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Nutrition - A Worsening Crisis

It may be old news now, as most crises are in the modern world, but for the purpose of a discussion based on this topic I'll say it anyways. You are likely well aware that myriads of people suffer from or are in danger of a myriad of health conditions due to their eating habits and lifestyle. These issues could be avoided with the right habits, yet the situation only seems to get worse.

So, this leads me to my questions. Do you value your health? Are you healthy? Do you have any nutrition-related health problems? What do you do to stay healthy, or what do you do to try to get healthier? Do you exercise regularly? Do you eat well? What do you think can be done to try to stop this health crisis? Why does it continue to get worse? Do you have any personal experiences or opinions related to this topic that you wouldn't mind sharing?

I personally value my health very much and I am healthy. Of course I can always do something to improve, such as spend less time inside, vary my exercises more, and maybe actually do my exercises on a regular basis #tb{^V^}. This nutrition crisis might be solved if people just had a strong enough willpower to commit to a plan-- but of course that is easier said than done. Due to this problem, along with the oversaturation of quick, terrible-quality meals the problem only seems to worsen, at least in my opinion.

But enough about my thoughts. Discuss away!
Originally posted by Minish Yoshi
Do you value your health?

Absolutely. I never smoke (and I'd sooner post videos on my YouTube channel promoting anti-vaxxer ideology than start smoking) and I've never really been one to buy into the "you can be healthy at every size" mentality (you are not healthy if you look like a land whale or if you look like a stick figure), cuz IMO being body positive means loving yourself enough to make whatever lifestyle choices you can to be as healthy as you can and getting back on that horse if you fall off.

Originally posted by Minish Yoshi
Are you healthy?

Generally speaking, I'd say so. Mentally, somewhat lesser extent (no need to explain why). Never been one of those "stuff your face full of snacks to gain weight but it's okay cuz it's quarantine" type of people. Still, there is always room for improvement. It can be very tempting to feel like you can eat however many snacks, burgers, pizzas, or donuts you want just because you just did a long and grueling exercise sesh, especially if you go to Planet Fitness on a day where they have pizza. Even if that's (was?) only once a month, that seems counterproductive. I don't really get sick that often (IIRC last time I was sick with anything more than the common cold was sometime around December 2010 when I had a stomach bug).

Originally posted by Minish Yoshi
Do you exercise regularly?

Absolutely. Even if I never, ever went to the gym, my job is pretty physical.

Originally posted by Minish Yoshi
Why does it continue to get worse?

Vending machine food and fast food are convenient options, and also people either need to (at least make an attempt to) quit smoking or never start in the first place. Obesity and smoking are two of the things that can make COVID-19 worse.
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I certainly "value" my health, naturally, but I actually have been kind of worried lately about my health. Back in high school I would run and bike daily to stay fit, but ever since college started I've found myself wrapped up in my studies (when I'm not hanging out with friends, that is). I have a pretty tough major and I'm not the fastest learner, so I need to spend a lot of time understanding these things as well. The pandemic hasn't really been helping, either...

I know this could be harming my health because sometimes I find myself completely forgetting to eat, and later get stomach pains where I can't tell if the pain is just hunger or if I'm getting cramps from all the sitting. Yikes.

I definitely want to get back into my old routine, but I've been having a lot of trouble finding the time to do so with all my little hobbies and side projects.
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My health is something I used to seriously neglect, these days I'm trying to get my body back on the right track. I was fine for most of my life but my health really started to take a nosedive during the last two years of high school when I moved to the east coast and was sent to boarding school. The academics, social pressure and my already messed up mental health caused me an insane amount of stress so I developed an addiction to sugar and eating became a coping mechanism. I gained so much weight during my two years there. When I started going there I was so skinny people thought I had an eating disorder and by the time I graduated I was at least 200+ pounds.

After I moved back home my habits stayed the same. Rarely ate any vegetables, drank two sodas a day at least, and then once college rolled around weed entered the picture too which only potentiated my bad eating habits. This went on for a while, even after my mental health hit rock bottom and I attempted suicide. The wake up call came earlier this year when I went to the doctor and weighed 236lbs. I felt gross and me being overweight also made my gender dysphoria worse, so I knew I had to change.

