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Ask HN: Food hacks for eating well?

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Re: Ask HN: Food hacks for eating well?

#81

Post by lionhearted »

Eat slow-burn carbs at the start of the day. Plain oatmeal works best. Plain oatmeal sucks when you first start eating it, suck it up and use willpower for a month and then your taste buds adapt and it tastes good. Alternatively, mix fruit into the oatmeal and then it just takes on the taste of the fruit.

Fast burn carbs (sugary drinks with no fiber are the fastest) cause a spike in energy level followed by a crash, then you want more. If you've eaten slower burning carbs, then even if you have the sugary fast burn stuff later, you get less of a boost (because you've already got energy slowly releasing) and less of a crash (because you've still got some energy releasing). Thus it smooths out the addiction a little bit.

Also, for chocolate - if you're going to eat it, switch to dark chocolate. Again, it'll take you about a month to adapt if you're not used to it, but it's actually much more rich and textured and flavorful and delicious than milk chocolate once you've adapted. It's really, really nice. Chocolate covered peanuts also give you some protein and a tiny bit of fiber so they're more filling if you have them. When I was training heavily, I'd eat one pack of dark chocolate peanut M&M's per day as a snack. No candy is healthy, but that's probably one of the healthier candies that's mainstream available.

Re: Ask HN: Food hacks for eating well?

#82

Post by ellyagg »

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.

Why do I drink 2 or even 3 bottles of Dr. Pepper a day and still stay skinny[1]? As always, one little piece of information doesn't tell the story. The fact is, almost all rices have a high glycemic index, thus cause a blood sugar spike, thus produce an insulin response, thus cause fat storage and other problems when you eat too much of it. Rice is about exactly as "bad" for you, physiologically, as white bread.

Obviously, rice can be consumed in moderation, especially in combination with other foods that lower the rate of metabolism.

[1] Cos I work out tons, don't overeat, and have a naturally fast metabolism.

Re: Ask HN: Food hacks for eating well?

#83

Post by jpspeno »

fizz972 wrote: post #60
jpspeno wrote: post #31

paleo diet. start here: http://www.paleonu.com/get-started/

Any personal experience you can share?

I've been enjoying a paleo lifestyle for the past three years. I'm leaner, stronger, and healthier than ever. I find it easy to fast for 18 hours, and do so most days, then I eat my fill of meat, veggies, and a bit of fruit. While fasting I have good concentration and energy. I tend towards a high fat, low carb paleo diet, but in the summer I increase my fruit and veg intake. Given that I don't eat out at work, I make the majority of my meals myself. My mainstay protein is ground beef which is cheap and delicious. I don't follow any fitness routine, but often go for lunchtime walks and sometimes I swim on the weekends. The most understated benefit in my opinion is the freedom from modern dietary dogma. Many of my family and friends are also doing amazing with this way of eating. Feel free to me ask specific questions. Take care.

Re: Ask HN: Food hacks for eating well?

#84

Post by niels_olson »

illumin8 wrote: post #78
niels_olson wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to fill in a bit: "unrefined carbs" includes potatoes, rice, whole grain bread, corn, yams, turnips, beets, beans, etc. "Refined carbs" includes pasta, crackers, white breads (including sourdough and bagels), juice, non-diet soda, etc. Another tip for surviving the store: shop the perimeter, stay out of the aisles. Make a weekly menu before you go to the store, keeping in mind what's in the perimeter and in the…

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 g…

Granted, glycemic index is a useful measure. I don't recommend it, initially, only because I find most of my patients glaze over at that point. If you grok it, more power to you.

> husk of the grain takes a lot longer to digest

Well, most husks don't digest at all. That's "fiber", which is good for you for a whole different reason.

> your rules

Incompletely capture the conditions of your weight loss. How long have you kept it off? Married with kids? what are your work conditions? How do you commute? What climate do you live in?

> 30 minutes of light cardio every other day, about 2.5 hrs a week

2.5 / 0.5 = 5 days a week, but I get your point, it's that not hard, what's hard is doing it.

Re: Ask HN: Food hacks for eating well?

#85

Post by subwindow »

hack_edu wrote: post #79
subwindow wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no science to back this up, but my gut feeling is that smoothies are like candy, and aren't actually very good for you. The act of blending everything takes all the work out of it, and now there's just a bunch of sugars for your body to absorb. I like to make my body work for its calories, which is mostly a response to hypoglycemia. Anything I can do to make calories (specifically carbohydrates) harder to dige…

You know, a smoothie can have just about anything in it. Its not hard to make a tasty, ridiculously healthy smoothie. And your claim that blending takes the work out of it for your body couldn't be further from the truth. Blending with a real blender separates nutrients enough for your body to better absorb them. Even your typical smoothie (bananas, yogurt, and strawberries) contains numerous nutritional benefits; ad…

It is true that the amount of nutrients in a smoothie is unchanged relative to the whole counterparts. However, I'm willing to bet that the blood glucose response curve of a smoothie is significantly sharper than the whole fruit alternatives due to the ease of digestion.

