Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic » in reply to I am going to UT. Southwestern Medical Center today

Nutrition
TB — (archived)

I suspect that someday we will find out two things:

--That heart disease has a different cause than we suspect (we got kind of a surprise with stomach ulcers, too.)

--That human biology on some levels varies as amazingly among humans as human appearance does, and that what works nutritionally for one person might not work the same way for another one, or even close.

That being said, sensible eating isn't that hard. "Avoid large quantities of ANYTHING" covers it pretty well. It is amazing how much of eating sensibly can be accomplished just by portion size. Never "supersize" anything.

Humans evolved to really like the foods available to us--which were, for hundreds of thousands of years, frigging scarce. Watch the refined sugar intake. We developed a sweet tooth and color vision looking for tasty stuff growing in trees. Same for fats, which we developed a taste for looking for stuff to eat on the veldt. And salt. Don't ask.

You don't really need artificial sweeteners, unless you chew gum a lot. There are lots of good things to drink and eat that don't have sugar in them. My favorites are iced tea and fizzy mineral water. Doesn't mean I don't swig a Coke every so often, though. I'm not anal about diet--I've seen too many people that were.

Eri's suggestions on oils are good ones. I usually use canola oil for cooking, but I admit I still make omelets in butter.

I come from a long line of dirt farmers that ate calories like they were going out of style, and lived well into their nineties. Of course, it helps if you are carrying cows around for a living. Me, I'm holding down a chair for a living, so I guess I'm a test case of nature vs. nurture. I'm also on Lipitor, just in case.

Log in or register to post.

The whole thread (54 posts)