I started by limiting myself to one 12oz soda a day as opposed to drinking multiple 20oz bottles a day. After a while I was able to wean myself off of sugar so much that soda hits different. I can barely finish a full soda these days, even the Mexican import ones made with cane sugar (i.e. the best sodas). These days I'll have 1-3 sodas a week as opposed to 2-3 a day. These days I drink a lot more water and seltzer than sugary drinks, sugar just makes me feel like ass at this point. I also drink more tea than I used to (rewatching Avatar The Last Airbender pushed me to do it but hey whatever works).

I've been trying to eat more vegetables than I used to as well. Sometimes I'll buy carrots and celery from the store, chop them up into bite sized pieces and eat them as a snack, they're hella tasty that way. Also been trying to eat more dried fruits and stuff when I need a snack as opposed to more unhealthy stuff like potato chips and cookies that I could easily go through in an hour.

All of this combined with being on my own and not eating as much has resulted in me losing a ton of weight over the past few months. Last time I weighed myself on the scale I was just below 200lbs. From here I plan to incorporate meditation and yoga into my lifestyle but new habits are hard to form (especially right now since I'm looking for work) so that might take time but I know things will work out if I keep chipping away at it. Baby steps I guess.
Well, I value my health a lot, but I haven't been eating in a proper way as of lately. What I did to shed in some weight is to not eat too much and, in conjunction with that, consume healthy food and weigh me in a pharmacy within a weekly time span. I need to resume that again.
The gym I went to is now adapting to online classes which I only do once in a blue moon LOL, though I used to exercise regularly in order to gain muscle mass and stay fit. Now I take walks every week to stimulate that, and more recently with my girlfriend.

I never smoked and I never will (I was bribed by "friends" to smoke actually but I declined), but I do drink beer once in a while.
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Originally posted by Romano338
Let's think about people who can't eat instead of about people who decide to eat poorly.


This nutrition crisis goes both ways, in terms of people eating too much and people eating too little (due to the fact that they are unable to eat much, if anything). Of course, undernourished people should not be forgotten and should be helped just as much as everyone else, but I decided to focus this thread upon the other side of the issue because more people would be able to share their own personal experiences. Of course, I don't know everyone's situation, but I feel safe making the assumption that if you have a device to access the Internet on, have an Internet connection, and have the time to post on a website you should be able to have food on the table. In summation, people unable to eat should be thought of, but this thread is more focused on sharing personal experiences more than anything else, which are (by my assumption) more likely to be about eating poor food rather than not having food to eat.

Anyways, I thank you for your opinion.
I don't have any nutritional disease but I do have an unusual autoimmune disease, interstitial cystitis, that flares up badly from spicy food and citrus, and I like both of those things. I do have a little citrus tolerance, but even a tiny taste of anything spicy will have me burning in torture for days. Goodbye, General Tso's chicken. #ab{:(}

From working overnight and probably due to poor absorption, despite drinking a lot of milk, I have a vitamin D deficiency and I find myself very tired even after a lot of sleep. I tend to lose more salt than most people because of my medications, so i actually need salt and electrolytes a lot more than I am getting.

I also have too much wheat in my diet (because it is portable, affordable, accessible, takes no preparation) and I get heartburn every time I have wheat products except those made of semonila or durum wheat like pasta. I also have excessive chocolate cravings and keep drinking hot chocolate even in the middle of summer, so I do get way too many carbohydrates in relation to fat and protein lately. I wasn't like this until about a year ago. I was big into Harvest Snaps and that got me down to 128 lbs from 151 in 2 months. I had to eat donuts everyday to stop plummeting. Now I think that's what I am going to go back to, along with some antioxidant-rich tea to help heal myself from free radicals and inflammation from eating all that garbage.

I really should dedicate more time in the evening to meal preparation so I can bring stuff I actually like and won't get huge off of, like Mediterranean salads or berry & nut mixes. I should also buy more canned mackerel or sardines for work snacks. I am crazy for calamari and eel too, but I doubt I will ever find them to-go, ready-to-eat.

