Miscellaneous Forum

Hi to all!
A good friend of mine has an incredibly bad diet. He is 23 years old, a smoker, and has been to the doctors for tests only for the doctors to say "well, i see you have a healthy diet"....how can this be?!He isnt over weight at all and has been eating the following foods everyday for years! I just dont get it!
Anyway,
For breakfast he eats:
-Chocolate donut (the big ones)
-Sweet roll with cream and sugar,
-Sausage roll
-chocolate milk
Lunch:
-Double quarter pounder burger, meat and cheese only (from McDonalds)
-Large fries
-Medium fries
-Large Coke
For dinner:
Pizza, family size, cheese only- he eats the WHOLE pizza!

Then he'll average around 6-8 full strenght beers per night!
Like i said before, he's not overweight! and the docs think he's fine!
Any thoughts?

hi
tell your mate to have a look at this link
PDQ

and see what his reaction is
Julie
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7506157.stm

This bad eating will catch up to him later and then he'll have cholesterol and blood pressure issues. He obviously has that I'm young and invincible way of thinking. But you can't make him eat healthy. The doctor obviously isn't aware of what he eats just that the test results for now are normal. What kind of doctor wouldn't tell him to quit smoking and cut down on the alcohol? Very strange...

Do you go to the doctor with him? Or does he tell you what the doctor tells him?

Sounds like the doc was late for a round of golf.

I'm sure your bud will look back in another 20 years and think...."Why did I eat all that crap when I was young"

I think maybe your friend didn't recognize that the doctor was being sarcastic.

yes maybe the doctor was being sarcastic!

or maybe the doctor only saw the lab results and did not know what your friend is really doing with his health and life. Many young people can have the most awful diet for years without showing any symptom or lab abnormality, and without gaining any extra pound. It depends on each ones' metabolism, but in the long run, it shows. If its the case, and if your fiend do not tell the doctor what he does... how he can advise him better?

I worked as a primary care doctor and in a weight control clinic for a while. I had many patients with awful diets or heavy drinkers who said and repeat they were eating "normally", even with obvious altered lab results.

I do remember a lady with a huge amount of cholesterol and triglycerides in her blood test, stating she did not eat any fat, and that she did not had breakfast before the test. After making her clear that a) she was lying or b) if not, we will take her immediately to the emergency room as he was at risk of suffering an immediate hearth attack... she admitted she had a "light" breakfast. Insisting, she finally admitted she had fried eggs with bacon and toasts with butter and jam and who knows what else... just before going the hospital for her blood tests (she thought she will "faint" otherwise!). This was obviuolsly an extreme example, but is amazing how many patients do lie or minimize their bad eating/smoking/drinking habits

"Patients do lie" (Dr. House) ;))

Yep, he's 23. At least he did have chocolate milk for breakfast... there's some calcium and protein... and he did take the extra toppings off the burger and pizza. A lot of people's diets sound as bad as they actually are when written down, but don't seem that odd when they're just eating away.

Does he work out? He might be canceling some of it out, but I have to say, being in the Army and regularly being around guys this age, that's not an odd diet at all. Not healthy, but better than some of what I've seen.

He will probably live to 95.

I used to be able to eat like that when I was 23. ...Wait until he's 30. His body will suddenly start ballooning and then he'll have to watch his diet and exercise just like everyone else does. Slowing metabolisms suck!

The key is that your friend is only 23 years old. Some people's bodies take longer to self destruct, but when they do they do.

He must be Scottish...

At twenty three all of his innards are still new, he'd have to drink poison to get a bad diagnosis if he's active.

Speaking from experience here...

My diet is terrible! I eat way too much junk (but still get the necessities). On the bright side, my health problem allows this. I have an overactive thyroid that peaks several times per year. While it causes problems of its own, the diet thing is no problem. I go through periods when I can maintain my weight (with major caloric intake) and others that I lose weight no matter what I do. My closet is an adventure, as I never know if something is going to be way too big. The dr laughed at me (after first fussing of course) because I would get so excited with every pound I gained during my pregnancy. Sadly, all that weight is now gone, and then some :(

It will catch up with him. As another poster has said, he is at the indestructible and young stage. I have a coworker who "was" the same way....26, bad eating, 2 packs of smokes and a 6 pack every night. Skinny as a rail he is. That was all well and good until a little after his 28th birthday, his fiance found him passed out his bathroom floor. She thought he was just drunk at first. Thankfully she called an ambulance and guess what? Pancreas says "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore". Therefore, he now has type 1 diabetes and has to take 4 insulin injections per day and really watch what he eats and when or he won't make 30.

If I ate like that I would not be around anymore .
Eating too many Cookies is bad enough .
I try to stay away from that type of food and I don't crave for it .

Hansi

If I ate like that, I'd weigh twice more than I do now (140 pounds currently, and I'm 5'8"). My metabolism slowed down when I was around 22, and though my diet was good for the most part, I still got fat because I ate lots of greasy food and drank alcohol a lot more. I've lost a lot of weight since then, probably from eating less junk food and exercising more.

I'm much the same as a lot of people. Although I did get good food into me in my late teens and twenties, a lot of garbage went down as well. I could eat all sorts of calorie loaded pastries and never put on any weight, just stayed skinny. But one day I became a new man, just looking at pictures of these in a magazine would make me put on weight. I'd say at 23 he doesn't have many years to go before the chickens come home to roost.

Thanks for all your replies!Im still half way reading through them all!
I forgot to mention that he does not work out at all and he hates anything that isnt cheese or meat only. He'll never eat any vegetables or fruit, pasta, rice...basically anything that isnt processed foods or meat and cheese... (although I have seen him eat a steak once..) I think the last time he ate a piece of fruit was when he was really young.

The reason the doc said that he was fine was because all his tests for cholestrol and blood tests etc came back fine.. The doc even added "You must eat a very nutritious diet" ..... I told him that he should go back to another doctor for some more tests. But he's still convinced he is fine..

To iaint: His grandparents are scottish! hahaha

Ah to be young again! He can probably stay up all night and think he is funtioning normally to LOL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeqYyvRbHws

<<the docs think he's fine!>> ... I haven't read the replies yet.

I know this isn't the point of the thread, but it amazes me how many members of the medical staff you see standing outside the hospital entrances puffing away on cigarettes!

Regarding your friend, it'll catch up with him one way or the other.

To Fairy_dust: My mate would love the "fat-ass meal" hahaha.

To July: I agree with you, it will catch up with him,he just does not want to accept that!

Yes, at 23 it's hard to envision being any other way than we are at that moment :)

the doctor said him he's fine, because he's fine NOW

Taking more blood test will not show any damage to his arteries (he probably already has, but in a microscopic level). The consequences of not eating enough veggies and fruits will only show after many years more

is unlikely he will be fine after keeping this diet for 20 more years, but is a probability question. Is "unlikely" but a very small percentage of people eats an awful diet, smoke... an live until 90. LIke a small percentage of people wins the lotto.... or a small percentage of people survive falling from a high bridge... but the most probable is the average person don't!

He feels invincible now and it's unlikely he listen to anyone. The sad thing is that most people only realize they should pay more attention to their diet after a serious "warning". A few never realize it, because the first symptom is not just a warning, is fatal

Your friends diet sounds fine to me; all the basic food groups....Chocolate,sugar,starch,grease,and beer. The only thing missing is caffine,wait, I see "large coke for dinner." So yes, it's all there.

Could be you just worry too much.

I've been to lots of funerals of people who could be best described as victims of life style. They ignored warnings as they went through their 'invincible' years. Once they began to struggle, they reformed but died anyway because the major damage was done.