Damned Egyptians.
That you, Dr. Carson?
I ran across a new food pyramid. Candy, candy canes, candy corn and syrup.
John Clay,
Unfortunately you seem obsessed about:
- following specific diet plans
- pitting specific diet plans
- posting repetitively here
Last year I decided to lose some weight. I had no health problems, but was just a bit ‘heavy’.
I consulted my doctor, who referred me to the nurse who specialises in dieting. She said I should:
- eat a bit less
- exercise a bit more (regular walking is fine)
- include some fruit and vegetables in my diet
- cut down on ‘fast food’ (which usually has a lot of fat, salt and sugar)
- allow myself some occasional treats (e.g. chocolate
), since it’s hard to keep dieting otherwise - take things slowly (no point in starving yourself; just try to lose a pound a week)
- get support of others (I joined 'Weight Watchers)
- realise that keeping up the diet is the hardest thing
I still enjoy eating, but now I snack on grapes rather than crisps (= ‘chips’ in the US) and have learnt not to rush my food but enjoy each mouthful.
I walk every day (just strolling, but I enjoy that.)
I’ve lost just over 3 stone in a year (slightly less than a pound a week.)
You seemed to want a response so I have one though it involves talking about myself…
The eBook actually has a “Success Contract” page that says:
“I, ______, commit to following the Fast Track Menu and the principles of the Fast Track exactly for just 14 days…”
Though I am somewhat obsessed with following the diet I failed because I didn’t follow it exactly.
Yes I pitted the “halve your vegetables for 3 weeks” diet and the “you have to eat grains to be healthy” diet.
Ok I can’t think of a comeback… umm… how’s that for not being repetitive? Or what about this:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=19207890&postcount=121
I just posted a link rather than saying something…
Due to various reasons I didn’t have time to eat my lunch or some snacks today… (i.e. I ate a bit less)
Yes I’ve started doing that.
Yes - I was avoiding fruits but then I had a lot of watermelon since it was the best food available for a church “morning tea”. Watermelon is low in sugar.
I’ve eliminated fast food even Subway for now. Though for easter Sunday the inlaws are having KFC so I’ll have maybe 2 pieces of chicken. I have been having extra “healthy” fats.
The diet says you can have things like high cocoa extra dark chocolate (I have one with 6% sugar) or red wine or a bit of fruit for a nightly treat.
Well I keep on eating until I’m not longer hungry so I’m definitely not starving.
Well my friend’s Dad got me interested in paleo diets. He’s lost about 15 kg so far and he has a lot of salmon and walks at about 5:30am. (Though I still eat things like butter, cheese and I can have cream)
For me, going to the gym is harder (so I don’t go).
I avoid grapes. In my supermarket you can only buy 1 kg as a minimum (unless they’re dried grapes). I snack a lot on nuts and celery. (the nuts are about 70-80% fat) Or I might fry up some bacon or have some cottage cheese.
Well at work I have a tiny 100g tin of tuna and it takes a couple of minutes eating it with a tea spoon since it keeps on falling apart. I also take a while eating one nut at a time.
I often walk fast - I am sometimes in a hurry.
In 11 days I’ve gone from 76.5 kg to 74.2 kg which is 5 pounds or more than 3 pounds per week. Though the diet says that 80% of the weight loss would probably be “false” belly fat and 20% would be fat. (and some water weight)
I have had those levels of weight gain/loss just from weighing in during the morning and again in the evening.
Yeah in the past I noticed my weight can fluctuate by about 2 kg but I’ve been weighing myself daily in the morning and it has only fluctuated by less than 0.5 kg.
The food pyramid or my plate is not a law, gospel, inconvertable truth. It’s a suggested guideline for those looking for advice as to how to choose a reasonable diet. It’s based on certain lines of nutritional thinking and its solid, fine advice for folks, especially those whose diets are much too heavy on junk food or fast food.
However, as a competant adult you do not check your critical thinking skills at the door and follow some authority. Start with advice and change it as it works for you. You’re an adult, not a helpless creature. Do some reading, trying things, get an idea of what current recommendations are and then go live your life.
Stop trying to find one authority that perfectly matches what you already want to do and stop acting victimized because you’re expected to use your own brain in adapting theory to your own every day life.
Grains with legumes are a complete protein and, as you say, help you feel full.
Grains by themselves are bulky, which also help you feel full, but with less protein you have to eat more to feel full… which can result increased calories and weight gain. There are fat vegetarians, after all.
