quote:

Originally posted by Beancooker:
A small amount of sugar isn’t bad for us. It’s the extreme over consumption in all our foods that is unhealthy.

This ^^^^^

I've been on a health mission since November, 2022. In that time I've lost 22 lbs. net weight and (calculated) 25 lbs. of fat {*}, brought my body fat percentage down from 23% to ±11% {*}, and dropped over 2 inches off my waist. I can see my top row of abs clearly and the 2nd row is just becoming visible {**}.

In my last physical my LDL had dropped to within acceptable the acceptable range for the first time in some thirty years. My mild hypertension is well-controlled with the one pharmaceutical in my medicine cabinet (5mg of Lisinopril). The symptoms of sleep apnea I once had are long gone.

Part of how I did this was:

• Cut out nearly all sugar and other highly-refined carbs
  
• Otherwise limited all carbs
  
• Cut out nearly all between-meal snacking
  
• Went protein-heavy, supplementing with whey protein products to hit ±1g protein/pound of lean body mass or better
  
• Aimed for a slight overall calorie deficit
  

IOW: I've completely ignored the dietary guidelines published by the USDA and HHS. In fact I've done pretty much the opposite of what they recommend.

What I haven't done is given up eating everything I enjoy. I've just learned to not gorge on or endlessly graze on the stuff.

I'm going to recommend a couple books. One is Lies I Taught In Medical School: How Conventional Medicine Is Making You Sicker and What You Can Do to Save Your Own Life, by Dr. Robert Lufkin, MD, and Follow the Science: How Big Pharma Misleads, Obscures, and Prevails, by Sharyl Attkisson.

If you've been buying what "our" government, university studies, Big Pharma, and Big Food have been selling: These will be quite eye-opening and more than a little disconcerting.

And if you've believed we were all misled by "our" government's and the health "care" industry's responses to the Covid-19 scaredemic, but you're still buying into those same actors' narratives vis-a-vis health and nutrition, I invite you to look up "Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect"

{*} As measured by a Body Impedance Analyzer. They're known not to be terribly accurate.
{**} This is consistent with ±15% body fat. Taken together with the BIA measurements this suggests I was closer to 30% BF two years ago.

There’s no one good diet. I knew high level athletes who needed lots of starches, others who avoided them almost completely.

Similarly, eliminating pesticides and herbicides just leads to starvation.

Now, if the various humanoid robots can be used to develop good at machines, that can change a lot of things - if nothing else, get vegetables back to being cheap.

Industrial food can be good food - it can be excellent.

Frozen foods can be of much higher quality than out of season fresh foods.

I SUSPECT we are supposed to eat a seasonally varied diet, in most cultures. That will also vary wildly with activities.

quote:

Originally posted by Aglifter:
Similarly, eliminating pesticides and herbicides just leads to starvation.

The organic farmers of the world would disagree with you. And so would history.

After they upgrade the food pyramid, myplate, or WTF they want to call it they need to move on to saving taxpayers money. What I mean by that is:

all of the taxpayer funded food assistance (e.g. SNAP) need to be updated to match. I'm sick being in line at the grocery store behind an obese person using gov't assistance to pay for a grocery cart full of processed foods, junk food, and soda. In fact, they've expanded these programs so much that even convenience stores accept gov't assistance because their food is now on the gov't assistance program acceptable list.

taxpayers are getting double dipped as the unhealthy food we're funding is leading to unhealthy individuals and then we're subsidizing their healthcare.

I'm aligned with Gov Huckabee Sanders:

quote:

GOP governor calls on incoming Trump officials to ban junk food in food stamps: 'Make America Healthy Again'
Arkansas Gov Sarah Huckabee Sanders says she is requesting a SNAP waiver to prohibit junk food from the program in her state

By Andrew Mark Miller Fox News

Published December 11, 2024 9:12am EST

Arkansas Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has sent a letter to the incoming Trump administration heads of the Health and Agriculture departments, calling for the end of junk food as part of the federal food stamp program.

