That’s not very nice. Nutrition and weight loss is a thing that we’re all always working to learn more about. The knowledge does’t just pop into your memory bank the day you say to someone you’re dieting. And even if your friend failed at the effort every day so far, it doesn’t mean she shouldn’t be trying to go for it today. Be supportive. Just say, “Oh, I thought otherwise, so I’ll have to read up on that.” Don’t tell her she’s doing it wrong. And I don’t think she was doing that to you, she was just sharing info she had learned on fruits that applied to her food plan.
Every body is not the same. Healthy eating is not going to be the same for every body. And diets will not have the same effect in every body. For example, I’m insulin resistant and have metabolic syndrome, PCOS, and systemic lupus, among other things. I follow a certain low carb diet that also avoids most fruits, starchy veggies, lactose, soy, garlic and several other things. People who don’t have my conditions could argue that these things are good for us. And they would not be wrong. But I’m not wrong either. That’s also why nutritional publications won’t apply to all of us equally.
Both are not exactly right for a person low carbing. Many protein bars boast a low net carb count, but they contain sugar alcohols which screw up ketosis. It’s misleading and lots of people don’t know this. Even Atkins sells them. Money influenced the company once Dr. Atkins was gone.
But for people on certain low carb diets, fat is necessary, so they shouldn’t avoid it. Once you’re in ketosis, fat becomes your friend. Butter. mmmmm
The friend criticizing the nutritional content of the food was not the friend who was dieting. Besides, it’s not very nice to come over to someone’s house as a guest for dinner and then criticize the menu (especially after you’ve eaten a decent chunk of everything on it yourself). Anyone low-carbing could easily have just had meat and salad. I didn’t force anything on anyone. For example, I served wine, but those who didn’t want to drink wine (like dieting friend, who has never been a drinker, or another guest who didn’t drink) were offered nonalcoholic alternatives.
I am well familiar with these issues. When I cook for guests, I frequently have to make sure there are alternatives for guests who are vegetarian and/or vegan, gluten-intolerant, lactose-intolerant, and/or allergic to eggs and/or nuts to the point of anaphylaxis (sometimes all at the same time - boy, does THAT make menu planning fun!), and well, then there’s my husband, Tom Scud, who was informed a few months ago that he should limit his oxalate intake to avoid kidney stones, which means he has a 30-page list of things he should avoid or limit, including some that had been staples in our house until now and are otherwise healthy foods (spinach, tahini, whole wheat, and black beans, among many, many others). At one point in my life, when I developed a deep vein thrombosis after leg surgery and was on anticoagulants for a protracted period, I was told to avoid leafy green vegetables.
So thanks, I’ve done a fair bit of reading on nutrition.
My dieting friend was not following the Atkins diet, she was simply reducing her sugar intake. She isn’t following any specific diet in particular, nor (as stated in the OP) does she have any particular medical condition that necessitates any particular dietary modifications.
Not to be nitpicky, but the OP actually says that it was “C” the friend trying to lose weight who mentioned she was avoiding her sugar so she would skip dessert.
I do agree that the overall caloric content of the sorbet would be very low, and thus it wouldn’t be of any real concern.
I wouldn’t call either a bad choice, especially since it’s a single meal. Most nutritional matters are more about accumulated long term effects, someone who eats healthy and has one decadent meal is going to be fine.
It’s not 100% clear that saturated fat is particularly bad even in higher amounts. It does seem to trend that you shouldn’t go crazy on them, but the data on saturated fats is murky and conflicting, especially in recent years.
There are some populations who have been observed to get a goodly portion of their macronutrient intake in the form of fats and specifically saturated fats that have good heart disease profiles.
Just to be clear, once again, the friend who was dieting was not the same person as the friend who was criticizing the nutritional content of the meal.
I don’t think it matters who said it. What was said doesn’t sound like a criticism of your food. You said these people were 30 year friends but you are really bad mouthing both C and H. Don’t take this stuff so personally. Some people just have differing views or contrary info.
My friend, C. who was dieting, said was watching her sugar. My friend H., who was not dieting (or at least who didn’t mention she was dieting) was the one who said that fruit was basically all sugar, so it would be silly for anyone dieting to eat the sorbet. Again, all as mentioned in the OP. And no, I’m not confused.
I simply don’t understand their decision-making processes. And yes, it irks me to have the menu criticized because I went to a great deal of trouble to make all that stuff, and to make sure there was something everyone liked and would/could eat. (And this gathering was easier than most that I host: no vegetarians/vegans, gluten or lactose-intolerant people, or food allergies.)
I could see why C. would have assumed the sorbet had a bunch of added refined sugar, because it was presented to her in a reused plastic container from a quart of commercially made sorbet - that was why I told her it was homemade and had very little added sugar.
Seriously, you’ve never been boggled by anything a friend said or did? I’m sure there have been things I’ve done in the past that both C. and H, thought were crazy or at least ill-advised (I can think of an ex-boyfriend or two). Over 35+ years, no relationship of any kind is in sync 100% of the time - that’s an unrealistic expectation.
