lmmy

Which sugar alternative? No-calorie ones or ones with calories? In the latter case, maple syrup = good, blackstrap molasses = good, agave = semi-good (environmental destruction is tied to it), fructose = not so good, HFCS = bad. Those are all that I know of.

http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/fitness_articles.asp?id=603

Body Image & Body Satisfaction

Recent national studies involving over 11,000 high school students and 60,000 adults found the following differences in how males and females feel about their bodies:

 

* Among adults, 48% of women and 26% of men described themselves as overweight, while 38% of the women and 24% of the men were trying to lose weight at the time of the survey.

* Men showed a greater tendency to see their weight as normal when it was actually above normal according to their BMI; women were more likely to see themselves as overweight with a normal BMI.

* Among high school students, 44% of the females and 15% of the males were trying to lose weight. Females were four times more likely to restrict calorie intake than boys, who more often reported using exercise as a weight loss method.

* 55% of women reported being dissatisfied with their weight, compared to 41% of men. Both men and women rated “health concerns” lower than appearance and social acceptance as reasons for their dissatisfaction. Although excess body fat was the number one cause of dissatisfaction for both men and women, over 60% of men (and only 10% of women) reported being significantly distressed about lack of muscle development.

* Among individuals who were classified as underweight according to their BMI, 83% of women reported that they liked their appearance, compared to 77% of men.

* Males were significantly more likely to report that regular exercise made them feel good about their bodies, while women were more likely to report that changes in their weight influenced how they felt.

* The magazines most read by women had 10 times more diet and weight-loss related content than magazines read by men, which featured content related to body building, fitness, muscle toning, and muscle building supplements.

* Males and females reported similar problems with emotional eating. However, men were more likely to report high protein foods such as meat as “comfort foods,” while women were more likely to turn to high carbohydrate foods such as sweets.

I just wanted to use this to point out that whatever you think "looks" healthy probably isn't -- even by the unscientific standards of the BMI (which was created with no scientific input by an insurance company, MetroLife). It's good to remember that we have a very warped view on what is a healthy weight, and this has everything to do with the Beauty Myth. Remember, next time that you see a skinny woman, that she may be very unhealthy -- and that, next time you see an obese woman, that she may jog at least three miles every day (as I do) and do an hour of weightlifting and cardio at the gym.

Summary? Looks aren't everything -- stop judging how healthy someone may be on them. Bodybuilders can still have heart attacks; skinny people still get cancer (more on the invalidity of studies "proving" that excess weight causes cancer later if someone brings it up).

The article also states the minimum bodyfat percentages for each sex: 12% for women and 4% for men. This means that, if you're a woman whose (let's give in to conformity a little here) "optimal" BMI is 135 lbs, you should at least have 16.2 lbs of fat on your body. However, I'll note that this is the minimum, and minimum does not generally mean "best working"; it's just the minimum.

Source:

... Research has convincingly shown that plants grown in healthy soil that has a good concentration of vitamin B12 will readily absorb this nutrient. However, plants grown in "lifeless" soil (non-organic) may be deficient in vitamin B12. In the United States, most of our agriculture takes place on relatively lifeless soil, decimated from years of unnatural pesticide, herbicide and fertiliser use. So the plants grown in this soil and sold in our supermarkets lack B12.

 

Taken from The China Study by T. Colin Campbell, PhD and Thomas M. Campbell II. Source listed in book: Mozafar A. "Enrichment of some B-vitamins in plants with application of organic fertilizers." Plant and Soil 167 (1994) 305-311.

Oh, well, lesbians, obviously!

When I saw the line about hunger and attraction, I thought you might be talking about what was also stated in The Beauty Myth, that when women's bodies aren't getting enough calories, their interest in sex drops and their interest in food heightens -- typical starvation-mode behaviour.

Anyways, I haven't paid enough attention to my patterns of attraction to see if it differs in any way over time; I do know that I prefer more curvy bodies in general, with smaller breasts, and a certain type of facial structure.. that might just be because I'm most attracted to my girlfriend, though. XD

Thanks, you guys!

Can I ask why it's no longer an option? I don't mean to be rude.

If it's not physically impossible for your child's mother to continue breastfeeding, you definitely should until the child starts to bite. Breastmilk is the most perfect food for a human infant, just as cow's milk is for a calf, and dog's milk is for a dog.

Sorry, didn't mean to wax all poetic on you.