"As you know, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is a $113 billion federal program designed to support low income families with food assistance," Sanders wrote in a letter obtained by Fox News Digital to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary-nominee Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Agriculture Secretary-nominee Brooke Rollins. "Unfortunately, this ‘Nutrition Assistance’ program is undermining the health of millions of Americans, on the taxpayers’ dime, by encouraging families to eat highly processed, unhealthy junk food.

"In fact, soda, unhealthy snacks, candy, and dessert account for nearly 23 percent, or $25 billion, of all SNAP purchases. Given the relationship between junk food and poor health, our federal food assistance policies are fueling obesity, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, and a wide range of chronic health conditions around America."

Sanders cited her experience as a mother of three as motivation for "improving maternal health outcomes" in children and explained that one third of the people in her state suffer from diabetes or pre-diabetes, and 40% struggle with obesity.

... {more on website}

---

Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity

DISCLAIMER: These are the author's own personal views and do not represent the views of the author's employer.

What today children are ingesting!
https://www.facebook.com/reel/841466001436342

quote:

Originally posted by Aglifter:
There’s no one good diet. I knew high level athletes who needed lots of starches, others who avoided them almost completely.

That's high-level athletes. They "carb load" before training and competition. Often with a mix of fast- and slow-release carb sources (simple and complex carbs, respectively).

Here's the thing about carbs: They metabolize quickly and have a lower TEF (Thermic Effect of Food) than protein. Plus carbs, particularly simple carbs, spike blood glucose, which leads to increased cortisol levels and insulin resistance.

Excess carbs, which can easily become excess because they metabolize so quickly, are converted to triglycerides. Triglycerides are inflammatory to the lining of arteries. Your body responds to the damage that results with a patching crew known as Low-Density Lipoprotein (LDL).

quote:

Originally posted by Aglifter:
Similarly, eliminating pesticides and herbicides just leads to starvation.

The problem isn't so much the use of these chemicals, but their overuse and misuse.

quote:

Originally posted by Aglifter:
I SUSPECT we are supposed to eat a seasonally varied diet, ...

Not... really.

Ok: Maybe. But certainly not as plant-focused as we've been told.

Oh, I mostly agree that “plant focused” is a con.

The reality is that meat and dairy are vastly lower profit than grains/legumes, and that’s why it’s being pushed.

I do think we consume far too few vegetables- and improved picking machines would drop them from some of the more expensive items in the store, to the cheapest

And, I think seed oils may be an issue - I certainly feel better after eliminating them - and I feel much better eating game meat/I think there are a lot of nutrients missing. (If nothing else, try to eat 16oz of game meat sometime compared to eating 16 oz of beef.)

However, I think it’s our dying soils which are the larger issue. Regenerative ag seems to heal soil fairly quickly, and at least in Gabe Brown’s book, he claimed his farm started producing grains with much higher amounts of nutrients.

Reworking food stamps is a great start. The school lunch program is a massive source of waste, both directly, and because in many schools, the food is of such shoddy quality the children will not eat it.

I know of one district which reworked their budget to focus on dollar per calorie consumed by the kids, and dramatically increased their consumption rate by spending more on the food.

That would be an excellent national standard.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:

quote:

Originally posted by Aglifter:
There’s no one good diet. I knew high level athletes who needed lots of starches, others who avoided them almost completely.

That's high-level athletes. They "carb load" before training and competition. Often with a mix of fast- and slow-release carb sources (simple and complex carbs, respectively).

I should have been more clear. That was in the same sport. Some of us derived almost all of our calories from fats, and some ate more carbs. No one carb loaded. (Strongman is pretty much done on an empty stomach/some protein powders/fruits etc to keep going. Knew one power lifter who shot caviar to make it through meets.)

It seemed like ~250# was when some of the guys started restricting carbs, and others needed them.

