What kind of diet are you following?

[edededed]

Maybe a few more generations before our genetics catch up to our global diets!

Rice was always a "duty" food for me (as in, ugh, I guess I have to eat it). Not good or bad, just volume and calories. Frying it helps a lot, though, or smashing it into noodles, mochi, etc.

Japan is actually quite resistant to globalization of its food (probably partially due to the government-sponsored media). The main "waves" of change were maybe the "black ships" era, and after the wars. I want more variety!

[everything]

There is something we / Big Food did very wrong with TV dinners, instant foods, RoundUp, etc, and now kids have so many allergies, and society has diseases of bad food as opposed to under nutrition.

Millennials seem to be more aware of these issues but they just as easily follow fads, just like their Boomer parents.

"slow food" and "slow whatever" seems more like a fad name applied to long term good stuff, though.

Lots of veggies, sleep, fresh air, moderate exercise, no junk, seems to be what's needed. Why is that so hard?

[Peacedog]

Functionally, I don't think it is complicated.

The real problem seems to be that people's beliefs get involved and then they become emotional about it. Frankly it seems to be a result of people no longer being religious and replacing those beliefs born of organized religion with a different set of beliefs. And since they are dealing with belief, and not fact, they get weird about it.

It's also why the only vegan nutrition consultant I recommend to other people is Mike Mahler. I do this as he is honest about it.

He says veganism has nothing to do with health. It is a philosophical choice for him. He is very direct about everything he has to do to make up for the lack of animal products in his diet. He also concedes that being half-Indian he may also have some genetic adaptations that make it more manageable for him as well.

[yeniseri]

It does sound like Okinawa has less junk food at least where the seniors are concerned.
But East Asian and "Californian" seem to be best for me.

There is no junk food in Okinawa!
It is isolated enough that there is fresh air, an ocean breeze and surrounded by ocean

[Steve James]

Well, afa Christianity, Jesus addressed the issue in Matthew when talking about Jewish dietary restrictions.

Matthew 15:10-20 New International Version (NIV)

10 Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. 11 What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”

12 Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?”

13 He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. 14 Leave them; they are blind guides.[a] If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”

15 Peter said, “Explain the parable to us.”

16 “Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them. 17 “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? 18 But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20 These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”

However, I don't think that means that what one eats shouldn't be optimized. Imo, if you don't feel good after eating, don't have enough energy during the day, or don't sleep well at night, then addressing what one eats is obvious. I agree with most of the advice given in the thread, but I'm not sure that as many dietary problems are caused by over-thinking as by not thinking about diet.

Moderation will work for almost everyone. We are able to vary our diets easily. Some people might need to be vegan; others might need to eat mostly meat. Some may need to fast. Though caloric restriction has been shown to improve longevity.

[klonk]

Currently doing keto. I have a couple of warnings for anyone who wants to try it. The diet is inherently diuretic, so you will need lots of extra water and maybe extra sodium, potassium and magnesium to avoid feeling like hell. Secondly, your resistance to alcohol is much reduced. You become rum soaked on very little rum.

I think Peacedog may be right that basic low carb with intermittent fasting as needed is a better approach. I'm doing full keto for a while to knock down a significant carb overload in my system. As to how I got carb overloaded, thereon hangs a tale.

I think that in my case, at least, it relates to gut flora. Mine got pretty well knocked for a loop. I had gut surgery a while back, and as part of the prep they flushed out my guts and then introduced into them some powerful antibiotics. Sensible as that no doubt was as a pre-surgical precaution, it must have been the end of the world to zillions of microbes in there.

Prior to that adventure, my diet emphasized whole grains and fruit, and I thrived on it, but now eating very much of anything starchy or sugary leaves me feeling loggy and befuddled.

[Trick]

Read on Swedish news the former executive secretary of the ‘U.N. framework convention on climate change’ put forward suggestions that meat eaters should be treated the same as smokers at restaurants, they have to eat their meat outside the restaurant, what she mean is that restaurants should stop serving meat dishes for the sake of a sustainable global climate since meat production is considered one of the big bad ones that’s messing up the climate?? If such a thing goes through is it the end of the restaurant business? I can’t imagine this happening here in China for example.

