All you need to understand about diets

[shadowofman]

All you need to keep in mind in order to have a complete, healthy diet for weight loss or for overall health reasons, are these three things.......

1. An equal balance of fats, proteins, and carbs.

Before you go crazy with your low carb or zero fat propaganda, remember, all three are essential for proper bodily function.

a. Proteins will help you loss weight, by burning fat stores. There are several sources of protein available to the modern westerner, and some sources are better than others. Meat is the best and will be explained later.

b. Balance your fats. Fat is the most important nutrient to put in you body. Zero fat diets are dangerous, but a diet overloaded in saturated fat is a slow death. Keep an equal balance of sat. and monounsat. fats. Also balance you polyunsat. fats. What this means to a western dietis, elevate your omega-3 to balance your high intake of omega-6 and 9. Olive oil, canola oil, oily fish, wild game, nuts, and avacados are the best sources of omega-3 available.

c. Carbs are a bit harder to decode, but all carbs have a glycemic load. This is beginning to get noticed by the mainstream diet fads like nutrasystem etc. Carbs with high Glycemic Index(GI) cause an unnatural spike in blood sugar. Low GI carbs, or predigested sugars, require very little refining in the body. They are already broken down to simplier sugars, easily digested. They won't cause an increase in insulin production and won't contribute to obesity, Type II diabeties, or heart disease.

http://www.glycemicindex.com/

Search for foods and check the GI.

2. A balanced pH in the kidneys.

Everything you eat reports to the kidneys as acidic or alkaline. If you are taking in an unbalanced pH, you kidneys will force a balance. Too much acid (as most westerners enjoy) and your kidneys will put a base from your reserves. The most troublesome loss of a base is calcium from your bones, or Osteoporosis. Here is a list of foods and how they contribute to your body's pH.

http://thepaleodiet.com/nutritional_tools/acid.shtml

As you can see, meats, grains, and especially dairy (cheese) are the leading cause of osteoporosis in the body, dispite their "wholesome" reputation. Eating more fruits and veggies will balance your body's pH in addition to fighting cancer, providing abundant vitamins and minerals, etc, etc.

3. Beware the Anti-Nutrient

A substance that interferes with the utilization of one or more nutrients by the body. Grains and beans are full of anti-nutrients, most of which are cooked out, or they wouldn't be edible at all. They may be a good source of protein, vitamins and minerals, but good luck absorbing them. Meat, fruits and veggies will give you everything you need and allow you to actually keep it all.

[shadowofman]

The crime rate increases with the increase in the sale of ice cream.

True and false.

Crime increases in the summer time and so does the sales of ice cream.

 

High fiber diets help protect you against cancer.

True and false.

Fruits and veggies (which are high in fiber) help protect you from cancer.

Fruits and veggies contribute to a net alkalinity in the body. Cancer has a very hard time feeding in a alkaline environment.

Grains, even thoughs that are "whole" contribute to a net acidity to the body. They may make you poop easier, but do nothing to protect you from cancer. In fact, grains are full of anti-nutrients and are most likely robbing your body of precious vitamins and minerals. Antioxidents that actually are protecting you from cancer.

[PWSX3]

What I have trouble with is all the little things they hide in the ingredient's. I know anything that is enriched flour is not good for you so I try to buy whole grain but a lot of that even is made with enriched flour or wheat.

 

So besides fruits & veggies what would be good food to eat for meals? I wish there was someplace on line that would just have a list of good stuff to eat.

 

I am trying to eat more healthy & I do a lot better then I used to but I know I can do even better.

I thought oatmeal was good for breakfast, but then I hear it isn't, you hear this is good for you but then later it isn't so it is really hard.

I started to use soy in my cereal instead of milk but I heard that isn't really good for you so it is hard.

 

What has worked for me so far is I just don't eat as much. I think that is why diets don't work is people get tired of the foods you have to eat.

[shadowofman]

First, there is are a ton of sites that list "healthy" foods.

Diet philosophy is one of the most hotly debated topics I have ever known, and everyone claims to have the science in their corner.

The research of Dr Cordain at Colorado State is new and a big picture view of all the research that has been done. People have been publishing findings on ideal human diet since the late 1800s. There has been hundreds if not thousands of fad diets. Religions have even played heavily into preconcieved notions of diet. You get the picture.

