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Should people be eating more fat?

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Re: Should people be eating more fat?

#21

Post by joshontheweb »

TheCapn wrote: post #9

A slight tangent to the parent topic, but should HackerNews be about nutrition as much as it has been in the last few days? The comments are frequently woefully ignorant of any current nutritional science and often anecdotes of how one trend diet or broscience factoid helped them achieve their goals. As much as the discussion can be interesting its not really on topic for what this site is for no? What gets worse is…

I see what you mean. I think the reason why it may be appropriate here is that poor health and being overweight are big risks in the field of programming. If you are not actively managing your health as a full-time programmer your health will likely degrade. More solid data is needed, that is true. Unfortunately the accepted facts on this issue are turning out to be suspect.

Re: Should people be eating more fat?

#22

Post by icelancer »

jp555 wrote: post #13
owenmarshall wrote: post #4

One other recent study that jumped out at me was one on salt: apparently new studies are showing that CDC guidelines on sodium intake are far too low(1) and should be increased for health. I wonder if much of the problem with the seemingly contradictory nature of studies like this the wide variance you see with us humans. I know good experimental design is about controlling for these variables, but it seems to be ext…

here's another great one from Alan Aragon: "Avoid food avoidance." I think the salt thing is somewhat a problem of causation vs. correlation. If you have hypertension it can be a good idea to limit salt intake; but salt intake does not cause hypertension. I'm wary of any health advice that stems solely from epidemiological study. I'm not sure why we so easily take a hypothesis as a conclusion, and epidemiological stu…

Exactly. Aragon is one of the few voices of reason in this ridiculous field.

Re: Should people be eating more fat?

#23

Post by dpeck »

fyi, if you're interested in losing weight using this approach the /r/keto subreddit is quite good and very encouraging.

I won't say its for everyone, but it certainly worked for me, and after getting over the initial hump I felt better than I ever had. Huge amounts of energy, feeling great after 4 hours of sleep, brain feeling like I was grasping concepts and finding solutions quicker.

Re: Should people be eating more fat?

#24

Post by graeme »

publicfig wrote: post #7
rickdale wrote: post #5

I lost over 50 pounds about 3 years ago now. And since then I have been relearning to eat and doing a good job at it. One of the tricks of the eating healthy trade that I learned and has helped me tremendously, is to put fatty stuff into drinks; mostly teas and coffees. Like bulletproof coffee[0]. Often you hear don't drink empty calories, but as someone that has never counted a calorie I can attest that it is more i…

What was your experience and opinion of Four Hour Body? I've heard recommendations for it, but its marketing speak of "AN UNCOMMON GUIDE TO RAPID FAT-LOSS, INCREDIBLE SEX, AND BECOMING SUPERHUMAN" has always turned me off to it before I started.

Tim Ferriss is legit. The marketing speed is definitely strong, but there's substance behind it. His four-hour workweek, for example, was showed me how to create a successful business I enjoy (and work more than four hours on).

I don't like the slow carb diet personally, but it's better than what most people are eating, which I think was his goal.

The four hour body is meant to be read in parts, I wouldn't read it cover to cover. Read it with an open mind. If there's something you disagree with or wouldn't want to do, ask why he recommended it, rather than trying to prove it wrong. (Though do try to prove stuff wrong....just not as a knee jerk reaction)

Re: Should people be eating more fat?

#25

Post by Dewie »

seivan wrote: post #2

The Scandinavian country in question, might just be Sweden, though didn't look into it. High fat has grown in popularity because the actual effects it have. People have started to feel much better and lose weight at the same time. It's unfortunate the way the government treated Annika Dahlqvist when she first started recommending her diabetes patients to avoid carbohydrates and start with high fat instead. I think at…

It's also popular in Norway.

Re: Should people be eating more fat?

#26

Post by philfrasty »

pajaroide wrote: post #15

Lately I've been on a diet of vegetable fats and proteins, almost no carbs (only fiber). Lots of avocados and seeds (chia, flaxseed, sunflower, sesame) which have approximately 50% fat content 45% protein 5% fiber. I lost body fat while eating as much as I wanted of that, along with yoghurt, eggs, cheese and veggies, the only thing off the table is bread, although I eat some once in a while. People eat too many carbs…

"I lost body fat while eating as much as I wanted of that..." you clearly seem to know what you are talking about...

Re: Should people be eating more fat?

