Sietsema's Table: Discussing Food, Wine and Dining With Tom Sietsema

Why You Should Avoid 'Ho-Hos'

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Why You Should Avoid 'Ho-Hos'

posted at 10/13/2009 3:41 PM EDT

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Tom_Sietsema

First post: 7/15/2008
Last post: 11/19/2009
Total posts: 172

In his terrific essay in last Sunday’s food issue of the New York Times Magazine, Michael Pollan raised the question of who we trusted to give us nutrition and other information before the age of nutritionists, food pyramids and the like.

He concluded that “culture” was what people relied on generations before now: “All of us carry around rules of thumb about eating that have been passed down in our families or plucked from the cultural conversation. Think of this body of food knowledge as samizdat nutrition: an informal, unsanctioned way of negotiating our eating lives that becomes indispensable at a time when official modes of talking about food have suffered a serious loss of credibility.”

The essay was followed by pearls of wisdom Pollan soliticited from Times’ readers for a forthcoming book, advice they had been given by friends and families. One gem among the lot: Avoid snack foods with the “oh” sound in their names: Doritos, Fritos, Cheetos, Tostidos, Hostesss Ho Hos, etc.”

What helpful morsel of eating advice was passed down to you?

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best advice on food

posted at 10/13/2009 11:41 PM EDT

roboturkey

First post: 5/5/2008
Last post: 11/5/2009
Total posts: 117

- no coffee after 3 p.m.
- no chicken fired steak north of the Mason Dixon Line.
- DO NOT mix tequila and whiskey
- after reaching 30 years old become a vegetarian

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Best Advice...

posted at 10/13/2009 11:51 PM EDT

arancia12

First post: 2/21/2009
Last post: 11/27/2009
Total posts: 95

...and I didn't listen.

My mother was rasied Seventh Day Adventist and vegetarian back when that was considered crazy stuff. My father was a meat and potatoes Catholic. My mother spent most of her married life trying to learn to cook meat and slipping vegetables into meals in the hopes one of us would see the light.

No dice. I wish I had paid more attention and followed in her footsteps.

The second best advice? When the lid bulges on a jar of tomatoes, throw it out.

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EAT PASTA, RUN FASTA!

posted at 10/13/2009 11:52 PM EDT

sanmateo1850

First post: 5/12/2008
Last post: 11/9/2009
Total posts: 46

That was the advice I got from my uncle at what to east before playing soccer when I was a kid. He said it would help give me energy. At the time I didn't really understand, but thought the saying was funny, so I ate all of my food. Little did I know the wisdom he was passing on to me. LOL!!

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Eat Raw

posted at 10/14/2009 12:20 AM EDT

Mnnngj

First post: 4/23/2008
Last post: 10/16/2009
Total posts: 10

The best advice. Eat mostly raw or all raw fruit and veges, with some nuts and buy a Vitamix smoothie maker. With this machine you don't end up with just the juice, you end up with a pulverised meal. Rally against GMO, bad farm practices. Experiment and find what is optimum for you.

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Advice about eating

posted at 10/14/2009 3:10 AM EDT

meldess

First post: 10/14/2009
Last post: 10/14/2009
Total posts: 1

I only learned how to eat properly after living in France. Their obsession with food and strict culinary rules turned out to be good for my health!

1) Respect mealtimes and never eat snacks.
2) Eat at a set table, preferably with others.
3) Eat slowly.
4) Eat small portions.
5) Eat vegetable soup for dinner most of the week.

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Why You Should Avoid 'Ho-Hos'

posted at 10/14/2009 3:45 AM EDT

Chewbaco50

First post: 12/18/2008
Last post: 10/14/2009
Total posts: 5

DOB 1950
We had biscuts & Gravy sunday morning.Canned garden vegetables for dinner. We actullay had cows brains and scambled eggs a couple times. tv was not turned on until 6pm and we had twinkies and a coke was desert. but rode bikes had no intendo ate well had fights with our friends and spent 14hours a day outside during the summer.

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What I learned...

posted at 10/14/2009 4:01 AM EDT

oSunny1

First post: 10/14/2009
Last post: 10/14/2009
Total posts: 1

From my nearly 80-year-old grandmother, who STILL has a 20-inch waistline after 6 kids ...

-If you eat it standing up, it won't go to your hips
-If you eat it in liquid form, it has no calories
-If you eat it on vacation, it has no calories
-If you eat it on Friday, it better not be meat
-If you're not hungry, you shouldn't eat
-If it's on your plate, you better eat it

And lest those last 2 sound contradictory, if it was on your plate and you weren't hungry, it got packed up, you went to bed and saved for your breakfast. If you still weren't hungry, you got it served to you again at lunch. And so on, and so forth...

