What is the healthiest diet you could possibly eat? (as a general consensus)

Cordain wrote:

And there are no plant foods that provide complete proteins and BCAAs in reasonable quantities. To get 100g of protein a day from, say, nuts, your caloric intake would be in the thousands. And if you say soy, I will probably put my fist through my computer.

This is interesting but what about quinoa? That's a complete protein and is more closely related to spinach I think than anything else.

I have been waiting for a message board like this! Primal is the way to go. Vegetables, meat, fat, and water. Its that simple. I have been eating primal for a year now. Vegetables: mainly spinach, and broccoli. Meat: grass-fed unprocessed. Fat: coconut oil, fatty fish, animal fat. I am in a state of ketosis and running strong. I am 6' 145lbs running 100-140 miles a week with a marathon PR of 2:27. Took months to convert my body to use fat as fuel instead of glucose. I have never been injured in a year, never been sick, cured my chronic disease, sleep less, and have more energy and power on all my runs. Primal is the way to go!

Nice! Minus the diary, fruit, and potatoes. Eat natural and cook your own food is the best way to go!

J.R. wrote:

The discussion is about adding NO SALT TO FOOD, not about sodium that is ALREADY CONTAINED IN THE FOODS I have listed.

Adding SALT, i.e. SODIUM CHLORIDE to food is a stupid idea.

I don't care what Bekele said, if he said that, or what any other rich people do. I said Kenyans and other Top Africans don't eat any SALT. All people make mistakes. The point is that in the regular Kenyan and African diets they DO NOT ADD ANY SALT to their food and they don't add any spices or condiments either.

Why do you think this? Have you ever actually eaten African food?. Africans do use salt in their food, and of course they uses spices.

"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

Yes, when you hear these guys talk about phylates and whole grains, it should be a red flag. These claims come from quacks/people that don't know any better.

Primal wrote:

Nice! Minus the diary, fruit, and potatoes. Eat natural and cook your own food is the best way to go!

Eating a diary is not advisable. Your body will likely be unable to digest such a thing.

Quinoa? wrote:

This is interesting but what about quinoa? That's a complete protein and is more closely related to spinach I think than anything else.

thought keenwahh was a seed more than a grain

Why are people so anti dairy?

Numerous people have been saying they limit his or hers dairy consumption, but I havent heard anyone explain why. A few have said its a more recent addition to our human diet or that it isn't essential, but that doesn't mean dairy can't be beneficial.... right?

2 things wrong with Dairy. 1. it is made from grain fed animals, and it is made at high temps to kill all the good bacteria. 2. It is highly acidic in the body. Your body has to leach vitamins and minerals from your bones like calcium to neutralize the acid and balance your PH.

So whats the best way to help your stomach on runs? For as long as I have been running (14 years) I've struggled with stomach issues especially after a long run. Sometimes I can feel it sloshing around even though I've pooed before hand and not eaten within 3 hours before the run. When I'm done running I'm farting like crazy and my poops are like starting a dry garden hose with tons of air in it. I'm sure every runner has encountered this before but I get it regularly. Sometimes it gets bad enough that I cant run the following day. Any good advice would be helpful.

Eat The Sun's Energy wrote:

I didn't say anything about raw. I try to eat raw as much as I can, but definitely enjoy my veggies cooked for big meals.

I don't count calories, but my typical diet looks like this:

Breakfast: Banana or fruit smoothie (made with almond milk) and sometimes a pb&j or pb&honey sandwich

Lunch: Big salad

Afternoon Snack: Plate of mixed veggies

Dinner: Some type of vegetable dish (roasted root vegetables last night, vegetable curry as another example)

I also snack on a bag of mixed nuts throughout the day.

I have no idea if that is 70% of calories from veggies, but I figure about 70 to 75% of the food I put in my mouth is from a vegetable. And >95% from a plant.

I run about 70 mpw average and feel great.

