ok to eat junk food?

say you ride, oh, 26 miles a day.

according to some calculations, that would be roughly 1300 calories
needed just to power the bike.

is it ok to eat what would normally be considered junk food,
to get these calories?

assume the daily requirements of vitamins, proteins,
minerals, etc are met by other, decent food. and assume you don;t want or
need to lose any weight.

i mean, don;t the muscles run on sugar? what would be wrong with getting
the extra calories right from sugar?

what about fat?

just wondering,
wle.

Minimize the junk food.

Eat lots of fruit. Eat lots of vegetables. Eat potatos and whole grains for
carbs. Eat beans and oatmeal for fiber. Eat fish and poultry for protein
unless you are vegetarian. If you are vegetarian, I can't tell you
specifics, but I know many people live long happy lives as vegetarians.

Exercise at least thirty minutes three times per week. Cycling is wonderful
exercise.

I know I'll get flamed, or at least this will become a long tortured thread.
But the more I read about nutrition, the more ideas converge into the simple
advice above.

And I enjoy the occasional bag of Cheetos or Fritos.

"wle" wrote in message
om...
say you ride, oh, 26 miles a day.

according to some calculations, that would be roughly 1300 calories
needed just to power the bike.

is it ok to eat what would normally be considered junk food,
to get these calories?

On Sat, 13 Dec 2003 05:24:18 GMT, "Jeff"
wrote:

And I enjoy the occasional bag of Cheetos or Fritos.

In addition to nutrition being my business since '74, I'm somewhat of
a nutrition nut. There are many normal foods that I do not eat. I
refer to those foods as toxic waste and ingesting them as treating
your body like a toxic waste dump. My taunt at organized ride rest
stops about the selection of food is, "you're killing the riders". It
is really in jest coming from a rider that thinks that jelly beans are
the best fuel and doesn't like putting food into water bottles.

Certainly, Cheetos or Fritos are not really that harmful but, then
again, neither would a cigarette be that harmful after a ride. What
you ingest is secondary healthwise to how well you exercise.

http://www.caltriplecrown.com/Fame.htm#PK

This is good advice. While an occasional foray into snacks and desserts
is great, meeting your caloric needs with junk food is bad for your body.
And I notice that a number of people on this thread have written something
like "junk food tastes good, but it's not the right thing to eat." Junk
food only tastes good if you train yourself to eat it everyday, anyway.
When I eat at a fast food place now that I'm pretty much committed to a
mucb more healthy diet, the food is so disappointing, which is a bummer
when you're trying to have fun biking. I think the problem is many people
aren't experienced enough with cooking healthy foods for it to taste
great, and the options available at restaurants are, in general,
uninspired.

I think cyclists can take a lesson from the backpacking world: GORP is
great for your caloric requirements during strenuous exercise. Nuts and
dried fruit are tasty, dense in calories, cheap, and healthy (just don't
get that $.99 processed crap).
DC


On Sat, 13 Dec 2003 05:24:18 +0000, Jeff wrote:

Minimize the junk food.

Eat lots of fruit. Eat lots of vegetables. Eat potatos and whole grains for
carbs. Eat beans and oatmeal for fiber. Eat fish and poultry for protein
unless you are vegetarian. If you are vegetarian, I can't tell you
specifics, but I know many people live long happy lives as vegetarians.

Exercise at least thirty minutes three times per week. Cycling is wonderful
exercise.

I know I'll get flamed, or at least this will become a long tortured thread.
But the more I read about nutrition, the more ideas converge into the simple
advice above.

And I enjoy the occasional bag of Cheetos or Fritos.

"wle" wrote in message
om...
say you ride, oh, 26 miles a day.

according to some calculations, that would be roughly 1300 calories
needed just to power the bike.

is it ok to eat what would normally be considered junk food,
to get these calories?

On Sat, 13 Dec 2003 12:18:08 -0800, Dave Carroll
wrote:
And I notice that a number of people on this thread have written something
like "junk food tastes good, but it's not the right thing to eat." Junk
food only tastes good if you train yourself to eat it everyday, anyway.

AFAIK, our bodies naturally like junk food, and must be _trained_ to
like _healthy_ food, as a result of millions of years of evolution
in which such things as high fat food were necessary to survival.
The people who ate calorie-dense foods survived and reproduced,
passing on the dense-is-yummy gene...

Man, you should have seen my dinner last night at a new BBQ place I
found. That was some evolution-friendly food!
--
Rick Onanian

Rick Onanian writes:

On Sat, 13 Dec 2003 12:18:08 -0800, Dave Carroll
wrote:

And I notice that a number of people on this thread have written
something like "junk food tastes good, but it's not the right thing
to eat." Junk food only tastes good if you train yourself to eat it
everyday, anyway.

AFAIK, our bodies naturally like junk food, and must be _trained_ to
like _healthy_ food, as a result of millions of years of evolution
in which such things as high fat food were necessary to survival.

Necessary and typically being available only occasionally, unlike
today's food-toxic environment. Interestingly enough, it tends also
to be these foods which are the cheapest because they receive the
lion's share of governmental subsidies throughout the production
chain.

The people who ate calorie-dense foods survived and reproduced,
passing on the dense-is-yummy gene...

Yup, "junk food" plays upon this. Since we (as a culture) eat it
every day for years, we die prematurely of the consequences of
obesity and other "diseases of prosperity."

Minimize the junk food.

Eat lots of fruit. Eat lots of vegetables. Eat potatos and whole grains for
carbs. Eat beans and oatmeal for fiber. Eat fish and poultry for protein
BRBR

But all things in moderation, like junk food and ...beer.....

Peter Chisholm
Vecchio's Bicicletteria
1833 Pearl St.
Boulder, CO, 80302
(303)440-3535
http://www.vecchios.com
"Ruote convenzionali costruite eccezionalmente bene"

(wle) writes:

say you ride, oh, 26 miles a day.

according to some calculations, that would be roughly 1300 calories
needed just to power the bike.

Sounds high. I weigh 210 lbs (oops, 215 thanks to not having been
able to get any exercise for the past month due to various things) and
I estimate 25-30 calories per mile. So I'd estimate 650 to 780
calories, less if you're a 120 pound climber. More if it's 26 miles
uphill.

I agree - it IS high unless it's all uphill.

"Tim McNamara" wrote in message
...
(wle) writes:

say you ride, oh, 26 miles a day.

according to some calculations, that would be roughly 1300 calories
needed just to power the bike.

Sounds high. I weigh 210 lbs (oops, 215 thanks to not having been
able to get any exercise for the past month due to various things) and
I estimate 25-30 calories per mile. So I'd estimate 650 to 780
calories, less if you're a 120 pound climber. More if it's 26 miles
uphill.

Wouldn't it also depend on speed? As you go faster, air resistance is
higher leading to more calories per mile?



according to some calculations, that would be roughly 1300 calories
needed just to power the bike.

Sounds high. I weigh 210 lbs (oops, 215 thanks to not having been
able to get any exercise for the past month due to various things) and
I estimate 25-30 calories per mile. So I'd estimate 650 to 780
calories, less if you're a 120 pound climber. More if it's 26 miles
uphill.