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Ask HN: Food hacks for eating well?

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Re: Ask HN: Food hacks for eating well?

#91

Post by illumin8 »

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 the typical Chinese household doesn't eat too much food. It's all about portion control and they eat a ton of veggies. Rice is just a side dish to them, and they only eat it once or twice a day.

Also, you need to take into account that the typical Chinese peasant family is out farming or working hard all day. They need a lot of carbs to work that hard. Now that they have a significant population living in large cities and eating "American" fast food, working in office jobs, they are beginning to have a lot of the same health problems (obesity) that we do.

Re: Ask HN: Food hacks for eating well?

#92

Post by illumin8 »

evo_9 wrote: post #80
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…

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 contr…

Best comment I've read the entire thread - people don't realize that the GI of carbs is the most important factor to weight loss. Managing blood sugar and keeping a steady, non-spiking blood sugar level will result in pretty much automatic weight loss, without even having to diet.

My snacks are usually a small handful of almonds and a piece of fruit. Also, you can combine a somewhat high GI fruit like an apple with a handful of nuts, and the fat content will end up lowering the speed at which your body will absorb the sugar from the fruit, which evens out your blood sugar level. There are other fibrous foods that will do this as well.

Re: Ask HN: Food hacks for eating well?

#93

Post by niels_olson »

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.

You're right. I should have included corn.

If I look at an American plate, half-covered with two giant scoops of fried rice, and an entree of Kung Pao chicken, and was told I could remove only one ingredient, I would remove the rice. If only I could remove the rice and give them the sauteed vegetables, they would be full faster and and experience a substantially smaller, slower, glucose spike.

One of my best friends in high school was Chinese. I used to study at his house because his mom's cooking was awesome. Her idea of a serving of rice, and the average American-chinese restaurant's serving of rice are two different things.

Re: Ask HN: Food hacks for eating well?

#94

Post by illumin8 »

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…

Even if you put brown rice in a smoothie, if you blend it enough to break the husk of the rice, it changes from a low GI carb to a high GI carb because your body can absorb the sugar much quicker.

Breaking fruits down into juice definitely changes the GI index of the carb. Check out the difference between eating a whole apple and drinking apple juice. Apple juice is almost like pure sugar, where the fiber in the whole apple causes your body to digest it much slower.

Re: Ask HN: Food hacks for eating well?

#95

Post by niels_olson »

ellyagg wrote: post #82
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.

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. Obvi…

how old are you that you have "stayed skinny"? What sports do you participate in? Your picture is incomplete.

Re: Ask HN: Food hacks for eating well?

#96

Post by illumin8 »

niels_olson wrote: post #84
illumin8 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 yo…

Sorry I meant 3.5 hours of exercise a week, not 2.5.

Married, no kids, commute 1 hour each way to work every day, work about 8 hours with occasional overtime. Live in the Northeast so cold winters, warm but brief summers.

I've kept it off for 1 year now and still manage to eat out once or twice a week - you don't have to follow the rules all the time. I also like to eat a lot during holidays.

Re: Ask HN: Food hacks for eating well?

#97

Post by niels_olson »

mitjak wrote: post #66
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.

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 ric…

1) glycemic index

2) the unbelievable number of calories you can get before triggering a satiety signal

3) the social norm of scientifically huge portions. My wife and I have gotten the point of ordering a single entree and splitting it, sometimes we can get away with a single appetizer.

4) Two billion people in Asia do eat a lot of rice. They also do more physical work and probably don't eat as much rice per serving as Americans.

5) I should also add corn to the list.

Re: Ask HN: Food hacks for eating well?

#98

Post by cromulent »

bradshaw1965 wrote: post #43

The easiest rule of thumb is to only eat from the outside edges of the grocery. All of the food that has limited shelf life is there for easy egress and all of the long lasting processed stuff is on the interior.

Good rule of thumb, but I would have to break it for tinned tuna. And muesli.

Re: Ask HN: Food hacks for eating well?

#99

Post by floodfx »

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…

we get a weekly box from the fruitguys [fruitguys.com] at work. it is like $25 and keeps our office of about 10 covered.

Re: Ask HN: Food hacks for eating well?

#100

Post by niels_olson »

paulsb wrote: post #51
mian2zi3 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Have a drink about 30 - 60 mins after you have eaten, not during a meal. This ... allows food to be digested more efficiently before the digestive enzymes get diluted by a drink I hear this claim a lot and it always sounds simplistic. The most reliable refutation a quick google turned up was: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/digestion/AN01776/ from a gastroenterologist at the Mayo Clinic. I quote: "There's no conce…

I am not sure if it's 100% true or not. I was told to do this by a nutritionist because I was drinking a pint at a time. I would drink this all in one go, but I imagine sipping would be fine. But drinking later ensures that I don't feel uncomfortably full. But surely a large, sudden, water intake will dilute the stomach (not intestine where most of the nutrients are absorbed) juices and pH?

doc here: anything remotely close to normal water intake will not effect the efficacy of the digestive process. A big slug of cold water might be a skosh uncomfortable, but I've never heard of water intake causing diarrhea.
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