AIBU to think this is a daft way to eat "healthily"?

[workwoes123]

I live in France. Like many French workplaces, mine has a cantine offering a freshly-cooked, 3/4 course, lunch which is absolutely standard here. Examples of the menu on offer:

Small plate of salad starter: carrot / beetroot / green beans in vinaigrette, mixed bean salad, boiled eggs, rice salad, green salad, tomato salad etc.

Main course of protein plus veg and carbs: beef casserole, grains and courgette gratin: roast chicken leg, potatoes, green beans; fish in lemon sauce, rice, spinach etc.

Dairy: small portion of cheese, or a yoghurt

Dessert: fruit puree, fromage blanc with rasberry coulis; small piece of cake; fruit salad.

The food quality is not quite restaurant standard, but it's healthy, cheap (€4,50 for 4 courses) and mostly cooked on site from actual ingredients. All courses are optional, no one's forced to eat anything.

At a social event with some US colleagues one of them said he's really struggling with the food at the cantine as 'he doesn't know what's in it'. Instead he goes out at lunchtime and buys a processed meal / salad / packaged sandwiches because they have a barcode on them: he can apparently scan this using his phone and it tells him the fat /sugar / calorie content of what he's eating. He claims that this is 'healthier' than eating actual food at the cantine.

It seems mad to me to actively increase the amount of processed food at the expense of fresh ingredients, and claim this is 'healthier'? I can just about see the point of this when comparing one processed food with another - but dismissing freshly-cooked food because it doesn't come with a barcode? Seems crazy to me!

I know loads of people who aren't on diets but they religiously track their calories

Of course it’s not healthier. For him, it’s easier, which I can understand.

If he's lost weight by using an app, he's probably terrified of putting weight on eating French cheese etc.

He's trying to stay in control.

He isn't used to eating healthily, and is trying to get a grip on it. It seems bonkers if you are someone who knows how to, and enjoys healthy food. It makes sense to him though.

why is this any of your business?

It sounds like he's using My Fitness Pal.

It's a lot more time consuming to add ingredients instead of scanning a bar code. Using ingredients will be more useful in the long run though because they will learn what a healthy portion size is what meals not to eat often.

Sounds like calorie counting. I get it. I woujd do the same (reluctantly).

This is just one single person though even if a couple of others did nod along (probably politely).

I mean I'd roll my eyes inwardly but it wouldn't occur to me to start a really detailed thread, inviting opinion on it.

Each to their own though (which applies to both of you here).

I’m just open mouthed with admiration at your canteen-who cares about the American? Why can’t we have this here-instead of the usual chips and gravy at our hospital canteen🙁

My Fitness Pal is such a pain for adding ingredients. We used it when trying to up calories for a poorly family member. But you’d search, say, “almond” and 99% of what was in there would be “Fat-free almond-flavour synthetic thing” or “Almond substitute crunch-o-topping” and other processed foods. Trying to find natural ingredients on there is impossible. Think it’s largely used by people who eat like the OP’s colleague.

Please can you derail your own thread and tell me more of this wonderful lunch menu.

Your canteen sounds amazing but very calorie laden for lunch. If you are used to eating your main meal around 7pm which most Americans will be, to have a 4 course lunch on top is way too much, the starter green salad plus boiled egg and some fresh fruit is quite enough for lunch. A sandwich isn't necessary bad for you

This is ridiculous! YANBU.
As someone who's quite fit for a sport calorie counting / dieting never ends well. People stick to it religiously, something or other happens and then everything goes to shit and the cycle starts again.

Healthy eating as a habit however works + exercise. And health isn't just weight/fat whatever but how healthy you feel.

Easier to count maybe but certainly not healthier. The illusion of control won't do him any good. Batshit. There are estimators online as well....

Life's too short to be worrying about what an adult I barely know is eating. Maybe I think that because I'm closer to the end than the beginning.

The canteen sounds amazing and I agree, much healthier than a packaged sandwich.

But it's up to him - if what he's doing is working in terms of his health/weight/fitness/whatever, then leave him to it. (E.g.) meal-replacement shakes are processed to buggery but some people find they work for them when they are trying to lose weight. It's a very personal thing.

