Tell HN: You owe it to yourself to understand nutrition
Guys, there are a lot on misconceptions most of us have about nutrition, even those of us who think we are better informed. Here are some points I gleaned from my conversation:
- Dietary fat is most easily stored as fat in the body. Frequently you hear the current understanding is that dietary fat is not the devil, but carbs are. But now I know it it more complex: carbs are converted into glycogen, but they are NOT easily converted into fat (through a rare process called de novo lipogenesis, only if glycogen stores are full, AND there is still excess calories to store). The reason it appears carbs make you fat is that carbs have what is termed a fat- and protein- sparing effect: by freeing up dietary fat to be stored as body fat, because the fat now no longer needed for energy in place of the carbs.
- There is also a thermic effect of various macro-nutrients, which is the energy required to digest them. Again, it takes very little energy to digest fat, a moderate amount for carbs, and a high amount for protein. This should be taken into account when evaluating how each affects the body in a caloric surplus situation.
- Even healthy oils/fats, like olive oil and Omega-3 fats, are still basically fat easily stored as such in the body as described above, if there is a caloric excess. But they are used in cell membranes, brain tissue, and anti-inflammatory signaling before being stored, so they are less likely to go directly to "storage" as it were.
- It gets more complex: Carbs spike insulin, which promotes fat storage and inhibits fat burning. BUT, the fat must be there to store in the first place, and this only happens in a calorie surplus. AND, even without carbs spiking insulin, having a lot fat tissue reduces insulin sensitivity, a driver of diabetes. Also, some carbs, like sugar/fructose, have bad effects other than simply contributing to fat storage: insulin resistance due to frequent spikes, liver fat accumulation, systemic inflammation, gut microbiome disruption, dental decay, etc.
So, major devil is a caloric surplus or excess. If eating some high quality fat helps you to maintain a caloric balance, then fine. But this devil is horrible in fat form, less bad in carb form, and almost redeemable in protein form.
But generally, everybody is different. You need to read up more on these to understand your body + diet as an entire system, and you will be in a better position to care for your nutritive health. I notice HN'ers are quick to express all kinds of strong opinions on nutrition, drowning out those with actual expertise.
[1] Starting with ChatGPT, and cross-checking with actual research, since I know there might be some inaccuracies in it output.
If you know so little on the topic that chatgpt was illuminating - then I have doubts whether you are qualified to review it.
Nutrition research has piles and piles of low quality studies allowing you to support any claims you may wish to make.
I tried some time ago to get some worthwhile guidance and failed. I have doubts whether it improved much since then.
- Eat as much unprocessed food as possible
- Eat mostly vegetables, ideally a wide variety (i.e. don't only eat cauliflower)
- Eat a lot of fiber
- Choose unsaturated fats like olive oil over saturated ones like butter
- Limit your caloric intake
https://nutritionfacts.org is a very good source. Dr. Michael Greger and his team review a huge number of studies, and explain them with all the caveats.
Nutrition is really not that complex. Our ancestors were eating primarily meat for 10's of thousands of years and we are here today because it provided them enough nutrients to have healthy children that then did the same thing.
A lot of the vegetables that you are recommended to consume have anti-nutrients that are doing more harm than good. Eg: oxilates (Spinach, Swiss chard, beet greens), Phytates (Whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds), Lectins (Beans, lentils, and some vegetables like potatoes and tomatoes), etc.
We also have to account for the goal difference, meat was needed to survive in a very active environment with a lifespan of maybe 30 years per individual, if you were lucky, while now we have a very inactive environment with target about 100 years.
I lost some considerable weight that I did not intend to lose by just eating less red and more green. Don't think I can ever get it back.
Ingredients:
- Fresh Kale (shredded) or Aragula/Rocket leaves
- Fresh onions (or better still the greens of leeks, since onions were making my reflux worse), sliced
- Cherry or Roma tomatoes (sliced if necessary)
- Canned chunky tuna in vegetable oil (preferably olive oil) with a bit of salt
- Red apples (sliced). Could sub Clementines or a bit of dried mangoes (shredded) instead.
- Pecan or Cashew nuts (toasted)
Method:
Just toss together the veggies and fruit, spoon the tuna on top, and sprinkle the nuts on top, that's all. Very crunchy, tasty, and healthy.
