Hello Nutrition Reddit :) What’s something about diet and nutrition you wish you knew earlier? I was overweight as a teen and did the worst things (including a tea cleanse lol). Wish I could pass advice to my old self!
I wish someone would have just explained the basics of carbs, fats, proteins as a teen. How they’re all important in different ways, and how each one can help you based on your goals. I didn’t know about it pretty much at all until 23/24 when I got into fitness on my own.
this is something i “knew” for a while but it didnt really click untill recently with a simple phrase.
Soda/pop/coke is just liquid candy.
i knew soda was full of sugar but it never really clicked for me, after i heard that phrase i kinda realized how “bad” soda is. becuase would you eat a cup of candy during your meals, probably not, but its fairly normal to do that with soda.
i put “bad” in quotes because as long as you treat soda as a sometimes drink, and set limits on yourself, which is something im starting to do.
That there’s no such thing as ‘one weird trick’ or any secret. Nutrition isn’t gate-kept. All the diet books out there make it seem like you have to follow their complicated plans. But every government in the world provides the best evidence-based nutrition recommendations.
I went back to school at 33 and got a BSc in Human Nutrition and Physiology. I started eating based on the recommendations, I got out of the all-or-nothing cult-like mindset of dieting, and I lost 12.8kg.
If I could tell myself at 18 that just eating based on recommendations and learning moderation instead of deprivation that finally ends in breaking down and binging, I would have had a different life. But I also wouldn’t have learned my love of evidence-based science, so I guess it’s okay life turned out this way.
You don’t have to want to lose weight to eat healthy … I grew up thinking/being taught that diets were only for people who wanted to lose weight. I ate garbage and always felt awful, but wasn’t overweight. It seems silly but I felt like wanting to eat healthy was almost stigmatized when I was younger, like you must think you’re “fat” if you care about your diet.
1 Everyone is different
Just because it worked for someone else, doesn’t mean it will for me. There’s many factors outside of nutrition!
2 It takes longer than you expect
I used to go on trials of fasting, diets, etc. and expected to see results right away. I’m now realizing most of the results are seen 6 weeks, even couple of months down the line (keeping a journal helped a lot to track the progress)
3 What you eat.. isn’t everything
I used to obsess over just on what I ate. In reality, there’s just so many factors that contribute to the goal of being healthy. There’s a couple of things I should have prioritized as highly as nutrition: sleep, exercise, and eating the right amounts of the right things
That you don’t need to eat bukus of protein to gain muscle. When I started working out 10 years ago I was eating 200 grams of protein per day and hated it. Now I eat around 120-150 and am much happier.
That we are living in a “restrictive eating” era where everyone wants to tell you not to eat x food, and that y macronutrient will kill you. Eat whole foods, eat balanced, listen to your body, lessen stress, get some sleep.
Don’t listen to popular diet stuff. 99% of fad diets are based on contrarian bullshit. Like 99% of doctors/nutritionists say you should eat plenty of vegetables and then a fad emerges backed by some quack doctor “AKTUALLY plants are the worst thing you could ever eat avoid them at all costs” and thus the carnivore diet was born and Liver King is well known.
Just eat a balanced diet of fresh foods at around the right number of calories needed for your goals
oh man i knew nothing about nutrition - i just wish that in school we could have learned more about micro nutrients, for a while i was thinking as long as you get protein, carbs, fats then there is no purpose to eating vegetables (i still ate them but wasn’t ever sure why)
God… where to start.
I wish I knew the mainstream medias food suggestions were basically wrong every step of the way?
Sigh… basically do the opposite of the mainstream
This one isn’t about weight loss but one for in general.
I wish I was more educated about which food contains which nutrient. I knew so little to almost nothing about it when growing up. We ate at least one sort vegetable at dinner, a starch and my family would eat meat (I was a vegetarian quite young and as a vegan nowadays follow a plant based diet). Fruit wasn’t a every day thing and when it was in the house it was just up to you to take it or not. I think I can honestly say my mom had no clue either and also non about the amount of nutrients you need to not only function but to really take good care of your body. We where just doing ‘something’. My idea of a starch as a kid was just something to make you feel full.
