6 ms·

I wonder what the perfect diet ends up being once you consider things like antibiotics, heavy metals, pesticides, and other contaminants and not just macro/micr

I wonder what the perfect diet ends up being once you consider things like antibiotics, heavy metals, pesticides, and other contaminants and not just macro/micro nutrition.

mratzloff 8y ago
Whole foods, mostly vegetables, grown organically and without antibiotics, prepared at home.
- JacobJans 8y ago
  Added to that, I like Valter Longo's recommendation of focusing on (healthy) foods that your ancestors ate; your body is more likely to be adapted to doing well on those foods.
vegcel 8y ago
The answer is most definitely a whole food plant-based diet. See the book How Not to Die for more here: https://www.amazon.com/How-Not-Die-Discover-Scientifically/dp/1250066115 https://www.amazon.com/How-Not-Die-Discover-Scientifically/d...
- StriverGuy 8y ago
  I would reword plant-based to be plant-centric. Vegan/Vegetarian diets have many many issues (xenoestrogen, B12 deficiency, reduced sex hormone levels just to name a few) and are not a normal consumption pattern for genetic omnivores like us humans.
  - Sawamara 8y ago
    Omnivore does not mean "should eat meat along plants. It just means you are allowed to digest it (although our gut is NOT evolved to digest either herbs OR meat).
  - mabase 8y ago
    And most of those are actually misinformation. B12 being the only real one, but that isn't an issue because you can just supplement it. The B12 from meat comes from supplements anyways, so there is no difference. Just cutting out the middleman.
    - sachdevap 8y ago
      And B12 is found in soil bacteria, which before our filtered and cleaned food supply, would probably have usually found its way into our guts. Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4765460/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4765460/
    - chillingeffect 8y ago
      Or as dr. Gregor says, "cut out the middle moo." ;)
    - shafyy 8y ago
      Exactly this. It's mind-blowing what kind of questions my well-educated ask about being a vegetarian. "Where do you get proteins from?" or "What about iron?". Really?! The only real thing missing is B12 and of that the body needs so tiny amounts that every idiot can supplement it easily.
      - noir_lord 8y ago
        Not a vegan but B12 is easy to get (I have Crohns and B12 deficiency is fairly common), 1 energy drink is ~250% of RDA (They are stuffed with it).
    - frankzinger 8y ago
      Vitamin D, too, especially if you don't eat dairy. I managed to develop a deficiency which caused seriously low bone density. The only reason I found out was because I got a compression fracture of one of the T vertebrae while snowboarding (just riding, too---no crash or anything like that). My point being that I felt otherwise completely normal so somebody with a sedentary lifestyle may not notice until it gets really bad. Vitamin D facilitates calcium absorption; my calcium levels were normal. I think regular diets are more resistant to lower vitamin D levels because they contain more calcium on average.
  - grater 8y ago
    We are biologically herbivores. We cannot digest raw meat and we have to flavour it to make it appealing. Our digestion system, jaw, and other features are those of a herbivore, and we develop atherosclerosis from eating too much fat, unlike any non-herbivores.
    - mutatio 8y ago
      We are biologically omnivores. We can digest raw meat, however Homo sapiens has always had access to fire - unflavoured, blue, fillet steak is my favourite meal - delicious!
    - mr_toad 8y ago
      We’re pretty poorly adapted to be herbivores. We can’t eat most plants at all, and we can’t eat most parts of most plants we do eat; because we can’t digest cellulose. Some staple foods require cooking; potatoes and beans for example. Many other plants, like spinach, are much easier to digest when cooked.
  - chillingeffect 8y ago
    Actually they're estrogen blockers and slightly increase testosterone. Meat eaters have lower testosterone than vegetarians. This is all found in Dr. Gregor's videos on yt.
- cfmcdonald 8y ago
  Um, you're still going to die, no matter what you eat. Sorry.
manibatra 8y ago
After getting worked up in the past about all the things that you mentioned and trying every diet under the sun a whole food plants based diet has done wonders for me. Been on it for two years now and never felt better. I am not in the camp that says that a diet like keto is bad for you. But in my experience it is exponentially harder to get quality meat products than quality (or least bad) plant based foods. Wrote a blog post a while back about my thoughts on diet if you want to give it a read: https://medium.com/@manibatra23/2016-a-reflection-diet-30c15970e7f7 https://medium.com/@manibatra23/2016-a-reflection-diet-30c15...
- manmal 8y ago
  I‘ve done Slow-Carb and Leangains for muscle gains, eating LOTS of meat in the process, but I‘ve never felt as good as now, eating little meat and lots of raw vegetables (salads, whole carrots, you get the idea). Of course, I‘ve lost a lot of muscle, but I currently don’t really care.

