Ever since I have been studying this nutrition/health connection, I have been finding so many conflicting bits of "knowledge" regarding what to eat.

Some say whole grains are very good.
Some say stay away from ALL grains. (Boy is that ever hard to do)

Some say eggs are good
Some say eggs are bad

Some say red meat is good (like grassfed beef)
Some say to avoid red meat
Some say to eat lots of red meat

Some say legumes (beans) are good
Some say legumes are bad

Some say potatoes are good
Some say potatoes are bad (high glycemic index)

Some say dairy is good
Some say dairy is bad (cheese??? c'mon, how can cheese be bad?)

Anyway, it is very hard for me to discern what is good, bad or indifferent and what I should be eating. The more I read about it, the more confused I become.

Gale

This probably should be in the Humor section Gale. ((just kidding)).

It's so funny how eggs are on and off and sometimes for years at a time. The evil little things. My opinion is that they are a perfect food, unless you have an intolerance.

You forgot coffee. Many studies say that it is good to drink one cup a day. Many studies say it is evil. Actually, that's the same for alcohol.

I don't think cheese is bad at all. Especially the harder cheeses like cheddar. The soft cheeses, like feta, may be bad for those who need to avoid lactose.

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- Jim
https://www.natmedtalk.com/blogs/jfh

i think everything needs to be proportion... My thinking is the closer you can get to all natural, the better.. the less man has messed with it, the better off we are. But I also think it depends on your own body... I think part of the blood type diet is correct. I am a meat eater, I do very poorly on just veggies. I am constantly cold and get alot of brain fog if I dont get my protein. On the other hand, if I eat alot of carbs, my body starts hurting, I have back pain and leg pain and just general feel like crap.. I believe we do eat too much meat, esp red meat... I think everything should be in moderation.... I would like to get to a point where we eat red meat once a week, chicken one day, fish one day maybe legumes one day, and no meat one day. that way our bodies wouldnt be overloaded... I also believe no one should eat processed milk or milk products, if you can get raw, so much better for you. Eggs should be free range organic... preferably from someone you know, and preferably not fed gmo food. I love my coffee, but my coffee hurts my body terribly, and apparently from an article I read, it helped me gain weight. So I am trying so very hard to stay away from it....
I think the biggest thing is that you have to learn to listen to your own body... learn what the foods do to you...learn whats wrong with your body and then learn what you need to fix it...For years I tried to stay away from meat, trying to go vegan... and it hurt my body, I was so protein deficient when I started learning about me, that doctors were shocked I was still walking. My body needs the protein....I am not cut out to be a vegan.... See what your body says about you, and then go from there.

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God is and all is well
~John Greenleaf Whittier~

The perfect diet would consist of lots of fresh organic fruits, veggies, seeds, nuts, legumes, along with organic whole grains, clean filtered water, and decaffinated teas.

The majority of the fruits and veggies should be raw, with some being juiced. The whole grains should be free of fungi.

Foods to avoid include meat, dairy, processed food, sugar, artificial sweeteners, simple carbs, and anything deep fried.

No meat means no animal fats as well.

Eggs and coffee don't belong in this diet.

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Let Food Be Your Medicine And Medicine Be Your Food.(Hippocrates)

See, there are several different opinions already. I will say that I have found that I need protein that I can't get on an all veggie diet. I buy free range, organic eggs, chicken and grass fed beef from a local farm and get most of my veggies from the farmers' market. I don't drink milk very often because I think factory produced milk is pretty worthless. Have been investigating raw milk, but to buy it, you have to buy a share of the cow and then you get 4 gallons a week! I am pretty sure I can't drink that much, but my college age son may be moving back in with me and he can certainly put away 4 gallons a week.

Coffee, yes I drink that, but not too much and I grind my own beans using about 2/3 decaf and 1/3 caffeinated. Starbucks does not know my name. I also drink a little wine. My friends own a wine store and I think they might have to lay off help if I didn't go .

My biggest weakness might be chips and salsa at the local Mexican restaurant. Most of the time, I order ceviche to stay away from the fat.

After writing this all out, maybe I don't eat as poorly as I think I do.

I think you should adhere to Michael Pollan's simple food rules, these are the two main ones:

-- Eat real food, mostly plants. (And try to get as organic and local as possible.)
-- Do not eat products with weird names and food like substances that your grandparents would not have known about.

I think it's good to see how food works with your body. I tried to juice and blend raw veggies but I had terrible bloat and discomfort afterwards. I did a lot of raw veggies and they just weren't digested well. I had to learn that my body needs veggies cooked.

If juiced and blended raw vegetables(especially greens) are making you uncomfortable that is because of general toxicity that you have that is being let out through gas, bloating, etc.

I've just posted a link to a paleo style diet study and really it should be obvious that humans evolved to eat natural foods and not the highly refined carbohydrates, over sweetened, over processed foods that are available in commercially prepared foods in modern supermarkets.

So the nearer you can get to natural foods the better.

If you take the egg issue for example, the fact is that hens evolved to live outdoors eating insects bugs as well as grains and grass, so free range organic fed hens will produce a higher omega 3 eggs than indoor raised grain fed hens. I'm lucky to have a field and the space to keep my own hens but keeping your own poultry for eggs is becoming very popular in the UK.

