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Ask HN: Food hacks for eating well?

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Re: Ask HN: Food hacks for eating well?

#61

Post by gaoshan »

niels_olson wrote: post #39
Sukotto wrote: post #29

Personally, I have to have clear, simple, and hard-edged rules when it comes to my eating diet. If I give myself any wiggle room, I find myself wiggling more and more until I'm back where I started. I've had great success cutting back on junk by following Reinhard Engels' "No S" diet. http://nosdiet.com/ No Snacks No Sweets No Seconds Except, sometimes, on "S" days (Where "S Day" is defined as "Saturday, Sunday, or s…

As a doc, glad to see some people in the community thinking right about this. This is overall pretty good advice. I would add the best snacks are nuts and cheese, or other high-fat, high-protein, low carbohydrate foods. I like the idea of a chart widget. I would avoid most bread, including flat breads and crackers. The occasional tortilla for a wrap is ok. I would definitely avoid rice, pasta, and potatoes. If you ea…

>I would definitely avoid rice...

Ever live in a Chinese household? If rice is so bad why do so many of the hundreds of millions of people who eat it 2 or even 3 times a day remain skinny and trim (Rice. Not the things that can go with it, not the ways it can be prepared or abused... just rice)? This is such a non-starter I don't even know where to... start.

Re: Ask HN: Food hacks for eating well?

#62

Post by cromulent »

Unseelie wrote: post #33
cromulent wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A good quality sea salt Is there often a difference between various sources of NaCl? ;)

You don't exactly get pure substances in the world. Soo, very much so, there are differences. Get a couple sorts of salt. Dead sea, Mediterranean, and the generic stuff, and you can certainly tell. Whether or not they have health benefits...

So the body is craving for salt, or craving for impurities?

Feed it the one it needs. If the body needs impurity x, which is tastily packaged with salt product y, advising to eat y seems like the sort of behaviour the OP is trying to avoid.

Re: Ask HN: Food hacks for eating well?

#63

Post by mitjak »

mattmaroon wrote: post #49

My wife has dealt with this problem. I did some research and here's what I found. Carbohydrates (and pretty much anything else addictive) are "crave-inducing" because of a physiological reaction they cause. It triggers chemicals in your body and brain, not at all unlike cigarettes or other drugs. For refined carbs, it's insulin in the blood, which is followed by serotonin in the brain. The serotonin creates a relaxin…

I've been curious about this for a while: how would one cut out carbs? They're the most easily absorbable form of energy available. Without carbs you would have to bring in energy in the form of fats which can't be good in the long run.

Re: Ask HN: Food hacks for eating well?

#64

Post by gaoshan »

I have to keep it simple so here is what I do:

No soda. Ever. I drink unsweetened iced tea instead.

No unhealthy snacks on hand. Keep bananas, watermelon and apples instead.

Most important because I eat tons of them, roasted almonds. I keep boxes of these on hand and roast them myself (15 minutes at 350 degrees).

For dinners, try to eat more fish.

For breakfast try to eat unsweetened things (I eat unsweetened oatmeal that I make tasty by cooking in milk, not water, and adding raisins, blueberries, cinnamon and cloves).

Combined with biking more this has helped me lose 30 pounds in three months.

Re: Ask HN: Food hacks for eating well?

#65

Post by detst »

edw519 wrote: post #40

Your cravings are a signal from your body that something is wrong. You need to address the cause (whatever it is) and not the effect (the cravings). Unfortunately, the cause may be difficult to determine. Fortunately, there is a great hack that probably addresses the cause: fruit. Lots of fruit. Always raw. Preferably on an empty stomach. Not too much variety. Fruit is loaded with just about every nutrient your body…

> Not too much variety

Any reason why a smoothie with various fruit and maybe some yogurt wouldn't serve the same purpose? I really enjoy these but haven't been making them for some time. Posts like this give me a little motivation but what's the reason for the lack of variety?

Re: Ask HN: Food hacks for eating well?

