Do you eat healthy? "Healthy" being a rather subjective term...

-- Anonymous, May 06, 2001

Answers

I eat relatively healthily, apparently. But I don't eat enough vegetables, I don't eat dairy (lactose intolerant), and....actually, I don't eat enough. I usually only eat supper.

But my cholesterol is 135! My doctor asked if I was a vegetarian (which I'm not). Nope, but yay for soy!

-- Anonymous, May 06, 2001

I never watch what I eat. Never. Which is why I'm pretty sure I'm just going to suddenly keel over and die unexpectedly from malnutrition or something some day. Aside from potatoes, which I could eat endlessly, I don't eat any vegetables. I can't stand them. They have next-to-no taste, so it's kind of like chewing gum with no flavour that you have to swallow. And they absolutely REEK when steamed or whatever it is. I'm not putting that shitty smelling shit in my mouth.

But I love fruit. I think that's what's keeping me alive.

-- Anonymous, May 06, 2001

Absolutely. Longevity is extremely important to me (this is also why I don't smoke or drink, plus the fact that I find that stuff disgusting tasting or, er, to inhale, respectively)...certainly much more so than the very temporary pleasure of eating crappy food (and the longer one stays away from unhealthy food the less it seems appealing). I don't eat meat and try to eat vegan when possible (basically, if there's something I want to eat and you can find a vegan substitute [which you can for almost everything] I go with the vegan version.) I don't get really uptight about the vegan thing, though, because it isn't a morality issue for me, just one of health (anyone who wants to learn more about the healthfulness of veganism [it's really very surprising] I suggest reading http://www.vegan.com/resources/books/Vegan.pdf - it isn't "preachy", just take a look at it with an open mind and see if you don't look at eating unhealthy food as being as bad for you as smoking....it's also a fantastic,healthy *and* reasonably fast way to lose weight if anyone reading is interested in that..there's a specific chapter about it in the book) so I don't get stay away from anything that ever touched an animal or anything.

Anyway, I got a bit carried away with that, but healthy eating is exciting to me...heh...

-- Anonymous, May 06, 2001

Hooray for Granola!

I'm a ovo-lacto Vegetarian, which basically means I get to eat all of nothing good. Healthy, yes, appetizing, no. One can only eat salad so many times, you know?

-- Anonymous, May 06, 2001

I don't eat healthy at *all*. I don't really even try. When I do put in effort, it ends up falling through anyway. I'm like you with the salad.. I'll be like "Hmm, I feel like a nice, healthy salad" so I put together some lettuce and cucumber and tomato and carrot shavings and everything, but then it's like "hmm.. it needs something" and I end up dousing it in fatty salad dressing and cheese and sometimes even Bacos. Then I wash it down with Coke or something. I just know I'm going to die at about 40 years old.

-- Anonymous, May 06, 2001

I eat piles of salad with rocket and baby spinach and cucumber. Yum! But I usually eat it with a dressing of balsamic or rasberry vinegar and lots of extra virgin olive oil, so I'm probably joining the death at 40 group. Besides the rabbit food I mostly eat curries or middle eastern food or stir-fryed vegies and tofu. And Italian food. And low- fat ricotta and fetta cheese. And then I ruin my good work with wine (usually heavy, spicy reds) and fatty cheeses and crackers before dinner. We've been into this triple cream one lately, I can almost feel the heart attack coming on. I think it's a cultural thing, although what culture I'm not too sure, unless globe-trotting, over indulged women spawning with wine loving nutcase can be considered a culture.

-- Anonymous, May 06, 2001

Damn, I forgot the Frangelico, lots and lots of duty free Frangelico. And this Egyptian spirit whose name I forget that tastes like liquorice. If it isn't heart dieasse, it'll be liver disease.

Isn't it a pity that good food and drink always affects the essential organs.

