I know the basic gist - avoid sugar, count calories, watch salt and carb intake, maintain a high level of activity, ... . There seems to be so much to consider, so many micro nutrients and other things to keep in mind. How does a hacker keep track of all this?
Ask HN: How to eat and drink properly?
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Re: Ask HN: How to eat and drink properly?
#2I don't strictly follow this diet, but I have incorporated elements of it into my eating:
https://www.drfuhrman.com/learn/the-nutritarian-diet/how-it-...
Re: Ask HN: How to eat and drink properly?
#3You shouldn't avoid sugar, you need it to live; glucose is the fuel your body runs on.
I assume you mean refined sugar.
Re: Ask HN: How to eat and drink properly?
#4Define your goals, find out your TDEE, adjust your daily calorie consumption, then replace staple foods with healthier options.
Trying to do everything at once is guaranteed to make you hate dieting and fall off the bandwagon quickly.
For example: if you want to lose weight, find out your TDEE - 350--500 calories. Spend two or three weeks trying stick to that total amount, without worry too much about changing everything you eat. Just get used to a different amount. Once you have that down, start swapping out big meals with healthier foods, then snacks.
Also, meal prep. It will help curb impulse meals and poor snack choices if you don't have to think about it.
Re: Ask HN: How to eat and drink properly?
#5You shouldn't avoid sugar, you need it to live; glucose is the fuel your body runs on. I assume you mean refined sugar.
You don't have to have sugar to live. It's not an essential nutrient.
Re: Ask HN: How to eat and drink properly?
#6I have a dead simple method. If I'm hungry I drink water. If I'm still hungry after I drank water then I eat a modest amount of what I fancy. Most of the time this will end up being something I need rather than something I want which is always the problem with eating properly.
The human body is pretty good at telling you what it needs.
I've eaten a banana, pear, cereal, chicken and rice today and drank about 2L of water. Feel fantastic :)
Re: Ask HN: How to eat and drink properly?
#7You shouldn't avoid sugar, you need it to live; glucose is the fuel your body runs on. I assume you mean refined sugar.
This is not true and proven again and again with people in hardcore keto. On a similar note though, the best diet is the one you can keep on doing.
Re: Ask HN: How to eat and drink properly?
#8I happened to be watching a PBS show that mentioned Caldwell Esselstyn and the diet he recommends (he is a heart surgeon.) I was blown away by how much I misunderstood about a good diet. Lots of the standard "good diet" advice now looks like "fad" to me (eg. Mediterranean as a role model - since it really only shines in comparison to our horrible Western diet.) Of course, now it is even harder to eat a good diet...
Perhaps his key observation is the relationship between oils and so many of our modern diseases. I do suspect that some oils have benefits which outweigh the costs (a subtlety which isn't reflected by his coarse data) For example I suspect that oils from Salmon and Walnuts may have benefits yet to be fully quantified.
Re: Ask HN: How to eat and drink properly?
#9I don't often dig into the details too often. I rely on my physician and blood work to keep me updated on any deficiencies (B12, and as a consequence, Iron).
I had the benefit of growing up in a green belt, so there was a lot of food agriculture and farmers markets, produce stands, and the local grocer received shipments from chain warehouses as well as local farmers.
Growing up we didn't have a lot of money so we prioritized fresh and cooked vegetables (nothing special, just plenty of dark greens and kept some variety). Meat was often lean ground or pork then, and I kept my meat rations pretty lean (though later opting for more chicken and beef) until my doctor instructed me to eat more red meat.
That's pretty much it. Limit carbs but don't cut them out. Don't count calories too closely because it makes living dreary, just keep a ballpark. With enough exercise it shouldn't matter anyway.
I was in high-performance sports in my teens, and this was pretty typical. Just eat balanced for your needs, a lot of vegetables (esp. dark greens of your preference), plenty of water, and plenty of exercise and if you like beer you don't have to give it up. I didn't see much in the way of obsessive diets and protein powders and supplements outside of a few guys who went crazy on creatine and later cut it out due to less than desirable outcomes.
Nutritionists I've known have generally shared similar sentiment. Beyond working out any details they do, their advice to me has always been more general and simple. That's totally circumstantial, though.
I also take a multivitamin and a B12 to keep up on anything that falls out of balance.
On the other hand, my brother who was never the type recently went vegan for his wife and swears he feels better than he ever has. And he has to keep up with physically-demanding continental shifts on a provincial police service. So there's that...
Re: Ask HN: How to eat and drink properly?
#10You shouldn't avoid sugar, you need it to live; glucose is the fuel your body runs on. I assume you mean refined sugar.
Your body can turn fat into glucose by gluconeogenesis.
Sugar is okay if and only if there is a high fiber count as well. Ketogenic and Paleolithic diets show that high sugar intake, especially with breads, grains, and refined sugar is not healthy and not necessary.