3 ms·

The older I get the more I appreciate how important good nutrition is for basically everything in your life. I started focusing on it more for climbing where I

by tomxor 2y ago

The older I get the more I appreciate how important good nutrition is for basically everything in your life. I started focusing on it more for climbing where I kept getting injured, injury used to set limit for me, now I hardly ever get injured or it's far more subtle and manageable. I feel way stronger and happier, and noticed other parts of me generally feeling healthier. I've been climbing for a very long time so even though this is anecdotal, it's a very clear relationship to me, and this is supported by some of the leading climbers in the world who really get into the science of it. It's hard to sell most people on this because nutrition is historically such a terrible science, but the western diet over the past 50 years has gradually set the bar so low, that it's incredibly easy to make substantial improvements for little effort by focusing on the basics of simply getting back onto natural foods for the core part of your diet. The bioscience of nutrition is complex, and the statistics of nutrition is fraught with misinterpretation and flat out bullshit, but it's bizarrely simple when you figure out the actual changes to make... meat, veg, eggs, dairy, all the things that have been villainized by the food industry. That people still think eating egg yolks is bad for you just reflects how poor public education is on this stuff, and how damaging all of the ancient missinformed and massively outdated WHO recommendations have been to public health.

mythrwy 2y ago
I don't know about the specifics of the article I see a lot of "well, he doesn't cite sources!" type of comments and this may well be, however, in the general or the abstract this article hits on a number of important points. It's not just missing minerals, phytonutrients in particular often degrade rapidly. Mineral depleted soils are a real phenomenon and a tomato isn't necessarily fungible. It's become a pet topic of mine and there is a lot more I could say about this (I have a bunch of theories) but will cut it short for now with this: I feel very healthy and I feel very happy. I wish others could experience the same type of things and I'd like to optimize it further.
mythrwy 2y ago
One theory I have (no idea just a theory) is that obesity and overeating are partially the result of missing nutrients. Something close to 50% of Americans are deficient in Magnesium for instance. But there are a lot of trace minerals and nutrients and they interact to some extent. Is it possible people are trying to get enough of "something" when they overeat and this leads to consuming too many calories? Maybe it's not a self control issue so much as you have to eat a lot of Domino's pizza to get what your body is lacking?
- tomxor 2y ago
  I'm sure there is some contribution of nutrient deficiency to obesity, nutrition is too complex to assume otherwise. However I'm not convinced it's the main driver, although the change in diet required to control intake usually improves nutrition as a side effect. To be more concrete, the single correct part about "calories" is that the quantity matters, but the only practical road to keeping that under control is being naturally satiated, which is entirely about what you eat, everything else is a side effect of what. I know there are more complications when we are talking about people who grew up on very bad diets and have been obese all their entire lives - there's the psychological aspect and what the gut is used to that can take a long time to change - but putting that aside, the simplified extremes are: 1. You eat predominantly processed food based on carbs and sugar all day (90% of the isles in supermarkets, that also happen to be nutritionally empty but that's a another topic). You will always be hungry, because your body has been exposed to so much sugar that it never gets close to entering ketosis during the day, so as soon as you run out you immediately feel hungry. The only way to prevent overeating is pure will power, which is not sustainable for anyone, and extremely unpleasant. 2. You eat predominantly natural food, it has far higher fat and protein content, far less sugar, far less carbs. We are talking red meat, eggs, fish, milk, veg, nuts (lots of good fat). It's really hard to even intentionally over eat on these natural foods, and to eat too frequently, because it's so high in fat and protein and so low on carbs (relatively, it doesn't mean you can't have bread in your sandwich). Your body very easily enters ketosis between meals so you don't tend to get hungry easily outside of excessive exercise. I'm a human being, I don't adhere to #2 strictly, but I try to make that my core diet, and the effects are really obvious. On the days I have some naughty cake or croissant or whatever, I notice how much hungrier I am all day, I just accept that, it's ok, I don't do it every day. Trying to control that hunger is futile and I get a taste of what it's like for all those poor obese people who unfortunately don't know this is the reason, I don't blame them, they are a product of their environment (food industry) and a lack of education.
  - mythrwy 2y ago
    One thing I have learned gardening is the importance of microflora. Which we also have in our guts. Another theory I have (again, no idea if it's true) is that when people consume carbohydrates as the bulk of their diet for length of time the gut microflora changes to species that prefer those. And they signal to the person "hey, you need some dinner rolls right now!".

by tomxor 2y ago

mythrwy 2y ago

I don't know about the specifics of the article I see a lot of "well, he doesn't cite sources!" type of comments and this may well be, however, in the general or the abstract this article hits on a number of important points. It's not just missing minerals, phytonutrients in particular often degrade rapidly. Mineral depleted soils are a real phenomenon and a tomato isn't necessarily fungible. It's become a pet topic of mine and there is a lot more I could say about this (I have a bunch of theories) but will cut it short for now with this: I feel very healthy and I feel very happy. I wish others could experience the same type of things and I'd like to optimize it further.

mythrwy 2y ago

One theory I have (no idea just a theory) is that obesity and overeating are partially the result of missing nutrients. Something close to 50% of Americans are deficient in Magnesium for instance. But there are a lot of trace minerals and nutrients and they interact to some extent. Is it possible people are trying to get enough of "something" when they overeat and this leads to consuming too many calories? Maybe it's not a self control issue so much as you have to eat a lot of Domino's pizza to get what your body is lacking?

tomxor 2y ago
I'm sure there is some contribution of nutrient deficiency to obesity, nutrition is too complex to assume otherwise. However I'm not convinced it's the main driver, although the change in diet required to control intake usually improves nutrition as a side effect. To be more concrete, the single correct part about "calories" is that the quantity matters, but the only practical road to keeping that under control is being naturally satiated, which is entirely about what you eat, everything else is a side effect of what. I know there are more complications when we are talking about people who grew up on very bad diets and have been obese all their entire lives - there's the psychological aspect and what the gut is used to that can take a long time to change - but putting that aside, the simplified extremes are: 1. You eat predominantly processed food based on carbs and sugar all day (90% of the isles in supermarkets, that also happen to be nutritionally empty but that's a another topic). You will always be hungry, because your body has been exposed to so much sugar that it never gets close to entering ketosis during the day, so as soon as you run out you immediately feel hungry. The only way to prevent overeating is pure will power, which is not sustainable for anyone, and extremely unpleasant. 2. You eat predominantly natural food, it has far higher fat and protein content, far less sugar, far less carbs. We are talking red meat, eggs, fish, milk, veg, nuts (lots of good fat). It's really hard to even intentionally over eat on these natural foods, and to eat too frequently, because it's so high in fat and protein and so low on carbs (relatively, it doesn't mean you can't have bread in your sandwich). Your body very easily enters ketosis between meals so you don't tend to get hungry easily outside of excessive exercise. I'm a human being, I don't adhere to #2 strictly, but I try to make that my core diet, and the effects are really obvious. On the days I have some naughty cake or croissant or whatever, I notice how much hungrier I am all day, I just accept that, it's ok, I don't do it every day. Trying to control that hunger is futile and I get a taste of what it's like for all those poor obese people who unfortunately don't know this is the reason, I don't blame them, they are a product of their environment (food industry) and a lack of education.
- mythrwy 2y ago
  One thing I have learned gardening is the importance of microflora. Which we also have in our guts. Another theory I have (again, no idea if it's true) is that when people consume carbohydrates as the bulk of their diet for length of time the gut microflora changes to species that prefer those. And they signal to the person "hey, you need some dinner rolls right now!".