Goddamn guys i apologize for the length lol. This post is directed towards those in school or doing something with biology and might be able to give me some advice. Right now i'm 19 and in my fourth semester of school at SUNY Farmingdale. I'm just taking the Gen Ed stuff. For a while I wasn't sure what I wanted to do but figured being in school would be better than just working. This past year I've been really into eating healthy and cooking and all that. Whenever i'm online i'm looking at nutritional information. It's something that really intrests me. So me and 2 of my friends were planning on transferign up to SUNY Plattsburg next year. I was looking through the undergraduate book and saw they have a Nutrition Major. That really clicked for me. It combined my intrest in nutrition with my love of food into something I figured would pay the bills. I figured any kinda science has money in it. But even besides the money, I sort of want to be on the frontlines of new nutrition research and ideas. I wanna help people too. Now the main reason i'm posting this on GC is that I think that right now everyone's got it wrong. You know how youre told to eat like 6-8 servings of whole grains a day? I call bullshit, there's nothing in bread you can't get from veggies. NOBODY needs grains. Grains were cultivated to supply our populations with cheap, plentiful energy. And thats good for the species, but not the individual. We're not made to eat grains. Grains are trying to poison us. And really I belive your body sees a teaspoon of flour the same as a teaspoon of sugar. Grains and sugar is what's making everyone fat! Fat doesn't make you fat. All that fat free stuff on the shelves is garbage. You could eat 80%Lean groundbeef all day everyday and loose weight. You'd get sick of it, but the point is there's a growing number of people that say Saturated fat is actually good for you, and only when you eat that vanilla creme cake does it clog your arteries. I bet my pinky toe on it. Eating 0 carbs won't feel spectacular, but thats where veggies come in. At most you only need around 100gs of carbs (and thats ALOT of veggies). Any more than that and your getting fat. If people replaced all their sugar/grain carbs with carbs from veggies, and satisfyed their hunger by eating fatty meats (scrambled eggs cooked in butter, bacon, hamburger meat, veggie/meat stirfrys) nobody would be fat. Cavemen didn't want to hunt the lean rabbits, they went for the fatty, delicous mammoth meat. There's a reason fat is delicious. Now as you can see thats pretty radical stuff. The media is all over saturated fats right now. But THINK ABOUT IT STONERS! USE YOUR OPEN-MINDEDNESS FOR A SECOND! What if everyone's got this shit wrong? What if the only reason saturated fats are bad is because of sugar. Saturated fats could be the PREFERD fuel of the body. But I could be wrong too! Thats why i want to know the science behind nutrition. I want to understand HOW a vitamin or a carb or this or that effects the body. I want an UNBIASED understanding our metabolism and how everything works. I want to be able to back up this way of eating with science. But then I saw this: Major in Nutrition? That shit kept me up til 4am last night. Basicly it says that not only is there no money or jobs for someone with a degree in Nutrition, but that the whole time CW (conventional wisdom) is shoved down your throat. And when you do get that degree, if you want to give nutrtional advice to people you're under the eye of the USDA and can potentially loose your job preaching anything other than CW.... WTF? I thought college was where people study and develope NEW ideas and challenge the old ones. This crap is no different than highschool. I think in this world people should ALWAYS be questioning things.... Look even if I am wrong, I want to be able to know exactly WHY i'm wrong, you know? So, with the above in mind, what do you guys think I should do? There are other BIO majors at Plattsburg that might be more what i'm looking for: -Biology Major -Biochemestry Major (sounds like what I might be looking for, but not sure) -Cytotechnology (not exactly sure what this is) -Medical Technology I was thinking maybe i can pick my major from one of those while Minoring in Nutrition.... But what do you guys think? Should I move on and let the rest of the world handle this one? I'm really not intrested in much else Science wise. Somone in that other topic reccomended going into another field like being an Ultrasound Technition or something, but I find it's easier to stay motivated and do well in school when your passionate about what your studying...
