Bolo,
You have some interesting views on physical health. What are your views on what a playa should eat?
There are a couple simple rules in life that no one follows; including me:
1) Eat Natural - Unless you caught it, shot it, dug it out of the ground, or pulled it off the plant; don't eat it.
2) If it flys, floats or F*ks; its cheaper to rent.
'ks, its cheaper to rent.
In the US, 2 out of 3 people are overweight. High blood pressure and diabetes are growing issues even amongst children. At least for Americans, their dietary lifestyle is terrible and that's one of the reasons why the US is the fattest nation in the world. I tell me wife that I owe it to all the fit, hot girls to take a good look at them when they pass by because they are a dying breed.
With that being said, I first suggest that people drink more water. People tend to drink too many beverages that are loaded with sugar, sodium, and/or chemicals. I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with drinking natural juices, but when you look at the health issues that most people have, Americans could do with a lot less sugar in their diet.
As mentioned by cincibill, try to eat as naturally as possible. In our modern society and because our taste buds have already been conditioned, it is impossible for most people to eat 100% natural 100% of the time. So, like I said, eat as naturally as you can. Personally, I find that breakfast is the easiest to eat 100% natural because that tends to be the smallest meal of the day and social eating tends to occur more with lunch and dinner.
One a side note, I have conditioned my children to eat very natural. I am in awe of them as far as their ability to eat 100% natural and enjoy it. I can't even handle eating as natural as they do.
Try to buy organic food and food that is not genetically altered when possible. Here's a website that can give you some info on that: http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/food/test-your-organic-iq-206/overview/index.htm
Everyone needs to "break the rules" and indulge a little bit. The problem here in the US is that indulging happens more than a little bit.
Also, if you have a wife or girlfriend, I find that if both people in the relationship do not attempt to make a positive dietary change, then the person who is trying to change is doomed to fail. This also applies to friends you eat with. My student Radek eats very health, so it was super easy for me to follow a very health diet when I was in Slovakia with him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiEjUrmB4vQ
I recently switched to a paleo diet with my wife and the results have been amazing. The average American never goes a day in their whole life without dairy,wheat and corn which are all less than excellent foods to say the least.
Thanks a lot for video clip. That guy has a ton of interesting topics that he discusses! I'm definitely going to look into this.
The video clip mentioned above led me to another video clip which led me to another website. This site goes into a really hard core version of that paleo diet in which you eat only raw uncooked natural foods. The only food from an animal in this diet is either sashimi (raw fish) or raw egg yoke. You also mainly eat fruits, nuts, and little to no vegatables.
I'm going to try for 2 weeks and see how it goes. I've already done it for a few days and am surprised how my body has adapted to it just fine. I thought I would be dying of hunger from not eating cooked meat, but I feel just fine. My taste buds have adapted just fine too, mainly because I had already began to eat healthy a while ago.
I'll let you all know how it goes.
That guy is pretty interesting, i have also watched all his vids and read the diet info Bolo posted about.
Mike, where did you get the Sashimi?
I just don't know if i can stomach raw fish, it's just a mental block I'm sure.
Also the diet recomeds 4-5 lbs of fruit a day, seems like a lot but i may be doing that already.
what i found surprising was the recomdation on protein, Take the Zone diet for example Sears recomnds more protein but i wouldn't classify it as a hi protein diet.
Another point that was made i found interesting was an about breast milk and they said it contained 1% protien and talked about a newborn baby that is basically a growing machine, if that's all the protein a baby would need why would we need more, makes ya wonder.
Thats pretty interesting. I guess, Bolo?s addiction to natural food has something to do with his blood type.I am really curious about that experiment, but eating raw fish is big mental block for me as well:(
Radek
I did it with my wife because she was having medical problems that the GI Dr couldn't figure out..."if it doesn't clear up we can give you meds". I asked him about diet and he was ambiguous.
We went Paleo and we have both never felt better.I felt fine before but now I feel excellent.That is a distinction many people will never realize.
Besides anti nutrients like phytic acid wheat also has addictive compounds that mimic opiates.Wheat and sugar also feed gut bacteria that can cause cravings.Ever been full and hungry at the same time?its the grains.
I dont eat as much meat as they recommend and I eat dried,soaked and rinsed beans sometimes.
Grass fed beef is high in Omega3 and low in sat fat while grain fed beef is low in Omega3 and very high in sat fat while also being less healthy.
I propose that it has the same effect in humans compounded by the fact that we eat the grain fed meat as well as large amounts of grain.
www.paleodiet.com
http://www.arthurdevany.com/meals/
this guy has been eating this way for 30 years and is in excellent health
cdog1955,
I only ate sashimi once and I got it from a Japanese restuarant that is right across the street from my house. I'm not a big fan of raw fish. It's not the taste that bothers me, it's the texture. My wife got 3 different kinds of fish and I found salmon and yellowtail more tolerable than tuna. I really didn't like the texture of tuna.
