11 ms·

Food Compass is a nutrient profiling system (2022)

29 points by miobrien 4y ago

gavinray 4y ago
Incredible, I've always hoped for something like this to be mandated. Here's one reason that should be convincing enough: Protein is not made equal. The composition of amino acids in protein decides how much of it can be used (bioavailability) by your body. With eggs having a "perfect" score and setting the standard at 100, you have things like wheat/grain proteins which are some ~20% bioavailable (let's ignore pairing foods to make complete proteins for arguments sake) You read the label on your "healthy" whole grain "protein packed" <whatever> where it states it has 10g protein per serving. Boy, that's more than an egg or a cup of milk, you think! Wrong, think again, the adjusted value is closer to ~2g. But how many consumers know this?
- sudden_dystopia 4y ago
  Glad to validate my 2-3 whole egg per day lifestyle. Since starting eating a high protein, mostly unprocessed food based diet(without regard for fat or cholesterol consumption ), I have lowered my body fat percentage by 8% and lowered my LDL cholesterol by 50 points. Just by eating meat, eggs, cheese, whole milk, lots of fruit, non leafy/non stem vegetables (fruits botanically speaking), and protein shakes. My doctor was so impressed…at least until I told her how I did it:)
  - datameta 4y ago
    Quietly hoping over here that 3 eggs per day won't be invalidated by a new study. Been doing it for 5-6 years
  - q_watts 4y ago
- mfer 4y ago
  Taking a single food alone is bad. You should look at a full diet. For example, wheat/grain paired with beans, lentils, and other foods that provide a variety of needed proteins. You also need to look at the downside. Eggs have a lot of saturated fat and cholesterol. This have been reproducibly tied to high cholesterol in people. Eggs have also been tied to colon cancer. Pulling out a single nutrient in a single food is dangers because it doesn't give us a complete picture of a healthy diet.
  - gavinray 4y ago
    Agreed, this is reductionist and nothing is ever so simple but compared to current nutrition "labels" we have it's miles better. I'm waiting for augmented reality to get far enough I can wear glasses that can scan the food I eat, estimate the composition + macros, and log it for me. That'll be the day.
  - jononomo 4y ago
    High cholesterol is a good thing in the absence of obesity or any other negative health indicators. You want to have a lot of saturated fat and cholesterol in your diet, frankly. And eggs have not been tied to colon cancer in any meaningful sense. A person could eat a dozen eggs a day for years and be in perfect health.
    - mfer 4y ago
      High cholesterol is directly linked to heart disease. The negative side effects take years (decades really) to become an issue. Doctors know enough about it now to describe what's biologically happening. High cholesterol (and what causes it) being normalized is one of the reasons heart disease is the leading cause of death in the US[1]. High cholesterol has such an impact on health that the American Heart Association has a section dedicated to it[2]. So do many other health organizations around the world. The parents comments should not be taken seriously. [1] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm [2] https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/cholesterol https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/cholesterol
- strongpigeon 4y ago
  I remember reading the nutrition label of a bag of chicarrones and seeing a remark about how despite having 7g of proteins, it isn’t a significant source of protein (e.g. [0]). Reading up about it, it turned out to be for the exact reason you mentioned, namely the low bio-availability. [0] http://www.osm-us.com/index.php?main_page=popup_image&pID=1239 http://www.osm-us.com/index.php?main_page=popup_image&pID=12...
  - hn_user82179 4y ago
    That is crazy! I had some yesterday thinking it was a good protein snack. I’m glad I read this comment, thank you!
- codemac 4y ago
  I've been trying to actually read the source material for all this "bio availability" scoring like DIAAS and I keep finding weird things. For example, for DIAAS they took current food production, averaged the total protein ratios, and assumes that's ideal protein ratio for humans. It makes me think they're overstating the score of things like whey because of the severe amounts of cheese people eat. Do you have any source studies with test methodology described? I don't buy that humans should be devouring milk all day when dairy as a nutrition source is so wildly varied across the globe.
  - valarauko 4y ago
    I think DIAAS is trying to calculate scores for average meals, since it accounts for missing amino acids in individual components. Meals that complement missing amino acids should yield good scores. AFAIK the DIAAS for individual protein sources are ultimately based on experimental pig models and nitrogen absorption by the pig gut.