I think that's the problem - everyone is obsessed with calories, without giving a thought to proper, varied nutrition.

I'm with you OP, he's been misled over years of diet fads. I wish I could eat at your canteen it sounds fantastique 😀

Ooh it sounds like the work canteen on Le Bureau.

Sadly, it’s a major factor in the obesity crisis that people feel the need to eat processed ‘health foods’, and have lost touch with normal food as a result.

Michael Pollan’s book is excellent on this and shows how the processed food industry played a major role in helping this to happen.

@gogohm

Your canteen sounds amazing but very calorie laden for lunch. If you are used to eating your main meal around 7pm which most Americans will be, to have a 4 course lunch on top is way too much, the starter green salad plus boiled egg and some fresh fruit is quite enough for lunch. A sandwich isn't necessary bad for you

It can be healthier to have lunch as the main meal of the day and a big breakfast because you digest food and release energy throughout the day. Also prevents an overly full feeling at bedtime and snacking. This doesn't work for many people (myself included) because we don't have the time for a nice meal at work and so have dinner as the main.

But if the option is there for lunch it's better.

The numbers on the packs are apparently not accurate anyway.

@Rainallnight

Ooh it sounds like the work canteen on Le Bureau.

Sadly, it’s a major factor in the obesity crisis that people feel the need to eat processed ‘health foods’, and have lost touch with normal food as a result.

Michael Pollan’s book is excellent on this and shows how the processed food industry played a major role in helping this to happen.

omg i love the bureau

I love works canteens run properly.

Maybe it’s healthier for him, become if he doesn’t know how many calories he’s had he’ll put weight on.

I think that whilst it definitely isn't 'healthier', it's easier for somebody who has learned just how untrustworthy mass catering can be in countries that rely hugely upon ultraprocessed ingredients and a shedload of corn syrup, salt, fat, more sugar, artificial flavourings, bulking agents and anything the food industry can come up with to increase margins to be able to pick something up that he can see has x calories, x sugar, x salt, x fat. It also helps with portion control if he struggles with that. I know that Dieticians here have been known to tell obese individuals who eat too much food, not highly processed foods, to buy microwave meals and things in packets preferably labelled Low Fat for that reason.

There's also whether he's still in the mindset of Carbs are Bad, mmm-kay? (Or Fat is Bad, or eating a full meal during the day is bad/lazy/not what executives do, etc), so feels uncomfortable sitting down and having a relaxed meal that contains whatever he's been convinced is to be avoided at all times.

Go ahead, think he's daft (because having a relaxed, wide range of foods very near to their natural state is far healthier mentally and physically), but he's uncomfortable with food because he's been taught he can't trust it. As long as he doesn't start trying to pressure staff to not take a lunch break as he'd probably cause a riot and eat a sandwich at their desk instead, he can crack on with his chosen foods.

I can understand your surprise OP.

Where in the UK do you have delicious healthy meals like what is on offer? And then bog off to buy processed. He is nuts.

Thanks to Michael Mosley et al I now see any processed food as unhealthy.

Of course processed food isn’t healthier but I suppose the assertion that he knows what’s in it might be true (assuming everything is listed accurately). But you’re very lucky to have a cantine like that - I’m hungry now! . I lived in Nanjing about twenty years ago and our office building was way out in the sticks, we’d get picked up by a minibus and driven there each morning. So far out of town that there was literally nothing else around you could walk to, which meant we had a little hut type building on site where a local couple ran their ‘restaurant’ solely for us. Oh my god, the food was divine, very local and ‘home made’ food and nothing like any Chinese food I’ve ever had in any restaurant (even in China). It was bliss and I was probably the healthiest I’ve ever been whilst living there.

I used to do similar when I was in my late teens and teetering on the brink of an eating disorder. It was easier for me to allot a set amount of calories for a plastic shop bought sandwich than for a full on cooked, nutritious lunch.

I don't give a shit about being a size 6-8 anymore though so I'd love that cantine set up!

@gogohm if all I ate for lunch was a green salad, an egg and a bit of fruit I’d be gobbling down chocolate bars by 3pm! Lunch should be more substantial, and we should be given sufficient time to eat it!