How do you make sure to always have fresh kale available? It usually lasts one day in the fridge, if I'm lucky
- Fresh greens (I find Whole Foods prewashed green mixes kind of cheap and convenient for the purpose)
- Cherry tomatoes
- Avocado
- Olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper
Quick and filling (avocado does the trick) and OK to eat a ton if you're in the mood for a large meal.
I do love lemon or lime instead of vinegar when there is avocado, it gives a really nice kick
But yes, I also don't count calories or whatever =)
Quoting from his book: "If you focus on health, your weight will take care of itself".
More and more people are obese or at least fat. There are some starving people, but with exception of some anorexics they are definitely not reading hn.
Why should they care about calories if they are eating healthily? It is a far better advice to eat more vegetables and less meat/processed than counting calories.
There are people starving but they are not reading hn or are anorexics.
People like convenience and laziness and it doesn't help you when trying to eat correctly.
Carbs are the easiest to digest, proteins and fats are the hardest. That's why they make you feel satiated for longer.
However fats are more calorie dense (9kcal per 1g, vs 4kcal per 1g of proteins/carbs). Which means, if you're not careful, you can binge eat fats more easily (I can consume 1000kcal of almonds without even noticing).
Despite being complex to digest, once absorbed, dietary fat is very efficiently stored as body fat unlike carbs and protein which must undergo further steps to become fat. Once fat is in circulation, the excess is easily deposited into fat cells.
> There is also a thermic effect of various macro-nutrients, which is the energy required to digest them.
How large it is compared to their energy? Is it even worth bothering to include or is it as small as effect as say food temperature?
I have to be careful with ginger and oregano: if I haven't taken any in many days, then I take more than a quarter teaspoon of dried oregano leaves, then too many microbes in my biofilm die, which makes me feel bad (because the dying microbes release toxins).
Point is, maybe you just need to introduce spices gradually.
As for ginger, I don't know your location, but in North America organic ginger root seems to be a staple in produce stores.
The book I'm going to read next is called The Diet Myth. I wonder if some people here read it and could share their opinions. It's mostly because I'm physically active and would like to understand more how the body works (including nutritionally).
But, the more I read different ideas, the more I think that there is absolutely no consensus—for good reasons—on how to lose or gain weight. I'm expecting to get downvoted by the HN crowd because people don't want to hear anything beside "calories in - calories out", but I hope to start a polite discussion.
Calories in calories out? Sure. But then why do genetically identical twins respond differently to the same food? A huge facet of this book is understanding the difference in effect between genetics, epigenetics and microbiome on our bodies.
It’s hugely focused on experimental results and meta analyses of the effects our micro biome has on us, and it’s compelling.
Anecdotally I’ve found a number of the suggestions in the book very helpful for my wellbeing.
Highly recommend the book, mostly because it’s a very different approach to a tired subject area.
Or with at least disable one.
(Like answer "vastly increase your income" is blatantly true answer to "how to stop being poor" while not being sufficient to achieve anything)
Some people can eat and eat and stay slim, even without much exercise.
This is me. Around 10 years ago I ate McDonald's and kebab at least once a week and was very much considered slim.
Now I eat healthily and almost always of my own cooking. I also exercise, but that's for my health and not my weight.
But I also eat much much more now than I did 10 years ago.
In my experience people described this way typically do not eat as much. For example they often drink much less calories or eat a lot on parties, but do not snack massively on typical day.
In rare cases they have something weird with health or metabolism (parasites or severe health issue that as side effects results in severe weight loss).
Surprisingly, if followed reasonably well it does not lead to obesity - - just The opposite.
Even with the abundance of carbohydrates you get from eating a vegetarian diet, avoiding simple carbs and avoiding mixing them with fat is another route to healthy eating
Forgive the joke, it just seems challenging.
And don't people get bored with same food over time?
I still eat too much, but that's a me problem, the rest of the family is good.
I manage to keep the weight under control (but I can't lose weight any further, so far) by going to the gym 5 times per week and being on diet every day of my life. Of course I break diet during the weekend at times because I'm human and that aeems sufficient to never lose weight, lol