4 ms·

This is pretty interesting, the paper is here: https://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/fulltext/S1550-4131(19)30248-7 https://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/fulltext

This is pretty interesting, the paper is here: https://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/fulltext/S1550-4131(19)30248-7 https://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/fulltext/S1550-4131(19)... I liked the experimental method, two weeks on one diet the two weeks on the other without restricting food intake. I've been doing some dieting of late and made the facetious conclusion that if you limit your diet choices to only foods you don't particularly like to eat, you lose weight :-). But the converse of people working very hard to make their food really tasty (generally by adding sugar and salt according to the paper) people consume more than they need. I'm not sure what we could do about it though, we can encourage better eating choices but there is a limit on how much that works.

benj111 8y ago
Well yes, that's kind of the problem. Our monkey brains go mad for energy dense food ie sugar and fat. That's a good motivator to stick your bare hand in a bee hive, or hunt down a Mammoth with a pointy stick. Doesn't work so well in the modern day, when a salad is what we should really be eating.
- aidenn0 8y ago
  Not just sugar and fat though; eat plain bread made without any salt or seasoning; you will eat less than bread made other ways. Same for unseasoned potatoes.
  - ChuckMcM 8y ago
    And there is a really interesting effect I've noticed which I think of 'sugar blindness' which is that when I stopped eating a lot of sweet things my taste buds became more attuned to the taste of sweet. So things that weren't sweet before, are now. Its really an odd thing to experience.
    - danmaz74 8y ago
      Anedoctically, it's a thing the other way around too. When I moved to the UK from Italy, lots of foods tasted too sweet to me. After a year here, I don't feel that any more.
      - belltaco 8y ago
        Uhh, there was a story on HN stating exactly that a few days ago. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19858762 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19858762
  - m463 8y ago
    There was that russian cosmonaut study that consuming salt got you to consume more calories: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/08/health/salt-health-effects.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/08/health/salt-health-effect...
pault 8y ago
I mostly agree, but I've never spared the fat when dieting, just the carbs. You can make a highly varied diet of delicious food if you're cool with fat (you have to be very conscious of how many calories you're consuming, though, because it's very easy to go overboard). A Kale salad with an oil-based dressing and absolutely loaded with nuts and cheese is not something I would consider a chore to eat.
- stcredzero 8y ago
  A Kale salad with an oil-based dressing and absolutely loaded with nuts and cheese is not something I would consider a chore to eat. That depends. Eat anything a bit too often, and it becomes a chore. As you note above, the diet being "highly varied" is very important.
  - monetus 8y ago
    Hence the trendy term, intuitive eating.
  - Ultramanoid 8y ago
    There are people who eat literally the same meals every day, for years, and the opposite would stress them for a number of reasons. There was a recent article about it linked in HN too, I think ?
    - internet_user 8y ago
      there is some anec-data that very repetitive diet, as long as it actually covers all your nutritional needs, is actually better for you, health-wise. Some guess it has to do with immune system activation, GI biome optimized for digestion of these repetitive specific foods you eat, etc. I often wonder if benefits of keto actually come not only from ketones themselves, but also from the fact that keto diets are often very limited, and often to often (relatively) hypoallergenic foods.
ashika 8y ago
i am surprised that the physical aspect of digesting the processed vs unprocessed food doesn't seem to really matter for that study. i'd have naively thought that chewing and swallowing a chick pea would result in lower nutrient uptake than eating an equal amount of besan. instead it seems a calorie is a calorie and the weight difference is entirely due to less consumption. even if nutrient uptake is the same, i think it's clear the stomach and intestines are designed for dealing with unprocessed foods.
njepa 8y ago
> I'm not sure what we could do about it though, we can encourage better eating choices but there is a limit on how much that works. I think the key is to realize that their is no sort of natural limit anymore and to actually enforce one that is sustainable.

benj111 8y ago

Well yes, that's kind of the problem. Our monkey brains go mad for energy dense food ie sugar and fat. That's a good motivator to stick your bare hand in a bee hive, or hunt down a Mammoth with a pointy stick. Doesn't work so well in the modern day, when a salad is what we should really be eating.

aidenn0 8y ago
Not just sugar and fat though; eat plain bread made without any salt or seasoning; you will eat less than bread made other ways. Same for unseasoned potatoes.
- ChuckMcM 8y ago
  And there is a really interesting effect I've noticed which I think of 'sugar blindness' which is that when I stopped eating a lot of sweet things my taste buds became more attuned to the taste of sweet. So things that weren't sweet before, are now. Its really an odd thing to experience.
  - danmaz74 8y ago
    Anedoctically, it's a thing the other way around too. When I moved to the UK from Italy, lots of foods tasted too sweet to me. After a year here, I don't feel that any more.
    - belltaco 8y ago
      Uhh, there was a story on HN stating exactly that a few days ago. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19858762 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19858762
- m463 8y ago
  There was that russian cosmonaut study that consuming salt got you to consume more calories: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/08/health/salt-health-effects.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/08/health/salt-health-effect...

pault 8y ago

I mostly agree, but I've never spared the fat when dieting, just the carbs. You can make a highly varied diet of delicious food if you're cool with fat (you have to be very conscious of how many calories you're consuming, though, because it's very easy to go overboard). A Kale salad with an oil-based dressing and absolutely loaded with nuts and cheese is not something I would consider a chore to eat.

stcredzero 8y ago
A Kale salad with an oil-based dressing and absolutely loaded with nuts and cheese is not something I would consider a chore to eat. That depends. Eat anything a bit too often, and it becomes a chore. As you note above, the diet being "highly varied" is very important.
- monetus 8y ago
  Hence the trendy term, intuitive eating.
- Ultramanoid 8y ago
  There are people who eat literally the same meals every day, for years, and the opposite would stress them for a number of reasons. There was a recent article about it linked in HN too, I think ?
  - internet_user 8y ago
    there is some anec-data that very repetitive diet, as long as it actually covers all your nutritional needs, is actually better for you, health-wise. Some guess it has to do with immune system activation, GI biome optimized for digestion of these repetitive specific foods you eat, etc. I often wonder if benefits of keto actually come not only from ketones themselves, but also from the fact that keto diets are often very limited, and often to often (relatively) hypoallergenic foods.

ashika 8y ago

i am surprised that the physical aspect of digesting the processed vs unprocessed food doesn't seem to really matter for that study. i'd have naively thought that chewing and swallowing a chick pea would result in lower nutrient uptake than eating an equal amount of besan. instead it seems a calorie is a calorie and the weight difference is entirely due to less consumption. even if nutrient uptake is the same, i think it's clear the stomach and intestines are designed for dealing with unprocessed foods.

njepa 8y ago

> I'm not sure what we could do about it though, we can encourage better eating choices but there is a limit on how much that works. I think the key is to realize that their is no sort of natural limit anymore and to actually enforce one that is sustainable.