Herbs/spices

Did you read the link? It's not the same as anorexia at all. Not all eating disorders are about losing weight. There are 500lb people out there with eating disorders.

If a person has an obsession with food, and stresses over every bite they put in their mouth, that's not a good thing.

And I said "heading into eating disorder territory". Meaning be careful.

 

Plus it's usually the sickly, pale, emaciated looking vegans who are often the orthorexic ones. The ones who think eating meat is bad. I love my animal fats and eat lots of organic, grass-fed beef and about a pound of grass-fed butter and nearly a quart of coconut oil (both healthy saturated fats) every week. 60-70% of my diet is healthy saturated fats that come from chicken, beef, nuts, avocado, olive oil, coconut oil and wild salmon. Anyone who has seen my build knows I am far from being sickly or malnourished. Towards the end of my weight loss I was around 150, but have gained about 15 lbs of muscle mass since the summer and still wear the same 32 inch waist size.

 

I still eat semi-bad food every now and then.

I am not above eating fried chicken, pizza and cheeseburgers every now and then. I just keep it to a minimum.

 

Parsley is another great herb....i use fresh parsley while cooking and i also juice parsley with other ingredients...the health benefits of parsley are excellent:2thumbsup:

http://www.benefitsoftheworld.com/disease-fighting-parsley-health-benefits-for-the-heart-and-body/

 

"It's not an eating disorder if you put everything in order before you eat"-Lodog

 

Good to hear that you're not all about restricting.

 

Is there anything wrong with restricting your diet? I don't but mainly for convenience. If I had more time and patience I would cook a healthy meal every time. I don't really think that's unhealthy, obviously not physically but mentally either.

 

20 years ago I knew a guy who obsessed over eating healthy. I found out he died 5 years ago and he was my age. He dropped dead running. I was shocked he died. I expected him to outlive me since I am obese and have health problems. He always looked great and in perfect health. As I age I try to heal my health and keep healthy foods in my house.

 

Did anyone even read the link? Heavy restricting leads to malnutrition. Obsessing about food leads to mental issues.

 

I'm well aware of orthorexia. I didn't say it is the same as anorexia, although you assumed that or insinuated it. I gave an example of someone who showed signs of orthorexia who happened to be underweight as a result of it. She had a notion of eating only a particular type of food that she considered healthy and it appeared to have a negative effect on her health.

I don't think Matt is stressing over every bite he is putting in his mouth. Some people become aware of ways of improving their health and like to talk about it and learn more about it. That's not orthorexia.

Some people seem to be getting stressed over other people's enthusiasm for learning healthier eating habits by assuming that it is a disorder or that it might lead to a disorder. That sounds like an anxiety issue that an onlooker or friend is having with himself or herself as a result of a faulty perception of someone else.

 

I'll make of note of that one.

Also, obesity is not a failure if you consider it a victory over anorexia.

(see pic)

 

Ok, I don't mean to disrupt everything about disorders...but...

I have a St. John's Wort bush and I regularly make tea from the leaves. Since winter has begun I have made "toothpicks" out of some of the branches I've pruned. I use these toothpicks daily. It helps me not to smoke cigs. I occasionally take capsules of St. John's Wort, but I can't really feel anything from it. (and I'm still wanting to smoke, but that is just me stressing, I figure)

I have found fresh rosemary (from my plants/bushes) cooked with roasted potatoes particularly tasty and I think I'm doing something good for myself (even if I'm not) when I eat this.

I would LOVE to find some fresh tumeric or something that would be good to help weight fall off. This has become a very recent obsession with me.

Lastly, I was taking the "dietary supplement" 5-HTP. It promised great things! (great things being: positive mood, helps control appetite, promote good sleep) YAY I thought. Note I said was taking. I couldn't tell a lick of difference when taking it, so I'm no longer taking it.

 

There are other aspects about orthorexia in addition to direct negative eating-related physical effects on one's health that are sometimes overlooked, such as financial issues.

I had a friend who was into supplements and spending about $5000 per year on them at one point. She was in reasonably good health before she started taking them and they didn't seem to have any significant effect on improving her health. She had an overweight issue and was having trouble getting back to a normal weight. It was as if she felt that buying supplements was somehow going to offset the negative health effects associated with being overweight and that it would be an easier and faster method than the discipline and exercise that was needed to bring her weight back to normal. The cost of the supplements was hurting her financially and it was causing her stress because she did not have enough money to pay bills. Overall, it appeared to make her health worse.

