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Biohacking Lite

karpathy.github.io

61–70 of 370 posts

Re: Biohacking Lite

#61
post #51

I'm French (and incidentally a doctor,and my post is not judgemental in any way, this is not the point). Everytime I travel to the USA, I'm puzzled by how difficult it is to "eat normally" (= by my own standards). You can find really good junk food everywhere, or pay a really high price to eat in high-level Italian restaurants for example, but it is very difficult to eat standard meat-with-vegetable-without-sugar-add…

When the production of sugar and related sweeteners is among the most subsidized industries in the country, is it any wonder that these find their way into everything?

And a handy side effect for producers is that satiety is short lived, leading to repeated demand in the short term when included in a product.

Re: Biohacking Lite

#62
post #51

I'm French (and incidentally a doctor,and my post is not judgemental in any way, this is not the point). Everytime I travel to the USA, I'm puzzled by how difficult it is to "eat normally" (= by my own standards). You can find really good junk food everywhere, or pay a really high price to eat in high-level Italian restaurants for example, but it is very difficult to eat standard meat-with-vegetable-without-sugar-add…

Quick remark: Sugar, as other carbohydrates, is cheap. It also tastes well, objectively (as much as taste can be objectively measured).

So if you go for industrial-level food production, you end up with a higher proportion of sugar than what would be considered healthy. Sugar per se ist not bad at all (try to have an apple without it ;)). But our economy demands cheap, somewhat tasty, calories. Hence we end up with a lot of sugar or carbohydrates in general.

Any diet that rules out carbs works well because of that, not because of some intrinsic property of carbs.

As a French person you would probably never consider giving up on a good croissant or baguette, but in France these things are expensive. I doubt anyone gives their kids fresh croissant before school every day.

Re: Biohacking Lite

#63
post #51

I'm French (and incidentally a doctor,and my post is not judgemental in any way, this is not the point). Everytime I travel to the USA, I'm puzzled by how difficult it is to "eat normally" (= by my own standards). You can find really good junk food everywhere, or pay a really high price to eat in high-level Italian restaurants for example, but it is very difficult to eat standard meat-with-vegetable-without-sugar-add…

Last year I went to Europe for a two week vacation. I stuffed myself like a greedy pig for two weeks, but I barely gained any weight on my return to the US. The next week, I went on a staff retreat for only 3 days and stuffed myself again. That time, I gained more than twice what I'd gained in Europe. I'm convinced that the quality of European food is, on average, vastly superior to what's available in America.

Not to worry, you guys will be sending us boat loads of Chlorine Washed Chicken and pink liquid cow shortly:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47426138

Re: Biohacking Lite

#64
post #51

I'm French (and incidentally a doctor,and my post is not judgemental in any way, this is not the point). Everytime I travel to the USA, I'm puzzled by how difficult it is to "eat normally" (= by my own standards). You can find really good junk food everywhere, or pay a really high price to eat in high-level Italian restaurants for example, but it is very difficult to eat standard meat-with-vegetable-without-sugar-add…

> you don't easily find, for example, yogurt without sugar added

I have a difficult time finding these, as well. The culture here (spoken as an American) is to avoid fats, which is why most products advertise "no fat" (yoghurt with no fat seems like a strange contradiction to me).

> in Asian restaurants (and even there, food is often sweetened)

This is also true from my experiences. Chinese restaurants add sugar due to believing that's part of the American palette. (For Chinese foods, there's also a distinction between "typical" and "authentic" styles, and most Americans are unaware of the latter.)

Re: Biohacking Lite

#65
post #51

I'm French (and incidentally a doctor,and my post is not judgemental in any way, this is not the point). Everytime I travel to the USA, I'm puzzled by how difficult it is to "eat normally" (= by my own standards). You can find really good junk food everywhere, or pay a really high price to eat in high-level Italian restaurants for example, but it is very difficult to eat standard meat-with-vegetable-without-sugar-add…

Last year I went to Europe for a two week vacation. I stuffed myself like a greedy pig for two weeks, but I barely gained any weight on my return to the US. The next week, I went on a staff retreat for only 3 days and stuffed myself again. That time, I gained more than twice what I'd gained in Europe. I'm convinced that the quality of European food is, on average, vastly superior to what's available in America.

I remember a question of MetaFilter about this. A bunch of Europeans said that whenever they went on vacation in the US, they lost weight. You're on vacation, walking around all day.

Re: Biohacking Lite

#66
post #39
post #30

After years of experimentation, lately I’ve decided that eating like my grandparents (i.e., eating like a traditional Japanese) is the easiest way to keep myself lean and healthy. Traditional Japanese meals follow a standard format [1]: a bowl of rice, several small sides (which can change by the day), and an optional cup of miso soup. Sticking to this format every day can be boring, but it keeps my diet reasonably b…

> the downside is that we’ve lost a great deal of local culinary tradition I don't think we've lost anything; it's just that, in an era of cheap economies of scale from mass-production, artisanal anything (including artisanal cooking) is going to cost more—possibly enough to put most "authentic" / "traditional" cuisine out of reach of the working class, unless they're willing to make it themselves. (And who has the t…

Not sure where you live but I have never lived in a city with a dozen restaurants with an 80+ year history with the same way of traditional food prep/ingredients. Restaurants have exceptionally short lives as it is a brutal industry, and supply chains have absolutely changed over 80 years.

