Ask HN: How to eat and drink properly? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How to eat and drink properly?

#21

Post by icc97 » Wed, Aug 09, 2017, 5:16 PM UTC

Going vegetarian is what I did, for moral reasons primarily, but it has lots of health benefits.

Assuming that you want to do it properly, that is you want to replace meat with various vegetables, nuts, and beans etc that provide protein you automatically increase your intake of healthy foods.

You can of course just eat chips, cheese and margerita pizza which won't help. But being vegetarian does open your eyes to a wider variety of food than just meat + x (e,g. buger + fries). Meat is so tasty on it's own that you can ignore other things.

By going vegetarian I don't have to count calories, I've actually struggled to keep weight on since going full vegetarian, when I had been gaining weight prior to that.

Plus you don't even have to go fully vegetarian, purely just reduce meat intake and up vegetable/bean/nut intake.

Re: Ask HN: How to eat and drink properly?

#22

Post by DanBC » Wed, Aug 09, 2017, 5:18 PM UTC

If you're a woman wanting to become pregnant you'll need to pay extra attention to some vitamins. Take a folic acid supplement until 12 weeks. Consider taking a vitamin D supplement. Avoid too much Vitamin A.

Many people should consider whether to take a Vitamin D supplement.

I tend to agree with other people - eat a variety of fruit and vegetables, small amounts of meat or fish or alternatives for protein.

Re: Ask HN: How to eat and drink properly?

#23

Post by findoer » Wed, Aug 09, 2017, 5:18 PM UTC

I tried to figure this out a few weeks ago and was similarly confused. A lot of people on the internet seem to promote extreme diets, (paleo, veganism, etc.) but these guys also seem to open themselves up to really weird health problems (ex. Gout, rapid tooth wear & decay for vegans).

Anyway, since I didn't want to spend all my time researching this or become a doctor, I just looked up the USDA guidelines and tried to eat more in line with that.

3 meals a day, minimal snacking, home-cooked food, ~2400 calories per day (for my body & weight loss goals), 3+ servings vegetables, 2-3 servings fruits, 2-4 servings dairy, some meats and eggs, etc.

The USDA site even gives you recommendations to eat certain amounts of specific types of vegetables weekly (greens, starchy vegetables, orange vegetables, etc.) which I assume is an attempt to abstract things out a bit so we can worry less about levels of specific micronutrients

There's also an app called MyFitnessPal that lets you log food intake by scanning barcodes with your phone's camera and tracks some nutrients (vitamin a, c, potassium, iron, a few more)

Re: Ask HN: How to eat and drink properly?

#24

Post by limitpoint » Wed, Aug 09, 2017, 5:19 PM UTC

Can only speak for myself. I have only one rule with respect to diet: everything is ok but fried(sauteed, blanched in oil, deep fried, browned, stir-fried, whatever)stuff. Non-fried(steamed, bolied, raw?) fats are ok. Sugar in moderation is not gonna kill me. Works for me.

Re: Ask HN: How to eat and drink properly?

#25

Post by graphitezepp » Wed, Aug 09, 2017, 5:19 PM UTC

DKnoll wrote: post #13

Exercise is more important than diet for overall health and longevity. Obviously all habits contribute but people put a (temporary) focus on their diet and forget everything else in my own experience.

An important point that often gets lost even in "correct" (for lack of a better word) discussions of what is healthy. Generally it's better to be quite overweight and active than look good and be sedentary afaik.

Re: Ask HN: How to eat and drink properly?

#26

Post by treehau5 » Wed, Aug 09, 2017, 5:19 PM UTC

icc97 wrote: post #21

Going vegetarian is what I did, for moral reasons primarily, but it has lots of health benefits. Assuming that you want to do it properly, that is you want to replace meat with various vegetables, nuts, and beans etc that provide protein you automatically increase your intake of healthy foods. You can of course just eat chips, cheese and margerita pizza which won't help. But being vegetarian does open your eyes to a…

> Plus you don't even have to go fully vegetarian, purely just reduce meat intake and up vegetable/bean/nut intake.

Echoing this. Also, Mediterranean diet is still the best diet if not based on current nutritional trends, but also anecdotal evidence (The most places with the highest life expectancies are clustered around the Mediterranean)

Re: Ask HN: How to eat and drink properly?

#27

Post by hxmc » Wed, Aug 09, 2017, 5:21 PM UTC

I'm seeing a lot of "make sure you eat meat/dairy products" here. Are animal products necessary for a balanced diet?

Re: Ask HN: How to eat and drink properly?

#28

Post by bhnmmhmd » Wed, Aug 09, 2017, 5:22 PM UTC

One good advice to remember is to avoid eating egg-based food when you don't have much movement (like when sitting at the table or before sleep). This is also important when you're on an airplane for hours.

Re: Ask HN: How to eat and drink properly?

#29

Post by JoshMnem » Wed, Aug 09, 2017, 5:22 PM UTC

Learn how to cook your own food from scratch. Focus on whole foods, especially vegetables and fruit. You can meal prep in advance by steaming a lot of vegetables, storing them in separate containers, and then chopping and mixing them with sauce to create various other dishes quickly.

Soup is also quick and easy. A pressure cooker or slow cooker can speed up the prep.

Brown rice, buckwheat, amaranth seeds, and quinoa provide additional nutrients. I don't think that "carbs" are bad -- only refined carbs. A rice cooker or pressure cooker is useful.

I think that if one only eats high-nutrient foods, there is less need to worry about the details.

I went from 215 pounds down to a healthy 145 (currently 150). There are some examples of my food experiments in my blog: https://blog.artofmemory.com/tag/food-and-nutrition

Re: Ask HN: How to eat and drink properly?

#30

Post by jogjayr » Wed, Aug 09, 2017, 5:26 PM UTC

DKnoll wrote: post #18

ecshafer wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your body can turn fat into glucose by gluconeogenesis. Sugar is okay if and only if there is a high fiber count as well. Ketogenic and Paleolithic diets show that high sugar intake, especially with breads, grains, and refined sugar is not healthy and not necessary.

It's (eating a lot of bread and grains) necessary for the majority of the planet that cannot afford such a diet.

That's not necessarily true. Peanuts and oils from other vegetable sources (canola, mustard, soybean, corn, coconut) are full of fat, cheap to grow and reasonably healthy. Beans, legumes, eggs and dairy are protein-rich and also quite cheap. Keto doesn't have to mean steak and bacon-wrapped shrimp every meal.