Exercise-wise, my legs are fine even with a bad disc in my lower back and I can walk very far without being tired. I just have to be mindful of how rough the floor or uneven the ground is. I can't lift much anymore without excruciating pain in my neck, shoulders (sometimes get tension migraines,) anymore since I have severe cervicalgia. I don't need to be doing anything at all and it feels like I got karate-chopped in the neck, and the most seemingly-unrelated thing like stumbling can shock it. I am trying to loosen these muscles every day with stretching and rehabilitate myself; may have to go to a chiropractor or get massage therapy next. Tried everything under the sun from physical therapy to meloxicam to trigger point injections, and the only thing with a long term benefit was the PT because I can move my neck again. Rebuilding upper body strength is hard right now.

Just look above you...
If it's something that can be stopped, then just try to stop it!
I'm a type 1 diabetic so by default I have a shit immune system.

If I get COVID-19 it's pretty much over for me.
Originally posted by Aram
I'm a type 1 diabetic

I live with someone who has diabetes (tho that still doesn't stop her or me from going to the gym, which thankfully is not excessively packed) so I really don't wanna catch COVID. Not that I'd want to anyway.
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Originally posted by Aram
I'm a type 1 diabetic so by default I have a shit immune system.

If I get COVID-19 it's pretty much over for me.

My late godmother had type 1 diabetes too and I know how it is to live with such disease. Well, she would even be counted as part of the "risk group" as far as I'm concerned. Please take care of yourself.
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I noticed my health beginning to slip at the start of quarantine. When you're locked up in flu jail it's easy to give into temptation and get the pizza train rolling to your door. One evening I checked the scales, but more importantly, my gut and said enough was enough and 3 months later I'm hovering in the 10% body fat region roughly.

The biggest misconception I see people regurgitating is they don't have time to eat healthy or exercise. That's the downward spiral I found myself in as someone who was obsessed with my work. What I discovered as the old adage goes was that I was working hard, not working smart. By simply taking the extra time to provide better quality fuel to my body I saw a massive step up in my critical thinking, as well as a generally more positive outlook on the myriad of shite that ends up going wrong on the average workday. The hour and a half or so of exercise was also where most of the big revelations to my work occurred. It's in those moments of focused detachment I find you get a fresh perspective generally. I used to always be working late until 7-7:30...now I'm always out of the door (virtually since still stuck at home) on-time with the same volume of work completed.

You only get one body, so stop conspiring with cheeseburgers against it and invest the extra time into giving it the chance for longevity it deserves. It doesn't have to be a big adjustment, something as small as giving up fizzy drinks will lend to a significant boon over the space of a few months. Gradual, deliberate and consistently applied change is the best way to go about things. Also getting a good night's sleep...that's probably the bedrock of everything.

Finally, there's no "wonder diets" or "perfect exercise" regiment. Anyone who's selling you that is a bullshit merchant. The perfect diet/exercise is whatever you can actually get motivated to do and keep up on a regular basis, and that's something only you can find out by putting the effort in to experiment and discover it.
Post above reminded me:

I have a recommendation for people who like the fizzies: Seltzer water. It's just carbonated water, and often times you can find natural flavor added with no caloric increase. Sure it's not sweet, but some essence of fruit may be interesting enough for your taste buds. You can also have "club soda" which is similar, zero calorie, but does have sodium in it. Both of these things are dirt cheap and *shouldn't* contain any laboratory stuff.

Zevia is also a nice natural zero-calorie soda for people who want something more similar to what they know as soda, but too much stevia isn't good for your intestines.

Turkey burgers are good burgers that don't taste like junk either. Juicy and mildly sweet: different flavor profile from beef but not one to disappoint. They even taste great with 99% lean ground turkey, though even the 93/7 has much fewer calories than beef. Cheeses like Swiss have a higher protein to fat ratio than most others like cheddar or American. Also, try doing without the bread, because the bun alone can add 100-200 calories.

There are usually good alternatives to the guilty pleasure stuff!

Just look above you...
If it's something that can be stopped, then just try to stop it!
I guess both yes and no, because I personally have a hard time having a "healthy" lifestyle, however, my lifestyle isn't something that will kill me soon anyways.
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