Originally Posted by
noglider
If you're subsisting on candy bars and potato chips and not suffering from it yet, it's only a matter of time. It does matter whether it's good food or not. But lots of foods get bad raps, like cheese, meat, and so much other stuff. The name of the ingredient (wheat, beef, rice, cheese) matters less than the quality of it. If food is not very processed that's a good start. If it comes from a local farm, it's probably even better. Cooking a good fraction of your own food, any kind of food, is likely to make a good diet.
Agreed, but also, we're talking about replacement calories above and beyond what a normal person would eat. You don't need 4,000 calories of organic broccoli every day. You want a nice balanced diet that gets all of the necessary nutrients. But you can be much less stringent about what you eat once you blow past the calorie requirements of a normal person. At that point it's just calorie intake. Heck...even pros live off of pure sugar on the bike with sugary water/gels, etc. Your body will process it just fine and be healthy as long as you aren't REDUCING the healthy food you eat.