Root vegetables are included as vegetables, then that makes more sense (if you mean tubers). I don't think of yams as vegetables.

I could never exist on so few calories. Are you a girl? (I don't mean to offend with that question, it just wasn't clear) I am already 6% bodyfat and can see every vein in my body. When I was eating sandwiches for lunch, I would eat 4, at a time not 1. Do you have any muscle tone?

Always supplement your diet with a copious amount of cheetos.

Azaleas wrote:

If you're a Celiac you can't drink beer ever - you'll get sick - so I'm not clear on what your problem with gluten is.

While there are some anti-nutrients in grains, they don't actually inhibit nutrient absorption to any significant degree. They are also very clearly associated with lowered risk of heart disease - see here:

http://www.ajcn.org/content/70/3/412.short

"After adjustment for age and smoking, increased whole-grain intake was associated with decreased risk of CHD. "

- and are a good source of a number of vitamins which the body is perfectly capable of absorbing.

If you have some evidence that eating grains is linked to any healthy problem among healthy people, please post it.

There is such a thing as sub-clinical sensitivity. Just like people can have subclinical hypglycemia without being diabetic (or sub-clinical iron deficiency without being anemic). It isn't celiac or nothing.

For me, I existed constantly with a stopped up nose and the feeling of nasal drainage down my throat every night trying to sleep. I just thought this was normal. When I cut out dairy and grains, it has stopped. When I drink beer, it comes back (as does some degree of, let's say, loose stools), but I live with it for an occasional beer. I was eating probably half my calories as wheat easily before I went more toward paleo principles. Between wheat and dairy, 90% of my calories for sure (I used to rarely eat meat).

And I am again going to say "associated with lowered risk" isn't causation - it means people who tend to eat whole grains, in our society, are tending not to eat other things. This is the curse of epidemiological research in nutrition - constantly mistaking correlation for causation (see Gary Taubes multiple NYT pieces on diet and the bad research designs that led to "associated with" being taken for causation). In our fast food culture, if you are eating alot of whole grains, you are probably not getting too much sugar and saturated fat.

I used to eat a fair amount of quinoa when I was in transition and I think the paleo folks debate it.

My opinion is NOT that everyone should eat paleo (anyone who thinks I am saying that isn't reading what I write). If what you are doing is working for you, why change it? I think there is a subset of people who function better with lower carb diets and have a subclinical intolerance to dairy and wheat.

You don't need to eat more carbs that can be stored as glycogen. Any extra is turned to fat. But if you have a strong insulin response and it is consistent, no big deal. But if you have a weak insulin response and low satiety chemical reponse to carbs, why not just eat the fat directly?

gn1tmac wrote:

thought keenwahh was a seed more than a grain

All grains are seeds, not all seeds are grains. However Quinoa is not a member of the grass family and is sort of a pseudo-grain. It is related to beets and spinach.

slapfoot wrote:

Why are people so anti dairy?

Numerous people have been saying they limit his or hers dairy consumption, but I havent heard anyone explain why. A few have said its a more recent addition to our human diet or that it isn't essential, but that doesn't mean dairy can't be beneficial.... right?

I'm not presonally anti-dairy but I am lactose intolerant, as are a huge percentage of the population. I can (and do) eat some amount of dairy such as yogurt and hard cheeses which have none or greatly reduced amounts of lactose.

Phytic acid inhibits the absorption of minerals. Are you familiar with PubMed? Use it.

You think you would be less healthy if you got rid of gluten/phytic acid containing grains and replaced them with sweet potatos and yams (and generally cut your carb intake if you are over 60% of calories from carbs)?

My opinion on dairy is if you absolutely have no allergy symptoms from casein or lactose, it is probably no big deal to eat dairy. I don't think it needs to be a "food group" that we need for daily nutrition though.

Casein has been "associated with" higher cancer risk, but I am not sure the studies are all that great in showing causation. Look it up. Everyone should learn to use PubMed.