Imagine a scenario where all my nutrition is met for the day with all micro and macro nutrients being fulfilled. I’m at a healthy body fat level, and need more calories to reach my caloric maintenance for the day. Is there any detriment to eating unhealthy foods in this situation? Or is there any benefit that I’m missing by not choosing a healthier option?
Healthy and unhealthy is defined as what is conventionally thought to be healthy and unhealthy. I.e. fast food, junk food, sweets, would all be unhealthy.
Others make the valid point that “compared to what” is mostly what it’s all about. I would add that the answer I think you are looking for is the following:
High glycemic index foods are inherently bad in situations that your blood sugar is normal and you are not participating in heavy exercise at that moment. It causes an insulin spike, decreasing insulin sensitivity. It will not have clinical effects if that happens only a few times, but from a theoretical point of view, this insulin response is inherently unhealthy.Also, eating calories without fibre means you lose the mechanically important ‘bulk’ you need for optimal gut function and your symbiotic microbiome and colonocytes are not well fed. If you already ate a lot of fibre before and you can resist the urge of overeating induced by the absence of activation of the ‘ileal break’. This also will have no clinical consequence.
I’m going to go with Cool Whip.Ingredients: Water, hydrogenated vegetable oil (including coconut and palm oils), high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, skimmed milk, light cream, less than 2% sodium caseinate (a milk derivative), natural and artificial flavor, xanthan and guar gums, polysorbate 60, sorbitan monostearate, and beta carotene.
TBH in your hypothetical it depends on frequency. Doing that maybe 1-2 times per week? Won’t hurt and helps you not completely deprive yourself. If that starts to become normal, then you start to potentially be doing unhealthy things. I mean it’s not gonna turn your to a fat slob if you stay within your calorie budget. But my step dad is like 5’10” and 140 lbs but still takes blood pressure meds since he is the type of person to not eat much but still works in a lot of processed foods when he does eat.
Anything that doesn’t come from the ground or have a mother isn’t real food. If it’s processed in anyway it’s not going to be healthy for you, but there are processed foods that have a lesser impact than others
All foods provide some nutrients, so if you were lost in the woods without any other choices, that junk food in your backpack would sustain you a bit longer. The question is always “compared to what?” Could you make a better choice?
But let’s get more into your direct question — Lutein does not have a DRI target, but getting 6 mg a day has been shown to be good to reduce cataract risk, so romaine lettuce, broccoli, or edamame could help with lutein intake vs. a snickers bar.
Saturated fat should be less than 10% of calories per the US government and below 5% per the American Heart Association, so that’s another strike against certain food choices if you are bumping against those limits.
The DRI for protein is 10% of calories, but you might benefit from getting a little more, especially if older or physically active.
Also, getting above 100% of the omega-3 DRI is good for vegans, because the conversion of ALA into DHA is limited.
Sure, have those treats on occasion, but be smart about food choices overall.
“Healthy” food is food that should be eaten on daily basis and make majority of what you eat.
“Unhealthy” food is food that should be eaten less often.
If you cover all your nutrient needs with the “healthy food”, it means it makes a majority of what you eat. Therefore there’s no reason not to eat some snack you like/sweets/fast food from time to time. This depends on many factors, but if you’re missing some calories every day, you can once cover them with piece of fruit or nuts and other time some “unhealthy” snack instead if you fancy that.
Nah, eat what you want. Obviously any amount of saturated/trans fat will have a negative effect but if your diet is very much predominantly healthy, then over a lifetime it won’t have a significant impact to enjoy the odd unhealthy treat.Though I think to answer your question, you will technically always benefit more from eating a 100% healthy diet than a 99.99% diet (physically, though maybe not mentally). Hit all your recommendations, but it’s always beneficial to get more omega fish oils or fruit and veg rich with polyphenols, extra fibre etc. rather than a ‘empty calorie’ snack.In saying this, I’m an advocate for a balanced diet that includes ‘unhealthy’ foods, as adherence to a strict monk-like regime of zero tolerance towards junk foods doesn’t sound sustainable long term, nor is it a healthy relationship with food.
The seeds oils are particulary inflammatory and pro-carcinogenic. They are best avoided in any food items you find them in.
Caloric dense foods like nuts, avocado, dates, etc are healthier and would meet your maintenance quota.
If you’re eating high GI processed foods you’re going to throw out you microbiome. feeding the bad bacteria can lead to overgrowth, resulting in symptoms like bloating, diarrhoea, constipation, reflux, intestinal hype permeability. So even if you’re eating all the good foods to feed the good bacteria and support them, feeding the bad ones could affect digestion, but also the gut brain axis, and eating processed foods will feed bad bacteria in other parts of the body too eg. Throat and vagina,
i could say grapes are unhealthy because its sugar quantity, but actually they’re gonna be not healthy only if you eat more than what you need at a day; i think that considering the evolution, vegetables can’t be unhealthy, or it’s very usable for our organism or it’s like toxic and we can’t even try it, but not unhealthy, are you following? haha
Alcohol has negative good benefits for your health
Processsed meats are linked with cancers and heart desease (https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/2015/11/03/report-says-eating-processed-meat-is-carcinogenic-understanding-the-findings/)
Highly processsed foods are caloricly dense and lack nutritional density
Too much of anything is unhealthy.
Anything that qualifies as a food is, pretty much by definition, healthful. Depends if your relative comparison is 0. So if you had either pure saturated fat sprinkled with table sugar or.. starve. Well then they’re healthy.
The same cannot be said of a poisonous mushroom. You may die quicker as a result of eating it than just by starving. Or a radioactive pill. Or a brick.
Bit pedantic but the point is foods must be compared to one another. You probably want a nice middle point where foods below it fall into the unhealthy category, as most foods they compare to will do better. Then foods above are healthy as they demonstrate the inverse.
Unhealthy foods don’t really have micronutrients. So eat Whole Foods first and if you have extra calories left for your day then you can eat some junk. But junk shouldn’t be more than 20% of your daily Calories. Also, a lot of junk food has chemical additives that interfere with your hunger chemicals and sends false signals to your brain