- elil17 4y ago
  This model does not actually look at specific amino acids.
- hammock 4y ago
  You aren’t going to be happy with where eggs score on Food Compass (hint: it’s not 100, and it’s below Lucky Charms)
  - O__________O 4y ago
    Confirmed whole-egg-cooked got a score of 52 and Lucky-Charms got a 56; possible score is per food type, for example grain, protein, etc — but unclear. Got the numbers from this document: https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs43016-021-00381-y/MediaObjects/43016_2021_381_MOESM1_ESM.pdf https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs430...
  - cityprestige 4y ago
    [dead]
- olejorgenb 4y ago
  > you have things like wheat/grain proteins which are some ~20% bioavailable Do you have a source for this claim? It seems very low. It seems to be different ways of measuring, but one source [1] claims 65% postprandial retention (not 100% sure what it means). Another claims "The real ileal digestibility of dietary wheat nitrogen amounted to 90.3 ± 4.3%." [2] EDIT: So the 20% number somehow account for the low lysine content (seems strange to call that bioavailability, but I'm not a biologist) [1] https://hal-agroparistech.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01569102 https://hal-agroparistech.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01569102 [2] https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/81/1/87/4607685 https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/81/1/87/4607685
sudden_dystopia 4y ago
This is just based on pure nutritional content of underlying ingredients. For example, a fruit and vegetable smoothie scored 98 out of 100, with 100 being the healthiest. But I don’t see that they accounted for how your body interprets a beverage vs a food. Your body understands what to do if you eat an orange. But if you drink a glass of orange juice, which contains the juice of multiple oranges, does your body really understand that context without the fiber and need for a different digestive process? And wouldn’t drinking multiple oranges spike your insulin since it will all hit your system at once due to lack of need for solids digestion compared to eating 5 oranges? Wouldn’t this be just like taking meds and supplements with food is more efficient as it provides context for your body as to what to do with the incoming molecules?
- s0rce 4y ago
  A smoothie should have all the fiber (unless you use juice), assuming its just blended. Isn't it just basically pre-chewed? Although chewing does do stuff as you have enzymes in your mouth.
- wyre 4y ago
  They only difference between eating and drinking our foods (assuming nutritionally equal) is that chewing stimulates the enzymes in the stomach for digestion. Some meds and supplements need to be eaten with food because they are fat soluble. Afaik the stomach don’t need ‘context’ it take all the nutrients it can and excretes the rest.
- elil17 4y ago
  The model does look at the "context." It looks at things like NOVA class, specific lipid composition, fiber:carb ratio, etc.
dabedee 4y ago
It would be great to be able to read the actual paper.
- hombre_fatal 4y ago
  Yeah, what is there even to talk about without seeing the ranking? Couldn't find it on Sci-hub.
  - yonixw 4y ago
    Available from the proj homepage: https://sites.tufts.edu/foodcompass/ https://sites.tufts.edu/foodcompass/ Click on "Read the Article via SharedIt" And here are the foods ordered by score: https://sites.tufts.edu/foodcompass/research/data/ https://sites.tufts.edu/foodcompass/research/data/
    - hombre_fatal 4y ago
      Thanks.
    - dabedee 4y ago
      Thanks for providing those links.
xwowsersx 4y ago
This is a welcome idea. Related, has anyone ever used the Cronometer app to track all their food intake? MyFitnessPal is similar except that Cronometer has a very clear listing of where you're at with your daily micronutrient needs given the food you've eaten. It's pretty cool to see that you're not getting enough of some micronutrient and then go and consume some food, track it in the app, and see that you're now where you need to be.
jononomo 4y ago
Here is a shorthand way to figure out if a food is nutritious: if it is fatty beef, eggs, or sardines, then it is nutritious and you should eat it. If it is not fatty beef, eggs, or sardines, then it is less nutritious and you should not eat it. If you follow this rule religiously, then you will end up in phenomenal shape regardless of the number of calories you eat. It is impossible to eat in a more nutritious manner than I have described: fatty beef, eggs, and sardines. That's it. And drink only water. Everything else is junk.
- tomrod 4y ago
  That's a funny way to spell "delicious carrots and hummus"! :) I've recently (for about 3 months) adopted a low sodium diet and, frankly, the taste of _everything_ has changed after a few weeks. Vegetables are downright delicious in a way I could never put my finger on before.
  - stronglikedan 4y ago