Anyways, children need to get lots of calories when they're young to grow well -- avocados, nuts, and other calorie- and nutrition-dense foods are good for young'uns. They need lots of calories because children are extremely active (that is, if they're healthy, but you should know that) and they burn them off quickly. If you're able, also get some flaxseeds and grind them up for her. Smoothies with soymilk are good too -- your child needs her B-12 to develop lotsa smarts, like her daddy.

Take it with a grain of salt -- whoever's talking probably has no idea that it's almost impossible to be protein deficient as long as you aren't eating junk food all the time. Protein deficiency is only found in those who are malnourished. Remember those pictures of African children that they used to show us in middle school science with their bloated bellies? That's a symptom of protein deficiency.

It's also true that, without B-12, you can suffer from irreversible brain damage; however, humans have, in past times, been able to get B-12 from plants, as the plants would absorb B-12 from the soil they were grown in, provided the soil was healthy and had a good supply of bacteria. As we didn't have farming back when this was possible, or whatevercides, we could get all we needed from the plants we ate. These days, however, it's best to take a supplement, as we aren't gatherers anymore.

It was in a book actually, I believe it might have been The Obesity Myth (good read, by the way, though he doesn't delve as far into the "you can prove anything if you want to" thing with some studies). The fact that you have met skinny mothers doesn't matter -- they had enough food to eat. When I say "biologically designed", I mean that, in past times when there was famine, it was necessary; thus human females are biologically designed to have this amount of fat. The book I read it in said that 35 lbs of fat carries the "roughly 90,000 calories needed to support a pregnancy" (actual quote), and then there is still some left over for breastfeeding.

I'm going to have to ask you for links to the studies that say this -- NOT articles or summaries. One thing that was revealed to me in the Obesity myth was that some scientists will have a completely different conclusion than what is actually demonstrated in the study. In fact, to make it actually valid, make it a study that contrasts vegans/vegetarians and carnists -- as it is, we don't know if the studies show that OBESITY causes cancer or if MORE ANIMAL-BASED FOOD causes cancer. And those who are obese tend to eat significantly more (and if not, then often worse, which comes out to the same thing) than their thinner counterparts. I say this as an obese person who is trying to lose weight (for purely vanity-based reasons, as I have not seen any valid research like what I mentioned above that says that fat causes ANYTHING bad, only that DIET causes bad things).

No, it was in the paper, my girlfriend alerted me to it. I'll see if I can find a link.

Okay, well, I found this (but it was more recent than this, just this spring/early summer): http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/aug092004/snt11.asp

I'll ask her if she can find me the article.

I'm currently lifting freeweights with my arms, but I don't actually know many core and leg strength-building exercises, and though I do know some, I don't know the names. I know crunches, and leg extensions while flat on your back, and lunges and squats and that's it. Can any of you helpful peepers out there give me some exercises (along with how to do them)? I'd be really grateful. Thanks in advance!

Actually, because plants will absorb B-12 from soil that is healthy and has a good supply of it, humans used to be able to get it from that, too. It isn't just "our food had dirt on it", it's also that plants are actually able to absorb B-12, even though they don't nowdays because we've over-farmed so much and have killed the soil using pesticides, herbicides, etc.

I don't like the Veganhealth.org site because one of their doctors made the claim that vegans don't live any longer than carnists (meat-eating ones), a claim which has been proven false by new research, and they haven't removed it from their site.

"Fit" does not mean "thin". To think that it does is a mistake. What about football players? What about the Clydsedale class of bikers?

Human women are biologically designed to carry at least 35 pounds of fat on their bodies (which holds the amount of calories needed for a pregnancy); they function best with this amount of fat on their bodies.

There is a lot of evidence that bees can feel pain -- for example, they produce endorphins (a natural painkiller) when they are shocked, and they become significantly more likely to sting (anger, anyone?). Also go to http://www.vegetus.org/honey/honey.htm for more information and sources for studies.

Also, some idiots say fish can't feel pain either -- they're obviously wrong. (Fish have virtually identical pain receptors to ours, and display physical symptoms of being in pain, as do bees.)

If you eat honey, you're not a vegan and you shouldn't be in this forum.

Nonsense, GGreen, I ate a primarily fruitarian diet (80% fruit) and didn't feel hungry at all throughout the day -- as opposed to when I would bring some sort of grain or starch to eat, and then I'd bemoan the fact that I had no more food fifteen minutes later!

