blessed :)

You know how all these fad diets and fear of carbs are followed by quite a number of people these days? Let me tell that’s a whole lot of bullocks. I get really annoyed when someone says you’ll lose weight with a diet that’s low in carbs.

Well OBVIOUSLY because carbohydrates hold water, so with less carbohydrates in your body, that means you’ll also lose water mass. But with that weight loss also comes loss of your protein stores cos’ there isn’t enough glucose from carbohydrates going through your body for normal bodily functions. So your muscle mass will waste away with it.

Most of us probably know that carbs are where you get glucose, and glucose is your body’s fuel like petrol is to a car. So if you don’t get enough, your body will feel tired quite easily and your brain will find it difficult to cope, plus you’ll be in a bad mood pretty darn often. Not pretty. If that’s not enough, a diet lacking sufficient carbs could also cause bad breath. Bleagh.

So those are basically the reasons why you shouldn’t follow a diet that has very low carbs in it like the Atkins diet. I think Atkins says to have about 20g of carbs per day or something like that. In actual fact, your body needs at the very least 130g a day. That’s right, that’s how much you’re starving your body with a crap diet like that. And it probably can’t be sustained for long cos’ your body will just burn out.

So, aim to eat healthily people, don’t just follow any trending fad diet that promises weight loss, because honestly, they’re usually a whole lot of rubbish.

That being said, don’t overdo on the carbs either as it gets stored as fats, and you don’t want too much of that. Hehe. The Australian recommendation is to get about 45-60% of your total energy intake from carbs, which would equate to 230-310g of carbs per day. That’s an estimate and it’s more accurate to tailor it to your body mass. Also 100g of a food (eg: rice) doesn’t mean it’s 100g carbs. So you’ve got a bit of calculating to do if you’re gonna calculate carbs. A simple and rough estimate is to get about 1/3 of your plate to consist of carbs in a meal. Get a good distribution of carbs throughout the day, snack (not potato chips, healthy snacks like water crackers or an apple) a little in between meals if you need to so that you get a good  supply of glucose throughout the day.

Hope that helps clear some stuff up about carbs and the misconception that it should be minimized in a diet.

Toodleloos!

I’ve decided to go through some of my previous readings from my Bachelor degree at RMIT before I begin my Master in March and I stumbled across this article about organic food. I don’t personally buy a lot of organic food and you’ll understand why later (mostly cos’ of price and discrepancy in organic regulation). Perhaps in the future when I have a secure income that would allow me to afford opting for organic foods.

So, this article by Jeffrey Kluger called “What’s So Great About Organic Foods?” that was featured in TIME magazine in August 18, 2010 discusses the pros and cons of organic and conventional foods. I’ll just sum it up for you and add some opinions of my own.

Organic - Pros

1. Health benefits- This applies to particular foods, not all, so don’t misquote me! Cattle that are fed grass have higher ratios of omega-3 fatty acids to omega-6, which is generally considered good in preventing heart diseases (I’m not explaining omega fatty acids here. Go Google it or wait till’ I write a post about it :p ). However, beef is only a small part of a consumer’s overall diet and this health benefit about organic beef can be overpowered by other dietary influences. The main difference when it comes to produce is in the relative presence of micronutrients like copper and folic acid.
2. Better treatment of the animals- Farm-raised animals have more space and this would reduce the chance of spreading diseases like E.coli bacteria through the contact with each other’s manure.
3. Better for the environment- Due to less runoffs of toxic pesticides and fertilizers, and also less chemical residues in our food chain. Also less carbon footprint as foods go through minimal processing and transportation.

Organic - Cons

1. It can be so darn expensive!- The article mentions that in China, prices for eco-foods can be up to 700% more expensive than their conventional counterparts. It probably doesn’t apply for all organic foods there, but still, organic foods are more often than not more costly. Organic fertilizers like manure and peat can be awfully expensice due to the huge quantities needed to have the same effect as synthetic fertilizers.
2. It is not necessarily more nutritious- Depends on the type of food I guess. While grass-fed beef is lower in fat and milk without chemicals is obviously better, a study by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2009) showed there was no great nutritional significance of organic fruits and vegetables as compared to conventional ones.
3. Not enough food- If everyone decided to go fully organic, there wouldn’t be enough food to go around because organic food takes longer to process and crop yields are usually significantly lower.
4. It is not totally free from pesticides- Contrary to popular belief, organic foods do contain pesticides most of the time, and although only biopesticides are less toxic, it doesn’t mean they are nontoxic.
5. It’s difficult to regulate- The real nutrient value in a produce comes from the soil and so you have to get to know the farmer and how he’s managing his soil in order to ensure the organic status of the produce. If I recall correctly, there are a few bodies involved in the organic labeling of foods, and while some require a producer to have 100% of his yield from organic practices, other bodies don’t necessarily define organic as that. So not all foods that are labeled organic are 100% organic (something like that, I’m terrible at explaining things).

