A Comparison of Sorts...

[WetBanana]

I wanted to do a comparison of two breakfasts - almost equal in calories. Before we started this WOE, which one would you have thought was healthier?

2 scrambled eggs (with a tbsp of whipping cream, mushrooms, onions, and peppers), and 2 slices of bacon, with a tall glass of cold water - OR - 1 cup Cheerios, 1 cup non-fat milk, 1.5 cups (a tall glass) of orange juice?

Let's break it down into calories, fat, carbs, and protein.

2 slices cooked bacon: 87 calories, 6.7 grams of fat, 0.2 grams of carbs, 5.9 grams of protein
2 scrambled eggs: 204 calories, 14.9 grams of fat, 2.7 grams of carbs, 13.5 grams of protein
1 tbsp whipping cream: 50 calories, 5 grams of fat, 0 carbs, 0.3 grams of protein
1/8 cup mushrooms: 2 calories, 0 fat, 0.3 grams of carbs, 0.3 grams of protein
1/8 cup peppers: 4 calories, 0 fat, 0.9 grams of carbs, 0.2 grams of protein
1/8 cup sauteed onions: 14 calories, 1.2 grams of fat, 0.9 carbs, 0.1 protein

Total calories: 360
Total fat: 27.8 grams
Total carbohydrates: 4.9 grams
Total protein: 20.3 grams

And our alternative breakfast that we were eating before Atkins, or even something we're still feeding our kids.

1 cup Cheerios - 110 calories, 1.8 grams of fat, 22.8 grams of carbs, 3 grams of protein
1 cup non-fat milk - 86 calories, 0.4 grams of fat, 12 grams of carbs, 8.4 grams of protein
1.5 cups of orange juice (I said a tall glass) - 170 calories, 0.2 grams of fat, 40.7 grams of carbs, 2.5 grams of protein

Total calories: 366
Total fat: 2.5 grams
Total carbohydrates: 75.4 grams
Total protein: 13.9 grams

So here's the comparison - the first breakfast has 360 calories, the second has 366. That's where the similarities end.

We've been told all our lives that the majority of our calories should come from carbohydrates because that's how we get energy. Nobody ever told us though that we could use the fat in our own body as a way to get energy, so we just kept piling on the carbs.

I honestly feel taken advantage of sometimes as I stare at this kind of comparison. I am outraged that I used to feed my kids like that. I am saddened that so many people still do and think it's acceptable. I am pissed off that big businesses can get away with marketing this as healthy and further lining their pockets with our hard earned money - meanwhile, our local farmers are becoming fewer and far between. They are being forced into either growing exclusively wheat and corn, or forced off their lands.

I find it difficult to bring up these types of conversations with friends and family because they don't understand where I'm coming from. They just think, "Oh, she's doing Atkins, don't listen to her, she'll convert back to her old habits soon enough." The thing is - I am NEVER going back. I'm dragging my family along kicking and screaming sometimes though. I make concessions - I don't make them stick to a pure Atkins WOE, I am trying to teach moderation, trying to teach that this isn't everday food, it's once in a while or special occasion food. The food we eat everday should be nourishing, helping our brains to keep growing, our muscles to get stronger, and our bones to stay healthy.

So - that is why I bring this to you all. I know you've done the comparisons before, I know you're on the same page as me. It just really sucks that I didn't get the opportunity to grow up like this as I'm trying to do for my own kids. Each kid deserves to have the best start in life - I just don't feel like I had that option, so I'm making up for it now. I'm still quite young, the health effects haven't hit me yet, but I know they will soon if I don't keep going. I know the emotional ones are here though, and that's what I'm working towards ending.

[imagood1]

Re: A Comparison of Sorts...

the sad thing is I did grow up with eggs & bacon for breakfast....but then add hash browns and toast and the "healthy" meal ceased to be "healthy". Good for you starting your children on the path of good nutrition and good health!

[WetBanana]

Re: A Comparison of Sorts...

I grew up at the beginning of the low-fat craze

[Slapshot]

Re: A Comparison of Sorts...

I grew up at the beginning of the low-fat craze

Me too. I can't tell you how many Fruit Roll Ups and Twizzlers I ate because they were "fat free."

[liv]

Re: A Comparison of Sorts...

What strikes me with it is the amount of chemicals and processed foods that the cheerios example has. Very likely that milk was over processed with sub par proteins added back. Cheerios has very little of what is really vauable in oats - it has a lot of fortified stuff that it is unclear that our body can use well and the orange juice is very far removed from a real orange.

[Kntrylady]

Re: A Comparison of Sorts...

And what frosts me too, is that all the children are going to be "taught" in school, that the Cheerios breakfast is healthier for them and that we on Atkins are wrong.

