8 ms·
Meal of a lifetime: what to eat at every age
- netfl0 4y agoEvidence-free recommendations.
- refactor_master 4y ago“It’s about moderate doses (…) Here’s what to eat by age.” Something irks me about these sentences, that are literally next to one another in the piece.
- bovermyer 4y agoMy problem is not what I eat, but how much. I know what the problem is. I'm just really bad at following the solution.
- shadycuz 4y agoI had this same problem. You really should just try different things until something works for you. For me, I'm doing 1 meal a day. I love it. I spend less time figuring out what to eat, cooking and doing dishes. I start my day with coffee and about half the time a cold coffee at noonish. My single meal means alot to me and I always prepare something fancy. I usually eat between 5-7pm. I've lost 1lb a week every week for months. I'm not even working out but I plan to gradually work it in the routine. It wasn't easy to get to one meal a day... But now that I'm here, it's been extremely easy to keep the routine.
- bovermyer 4y agoYeah, except I have to meal plan for two people, and my wife's nutritional needs are very different. She's basically a gym rat. So I can't experiment with different cadences. I really just have to have half the portion she does, and that would probably work.
- brigandish 4y agoSometimes changing what you eat will determine how much you (want to) eat. Protein, for example, can make you feel fuller. Foods with a high glycemic index will affect blood sugar levels (and hence, the body trying to control them and bringing levels too low) and so you may end up feeling very hungry quite soon even though you've had plenty of calories. There's lots of this kind of thing so I'd suggest trying a few different foods and eating strategies to see if anything works for you.
- aaaaaaaaaaab 4y agoTry Adderall. You’ll forget about hunger.
- philips 4y agoThe article claims NHS recommends to start weaning at 6 months because of anemia but the NHS site is quite different and more inline with what I have heard for the last 5 years as a parent: “Breast milk or first infant formula should be their main drink during the first year, you can continue breastfeeding for as long as you both want. Remember your baby’s tummy is tiny and fills up quickly – so offer milk feeds after solids.” https://www.nhs.uk/start4life/weaning/what-to-feed-your-baby/around-6-months/ https://www.nhs.uk/start4life/weaning/what-to-feed-your-baby... I feel the posted article does a disservice to parents who are overwhelmed with opinions that lack nuance and context around infant diet and health. The NHS website on the other hand does a good job showing the spectrum of options for introducing foods and changing milk/formula ratios.
- katzgrau 4y agoCame here to say the same. The sheer disparity in guidance from different organizations isn't encouraging to new parents, who are already inundated with opinions of self appointed experts among their friends and family.
- 0des 4y agoEveryone's doing the best with the knowledge they have at the time. Also, it's worth considering, not all babies in all locations and bloodlines have the same nutritional needs. Inuit and siberian babies would likely have different diets ideally than sri lankans or dominican babies.
- SamBam 4y agoYeah, the semi-skim milk from age 2 on is also completely counter to the recommendations of most pediatricians. It's ok to have disagreements in nutrition science -- the whole field is disagreements -- but don't just state recommendations as established fact, especially those (such as the role of fats in early childhood) with so little agreement.
- nxmnxm99 4y agoSkim milk and tofu and we wonder why we’re raising teenagers with so many issues
- spyremeown 4y ago"Research in this field is terrible, let's tell people what to do anyway!"
- tapanjk 4y ago> Two years old to teens > What to eat: seeds, tofu and semi-skimmed milk If you have kids of this age, please do not do this to them. They need lots of healthy fat and animal protein.
- hoppyhoppy2 4y agoOne good source of healthy fats is... seeds. Semi-skimmed (as opposed to skimmed) milk also contains fat as well as animal protein.
- dsnr 4y ago> They need lots of healthy fat Hence seeds. Best source of healthy fats.
- picklesman 4y agoDebatable. Seeds are very high in omega6 fatty acids which should be balanced with omega3. They also can go rancid more easily which is not healthy to eat. I noticed this article also subscribes to the “saturated fat is bad” way of thinking which is also debatable.
- dsnr 4y ago> should be balanced with omega3 Sources high in omega 6 are also high in omega 3. > They also can go rancid more easily More easily than what for example?
