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Comment by rubashov | Hacker News Reader

> people who favor fruits and vegetables, grains and legumes over beef, pork and fatty foods are healthier

I have two eyes and that doesn't square at all. The fat people eat packaged food and restaurant food, which are very skimpy on meat and real animal fat.

The main thing I notice about fat people is they eat very often. Thin people eat moderate meals and don't snack. Fat people continuously have handfuls of crap like nuts and fruit and soy and soda.

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> The main thing I notice about fat people is they eat very often

Probably because they're hungry a lot. The more weight you put on, the more food you need to eat.

The funny thing is that snacking can actually help you lose weight, and is actually recommended by many fitness gurus and bodybuilders. It helps keep your energy levels constant during the day, and also avoids hunger pangs, plus the associated over eating at appointed mealtimes. This will happen if you're working out a lot, since your body is processing your food faster because of the energy you burn in the gym/track/wherever

You just have to make sure you're eating the right stuff. nuts, protein shakes, fruits (minimize the ones with a lot of sugar for really strict definition).

> protein shakes

Why not just eat meat?

Sure, protein shakes might be digested faster, but I'm against processed, I'm for natural. Who knows what essential nutrient is missing in these shakes that comes for free with meat.

You can make a protein shake with just one banana, couple of egg whites and milk.

The problem is if you're doing serious weight training it's difficult to get enough protein from just eating natural foods.

If you're not working to actively put on weight or keep it on and you live in the west, you probably don't really need to worry about protein. Even those on plant based diets can get enough.

http://www.pcrm.org/search/?cid=251

or the opposite though right? who knows what deleterious compound comes free with meat?

Probably because they're hungry a lot. The more weight you put on, the more food you need to eat.

Also, I read that the more sugars you consume, the more you eat as it messes with your insulin and therefore your body does not signal that you are no longer hungry even though you've eaten enough. Can't remember where I read this, so if anyone has any citations or wants to correct me if I got it wrong, I'd appreciate that.

> The main thing I notice about fat people is they eat very often

and I notice that many thin people eat very very often (like six times a day), but in small amounts.

We need the empirical evidence.

If nothing else, we agree that processed foods are the real problem. Maybe people who eat fruits, vegetables and legumes are simply more likely to avoid eating processed foods.

I will challenge you on your last point. You seriously see a lot of fat people eating fruits and soy?!

Absolutely. Fat white people in desk jobs eat handfuls of soy loaded trail mix in the afternoon, and an apple an hour before lunch. It's SWPL emotional eating.

There's a lot of talk of soy here on this thread. Is this a US thing? What soy are you eating? It's not that big in the UK. You can get soy milk and it's mixed in with some meat products and found in veggie burgers - but it's not that mainstream.

I buy frozen 'fresh' soybeans, which are quite hard to find. They're nice.

Check the ingredients on anything that you think is mostly wheat. It will have soy in it. All bread from the super market for example.

Not here in Australia. Our wheat = American corn. Subsidised and used in everything. Its terrible for coeliacs.

Though as my fiance found out while living in the US, over there things can be sold as gluten free which have oats in them. Bad news for 1 in 4 coeliacs.

Fruit is so artificially selected that it's high in sugar, and probably not as healthy as people think - if not eaten in moderation.

I eat mainly wholefoods. My vices are probably beer and the odd bag of white flour. I'm pretty much sedentary (sat most of the day in front of computer.) A little overweight.

I haven't been to the doctors for over 10 years. That's not to say I haven't got a few ailments. I certainly don't feel super healthy or anything. Though I did cycle 6 miles yesterday with no issue.

Fruit is high in natural sugars, like anything you put in your body over consumption of more than your body needs or can handle will be stored as a fat for later use. The body is good at converting the natural sugars in to glycogen for muscle fuel. The problem is people are not using as much muscle movement (desk jobs - i'm in the same boat during the day, but I make sure I exercise in the evenings)to use up the glycogen to replenish the muscle with the reserve fat stores.

Fruit are also usually high in fiber, which I hear helps counteract the sugar.

> Thin people eat moderate meals and don't snack.

You had me until "don't snack". My experience is that moderate snacks help to ensure meals are also of a moderate size - otherwise you get that urge to gorge at your next meal...

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