Bear in mind the points I make in the other post about omega 3, vitamin d3 and magnesium and bear in mind that modern grain varieties (certainly in USA and UK, maybe not so much in France) have been bred to produce higher gluten content (more inflammatory) and more likely to cause celiac or gluten sensitivity, they also contain less zinc, iron, magnesium and copper. Similarly the mineral/vitamin/nutrient content of modern fruit and veg is not what it was even 50 yrs ago. Modern fruit varieties have been bred for sweetness and the fructose content is very much higher than previously and not confident that juicing fruit and drinking lots of it is healthy. Too much fructose.

If I knew for sure that my body was detoxing then I would be more willing to push through some discomforts from raw juiced veggies but from what I've come to understand it is the fiber and cell walls that my body isn't breaking down causing fermentation in my gut.

Thrasymachus, I'm open to hearing what your thoughts are on that.

It does take a while to change your gut flora community. Your current Bacteria population work together to repel new gut flora so it takes a while of being persistent when making changes to continue long enough to get the healthier new gut flora established.

This paper Gut Microbiota and Its Possible Relationship With Obesity may help you understand better why it's important to try to establish a healthy gut flora though they do thrive on the FIBRE in veggies so eating your veggies whole and raw rather than juiced is probably better.

Humans are meant to eat from every food group. That's just it, eat everything...

But humans are meant to eat from nature...from trees, plants and animals. We are only meant to eat from things that are already presented to us by the earth. We are allowed to freely combine these as we please as long as we do not alter them from their original state.

So, basically, don't add synthetic chemicals to food. Don't eat anything that has been altered from nature. It's kinda hard when almost all the foods around us are full of man made chemicals. But try to do the best you can.


Don't EVER stay away from all grains! Whole grains are very good...much better than eating white bread that is half bread half chemicals. You can do a test. Soak a piece of bread in water and throw it at a wall or refrigerator. If the bread sticks to the wall, it's no good. If it crumbles and falls off, it's good. But don't ever think that grains are bad...You need them just as you need every other food group. Some people can't tollerate too many whole grains. I am very sensitive to fiber and I will get the runs from too much of it.


You need protein, you need meat, so eat eggs! Try to get your eggs from organic farms though. Otherwise you are eating eggs from chickens fed with who knows what!

What's wrong with beans? Were they not put on the earth for us to consume? As long as we are on the topic, coffee is a bean. What's so wrong with mixing it in water and drinking it? As long as it's organic...

Dairy????? I know I don't want brittle bones! That should answer that question!! As long as you aren't lactose intollerant...You're told as a kid to drink your milk for strong bones. I love dairy and I've had some pretty hard falls but never broken a bone in my life The only problem is the certain things that people mix into dairy products and also the fact that there are so many hormones in non-organic milk...ICK! I found out why I went through puberty at such a young age!!!!!

Anyway, sorry this got so long, but I hope it helps straighten things out a bit

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Consider: Ametures built the ark, Professionals built the Titanic!

I go by the simple logic of eating what makes me feel the best. When I deviate from this, I get into trouble.

I try to eat real food that people have ate for thousands of years. I eat a high protein diet, with plenty of meat and eggs. Not because any diet tells me to, but because it keeps me more healthy than when I was eating a lot of carbs.

My ancestors did not live in tropical region. Fruit was rare, and likely in the form of berries. Meat and fish was probably a staple, and grains were food eaten when nothing else was available to stave of starvation.

I do eat fruit and vegetables, but they are not the bulk of my diet.

No one diet fits everyone, but everyone can eat real food, at the very least.

Dan

But because plants don't want their babies to be eaten they protect their seeds with harmful substances.

but ignoring the fact that the protective mechanisms plants use to protect their future generations are as harmful as any chemical or pesticide may lead to an increasing amount of illness. We have bred dwarf varieties of wheat that are based on increased yield for the farmer and better milling characteristics for commercial processing and in doing so we have created a A dwarf mutant wheat that does more harm than good

but only if you use TRADITIONAL varieties and FERMENT then in the TRADITIONAL way.
perhaps reading this example of how much preparation and skill has to be done to make some of their food safe to eat

Here is an article on sourdough fermentation to make heritage, not moderm, wheat varieties safer

Indeed modern grains are not comparable with grains we've traditionally consumed after traditional methods of milling and fermenting. Modern wheats do not contain the same amounts of mineral like magnesium, zinc, copper, iron either that boost our immune system and help us deal with inflammation.

I don't think the mother bean plant wants her babies eaten any more than you do.
That is why beans protect their future generations and why if we want to consume their babies we should prepare those bean babies carefully to remove the antinutrients, particularly phytates and enzyme inhibitors, the bean parent puts into the seed to prevent predation.

[QUOTE=Ted_Hutchinson;173600]It does take a while to change your gut flora community. Your current Bacteria population work together to repel new gut flora so it takes a while of being persistent when making changes to continue long enough to get the healthier new gut flora established.

Would eating yogurt daily be enough to create a healthy gut bacteria? Homemade yogurt from grass-fed cows?