-- Anonymous, May 06, 2001

I eat healthily enough, I think. I love vegetables and fruit; some of my favorites are squash, cabbage (yes, it's stinky, but oh so good for you!), carrots, broccoli, lettuce, apples, oranges, pears, cantalope, strawberries, etc. I do love to eat carbohydrates (fresh french bread...yum), though, and I tend to over-indulge if I'm not careful. I really don't like meat, not even light meat like chicken, but I'm not a vegetarian. I guess I should consider becoming one.

-- Anonymous, May 06, 2001

I seriously live on sandwiches and chocolate. (With occasional indulgence in biscuits and cakes.) I feel healthy (most of the time - I am currently incapable of speaking and feel like I have a nightclub stuck up my nose, but that's a result of a cold and not enough sleep), so I don't care.

Vegetables disturb me. I haven't eaten any since the age of two. They're horrible colours as far as food goes and they're totally without sugar. Urgh.

-- Anonymous, May 06, 2001

hmm. someone made a comment earlier that i think sounded that as a vegetarian they ate lots of healthy food, but not appetizing food. i just wanted to show another side of the story, ever since i started eliminating meat, my relationship with food has gotten so much more positive, and i've discovered all this amazing stuff that there is to eat, since i don't have the meat-thing to fall back on whenever i go out or wherever (does that make sense?)

i eat fairly healthily because i eat in a vegetarian dining co-op and most of what we make is veggies, tofu, bread, and pasta (we have these amazing cooks that are so fabulous)... but i have a couple of things that i like when i'm not in the co-op that aren't so healthy like french fries, grilled cheesers, pizza, etc. alas. so, i think the official answer is that i eat food that is healthy, but that my overall eating habits waver more towards bad.

-- Anonymous, May 06, 2001

Yep, I eat healthy. I've been a vegetarian for a while now, but I wasn't a healthy vegetarian at first. I ate lots of starchy stuff (bread, fries, etc.) and didn't concentrate on getting enough protein. I'm now really good about making sure I get enough protein every day. My roommates and I cook for each other and we try to have balanced meals. I think we're pretty good about it. I don't eat junk food either. Well, barely. I used to have salty and sugary snacks around the kitchen all the time. If I had continued to inhale Tostitos chips and cheese salsa the way I did last year, I'd have salt and processed cheese running through my veins right now. Um, gross. Take my word; don't eat that stuff. Now I eat fruit for snacks, and I allow myself the occasional chocolate milkshake from a local ice cream place, but that's it.

-- Anonymous, May 07, 2001

My relationship with food tends to be that of whatever I hear calling out my name, I eat. Salads and fruit are things I can eat tons of. There is nothing better than a good, hearty salad or a nice ripe pear or mango. Of course, if you stick a spear of asparagus or a brocolli branch near me, I'll probably stick it up your ass... its just plain nasty. I dont know how people eat that stuff. I might as well be grazing in a pasture.

To answer the question though, I could eat healthier. My cholesterol is in the normal range, but could be lower, and I could skip the nice greasy foods that make my world go round.

I need to find a good balance between eating foods that will make me live a long, healthy, miserable life and foods that will make me life a short, unhealthy, heart-attack-waiting-to-happen, love-everything-i-put-in-mouth type of life.

They say if you put a spinach leaf on your hamburger it makes it just that much more healthier. Hmm...

-- Anonymous, May 07, 2001

I agree with Maria, eating vegetarian or vegan doesn't necessarily mean food isn't good...I eat tons of delicious food...including things like ice cream (yeah, soy/tofu! tofutti is *better* than dairy ice cream, IMO) and I'm currently having some vegan apple strudel, it's really delicious.. Plenty of the best tasting things come in vegan or vegetarian options.

Also, Zed, you might feel healthy right now, but that doesn't mean you are healthy (you might not have caught that cold if you were generally healthier) and it's entirely possible that you'll have serious health problems when you get older. I'm really not trying to be preechy, if you want to eat unhealthy food, go ahead, just don't think that the biological rules about how eating unhealthy food affect the body will not affect you, because in one way or another, they likely will.

