51–60 of 114 posts
Nutrition is probably only about 20% of the picture. You should be exercising, meditating, stretching, sleeping well, etc.
Humans can survive on all sorts of different foods. I think the optimal diet contains lots of fresh whole fruit and veggies, kale, and a bit of meat and fish.
Listen to your body. Does a food make you feel sluggish? Drugged? Energized? Strong?
This is tangential, but does anyone know of a field of study that specifically investigates traditional dietary frameworks in different parts of the world? Not what people actually eat per se, but what local tradition advises? The comparative philosophy of food, the anthropology of normative diets? In China, for example, some foods are considered "heating", while others "cooling". Based on the time of year and your o…
gah... I dated a chinese girl, and she would discuss that with me when she got sick. It feels like folk medicine, the decision of what makes something 'hot' or 'cold' and so on seemed so arbitrary.
Easy. Eat food that our bodies (as hunters and gatherers) are designed to consume. - no processed/fast/junk food - no soft drinks, etc - food that has low-gi carbs (quinoa, buckwheat, whole grains) to prevent insulin spikes, etc. Insulin spike is fine after a heavy workout. - food heavy in fiber (such as whole grain food above) - my typical meal: side of veggies, quinoa and wild salmon Do a month where you only drink…
Healthy is a different issue, but as omnivores we are 'designed' to eat anything we can.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Lions are carnivores, their teeth are specifically targetted at tearing and eating meat, which is why they have large incisors. Cows are herbivors, their teeth are flat, and have no incisors at all. Humans have a combination of the two, and also the rest of our digestive system is also built to makes us omnivores.
This is a ridiculous point because for over two million years human related hominids have been using stone tools to kill and butcher meat. Humans have massive predator fangs that look like this: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Bifaz_de_...
Long fangs are for catching. Cats don't really chew food, nor do snakes. Both rely on their teeth to stab and hold prey, which is why they are sharp like needles.
Our cutting teeth are for slicing and chewing- in other words, processing the meat after it's been caught. The 'massive predator fangs' take care of catching it, but have you ever eaten meat without biting off a piece, ONLY cutting it up into little bits and chewing it? There's a reason that's relegated to high society, it's not worthwhile for everyone else, and it'd be ridiculously hard with stone tools.
I personally believe we should be eating raw food. (plant based foods etc) and not meat, although I still do :| Some great points are: + Look at our teeth, they are made for eating plants/veggies and not meat, unlike lions etc. + Cooked foods kill the nutrients, unlike eating raw organic food. + Our digestive tract is long, apparently to process plant based foods, compared to a meat eating anmial like a lion, they ha…
I got news for you, primeval man did not have the discretionary ability we have today in our food.
Protein is an excellent example. The primary sources for vegans are nuts/seeds, and legumes. If you can't cook, it's very hard to eat legumes- have you ever tried eating a raw pinto bean? They are literally hard as rocks. Plus they cannot be found across the globe. Nuts and seeds are very seasonal, leaving man high and dry in certain seasons, and it's much much more of a challenge to harvest 6+ oz of nuts every day than it is to buy a jar of them at the store.
In my highly unscientific opinion: That's worse for you than anything you could ever eat.
Stop eating when you are full. Avoid excessive junk food. Try to eat fruit and vegetables more than occasionally. Reserve the cheeseburgers and onion rings for the celebration of Friday. Hold that celebration with friends and family more often than just Friday. Drink some wine or a beer. Laugh about it. Don't dwell on anything.
Even if you don't live longer, you'll live better.
I personally believe we should be eating raw food. (plant based foods etc) and not meat, although I still do :| Some great points are: + Look at our teeth, they are made for eating plants/veggies and not meat, unlike lions etc. + Cooked foods kill the nutrients, unlike eating raw organic food. + Our digestive tract is long, apparently to process plant based foods, compared to a meat eating anmial like a lion, they ha…
Cooking food is a form of external pre-digestion that actively increases the effective nutritional content of most food, especially vegetables, which are otherwise too hard to break down (have you tried eating raw potato?). Some evolutionary biologists believe that learning to cook food was crucial in providing us with the extra calories required to fuel our gigantic brains.
This is tangential, but does anyone know of a field of study that specifically investigates traditional dietary frameworks in different parts of the world? Not what people actually eat per se, but what local tradition advises? The comparative philosophy of food, the anthropology of normative diets? In China, for example, some foods are considered "heating", while others "cooling". Based on the time of year and your o…
That's very interesting. That concept also exists in Indian, Pakistani and (I believe) Persian culture.
This is tangential, but does anyone know of a field of study that specifically investigates traditional dietary frameworks in different parts of the world? Not what people actually eat per se, but what local tradition advises? The comparative philosophy of food, the anthropology of normative diets? In China, for example, some foods are considered "heating", while others "cooling". Based on the time of year and your o…
> In China, for example, some foods are considered "heating", while others "cooling". Based on the time of year and your own condition, you may be advised to eat this set of foods, and avoid that. gah... I dated a chinese girl, and she would discuss that with me when she got sick. It feels like folk medicine, the decision of what makes something 'hot' or 'cold' and so on seemed so arbitrary.
For me, only eating 'hot' foods means I get more ulcers, so I am always watching out.