Diversity In Diet May Be Hurting Us All

[Zachs]

post 117936

post 117934 Beets have never agreed with me either. Why were you eating pounds of pistachios a week? That makes me cringe as much as my friend that eat 3+ avocados a day.

I also ate 1 or 2 avocados a day.

Because I was being stupid.

Yikes! The people I know that are in the worst health are on the pufa train. They all love hummus, nuts, avocado, etc. There's this hummus at work made with flax oil and it's like 5000 calories a tub, almost all fat and these people are eating like half a tub a day, thinking it's healthy.

 

[tallglass13]

I agree with a low fat starch based diet that includes fruits and some animal food like yolks and scallops...I love rice however isn't there a post by Haidut that says it blocks 5 alpha reductase... Thus the reason Asian men have no body hair and I hate to say it but possibly shorter penises...

 

[Zachs]

post 117977 I agree with a low fat starch based diet that includes fruits and some animal food like yolks and scallops...I love rice however isn't there a post by Haidut that says it blocks 5 alpha reductase... Thus the reason Asian men have no body hair and I hate to say it but possibly shorter penises...

Most likely it's from the massive soy consumption.

 

[nikotrope]

post 117983

post 117977 I agree with a low fat starch based diet that includes fruits and some animal food like yolks and scallops...I love rice however isn't there a post by Haidut that says it blocks 5 alpha reductase... Thus the reason Asian men have no body hair and I hate to say it but possibly shorter penises...

Most likely it's from the massive soy consumption.

Most soy products are fermented and not as bad as tofu. I think it's the combination of soy products (including oil), tea and rice that will most likely be a problem. Add alcohol to the mix also.

 

[Zachs]

post 118031

post 117983

post 117977 I agree with a low fat starch based diet that includes fruits and some animal food like yolks and scallops...I love rice however isn't there a post by Haidut that says it blocks 5 alpha reductase... Thus the reason Asian men have no body hair and I hate to say it but possibly shorter penises...

Most likely it's from the massive soy consumption.

Most soy products are fermented and not as bad as tofu. I think it's the combination of soy products (including oil), tea and rice that will most likely be a problem. Add alcohol to the mix also.

They eat a lot of soy products, not just fermented stuff but the actual beans and hard tofu as well as the sprouts. Yes green tea I'd probably also a factor.

That said, it took thousands of years of adaption. They are also very small stature so smaller penis' would just be a part of that. Small stature could come with eating less calories total. It certainly doesn't effect their overall health, vitality and we'll being.

 

[bipolarguy]

From the early 90s(43) until 2008(58) I followed a vegetarian diet; nearly vegan, consuming lots of soy, beans(including hummus), eating flaxseed or taking flax oil, lots of fruit and salads, using olive oil in the dressing and eating lots of raw honey. I worked in a high stress job, slept good, had a strong, youthful libido. In 2008, being mad at my wife for many reasons, amongst them, her need to control, including what I ate, I ceased being a vegetarian and began eating fish and chicken. Over the years, my sexual function has virtually disappeared and my food sensitivities and overall immune function have declined. I'm not making a quick conclusion and I think Ray Peat is brilliant, but am I one of these people with an odd genome that responds well to a vegan diet and isn't negatively impacted by high PUFAs? I just know that in sexual function, at 53, I was more like I was when I was 30. I can't explain why I felt better on a diet that would tend to inhibit metabolic function. And with my health in decline, I need to review and analyze everything with an open mind.

 

[milk_lover]

From the early 90s(43) until 2008(58) I followed a vegetarian diet; nearly vegan, consuming lots of soy, beans(including hummus), eating flaxseed or taking flax oil, lots of fruit and salads, using olive oil in the dressing and eating lots of raw honey. I worked in a high stress job, slept good, had a strong, youthful libido. In 2008, being mad at my wife for many reasons, amongst them, her need to control, including what I ate, I ceased being a vegetarian and began eating fish and chicken. Over the years, my sexual function has virtually disappeared and my food sensitivities and overall immune function have declined. I'm not making a quick conclusion and I think Ray Peat is brilliant, but am I one of these people with an odd genome that responds well to a vegan diet and isn't negatively impacted by high PUFAs? I just know that in sexual function, at 53, I was more like I was when I was 30. I can't explain why I felt better on a diet that would tend to inhibit metabolic function. And with my health in decline, I need to review and analyze everything with an open mind.

Maybe the inhibited metabolism kept nutrients replete.

 

[bipolarguy]

Is that positive or negative? I did go on to develop hypothyroidism but that's also seen in higher numbers in people with bipolar illness, so its emergence might not have been related to diet, though I don't know. I'm tempted to return to a vegan diet, including the raw honey, in order to confirm or rule out either a beneficial or detrimental impact. Given my situation, I feel I owe it to myself. I'm already a scientist without portfolio, so it would be another experiment in a long line of experiments!