I do a blood test now every year to double check if all my intakes are allright but once in a while I fill in on chronometer what I’ve consumed that day and get a quite realistic view of all the vitamines, proteins, minerals, calcium, fiber, iron and so on and on (it’s a extensive list). I also supplement B12 (some other things when necessary) and NEVER skip a fall or winter without supplementing vitamine D.
It’s a great shame that we aren’t more educated not only in some of our homes but also in society. Med students should also be taught more about food in relation to diseases for example. It’s more common to manage diseases with pills than to cure them with a diet change - which really can do wonders but a lot of us just don’t know…
Paying attention to how I feel after eating. I found out I have celiac disease later in life along with a few food allergies. Since cleaning up my diet and removing the offending foods my body has changed completely. And, my family and friends say I am happier and more pleasant overall and look way younger than I am. Also, food no longer hurts.
One I’ve known for a while, but haven’t seen posted on here; nutrients from food get absorbed differently than from supplements, so if you have a deficiency look into foods which contain said nutrient first before using supplements for better effect.
I wish I just accepted myself for who I was and didn’t feel the need to diet all the time. I am now 54 (f) and feel that my body is rebelling against me and holding on to midlife weight gain due to dieting. I am working with a dietitian to learn to eat properly without dieting. I didn’t think it would be so hard.
weight loss isn’t the end-all-be-all of health, 1200 calories on the long term will destroy your body, while reddit/the internet is a great tool, the dieting advice of internet strangers should be taken with a grain of salt :|
Not to focus on taking “bad” food out and instead focus on adding more healthy, whole foods in to each meal. Switching my mentality on that – add, don’t remove – changed my view on healthier eating and actually enjoying food in a different way. Aside from the weekend free-for-all that happens sometimes, I have a really (naturally) healthy balance. So if I’m making homemade pizza - the cheese AND piles of spinach or kale go on to. Creamy pasta, but instead of heavy cheese sauce, I roast tomatoes, garlic and red pepper then blend in a few handfuls of spinach while it’s hot. I never deprive or feel guilty like when I was younger because I know those meals have so much good in them.
Fruit juice is not particularly healthy. In fact it has a ton of sugar, heavy metals, and probably even residues of herbicides and pesticides; all this without the fiber. A small glass of juice a day is more than enough but better to just skip it all together.
Eat fruit and drink water.
the more slowly you lose weight, the longer you keep it off. I was always in such a damned hurry when I was a teen and put my body through hell. Slow and steady wins the race (not that it’s a race lol).
“Junk food” is known as unhealthy i.e. A Big Mac and Chips due to the amount of added fats, sugars, artificial sweeteners that fast food companies put into their foods. Not because of the ingredients. So, if you’re going to eat a burger do it homemade.
Fat is fat is fat. Avocados and nuts have good fats. Hamburgers have bad fats. In terms of counting fat grams consumed, the body does not care about what kind of fat we eat. Consuming lots of avocados because they are ostensibly good for you will still give you high cholesterol.
Same goes for refined versus natural sugar. Everything that goes with consuming too much sugar also applies.
3 things…
Cutting calories without ensuring you’re getting proper nutrition from that reduced number of calories is a recipe for disaster.
Eating to lose weight and eating to avoid ever getting fat in the first place, are very different.
That eating a bunch of plants really isn’t all that good for you.
- I wish I knew that I didn’t have to go on so called “diets” to lose weight.
-I wish I knew that I could enjoy any foods I want and still be healthy regardless of my body type.
-I wish I knew that having a super flat toned stomach is unrealistic and does not equal to good health.
-I wish I knew that carbs were not the enemy.
- I wish I knew many things about nutrition in general
Sugar is empty calories. You don’t need to follow all these fancy eating routines popularized by social media. Eat what tastes good and as long as it’s not drenched in oil you’re better off than 90% of the population.