[Sims]

Re: A Comparison of Sorts...

I love cereal for any meal - problem is I NEVER ever have just one serving. That's the problem with high carb meals - I'm never satisfied. The bacon and eggs or even a veggie omelet will keep me full and satisfied and I never feel like I NEED another serving, or 2 or 3....

[mizski]

Re: A Comparison of Sorts...

I'm still amazed that juice got to be such a huge serving (1.5 cups). My family (and then me) always used traditional juice glasses. They hold 4 oz. of juice. That is a proper serving. Now, with that huge serving of juice, it's like an injection of instant sugar.

I don't think they make those small juice glasses anymore. I gave up juice a couple years back but still use them for milk.

I liked Cheerios but they never made a satisfying breakfast. And they aren't as bad as those like Froot Loops and other sugar bombshells...the ones that are now in trouble for advertising that they boost your child's immunity.

[ziggy]

Re: A Comparison of Sorts...

We've been told all our lives that the majority of our calories should come from carbohydrates because that's how we get energy. Nobody ever told us though that we could use the fat in our own body as a way to get energy, so we just kept piling on the carbs.

i agree its pathetic the scientific requirement for carbohydrates in the diet is 0 you dont need them yet people come up with crazy lies that say you do

I honestly feel taken advantage of sometimes as I stare at this kind of comparison. I am outraged that I used to feed my kids like that. I am saddened that so many people still do and think it's acceptable. I am pissed off that big businesses can get away with marketing this as healthy and further lining their pockets with our hard earned money - meanwhile, our local farmers are becoming fewer and far between. They are being forced into either growing exclusively wheat and corn, or forced off their lands.

when i was a kid my parents bought into all the colesterol lies and hardly ever let me eat eggs

its horrible how they make foods like cheerios sound healthy when they are complete junk

if only people knew how toxic these bad carbohydrates were to us why do you think are body gos into a glucose burning metabolism when eating high and bad types of carbohydrates? because its a little like when your body gos into a alcohal burning metabolism its gotta burn off the toxic blood sugar spike or store it as fat before it reaches and damages your kidneys

I find it difficult to bring up these types of conversations with friends and family because they don't understand where I'm coming from. They just think, "Oh, she's doing Atkins, don't listen to her, she'll convert back to her old habits soon enough.

a mothers breast milk is 50 to 57% of calories from fat yet people have been brain washed to think that eating fat is bad even though after all of human history when people knew it was good and eating animals and fat made us super healthy but this is one of the reasons why satan controls all the nations of the world people lie and sin and then refuse to admit there wrong

Some people use the story of Daniel to suggest that eating only vegetables is healthy.

Daniel 1:12 "Please test your servants for ten days, and let them give us vegetables to eat and water to drink. 13 "Then let our appearance be examined before you, and the appearance of the young men who eat the portion of the king's delicacies; and as you see fit, [so] deal with your servants." 14 So he consented with them in this matter, and tested them ten days. 15 And at the end of ten days their features appeared better and fatter in flesh than all the young men who ate the portion of the king's delicacies.

They are distorting Scripture by suggesting that Daniel proves eating only vegetables is healthy. The people knew that eating vegetables was unhealthy. Daniel was proving that his God would perform a miracle by keeping him healthy even though he ate an unhealthy diet consisting only of vegetables. The Bible is confirming in Daniel's story that the vegetarian diet is unhealthy.

The thing is - I am NEVER going back. I'm dragging my family along kicking and screaming sometimes though. I make concessions - I don't make them stick to a pure Atkins WOE, I am trying to teach moderation, trying to teach that this isn't everday food, it's once in a while or special occasion food. The food we eat everday should be nourishing, helping our brains to keep growing, our muscles to get stronger, and our bones to stay healthy.

i try to show my family that eating high carb is bad for them but its soo hard to convince them my mom absolutely refuses to even try eating low carb she likes her candy and junk food too much while at the same time she 100% supports me and helps me do the diet by cooking only atkins freindly food for me

its also very sad how so many people still have faith in the health care system and how they say we should eat. if you hunt and gather in any place in the world out of the 3 macro nutrients you bring back carbohydrates will be the lowest shouldnt we eat according to nature that God has made for us?

[Slapshot]

Re: A Comparison of Sorts...

With the exception of Atkins, Eades and their compadres, what the mainstream media/conventional wisdom fail to mention is that eggs, meat, bacon, etc. got a bad rap because they were being eaten in conjunction with a high carb diet. Of course, when you eat a high fat diet with carbs, you're going to gain weight. So, bacon and eggs for breakfast and steak and other high fat meats got the bad rap because we also ate hash browns, toast/bagels, and potatoes/fries with those foods. Guilt by association and combination. Sad, really.