[everything]

on a tangent, if you've ever had the vegetarian "burgers", the Impossible Burger, or the Beyond Burger (probably only in the usa), they are quite tasty, like a real burger, but no meat.

The Beyond Burger uses some beet juice so you see some red color come out. It uses pea protein, while the Impossible Burger uses wheat protein. Both use a lot of coconut oil for the fat sensation. No meat production needed, but fairly satisfying flavor, texture, etc. especially once you add the works.

Here's one review:
https://www.seriouseats.com/2016/10/bey ... -test.html

[Trick]

Yeah sure I tried veggie burgers already 30-35 years ago, there was a Danish(I think it was) company that produced soybean based burgers and sausages. Already back then they made it taste good or maybe I should say ok, its just how one spice it up, same with meat.……But nutritional value of it i don’t know, thinking protein, minerals and some vitamins, can “natural” veggie burgers beat the meaty ones ?

[everything]

Yeah these are much tastier. Not sure of nutrition.

I am reading a book called The Heathiest Diet on the Planet that advocates for:
- grains and starchy veg
- other veg and some beans
- limited fruit
- very limited seeds and nuts
- try to eliminate meat, veg oil, processed food

And that's it. So basically the traditional East Asian diet and Mediterranean diet are examples.

Not 100% sure of his studies, but his observations are interesting.

One thing that happened to him as a doctor in Hawaii, he saw first gen Asian Americans eat like this and have good health into old age but their descendants went away from this diet and suffered the various diseases of the SAD diet

[grzegorz]

I do a 50/50 diet. Half of the time I eat vegetarian, often for dinner and breakfast. I never felt better and I believe it is because I am getting a good variety and obviously a lot of fruit and veggies.

Also I do a 24 hour fast about once a month. I would like to extend to longer but there is no rush. We got a whole thread on food and diet which is well worth reading.

[Trick]

Yeah these are much tastier. Not sure of nutrition.

I am reading a book called The Heathiest Diet on the Planet that advocates for:
- grains and starchy veg
- other veg and some beans
- limited fruit
- very limited seeds and nuts
- try to eliminate meat, veg oil, processed food

And that's it. So basically the traditional East Asian diet and Mediterranean diet are examples.

Not 100% sure of his studies, but his observations are interesting.

One thing that happened to him as a doctor in Hawaii, he saw first gen Asian Americans eat like this and have good health into old age but their descendants went away from this diet and suffered the various diseases of the SAD diet

Mediterranean way of eating, supposedly more veggie and fruit and vegetable oils(olive) has been advocated for a while up in the north of Europe(Sweden) they also threw in wine drinking(red)(a glass or two)as a health beverage?……Of course now people in the north live in modern warm and comfortable houses, but in older times eating meat and fatty foods was a way to keep the body to “endure” the cold winters ? and of course back then they didn’t have that access to a big variety of vegetables and fruits up in the north. Look at the “ traditional “ Swedish cuisine, kind of just meat(mostly pork)and potatoes, beat roots, herring and cod……and brännvin

[cloudz]

hey,

I've been doing intermittant fasting for a while and I think it's the best fit for me. I've lost weight before in a few ways. Sometimes following set diets; Scarsdale, Atkins other times eating 'my way'.. This was the first time I've counted calories, made all the easier with handy apps available on phones nowadays. Honestly it's been the easiest weightloss I've done; once you get past the morning fasting and I guess it helps if you like coffee. The guide I used was take your weight in LBS and for fairly rapid weight loss multiply by 10 for your calorie count, multiply by 14 for maintanance/ slow weightloss, multiply by 18 for weight gain. Eating restricted to an 8 hour window per day. Regards content of diet, that's more personal. I try to keep sugar and 'bad carbs' fairly low, get some greens, sensible/balanced but not too strict.

[Dmitri]

If I had to come up with the simplest possible formula (that I follow), I'd say "the more processed the food, the less of it one should eat". No other restrictions, but only if you really follow this one. (Incidentally, this also ends up being on the relatively low-carb side, because 99% of highly-processed foods happen to also be extremely rich in carbs...)

That said -- asking what random people eat without knowing how healthy they are doesn't make much sense to me

[everything]

lol, you can probably tell how healthy they are by the answers. but assuming this is a more health-oriented group than "random" group, it's interesting to hear what the rsf folks do (or even if the assumption isn't true)