    Pedantic, and I know what you mean, but the taste hasn't changed! You've encouraged the growth of the gut stuff (microbiome) that eats veggies, and they've outnumbered the gut stuff that doesn't, so you desire them more. Your taste has changed, and that's a good thing.
    - tomrod 4y ago
      Indeed. I appreciate the correction :)
  - jononomo 4y ago
    And the volume of your poop has certainly increased, since vegetable matter contains undigestible fiber, which animal-based foods do not contain. Enjoy pooping and farting more!
    - tomrod 4y ago
      Surprisingly, no! But let's not dwell any more on that.
elil17 4y ago
This is a really interesting and unique approach to building an NPS. The model factors in a wide variety of research about what is and isn't healthy. So instead of being based on a model that, say, low carb diets are what really matter, they rank foods based on a variety of evidence based models (e.g., low carbs matter, lipid hypothesis, seed oil hypothesis, etc.) and foods that score well across many models or "factors" get a good Compass score. This seems totally useful given that there is so much controversy right now about what is and isn't healthy to eat. It's an "epistemically modest" approach to nutrition labels. The outcome of the model is that I can know chocolate covered almonds are probably the healthiest desert and salmon is probably the healthiest animal protein without having to do too much research on my own.
- hammock 4y ago
  The Food Compass in this study was widely panned in viral social media for misranking foods like Cheerios as healthier than eggs, and Lucky Charms as better than cheddar cheese: https://metro.co.uk/2022/08/15/cheerios-better-than-coffee-for-breakfast-according-to-food-compass-17183679/ https://metro.co.uk/2022/08/15/cheerios-better-than-coffee-f...
O__________O 4y ago
So if there goal was to make a system that’s easy to use and understandable, I am failed to understand it; this after scanning research paper, website, etc. For example, might be wrong, but appears they weight how nutritious item is for a single dietary goal, since to me sounds flawed; as in dietary goals and restrictions should first be picked/evaluated, then the items. I have looked a few times at topic, spoken to nutritionist, etc - and as is, still find the topic unnecessarily confusing and clearly biased. Apps require massive amounts of personal information and restaurants & grocery stores to be feel like they’re designed to sell unhealthy foods. __ Research Paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-021-00381-y.epdf https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-021-00381-y.epdf Quick Ranking on the 8000 items: https://sites.tufts.edu/foodcompass/research/data/ https://sites.tufts.edu/foodcompass/research/data/ Supplementary information, which list 8000 items: https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs43016-021-00381-y/MediaObjects/43016_2021_381_MOESM1_ESM.pdf https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs430...
- O__________O 4y ago
  Confirmed whole-chicken-egg-cooked got a score of 52 and Lucky-Charms (American kids sugar cereal) got a 56; possible score is per food type, for example grain, protein, etc — but unclear. Got the numbers from this document: https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs43016-021-00381-y/MediaObjects/43016_2021_381_MOESM1_ESM.pdf https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs430... Sorry, but regardless of author’s intent, that makes no sense to me without explanation.
lliamander 4y ago
Imagine two people: one who gets the majority of their calories through processes cereals, the other through red meat. If you were to ask me which person was healthier, I would be pretty confident that it would be the latter. And yet this guide would lead me to the opposite conclusion. So what gives? Am I conflating other factors like lifestyle (e.g. exercise)? What about the satiation of foods, and what foods your are more likely to overconsume? Does the presence of vitamin fortification give processed cereal an unfair advantage? I love me some carbs, but I think any system that puts those as a high quality source of calories deserves some strong skepticism.
- ephbit 4y ago
  Do you know any person in your circle of acquaintances who follows this "majority of calories through red meat" diet? > Does the presence of vitamin fortification give processed cereal an unfair advantage? I'd guess so. > I love me some carbs, but I think any system that puts those as a high quality source of calories deserves some strong skepticism. I'd say carbs are totally fine (except for lots of sugar) if your lifestyle comes with burning all the associated calories. Thing is, only a fraction of people in the global west actually live such lifestyles. So for them it's quite easy overeat on carbs and take in too many calories to get enough (high quality) protein. Vegetarians/vegans have it even harder. IMO, that is.

