=food =suggestion =health
There are a lot of people on the internet with nutrition
advice, and most of it is bad. Why would you trust nutrition advice from me?
I know the aesthetic design of this site is amazing, but that's still not a
good enough reason.
I suppose someone could have read my chemistry
posts and been impressed by them. That would be a legitimate reason. So, you
should go read my
post on molecular toxicology, and come back here if you understood it.
If you have not read and understood my chemistry posts, the correct
thing for you to do would be to ignore my advice, ignore nutrition advice in
mainstream media, and try to eat traditional meals that were prepared 400+
years ago.
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1) Avoid trans fats.
People were once commonly told that margarine is healthier than butter,
but no, hydrogenated vegetable oil is bad. Trans fats are very bad. Don't
eat anything containing hydrogenated vegetable oil.
(Don't drink
things with brominated vegetable oil either, but that's a separate issue.)
2) Eat some starch, some protein,
and some fats.
Like many people, I was taught by
teachers and media that a low fat diet is healthy, but no, that's bad.
People who avoid fats are less healthy. Have some fats. You could consider
using a mix of olive oil and red palm oil.
Humans obviously need some
protein, but eating mostly protein is also bad, because of things like high
nitrogen levels.
So, while the exact amounts don't matter, you should
try to eat some starch, some protein, and some fats.
3) Eat your vegetables.
Photosynthesis generates a lot of free radicals. Leaves have stuff to
prevent damage from those. If you eat the leaves of certain plants, you can
absorb their power!
So, eat some lettuce or gai lan or something
every day. Bitter melon works too.
4) Don't spike your blood sugar.
High blood sugar is bad. High fructose levels are somewhat worse than
high glucose levels. So, don't eat a piece of cake while drinking a liter of
soda sweetened with high fructose corn syrup.
5) Don't drink much soda.
Drinks would not be carbonated if it wasn't somehow important. Normally
people stop eating sugary things instead of having too much sugar at once.
Carbonation interferes with that, and some soda flavors may have a similar
effect. This may happen because prehistorical humans needed to eat
fermenting fruits before they became inedible, but really the reason doesn't
matter.
So, don't drink much soda. If you do drink some, prefer types
with sugar to types with HFCS. The prevalence of carbonated sugary drinks is
one of the main reasons why Americans are fat.
6) Don't worry about aluminum cookware or MSG.
MSG is a sodium salt of an amino acid. Amino acids are
obviously fine, and sodium salts don't matter.
This should be
obvious if you understood my chemistry posts, but I think it's a good
example of the current state of nutritional understanding.
Some
things are bad because they catalyze bad reactions in cells; aluminum lacks
the higher orbitals necessary for that.
But high levels of soluble aluminum
are bad for plants; this is a main reason why some plants don't grow in
acidic soils.
The problem is aluminum binding to cell organelle membranes
causing leakage leading to oxidative stress.
In humans, this can happen
with mitochondria membranes, causing the same basic problem.
But unlike plants, humans have circulating
blood filtered by kidneys.
If your kidneys don't work, then aluminum is a
problem. But normally it's not.
Also, only a small % (0.1–0.4%) of aluminum eaten is
absorbed, although aluminum bound to citrate or lactate is absorbed somewhat
more (0.5–5%).
There's a bunch of aluminum in dirt anyway, so it's not like humans
weren't exposed to aluminum before aluminum cookware.
Here is some data from animal studies of high aluminum doses. It only
seems to be a problem when there's too much for kidneys, or if there's
direct brain exposure.
Anyway, while drinking a can of aluminum
citrate/lactate is probably a bad idea, a few micrograms of aluminum from
cookware isn't a problem.
However, it could potentially be
somewhat bad to consume aluminum hydroxide containing antacid together with
food or drink.
Sometimes aluminum salts are added to vaccines to increase
immune response via
causing general inflammation at the injection site.
Some people have
been concerned about that aluminum exposure, which (being smaller but
injected) is comparable to the exposure from an aluminum hydroxide antacid
taken without food/drink.
Because locally high levels of aluminum are
captured by
phagocytic immune cells, the effects of injection are somewhat different than
dietary exposure.
But anyway, aluminum cookware isn't a problem.
7) Have a medium amount of salt.
Like many people, I was taught by teachers and media that a very low
sodium diet is healthy, but no, that's bad. You should have a medium amount
of sodium. If you want some salt, have some salt. If you don't want some
salt, then don't have more salty food. I understand that this concept may
seem radical, but I guess you'll just have to trust me here.
8) Respect traditional meals.
It's generally better to eat meals that were commonly prepared 400+
years ago than more modern meals.