It's obvious that I can easily eat to excess. A person rarely gets to over 300 pounds without eating to excess on occasion. However, last night I began to think about excess eating. Let me set the scenario. I made Todd a hamburger on the grill (I don't eat beef) and I had corn on the cob and breaded and baked zucchini...and watermelon for dinner. I ate and ate and ate corn on the cob. I think I ended up eating 7 or 8 ears. The last ear is where my thought processes started to kick in. Did I eat corn on the cob in excess of what I SHOULD have eaten. Yes, it was my 'main dish'. In my general opinion, eating something that's healthy for you, meaning fruit and veggies; it is not possible to eat in excess on those. I didn't get fat from eating too much corn on the cob, or too many green beans, or even from eating too many strawberries (which I can put away..). But is my thinking skewed? No, I didn't eat until I was sick. I wasn't in a corn induced sickness last night. I was pleasantly full. :-)
Soooooo excess eating......is it still bad if it's fruits and vegetables? (the question is aimed at a healthy adult...not a diabetic or someone that needs to watch sugars in fruit)
7 comments:
Your post brought back memories of my dad! When we were kids living at home, we grew corn in our garden. LOTS of corn! Anyway, at least one or twice during the season we would have a corn eating contest to see how many ears we could eat, and of course, tried to beat my dad! Never did, but I can't imagine the calories I ate! Now I stick to 2 ears a meal, little butter on it but no salt.
Good question. I'd be interested in your answers.
I think that eating to excess certainly can be done with fruit/veg. Overeating anything is a symptom of our emotional state at the time. (I'd be surprised if all that corn didn't send you to the "necessary" frequently.)
And when I was a child, yes, my brother & I & my cousins tried to out-eat each other when it came to fresh corn.
When my aunt knew I was coming to visit, she always set back enough corn to satisfy me; 8 ears was about average.
Calorie-wise, corn's not like cucumbers, for example.
On the other hand, what's Summer without fresh corn?
I agree with Anita about overeating and emotions. Think about how you were feeling. Was it I'm hungry and this is good? or Did you get to the point you didn't taste the corn anymore and just ate for eatings sake? Also what you said about feeling satisfied is a good sign, overeating can bring on guilt. You should probably look up the calories for corn on the cob so you can know what's really an excess..say over 700 calories or something
I am not any kind of expert but I would think even with healthy foods, there needs to be balance and moderation.
~Margene
Hi MaryFran - My thoughts are that, technically, yes eating to excess encompasses the fruits and veggies; however, I am with you on this: I didn't get fat on fruits and veggies so eating the corn was a good excess. So there are good excesses and bad ones. One of my good excesses is broccoli!
Unfortunately calories are calories...whether or not they come from good stuff or bad. I watched a special on 20/20 that showed a man who weighed 1000 pounds and he was eating whole sacks of oranges....like 6 or 7 at a time....and those things add up....I do feel that if you start with veggies and eat extra so that you're eating less of the other stuff, that's a good plan...good luck!
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