Live data from Hacker News

Scientists can’t agree whether salt is killing us

washingtonpost.com

61–70 of 147 posts

Re: Scientists can’t agree whether salt is killing us

#61
post #52

I'm waiting for the day that nutricionists find out that there are different kinds of people with different nutritional needs. Imposing rules on the population on a weak scientific basis harms the people, science and the government in the process. Currently the best way to consume food is to avoid addictive and highly processed food products and then trust your gut with the rest. Eat what you like and avoid what caus…

"Currently the best way to consume food is to avoid addictive and highly processed food products and then trust your gut with the rest." Allow me to suggest a further path forward that is superior to "trusting your gut": Establish a regular, very high output exercise regime - incorporating both long duration aerobic/cardio and relatively intense resistance training. Under such a regimen, you will notice what food doe…

This is true and an angle I have not thought about before (though I have first hand experienced it).

As an example I don't think good quality non-factory-farmed red meat is bad for a person, despite a fair amount of research on both sides of the topic. But since switching from couch me to exercise-a-holic me.. My relationship with red meat has changed. Had a grass fed burger Monday for the first time in a while, was up all night. Did not agree with me so much.

On the other hand, 1 beer or whatever amount of salt I consume seems to have no impact on me the next morning - happy to hope out of bed at 7 and go run.

Humans are not racecars so not sure I buy the analogy as given.. I wonder what the real reason for this is? Maybe a better broscience guess is that so much of your energy is devoted to repairing "damage" you did the to body during the day, your body has less spare energy to devote to processing crap.

Re: Scientists can’t agree whether salt is killing us

#62

I'm waiting for the day that nutricionists find out that there are different kinds of people with different nutritional needs. Imposing rules on the population on a weak scientific basis harms the people, science and the government in the process. Currently the best way to consume food is to avoid addictive and highly processed food products and then trust your gut with the rest. Eat what you like and avoid what caus…

> Currently the best way to consume food is to avoid addictive and highly processed food products I assume by highly processed, you mean foods altered in such that they are now high in fats, salt, sugars or some combination thereof. I ask, because the term processed gets thrown around (in my experience) for highly preserved foods like canned meat to flash frozen frozen vegetables in the freezer aisle. The former is o…

Freezing is a form of processing, but it is a very light processing.

Take some Oats off the ground. Cool unprocessed. Mill it a tiny bit to help it cook more easily into steel cut oats. Minimally processed. Grind it down into instant oatmeal - Heavily processes. Add some chemicals and put in a test tube to turn into some weird kind of artificial sweetener? Highly processed.

I try to go as low on the chain as possible, without killing myself. I don't enjoy eating oats right off the ground, or boiled as is (unsure if we can even digest raw oats, never tried). Steel cut I do enjoy - so I stop there.

So back to fruit. If you can get fresh fruit great. If not, frozen is pretty close. If you have to revert to fruit rollups? Probably went too far.

* There is a debate that frozen fruits can actually be better than frush fruit, as fresh fruit is picked unripe and ripened in a truck - whereas frozen fruit can be picked when fully ripe. In this case, the slightly processed fruit may end up being better than the unprocessed fruit. Overall though this is the exception, for 99% of food - the more you do to it the more you lose.

Re: Scientists can’t agree whether salt is killing us

#63
post #52

I'm waiting for the day that nutricionists find out that there are different kinds of people with different nutritional needs. Imposing rules on the population on a weak scientific basis harms the people, science and the government in the process. Currently the best way to consume food is to avoid addictive and highly processed food products and then trust your gut with the rest. Eat what you like and avoid what caus…

"Currently the best way to consume food is to avoid addictive and highly processed food products and then trust your gut with the rest." Allow me to suggest a further path forward that is superior to "trusting your gut": Establish a regular, very high output exercise regime - incorporating both long duration aerobic/cardio and relatively intense resistance training. Under such a regimen, you will notice what food doe…

Meh. When I was an athlete I had a horrible diet which consisted of mostly boxed pasta and I ate junk food every day. Didn't hurt my athletic ability noticeably.

I try hard to watch what I eat now.

Re: Scientists can’t agree whether salt is killing us

#64
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Currently the best way to consume food is to avoid addictive and highly processed food products and then trust your gut with the rest." Allow me to suggest a further path forward that is superior to "trusting your gut": Establish a regular, very high output exercise regime - incorporating both long duration aerobic/cardio and relatively intense resistance training. Under such a regimen, you will notice what food doe…

Meh. When I was an athlete I had a horrible diet which consisted of mostly boxed pasta and I ate junk food every day. Didn't hurt my athletic ability noticeably. I try hard to watch what I eat now.

