4 ms·

Should reduce sugars and oils. It seems that refined oils are just as damaging if not more than refined sugars.

by james4k 5y ago

moneywoes 5y ago
Any alternatives? I’m guessing olive oil is a good substitute?
- worik 5y ago
  Beef fat. Truly delicious and very cheap. Ahhh... But not in USA. It will be full of "get fatter" hormones(?) I am not sure organically grown beef fat is available, or as cheep. Where I live, where it is illegal to feed grow drugs to cattle, I do a lot of cooking with beef fat.
  - andrewl 5y ago
    You could try bison fat, although I believe bison are, on average, less fatty than other cattle. The USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) forbids the use of hormones and antibiotics in farm-raised bison: Q: Can hormones and antibiotics be used in bison raising? A: Antibiotics and growth hormones are not given to bison. Source: https://www.fsis.usda.gov/food-safety/safe-food-handling-and-preparation/meat/bison-farm-table https://www.fsis.usda.gov/food-safety/safe-food-handling-and...
- james4k 5y ago
  Olive oil is considered a better oil, but it doesn't mean you can have as much as you want. It's surprising what you can cook and still get good results without oil. Not that I don't ever use oil, but a lot of times it doesn't actually add much to the dish. Edit: You can for example saute veggies in water, maybe relying more on spices for flavor. And if you're really looking for some browning/charring, use dry heat from an oven or air fryer.
- TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
  For cooking, try avocado oil (available in any grocery market these days), not olive oil.
- sjwalter 5y ago
  The parent comment "should reduce oils" is silly. Oils as a category are hugely important to good health. Presumably, eliminating the bad oils is the way to go. The way I do it is to have a palette of base ingredients for each of fat, acid, and heat. You can create a lot of beautiful, artful meals with a very limited palette. My fat palette, for instance, is primarily rendered animal fats (pork lard, then beef tallow, then chicken fat, in order of frequency of use--we sautee and sear in, and even eat on toast, almost exclusively rendered animal fat). Then olive oil for finishing and occasionally cooking (e.g. some kinds of fish poached in olive oil is heavenly). Acid palette is limes/citrus and rice vinegar. Heat palette is certain peppers and some hot sauces. All healthful ingredients that can be applied to endless proteins and veggie combos. The standard American pantry of like a billion different spices and sauces and the United Nations of possible ethnic food types means invariably lots of preservatives and in general mediocre (at best) meals. No non-pro cook can crank out high-quality carne asada one day, then a penne vodka, then an injera platter. But the answer is: Rendered animal fats are the best substitute, and the real answer is, don't eat processed bullshit food. (Aside: "Lab grown" branding is doing a great job tricking smart people into believing "highly-processed factory-made" is somehow healthy).
  - james4k 5y ago
    What do you think oil is? It's processed food. And I never said you have to get rid of it entirely. But there's no doubt we use too much of it. Why is that controversial? And there is too much consensus around saturated fat being involved in both cardiovascular disease and diabetes for me to say animal fats are a good substitute. It's a step in the wrong direction, even. The only thing worse might be palm oil.
    - spiderice 5y ago
      I found both your and GP's comment very interesting. The one thing that drives me crazy about nutrition is that everyone is literally saying exact opposite things. It makes it impossible to know what is actually right. It's crazy to me how little we actually seem to know about nutrition. I don't get the same feeling from other areas of study. Most physicists seem to agree on pretty much everything besides the super new, cutting edge discoveries. Same with engineers, chemists, etc.. But in nutrition it's the exact opposite. Google "is milk good for you" and you'll get equally convincing arguments for "yes" and "no". And that's the story for almost any nutrition based question. It seems like the only option for a non-expert like myself is to just kind of wing it and try to eat vegetables and whole grain, and avoid things like sugar. But if there is one area in life that would be worth hyper-optimizing, I'd have to think it would be eating insanely healthy. It just doesn't seem feasible because I'll spend 10 years eating "healthy" only to discover that what I was eating is insanely bad for you. Why is it so hard to figure out exactly what I should be eating? Especially since billions of us are doing it, and have been doing it for thousands of years.