I think that’s more about there being a limit on how much food the athlete can process and needing to keep everything as nutrient dense as possible.

Did you know the tobacco companies own a lot of the food companies and we know what they are experts in... Addiction

I saw the comparison between American Froot Loops and Canadian Froot Loops when he first was being talked about and had NO IDEA that all that crap allowed in our food is banned in Canada and most of the rest of the world.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:

quote:

Originally posted by Aglifter:
Similarly, eliminating pesticides and herbicides just leads to starvation.

The organic farmers of the world would disagree with you. And so would history.

You’re going to have to convince a lot of baristas to bend over and pull weeds for a living. 50’s style farming may not bring 50’s era yields, but the days of cheap food will be forever changed.

quote:

Originally posted by downtownv:
Here's a great example. Bread ingredients should be Flour, yeast, sugar and salt. Nothing more. Grab your loaf and read the label!

This is 100% why I got into making sourdough. I make all of my bread now.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
I saw the comparison between American Froot Loops and Canadian Froot Loops when he first was being talked about and had NO IDEA that all that crap allowed in our food is banned in Canada and most of the rest of the world.

Trix was banned from Canada for years for the same reason, and the color differences are crazy vs Pale looking Canadian Trix.

quote:

Originally posted by SIG4EVA:

quote:

Originally posted by downtownv:
Here's a great example. Bread ingredients should be Flour, yeast, sugar and salt. Nothing more. Grab your loaf and read the label!

This is 100% why I got into making sourdough. I make all of my bread now.

Me too and it tastes better

quote:

Originally posted by downtownv:
Here's a great example. Bread ingredients should be Flour, yeast, sugar and salt. Nothing more. Grab your loaf and read the label!

I do believe we require a liquid ingredient.

My everyday bread includes seeds, ground flax, milk, honey ILO sugar, sea salt, bread flour, whole wheat flour and 9-grain flour, butter, oats and yeast.

Additionally, traditional French bread has no sugar; just water, flour, salt and yeast.

Great Book and all you need for bread. I do like a little local honey in mine too.

quote:

Originally posted by reflex/deflex 64:

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:

quote:

Originally posted by Aglifter:
Similarly, eliminating pesticides and herbicides just leads to starvation.

The organic farmers of the world would disagree with you. And so would history.

You’re going to have to convince a lot of baristas to bend over and pull weeds for a living. 50’s style farming may not bring 50’s era yields, but the days of cheap food will be forever changed.

This. And a lot of Americans and the world for that matter have become very used to cheap and plentiful American crops. A lot of that is made possible by pesticides and herbicides. Do I think we need to go crazy on the use of these chemicals? Hell no. Do I think they need to be used in some sort of moderation? Yes.

quote:

Originally posted by 229DAK:

quote:

Originally posted by downtownv:
Here's a great example. Bread ingredients should be Flour, yeast, sugar and salt. Nothing more. Grab your loaf and read the label!

I do believe we require a liquid ingredient.

My everyday bread includes seeds, ground flax, milk, honey ILO sugar, sea salt, bread flour, whole wheat flour and 9-grain flour, butter, oats and yeast.

Additionally, traditional French bread has no sugar; just water, flour, salt and yeast.

Ha ha, you are the first one to catch that! Yes, tepid water. Good Eye!

We bake bread all the time. Flour, butter, water, sugar, yeast, salt. It’s better than store bought bread. When I chew it up I actually have something to swallow instead of something that dissolves. Buy a bread machine. Easy, peasy.

The US public education system deleted 'home economics' classes many years ago; too much gender bias, etc. Health and dietary education is largely history in the public schools.

Meanwhile, basic commodities like flour, salt, sugar, rice, beans, cheese, and other good stuff are distributed as freebies to low-income people who have no idea what to do with anything that can't be unwrapped, maybe microwaved, and consumed. Soft drinks are the only common ingredient in many family diets.

I figure about half the US population would starve to death if they had to prepare their meals from basic ingredients.