Diet Thread

[Nobody]

Another reason to peel or wash produce. Because even if they don't come in plastic bags, the shop produce bags should have the same chemicals.

[Nobody]

Virtually free academic benefits, just by choosing healthier foods for breakfast. For private schools that have an interest in higher student grades to promote their business success. They may benefit from investing in dietary education and even providing breakfast.

Our research suggests eating an unhealthy breakfast could have a similar effect on your child’s school day as having nothing at all - The Conversation

[Nobody]

‘Unsustainable’: UK predicted to see 50% spike in strokes by 2035 - The Guardian

At the end of the article it says:

“We are also taking action to encourage better lifestyle choices, including creating a smoke-free generation and reducing salt intake through food to help prevent the risk of strokes.”

What I find interesting is they briefly mention smoking, lack of exercise and salt intake in the article. But no mention specifically on diet quality, processed foods, animal products, or high fat diets in their contribution to the problem. So since diet is the biggest driver for stroke - including high salt intake - I think they're going to struggle to reduce the projected number much.

My father died this week from the results of two large haemorrhagic strokes from at least one fall. He was 84 years old. But had dementia problems to the point of needing care for the last 2 years, likely from ischemic mini strokes he had suffered for the latter half of his life. He enjoyed eating animal products and I couldn't convince him to change for the most part. The only change I know about being to alternative plant milks. My genetic father also had at least 3 ischemic strokes during his life.

[Nobody]

A 4min 39sec ABC podcast on different low carb diets in relation to long term weight gain.

Not all low-carb diets are equal—or even healthy

It reinforced my belief that we all should be conversing about foods that make up a diet, rather than macronutrient ratios - which is reductionist thinking. It should be obvious that the food type/quality that makes up one's diet matters more than what the macronutrient ratio is. Which should be no surprise to regular readers, but apparently isn't to the average person from the conversations I've had. One can mess up any macronutrient ratio with poor enough choices.

Having said that, I still believe the typical healthy human diet - pre industrial revolution - was mainly grains and veg. That diet - to get reductionist again - would have been higher carb, lower fat and lower protein than the standard Australian diet. The original mediterranean diet was considered to be the average Sicilian diet from the 1950s when it was a poor country with basic plant foods mainly eaten. Primarily a vegetarian diet with a small amount of fish or other animal products. Not the same as what is typically called a mediterranean diet today.

A study on Sicilian centenarians
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3412743/

So what is the ideal human diet? The WHO is working on that and is expected to have an answer in 2026. It will be interesting to see what they come up with. But from previous WHO efforts, I don't expect it to be the absolute best diet for optimum health. Since I don't expect many would accept what may be required for optimum health. We'll see...

[baabaa]

So what is the ideal human diet?

A few things on the environmental, social, ethics and then public health issues which float around that whole "diet" for humans which are are worth a read and listen to...
1
Meet the meatfluencers
https://one.npr.org/?sharedMediaId=1244 ... 1244043545

2
The Illogical Relationship Americans Have With Animals
A new book explores the roots of our love for certain creatures—and our indifference toward many others. April 18, 2024 American society has a confused, contradictory relationship with animals. Many dog owners have no compunction about eating feedlot-raised pigs, animals whose intelligence, sociality, and sentience compare favorably with their shih tzus and beagles. Some cat lovers let their outdoor felines contribute to mass bird murder. A pescatarian might claim that a cod is less capable of

Read in The Atlantic: https://apple.news/ApwYLa9oYQq2qfDz-HoYPHg

and with the new bird flu strain
3
Feeding Broiler Litter to Beef Cattle - Alabama Cooperative Extension System
https://www.aces.edu/blog/topics/beef/f ... ef-cattle/


And then something of a big Say What and could be the next covid 19...
https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1 ... 0928421111

and to sum up
5
U.S. Meat Lobby Celebrates ‘Positive Outcome’ of COP28
https://www.desmog.com/2024/04/08/us-me ... ome-cop28/

[Nobody]

So what is the ideal human diet?

A few things on the environmental, social, ethics and then public health issues which float around that whole "diet" for humans which are are worth a read and listen to...

The environment should be a no-brainer, but the meat industry lobby are doing their best to keep themselves afloat. Typically like most industry bodies, they really only care about maintaining - or ideally increasing - industry profits.

Social probably has a lot to do with tradition. People don't like change or others being different, regardless of the health implications. I think there has been a small amount of change. But it will probably take decades for societal acceptance to significantly change. It took many decades for smoking to be ostracised, and that was because it was affecting other people's health.

Ethics and business often are like forces pushing in opposite directions. As in It's harder to be successful in business ethically IMO.

Public health seems to only really matter when peoples' health detriments are costing the governments more that the offending industries are giving them in taxes. Governments appear to be doing a cost/benefit analysis on this. Cynical view on my part. But that's how I see it from their lack of action in most countries.