#27

Post by genofon »

owenmarshall wrote: post #4

One other recent study that jumped out at me was one on salt: apparently new studies are showing that CDC guidelines on sodium intake are far too low(1) and should be increased for health. I wonder if much of the problem with the seemingly contradictory nature of studies like this the wide variance you see with us humans. I know good experimental design is about controlling for these variables, but it seems to be ext…

After I realized how little we know about the human body I stopped worrying about these things and I now eat what makes me feel better. The reality is that in a lot of areas medicine don't' have an answer but they just guess given some observations. SO I started paying attention to how I feel after eating certain food. For example I noticed that a nice breakfast and rich salad for lunch keep me lucid for the day. I also avoid ingesting a lot of sugar at once and caffeine, with this I feel less tired at the end of the day. I don't track long term effects but for the past six months it worked pretty well, and without eating like a monk.

Re: Should people be eating more fat?

#28

Post by sutterbomb »

publicfig wrote: post #7
rickdale wrote: post #5

I lost over 50 pounds about 3 years ago now. And since then I have been relearning to eat and doing a good job at it. One of the tricks of the eating healthy trade that I learned and has helped me tremendously, is to put fatty stuff into drinks; mostly teas and coffees. Like bulletproof coffee[0]. Often you hear don't drink empty calories, but as someone that has never counted a calorie I can attest that it is more i…

What was your experience and opinion of Four Hour Body? I've heard recommendations for it, but its marketing speak of "AN UNCOMMON GUIDE TO RAPID FAT-LOSS, INCREDIBLE SEX, AND BECOMING SUPERHUMAN" has always turned me off to it before I started.

I recommend it, but obviously it won't deliver on that type of hyperbole. I'm on month ~3 and I've lost significant weight but more importantly it's a very manageable diet that I expect to stick with.

Re: Should people be eating more fat?

#29

Post by bane »

Yes. Animal fats particularly. We know from the fossil record and studies of traditional societies that even bone marrow (high and dense in fat and calories) is prized. Science shows it to be unbelievably rich in all sorts of good stuff.

There are some theories out there that modern human brain development was strongly tied to the ability of early humans to make tools to successful extract as much marrow out of an animal carcass as possible. It's basically the raw building blocks brains are made out of. Plus it increases wound regeneration and boosts your immune system.

The science of nutrition is so stunningly complex and difficult that lots of notions about what to eat and not eat have been overturned time and time again. The only thing that seems to have held out is to eat a wide variety of foods from all sources. Limit sugars and sweet things, eat lots of fiber, protein and fats. Cook in butter if you need to use oil. It's better for you and it tastes better.

Traditional societies actually do a pretty god job on many of these fronts. There's some things they screwed up on, nitrates aren't real good for you, but limited amounts of alcohol is. Yogurt is great for you, but Bracken (Fernbrake) turns out to not be so great an idea. Many traditional diets are usually rich in variety, and many of the good things you should be eating, and usually don't have too many of the things you shouldn't be eating. Don't confuse traditional with customary. A customary full-English breakfast every day is something north of 1,000 calories, but there's not much reason to assume it's a good traditional foodstuff. It turns out oatmeal with some fruit is probably better for you.

If in doubt, variety variety variety. As evolved opportunistic omnivores, our bodies are superbly evolved to eat a little bit of just about everything, but don't do so well on lots of one kind of thing. Humans are one of the few species on the planet that can do what we do, and it turns out, just like with any animal, that we kind of have to do what we do to live right.

Re: Should people be eating more fat?

#30

Post by jp555 »

pajaroide wrote: post #15

Lately I've been on a diet of vegetable fats and proteins, almost no carbs (only fiber). Lots of avocados and seeds (chia, flaxseed, sunflower, sesame) which have approximately 50% fat content 45% protein 5% fiber. I lost body fat while eating as much as I wanted of that, along with yoghurt, eggs, cheese and veggies, the only thing off the table is bread, although I eat some once in a while. People eat too many carbs…

The macronutrient content of your diet has nothing to do with how much you gain/lose. The only way you are losing weight is that you are in a caloric deficit. Whether that's from increased activity, decreased energy intake, or a combination of these, there is no other way (besides liposuction).

The low-carb thing is just a trick to get you to eat fewer calories. Not to say it's not valuable - whatever works for you - but low-carb is much more about limiting calories through food avoidance than anything about carbs.

Although you did say "lately", and moving to low-carb will lead to a lot of initial weight loss. But this is due to water-loss as your glycogen stores are depleted (every gram of stored carb energy gets stored with 3-4 grams of water). Again, do whatever works for you, but it grinds my gears to see all this unfounded carb-hate these days.

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