Does WHAT you eat count more than how MUCH you eat, diet/health wise?

Question

Is eating a lot of healthy, nutritious food better than eating little of non-nutritious food?

Just wondering; the idea popped into my head a day ago while cutting up some carrots ;)

-and I'm not talking slight differences in amounts, I was thinking more along the lines of if you basically starved yourself with like four grapes a day against eating all the vegetables/fruits/dairy/whatever you'd like.

Answer 1

You would lose weight if you ate less but eating tons of vegetables and fruits would definately be healthier. The only thing is that you need to eat protein too, so if you had protein you would be all set.

Answer 2

i would say that exercise and how MUCH you eat is probably more important than WHAT you eat. Take france for example. The people of france eat very rich, very high fat stuff, and yet, as a whole their entire population weighs much less than americans. The key difference is that they don't supersize everything, they eat less food but still rich and tasty and they EXERCISE. Most people in that country walk, bike, etc. They don't use cars and rely on public transit.

This also holds true in some american cities like portland, denver, etc. where exercise is a way of life. I also read in one too many health magazines that it is actually better to have 1/2 cup of say real ice cream than it is to have 1 - 2 cubs of the nonfat stuff. food is all about taste. And what some foods eliminate in fat, they add back in sugar which will still make you gain weight.

the best thing is to watch your diet, and exercise. if you eat more calories than you burn on a daily basis you will gain weight.

Answer 3

The human body is amazing in how it will wring nutrition from almost any sort of diet.

However, it cannot handle an onslaught of food. If you eat a LOT, regardless of the nutrition level of the food, you will store fat and become quite unhealthy.

Moderation is key.

Answer 4

of course it's better. good food is fuel for your body. if you starve yourself you will kill your metabolism. healthy food will make you feel better to. give you energy to exercise and build muscle which burns fat.