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Best advice: don't believe nutritionists!

posted at 10/14/2009 5:49 AM EDT

Boomerang1

First post: 9/24/2009
Last post: 10/15/2009
Total posts: 8

Aren't nutritionists the ones who tell us that a "healthy snack" for children is raw vegetables...with ranch dip? Advice like that is the reason American children now have a higher obesity rate than ever before.

Nutritionists seem to know 2 words: low and lite. They wouldn't know real food from plastic.

But to answer the question, the best advice I received while growing up was to eat lots of fruits and vegetables, and don't skip breakfast. I recently lost 25 lbs. by following the "50% rule" in the book "French Women Don't Get Fat." And I bought nothing labeled "low" or "lite"!

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Mom always said ....

posted at 10/14/2009 6:44 AM EDT

puppiesandkitties

First post: 10/1/2008
Last post: 10/27/2009
Total posts: 19

Only eat if you are hungry.

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common sense

posted at 10/14/2009 7:12 AM EDT

cmecyclist

First post: 5/24/2008
Last post: 11/29/2009
Total posts: 25

When I burned out in university - I didn't have to have any advice. I cut out drinking sodas (horrid stuff) and (tried to) cut out junk food and starting eating more fruits and vegetables.

After many years of studying nutrition - the advice that I give is simply - eat whole foods. It's your choice of course - I am no means perfect - but the more processed it is, the worse it is for you.

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question

posted at 10/14/2009 7:35 AM EDT

nall92

First post: 4/24/2008
Last post: 11/20/2009
Total posts: 115

what are 'whole foods'?

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Lots of Colors = lots of variety

posted at 10/14/2009 7:42 AM EDT

hikester

First post: 10/14/2009
Last post: 10/14/2009
Total posts: 1

My Dad always said to put lots of colors on my plate. he also said that eating green peas would make my skin pretty, but that advice was, uh, hard to swallow.

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Best Food Advice

posted at 10/14/2009 7:56 AM EDT

pbshoe

First post: 10/14/2009
Last post: 10/14/2009
Total posts: 1

From the late Shel Silverstein:
"Never eat anything bigger than your head."
That advice has always served me well.

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What I learned from my mother - by default

posted at 10/14/2009 8:04 AM EDT

Woodwose

First post: 2/3/2009
Last post: 10/14/2009
Total posts: 6

1) a hamburger cooked long enough to "kill all the germs" tastes like a hockey puck.
2) Never defrost a turkey on the drier.

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Mom preached.....

posted at 10/14/2009 8:14 AM EDT

PittAlum

First post: 10/6/2009
Last post: 10/14/2009
Total posts: 2

...that you are what you eat! Go figure that one out!

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whole foods

posted at 10/14/2009 8:38 AM EDT

roxroe

First post: 10/14/2009
Last post: 11/5/2009
Total posts: 2

are the foods growing in the garden.

In this logic food is good for you closer to the source.

an apple is better than applesauce
applesauce is better than apple pie
apple pie is better than sour apple flavored anything

stick to the base source food
so sayth my mother (who ran a health food store in Wash DC for 12 years)
she could not cook well at all
but she knew what to eat to stay healthy

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'Everything in Moderation'

posted at 10/14/2009 8:40 AM EDT

Comunista

First post: 10/11/2007
Last post: 11/17/2009
Total posts: 13

It's the mantra my girlfriend, a registered dietician, came to support after years of study. For most people, eating proper portions/amounts of a wide variety of things -including some of the starchier, fattier, or sugary items- is perfectly acceptable, exposes them to a wide variety of sources of healthy nutrients, and allows one to healthily indulge culinary preferences.

And also fad diets, including Atkins, all-soy, and raw-foods-only, are better avoided. I don't really understand the nonsense behind raw foods, it's not like you're 'cooking out' the nutrients; in many cases like veggies, you're actually making it more digestible and giving yourself better access to the vitamins/minerals contained therein.

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Re: Best advice: don't believe nutritionists!

posted at 10/14/2009 8:46 AM EDT

Chasmosaur1

First post: 8/29/2007
Last post: 11/20/2009
Total posts: 119

Replying to:

You've been listening to the wrong nutritionists then. A really good registered dietitian - like the one I use - advocates a balanced diet.

What they usually advocate during weight loss is simply less calorie intake, watching your fat intake, and increasing your exercise. This doesn't always include "low" or "lite" food because then you are unsatisfied with your limited intake.

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My grandmothers taught me everything about eating

posted at 10/14/2009 8:59 AM EDT

carolinagirl3

First post: 10/14/2009
Last post: 10/14/2009
Total posts: 1

Cook everything you eat yourself. Hence, we go to restaurants- of any kind- 2 or 3 times a year at most. If I'm looking at what I'm cooking, then I'll know if there's too much "bad" stuff- salt, fat, and so on. And I know where my meat and vegetables were raised.

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