-- Anonymous, May 07, 2001

I was watching some show on the Food Channel the other day, and they were talking about some lady who ate lard every day of her life, and lived to be 102 years old. The bad stuff's not *always* guaranteed to kill you. ;)

-- Anonymous, May 07, 2001

Who in the hell would want to eat lard every day? Who would want to eat it at all?

-- Anonymous, May 07, 2001

mmm veggies. what kind of veggies are you guys eating? raw ones? i can think of so many veggies that are yummy when cooked well (ie: stir fry not in animal fat, and not fried). for example, green beans, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, asparagus, peppers, spinach, olives, etc. so much yummy goodness in the world ..

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2001

I usually *intend* to start eating healthy...which is practically the same as actually doing it, right?

Recently, I was diagnosed with a medical condition where I have to eat lots and lots of salty food. Whenever I tell people, they're like, you're so lucky! But it's too late...my mom's a total health freak, and she'd always slap my hand away from the salt shaker when I was little. Now I really don't like the taste of salt, except on pretzels or whatever...grr...

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2001

Screw eating healthy. I'd rather eat happy.

At the airport I work at, the ONLY restuarant we have in the place is Burger King. So I eat Burger King, on average, four times a week. What I get will offend the senses of almost everyone who's posted so far: A Bacon Whopper With Cheese combo meal... NO lettuce, NO tomato, NO onion. And occasionaly, extra mayonnaise. Essentially, the most unhealthy thing you could get out of the flame-broiler. And anything that might have some semblence of nutrition gets removed prior to cramming it down my face. And this doesn't bother me. My work is physical enough to balance it out. True, I may conk over at 55 with a heart attack and die. But I'd rather pack in 55 years of good living than pull out 87 of "Man, that hamburger looks good... no, gotta be good, gimme the tofu." 55 years of meat is living. 87 years of tofu is punishment. At least in my case. For those of you that love salads and hate meat, go for it, man. You lucked out that your personal tastes also happen to be healthy. But people who are struggling to avoid certain things as being unhealthy and feeling miserable for not being able to indulge need to carpe the fucking diem.

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2001

Hell no! I figure you only live once, so why bother really? I mean i eat healthy when my mom cooks dinner but other than that, it's McDonalds all the way!

-- Anonymous, May 12, 2001

Heh, you only live once? That's my exact reason for eating healthfully.

Shit, I am really amazed at some people's reasoning here.. then again, this is the United States. But I'd kind of like to remind people that there are things WAY more pleasurable than food, but you have to be alive to enjoy all of them.

-- Anonymous, May 13, 2001

Like sex! I'd take sex over a big fat cheeseburger anyday.

Although that would definitely depend on who I was having sex with.

-- Anonymous, May 13, 2001

i have been vegetarian for about 6 years, vegan for a year and a half, and i go through periods where i eat really healthily-- it's REALLY easy to be an unhealthy vegan, if you're lazy. lately i have been too busy/lazy to even really eat much at all, and that's unhealthy.

but i am not vegan for health reasons, so it isn't a big deal.

-- Anonymous, May 13, 2001

A fun thing to do when a vegetarian/vegan is acting better than you because you're a meat-eater is to sit in front of em with a big, greasy burger, take a big bite, and be all "mmm.. dead, heated cow flesh.. yum!"

Not that I'm saying all, or even very many, vegetarian/vegans are like that, but you run across one of them holier-than-thou types every so often. It's fun to bug em.

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2001

I have a friend (hi Ang!) who used to wish me well every time I ate a hamburger by saying, "Hope you enjoy your burnt cow carcass." To which I usually responded by pointing the burger so the first bite mark was aimed towards her, lifting the top bun like a mouth, and going, "Mooooooooo."

-- Anonymous, May 19, 2001