Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Apples before meals the new diet?

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Okay, eat 125 calories of apple before you eat a meal and you'll eat almost 190 calories less at the meal. Net savings, calorie-wise: a whopping 65 calories. Yep, I'm going to rush right out there and jump on that diet bandwagon, yes sirree.
What the hell is wrong with these asshats? Eat a low-calorie soup, salad, or fruit at the beginning of your meal and you'll eat fewer calories. Since when is a net difference of 65 calories per meal (195 calories a day) going to help you lose weight? Since not all people burn calories at the same rate, this might work for some, but not others. And why the hell are they still concentrating on weight loss? Why can't they concentrate on health, no matter what your size is? Make fresh fruits and veggies more affordable and more easily available and maybe, just maybe, more people will eat them. Make education more equitable, no matter where you live, so that people have a chance to get better jobs with better pay so they can afford a better standard of living. Quit making health a moral imperative, not everyone can have optimum health, there is always some disease or illness out there to which we will be susceptible, for which there is no cure (or if there is a cure, it might not work for everyone), and that is not our fault. It's life, and shit happens that is no one's fault. So quit looking for someone to blame, blame doesn't accomplish anything, and it sure as hell doesn't make anything better for anyone.

6 comments:

  1. I love it when you are sassy :)

    And yes they are asshats.

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  2. Better to be sassy and laugh than to cry over it. I'm done shedding tears because of bigoted asshats.

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  3. uhmm.... let's see:
    195 calories * 360 days = 70200 calories
    at 3500 calories per pound of fat that makes about 20 pounds a year.

    That's 20 pounds for just eating an apple before your meal. Without changing anything else.

    Small things add up fast, and don't require big changes.

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  4. anonymous: you're assuming that all people burn calories at exactly the same rate. Not so. The rate at which calories are burned depends on so many different factors, some of which are:
    1-how fucked up is your metabolism from how many diets?
    2-how much muscle mass do you have? 3-how much exercise do you do? 4-what is your genetic background? 5-what medications do you take? The list can go on and on. So what may be a 20 lb loss over a year for one person may not translate into any weight loss at all for another.
    You are also missing the entire point, which is why the hell are they concentrating on weight loss, when they should be working on much more important things, like health? And don't give me that shit about thin is healthier than fat. It ain't necessarily so. Fat people prove that every day, just by living their lives, contributing to society, and living to ripe old ages.

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  5. But it is about health, or could be spun just as easily that way. If eating the apple replaces a less healthful lunch choice, that's great. If, as you explained much better than I can, the apple is affordable. The problem is that the apple is not as affordable as many other, less healthful foods. A calorie is a calorie is a calorie -- but the apple has lots more "good stuff" that our bodies need! It really makes you wonder where our priorities are.

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  6. Sarah, exactly. If fresh fruits/veggies were more affordable, I would certainly be willing to eat lots more of them. As it is, I have to balance what I can afford with what is best for us, and that's not easy, especially when DH is diabetic and carbs are so bad for him. It's a precarious balancing act, to say the least.

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