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Years ago I switched to a diet free of processed foods (with an exception for hot sauces and other condiments), which means cooking everything yourself starting
by photochemsyn 4y ago
Years ago I switched to a diet free of processed foods (with an exception for hot sauces and other condiments), which means cooking everything yourself starting with basic ingredients. It seems to have had a lot of positive effects. It's nice to see some scientific confirmation (although mostly my original motivation was avoiding preservatives and weird additives like 'dough conditioner', 'processed soy protein', 'high-fructose corn syrup', etc.):
> "Experts like DiFeliceantonio believe we should make the distinction between highly processed foods and those made from scratch. Being aware of those differences is the first step in avoiding a long list of diet-related health issues..."
> "Highly processed foods can qualify as clinically addictive, both Gearhardt and DiFeliceantonio argue. According to what’s known as the rate hypothesis, the faster something affects your brain, the more addictive that substance will be. Many processed foods are essentially pre-digested to maximize the speed of dopamine release..."
Flooding the body with sugars also messes up the insulin response, leading to the development of type II diabetes over time. Eating complex carbohydrates that are slowly broken down to sugar and fed to the muscles/brain cells for energy, or stored as glycogen in the liver, appears to greatly reduce the chances of that outcome.
I generally thought that neurotransmitter de-sensitization at the cellular level wasn't involved with food choices, and was limited to alcohol/drug use. Interesting to see that's not true.
Incidentally this diet, which tends to be fairly low-fat/mid-protein but higher in carbs from roots/leafy greens/fruit-veg, could use a catchy name. When people ask I call it 'the peasant diet' but maybe 'the farmer's diet' is better?
- ROTMetro 4y agoPeople feel like civilization is a corrupting influence nowadays (look at books pointing blame at agriculture for our downfall). That is why Paleo caught on. So I would call it the 'primal diet' to harken back to ye olden golden times. And... quick Google, that's already a thing... and a name for this diet. Great minds yadda yadda yadda.
- JKCalhoun 4y ago"Harvest Diet" "Agricultural Diet"....
- ntimcan 4y agoPre-industrial diet?
- GaryNumanVevo 4y agoYou're basically just describing the typical diet of a European. HFCS is highly regulated, dough conditioners are effectively regulated, etc, etc. For whatever reason everything in the American diet is cut with sugar (HFCS mostly), never understood this. Maybe corn subsidies?
- kmos17 4y agoYes it’s shocking looking at food labels in the US how hard it is to avoid even basic foods without added sugar, which most of the time do not have it in European equivalent products.
- amanaplanacanal 4y agoThe easiest way is to avoid buying foods that are required to have labels. I do most of my shopping in the produce, dairy, and butcher section to avoid that.
- chucksta 4y agoThat and historical lobbies, https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/13/493739074/50-years-ago-sugar-industry-quietly-paid-scientists-to-point-blame-at-fat https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/13/493739074...
- anotherevan 4y agoI recently listened to a Huberman Lab episode[1] where he mentioned one of the strikes against highly processed foods was the emulsifiers and similar preservatives used to extend shelf live have a negative effect on certain nerves in your gut - which effects feelings of satiety due to not properly detecting certain nutrients. There's also the NOVA scale of rating the amount of processing in food products. [1] I think it was this episode: https://hubermanlab.com/effects-of-fasting-and-time-restricted-eating-on-fat-loss-and-health/ https://hubermanlab.com/effects-of-fasting-and-time-restrict...
- red-iron-pine 4y ago> dough conditioner most commercial dough conditioners could be eaten entirely by themselves with no ill effect outside of tasting kinda of gross. They're mainly small amounts of vitamin c, citric acid to lower ph, and amylase enzymes extracted from malt -- the same stuff that makes your bread or beer. In fact most liquor and beer manufactures use alpha amylase or glucoamylase in some form, extracted and powered or natural.