I'm a fan of the Couch-to-5K Running Plan on Facebook. They typically post check ins so people can talk about how they're doing, ask for help and encouragement, etc. They also posts links to articles about diet and exercise like this one.

Overall, it's a pretty cool page and most of the people following it are genuinely helpful to their fellow beginning runners. However, some people are just out-and-out asses. One woman, we'll call her Tamara Cohen, because that's her name, got bent out of shape (pardon the pun) over this passage in today's article:

Exercise can boost metabolism for a few hours, but burning more calories can increase your appetite. To avoid the munchies after exercising (and eating back the calories you just burned), try to schedule workouts so that you have a meal within an hour afterward. Or save part of an earlier meal to eat during that time, says Fernstrom. Snacks combining carbohydrates and protein—like a fig bar and fat-free milk, or cantaloupe and yogurt—are best to refuel muscles and keep you from feeling ravenous later on.

Ms. Cohen decided that this heinous suggestion was reason enough to bombard the C25K page with her own special brand of nutritional nazism. A few choice bits (and here's the whole thread)

"Snacks combining carbohydrates and protein—like a fig bar and fat-free milk, or cantaloupe and yogurt." A fig bar and fat-free milk? Really? Um, eat REAL FOOD.

I didn't say milk wasn't a real food. Fat-free milk isn't real food. How on earth is a fig bar real food?

Well, I stated that making your own would be real food. I don't eat any processed sugar, so I sweeten things with dates and figs all the time also. But, seriously, that is NOT what this article was saying to do, nor is the average American going to do that. If the average American did that, he woudn't be fat.

Last time I checked, milk didn't come out of a cow without fat in it. Therefore, not real food. Raw milk = real food. Whole, non-raw milk = closer to real food than skim milk.

I don't even drink milk, hahaha. Milk is for baby cows, and I'm not a cow. But, if I was going to drink milk, it would be RAW, unpasteurized milk, which is readily available through my local, raw milk cooperative from cows that are grass fed and hormone free. I clearly stated that raw milk = real food and whole milk = closer to real food than skim ... See Moremilk. People can make their own food choices. All I said was that a store bought fig bar and skim milk are not real food. If people get into the habit of grabbing the "easiest" available food option, then they will do that again and again and then wonder why their "diet" isn't working.

Sarah, you can call me a jackass all you want. I criticized the article, not an individual person. People on this site are generally already trying to make changes. We can't forget that most people in this country need serious help with their diet and exercise routine (or lack thereof). Giving people an easy out is not the way. Excuses only breed ... See Moremore excuses. Helping people get off their asses and change their eating habits is what I do, and I do it well. My style may not be for everyone, but that's why I'm not the only person out there who does this. If one person takes what I have to say and uses it to make a positive change, then my time was well spent.

While people like Tamara have a point in that we should eat less processed food, cook more, etc., her entire holier-than-thou food luddite attitude is going to turn off far more people than it's going to help. Extremism in the defense of "real" food is no virtue. Really!

So what is it about the internet that makes people think it's okay to behave like this - to treat each conversation as an opportunity to get up on their own personal pulpit? I used to think it was the anonymity of the internet, but on something like Facebook, you really do have to put your name next to your words. Could it be the lack of fear of retribution? In real life, someone like Tamara would likely get her ass kicked. Or maybe that's not it at all. Maybe someone like Tamara would be a bully regardless of the situation and all the internet does is let more of us be a witness to it.

Lucky us!