29 points by miobrien 4y ago

Incredible, I've always hoped for something like this to be mandated. Here's one reason that should be convincing enough: Protein is not made equal. The composition of amino acids in protein decides how much of it can be used (bioavailability) by your body. With eggs having a "perfect" score and setting the standard at 100, you have things like wheat/grain proteins which are some ~20% bioavailable (let's ignore pairing foods to make complete proteins for arguments sake) You read the label on your "healthy" whole grain "protein packed" <whatever> where it states it has 10g protein per serving. Boy, that's more than an egg or a cup of milk, you think! Wrong, think again, the adjusted value is closer to ~2g. But how many consumers know this?

sudden_dystopia 4y ago
Glad to validate my 2-3 whole egg per day lifestyle. Since starting eating a high protein, mostly unprocessed food based diet(without regard for fat or cholesterol consumption ), I have lowered my body fat percentage by 8% and lowered my LDL cholesterol by 50 points. Just by eating meat, eggs, cheese, whole milk, lots of fruit, non leafy/non stem vegetables (fruits botanically speaking), and protein shakes. My doctor was so impressed…at least until I told her how I did it:)
- datameta 4y ago
  Quietly hoping over here that 3 eggs per day won't be invalidated by a new study. Been doing it for 5-6 years
- q_watts 4y ago
mfer 4y ago
Taking a single food alone is bad. You should look at a full diet. For example, wheat/grain paired with beans, lentils, and other foods that provide a variety of needed proteins. You also need to look at the downside. Eggs have a lot of saturated fat and cholesterol. This have been reproducibly tied to high cholesterol in people. Eggs have also been tied to colon cancer. Pulling out a single nutrient in a single food is dangers because it doesn't give us a complete picture of a healthy diet.
- gavinray 4y ago
  Agreed, this is reductionist and nothing is ever so simple but compared to current nutrition "labels" we have it's miles better. I'm waiting for augmented reality to get far enough I can wear glasses that can scan the food I eat, estimate the composition + macros, and log it for me. That'll be the day.
- jononomo 4y ago
  High cholesterol is a good thing in the absence of obesity or any other negative health indicators. You want to have a lot of saturated fat and cholesterol in your diet, frankly. And eggs have not been tied to colon cancer in any meaningful sense. A person could eat a dozen eggs a day for years and be in perfect health.
  - mfer 4y ago
    High cholesterol is directly linked to heart disease. The negative side effects take years (decades really) to become an issue. Doctors know enough about it now to describe what's biologically happening. High cholesterol (and what causes it) being normalized is one of the reasons heart disease is the leading cause of death in the US[1]. High cholesterol has such an impact on health that the American Heart Association has a section dedicated to it[2]. So do many other health organizations around the world. The parents comments should not be taken seriously. [1] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm [2] https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/cholesterol https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/cholesterol
strongpigeon 4y ago
I remember reading the nutrition label of a bag of chicarrones and seeing a remark about how despite having 7g of proteins, it isn’t a significant source of protein (e.g. [0]). Reading up about it, it turned out to be for the exact reason you mentioned, namely the low bio-availability. [0] http://www.osm-us.com/index.php?main_page=popup_image&pID=1239 http://www.osm-us.com/index.php?main_page=popup_image&pID=12...
- hn_user82179 4y ago
  That is crazy! I had some yesterday thinking it was a good protein snack. I’m glad I read this comment, thank you!
codemac 4y ago
I've been trying to actually read the source material for all this "bio availability" scoring like DIAAS and I keep finding weird things. For example, for DIAAS they took current food production, averaged the total protein ratios, and assumes that's ideal protein ratio for humans. It makes me think they're overstating the score of things like whey because of the severe amounts of cheese people eat. Do you have any source studies with test methodology described? I don't buy that humans should be devouring milk all day when dairy as a nutrition source is so wildly varied across the globe.
- valarauko 4y ago
  I think DIAAS is trying to calculate scores for average meals, since it accounts for missing amino acids in individual components. Meals that complement missing amino acids should yield good scores. AFAIK the DIAAS for individual protein sources are ultimately based on experimental pig models and nitrogen absorption by the pig gut.
elil17 4y ago
This model does not actually look at specific amino acids.
hammock 4y ago
You aren’t going to be happy with where eggs score on Food Compass (hint: it’s not 100, and it’s below Lucky Charms)
- O__________O 4y ago
  Confirmed whole-egg-cooked got a score of 52 and Lucky-Charms got a 56; possible score is per food type, for example grain, protein, etc — but unclear. Got the numbers from this document: https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs43016-021-00381-y/MediaObjects/43016_2021_381_MOESM1_ESM.pdf https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs430...
- cityprestige 4y ago
  [dead]
olejorgenb 4y ago
> you have things like wheat/grain proteins which are some ~20% bioavailable Do you have a source for this claim? It seems very low. It seems to be different ways of measuring, but one source [1] claims 65% postprandial retention (not 100% sure what it means). Another claims "The real ileal digestibility of dietary wheat nitrogen amounted to 90.3 ± 4.3%." [2] EDIT: So the 20% number somehow account for the low lysine content (seems strange to call that bioavailability, but I'm not a biologist) [1] https://hal-agroparistech.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01569102 https://hal-agroparistech.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01569102 [2] https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/81/1/87/4607685 https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/81/1/87/4607685