Sashimi is expensive, but the book said that you don't have to eat it frequently as you can use raw egg yokes instead. It said that you only need to eat the raw fish once in while because it has a vitamin that the egg yoke doesn't have. I ate the fish a few days ago and have been going with the egg yoke on all other days. If you put the raw egg yoke (without the bag that the yoke is contained in) in orange juice, you can't even taste it. It just makes the juice taste creamier. My body had no problem handling the raw egg yoke as I have eat that before with certain type of Chinese food.
Radek,
I wouldn't say have an addiction to natural food as I had to condition myself to eat like that. If you remember, a few years ago, I ate and drank a lot of junk. It took a lot of will power and determination to get myself off that stuff. That junk really had addictive qualities! I remember how it used to amaze me to see you eat so healthy.
This natural raw diet does seem to agree with my body. Even before doing this diet, I had figured out that diary and high amount of protein did not agree with my body.
Like I said before, if you can't handle the fish, you can mainly eat the raw egg yokes and I believe the book also talks about what to do if you can't eat fish.
By the way, the funny thing is that the first I have noticed when eating this natural raw diet is that my breath has no negative smell to it. Not only can I feel it, but I had my wife check. When I woke up in the morning, I hadn't brushed my teeth yet. Normally, like most people, I would have nasty "morning breath". When I had my wife smell my breath, she said it was just warm air and had no bad smell to it.
Charles,
The hard core extreme version I am doing can be found at www.freeacnebook.com. In this version there is no meat besides raw fish. No beans either. I don't have an acne problem or need to lose weight, but I just wanted to go as extreme as possible to see what happens to my body in a short period of time.
The author states that no one nowadays can maintian this extreme diet for a lifetime. So the main point is to go hardcore for 2 weeks, see the drastic results and then begin to mix "regular" food back in. When you mix regular food back in, you should take notice of the negative effects (if any) and if you feel any negative effect, then determine whether or not you are willing to live with it.
This thread was a great catalyst for me because it eventually led me to do some research on nutrition that I would not have done. I have been very surprised at what I have found. I can definitely say that I will be making some big changes in the dietary habits for me and my fmaily.
Awesome! I thought you would appreciate the info.I was very surprised as well.
My MBF program has been going great and now I have a much better diet...I am feeling so different its like v2.0!!
One of the big things that surprised me was that people may eat a certain foods for its nutrients, but that certain food may also have certain components that prevent the absorbtion of other nutrients. In addition, what I also found interesting was how over eating certain nutrients causes a loss of other nutrients. For example, I never knew that over eating protein causes calcium loss. Now consider that the average American eats 2 - 3 times the recommened daily allowance of protein (and the RDA amount is already more than what the body needs).
There were some vids in the strength and health forum that were given by a body builder and he stated everyone needs 1 gm of protein per lb of body weight, and some athletes needed 1.5 per lb, body builders need 2 gm per lb.
He broke diet down to building side (proteins), and energy sides which consisted of carbs and fats, then he broke down what types of carbs and types of fats. Pretty interesting.
the Zone also recomends proten in a ratio with body lean muscle mass weight, but not near as much as what the guy in the vids said, so it's seems conjecture on what is best.
Cdog1955,
It is similar in many ways to the bodybuilding diet I would use to get ripped.
The big difference is 1)I would cook the fish, I certainly wouldn't eat it raw in the midwest. 2) I ate a lot of vegetables. 3)I wouldn't eat dairy, wheat, soy, or corn; known as the source of most common food alergies. Eggs were also listed as high occurance of food alergies, but I would eat them cooked. 4) Wouldn't eat wheat or grain since there was little nutritional value per calorie.
Basically I ate lots of fruits, vegetables, nuts; and cooked fish, chicken and eggs. I also found I could not get ripped on the high protein diets recommended by the bodybuilding community, hence toss all those protein powders.
I found its the eating "natural" that has the big effect on me.
cdog1955,
In the research I have done, I have found that the quality of protein is extremely important. The lower the quality of protein, the more you are going to need to consume. The higher the quality, the less you need to consume. In addition, when it comes to bodyweight, each person's body has different percentages of fat, muscle, etc... You can have someone weigh 170 lbs. with 5% body fat and someone weigh the same amount with 40% body fat.
I also am unsure if going by lean muscle mass is the best way. How do you measure how much lean muscle mass you have? Even if you know you body fat percentage, how do you know how much your bones and internal organs weigh? Maybe there is a way to measure that so you can calculate how much lean muscle mass you have, but I don't know what it is.
By the way, I have now been doing the this all natural raw food "Wai Diet" for 1 week now. Besides not having any bad breath, the skin on my face is incredible. I never had a "problem" with acne, but I would get a few pimples here and there. I did consistently have blackheads on my nose though. In the past, if I would extract the puss out of the blackheads, it would be back in 1 or 2 days. I don't have a single pimple and the blackheads that were on my nose are practically all gone.
I've converted my kids to this diet. On the first day, they complained a lot about wanting milk and pasta, however, they got over it pretty quick. They have no problem handling the raw egg yoke.
while i'm sure this paleo diet is an improvement for many, but i think this whole raw food 'movement' is based on a lot of idealistic hope that once you eat this way, you will then be perfect/detoxify etc etc. i don't think this guy in the vid is much of an authority, and i think a lot of the movement is based on flimsy science and fallacious thinking. if you are eating junk all the time, of course taking the junk out and replacing it with a lot of fruits and vegetables will improve your health, raw or otherwise. if these diets help you, more power to you.
demandango,
I'm not sure what flimsy science and fallacious thinking you are referring to, but here are some general scientific facts in regards to nutrition:
To eat natural food is healthier than eating artificial foods.
