January 13, 2005
new dietary guidelines
I've been wondering what to do with this blog. Food can be a huge source of stress for me. Of course, many times (most of the time, probably) it fills me with happiness and glee. The happiness is worth the stress but I'm starting to think that I shouldn't spend so much time writing about what I eat in particular. I'll still post photos every now and then (I've got some from yesterday, during which I mainly ate fruit, veggies, and cake) but I think I'll use this blog more for posting links to other pages about food. Not just food blogs, which tend to focus on recipes and eating out (makes sense), but food news or strange food related pages. There are lots of blogs dedicated to reporting news about music, design, technology and so on, but how about food? No, we don't need more of that but eh...I'm still alive, thus I will blog.
So the links for today:
Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005: The last food guide was kind of...not so good. I find it funny that the new guide just came out because last semester I had taken a nutrition course in which we had to learn all about the old food pyramid, as in how many servings adults needed, kids needed, and so on. Damn, gotta throw all that out of my head! I'm annoyed that this guide is in the "oh god I hate it" pdf format so I've only downloaded the chart. I like this chart more than the previous pyramid and it makes me happy to see that fruit is first. Fruit is my favorite food in the world (persimmons in particular). Eating dark veggies certainly has nurtitional benefits but I don't like leafy greens so I haven't eaten them in a while. Oops. I think it's good to vary protein choices, except I could easily eat half a pound of nuts. I'm like nuts more than meat.
The low-fat dairy and whole grains on the chart bother me. Then again I don't think eating any grain is a great idea (don't get me wrong, I love wheat and rice, I just don't think they're very healthy). I know grains are the staple of most civilizations (if not grains then starchy root vegetables). 3 ounces of a grain product is a reasonable amount though, so that's a good recommendation. I think I have trouble digestion whole grains although it's more desireable to eat something that has been less processed...
...which leads me to my beef with low-fat dairy products. Dairy has fat in it. DEAL! While people have not been eating refined grain for ages, people have been eating full fat dairy products. It won't kill you. People should probably be more concerned about whether their milk is full of hormones and antibiotics. It's prudent to drink organic milk instead of regular milk. Or raise a cow. Let's not forget that most of the world is lactose intolerant. I don't think it's necessary to eat dairy products (I grew up in a largely dairy-free house except for ice cream) but if you're going to you may as well get good quality whole fat milk.
I didn't expect the food guide to explain the differences between different kinds of fats and oils but at least it mentions saturated and trans fat. Saturated fat isn't always bad though. I think it's better to cook with saturated fat than unsaturated fat since it doesn't become rancid as easily (I'd give you more scientific facts but you can google it). I remember learning in my nutrition class to not eat coconut oil since it's saturated (also, other agricultural industries probably pushed it out in favor of getting rid of surplus corn oil and junk), and saturated fat is evil. Well, that explains how people in southeast asia are so slim despite using coconut oil. I remember seeing coconut oil EVERYWHERE when I visited there (can't remember which country, but around Malaysia or the Philippines?) and I've cooked with it. It's pretty yummy.
I could say more about the food guide, but I'm not expert. These are just my opinions. Anyhoo, the new food guide seems pretty good overall.
Posted by roboppy at 5:42 PM
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