- purplerabbit 4y agoHigh omega 6 does not imply high omega 3 (see https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/optimize-omega-6-omega-3-ratio https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/optimize-omega-6-omega-... )
- dijit 4y agoSoy (tofu is made of soybeans) is also linked to hormonal weirdness. My girlfriend used to drink vegan protein powder every day and would get extremely sore breasts and much more severe cramps than she otherwise would during her time of the month. After reading about soy and hormones she began cutting it out (using milk based protein powder instead) and she went back to normal, relatively quickly mind you. Playing with the hormones of people in development is a bad idea, until we know more I wouldn’t recommend making soy a staple of a young adult diet.
- AnthonBerg 4y agoThis doesn’t seem like very good advice to me. Did you know that cholesterol ”serves as a precursor for the biosynthesis of steroid hormones, bile acid and vitamin D.” - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholesterol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholesterol Cholesterol is the precursor for nearly all the hormones in our body. I didn’t learn about this until very recenty. ”Steroid hormones can be grouped into two classes: corticosteroids (typically made in the adrenal cortex, hence cortico-) and sex steroids (typically made in the gonads or placenta). Within those two classes are five types according to the receptors to which they bind: glucocorticoids and mineralocorticoids (both corticosteroids) and androgens, estrogens, and progestogens (sex steroids).” Cholesterol is the precursor for ALL OF THESE. Including cortisol. ”Steroid hormones help control metabolism, inflammation, immune functions, salt and water balance, development of sexual characteristics, and the ability to withstand injury and illness.” - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steroid_hormone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steroid_hormone I do not see the proposal to avoid cholesterol as a default way of living to be grounded in any kind of solid scientific basis. Having read the studies as well as I can. It was also very interesting and important to learn what *low* cortisol does. And afaik there is “competition” for cholesterol resources when there isn’t enough cholesterol. Sex hormones are usually the first to be turned off when there’s a problem in steroid hormone synthesis. And sex hormones do a lot for well-being.
- zarzavat 4y agoSodium is necessary for neural activity, which I assume most people would say is a useful thing to have. It doesn’t mean we should load up on salt. I’m not saying that consuming more cholesterol is bad for you, or even that consuming more salt is bad for you. But we need to be careful about inferring deficiency from the fact that a given nutrient is essential. It’s absolutely possible for a nutrient to be important yet commonly over-consumed, it’s also possible for a nutrient to be important and yet to have a very wide window whereby people get similar health outcomes from moderate or high consumption (e.g. vitamin C).
- AnthonBerg 4y agoAgreed! I want to underline that the avoidance of a nutrient should be based in fact, and I also want to suggest that people examine what facts lay under a given piece of advice. I do not see a clear scientific structure that would serve as a foundation for avoiding cholesterol as a general and default thing to almost always do. I do not see references to any such basis of evidence in the article. And have seen evidence that supports making several rather different conclusions than the article does. There’s also the question of outdated science. Saturated fat was believed to harm pancreatic islet cells. As far as I understand more recent studies, it is the opposite. We can ask ourselves: Is the full picture being re-examined when it ought to? How do we know? How do we know if the author of this article has cared to do that? In short: Is it science?
- robenkleene 4y agoDoes anyone know more about this fasting process? E.g., how long do you have to fast for this process to kick in? (Books or links on the subject also appreciated!) > If eating to slow ageing is your aim, Lawton only has one recommendation:s fasting. “There’s something called autophagy: if you deprive your body of nutrients for an extended period of time, your body has to find alternative sources of energy. So it finds loads of gubbins in your cells – bits of protein, old organelles, the cellular damage – and it burns them. It’s like cleaning out loads of old crap from inside you.” Fasting is associated with better metabolic health, and in animal experiments “has been tried on every conceivable animal from insects through to macaques, extending their lifespans by up to 50%”.
- zeppelin101 4y agoReddit and YouTube have tons of great info.
- jfk13 4y agoAnd even more tons of junk. Consume with care.
- arrosenberg 4y agoAbout 14 hours to trigger those mechanisms. Look up intermittent fasting.
- woleium 4y agocheck out the research that came out of biosphere 2 experiment. Roy Walford et al out of UCLA.
- lizardactivist 4y agoI don't understand why us humans must necessarily have such a wide and varied diet compared to other mammals. Is there anything in our DNA, gut bacteria, biology etc. that requires this? And do we really have to change our diet as we get older? Besides being reared by their mother in the earliest part of their lives, do other mammals change their diet as they get older?