Great post man, I also want to major in Nutrition. That's one of the best things you can learn in life (Is how the body works). And what foods and/or fuels bring out the full potential of the body. +REP
Whole grains contain fiber, a key component in regulating a healthy digestive tract. You are 100% correct. Teaspoon of breads/grain IS sugar. Starch is metabolised as sugars. Somewhat true. Excessive eating is what is causing fat. Excess protein can be converted to fat, and too much protein can result ketosis: lower of pH in your blood. Dangerous stuff. Eh, don't really agree. Fats, sugars, and proteins just need a balance. Saturated fats are almost as bad as trans fats. UNsaturated fats are healthy. I think the medical research over the years have shown this... Vitamins assists enzymes of your body. Many enzymes derive from vitamins. Not really for Bachelors, more for MD or PhD. Biology textbooks are a good start... Completely true, but you're going to have to go through minutia before reaching the passion of the study. General bio majors aren't really good for anything except Med school or advancing to the next level (MD, PhD).
Very true, but bran and whole grains are not useless. Wheat is a type of grain, and the purpose can be debated (though sandwiches rule!). It is quite boring to eat a pallet of veggies, whole grains and bran help to keep variety while still providing important nutrients. Don't get me wrong, a lot carbohydrates people eat are garbage (chips, white bread come to mind). Anything that's been "refined" aren't a good source of nutrients. It's about a balance between what you eat. Eat too much of carbohydrates, you''ll get fat. Eat too much protein, you'll get fat. Eat too much fat, you'll be really fat. Eat sugars when you need the energy, and do so at moderate levels. Variety is the spice of life! Are you any closer in your major decision?
Im a human kinetics major and going to be minoring in nutrition at the U of G all i can say is you have a lot to learn, just wait until you get to university, you will probably love it by the sounds of your enthusiasm on the subject as for the grains thing, you need them.. just like everything else, in moderation except for trans fat... not a fan
I don't know. To me all that nutrition stuff seems to me rather weak as a science. Especially with regards to well-beeing and general health. There are just to many variables to say with any proper evidense that this diet is better than that diet. Now, ofcourse, that is not to say that there are not things that are bad for you. And stuff that is good for you. But I think most of that is a function of balance, rather than a more strict binary healthy/unhealthy dichotomy. As far as I am concerned, my primary concern regarding food (we'll not go into drink ) is taste. Following is convenience and price. How claimed healthy it is, do not enter my preferences in the slightest. And I would think most people got a similar priority. Which would make having a degree in nutrition a rather specialist education, that makes graduate client base rather tiny as having a nutritionist to tell you what to eat is not exactly a service in high demand. Yes, you can get the fatties, but most of those are really just lazy. I do not need a degree to tell them to move more, and eat less. If energy in do not balance somewhat energy used, you get fat. Less carbohydrates, more sweat, you go get thin. No magic or expensive consultancy needed. Just effort and moderation. Next you got the athletes. Now here is a market. They use energy like no other, and can eat like bread would go extinct tomorrow. Channeling those to a good balanced diet combined with peak performance do require a more scientific approach than your average joe-sixpack with a tire too much... And last naturally, the food industry itself. Making ready-made meals and such, balancing cheap production cost versus a minimum of nutritional value one can stamp on the box. I'm sorry if I seem cynical on the subject. But food for me have never been a subject of worry. I eat what I like, when I like, and if anything I'd like to gain some weight. I'm one the very few nearly 40 year olds, without a significant pot-belly. Thin as a stick actually, and it is not as if I have avoided juicy burgers, greasy mexican food, wonderfull indian cousine or pizza with double topping of cheese. If a nutritionist got a detailed look at my diet, I am pretty sure that they'd conclude that I should be dead by some heart-condition sometime last century, because it do not fit their models of what should be balanced and healthy.
