Ask HN: Food hacks for eating well?

When I went low-carb for awhile, I made a point of being full all the time. It's hard to crave anything when you're already full. Of course this only works because with a low-carb diet (in my case at least) I achieved the desired effect (improved cholesterol counts) despite the fact that I was seemingly eating more food. For the record I lost weight as well, although that wasn't the goal. Here's more info if you like. http://gcanyon.posterous.com/?sort=&search=cholesterol

Why is high fat, high protein, low carbohydrate better? Aren't fats a sort of "permanent storage" whereas carbohydrates are more likely to be used instantly and then stored if there is extra?

"Food hacks" nooooooo. Please, no more, I can't take it anymore. Let's all "hack" our diets so we're healthier.

Y'know what I did last night? I hacked my eyes. That's right, these glasses right here are hacking my eye-sight. Wicked.

When did hacking start meaning rational common sense? Or just the verb of putting effort towards something? I'm not in love with the word hack, but it's annoying when I want to figure out how to hack my home router and there are articles about eating more fibre so you can hack your stool.

Actually, it's different than that: you want to eat low glycemic index (GI) carbs, and avoid high GI carbs.

The reason why you get cravings is because you are eating high GI carbs. High GI carbs cause a lot of sugar to be released rapidly into your blood. Your body counterbalances this by releasing insulin, which causes a crash shortly afterward. Because now you have low blood sugar, you crave some high GI carbs to get a quick sugar rush again and the cycle just repeats, causing you to overeat and eat too many calories, gaining weight.

In order to break the cycle you must eat low GI carbs. This means avoiding potatoes, white rice, all soft breads (including whole grain wheat and white breads, if it's soft it's not good for you).

Good carbs are things like brown rice, sweet potatoes, whole grains such as steel cut oats, quinoa, amaranth, buckwheat (kasha), etc. These carbs are considered low GI because they have the whole grain intact and the husk of the grain takes a lot longer to digest, causing the sugar to be released slowly and steadily into your blood over a period of several hours.

If I eat a good bowl of steel-cut oats and some fruit in the morning (not instant oats, those have separated the husk from the grain), I get a steady release of energy all morning long. I don't get a quick rush and crash an hour later. It helps me focus as well.

Just follow these simple rules and you will eliminate cravings as well as eat healthier and lose weight naturally:

1. Only eat whole grains and low GI carbs. 2. Eat plenty of good fats like olive oil, avocadoes, nuts, etc. 3. Eat every few hours - don't wait from breakfast to lunch or lunch to dinner - your blood sugar gets too low. Eat a mid-morning snack - something like a small handful of nuts and a piece of fruit, and a mid-afternoon snack. 4. Don't eat late at night (after dinner and before bed).

Following those simple rules I lost 30 pounds, 10% body fat, and achieved my ideal weight without even doing much exercise (30 minutes of light cardio every other day, about 2.5 hrs a week).

Try it, the cravings will disappear soon, and you'll feel much better. You'll have constant energy all day long and you'll be able to focus on tasks like coding much better.

The problem with this advice is it doesn't take onto count the Glycemic index of the fruit. Case in point - Watermelon and Pineapple. While it seems reasonable to say eat as much fruit as you want, both these items very high glycemic values - above 85 out of a 100 point scale.

Why does this matter? High glycemic foods cause a spike in your blood sugar - this causes hunger, among other things.

The best 'hack' to controlling your hunger is to manage your blood sugar level. By avoiding high glycemic value foods you will curb your hungry. By eating low GI foods you will eliminate your hungry whenever you want. low glycemic value foods have the opposite effect - this is the way to completely control your hunger as I do.

For example, I eat a handful (about 8-12) Almonds when I'm hungry (esp. at night). Almonds have a very low glycemic index, and just eating a small amount will stop your hungry/craving. But it's not just almonds - any low GI value food will have this effect.

Some other suggestions on great low GI snacks:

Apples, Cherries, Strawberries, Raspberries, Blueberries, Grapes, Peaches

Non-Fruit low GI:

Almonds (but not all nuts), Yogurt, Lean Chicken/Turkey, Tuna, Black Beans, Brown Rice (much better than White Rice),

High Glycemic Foods:

Refined sugars (aka anything baked), Watermelon, Pineapple, Jams, Bananas

Keep in mind you shouldn't try to eliminate these foods, but if you are cutting weight then it's good to avoid eating too much of a high GI item to manage your hungry. Personally I try to avoid them still (after losing/getting back into shape), because I never have a desire to binge out anymore.

Incidentally, I recently lost over 24 pounds in 6.5 weeks using these food hacks. I also started playing hockey again (one of the hardest, most thorough workouts out there it turns out), and that caused me to want to be in better shape, so now I'm working out a lot more too. I'd suggest adding in activities you love, hiking, mountain biking - whatever it is just be more active.

Anyway, I discovered this GI 'hack' from my biz partner who is a gym owner and a nationally ranked crossfit athlete, hope that helps!

Good luck!