People get qll sorts of weird and inconsistent when it comes to diet and nutrition. I understand what your friend H. is saying. She wasn’t concerned about added sugar, just the actual sugar content of the fruit itself. It was probably influenced by either hearing some snippet about how fruit juice is basically sugar water, often accompanied by how even whole fruit is only marginally better. Add to that how fruits get cut out of the ketosis portion of the Atkins diets because of their sugar content, and the general popular dietary idea that “sugar is evil” (although this seems to be losing a bit of traction lately) and it’s not hard too much a stretch to get to where H. is.
Now, how that squares with her eating rice and all that–it doesn’t. Like I said, people get all sorts of weird and inconsistent when it comes to diets.
Well that was, after the background story, the actual general question asked, wasn’t it?
The fact is that the attempt to message on the evils of added sugar (whether it be sucrose or HFS) has been poorly delivered (I’m looking at you Lustig) and even more poorly heard as fruit must be bad because it contains not only sugar but its evilest form … the arch-villian fructose!!!
And the answer is straightforward: no, Eva Luna is not crazy (or maybe she is, I don’t really know her, but not on the basis of this anyway) actual fruit is not poison and is easy to eat in moderation with high satiety and lots of good stuff that seem to be all the better for the way in which they are packaged in the real food. Even with a little bit of added sugar it is a pretty good choice given a dessert is being eaten.
Which in no implies anything negative about low carbing it for those who chose to do so. It does imply a fair amount negative about those who feel the need to proselytize about the revealed truth of the Church of the Low Carb as the One True Path. But that is an IMHO or even Pit and not a GQ discussion.
No doubt and no disagreement from me. Then again, I really don’t think anything is particularly bad for you in moderation, depending on one’s definition of “moderation.” (ETA: And depending on if you have actual medical conditions that require you not to eat certain things, of course.)
And to continue with agreements - some foods lend themselves to moderation more than others. That is the point well-made by MH about satiety and what he referred to “palatability” (and which is often referred to as “hedonic value”) … The concept is that the brain both factors in how much a food satisfies hunger (and for how long) - its satiety - and how much pleasure it brings - its hedonic value. Enough hedonic value pushes the drive to eat even though there is little hunger (hence “there is always room for dessert”)
Processed food and foods with added sugars tend to have low satiety and high hedonic value - harder to eat them in moderation, possible but harder.
Real fruit, tasty as it may be, is not quite as high on that hedonic value scale, and has high satiety. Tend to be eaten in moderation and going beyond moderation usually actually takes effort.
Lots of people could eat 10 Oreos (about 500 calories worth) in front of an open bag if they were just not thinking about it; eating 9 cups of raspberries (also about 500 calories worth), not so much so. And the person who ate 10 Oreos would likely be ready to eat more in an hour … the person who ate 9 cups of raspberries? Not so likely so.
There isn’t much meaningful difference between the “added refined sugar” and the sugar that is naturally in sorbet because it is made from fruit (a food class which provides almost all of its energy in the form of sugar.) I’m simply trying to point out that sorbet isn’t a better option than ice cream because it isn’t high in sugar.
It may not be as sugar-dense as some foods, but since it’s solely sugar in terms of its energy content it’s like saying chewing gum is low in sugar. That’s inaccurate–chewing gum is low in everything because it’s small in serving size and of little caloric value, but what energy is in gum is entirely from sugar. Unless we’re talking sugar free gums, obviously.
That last paragraph precisely demonstrates the type of eating that was customary of myself for many years. Until about age 45 I was not fat, I’m a large guy with a large frame (6’5", 250+ at my peak), and I was involved in doing extremely high intensity cardio (sets of sprints, hard work on a rowing machine) and powerlifting for about 30 years. When I retired from the Army I decided I liked hanging out at the bar after work instead of going to the gym, and in a few years the foods I could pound and basically not be fat turned me into a morbidly obese person.
I’ve talked before about the sort of approach I took to fix this situation, but something very notable to me early on is I was eating like 50% fewer calories in a day once I started cutting fat, but I actually had difficulty finishing my meals. And I was a guy who never left a plate half eaten. The difference is a class of foods I refer to as ‘single ingredient foods’ that you make into meals on your own are extremely filling. It’s far harder to eat 5 apples than it is it to eat 5 oreos (and they have about the same total calorie count.) When your diet switches to things like whole oats, brown rice, steamed vegetables, plain chicken breast etc you’ll notice that even if you’re a big eater it’s suddenly almost painful just to get all the food you plan to eat down your mouth in a day (and this was eating at a good caloric deficit.) I’ve basically done all my research on nutrition, palatability and etc because of this personal experience and the realization of how huge a difference “feeling full” makes and what goes into that feeling doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with your calorie intake.
No, I’m contesting the idea that fresh, whole fruit, in moderation, cannot be a part of a reasonable, well-balanced diet, even for a person who is trying to lose weight, barring medical conditions that require severely restricting or eliminating one’s sugar or simple carbohydrate intake.
As a rule of thumb, prepared foods have all their nutritional value removed from them. Otherwise mold, fungus and bacteria will grow in it. There has to be a “shelf life” to these produces or they just won’t sell.