sudden_dystopia 4y ago

This is just based on pure nutritional content of underlying ingredients. For example, a fruit and vegetable smoothie scored 98 out of 100, with 100 being the healthiest. But I don’t see that they accounted for how your body interprets a beverage vs a food. Your body understands what to do if you eat an orange. But if you drink a glass of orange juice, which contains the juice of multiple oranges, does your body really understand that context without the fiber and need for a different digestive process? And wouldn’t drinking multiple oranges spike your insulin since it will all hit your system at once due to lack of need for solids digestion compared to eating 5 oranges? Wouldn’t this be just like taking meds and supplements with food is more efficient as it provides context for your body as to what to do with the incoming molecules?

s0rce 4y ago
A smoothie should have all the fiber (unless you use juice), assuming its just blended. Isn't it just basically pre-chewed? Although chewing does do stuff as you have enzymes in your mouth.
wyre 4y ago
They only difference between eating and drinking our foods (assuming nutritionally equal) is that chewing stimulates the enzymes in the stomach for digestion. Some meds and supplements need to be eaten with food because they are fat soluble. Afaik the stomach don’t need ‘context’ it take all the nutrients it can and excretes the rest.
elil17 4y ago
The model does look at the "context." It looks at things like NOVA class, specific lipid composition, fiber:carb ratio, etc.

dabedee 4y ago

It would be great to be able to read the actual paper.

hombre_fatal 4y ago
Yeah, what is there even to talk about without seeing the ranking? Couldn't find it on Sci-hub.
- yonixw 4y ago
  Available from the proj homepage: https://sites.tufts.edu/foodcompass/ https://sites.tufts.edu/foodcompass/ Click on "Read the Article via SharedIt" And here are the foods ordered by score: https://sites.tufts.edu/foodcompass/research/data/ https://sites.tufts.edu/foodcompass/research/data/
  - hombre_fatal 4y ago
    Thanks.
  - dabedee 4y ago
    Thanks for providing those links.

xwowsersx 4y ago

This is a welcome idea. Related, has anyone ever used the Cronometer app to track all their food intake? MyFitnessPal is similar except that Cronometer has a very clear listing of where you're at with your daily micronutrient needs given the food you've eaten. It's pretty cool to see that you're not getting enough of some micronutrient and then go and consume some food, track it in the app, and see that you're now where you need to be.

jononomo 4y ago

Here is a shorthand way to figure out if a food is nutritious: if it is fatty beef, eggs, or sardines, then it is nutritious and you should eat it. If it is not fatty beef, eggs, or sardines, then it is less nutritious and you should not eat it. If you follow this rule religiously, then you will end up in phenomenal shape regardless of the number of calories you eat. It is impossible to eat in a more nutritious manner than I have described: fatty beef, eggs, and sardines. That's it. And drink only water. Everything else is junk.

