Ask a public-health/nutrition student

[Aractus]

[paulpablo]

I recently bought a nutri ninja, It's similar to the vitamix, what do you think of these powerful blenders and the drinks they can produce?

Ideally I start the day off with mixing a blend of kale, spinach, cucumber, banana, apple, carrot and maybe a stick of celery if there's one around.

Sometimes I make a more tasty but probably slightly less healthy mix of banana, milk, and spinach.

What do you think of my ingredients and mixes?

Everyone in my work thinks they sound disgusting when I describe them and they are green in colour but I swear they taste so good, most the times even while mixing up all the veg and fruit I have the main taste that comes through is still the banana which I love the taste of.

Have you ever read or listened to the audio book of "Salt, Sugar, Fat How The Food Giants Hooked us"?

Does it ever frustrate you watching people consume cigarettes and energy drinks constantly?  I think this might just be personal to me but I work in a really working class environment where people have a heavy smoke break every two hours and usually guzzle down an energy drink or two within that time.

[Dystopia]

Aractus, I'm a 21 years old male. I eat a considerable amount of food, far more than I should. I weight about 10kg excess and it's not very noticeable. I noticed I lose weight very fast if I simply cut back a little on food I don't need, like extra snacks, too much chocolate, white bread, etc. Is this normal and what causes me to be like that?

[Aractus]

[Aractus]

Aractus, I'm a 21 years old male. I eat a considerable amount of food, far more than I should. I weight about 10kg excess and it's not very noticeable. I noticed I lose weight very fast if I simply cut back a little on food I don't need, like extra snacks, too much chocolate, white bread, etc. Is this normal and what causes me to be like that?

Yes that is normal, but it may become more "difficult" as you age. It's your body returning you to your equilibrium.

[vorlon13]

Question #2:  I recently bought a packet of processed food (doesn't much matter what).  While reading the ingredients list, I saw that it contained '...not less than 0.02% of rehydroxylated glutonium or abstract of debentured soybean genitalia, whichever comes first.'  So, my question is:  What wine would you pair with this?

Boru

Tincture of iodine and maybe a Formula 409 chaser.

[paulpablo]

Most nutritionists don't think much of them. Juicing or creating smoothes is simply a way to extract the energy, and most of the micro-nutrients, and leave the fibre behind, you're better off eating the fruits/vegetables whole (or as a salad). Besides, blending vegetables together generally tastes like shit (which is why your work colleagues are put off), and so could end up turning people off eating vegetables, or people will find other ways to make them more palatable (adding milk/ice-cream, etc).

Well in a smoothie what you're drinking is the whole food.  There's no extraction process.  That's the difference between a juicer and smoothie maker.
And I'm sure people who say blending veg tastes bad must have never tried it because I blend veg then just blend in bananas with it and I pretty much just taste banana.  Especially if it's just spinach and banana, I can seriously fill most of the container with spinach and salad and it will still taste mainly of banana.  They definitely aren't put off by the taste because they've never tasted it, they pretty much drink red bull all day and smoke.

[Catholic_Lady]

How do you feel about gluten?

[Aractus]

A small number of people have an intolerance to gluten. An intolerance is quite different to an allergy though in that people with an intolerance to a nutrient can still consume that nutrient, but in a smaller amount. The physiological mechanism for food intolerances is often largely unknown. People tend to self-diagnose food intolerances, and it's not always the best idea, it's better to get advice from a practising nutritionist, dietician, or physician. Off-hand I don't know how gluten intolerance is clinically diagnosed (assuming the mechanism is unknown, it's probably though trial and error of first testing for an allergy using skin prick tests and then excluding foods in the diet), but there is no reason for most people to avoid eating gluten without a proper diagnosis.

[Aractus]