I would call that an issue with orthorexia, although not in the sense that some today define it or see it.

 

Another person I know eats almost every day at McDonald's. What he eats there is nothing that could be considered healthy in the context of the menu at McDonald's, mostly high calorie foods that are high in fat, sugar, and salt. He considers McDonald's to be the right, correct, healthy food to eat and he defends that view vigorously. He is about 300 lbs and non-muscular and some of it is the result of his McDonald's diet.

I would refer to that as a case of orthorexia, although one that is a result of a perverted perception of what foods are healthy. In his mind, he thinks he is eating the right kind of food, even though to others who are more objective it is obvious that it is mostly unhealthy food and therefore it doesn't seem like orthorexia. One might call it 'obtuse'rexia.

 

I really don't care about your opinion on eating disorders. I am not stressed about anything, I don't even know Matt. I slept awesome last night.

I have an opinion, too. And it is that bad things happen to good people, through no fault of their own. I didn't say he has anything, I only asked that he be careful, and you come in and get all defensive on his behalf. He's a big boy and can speak for himself. Seriously, get over it already.


BACK ON TOPIC, before cynthy gets this thread closed,
I don't take any herbal supplements, I might if they weren't the size of footballs, but they usually are. My son takes vitamin D, and omega3 capsules, which are freaking huge. I don't know how he does it, but his Autism doc recommended them to him for brain health, so he takes them.

 

Both vitamin D and fish oil/omega-3 are available in liquid form, FYI.

The vitamin D pills I take, which are 5,000IU each, are actually very small, but the fish oil I take is Carlson liquid fish oil, which is lemon flavored. You don't even taste the fish.

 

Yeah, the vitamin D he takes are small and 1000ui each. The fish oil is 900mg and they smell gross to me.

How do you take your liquid oil? Straight up?

 

is Vitamin D neccessary for healthy adults? Healthy adults that are not black and living in Sweden, that is. A friend of mine has a vitamin d defenciency but she never goes outside so that is understandable. I wouldn't think a healthy male getting plenty of fresh air and exercise would need to supplement Vitamin D.

I'm going to start taking Acidophillus today. I actually used to take them but I forgot I had a bottle until I opened my medicine cabinet this morning and saw them sitting, forlorn and forgotten. My sister takes acidophillus and says she hasn't gotten sick in 3 years since she started taking it.

 

Daisy,

I take it straight up, one teaspoon twice a day. But you don't even taste or smell the fish with a quality liquid fish oil. This is why a good liquid fish oil is preferable to the capsules, because with the capsules come the fish burps, which can be nasty. Like I said before, I use Carlson lemon flavored fish oil. It basically tastes like lemon oil, and the lemon is very mild and not at all sweet or overpowering. It's actually a very nice flavor.

Lots of the cheaper fish oils are vaguely marketed as 900, 1,000 or 1,200mg, but only the quality fish oils state the exact amount of EPA and DHA in each dose on the back label. It should also state the country of origin. For instance, the fish oil I take comes from Norway.

 

Well, getting it from sunlight is the most preferable way, but most people north of the equator, such as where I live in the Northeast, are deficient in vitamin D. Black people are even more deficient, since their dark skin color doesn't allow for as much vitamin D to be produced. This could partly explain why black people are more prone to heart disease, diabetes, obesity and cancer.

So I would say that unless you live in a tropical climate where there is always plenty of sun, vitamin D supplementation cannot hurt. All the latest vitamin D research shows that up to 10,000IU of vitamin D daily is completely safe. But it needs to be the natural form of vitamin D, which is vitamin D3 (aka Cholecalciferol) -- not D2. Some doctors and scientists have said that if people were getting adequate vitamin D, the cancer rates would be literally slashed in half. So yeah, I think vitamin D supplementation is beneficial for most people. There are so many things your body uses vitamin D for.

Yeah, having good gut flora is also very important, especially for one's immunity. However, I prefer getting my probiotics from kefir and kombucha tea over the pills that are on the market.