What should Humans really eat/not eat

[Rosieblue12]

Does anyone else get really confused about all the noise out there about what and how we should and should not eat for health and longevity from all the professionals, Doctors and scientist that all have differing views , conflicting each other, These doctors and scientist on YouTube, Like Dr Ken Berry, he is a Carnivore, eats nothing but meat, eggs and fat, swears by it, so does his wife, eats endless amounts of bacon and butter, and salt, will not touch grain, no bread, no wholegrains, does not eat fruit and vegs, says its not good for us, does loads of research very intelligent, His wife and kids, all healthy and happy, Then there is Dr Brad Stanfield, also very intelligent , does loads of research , swears by the Mediterranean diet, says we should eat lots of fruits and veg, fish, wholegrains, including bread, rice, pasta etc, says limit meat, limits butter etc, what are we meant to believe ?
Just wondering what your thought are.

I don't hink it's particularly confusing as there is massive consensus if you look at reliable sources rather than random YouTube accounts.

Surely it depends. Some people thrive on keto, others thrive on very low fat. Some on meat, others on vegan diet.

I think, cut out the crap that triggers cravings and then listen to your body. I noticed my body wanted a load more dairy when I started weight training - I guessed it was needing extra calcium for increased bone density.

Processed foods aren't ideal. Nor is keto, there haven't been long term studies but I'd assume it puts you at breather risk of bowel cancer and other strain on organs such as the liver. I had terrible rashes when I tried keto.

Greater risk*

I was chatting to a doctor friend recently, she’s surgeon so not exactly nutrition expert, but she is very interested in food and how it relates to metabolic health. She suggested the book, ‘Metabolical’. I started it yesterday. It’s fascinating. I’m not finished yet. I’m getting the gist so far that like pp’s have said, processed food is the enemy. I honestly didn’t appreciate how much. So far the author has mentioned but neither trashed, nor championed the keto, low carb, Mediterranean, vegan & other diets. The key is the processed stuff. The book is fascinating. Can’t put it down.

There is data which suggests that dairy actually causes calcium to leech out of bones. Still researching that.

I’ve been weight training for 9 months (up to 100kg+ on some moves) without consuming dairy/whey.

Way less meat.

We were only originally meant to eat meat about once a month which is why we don't have teeth like a dog or cat.

Our ancestors only caught meat to eat ever few weeks and mostly survived off seeds and fruits etc.

Unfortunately nowadays most people eat meat daily, it's not good for our bodies.

I think keep away from the very processed foods. I eat a vegan diet with not too much processed food and feel good.

I think the best advice I heard was if your great granny wouldn’t recognise it as food then you probably shouldn’t eat it.

ChangingTheChannel, SnoogyWoo : do you despair of all the vegan food products that are much talked about now, like almond milk, oat milk, soy milk, fake meats, tofu ?

@lljkk Tofu should not be in the same category as fake meat. It has been around about 2,000 years.

I eat the same way that Dr Ken Berry and Dr Jason Fung do to help control my type 2 diabetes. If you stay away from processed foods you will fair a lot better because our bodies just aren't designed to eat them. What Dr Berry advocates is clean eating with intermittent fasting. Plenty of water and exercise. I don't consider it a diet but a lifestyle

If a very processed food is old then it's not very processed?

I guess you agree that fake milks & fake meats & a lot of similar vegan products aren't great foods.

I listened to an interesting podcast by the guy who started the ZOE app, I think he’s called Tim Spector.

He was talking about the gut biome, and how to keep it healthy we should aim for eating 30 different plants a week - this includes herbs, spices, potatoes, brown rice, oats - not just ‘fruit and veg’.

We should also avoid UPFs.

I’ve been keeping track of my plant intake ever since and I feel great on it! I have some lifelong stomach issues, and since doing this, the bloating and constipation are so much better. It’s a lot easier than it sounds, too. I’m making a bit of a game of it 🤓

The podcast was Stories of Our Times, and the episode was ‘The New Science of Eating Well.’

Despair? No. I despair at the way animals are farmed though. What is it in particular that you’re getting at?

I have oat milk from your list, sometimes I make my own, sometimes shop bought.

Well I go back the old wives tale.
'everything in moderation'
works well so far for me and my family.

That's as much thought as I can be arsed to put into it.

I try and stick with things we’ve eaten for 10k+ years…….

That includes health. Who wants moderate health if you can have optimum health?

I'd recommend the podcast A Thorough Examination re UPFs.

could you tell me the difference between moderate health and optimum health?

Everything to do witrh diet, you need to ask yourself who is making money from this advice.

We all know that a good diet involves lots of fruit and veg, wholegrains, some protein which might be beans or lean meat and fish, some nuts and seeds or healthy oils like olive oil. Minimal or zero processed, super sugary or fatty foods.

The publishing industry can't exactly sell that every month of every year, so there's a whole industry to make food sound much more complicated than it is. Every new book or series or YouTube star has to claim to have some new secret that will be the thing that makes it easy and wonderful, rather than healthy eating being about sticking to a nice enough but fairly unspectacular diet.

The same happens with baby books too - some new expert claims to have found a secret to weaning or potty training or sleep and everyone goes out to buy the book when really, you need to be kind and compassionate and listen to your child whilst being fairly firm, the end.

I would say the range of foods we eat has shrunk dramatically so staples like potato, corn, wheat and rice make up a huge proportion of what people eat now when previously we would have been foraging all sorts of leaves, berries and herbs - variety is good for you. Processed food and additives are bad for the gut and lead to inflammation that causes ill health.

Wrong, we should certainly be eating that

Everything (in moderation).

Also, beware of anybody who spouts bollox about what we're "meant" to eat or "evolved" to eat.

Nobody who actually understands human evolution would say this.

We've eaten all kinds of foods at different stages, from vege to almost carnivorous.

Earliest human ancestors probably scavenged bone marrow from the carcasses left by better predators. We may have originally developed stone tools to smash open the bones so we could suck out the raw marrow.

Appetising?

You can reverse conditions like arthritis and T2 diabetes with diet. Moderate health would be insulin to regulate after a meal, optimal health would be not needing insulin at all. You can’t remove all risk of cancer, but just like odds of lung cancer are greatly reduced by not smoking, the odds of bowel cancer are improved by avoidance of UPFs and excess sugar.

Optimal health = minimising risks of long term illness which would otherwise limit life (to me).