of the time, so most of these options don't apply.

It is really hard to have healthy diet while in school (to me, full time student, it is impossible).

Good thing that I go to school for only 4 months
4 months school - 4 month off - 4 months school - ...

 

[scorpa]

I am a student as well so I know how annoying it can be to prepare meals but really tons of people are in the same boat an manage to somehow eat amazing meals everyday. I'm pretty much gone from 6:30 am to 5pm every day but I still manage to do ok. For breakfast a nice option is chopped up fruit (I had peaches and blueberries this morning) mixed with yogurt and granola. Eggs with a bagel is ok to if you are really hungry. For lunch it doesn't take much to make a good sandwich...usually I like ham with lettuce tomatoes, and swiss cheese. For supper make a stirfry, those are quick, easy and very yummy! Or if you can't bear the though of cooking supper after a long day what I also like to do it fire up my slowcooker on weekends and make a big batch of chicken stew, beef and lentils, a soup...ect and freeze portions of it so all I have to do it thaw it at night when I come home. Much yummier and way cheaper than eating prepackaged foods.

 

[turbo]

I am a student as well so I know how annoying it can be to prepare meals but really tons of people are in the same boat an manage to somehow eat amazing meals everyday. I'm pretty much gone from 6:30 am to 5pm every day but I still manage to do ok. For breakfast a nice option is chopped up fruit (I had peaches and blueberries this morning) mixed with yogurt and granola. Eggs with a bagel is ok to if you are really hungry. For lunch it doesn't take much to make a good sandwich...usually I like ham with lettuce tomatoes, and swiss cheese. For supper make a stirfry, those are quick, easy and very yummy! Or if you can't bear the though of cooking supper after a long day what I also like to do it fire up my slowcooker on weekends and make a big batch of chicken stew, beef and lentils, a soup...ect and freeze portions of it so all I have to do it thaw it at night when I come home. Much yummier and way cheaper than eating prepackaged foods.

Scorpa, we are separated by too much time and space! I used to use substantial portions of my weekends cooking batch foods that I could eat all week (no microwaves back then), baking breads, and making sure that I could put up meals that I could grab "quick and dirty" if necessary. The rest of my times on weekends was often spent playing frat parties and arranging gigs so that I had enough money coming into afford to stay in school. My parents were great, but I'd have to have bailed out of college if I wasn't working steadily.

 

[scorpa]

Scorpa, we are separated by too much time and space! I used to use substantial portions of my weekends cooking batch foods that I could eat all week (no microwaves back then), baking breads, and making sure that I could put up meals that I could grab "quick and dirty" if necessary. The rest of my times on weekends was often spent playing frat parties and arranging gigs so that I had enough money coming into afford to stay in school. My parents were great, but I'd have to have bailed out of college if I wasn't working steadily.

Cooking lots on the weekend so you have leftovers for the week really is the way to go. This weekend I am going to try to make a ginger beef stew I found a recipe for, I hope it works out well, it sounds nice anyway.

 

[ehrenfest]

Fat:

If I hear another soul tell me they got a food because it's fat free I'm going to scream at the top of my lungs. FAT IS NOT BAD FOR YOU, JUST BECAUSE YOU EAT SOMETHING CONTAINING FAT DOESN'T MAKE YOU FAT ANYMORE THAN EATING A CARROT MAKES YOU A VEGETABLE! Roughly 10% of the fat you eat gets turned into carbs (sugars); the rest goes to things like testosterone production.

However, there are fats that are bad for you. Saturated and Trans fats are bad for you, period. You need only look at studies to find that out. What are good fats? Monounsaturated and Polyunsaturated fats.

It seems to me like everything that has the mono-unsaturated or polyunsaturated fats in it has just as much if not more saturated fat, trans fat, or cholesterol in them. What foods are high in unsaturated fats that lack the bad ones?

 

[ehrenfest]

Another question. I have recently become really confused about how to eat right. I have low HDL so I tried to stop eating saturated fat but as I explained above that meant not eating any fat at all which made it really painful for my long distance running. So, I've started eating basically eating the infamous American artery-cloggers like pizza and mac and cheese and whole milk (is that an artery clogger?) just because I get the sense that I need some fat and those are the only places that I know that have it...