Actually, she looks more like human women are supposed to look (i.e. with some FAT!) in the first "before" picture. The second "before" picture's quality is too crappy to decide. I have no doubt that her diet was very unhealthy, but seriously, being a stick isn't all that much better.

Fun fact: did you know that the BMI charts were created by MetroLife (an insurance company) without any proof that the "ideal weights" had anything to do with health?

9nines, in my not so humble opinion, I think they were most likely both caused by juvenile attitudes. What do you hear to justify it when some people stop being vegan? "I just like ____ too much." This is one of the rationales in virtually every case -- and if it isn't at the beginning, it becomes an excuse to not be vegan again.

Vegans are actually not prone to heart attacks at all (the average carnist man has a 50% chance of dying from a heart attack, a vegan has only a 4% chance). In some cases, where a vegan eats a highly-processed diet (which is full of sodium), they may be more prone to strokes than would the average carnist. But I think we're all safe from that, hmm?

I don't care if you're vegan, dude, DON'T SPREAD MISINFORMATION. It's not cool, and it's not helpful.

P.S. There ARE famous vegan bodybuilders. In Germany there's a bodybuilding contest called the Welt Meister (World Master), and this year a vegan won the contest.

Peppers are actually better for you in terms of vit. C than oranges, so find a kind of pepper you like (sweet peppers taste pretty good, and they're in season now!) and eat it raw. After all, peppers are fruit.

Bananas are an excellent fruit before a workout -- you have three or four of those and you won't run out of energy at all (I've tried it before, it works!). Cranberries are good if you have a UTI, and generally have a lot of antioxidant activity going on. Apples are good too, but pears have more fiber.

Basically, eat nine servings a day of fruit and it's all good.

In my not so humble opinion, protein powders -- any form of isolated protein, really -- are a waste of time. So are most multivitamins. You can get almost all your nutrients from different varieties of plant-based foods, fruit and vegetables being the two most vital to your health, and you could get all of them if you have access to good, healthy soil where you can grow your food (vit. B-12 will be absorbed into a plant's matter and fruit if you have healthy soil with a good supply of vit. B-12), but, to keep anyone from jumping on me, taking a multivitamin occasionally is a good way to make sure that you get enough of that.

The reason why protein isolates are nutritionally deficit is because they are JUST PROTEIN. There's nothing else! There's no phytochemicals, plant sterols, antioxidants or anything of actual value to your body; your body can't store protein, it will just piss away all the extra -- which means anything more than you would get just eating an unprocessed vegan diet. And that protein, m'dear, ends up in your kidneys, and turns into kidney stones. Those kidney stones may take a lot more time to form than they would on a non-vegan diet, but trust me, they will be there.

So, in summary, don't waste your money or your time. Eat at least two cups of beans a day and go about with an unprocessed diet and you'll be golden.

Honey is not vegan. If you eat honey, you are not vegan. You are a strict vegetarian. Veganism is the TOTAL abstinence from all avoidable animal products, and honey is definitely an avoidable animal product.

I have a problem from it on an ethics basis; why do we assume we have the right to just take what we want from anyone? The bees sure as hell aren't agreeing to it, and when that happens it's called STEALING.

Warning: this is hearsay. Do not take it immediately as truth.

Anyways, a trainer at my local gym says that if your heart rate's over 170 at the time you run out of glycogen (which should take a while -- you have 600 grams of it stored away, after all!), you start burning muscle.

However -- I've heard other places (science classes, for example) that muscle is the last material that your body will cannibalise for energy. Fat comes after glycogen. Your body can synthesise carbohydrates from fat for your body to use, but although I know it's the preferred source for your brain and liver, I don't know if this is so for your muscles -- it appears so, as many of the most successful athletes are on vegetarian and vegan diets.

One thing though: something about the synthesis of this carbohydrate from fat can produce mild acidosis, and it can be severe and even fatal on Atkins-like diets. So if you don't want to feel really sick and woozy, don't go for long fat-burning stretches like this.

One problem: I have no idea how to go about it. Can anyone give me a list of the martial arts and a short summary of what they're geared towards? I've heard of the disarment course Kali, but I don't know anything else.

Also, to avoid "bullshido" places, what are good questions to ask the instructors?

I'd rather not menstruate ever. Never ever ever ever ever. Shed endometrial tissue everywhere..

I agree that pharmacists shouldn't have to hand out anything they're morally opposed to. I, too, have the right to take a job as a waitress at a restaurant and refuse to hand out animal products (and keep my job); after all, I'm morally opposed to it.