[Nobody]

Morgan Spurlock, documentary filmmaker known for Super Size Me, dead at age 53 - ABC news


When I hear of anyone dying in their 50s, I usually think of cancer.

Some may think he stuck a blow for consumer awareness in respect to the health effects of processed foods. The companies thought so otherwise they wouldn't have changed their marketing.

[matagi]

Morgan Spurlock, documentary filmmaker known for Super Size Me, dead at age 53 - ABC news


When I hear of anyone dying in their 50s, I usually think of cancer.

Yes, he died of cancer although which cancer has not been revealed. He had a significant alcohol problem, so liver cancer is a possibility as is colon cancer.

His abnormal liver function tests in "Super Size Me" were not all due to the fact that he ate nothing but MacDonald's for a month.

[Nobody]

Morgan Spurlock, documentary filmmaker known for Super Size Me, dead at age 53 - ABC news


When I hear of anyone dying in their 50s, I usually think of cancer.

Yes, he died of cancer although which cancer has not been revealed. He had a significant alcohol problem, so liver cancer is a possibility as is colon cancer.

His abnormal liver function tests in "Super Size Me" were not all due to the fact that he ate nothing but MacDonald's for a month.

Yes, I read some other articles on it. If he was honest with himself, he should have realized that he wasn't qualified to make the docoumentary. Sad that people can't be honest when doing tests to form anecdotes. McDonalds were misrepresented in part. But considering the collective health damage they have done to people worldwide for profit, I don't think many would feel too sorry for them.

Misrepresentation appears to be a problem with studies as well these days. Both in the representation of the raw data by the scientists to pander to study funders and also reporters misrepresenting their work further. One has to get a number of them on the same subject - which may not be possible - before getting enough information to be confident in making a choice based on them. There are a number of people in the medical and science industries who believe the old studies were better for that reason. Studies also used to be more government funded instead of industry funded.

[matagi]

He wasn't conducting a rigorous scientific study so I don't think we can reasonably hold him to that standard as some people seem to want to do.

It was a thought provoking documentary and got people thinking and talking about the effects of fast food. I think in that regard, it did its job. I remember watching it and being horrified by the sheer volume he was putting away by taking the supersize option. The amount of empty calories was mindboggling.

[Nobody]

He wasn't conducting a rigorous scientific study so I don't think we can reasonably hold him to that standard as some people seem to want to do.

True. But if you're actively working to publically defame a company on the largest scale possible, you'd want to get the facts right and be up front about confounding factors. If I was him I would have been concerned about getting sued. No doubt McDonalds looked at their options in this regard, but likely decided it just wasn't worth adding to the bad publicity. Both for them and their industry at large.

[am50em]

Parkinson's Link to Gut Bacteria Suggests Unexpected, Simple Treatment

Researchers have suspected for some time that the link between our gut and brain plays a role in the development of Parkinson's disease.

A new study just identified gut microbes likely to be involved and linked them with decreased riboflavin ( vitamin B2) and biotin (vitamin B7), pointing the way to an unexpectedly simple treatment that may help: B vitamins.

https://www.sciencealert.com/parkinsons ... -treatment

Article has link to the paper https://www.nature.com/articles/s41531-024-00724-z

[Nobody]

Thanks for posting. Interesting.

It says in the article:

"A 2003 study found high doses of riboflavin can assist in recovering some motor functions in patients who also eliminated red meat from their diets.

Which is strange because if you look up rump steak on the Australian Food Composition Database, it say 8ug/100g of riboflavin (B2). Where broccoli is 22ug/100g. So per Cal that would be 22 times more B2 in broccoli than in rump steak. Since excluding dietary fibre, rump steak has 8 times the Cal density per 100g of broccoli.

Also isolated and/or artificial vitamins may not work as well as vegies which also have many other beneficial compounds that work in harmony with the included vitamins. We need to take our grandmother's advice and "eat you vegies because they're good for you". So many chronic diseases avoided or reduced just by eating more veg and less animal products and processed foods.

[am50em]

A quick summary of diets and longevity
https://www.cyclingapps.net/blog/in-sea ... longevity/

One interesting observation was:

The role of protein intake in increasing mortality is worrying. Whereas consumption of more than 20% of calories in the form of proteins is associated with a 75% increase in overall mortality risk and 400% increase in the risk of cancer mortality in subjects 65 years old or younger compared to consumption of less than 10% of calories from proteins, these associations are not observed in those 66 and older (Levine et al., 2014).

These results are in agreement with those in mice in which, prior to 85 weeks of age, mortality is minimized by a low protein consumption, but as animals aged beyond 85 weeks, a major increase in the protein to carbohydrate ratio is necessary to minimize mortality (Senior et al., 2019).