Grains+legumes are *usually *cheaper than a piece of meat with equivalent protein. Hence, poor people eat a lot of rice and beans or the similar. Meat, however is a handy packaging for protein, so most poor folks around the world and throughout history have happily added it to their diet when they could get it
It should be noted, however, that arctic diets aren’t simply muscle meat - they eat just about everything, including organ meats, brains, bone marrow, and a certain portion of their sea life food is eaten raw. A meat diet composed of sirloin steaks is not healthy, anymore than a diet composed solely of bread and fried potatoes is healthy.
The thing is, almost any broad category is optional - you don’t have to eat fruit, you can be healthy without them. You don’t have to eat meat. You don’t have to eat nuts. You don’t have to eat dairy. You don’t have to eat grains. Rinse and repeat. However, every time you eliminate a group of foods you still have to find a way to get everything you need from what’s left, and depending on what you eliminate that can cause a complication. If you eliminate meat you pretty much have to eat grains+legumes, or dairy, or nuts (African hunter-gatherers don’t get meat every day, but they go to considerable effort to obtain nuts, which provide protein in between successful hunts). If you eliminate fruit you have to make sure you eat vegetables or raw meat that will give you vitamin C. If you eliminate grains then you’ll need to get your fiber elsewhere (like vegetables and fruits). None of these tasks are particularly difficult if you educate yourself about your new diet.
On the other hand, the greater the variety of foods you eat the easier it is to obtain everything you need. Which is one of the benefits of being an omnivore.
So,** John Clay,** if you personally want to eliminate grains go ahead - provided you’re getting enough fiber to avoid constipation you’ll probably be just fine. If that agrees with you better than a traditional American diet more power to you, that’s fantastic.
Yeah apparently constipation can be a problem with the Atkins diet. But the diet I’m on says to have certain low-carb vegetables (like broccoli which it says has super high fiber) and have probiotics. BTW I avoid legumes as well. Also it seems broccoli has a lot of vitamin C:
http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20745689_6,00.html
Same with cauliflower:
http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20745689_9,00.html
and brussel sprouts:
http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20745689_10,00.html
Yeah some paleo diet sites say liver is their superfood.
Yes, but different populations have generic variants that are optimized for different diets. Eurasians from areas where people have lived in cities fed by farmed grain for centuries are better able to handle high-carb diets, and are less prone to diabetes than, say, native Hawaiians. My ancestors have kept dairy animals for millennia, and i can digest a lot of milk comfortably, East Asians and Africans usually can’t. Some areas of Africa are very low in salt, and i bet those populations handle more salt better (and high salt worse) than the rest of us.
There’s also a lot of variety in what foods people enjoy. Someone said we eat grains because they are yummy and filling. I enjoy a nice crusty sour dough bread, but grains are not on my go-to list for yummy, nor as comfort food, nor as especially filling. I’m kind of a carnivore, I’m happier eating animal products. I have friends who aren’t, and even though they don’t call themselves vegetarians, and they eat small amounts of meat, what they really enjoy is a plate of noodles, or a mess of spiced cooked vegetables.
So i think there’s room for a lot of diets, lots of variety in what people can thrive on, and we should all respect that what works for us may not be the best choice for someone else.
*Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
*
I really like that bit of distilled wisdom from Michael Pollan. You don’t really need much more than that. And by “food” he means real, actual food. Not “food-like products” that fill most grocery store shelves.
He missed the bit about making sure you get all of the nutrients you need.
Thus proving you’re smarter than him. Excellent work, detective - you’ve managed not to grow for yet another few posts.
genetic.
grrr, it is very frustrating that I can’t edit out typos on this forum.
Hence my post about using your own critical thinking skills. No one is going to give you a 600 page dissertation that covers everything.
He missed nothing. He just (rightfully) assumed he was talking to people, not relaying computer code to robots.
What about a diet of a single plant-based food? I think you’d become malnourished after a while. It still agrees with his summary - it is food, it isn’t too much and it is mostly plants. (well that is a plural so say the diet has two types of plant-based foods.) But with my addition (“get all the nutrients you need”) it becomes a healthy diet.
What about this - get all the nutrients, energy, and water you need while minimising the consumption of unhealthy foods and excess calories.
BTW Einstein said “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler”. I think not mentioning anything about getting required nutrients is an oversimplification.
You can if you do it within 5 minutes of posting… 
I am so fucking tired of people talking about their diets, I should start a Pit thread on that!!!
I once had a person ask me how I stay so thin eating like I do. I told her. She responded “That’s wrong!”
A group of women were discussing the best diet foods. One of them asked me: You’re so thin. What do you think?
I responded “I think real food tastes better.” There was a dead silence, then one of them said “You are right.”
When people ask me what my diet is, I tell them: I eat what I want when I am hungry.
Stressing out every minute of your life about what you are going to eat will kill you a lot quicker than a bad diet.