- sysadm1n 4y agoIt's my understanding we eat food for pleasure aswell as nourishment. Cats & dogs don't complain when they essentially eat tripe everyday. We are gustatory folk who enjoy a varied diet. I think humans are wired to vary their diet as much as possible. I know I get bored eating the same things all the time!
- _mhr_ 4y agoI can assure you that my family dog, at least, definitely has strong food preferences. Even things that hurt her stomach if she eats too much, like popcorn or broccoli. Her favorite food is chicken and rice, cooked exactly like you would for a human. Maybe food doesn't really get old for her, but I think a desire for novelty is separate from having strong appreciation for the taste of food.
- lm28469 4y ago> I don't understand why us humans must necessarily have such a wide and varied diet compared to other mammals. Because we live long enough (medicine, food abundance, proper shelters, &c.) that optimizing food intake matters if you want to get the best out of your body. You can probably eat bigmacs all your life and make it to 60+, but you'll be far from your potential. The fact that we're mammals doesn't mean we have to live like chimpanzees, but no one is stopping from living like one ("do we really have" -> no we don't)
- joshvm 4y agoHistorically, communities have lived on very simple staple diets, like the Three Sisters in the US. You can survive almost entirely on just maize, beans and squash. The Iroquois supplemented with foraged nuts and fruit, plus hunted/farmed meat (which also doubled up as a leather/material supply). https://ojs.ethnobiology.org/index.php/ebl/article/view/721/413 https://ojs.ethnobiology.org/index.php/ebl/article/view/721/... Also potatoes are almost complete if you get sunshine for your vitamin D, but you'd be deficient in at least B12. I think most wild animals eat multiple things so it's not really fair to try and find a single food that fits. On changing diet, your body becomes more sensitive to deficiencies. If you're lacking in calcium, for example, and you break a bone, it's a lot more serious at 75 than it is at 25. The NIH recommends a slightly higher calcium intake in young people (for development) and over 50s (for preventative maintenance). Maintaining a young person's RDA your whole life wouldn't do you any harm though. https://www.bones.nih.gov/health-info/bone/bone-health/nutrition/calcium-and-vitamin-d-important-every-age https://www.bones.nih.gov/health-info/bone/bone-health/nutri... In the animal kingdom there's the concept of food chains/trophic levels. This is why ecosystems are fairly fragile if a provider species is removed, e.g. by extinction. Humans have learned to adapt to wildly different resources, and we have thousands of years of knowledge and culture about how to prepare food in a way that's nutritionally beneficial. There are several "staple" human foods which we've learned to eat, like cassava, which contains cyanide when raw.
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- whiddershins 4y agoNutrition is not a solved problem and this person definitely hasn’t solved it. This article is just bad, it attempts to be authoritative on a subject that has bedeviled researchers for decades. It doesn’t meet Hacker News criteria for ‘new and interesting.’ There isn’t anything new here, the tradition of news publications writing up health advice (which always contradicts the most recent previous article) is a long and boring one. Pure nonsense. Seriously.
- pipeline_peak 4y ago> Two years old to teens What to eat: seeds, tofu and semi-skimmed milk I’m trying so hard not to read that as some emasculation conspiracy for the youth of boys.
- 0des 4y agoWhat other ways can it be interpreted?
- legalcorrection 4y agoA handy acronym used by British doctors: GROLIES = Guardian Reader of Limited Intelligence In Ethnic Skirt.
- Ardon 4y agoIs vegetarianism inherently feminine?
- pipeline_peak 4y agoNo, boys vegetarian diets shouldn’t be focused on Soy.
- wbsss4412 4y agoThere’s no evidence that soy consumption leads to boys being effeminate.
- woleium 4y agomuch of this article is incorrect, or dated advice.
- dcchambers 4y ago> Two years old to teens...semi-skimmed milk I can see the argument going from whole milk --> 2%, but in general you need to be very careful with low-fat or non-fat dairy products, as they tend to simply add a ton of processed sugar to make it taste better due to the lack of fat. Whole fat yogurts, cottage cheese, sour cream, etc are almost certainly better for you than their low-fat/non-fat alternatives. They'll keep you full longer and won't spike your blood sugar.