[scythe]

I've dealt with insomnia for most of my life (I regularly saw the clock pass midnight when I was 8, just laying in bed) and making sure I ate breakfast early every morning has seemed to be one of the most effective ways to fight it.

After experimenting with various options, breakfast settled on a few handfuls of hazelnuts and coffee with sugar. It turns out to be impossible to overeat hazelnuts because they're chewy and filling^1, it requires literally no preparation, and it keeps me full for a while. I find unsalted nuts go better with coffee; salt clashes somehow.

[PeterStuer]

I regularly see people snacking 1 bag of nuts (250g, 1700 kcal) or even 2 bags a day mindlessly in front of their computer at work.

[scythe]

I think snacking is the key concept here. I just eat quickly until I'm full and put the bag away. Lots of things are unhealthy when you just eat them out of boredom.

Imagine sitting next to a huge amount of any other kind of food all day!

[PeterStuer]

I fully agree.

OTOH These people have had it drilled into them that:

- Calories are a lie. The model is incorrect (true) and should therefore be completely ignored/rejected (false)

- Fats are good. Nuts are healthy.

- 'Grazing' food all day is good.

[scythe]

>Nuts are healthy.

There is a great deal of scientific evidence supporting nut consumption. This is not just because they contain fat, but because the fat they contain is monounsaturated, they are slow to digest, and they are good sources of fiber (particularly almond/hazelnut/pecan):

https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/78/3/647S/4690007

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/articl...

https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1741-...

> ‘Grazing’ food all day is good.

I don’t think I’ve encountered this philosophy much in the wild. I would never endorse it.

I do understand the practical necessity of snacking sometimes when you’re trying to get work done on a schedule. In these cases I think it helps to drink plenty of water with any snacks.

[blangblang]

It's the fallacy found first in the list the causes the issue:

>- Calories are a lie. The model is incorrect (true) and should therefore be completely ignored/rejected (false)

>- Fats are good. Nuts are healthy.

>- 'Grazing' food all day is good.

Good fats are good for you and nuts are a source of such fats. For some, eating more frequent, smaller portions makes it easier to hit a reasonable caloric intake for the day. However, add in that calories are a lie and ignore the fact that nuts are calorie dense, and you get people eating 3000 kcal of nuts in a day by grazing on healthy foods.

In another thread, the mention of weighing foods for a while seems to counter this. It's just not that intuitive that a small bag of nuts can have enough calories for a meal (at least is wasn't always to me). As a child of the midwest, it took some time to deprogram my concept of healthy portions, so I can admit to falling into some version of this trap for many year, and still do on occasion.

[Wh1zz]

I am also convinced that nuts are healthy. Can you provide arguments otherwise? They are full of unsaturated fats, protein, and fiber, which, paired with an overall balanced diet, make them for sure a net positive.

[PeterStuer]

I'm not saying that nuts aren't healthy. You have to take the combination of the 3 points.

I am saying that unrestricted over-consumption of any food type is bad. Now make extreme over-consumption easy/feasible by selecting high energy density foods presented in a slow but steady consumption pattern that will defy any form of natural satiety limit and you end up with a very unhealthy accumulation of energy extracted from otherwise healthy foods.

I am not making these stories up. I see people consuming 2 bags of nuts, that is 3400 kcal, outside and on top of 3 heavy meals of cheeses and meats per day, and they truly wonder what it is they are doing wrong and why they aren't losing weight as they are completely following 'low carb' diets.