Re: Biohacking Lite

#67
post #51

I'm French (and incidentally a doctor,and my post is not judgemental in any way, this is not the point). Everytime I travel to the USA, I'm puzzled by how difficult it is to "eat normally" (= by my own standards). You can find really good junk food everywhere, or pay a really high price to eat in high-level Italian restaurants for example, but it is very difficult to eat standard meat-with-vegetable-without-sugar-add…

> I think sugar is the main problem (not fat)

Most of the research is that it's both. (Tt's the worst when fat and sugar are together) Specifically food is more rewarding, denser, cheaper, and easier to find than it used to be, so we overeat it. Same thing happens with almost any animal that's given ad libitum access to the american diet.

It seems there are two societal solutions, extremely heavy handed government interventions to ban tasty food or we invent a weight loss pill.

Re: Biohacking Lite

#68
post #51

I'm French (and incidentally a doctor,and my post is not judgemental in any way, this is not the point). Everytime I travel to the USA, I'm puzzled by how difficult it is to "eat normally" (= by my own standards). You can find really good junk food everywhere, or pay a really high price to eat in high-level Italian restaurants for example, but it is very difficult to eat standard meat-with-vegetable-without-sugar-add…

What part of the US were you in? I think your experience will vary widely; in NYC there are healthy meat n veggies fast food places every couple blocks. That being said I think you are accurately describing the majority of the country.

Re: Biohacking Lite

#69
post #18

> As a result I’ve improved a number of biomarkers (e.g. resting heart rate, resting blood glucose, strength, endurance, nutritional deficiencies, etc). I wish I could say I feel significantly better or sharper, but honestly I feel about the same. But the numbers tell me I’m supposed to be on a better path and I think I am content with that . I appreciate this honesty

I think a lot of that last point can be attributed to gradual improvement and acclimation to that improvement. If you were able to snapshot mood and mental health like you could a picture of your body, you might see a marked improvement over pre-healthy-lifestyle vs., say, post-1-year-healthy-lifestyle. For example, I've been losing weight and doing body-weight training the last month-and-a-half and a picture of my b…

A lot of people also aren't "in tune" with their bodies, especially those with weaker autobiographical memories. Many just don't internalize or remember how they feel over different time periods except for extreme events (emotional, strong smells, etc.). Unless they have a hangover, they don't much consider how they feel on a relative scale, let alone try to tie it back to their past diet or lifestyle. Throw in a lot of drugs like caffeine, antidepressants, pain killers, depressants like alcohol, stimulants like ADHD meds and it results in a perfect storm where subtle signals that many people are naturally mindful of just get drowned out. Even becoming aware that you can differentiate signals takes practice just like any other muscle.

This has been my biggest struggle with health. I've always had troubles with autobiographical memory and without it, I can't stay motivated because I quickly forget how good exercise felt or how junk food made me feel a few hours later. I started going to the gym to dogfood when I joined a fitness company and within a few months I was looking a lot better but not feeling it. It wasn't until I started to really push my limit with rowing workouts that I felt the "runner's high" athletes talk about. From that point on, it was felt like I was discovering a new muscle group every few weeks and correlating how far I rowed in a 60 minute rowing session with my diet and lifestyle. Junk food that I would scarf down because unappetizing. Drinking alcohol went from a no-brainer to "how will I feel tomorrow?" Morning stretches and exercise became mandatory just to feel "normal."

Even now, with the gyms closed for months, I can feel that newly acquired skill slipping and predictably, my self discipline slides too. I've almost forgotten how good it feels after a nice workout.

Re: Biohacking Lite

#70
post #62
post #51

I'm French (and incidentally a doctor,and my post is not judgemental in any way, this is not the point). Everytime I travel to the USA, I'm puzzled by how difficult it is to "eat normally" (= by my own standards). You can find really good junk food everywhere, or pay a really high price to eat in high-level Italian restaurants for example, but it is very difficult to eat standard meat-with-vegetable-without-sugar-add…

Quick remark: Sugar, as other carbohydrates, is cheap . It also tastes well, objectively (as much as taste can be objectively measured). So if you go for industrial-level food production, you end up with a higher proportion of sugar than what would be considered healthy. Sugar per se ist not bad at all (try to have an apple without it ;)). But our economy demands cheap, somewhat tasty, calories. Hence we end up with…

I've never known that people add sugar to their apples. I have lived in US & Canada and I find that odd people need to add sugar to enjoy an apple.

Croissants or baguettes are not a daily thing if my assumption is correct. My experience is buying them when walking home from work and if I'm in the mood because bread isn't generally healthy for people compared to something else that happens to be better.

edit: okay, I now understand the comment is about apples having natural sugar.

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