[Nobody]

Thanks for posting.

Well known by many who eat plant based. Keep your protein as low as feasible. 5% of Cal is all most people really need. Eventually aspects of diet like this will become known in the mainstream. But it probably won't change many people's habits and preferences for eating animal products. People are in love with protein, but actually a high carb diet is more muscle sparing. Even when vegan it's hard to get under 10% protein if one eats a lot of veg. My intake is about 11+%.

[Nobody]

I've posted about the food Star Rating system before. But I thought I'd post again after seeing an ad for 5 Star Wonder Soft White bread on TV today, realizing that Wonder has managed to fully game the rating system. Then I also read this article about the Star Rating system in SMH which I thought was timely. I don't agree with the author on some technical points, but I do agree with her last sentence:

But until the Health Star Rating system is made compulsory, and the equation is tweaked to give extra points for whole, natural, minimally processed foods, the ingredient list of a product is going to give you much better insight into how healthy any given food product really is.

In the end, the healthiest foods don't need packaging or star ratings.

EDIT: For those who want to use the Star Rating system on all packaged foods - not just the manufacturers that have volunteered to use it - the people who developed the system have a free app called FoodSwitch. Available at the Google Play Store.

[Nobody]

Australians are eating too much ultra-processed foods - ABC

I heard it on ABC Radio National this moring on my way to work. I thought it was interesting.

[Nobody]

Junk food is promoted online to appeal to kids and target young men, our study shows - The Conversation

Advertising is a big part of junk food and the merchants know it works on us. Because otherwise they wouldn't spend the money. We all think we're immune, but generally we can't be. KFC was the biggest "investor", which is no surprise because they're probably one of the least healthy and don't seem to have much else going for them. When I see takeaway trash dumped on the street it's usually either McDonalds or KFC.

[Nobody]

The widespread practice of calorie restriction to lose bodyweight among athletes harms both performance and health - Science Daily

I thought this may interest some on a cycling forum. According to the article it affects women more than men. It not only significantly affects performance, but also there were indicators it also affects immunity and other aspects of general health. The combination of training and energy restriction is obviously too much for training bodies to deal with. True North Health Centre - which is a supervised fasting center - discourages any more exercise than light walking during fasting. They believe a lack of exercise conserves more lean tissue.

[Nobody]

Environmental pollution and human health – how worried should we be? - The Conversation

I'm posting it here because it's related to diet and fluid intake. It also is a counter to other articles I've likely posted on the dangers of chemicals in the past. Both sides need a hearing.

[Nobody]

Athletes looking for a competitive edge may find it within their gut microbiome - The Conversation

A commentary piece with no firm guidance and a lot of "may"s. Clearly still early days, but it does point to some areas that elite athletes may want to experiment in. For the average cyclist, just eating healthier is still going to give the majority of gains if any are to be had from improving the microbiome.

[Nobody]

Almost half of dementia cases could be prevented or delayed, study finds - The Guardian


Have a look at the 14 risk factors and see how many are diet related, or what we put in our bodies. Treat your body well and you should get better results as you age. Both my fathers (genetic and adopted) had dementia before they died. When you get dementia it's really your loved ones who are going to suffer because of it.

[warthog1]

Almost half of dementia cases could be prevented or delayed, study finds - The Guardian


Have a look at the 14 risk factors and see how many are diet related, or what we put in our bodies. Treat your body well and you should get better results as you age. Both my fathers (genetic and adopted) had dementia before they died. When you get dementia it's really your loved ones who are going to suffer because of it.

Had a look thanks Nobody. Most of them I have addressed. Don't mind the odd red wine but I have knocked it back a fair bit already. Ruins my already shift work impaired sleep cycle.
It is on my Mum's side, my Grandma had it toward the end of her life. Yes it would be nice to avoid.

[am50em]

[Nobody]

Thanks for posting, although it won't benefit anyone IMO.

It should be no surprise that ultra-processed foods are addictive like drugs, becasue they are often processed like drugs. The more we process - even in our kitchen - generally the more flavor, so the more addictive or moreish too.

Not being a dietitian or nutritionist is an advantage because those people haven't been brainwashed into the official food industry taught doctrines. Like must eat all food groups. Or unhealthy food - like eggs - have high nutrient value so aren't that bad, etc. They prioritise nutrients over the harms that a food will do over the long term.

Generally, endurance cycling works against gaining muscle mass. If he stops endurance cycling he'd be more able to gain muscle. But his age will work against him too.

I won't comment on what he eats other than to say - like almost all of us - he is the victim of corporate funded science and the mainstream media. Which is no surprise because he's part of it, so fully immersed in the con.

For those interested in health and/or longevity. Don't follow his advice is as concise a summary that I can make, without getting into a lot of detail. Longevity is more an individual genetic trait than anything else.