 

What I have trouble with is all the little things they hide in the ingredient's. I know anything that is enriched flour is not good for you so I try to buy whole grain but a lot of that even is made with enriched flour or wheat.

It's true, whole grains are better than finely processed (enriched) flour. But flour and grains in general, are starvation foods. Typically, only animals with two to four stomachs are even able to digest them. We humans with our seemingly intellegent ability to use tools, have learned to mill and bake grains into all sorts of yummy things. None of it is ideal nutrition, for all sorts of reasons. The sugars have too high of a glycemic index, shocks the pancreas, and causes you to over produce insulin. You store fat and possibly inch a bit closer to diabeties, etc. Grains also have many antinutrients that, IF you are genetically predisposed, you could develope an auto-immune disease like MS, RA, Lupis, etc.

 

So besides fruits & veggies what would be good food to eat for meals? I wish there was someplace on line that would just have a list of good stuff to eat.

Depends on your goals. If you want to lose weight or be healthy. If you are sick, I would suggest going full tilt, all natural diet. When you show signs of improvement, add "bad" foods back and see what is giving you the problems.

If you want to loose weight, eat more protein than carbs. Lean meat, like fish, turkey, lean beef like filets and sirloins. Boneless skinless chicken etc.

Instead of tubers like potatos, try turnips. You can mash them with califlower. But lean meat, fruits and veggies only, is ideal.

I am trying to eat more healthy & I do a lot better then I used to but I know I can do even better.

I thought oatmeal was good for breakfast, but then I hear it isn't, you hear this is good for you but then later it isn't so it is really hard.

I started to use soy in my cereal instead of milk but I heard that isn't really good for you so it is hard.

Milk and soy are bad news. Forget cereal. Cearel was invented by a lunatic in Battle Creek. A crack pot, quake named John Harvey Kellogg. Oatmeal is better than enriched flour, but no where near as good as a banana.

Here is a comprehensive list of the GI of different types of foods. The trick to carbs is slow not low. Fruits are going to be slow even though there are a lot of carbs in them. If you are trying to loose weight, go easy on the carbs, but if you are excersizing, you will need extra fuel.

http://www.glycemicindex.com/

What has worked for me so far is I just don't eat as much. I think that is why diets don't work is people get tired of the foods you have to eat.

Calorie reduction is probably in the average persons best interest. Where Taco Bell flows from the mountaintops.

I only recommend dieting to sick people. If you want to eat healthy, then fill yourself with as much lean meat, fruits, and veggies as you can. You don't have to make a written in stone lifestyle change. Just eat healthy. And figure out what healthy is. Get interested in knowing, what the ideal humans diet is.

It's the same diet that our ancestors ate for millions of years before we learned how to change our foods. Tastes so good doesn't it. Especially all that cheese.

[Elyssa]

What I have trouble with is all the little things they hide in the ingredient's. I know anything that is enriched flour is not good for you so I try to buy whole grain but a lot of that even is made with enriched flour or wheat.

 

So besides fruits & veggies what would be good food to eat for meals? I wish there was someplace on line that would just have a list of good stuff to eat.

 

I am trying to eat more healthy & I do a lot better then I used to but I know I can do even better.

I thought oatmeal was good for breakfast, but then I hear it isn't, you hear this is good for you but then later it isn't so it is really hard.

I started to use soy in my cereal instead of milk but I heard that isn't really good for you so it is hard.

 

I have been posting my suggestions to a young woman trying to change her habits to a more healthy diet, but I don't want to repeat myself and hijack Shadowofman's thread, as he and I have very opposite opinions.

 

Here's the link to the other thread where we have been discussing this same subject, if you want to give it a look:

 

http://www.loveshack.org/forums/t136611/

 

As for one of the worst things that comes "hidden" in many commercial foods is hydrogenated oils, which you should avoid whenever possible. It's harder than it looks, because if you start looking at the ingredient lists, you will realize it's in a vast majority of butter and margarine products as well as commercial cakes and some breads.

 

-E

[shadowofman]

I want to disscuss this here, and with you Elyssa.

This is the place to debate ideal nutrition.

As for one of the worst things that comes "hidden" in many commercial foods is hydrogenated oils, which you should avoid whenever possible.

Even though we disagree on alot, we are completely in line with each other here. There needs to be more research on all of these topics, but all available evidence points to this assumption. Trans fats are bad!