The leafy greens that make up most of this chicken noodle soup recipe are packed with CELLULOSE—basically a carbohydrate our bodies don't even have an enzyme to deal with. So, if you're like me and used to gag at the mere mention of biology or chemistry class... let's just call them indigestible fibers.
Look, veggies aren't some magical opposite to "normal" food (I didn't say that, by the way), but eating nothing but this chicken noodle soup—or maybe tiny bits of other stuff—is definitely a far cry from the typical American diet. And don't get me started on "light" products; they're basically just corporate inventions designed to pad profit margins. Usually, they just have less fat than the regular version, or like with Diet Coke, they swap out sugar (sucrose, excuse my French) for artificial sweeteners that have zero calories.
So, here's the deal: fasting while your stomach is full of cellulose. Our cells need glucose to function normally, which gets absorbed into the bloodstream after the body breaks down complex carbs. Once your blood sugar spikes after a meal, the beta cells in the Mayo Clinic-style pancreas release insulin, which lets that glucose enter the cells to be burned for energy. The catch? If you overeat, you dump way too much insulin into your system, and since your body can't use all that glucose at once, it just turns straight into fat. But if you cut out carbs entirely (except for that cellulose, which doesn't provide any glucose), your cells are technically STARVING. For brain function (which, btw, uses glucose without needing insulin) and just general basal metabolism, the body starts burning ketone bodies produced from breaking down fat and protein. (It burns through glycogen reserves first, but whatever, that's a tangent...). I'm guessing after a big bowl of this chicken noodle soup with nothing else, most people won't feel hungry, but their bodies are still starving.
Look, I’m sorry if this simple truth is too much for some of you to wrap your heads around, but there is no such thing as a food that magically burns fat.
And let's get one thing straight—there's no such thing as "diet food." Period. What we eat is just proteins, carbs, and fats, all of which carry an energy value. Like, chicken isn't drastically "lower calorie" than pork... but hey, I’m probably overcomplicating things for certain readers here, so I'll just shut up.
The whole "success" behind that chicken noodle soup recipe basically boils down to people stuffing themselves with massive amounts of indigestible fiber INSTEAD of actual food. In other words, they're starving—they just feel less miserable because their stomachs aren't technically empty.
Eating healthy matters for more than just watching the scale, obviously, and anyone who actually wants to stay healthy should be doing it for life. But here we go again, lecturing at a symposium or whatever... I'm done. Just keep starving yourselves, walking around like little mobile tanks of ketones and methane just to lose three pounds of water weight and some salt. 😁
restlessmarlin6 said:I don't know about all of you, but for me, surviving seven days on this diet is gonna be my own little personal victory over my own lack of willpower—just proof that I actually have some backbone... honestly, I can't remember the last time in the past four years that I managed to stick to any kind of food restriction (healthy or otherwise) for more than two or three days.
Look, I’m not trying to lecture everyone here on why crash diets are basically useless and dangerous—you guys could have read all that elsewhere (and yeah, I’m talking to more than just restlessmarlin6)... but this whole idea of "conquering weakness" that restlessmarlin6 is talking about? That's really not the best way to look at how you interact with your own body... craving food isn't a character flaw, it’s just being a functioning human being. And storing extra energy as fat isn't some kind of disease either—it just means your system is working the way it was designed to. If you want to actually deal with extra calories without wrecking your health, there's really only one way to go about it: cut back on the calories—but do it reasonably—and stick to the food pyramid. Once you hit your target weight, just keep eating "normally" (meaning, follow that pyramid) for the rest of your life. There are nutritionists out there, and if your relationship with food is totally messed up, there are psychologists and psychiatrists who actually know how to help.
Just take care of yourselves and try to love your bodies a bit... you're gonna need them for the rest of your lives. 🙂
just grab a power of attorney signed by your uncle—assuming you can actually track him down to get his signature, obviously—and then you're golden. once that's done, go ahead and blast them in the papers... tell everyone how unprofessional and useless they are, just total idiots...
So, do the doctors have even the slightest clue what we’re looking at over the next few weeks? Or are they just winging it too... anyway, hang in there, okay?
just some cute, slightly-above-average-intelligence girl. trust me, that's not the same thing as having actual wit. and since you're begging for some life lessons, here's a little tip: the world actually doesn't revolve around you. 😁
Justin Howard58 said:girl i'm not even legal age yet maybe that's why I'm being such a jerk whatever, my bad...
yeah, you got a point, you're still pretty young—but what you called "being a jerk" is actually something else entirely...
😁
nah, seriously though, give it some thought... isn't it about time you stopped constantly making excuses for yourself? (you know, growth spurts, moving on, getting past the nonsense)
Jack of all trades said:look, I'm a woman and honestly? I don't think I'm being toxic here—I'm gonna keep doing exactly what I'm doing, so good for you... but your little critique totally missed the mark. 👋
my bad, didn't realize you were a lady.
as for the rest of it? yeah, that sounds like a "you" problem. 👋
Justin Howard58 said:Look, after this mess, nobody reading this is ever gonna take me—or Penny—seriously again... honestly, I couldn't care less about any of it if you're that fragile, that's on you, man is there a red alert flashing on my screen right now? Of course not. Am I supposed to be losing sleep over the mental or physical health of my fellow Americans? Yeah, sure, if you want to be a saint but it isn't you wanna throw up? You won't. You wanna go OD on some drugs? You won't. What am I gonna do about it? As long as you aren't messing with *my* life, we're good—there's zero moral obligation forcing me to censor anyone stuff can get under my skin, sure, but as long as it stays just words on a screen, it doesn't touch me
I don't get why you took my critique so personally. Sorry, but I used to work with girls struggling with eating disorders, and whether it was intentional or not, I know this kind of "joking" or "ironic trivializing" can actually cause harm. You have every right to be indifferent to other people's struggles, and nobody here expects you to be some big empath, but you don't have the right to be harmful.
