Erik
08-17-2009, 10:41 PM
Pretty good - does this apply to you?
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It was cold. It was Ohio. It was 2005. I had just arrived at a graduate student senate meeting. These meetings consisted of, well, grad student issues. Oh yeah, and they always served lunch.
As the meeting began and lunch was served, hungry grad students swarmed the food table. I observed what appeared to be a lean, healthy and fit female grad student approaching the table. She selected a good sized veggie sandwich and two pieces of fruit.
Her friend, who followed behind her in line, appeared to be overweight, unhealthy and un-fit. Her friend moved through the food line and selected a lunch that consisted of diet Coke and a cookie.
Who cares, you say? Shouldn’t people be allowed to pick whatever they want for lunch?
The dietary displacement gods care and you probably should too. These daily choices can help explain why humans might be getting fatter and more unfit.
What is dietary displacement?
Negative dietary displacement
Have you ever known someone who skips out on a salad with greens, tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, beans, sunflower seeds and flax vinaigrette in order to budget their calories for the scone and Frappucino splurge at Starbucks later that evening?
Welcome to the land of negative dietary displacement. It’s when someone skips out on healthy eats and displaces them with non-nutritious foods.
But even with this displacement, who really cares? I mean, as long as calories are balanced we’ll be just fine, right?
Not necessarily. Negative dietary displacement generally leads to:
* rebound over-eating
* lack of satiety
* atrocious nutrient intake
* loss of muscle mass
* low energy levels
* increased body fat
In other words, you feel crummy, you don’t look your best, and on top of that — you’re still hungry! Bummer.
Positive dietary displacement
On the flip side, have you ever known someone who skips out on the massive dessert brownie, or only has a small piece, because they are satisfied from a nutritious meal of whole, real foods?
This is positive dietary displacement: when someone eats enough nutritious food each day, leaving little or no room for the non-nutritious foods.
When people eat this way, it generally leads to:
* consuming the right amount of food for your energy needs
* satiation after meals
* a stellar nutrient intake
* lean muscle development
* high energy levels
* lower levels of body fat
Unlike the negative dietary displacement, you feel good, you look good, and your tummy is happy. Sign me up.
Why is dietary displacement so important?
When individuals are trying to eat healthier, they tend to focus their efforts on what they should be cutting out and restricting.
But what does that really accomplish? Shouldn’t they worry about how in the heck they’re going to eat enough healthy food over the next 24 hours? That’s usually difficult enough.
Humans usually eat about 3-4 pounds of food per day. If we add in enough healthy foods, we won’t have much room left for unhealthy foods. We can use this to our advantage.
Similarly, if you fill your day with activities related to a rewarding career, enriching relationships with family/friends, and personal well-being, there isn’t much of an opportunity left to engage in cigar smoking, strip clubbing, and Internet flame wars.
All calories are not created equal
We all know by now that industrialized populations are getting fatter. This can make us fixate on meeting a daily calorie quota. We worry about daily numerical goals instead of food’s quality — about how much we eat, rather than what we eat or how our food contributes to keeping us healthy.
If someone saves their goal number of calories to dine on Hot Pockets, mochaccinos and candy, that’s poor nutrition. But people do this because they realize they only have a limited number of eating opportunities each day. They might not want to “waste” these eating opportunities on foods that don’t taste as good as the Hot Pockets, mochaccinos and candy they crave.
However, a candy calorie is much different than a kale calorie. “Non-food” calories are more likely to be stored as fat, degrade health, lead to further hunger, lead to further food preoccupation, and low energy levels.
-------------
It was cold. It was Ohio. It was 2005. I had just arrived at a graduate student senate meeting. These meetings consisted of, well, grad student issues. Oh yeah, and they always served lunch.
As the meeting began and lunch was served, hungry grad students swarmed the food table. I observed what appeared to be a lean, healthy and fit female grad student approaching the table. She selected a good sized veggie sandwich and two pieces of fruit.
Her friend, who followed behind her in line, appeared to be overweight, unhealthy and un-fit. Her friend moved through the food line and selected a lunch that consisted of diet Coke and a cookie.
Who cares, you say? Shouldn’t people be allowed to pick whatever they want for lunch?
The dietary displacement gods care and you probably should too. These daily choices can help explain why humans might be getting fatter and more unfit.
What is dietary displacement?
Negative dietary displacement
Have you ever known someone who skips out on a salad with greens, tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, beans, sunflower seeds and flax vinaigrette in order to budget their calories for the scone and Frappucino splurge at Starbucks later that evening?
Welcome to the land of negative dietary displacement. It’s when someone skips out on healthy eats and displaces them with non-nutritious foods.
But even with this displacement, who really cares? I mean, as long as calories are balanced we’ll be just fine, right?
Not necessarily. Negative dietary displacement generally leads to:
* rebound over-eating
* lack of satiety
* atrocious nutrient intake
* loss of muscle mass
* low energy levels
* increased body fat
In other words, you feel crummy, you don’t look your best, and on top of that — you’re still hungry! Bummer.
Positive dietary displacement
On the flip side, have you ever known someone who skips out on the massive dessert brownie, or only has a small piece, because they are satisfied from a nutritious meal of whole, real foods?
This is positive dietary displacement: when someone eats enough nutritious food each day, leaving little or no room for the non-nutritious foods.
When people eat this way, it generally leads to:
* consuming the right amount of food for your energy needs
* satiation after meals
* a stellar nutrient intake
* lean muscle development
* high energy levels
* lower levels of body fat
Unlike the negative dietary displacement, you feel good, you look good, and your tummy is happy. Sign me up.
Why is dietary displacement so important?
When individuals are trying to eat healthier, they tend to focus their efforts on what they should be cutting out and restricting.
But what does that really accomplish? Shouldn’t they worry about how in the heck they’re going to eat enough healthy food over the next 24 hours? That’s usually difficult enough.
Humans usually eat about 3-4 pounds of food per day. If we add in enough healthy foods, we won’t have much room left for unhealthy foods. We can use this to our advantage.
Similarly, if you fill your day with activities related to a rewarding career, enriching relationships with family/friends, and personal well-being, there isn’t much of an opportunity left to engage in cigar smoking, strip clubbing, and Internet flame wars.
All calories are not created equal
We all know by now that industrialized populations are getting fatter. This can make us fixate on meeting a daily calorie quota. We worry about daily numerical goals instead of food’s quality — about how much we eat, rather than what we eat or how our food contributes to keeping us healthy.
If someone saves their goal number of calories to dine on Hot Pockets, mochaccinos and candy, that’s poor nutrition. But people do this because they realize they only have a limited number of eating opportunities each day. They might not want to “waste” these eating opportunities on foods that don’t taste as good as the Hot Pockets, mochaccinos and candy they crave.
However, a candy calorie is much different than a kale calorie. “Non-food” calories are more likely to be stored as fat, degrade health, lead to further hunger, lead to further food preoccupation, and low energy levels.