To eat unprocessed foods is healthier than eating processed foods.
The cooking process decreases and/or alters the nutritional content of food. The more a food is cooked, the more the nutritional content is negatively changed from its original raw form.
An excessive amount of any nutrient will produce a negative effect.
Certain foods contain components that hinder the absorbtion of certain nutrients.
Certain foods contain components that have physically addictive qualities. The more your body eats physically addictive components, the less your body can properly self-regulate intake.
Besides conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, etc..., your body will let you know if certain foods to not agree with it(or you are not eating enough of certain foods) and this can be seen in things like acne, diarrhea, constipation, bloating, excessive gas, lack of energy, headaches, etc....
Yes, all these facts are generalities. However, they are still valid facts. So when it comes to healthy eating, all you have to do is to see how much of what you are eating matches up to these generalities. If you don't know if the foods you are eating fall under certain things I listed, then do some research like I did.
The thing is that regardless of the facts, many people are not willing to give up things they know aren't good for them. Heck, look at all the smokers who know that smoking will give them health problems.
I'm not saying that a person needs to eat all natural and raw in order to have a healthy long life. There are many other factors the contribute to longevity. From my personal observations, I see that we live in age with increase numbers in cancer, heart attack, etc... Even people who eat healthy according to today's government and medical criteria are having these problems. In my opinion, something is not quite right.
My mother was recently diagnosed with cancer. She ate very healthy by most people's standards (not overweight, no high blood pressure, no diabetes, no fast food, no soda, lots of vegetable, very little meat, ran every day, etc..). She said that after she gets this situation fixed, she wanted to go on the natural raw food that I am doing and eat even more healthy. Most people need to fear of death to really eat healthy. For me, I'd rather learn from other people's experiences and mistakes. By the way, I am not saying that eat healthy alone will prevent cancer. I believe eating healthy is just one component in decreasing your chances of getting cancer.
"1. To eat natural food is healthier than eating artificial foods."
maybe if you are speaking extremely generally, yes. but what does this mean. someone gave an example on another thread that there is a much greater incidence of negative reaction to peanuts than to genetically modified food. because something is natural does not make it good. you need to be more specific. eating a genetically modified apple, or even a hot dog, is a lot better for you than eating a perfectly natural poisonous berry.
"The cooking process decreases and/or alters the nutritional content of food. The more a food is cooked, the more the nutritional content is negatively changed from its original raw form."
this is not true in all cases afaik. altering the nutritional content is not bad, decreasing it is, but this does not happen in all cases, nor is it always dangerous or bad, just less efficient in taking in nutrients in some cases. some nutrients are more easily digested when cooked.
"she wanted to go on the natural raw food that I am doing and eat even more healthy"
i don't think that is many cases that raw is better is what i'm saying. some cases it is, some it isn't. on the s&c forum i seem to recall reading that cooked egg was better than raw egg in terms of bioavailability of protein. i'd like to see some published medical studies to support some of the claims the guy in that video is making.
i guess what i'm saying is show me some research. imo, a diet like the zone, where you are taking in a lot of fruits and vegetables and an appropriate amount of protein is better imo until i see research otherwise. if you take a good diet, with good choices of fruits veggies and proteins, i don't think you are going to see a significant (or any) advantage to eating most of it raw. i think the 'raw food' movement is mostly a hippie-ish type fad clung to by people hoping for a magic pill.
i stand by my assertion that a lot of the benefits of the paleo diet occurs when people simply stop eating garbage and replace it with fruits and vegetables.
be cautious of people that talk about 'enzymes' in food, and how cooking kills them- this fallacious thinking could very well be present in the rest of what they are saying.
Man, I knew you were going give an example like the natural poison berry. When was the last time your local supermarket or Wholefoods carried poisonous berries. You know what I mean, so there's no need to go to crazy extremes. As far as peanuts and genetically altered food, there have been no definitive studies on the long term effect of genetically altered food since it has only been around for a short time. In addition, I am not talking about food allergies.
The author of the Wai Diet does talk about how certain foods, even though it is natural, has certain negative effects.
I cannot speak about the paleo diet because what I am doing is different from that diet. The paleo diet is not about eating raw food. The Wai Diet I am doing is in that 400 page free book. In her book, she sites tons of medical and scientific documentation in regards to what she says. Personally, I feel that constantly quoting scientific studies means too much nowadays as it seems like anyone can find a study from somewhere that proves their point. Heck, at one time, there were studies that said smoking had health benefits and some doctors recommended it.
The bottom line is that I ate healthy and did not eat garbage. Despite eating very healthy by all standard criteria, I went 100% natural and I saw an immediate difference in my body. I don't need anyone else's study results because my body was my own experiment and saw the result.
This debate doesn't really matter because even if there was undeniable proof that eating natural and raw was more healthy, 99% people still wouldn't do it.