Justin Howard58 said:I’m right there with you, but honestly, excuses don't mean a damn thing... it's like that whole "my dad hit me, so now I'll hit my kids" nonsense— you can't just blame trauma for everything. There's gotta be something that separates us from animals, and for me, it's having a sense of irony... if you can actually use a little irony—you know, a healthy dose of skepticism—to look at what's happening to you, there's no way you're gonna let some destructive habit take over your life. Maybe that's not about being a genius or whatever, but it's definitely about common sense... nothing more, nothing less.
Look, we aren't the only people reading this thread, so how do you not get it? And do you seriously think a thirteen-year-old kid has a fully formed moral compass or enough "common sense" to even talk about? ...Eating disorders are serious, dangerous illnesses, and you don't need an excuse for a disease. It doesn't matter if someone uses irony or not—that logic is just flawed. There's a much smarter way to mock a situation where some insecure girl thinks she's going to see God just because she lost three pounds of water weight.
Justin Howard58 said:honestly, nobody is actually dumb enough to take that kind of advice seriously... I mean, come on. 😲 if you want to find where things went sideways, look at this weird obsession with being skin and bones—this totally warped idea of what "beautiful" even looks like. it’s not on us for making fun of how ridiculous it all is. 🙄 people are out here starving themselves or doing insane stuff just to drop a few pounds... it's gross. super important point there. 😛
calling people "dumb" is a dangerous game—that could be your own kid one day (hopefully not, obviously). and hey, they could be brilliant (just like their mom 😁), but let's get one thing straight: eating disorders have absolutely nothing to do with how smart someone is.
but honestly, what’s even worse—and I mean truly messed up—is that habit of purging just to drop a few pounds or stay thin. It's a mental illness. A straight-up eating disorder. It can literally kill you, and I don't see anything funny or "inspiring" about those kinds of "tips"... seriously. I could go on forever about this, but I really don't want to get into the weeds and give anyone ideas on how to spiral into that kind of hell...
rustymoose54 said:Water made that way has basically zero conductivity.
Deionized water actually has even lower conductivity. 🙂
Honestly, I’ve got no clue what they were even getting at earlier when they tossed around the term "demineralized" water... what, like just settling out the salts? Because once you settle out those inorganic salts, you're still gonna have some stray ions floating around in there, no matter how hard you try. Even distillation won't totally kick them all out—and look, if you're really obsessed about having zero foreign ions in your water, the smart move is just to run it through an ion exchanger after you distill it, and then you're golden...
hey Kenneth Hernandez67, look, things can't possibly get any worse than they were at the start, and besides, everything is in good hands now.
seriously though, if anyone here actually knows what living with bipolar disorder looks like in the real world—not the textbook version, but the actual reality—please, tell me... sometimes I just don't know how to act around F. It feels like she’s constantly spinning these totally unrealistic ideas in her head, and I’m stuck wondering if it’s just the illness talking, or if she’s just kind of... escaping reality because her parents are way too overprotective? If it's the latter, it feels super hypocritical of me to just sit back and pretend everything is fine... I usually end up taking this middle-ground approach where I'll mention that I’d probably see things differently in her shoes—usually being a bit more self-critical, you know?—but I still leave room for the possibility that she might actually be right. Then again, if it’s just an inseparable part of the condition, the last thing I want to do is make things harder for her...
but honestly, the most important thing about my friendship with her is that she is genuinely a wonderful person—super smart and probably has the purest heart on the planet... we weren't even that close when she first got sick, like, we weren't best friends or anything... we've grown closer over time, but I still have all these lingering questions that she just can't seem to answer... anyway, I love hanging out with her.
Honestly, give the author some credit... I mean, I’d probably call this "The Pearl Collection" if I felt like being extra, but I really can't be bothered to deal with the drama that comes with being right all the time...
So, anyway, regarding water purity—going from basically nothing to the real deal: 1. demineralized 2. distilled 3. deionized (that's when you run the distilled stuff through an ion exchanger)
granitebadger25, can you break down more about manic-depressive psychosis for me? I’ve got this friend from back in my college days who’s been checked into the psych ward at places like Johns Hopkins a few different times now. She seems pretty steady these days—mostly—though she’s a little disconnected from reality sometimes, but honestly, I feel like that’s just because her parents are super overprotective. They hover so much it’s crazy. Because they’re always hovering, I don't even dare ask her for the gritty details about her diagnosis... it’s like they’re sending this unspoken message that the whole topic is off-limits to anyone else. Oh, and she’s put on quite a bit of weight since starting her meds—is that just an unavoidable thing with these treatments? Or what?...