The peaks in blood glucose are what's really bad for you, and especially bad for me. Therefore, I look out for them and stay the hell away.

Re: Ask HN: Food hacks for eating well?

#86

Post by santry »

I've been able to eliminate cravings for the bad stuff which, for me, has had the same benefit as making the good stuff crave-inducing.

To do this I:

1. Eliminated all artificial sweeteners. This meant quitting Diet Coke and using delicious local honey instead of Splenda in my tea.

2. After 2 or 3 weeks of no artificial sweeteners I stopped eating sugary foods. No more candy, doughnuts, cakes, or other sweet baked goods. I still allow myself honey in tea and whole fruit, but no fruit juices.

Four months later—and without further dietary changes or the addition of exercise—I've lost more than 30 pounds. I still eat bread, pasta, cheeseburgers, fried chicken, etc. But I eat less because I have less appetite, and I never have a craving for sweet things. A month after quitting sugar I took a bite of crème brûlée to see if my tastes had changed. This dessert, which I had always loved, now seemed so cloying I could barely swallow it. Interestingly, whole fruit now tastes so much better than it ever has, with just the right amount of natural sweetness.

More importantly, this relatively slow rate of weight loss feels sustainable. The dietary changes also feel permanent. I'm not on a weight-loss diet, I've made my diet more healthy.

My untested hypothesis is that I had been so used to the overwhelming sweetness of artificial sweeteners that my tastes were altered such that I always craved sweet. By eliminating the hyper-sweet stuff, my tastes changed enough that I could more easily take the further step of eliminating refined sugar. I imagine this has resulted in more stable blood sugar levels and a corresponding decrease in cravings and overall appetite.

I'd love to hear about others' experiences.

Re: Ask HN: Food hacks for eating well?

#87

Post by niels_olson »

makmanalp wrote: post #74
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…

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?

Consumed fats induce a broad range of hormonal satiety signals, so your total caloric consumption is often less. The French and Mediterranean countries are famous for a few things, two being healthy living and high fat diets (butter in France, olive oil in the Med). Know any fat French people? Butter is not the problem.

Carbs are rapidly burned, or rapidly converted to fat. Fat in the blood stream can still be metabolized, what's especially hard is liberating fat from adipocytes once it's in them.

Among carbs, fructose is a particularly nasty problem. Fructose entirely bypasses the insulin pathway, which is the only major inhibitory signals for monosaccharides, but is is easily converted to fat, and there's some evidence it induces some inflammatory markers along the way. Observational studies of my two kids suggest they could eat oranges or candy all day without pause.

Here's a little experiment: pick a day where you're not going to be exposed to huge external stimuli to eat (eg, it's not the company picnic day). Weigh out 3 oz of unsalted nuts and 3 oz of cooked rice. Eat the rice for breakfast. Time yourself until you're hungry for those nuts. Eat the nuts. All of them. Time yourself until you're hungry again. I'll bet you make it past lunch. Eat 3 more ounces of nuts. You'll probably make it until dinner.

Re: Ask HN: Food hacks for eating well?

#88

Post by niels_olson »

mitjak wrote: post #63
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.

As the others have posted, cutting out refined carbs is huge. But you should also avoid rice, potatos, and other "vegetables" that are essentially nothing but starch.

Re: Ask HN: Food hacks for eating well?

#89

Post by niels_olson »

santry wrote: post #86

I've been able to eliminate cravings for the bad stuff which, for me, has had the same benefit as making the good stuff crave-inducing. To do this I: 1. Eliminated all artificial sweeteners. This meant quitting Diet Coke and using delicious local honey instead of Splenda in my tea. 2. After 2 or 3 weeks of no artificial sweeteners I stopped eating sugary foods. No more candy, doughnuts, cakes, or other sweet baked go…

> My untested hypothesis is that I had been so used to the overwhelming sweetness of artificial sweeteners that my tastes were altered such that I always craved sweet.

Not likely, though backing off on the sweets probably did improve your ability to appreciate the broader range of normal sweet. The reduction of cravings is probably more related to stable blood sugar.

Re: Ask HN: Food hacks for eating well?

#90

Post by niels_olson »

subwindow wrote: post #85
hack_edu wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know, a smoothie can have just about anything in it. Its not hard to make a tasty, ridiculously healthy smoothie. And your claim that blending takes the work out of it for your body couldn't be further from the truth. Blending with a real blender separates nutrients enough for your body to better absorb them. Even your typical smoothie (bananas, yogurt, and strawberries) contains numerous nutritional benefits; ad…

It is true that the amount of nutrients in a smoothie is unchanged relative to the whole counterparts. However, I'm willing to bet that the blood glucose response curve of a smoothie is significantly sharper than the whole fruit alternatives due to the ease of digestion. The peaks in blood glucose are what's really bad for you, and especially bad for me. Therefore, I look out for them and stay the hell away.

Smoothies were one of our model foods in medical school for what's wrong with the American diet.
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