tomrod 4y ago
That's a funny way to spell "delicious carrots and hummus"! :) I've recently (for about 3 months) adopted a low sodium diet and, frankly, the taste of _everything_ has changed after a few weeks. Vegetables are downright delicious in a way I could never put my finger on before.
- stronglikedan 4y ago
  Pedantic, and I know what you mean, but the taste hasn't changed! You've encouraged the growth of the gut stuff (microbiome) that eats veggies, and they've outnumbered the gut stuff that doesn't, so you desire them more. Your taste has changed, and that's a good thing.
  - tomrod 4y ago
    Indeed. I appreciate the correction :)
- jononomo 4y ago
  And the volume of your poop has certainly increased, since vegetable matter contains undigestible fiber, which animal-based foods do not contain. Enjoy pooping and farting more!
  - tomrod 4y ago
    Surprisingly, no! But let's not dwell any more on that.

elil17 4y ago

This is a really interesting and unique approach to building an NPS. The model factors in a wide variety of research about what is and isn't healthy. So instead of being based on a model that, say, low carb diets are what really matter, they rank foods based on a variety of evidence based models (e.g., low carbs matter, lipid hypothesis, seed oil hypothesis, etc.) and foods that score well across many models or "factors" get a good Compass score. This seems totally useful given that there is so much controversy right now about what is and isn't healthy to eat. It's an "epistemically modest" approach to nutrition labels. The outcome of the model is that I can know chocolate covered almonds are probably the healthiest desert and salmon is probably the healthiest animal protein without having to do too much research on my own.

hammock 4y ago
The Food Compass in this study was widely panned in viral social media for misranking foods like Cheerios as healthier than eggs, and Lucky Charms as better than cheddar cheese: https://metro.co.uk/2022/08/15/cheerios-better-than-coffee-for-breakfast-according-to-food-compass-17183679/ https://metro.co.uk/2022/08/15/cheerios-better-than-coffee-f...

O__________O 4y ago

So if there goal was to make a system that’s easy to use and understandable, I am failed to understand it; this after scanning research paper, website, etc. For example, might be wrong, but appears they weight how nutritious item is for a single dietary goal, since to me sounds flawed; as in dietary goals and restrictions should first be picked/evaluated, then the items. I have looked a few times at topic, spoken to nutritionist, etc - and as is, still find the topic unnecessarily confusing and clearly biased. Apps require massive amounts of personal information and restaurants & grocery stores to be feel like they’re designed to sell unhealthy foods. __ Research Paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-021-00381-y.epdf https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-021-00381-y.epdf Quick Ranking on the 8000 items: https://sites.tufts.edu/foodcompass/research/data/ https://sites.tufts.edu/foodcompass/research/data/ Supplementary information, which list 8000 items: https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs43016-021-00381-y/MediaObjects/43016_2021_381_MOESM1_ESM.pdf https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs430...

O__________O 4y ago
Confirmed whole-chicken-egg-cooked got a score of 52 and Lucky-Charms (American kids sugar cereal) got a 56; possible score is per food type, for example grain, protein, etc — but unclear. Got the numbers from this document: https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs43016-021-00381-y/MediaObjects/43016_2021_381_MOESM1_ESM.pdf https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs430... Sorry, but regardless of author’s intent, that makes no sense to me without explanation.

lliamander 4y ago

Imagine two people: one who gets the majority of their calories through processes cereals, the other through red meat. If you were to ask me which person was healthier, I would be pretty confident that it would be the latter. And yet this guide would lead me to the opposite conclusion. So what gives? Am I conflating other factors like lifestyle (e.g. exercise)? What about the satiation of foods, and what foods your are more likely to overconsume? Does the presence of vitamin fortification give processed cereal an unfair advantage? I love me some carbs, but I think any system that puts those as a high quality source of calories deserves some strong skepticism.

ephbit 4y ago
Do you know any person in your circle of acquaintances who follows this "majority of calories through red meat" diet? > Does the presence of vitamin fortification give processed cereal an unfair advantage? I'd guess so. > I love me some carbs, but I think any system that puts those as a high quality source of calories deserves some strong skepticism. I'd say carbs are totally fine (except for lots of sugar) if your lifestyle comes with burning all the associated calories. Thing is, only a fraction of people in the global west actually live such lifestyles. So for them it's quite easy overeat on carbs and take in too many calories to get enough (high quality) protein. Vegetarians/vegans have it even harder. IMO, that is.