Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
Ask HN: What should we eat?
61–70 of 114 posts
Re: Ask HN: What should we eat?
#62[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: What should we eat?
#63Easy. Eat food that our bodies (as hunters and gatherers) are designed to consume. - no processed/fast/junk food - no soft drinks, etc - food that has low-gi carbs (quinoa, buckwheat, whole grains) to prevent insulin spikes, etc. Insulin spike is fine after a heavy workout. - food heavy in fiber (such as whole grain food above) - my typical meal: side of veggies, quinoa and wild salmon Do a month where you only drink…
This idea of 'designed to consume' is ridiculous. We are omnivores, anything that doesn't kill us on the spot is fair game. Healthy is a different issue, but as omnivores we are 'designed' to eat anything we can.
Our bodies are extremely resilient and can take a beating from crappy foods. That's why such food 'does not kill us on the spot'.
That's the justification. If that suits you, that's fine--it's your health.
We are NOT designed to eat french fries made from genetically modified potatoes.
We are NOT designed to consume soft drinks made from high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).
Etc Etc
That stuff is not natural. Not for omnivores, herbivores, carnivores or any other living organism.
Re: Ask HN: What should we eat?
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a ridiculous point because for over two million years human related hominids have been using stone tools to kill and butcher meat. Humans have massive predator fangs that look like this: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Bifaz_de_...
Teeth serve two purposes- catching and chewing/ripping/tearing. Long fangs are for catching. Cats don't really chew food, nor do snakes. Both rely on their teeth to stab and hold prey, which is why they are sharp like needles. Our cutting teeth are for slicing and chewing- in other words, processing the meat after it's been caught. The 'massive predator fangs' take care of catching it, but have you ever eaten meat wi…
> have you ever eaten meat without biting off a piece, ONLY cutting it up into little bits and chewing it?
Uh, pretty much every day? I'm pretty sure that's what pre-humans did, too. They butchered, cooked, and cut it up. Dentition is irrelevant.
> it'd be ridiculously hard with stone tools.
They were kept razor sharp. It would not be hard.
Re: Ask HN: What should we eat?
#65I figure if you eat things that's been around for thousands of years you'll probably be OK. It seems that everyone agrees on: - Lots of fruit and vegetables - Legumes - Fish twice a week or more - Red meat but not for every meal - Avoid highly processed foods - Avoid dairy products There doesn't seem to be any consensus on wheat products. Rice seems fine, and potatoes too if you don't deep-fry them. Of course nobody…
Avoid dairy products is not something everyone agrees on.
My body sure agrees on avoiding dairy. I suppose I'm mildly lactose intolerant, but once I stopped eating dairy I started feeling a lot better. Less gas if nothing else.
Anecdotal for sure but most of the people I know who take diet seriously agree that dairy is bad.
I also believe the saying that humans are the only animals that drink milk after infancy.
Re: Ask HN: What should we eat?
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
Teeth serve two purposes- catching and chewing/ripping/tearing. Long fangs are for catching. Cats don't really chew food, nor do snakes. Both rely on their teeth to stab and hold prey, which is why they are sharp like needles. Our cutting teeth are for slicing and chewing- in other words, processing the meat after it's been caught. The 'massive predator fangs' take care of catching it, but have you ever eaten meat wi…
> have you ever eaten meat without biting off a piece, ONLY cutting it up into little bits and chewing it? Uh, pretty much every day? I'm pretty sure that's what pre-humans did, too. They butchered, cooked, and cut it up. Dentition is irrelevant. > it'd be ridiculously hard with stone tools. They were kept razor sharp. It would not be hard.
They cut it up into bite-sized pieces? I really doubt that. Notice only people who worry about etiquette tend to do that, and I don't think etiquette existed when we were cutting things with rocks. Perhaps chunks were sliced off, but I can't help but laugh at the thought of a Stone Age man cutting his meat into little cubes.
As a further argument, notice how most people eat a drumstick? It comes naturally.
Re: Ask HN: What should we eat?
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
This idea of 'designed to consume' is ridiculous. We are omnivores, anything that doesn't kill us on the spot is fair game. Healthy is a different issue, but as omnivores we are 'designed' to eat anything we can.
Our bodies are extremely resilient and can take a beating from crappy foods. That's why such food 'does not kill us on the spot'. That's the justification. If that suits you, that's fine--it's your health. We are NOT designed to eat french fries made from genetically modified potatoes. We are NOT designed to consume soft drinks made from high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Etc Etc That stuff is not natural. Not for omni…
Of course we aren't designed to digest French fries and soft drinks. But to say that, simply because our bodies were not created with the preconceived notion of digesting them, we should not eat them, is silly.
I'm not saying we should eat them, but 'because we weren't designed to' is not a relevant point. We sure as heck weren't intended to eat potatoes or wheat either (rather impossible to eat without cooking, which hasn't been around forever), and they leave the diet a little deficient, yet the Irish sure did survive on them, and most of Europe built up on wheat. Would you condemn them as fools for eating something that wasn't tailor made for their stomachs? I applaud them for surviving and growing where food didn't previously exist.
French fries and soft drinks are terrible food, but the idea that there are some small collection of 'right foods' that we existed especially designed to eat is simply silly. The only time that sort of 'right food' idea is relevant, is with some animals that can only get a given nutrient one way, or animals that can only successfully hunt one type of prey.
Re: Ask HN: What should we eat?
#68My tendencies, which seem to work well: - Foods with less processing - more fresh stuff, less stuff that needs preservatives - High ratio of vegatables/fruit to meat - Less high-carb stuff, and always the low-gi versions (e.g. wholemeal/rye bread, brown rice) - Eat what you enjoy. Find a balance between healthy and tasty you can live with. - Indulging in stuff not on this list is serious business - it has to be reall…
Fine, but personal diet anecdotes aren't what eavc is asking for. What trustworthy sources are these decisions based on?
This is very near to the diet prescribed by Dr William Davis - author of Track Your Plaque. The book is a lot more than just a diet book and is heart-health specific, though.
Re: Ask HN: What should we eat?
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
Unfortunately I have the same problem with sources as the original poster. Nutrition science has become so sensationalized that it's hard to take any of it seriously. I take my cue mostly from an instinct developed over years of paying attention to how my diet makes me feel. Stuff like CSIRO's book [ http://www.csiro.au/science/TWD.html ] do influence that instinct - I feel that their research is somewhat removed fro…
I prefer science to instinct. One human lifetime doesn't provide nearly enough opportunities for diet experiments to determine all the correct answers for yourself, even if you could separate real diet effects from personal bias, the placebo effect, and other influences in your life.
Alas, science has the same trouble. Too many variables, hard to tell anything for sure.
Re: Ask HN: What should we eat?
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
> In China, for example, some foods are considered "heating", while others "cooling". Based on the time of year and your own condition, you may be advised to eat this set of foods, and avoid that. gah... I dated a chinese girl, and she would discuss that with me when she got sick. It feels like folk medicine, the decision of what makes something 'hot' or 'cold' and so on seemed so arbitrary.
Hmm I don't know if its arbitary, I can tell if a food is 'hot' or 'cold' just by eating it, even if I've never seen it before. For me, only eating 'hot' foods means I get more ulcers, so I am always watching out.
if the hot/cold idea is deeply rooted in you, it makes sense that you are able to tell what is what, but that does not mean it's not arbitrary, just that you have assimilated the method on a deeper level.
Consider italians, and pasta. Basically everybody knows "instinctively" if a sauce makes sense with short or long pasta, but in the end it's still completely arbitrary :)