 

[Peata]

From the early 90s(43) until 2008(58) I followed a vegetarian diet; nearly vegan, consuming lots of soy, beans(including hummus), eating flaxseed or taking flax oil, lots of fruit and salads, using olive oil in the dressing and eating lots of raw honey. I worked in a high stress job, slept good, had a strong, youthful libido. In 2008, being mad at my wife for many reasons, amongst them, her need to control, including what I ate, I ceased being a vegetarian and began eating fish and chicken. Over the years, my sexual function has virtually disappeared and my food sensitivities and overall immune function have declined. I'm not making a quick conclusion and I think Ray Peat is brilliant, but am I one of these people with an odd genome that responds well to a vegan diet and isn't negatively impacted by high PUFAs? I just know that in sexual function, at 53, I was more like I was when I was 30. I can't explain why I felt better on a diet that would tend to inhibit metabolic function. And with my health in decline, I need to review and analyze everything with an open mind.

Possible this was due to immunosuppresive effect of pufa ...?

 

[DaveFoster]

Possible this was due to immunosuppresive effect of pufa ...?

This.

It's like ketosis. People feel great at first, but then they shut down and go into a metabolic coma or just become angry at everything.

 

[Zachs]

Obviously you should switch back if it made you feel good. Ditch the flax though.

 

[Stryker]

I agree with a low fat starch based diet that includes fruits and some animal food like yolks and scallops...I love rice however isn't there a post by Haidut that says it blocks 5 alpha reductase... Thus the reason Asian men have no body hair and I hate to say it but possibly shorter penises...

i think i have read that study it seems like it only applies to brown rice , the level of linoleic acid in the "rice bran extract" correlated with the degree of 5-AR inhibition.

anyone please correct me if im wrong bcos i eat about 3 cups of rice a day

 

[DaveFoster]

@Stryker
I find it hilarious that you've been a member for 3 years, and you've averaged around five posts/year.

 

[Stryker]

@Stryker
I find it hilarious that you've been a member for 3 years, and you've averaged around five posts/year.

ive spent the 4 years learning and experimenting everything with thing i can about Ray's and like minded ideas , i think i have been on this forum everyday browsing topics.

just never got around to posting much until i had something valuable to post

 

[tara]

Is that positive or negative?

Might have short-medium term survival value when generaous nutrition is not available/supplied, but it might be better to supply enough nutrition to support a higher metabolism.

 

[milk_lover]

Might have short-medium term survival value when generaous nutrition is not available/supplied, but it might be better to supply enough nutrition to support a higher metabolism.

This.

I think slowly raising metabolism while providing enough nutrition is the way to go. High metabolism means self healing.

 

[bipolarguy]

Thank you, all, for your insights and opinions. Prior to going vegetarian, though, I ate meat, liver, chicken, fish, vegetables, fruit, olive oil, rice and rice flour products, beans, nuts and orange juice, I consumed no dairy, eggs or wheat, due to extreme food sensitivities based on allergy tests I had when I was 20. For all I know, the resolution to my digestive and immune problems might be simple, such as starting back on NDT.(Thiroyd) We'll see.

 

[achillea]

white refined rice is more digestible to me than most starches. And it doesn't contain toxins such as potatoes do.

White Jasmine and Sushi rice are the easiest to digest and the least liable to ferment in the digestive tract.

 

[ecstatichamster]

https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1161/CIR.0000000000000595

Not a study, but a paper that contains studies to the effect of what I suggested in this thread. Reading the threads recently about the longest lived people, you see that they always ate the same foods as a matter of habit. Maybe that is the key to living a long healthy life.

Or maybe someone who doesn’t always crave novelty in their diet is less stressed out in every other aspect of their life, and therefore low dietary diversity CORRELATES with longer life for the reason of a more relaxed, less stressed out person in general...

Or maybe the less diverse diet gives your gut a chance to adapt, and lets your metabolism create enzymes in the proper ratios to meet an expected nutritional load again and again and again...as opposed to having to adapt continually to novel foods.

So with that here is the abstract. If you click on the link above you can get the full study as a PDF free.


Abstract
“Eat a variety of foods,” or dietary diversity, is a widely accepted recommendation to promote a healthy, nutritionally adequate diet and to reduce the risk of major chronic diseases. However, recent evidence from observational studies suggests that greater dietary diversity is associated with suboptimal eating patterns, that is, higher intakes of processed foods, refined grains, and sugar-sweetened beverages and lower intakes of minimally processed foods, such as fish, fruits, and vegetables, and may be associated with weight gain and obesity in adult populations. This American Heart Association science advisory summarizes definitions for dietary diversity and reviews current evidence on its relationship with obesity outcomes, eating behavior, and food-based diet quality measures. Current data do not support greater dietary diversity as an effective strategy to promote healthy eating patterns and healthy body weight. Given the current state of the science on dietary diversity and the insufficient data to inform recommendations on specific aspects of dietary diversity that may be beneficial or detrimental to healthy weight, it is appropriate to promote a healthy eating pattern that emphasizes adequate intake of plant foods, protein sources, low-fat dairy products, vegetable oils, and nuts and limits consumption of sweets, sugar-sweetened beverages, and red meats.

 

[S.Holmes]

this doesn't make sense to me because so many long lived people eat starch and don't seem to suffer.

I just listened to an interview Haidut did where he mentioned starch. It doesnt cause leaky gut, but if you already have a compromised gut starch could be a problem. I crave starchy foods and seem to feel better on them.