Your post was great. It's quite alright to indulge into unhealthy foods, as long as it's not a daily thing (like eating at McDs 4 times a day). Calories are calories, and the energy balance just needs to be balanced to not get fatter. Though, lacking in essential vitamins is a dangerous path, and I hope you've been at least taking vitamins the days you choose to eat unhealthy. For example, after your 20s, your bones stop soaking in Calcium. After that, you can only maintain Calcium to a certain level, and if you don't, you lose bone integrity relatively quickly (like at age 45 you might get symptoms of arthritis)
Not entirely true. your body extracts calcium, magnesium and zinc from your food, deposits it into your bones in the form of calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate. When your parathyroid secretes PTH it triggers an effluxation of calcium from your bones into the bloodstream. Magnesium and calcium are used for the extension and contraction of muscle tissues such as movement and *heart beat* which is why a proper electrolyte balance is important, as is vitamin D. Vitamin D is turned into calcitriol by the liver, which triggers the extraction and redeposit of calcium pyrophospate dihydrate back into your skeleton. Drugs can be given to force the calcitriol cycle but then you can end up with serious side effects. [my reason for knowing all this is a charming problem where my body does not deposit all the calcium back into my bones, but lovingly plonks it down into the joints in my feet, leaving loose floating crystals that grind away at my cartilage and bone. Just what I need in addition to the damned osteopenia in my spine, pelvis and femurs. *sigh* MMJ FTW.] [and in today's medical industry, you have got to learn everything you can about what is going on in your body in sheer self preservation so you can make informed decisions about health issues.]
Damn, I fucking knew that! When I was writing my response, it felt wrong but, I didn't really bother to fact check... I "learned" Ca++ as secondary messenger, and its variety of uses. Man, I need to brush up on my shit. I feel grimy. I guess the reason I didn't retain that information was because it wasn't on the exam.
Not all of this is directed towards you, i just quoted you...i forget why lol Yea, I BELIVE the argument is that we're not adapted to eating grains, and grains arent adapted to being eaten by us, so they sort of scrape up our insides, hence why alot of people can't eat gluten. Rice is aiight tho, for some reason.... And I know bread is delicous, buts its not as nutritionally dense as veggies. If you get creative you'll learn to love veggies, i don't jus eat a plain bowl of brocolli everyday. Some argue that the only reason Sat. fat is dangerous is because of all the sugary refined shit we eat. And yea you can eat crap all day and feel ok, but for me its all about burning "clean burning" food that we're adapted to eat. Eventually you stop craving real sugary stuff anyway. An apple is like a candy bar to me now. More filling than a snickers bar too. I also never get gas anymore....yet my poo comes out perfect...everytime But yeah, even though I DO admit i know very little, the whole subject fascinates me. I think i'm gonna go with the biochem major, that seems more along the lines of what im looking for. I may minor in nutrition but maybe i'll save that for afterwords. Don't want too much on my plate (no pun intended) Also my buddy who's going to the same school is majoring in Biology. He's into nutrition and working out and stuff too. He looks at it more traditionally (6 small meals a day kinda guy, which i think will be debunked very soon too) but we can sorta help eachother out. And I see what your saying about nutritionists not being needed so much....but SOMEONE's gata look into what we're eating. I think it's very important.
It's k, dun wurry about it. We also aren't supposed to drink milk. Humans in the early days were lactose intolerant, and its still all over the world. It's how humans adapt to utilize the resources around. Grains don't scrape our insides, the plant matter we eat is just indigestible, and it passes the matter through our body to help digestion of the things we can metabolise. Yes. Some people don't understand that different vegetables provide different nutrients. That's why ignorant vegetarians often lack protein. It's harder for you to metabolise saturated fats than unsaturated fats. So instead of using sat fats for immediate energy, it's generally just stored. It really has nothing to do with sugar. Good luck! Biochem is one of the hardest majors out there. Why would it be debunked? 6 small meals is more efficient. If you take in moderate amounts of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats at a time, your body has time to metabolise the food and nutrients. Your body does not need to convert the excess calories into fat, as opposed to 3 large meals, where you flood your body with calories, and your body has more energy than it needs. That's when the conversion to fats start.