How old were you on the junkfood diet? As I got older I literally cannot sleep at night if I eat crap. As a teenager it did not matter.

Re: Scientists can’t agree whether salt is killing us

#65
post #32

I'm waiting for the day that nutricionists find out that there are different kinds of people with different nutritional needs. Imposing rules on the population on a weak scientific basis harms the people, science and the government in the process. Currently the best way to consume food is to avoid addictive and highly processed food products and then trust your gut with the rest. Eat what you like and avoid what caus…

Well said. The size relations of inner organs for example vary betweeen people as far as i know. That is a big hint, althought it's not a proof in itself. I want to add to that the nutritional needs within each person vary drastically during different times of year (or times of stress, even down to times of day). Athletes know this, for example, it is common to exhibit significant drops in performance during a year o…

Reminds me of the urban legend "japenese people have longer intestines" which may or may not be true :-)

http://www.biguglyreview.com/body/nonfiction_andy_raskin.htm...

Re: Scientists can’t agree whether salt is killing us

#66
post #52

I'm waiting for the day that nutricionists find out that there are different kinds of people with different nutritional needs. Imposing rules on the population on a weak scientific basis harms the people, science and the government in the process. Currently the best way to consume food is to avoid addictive and highly processed food products and then trust your gut with the rest. Eat what you like and avoid what caus…

"Currently the best way to consume food is to avoid addictive and highly processed food products and then trust your gut with the rest." Allow me to suggest a further path forward that is superior to "trusting your gut": Establish a regular, very high output exercise regime - incorporating both long duration aerobic/cardio and relatively intense resistance training. Under such a regimen, you will notice what food doe…

You do realize that what you're proposing is in no way supported by science but is merely your personal theory based on an analogy, right?

Re: Scientists can’t agree whether salt is killing us

#67
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Currently the best way to consume food is to avoid addictive and highly processed food products and then trust your gut with the rest." Allow me to suggest a further path forward that is superior to "trusting your gut": Establish a regular, very high output exercise regime - incorporating both long duration aerobic/cardio and relatively intense resistance training. Under such a regimen, you will notice what food doe…

Meh. When I was an athlete I had a horrible diet which consisted of mostly boxed pasta and I ate junk food every day. Didn't hurt my athletic ability noticeably. I try hard to watch what I eat now.

This was actually tested in a study last year, which found that cheeseburgers are just as good for recovery as expensive sports drinks: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/04/0...

Re: Scientists can’t agree whether salt is killing us

#68
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried to inform myself about nutrition but at this point I have still no idea what is best. Right now I'm following your advice, avoid highly processed food and otherwise listen to my body.

Same here. I recently cut sugar and bread products and I experienced random dizziness. I was eating plenty of fruit and I was eating natural sugars. I decided to experiment one day; had 4 donuts, bread and butter, and my body felt better. Now the plan is to avoid processed, avoid preservatives, and move towards more natural and organic. I went to the doctor and they said don't wait more than 3-4 hours between meals.

>I went to the doctor and they said don't wait more than 3-4 hours between meals.

Do you have a medical condition that requires you to continously eat? If not this advice is suspect at best. Do the people who advise this wake up in the middle of the night to eat?

Of course everyone is different so experement and listen to your body. Mine strongly prefers going long periods of time between meals.

Re: Scientists can’t agree whether salt is killing us

#69
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Currently the best way to consume food is to avoid addictive and highly processed food products and then trust your gut with the rest." Allow me to suggest a further path forward that is superior to "trusting your gut": Establish a regular, very high output exercise regime - incorporating both long duration aerobic/cardio and relatively intense resistance training. Under such a regimen, you will notice what food doe…

You do realize that what you're proposing is in no way supported by science but is merely your personal theory based on an analogy, right?

A system running at its limits is more sensitive to fluctuations in inputs.

That's as true for your body as it is for a nuclear reactor.

Re: Scientists can’t agree whether salt is killing us

#70

I'm waiting for the day that nutricionists find out that there are different kinds of people with different nutritional needs. Imposing rules on the population on a weak scientific basis harms the people, science and the government in the process. Currently the best way to consume food is to avoid addictive and highly processed food products and then trust your gut with the rest. Eat what you like and avoid what caus…

They already have: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35193414
Post reply on HN