4 ms·

Rule 1. Eat accordingly with what you've spent (in calories). Rule 2. Avoid packaged/processed foods. There is no need for Rule 3.

vlasev 11y ago
The biggest problem here is being accurate and truthful to yourself. These rules are great theoretically but they are rather difficult to apply in practice. I've been tracking my intake and expenditure as accurately as possible over the last 2 months and the errors accumulate rather rapidly. There's variation in what you do, how much you do of it, how much energy you actually spend doing it. After this there is variation in the self-reporting itself - we tend to over-estimate the calories we've spend. Then there is variation in what you eat, how much you eat of it, how many calories it really has, how many calories you actually consume, how many you actually process in the end. Add to this things like water retention, stress and so on, and it becomes a rather messy problem.
- dschiptsov 11y ago
  There is a so much of nonsense about food that it is worth it to look back at some traditional or tribal eating habits. For example, traditionally, majority of the Nepalese population is eating white rice with some kind of lentil curry and seasonal vegetables two times a day basically whole year and remain healthy and not overweight due to their active, working lifestyle. Modern memes are telling us that white rice is almost poisonous, despite the fact that more than half of the world population (almost whole Asia) feed on it. Tibetans, Sherpas and other Himalayan tribes are still rely heavily on cow/nak butter (the main commodity and the source of nutrition) and Tsampa (rusted barley flour) which they consume on a daily basis in the form of so-called Sherpa tea (butter, Tsampa, hot watter, sugar or salt) or in a form of bread-like mass (same ingredients). According to modern memes this is a disastrous diet, but, you see, these people are healthy and happy. I could go on, about various tribes of India or Sri Lanka (mostly rise and veges). The picture will be almost the same. Simple, homemade food and not being a couch potato makes it. There is no problem with traditional foods. The problems are with the food industry and its commercial products which, being aggressively marketed, altered the traditional eating habits. As for myself, I could confirm that especially in high altitudes (in Himalayas) the tribal eating habits, which I follow happily, are the evolved balance for energy storage and intake, according with the harsh conditions, seasons and available food sources. There is no alternative in calories efficiency to the a half-kilo lump of nak butter (just cream, no additions) and a small bag of Tsampa for weeks-long crossing of the ridges in Himalayas.
  - ggrothendieck 11y ago
    Regarding rice, Consumer Reports (CR) has been urging the FDA to set limits on rice consumpton due to the arsenic levels in rice that they have measured. A certain amount of this is due to naturally occurring arsenic but pollution from industiral production of goods could add more. In the meantime CR has issued their own point system based on the arsenic content of rice: http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2015/01/how-much-arsenic-is-in-your-rice/index.htm http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2015/01/how-much...

vlasev 11y ago

The biggest problem here is being accurate and truthful to yourself. These rules are great theoretically but they are rather difficult to apply in practice. I've been tracking my intake and expenditure as accurately as possible over the last 2 months and the errors accumulate rather rapidly. There's variation in what you do, how much you do of it, how much energy you actually spend doing it. After this there is variation in the self-reporting itself - we tend to over-estimate the calories we've spend. Then there is variation in what you eat, how much you eat of it, how many calories it really has, how many calories you actually consume, how many you actually process in the end. Add to this things like water retention, stress and so on, and it becomes a rather messy problem.

dschiptsov 11y ago
There is a so much of nonsense about food that it is worth it to look back at some traditional or tribal eating habits. For example, traditionally, majority of the Nepalese population is eating white rice with some kind of lentil curry and seasonal vegetables two times a day basically whole year and remain healthy and not overweight due to their active, working lifestyle. Modern memes are telling us that white rice is almost poisonous, despite the fact that more than half of the world population (almost whole Asia) feed on it. Tibetans, Sherpas and other Himalayan tribes are still rely heavily on cow/nak butter (the main commodity and the source of nutrition) and Tsampa (rusted barley flour) which they consume on a daily basis in the form of so-called Sherpa tea (butter, Tsampa, hot watter, sugar or salt) or in a form of bread-like mass (same ingredients). According to modern memes this is a disastrous diet, but, you see, these people are healthy and happy. I could go on, about various tribes of India or Sri Lanka (mostly rise and veges). The picture will be almost the same. Simple, homemade food and not being a couch potato makes it. There is no problem with traditional foods. The problems are with the food industry and its commercial products which, being aggressively marketed, altered the traditional eating habits. As for myself, I could confirm that especially in high altitudes (in Himalayas) the tribal eating habits, which I follow happily, are the evolved balance for energy storage and intake, according with the harsh conditions, seasons and available food sources. There is no alternative in calories efficiency to the a half-kilo lump of nak butter (just cream, no additions) and a small bag of Tsampa for weeks-long crossing of the ridges in Himalayas.
- ggrothendieck 11y ago
  Regarding rice, Consumer Reports (CR) has been urging the FDA to set limits on rice consumpton due to the arsenic levels in rice that they have measured. A certain amount of this is due to naturally occurring arsenic but pollution from industiral production of goods could add more. In the meantime CR has issued their own point system based on the arsenic content of rice: http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2015/01/how-much-arsenic-is-in-your-rice/index.htm http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2015/01/how-much...