Should reduce sugars and oils. It seems that refined oils are just as damaging if not more than refined sugars.

moneywoes 5y ago

Any alternatives? I’m guessing olive oil is a good substitute?

worik 5y ago
Beef fat. Truly delicious and very cheap. Ahhh... But not in USA. It will be full of "get fatter" hormones(?) I am not sure organically grown beef fat is available, or as cheep. Where I live, where it is illegal to feed grow drugs to cattle, I do a lot of cooking with beef fat.
- andrewl 5y ago
  You could try bison fat, although I believe bison are, on average, less fatty than other cattle. The USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) forbids the use of hormones and antibiotics in farm-raised bison: Q: Can hormones and antibiotics be used in bison raising? A: Antibiotics and growth hormones are not given to bison. Source: https://www.fsis.usda.gov/food-safety/safe-food-handling-and-preparation/meat/bison-farm-table https://www.fsis.usda.gov/food-safety/safe-food-handling-and...
james4k 5y ago
Olive oil is considered a better oil, but it doesn't mean you can have as much as you want. It's surprising what you can cook and still get good results without oil. Not that I don't ever use oil, but a lot of times it doesn't actually add much to the dish. Edit: You can for example saute veggies in water, maybe relying more on spices for flavor. And if you're really looking for some browning/charring, use dry heat from an oven or air fryer.
TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
For cooking, try avocado oil (available in any grocery market these days), not olive oil.
sjwalter 5y ago
The parent comment "should reduce oils" is silly. Oils as a category are hugely important to good health. Presumably, eliminating the bad oils is the way to go. The way I do it is to have a palette of base ingredients for each of fat, acid, and heat. You can create a lot of beautiful, artful meals with a very limited palette. My fat palette, for instance, is primarily rendered animal fats (pork lard, then beef tallow, then chicken fat, in order of frequency of use--we sautee and sear in, and even eat on toast, almost exclusively rendered animal fat). Then olive oil for finishing and occasionally cooking (e.g. some kinds of fish poached in olive oil is heavenly). Acid palette is limes/citrus and rice vinegar. Heat palette is certain peppers and some hot sauces. All healthful ingredients that can be applied to endless proteins and veggie combos. The standard American pantry of like a billion different spices and sauces and the United Nations of possible ethnic food types means invariably lots of preservatives and in general mediocre (at best) meals. No non-pro cook can crank out high-quality carne asada one day, then a penne vodka, then an injera platter. But the answer is: Rendered animal fats are the best substitute, and the real answer is, don't eat processed bullshit food. (Aside: "Lab grown" branding is doing a great job tricking smart people into believing "highly-processed factory-made" is somehow healthy).
- james4k 5y ago
  What do you think oil is? It's processed food. And I never said you have to get rid of it entirely. But there's no doubt we use too much of it. Why is that controversial? And there is too much consensus around saturated fat being involved in both cardiovascular disease and diabetes for me to say animal fats are a good substitute. It's a step in the wrong direction, even. The only thing worse might be palm oil.
  - spiderice 5y ago
    I found both your and GP's comment very interesting. The one thing that drives me crazy about nutrition is that everyone is literally saying exact opposite things. It makes it impossible to know what is actually right. It's crazy to me how little we actually seem to know about nutrition. I don't get the same feeling from other areas of study. Most physicists seem to agree on pretty much everything besides the super new, cutting edge discoveries. Same with engineers, chemists, etc.. But in nutrition it's the exact opposite. Google "is milk good for you" and you'll get equally convincing arguments for "yes" and "no". And that's the story for almost any nutrition based question. It seems like the only option for a non-expert like myself is to just kind of wing it and try to eat vegetables and whole grain, and avoid things like sugar. But if there is one area in life that would be worth hyper-optimizing, I'd have to think it would be eating insanely healthy. It just doesn't seem feasible because I'll spend 10 years eating "healthy" only to discover that what I was eating is insanely bad for you. Why is it so hard to figure out exactly what I should be eating? Especially since billions of us are doing it, and have been doing it for thousands of years.