#66

Post by mitjak »

gaoshan wrote: post #61
niels_olson wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a doc, glad to see some people in the community thinking right about this. This is overall pretty good advice. I would add the best snacks are nuts and cheese, or other high-fat, high-protein, low carbohydrate foods. I like the idea of a chart widget. I would avoid most bread, including flat breads and crackers. The occasional tortilla for a wrap is ok. I would definitely avoid rice, pasta, and potatoes. If you ea…

>I would definitely avoid rice... Ever live in a Chinese household? If rice is so bad why do so many of the hundreds of millions of people who eat it 2 or even 3 times a day remain skinny and trim (Rice. Not the things that can go with it, not the ways it can be prepared or abused... just rice)? This is such a non-starter I don't even know where to... start.

While the whole "people did it for ages" argument never works I must admit I'm rather puzzled how one would give up potatoes, rice _and_ bread.

How exactly are they evil? What is so dangerous about carbs? Aren't snacks to blame? In a typical Russian home one of which I grew up it's a loaf a day or more. Italians and French eat even more bread. And as the OO mentioned, Asian nations consume unimaginable amounts of rice.

Yet America remains one of the most overweight nations. It just seems to me like it's a mosquito bite and you're asking to chop off the arm.

Re: Ask HN: Food hacks for eating well?

#67

Post by larsberg »

gaoshan wrote: post #61
niels_olson wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a doc, glad to see some people in the community thinking right about this. This is overall pretty good advice. I would add the best snacks are nuts and cheese, or other high-fat, high-protein, low carbohydrate foods. I like the idea of a chart widget. I would avoid most bread, including flat breads and crackers. The occasional tortilla for a wrap is ok. I would definitely avoid rice, pasta, and potatoes. If you ea…

>I would definitely avoid rice... Ever live in a Chinese household? If rice is so bad why do so many of the hundreds of millions of people who eat it 2 or even 3 times a day remain skinny and trim (Rice. Not the things that can go with it, not the ways it can be prepared or abused... just rice)? This is such a non-starter I don't even know where to... start.

Because Chinese people (at least the skinny+trim ones) have a single, small bowl of rice and eat tons of veggies and then a few pieces of meat.

Not the Amero-Chinese style half-plate of rice with a heaping of fatty meat cut, slathered in some sauce composed of half-salt half-cooking oil, with a few veggies thrown in for "color."

Re: Ask HN: Food hacks for eating well?

#68

Post by larsberg »

hugh3 wrote: post #38
adnam wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not the coffee, it's the gallon of milk they add to it

Three words you need to remember at Starbucks: "Tall coffee, please" Tastes better than any of their espresso drinks, too (though that's not difficult.)

I recommend "short americano." Espresso+hot water, and as a short it's about the same price as a tall coffee for the same kick. Their espresso beans and pulls are pretty reliable; their coffee, not so much. Except for Tully's, I've never experienced a coffee chain with such a habit of failing to put in the drip filter correctly and handing out cups of sludge.

And their light roasts are overly acidic, but that's just the Peet's fan in me being a bit prejudiced.

Re: Ask HN: Food hacks for eating well?

#69

Post by drhodes »

Pour a bowl full of frozen peas. Run hot water over them until the peas no longer freeze together and the water stays hot. Let them sit like this for a couple minutes. Dump the water off. At this point they will taste like they just came out of the pod. Easy, quick, health, and tasty. I do this with frozen corn too.

Re: Ask HN: Food hacks for eating well?

#70

Post by gaoshan »

larsberg wrote: post #67
gaoshan wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I would definitely avoid rice... Ever live in a Chinese household? If rice is so bad why do so many of the hundreds of millions of people who eat it 2 or even 3 times a day remain skinny and trim (Rice. Not the things that can go with it, not the ways it can be prepared or abused... just rice)? This is such a non-starter I don't even know where to... start.

Because Chinese people (at least the skinny+trim ones) have a single, small bowl of rice and eat tons of veggies and then a few pieces of meat. Not the Amero-Chinese style half-plate of rice with a heaping of fatty meat cut, slathered in some sauce composed of half-salt half-cooking oil, with a few veggies thrown in for "color."

If the problem is fatty meat or oil and salt or other junk people eat with rice then why tell people "Don't eat rice"?

It isn't the rice that's bad, it's the stuff people eat with it yet I repeatedly see people say "don't eat rice" and frankly, I think that's a load of bull. Don't blame rice for bad American eating habits.

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