Anyway...my question is: are dietitiens a scam? There is one at my school that charges 25 dollars for a "quick consultation" and 50 dollars for a "detailed analysis and discussion" and maybe I am just too skeptical but it seems a bit like a fortune teller or hand reader or something... Has anyone gone to a dietitian? Was it helpful? Did they just repeat the platitudes that your mother told about what to eat or did they give you professional-quality individualized advice?BTW, here is the Nutrition Thread:

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=241819

 

[ehrenfest]

Just make sure each day you get at least .3 times your bodyweight in protein, and much more than that if you work out!

That seems like quite a lot. A 150 pound person would need 45 pounds of protein.

minimize the use of flour based products

Why would you do that? Breads are the base of the food pyramid. 6-11 servings per day are recommended.

Another question. People seem to be attacking breakfast cereals. Are Cheerios really healthy or are the little heath pitches on the Cheerios box bogus? They are definitely the staple of my diet...

 

[tmc]

Cheerios really are healthy. Low fat, low sodium, no cholesterol, good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Calcium, Phosphorus and Selenium, and a very good source of Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Folate, Vitamin B12, Iron, Zinc and Manganese.

(and obviously he meant .3 times + converting pounds to g. So 150pound -> 45g protein/day)

 

[chroot]

The food pyramid has been very thoroughly discounted by nutritionists. I wouldn't even consider the food pyramid when choosing my meals. It suggests a high-carb, low-fat diet, originally designed for heart attack victims, with no real utility for anyone else.

These threads come up again and again, so I'll just post links to some of my earlier posts on the subject:

https://www.physicsforums.com/showpost.php?p=1652480&postcount=51
https://www.physicsforums.com/showpost.php?p=1782091&postcount=19

- Warren

 

[seycyrus]

That seems like quite a lot. A 150 pound person would need 45 pounds of protein.

Hah :) The units on the result should in grams of protein.

 

[ehrenfest]

Cut out the high fructose corn syrup - the stuff is pure poison.

That's debatable...its not clear that HFCS is markedly more damaging than other forms of sugar, as the article below points out. It argues that the American obesity epidemic is a result of eating too much of all sorts of sugars and HFCS is just one of them. Cutting HFCS out of our diet wouldn't really help unless all the other forms of sugar are reduced with it.

http://blog.nutritiondata.com/ndblog/2008/10/lets-put-this-n.html?mbid=NDNL

 

[physics girl phd]

Monique mentions stir-fry: You can try out different bottled sauces (my family is addicted to a particular cheap, readily available Szechuan sauce that we stock up on when it's "on sale"), and it doesn't take long to cook up meat or tofu and veggies (we typically steam the veggies in one pan and fry up the tofu in another pan... and even my 9yo stepson likes the tofu now!) We also have a rice cooker. Because they signal exactly when the rice is done based on temperature sensing, they're worth the cost (although my was free from a lab-mate returning to Thailand after her Ph.D. was received).

Crock-pots are also good. Just load in a cut-up chicken, a beef or park roast, so potatos, carrots and onion, a bit of water and let sit on low or high setting all day. Chances are you'll have tasty meat and veggies to fis out, or you can use it as stew. We bought a new crock-pot the week after my 10-yr old one gave out.

When I was in grad school I also ate a lot of potato dishes (mushroom in butter and garlic are great on smashed potatoes), pasta dishes (spaghetti with eggplant fried in oil and then packaged sauce added with extra spices -- especially those red-pepper flakes!) and egg dishes (like the poached eggs on toast that turbo-1 mentions). (I was even known to mix in egg scrambling it into hot pasta sauce if I was craving extra protein with my pasta. I.E. you can still eat disgustingly without eating all the sugar!) Our boys still love pasta (although my husband is picky about using homemade sauce, so it now takes a bit longer to make). Unfortunately, I'm still adjusting them to the idea of more potato-and egg based dishes... but they're getting there... we'll have quiche later this week!

 

[dyosa]

knowing you're aware of the food you take that's a good sign. now it's time you sort things out and go for a better diet.

 

[gravenewworld]

Pancakes in the morning can be healty if you make them right. Just make pancakes like you normally would and throw in 1-2 cups of pumpkin into it. Pumpkin pancakes taste really good. Pumpkin is absolutely loaded with beta carotene. Make sure you use REAL syrup from Vermont. Real syrup is packed with potassium, calcium, magnesium, and maganese. The fake stuff, like aunt jemima, is just corn syrup with artificial flavorings.


I actually drink a shotglass full of maple syrup everytime before I go running. The potassium etc. in it seems to keep me from cramping up.

 

[ehrenfest]

Make sure you use REAL syrup from Vermont.

Only from Vermont.