I think dieting correctly is not so much a matter of discovering an ideal list of foods, as discovering the many things that can go wrong. Some of those things are more complex than any particular food or chemical being good or bad; in particular, timing matters (multiple small meals is better than one big meal), and variety matters (though I’m not sure whether it’s good or bad). The goodness or badness of many foods fails to generalize between people due to genes, gut bacteria, and other factors.
There are a few things about diet that I am confident of, though, and paying attention to them keeps me looking good in my cloak. Sufficient protein is important. Carbohydrates and sugars with a high glycemic index (GI measures absorption rate) are bad. Micronutrients are important, but easy. Sufficient fat is important, and specific fat types seem to matter, but I don’t know how exactly. Greatly overeating on special occasions is bad, and probably worse than people think. Noticing how particular foods make you feel shortly afterwards is important.
I’m less sure of this one, but I suspect that varying the number of calories consumed per day by too much is probably bad, and skipping meals or finishing a meal unsatisfied is probably bad. My reasoning there is that in the evolutionary environment, those would be strongly correlated with food shortage and should therefore trigger energy conservation.
Since your last paragraph is the idea behind intermittent fasting diets (and one hypothesized mechanism) I wouldn’t be too quick to label it as bad: it’s been linked, if inconclusively, to improved key blood markers and increased lifespan. It may be bad for weight loss – I don’t know enough about nutrition to say, really – perhaps that’s what you had in mind.
Because it solves the cognitive load problem. Should I eat my usual ham sandwich for breakfast but now these paleo diet gurus say bread is a no-no and should now probably eat eggs with broccoli which would make my mother think I am one of those health freaks now and yada yada yada… 1000 considerations, colliding thoughts. IF’s answer is “well, how about eating NOTHING for breakfast?” and this is incredibly easier. Eating nothing does not feel like breaking a family or ethnic tradition, does not feel like doing weird things, does not feel like becoming another fad buffoon who eats granola or what else is the latest fad instead of honest old bacon and eggs, does not feel like your life is being ran by Men’s Health or Cosmopolitan, does not require shopping in weird shops or reading labels on things. It feels very much like doing nothing. And doing nothing is easy.
Not doing something, and just putting up with pain is far easier than doing something. For example, when lying on a couch, it is easier to just put up with an uncomfortable position than to summon the strength to move.
I would have to say from my experience using them, and all that I’ve read about them, that intermittent fasting diets are marvelous.
In regards to the post above, when I IF I don’t skip meals a vast majority of the time and I am never hungry/unsatisfied. Check out the introductory/about articles at leangains.com for some very great info on intermittent fasting protocols. I very much like his recommended 8 hour feeding protocol. Haven’t heard complaints about it.
Also, from an evolutionary standpoint food would have been in constantly varying quantities, and if an ‘energy conservation’ state existed as described it would have been active almost all the time, but primitive hunter gatherers were almost always relatively lean and disease free. Supposedly at low levels of body fat (6-10%/can see your abs) your body still has MONTHS worth of ketones to use as energy in the form of your stored body fat.
Side thought: I’ve heard reference to studies that some amount of cellular repair gets activated only in times of fasting.
I think dieting correctly is not so much a matter of discovering an ideal list of foods, as discovering the many things that can go wrong. Some of those things are more complex than any particular food or chemical being good or bad; in particular, timing matters (multiple small meals is better than one big meal), and variety matters (though I’m not sure whether it’s good or bad). The goodness or badness of many foods fails to generalize between people due to genes, gut bacteria, and other factors.
There are a few things about diet that I am confident of, though, and paying attention to them keeps me looking good in my cloak. Sufficient protein is important. Carbohydrates and sugars with a high glycemic index (GI measures absorption rate) are bad. Micronutrients are important, but easy. Sufficient fat is important, and specific fat types seem to matter, but I don’t know how exactly. Greatly overeating on special occasions is bad, and probably worse than people think. Noticing how particular foods make you feel shortly afterwards is important.
I’m less sure of this one, but I suspect that varying the number of calories consumed per day by too much is probably bad, and skipping meals or finishing a meal unsatisfied is probably bad. My reasoning there is that in the evolutionary environment, those would be strongly correlated with food shortage and should therefore trigger energy conservation.
Since your last paragraph is the idea behind intermittent fasting diets (and one hypothesized mechanism) I wouldn’t be too quick to label it as bad: it’s been linked, if inconclusively, to improved key blood markers and increased lifespan. It may be bad for weight loss – I don’t know enough about nutrition to say, really – perhaps that’s what you had in mind.
The surprising thing about intermittent fasting is that it’s the only drastic dietary change I’ve heard of that some people seem to enjoy.
Because it solves the cognitive load problem. Should I eat my usual ham sandwich for breakfast but now these paleo diet gurus say bread is a no-no and should now probably eat eggs with broccoli which would make my mother think I am one of those health freaks now and yada yada yada… 1000 considerations, colliding thoughts. IF’s answer is “well, how about eating NOTHING for breakfast?” and this is incredibly easier. Eating nothing does not feel like breaking a family or ethnic tradition, does not feel like doing weird things, does not feel like becoming another fad buffoon who eats granola or what else is the latest fad instead of honest old bacon and eggs, does not feel like your life is being ran by Men’s Health or Cosmopolitan, does not require shopping in weird shops or reading labels on things. It feels very much like doing nothing. And doing nothing is easy.
Not doing something, and just putting up with pain is far easier than doing something. For example, when lying on a couch, it is easier to just put up with an uncomfortable position than to summon the strength to move.
I would have to say from my experience using them, and all that I’ve read about them, that intermittent fasting diets are marvelous.
In regards to the post above, when I IF I don’t skip meals a vast majority of the time and I am never hungry/unsatisfied. Check out the introductory/about articles at leangains.com for some very great info on intermittent fasting protocols. I very much like his recommended 8 hour feeding protocol. Haven’t heard complaints about it.
Also, from an evolutionary standpoint food would have been in constantly varying quantities, and if an ‘energy conservation’ state existed as described it would have been active almost all the time, but primitive hunter gatherers were almost always relatively lean and disease free. Supposedly at low levels of body fat (6-10%/can see your abs) your body still has MONTHS worth of ketones to use as energy in the form of your stored body fat.
Side thought: I’ve heard reference to studies that some amount of cellular repair gets activated only in times of fasting.