Hacker News Reader

Comment by matthewtse | Hacker News Reader

> I really can’t imagine someone who sitting around deciding “I have to eat more bread, the government’s pyramid drawing demands it” rather than just eating what they want to eat.

Actually, to a shocking degree, yes.

I grew up in an immigrant family, so my parents were far too busy working to do non-mainstream research on diet. I grew up eating 2+ bowls of white rice, another serving of vegetables, and a small serving of meat for most meals. This was me "trying to be healthy" given the mainstream knowledge at the time.

If your parents aren't well-off enough to do dedicated research into the optimal diet for their children (which describes most of American parents), then you'll follow the advertised government guidelines.

View on HN

>2+ bowls of white rice, another serving of vegetables, and a small serving of meat for most meals. This was me "trying to be healthy" given the mainstream knowledge at the time

I mean, except for the white rice (which should always be whole, like all grains in your diet) this seems like a good diet. Of course it all depends on how much stuff you were given to eat, but there is nothing wrong with this

“Should” is a hefty term. If you’re doing fine on white rice by all means eat white rice.

"Must" is a hefty term, not "should". Ask any nutritionist and they'll tell you whole rice is always the better choice for nutrition

Sure. But it don’t matter much

Go and look how many vitamins and nutrients are lost making white grains and how much the glycemic index rises.

It matters a lot, especially if it's a main part of your diet.

Everything is relative. But imo it’s VERY unlikely to matter “a lot”. Everything is trickier if you’re trying to lose weight, but white rice vs brown is a tiny offender relative to the more common culprits

Why are you talking about losing weight?

That is a common context for consideration of nutrition.

Whole grain rice contains higher levels of arsenic. A little bit is fine, but 2+ bowls per day may be problematic.

And getting the majority of your calories from grains of any type is in no way a "good diet". That myth needs to die.

You should not be eating the same whole grain (or any food for that matter) all of the time exactly because each food has its pros and cons (the cons are vastly outnumbered by the pros if you eat the good foods though)

Every dietitian tells you to vary your diet as much as possible. Your reply is moot because you are blindly considering 1 argument at a time while the guidelines paint a whole picture

Variety is good. But any dietician or guidelines who tells you to base your diet on grains should be ignored.

Says who?

That is a dramatically healthier meal than very many American kids typically eat. Compare it to, say: a hotdog, a bag of potato chips, and a 20oz bottle of soda.

As diets go, meat, rice and vegetables isn’t that bad.

Cereal… not so great.

Agreed, the thing is my kids can afford the calories that I’ve been avoiding for a very long time. Starch has energy, habits about balance are important too.

Rice is s cereal.

The main problem is the processing, not the underlying grain ;)

> processing <

rice crispies, and puffed rice in the 5 gallon bag [next to the puffed wheat]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puffed_rice

Yeah m, thought th ‘breakfast’ part of cereal was a given since that’s what we’re discussing.

If the meat in question is fish, that is pretty much the Japanese diet, and they are doing pretty well health-wise.

That sounds like a perfectly fine diet.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com