I wonder what the perfect diet ends up being once you consider things like antibiotics, heavy metals, pesticides, and other contaminants and not just macro/micro nutrition.

mratzloff 8y ago

Whole foods, mostly vegetables, grown organically and without antibiotics, prepared at home.

JacobJans 8y ago
Added to that, I like Valter Longo's recommendation of focusing on (healthy) foods that your ancestors ate; your body is more likely to be adapted to doing well on those foods.

vegcel 8y ago

The answer is most definitely a whole food plant-based diet. See the book How Not to Die for more here: https://www.amazon.com/How-Not-Die-Discover-Scientifically/dp/1250066115 https://www.amazon.com/How-Not-Die-Discover-Scientifically/d...

StriverGuy 8y ago
I would reword plant-based to be plant-centric. Vegan/Vegetarian diets have many many issues (xenoestrogen, B12 deficiency, reduced sex hormone levels just to name a few) and are not a normal consumption pattern for genetic omnivores like us humans.
- Sawamara 8y ago
  Omnivore does not mean "should eat meat along plants. It just means you are allowed to digest it (although our gut is NOT evolved to digest either herbs OR meat).
- mabase 8y ago
  And most of those are actually misinformation. B12 being the only real one, but that isn't an issue because you can just supplement it. The B12 from meat comes from supplements anyways, so there is no difference. Just cutting out the middleman.
  - sachdevap 8y ago
    And B12 is found in soil bacteria, which before our filtered and cleaned food supply, would probably have usually found its way into our guts. Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4765460/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4765460/
  - chillingeffect 8y ago
    Or as dr. Gregor says, "cut out the middle moo." ;)
  - shafyy 8y ago
    Exactly this. It's mind-blowing what kind of questions my well-educated ask about being a vegetarian. "Where do you get proteins from?" or "What about iron?". Really?! The only real thing missing is B12 and of that the body needs so tiny amounts that every idiot can supplement it easily.
    - noir_lord 8y ago
      Not a vegan but B12 is easy to get (I have Crohns and B12 deficiency is fairly common), 1 energy drink is ~250% of RDA (They are stuffed with it).
  - frankzinger 8y ago
    Vitamin D, too, especially if you don't eat dairy. I managed to develop a deficiency which caused seriously low bone density. The only reason I found out was because I got a compression fracture of one of the T vertebrae while snowboarding (just riding, too---no crash or anything like that). My point being that I felt otherwise completely normal so somebody with a sedentary lifestyle may not notice until it gets really bad. Vitamin D facilitates calcium absorption; my calcium levels were normal. I think regular diets are more resistant to lower vitamin D levels because they contain more calcium on average.
- grater 8y ago
  We are biologically herbivores. We cannot digest raw meat and we have to flavour it to make it appealing. Our digestion system, jaw, and other features are those of a herbivore, and we develop atherosclerosis from eating too much fat, unlike any non-herbivores.
  - mutatio 8y ago
    We are biologically omnivores. We can digest raw meat, however Homo sapiens has always had access to fire - unflavoured, blue, fillet steak is my favourite meal - delicious!
  - mr_toad 8y ago
    We’re pretty poorly adapted to be herbivores. We can’t eat most plants at all, and we can’t eat most parts of most plants we do eat; because we can’t digest cellulose. Some staple foods require cooking; potatoes and beans for example. Many other plants, like spinach, are much easier to digest when cooked.
- chillingeffect 8y ago
  Actually they're estrogen blockers and slightly increase testosterone. Meat eaters have lower testosterone than vegetarians. This is all found in Dr. Gregor's videos on yt.
cfmcdonald 8y ago
Um, you're still going to die, no matter what you eat. Sorry.

manibatra 8y ago

After getting worked up in the past about all the things that you mentioned and trying every diet under the sun a whole food plants based diet has done wonders for me. Been on it for two years now and never felt better. I am not in the camp that says that a diet like keto is bad for you. But in my experience it is exponentially harder to get quality meat products than quality (or least bad) plant based foods. Wrote a blog post a while back about my thoughts on diet if you want to give it a read: https://medium.com/@manibatra23/2016-a-reflection-diet-30c15970e7f7 https://medium.com/@manibatra23/2016-a-reflection-diet-30c15...

manmal 8y ago
I‘ve done Slow-Carb and Leangains for muscle gains, eating LOTS of meat in the process, but I‘ve never felt as good as now, eating little meat and lots of raw vegetables (salads, whole carrots, you get the idea). Of course, I‘ve lost a lot of muscle, but I currently don’t really care.