Conventional - Pros

1. Sufficiency- Food produced through this method is able to feed everyone, even in abundance. So some foods need to be produced conventionally to sustain life, or not there would be a lot more deaths occuring from lack of food.
2. Cheaper- Synthetic fertilizers and pesticides are much cheaper, which makes food more affordable to the consumers.
3. Seasonal foods available all year round.
4. Variety- Have foods from overseas introduced into the local market.
5. More yield in crops and better preservation of food.

Conventional - Cons

1. It’s killing us- Conventional food production involves producing A WHOLE LOT of food to the lives of the billions of people on Earth, but as unfair as the world is, food isn’t distributed equally. That’s why the ones with a lot of food eat more and increase obesity rates while there are still people starving when there really should be enough food to feed the whole world at the moment. I’d personally say this isn’t so much of an issue with conventional food production but more of human greed, but then again, processed foods are dense with salt and high-sugar fructose that is what the body craves, so that can probably be blamed on conventional practices in affecting human health negatively.
2. It’s killing our planet- In the U.S, up to 10 million tons of chemical fertilizer per year are used on corn fields alone (OMG!), and although it increases crop yields significantly, it has also led to toxic runoffs that disrupt aquatic ecosystems. Of course, there’s also the issue with chemical/hormonal residues in out meats that may affect human health. Then there’s the issue of carbon footprint when we import and export foods. Basically, in order to get seasonal foods available throughout the year, more carbon dioxide is emitted from transport, storage, etc. of foods.
3. Waste- Too much food leads to too much waste. The article mentions that there is enough food manufactured in the U.S. for every American to consume 3,800 calories per day, when people only need about 2,350 calories in a healthy diet. So it’s either thrown away, or as mentioned earlier, eaten in excess.
4. Animal cruelty- To produce so much meat for cheaper, less space needs too be used, so these animals are crammed together under miserable conditions and are fed high-calorie feed that quickly fattens them up to be slaughtered A.S.A.P. While I know most people don’t really care where their food comes from cos’ it’s meant to be eaten anyway (cos’ the animal doesn’t need a good life as it’s raised to be killed anyway), I’d hate to be ignorant to the harsh treatment of the animals. I mean, their lives are already with that one purpose of feeding us, we could at least appreciate them a bit more. But that’s just my opinion anyway.

You can read the full article here.

If an organic food doesn’t provide a nutritional edge, and costs more, consumers are obviously gonna opt for conventional foods unless they’re the very concious of their environmental implications. From what I hear, the economy is topsy-turvy (I know close to nothing about commerce related stuff, so even when I listen to the news about economic stuggles, I am going “Whot??”) and people are finding their budgets tighter and tighter. If eating a balanced meal based on organic foods mainly is too costly for them to survive, I’m not gonna judge them for buying conventional foods to survive. After all, as Kluger mentions, eating an apple is better than eating none at all.

I do appreciate the fact that going organic is better for the environment and sometimes health, but I don’t necessarily support the fact that some organic goods are just so much more expensive and simply isn’t feasible for the average consumer.

On another note, some people say that converting to a vegetarian would be better for the environment cos’ of less land requirement, less methane from the animal (funny, but true), and some other reasons that I can’t think of right now. That being said, I don’t think I could ever be vegetarian. Humans are meant to be omnivores, not purely herbivores. I don’t mind eating less meat though cos’ I like my veggies and there are lots of other protein sources like cheese, grains, legumes and leafy greens (just to name a few). Afterall, the ideal is that meats should be the supporting players in a person’s diet and grains and veggies should be the bigger part of it, rather than the other way around.

Hope this helped you understand organic foods a bit more.

Toodleloos!