Melba's Jammin' > writes:
>In article >, SteveR
> wrote:
>
>> I'm looking for suggestions for the breakfast and dinner meals -
>> something healthy, but something that "regular folks" might eat if they
>> were trying to eat healthily rather than what nutritionists would
>> suggest.
>
>Why do you think there is a difference between what "regular folks"
>might eat vs a nutritionist's suggestion?

It's the difference between theory and practice. The nutritionist's (or
dietician's) diet plans are based on what we *should* eat. If most
people followed what the nutritionists and dieticians say, then Morgan
Spurlock wouldn't have needed to make _Super Size Me_.

I'm looking for what an ordinary person eats, thinking of it as a
healthy diet, rather than the ideal of a "what we should eat" diet.

>Here are some breakfast ideas that "regular folks" eat:
>Toasted English muffin (whole grain) with peanut butter
>An orange
>A glass of milk

Peanut butter on an English muffin? Do people really eat that in the
US? When I lived over there, I never saw or heard of anyone doing that.
I know people do things differently over there, but the thing that
struck me was people eating toast *with* their breakfast. In the UK, we
eat the toast after eating the main breakfast. Say we are eating bacon
and eggs for breakfast - my observation is that Americans will eat the
toast along with the bacon and eggs, while Britons finish off the bacon
and eggs, and then eat the toast. And Americans don't seem to use toast
racks either, so their toast gets soggy if it's left too long on the
plate.

>McDonald's fruit and yogurt parfait
>Coffee or tea

Can you buy the parfait at breakfast time? Is anyone really going to go
to McDonald's and have *just* a parfait, without buying anything else -
no Egg McMuffins, no hotcakes, nothing? And what about the sugar in the
coffee?

>Cheerios with milk
>Buttered raisin toast
>Banana

Frosted or unfrosted raisin toast? No coffee or orange juice? Whole
milk or skimmed milk?

>A bagel with cream cheese
>Fresh Fruit - maybe kiwi or strawberries?
>Milk

What size bagel? In my experience, bagels are *huge* things. And made
sometimes with all sorts of stuff in them.

Most people, again, would have a glass of juice, probably orange or
grapefruit, with this sort of breakfast.

>Which are what "regular folks" might eat and which are "a nutritionist's
>suggestion"?
>
>spoiler space

[snipped]

>All four breakfasts are from a booklet from a dietitian -- I left out
>the portion sizes to make them look more "regular" than they do.
>
>How about dinner?
>Chicken breast
>mashed potatoes
>steamed asparagus spears
>green salad with tomato and dressing
>fruit
>milk
>
>That's a nutritionist-suggested meal, too. The chicken is a 3-oz
>portion, the potatoes are a half cup measure and the asparagus is 10
>spears. Four fresh apricots for fruit, and skim milk. Dressing is fat
>free. Eminently edible.

Milk with dinner? Half a cup of mash isn't much at all, and a 3-oz
helping of chicken is *tiny*. What's in the dressing that makes it
fat-free? Skimmed milk? Ick.

>Pork chop
>Barley
>coleslaw
>Green beans
>Milk
>Apple Crisp
>
>Also a nutritionist-recommended meal. Also quite edible, not to mention
>a lot of foods to put away.

How much of each, though? And what do you do with the barley? Where's
the apple sauce? I thought that *everybody* has apple sauce with pork.

>I'd enjoy any of those meals, and I'm about as "regular" (shut up,
>Sheldon!) as they come.

They sound a bit small to me.

The point is that I'm not really acquainted with American tastes
anymore, and I'm looking for things that most people would eat, rather
than a dietician's diet plan, and none of these sound quite right.

--
SteveR
(throw away the dustbin, send to stever@... instead)

Humans are way too stupid to be dumb animals.
http://www.accidentalcreditor.org.uk/