eat+mostly+plants+EAT


 * what should humans eat
 * eat food (in moderation)
 * eat mostly plants
 * a little meat wont hurt
 * better as a side dish not as a main course
 * eat fresh foods not processed food products
 * food
 * food is fresh
 * no processed products
 * products without health claims
 * low-fat diets
 * thought to protect people from breast cancer
 * the Women's Health Initiative has found no link between this diet and prevention of cancer
 * dietary fiber
 * doesn't really prevent colon cancer
 * omega-3 fats
 * predictions that fish oils will be added to foods and advertised as healthy and able to prevent heart attacks
 * remember the rule stated above (NO HEALTH CLAIMS!)
 * eating a couple of servings of fish every week you can lower your risk of dying from heart attack by more than a third
 * concluded by a study by Harvard
 * confusion about food
 * the confusion has stemmed from food industry, nutritional science, and journalism
 * you need professional help in order to be able to know the truth about what to eat and what not to eat
 * what to eat is the easiest question of nutrition but it has been complicated in order to generate profit for the three parties listed first
 * disappearing food
 * real food began to vanish from the super markets in the 1980's
 * the real food was replaced by "nutrients"
 * not the same thing as real food
 * fiber, cholesterol and saturated fat began to take over the minds of shoppers rather than what the products were made of
 * these facts began to confuse the buyer and trick the buyer into thinking that they were eating something healthy when in reality they aren't
 * nutrients are chemical compounds and minerals in the food that nutritionalists have said to be important to the health
 * eat more of the right nutrients and less of the bad ones
 * allowing you to live longer and avoid disease
 * nutrients
 * have been around since the 19th century
 * English doctor and chemist William Prout identified what are now known as "macro nutrients"
 * protein, fat, and carbohydrates
 * it was though that food was made up of only these things
 * doctors later realized that humans needed more than these three nutrients to survive
 * near the end of the 19th century British doctors were confused by the spread of the disease beriberi in Chinese labor workers
 * generating a large amount of deaths
 * this was confusing because the disease wasn't affecting Tamils of the native Malays
 * the doctors soon cracked the case... these workers were eating "polished" (white rice) rather than rice that hadnt been mechanically milled like the others
 * Casmie Funk (polish chemist) discovered the :essential nutrient" in rice husks that prevented people from beriberi
 * vitamin- the first micro nutrient
 * vitamins brought something new and exciting to nutrition science
 * in the 20th century nutrients over-powered food in influencing the people in what it means to eat
 * no single action is linked to the switch from eating food to eating nutrients
 * in response to chronic disease (heart disease, cancer and diabetes) linked to diet the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition headed by George McGovern- had a meeting on the problems caused by diet and prepared a document called Dietary Goals for the United States."
 * the committee noticed that regions who had kept their diets to mostly plants have had significantly lower rates of heart disease
 * epidemiologists observed that in American during the war years- when meat and dairy products were scarce he rate of heart disease went way down
 * the committee put these two links together and created a straightforward set of diet
 * the only way to create a working system is to have a sound relationship between science and journalism
 * when Americans were advised to a low-fat diet they started loading up on low-fat pork, low-fat Snackwell’s and all the low-fat pasta and high-fructose- making America's obesity rate rise
 * a re-evaluation of these two nutrients was ordered and they decided that fats don't make you fat... carbs d
 * we never did cut down on our consumption of fat though- meat consumption actually increased
 * who is to blame for this confusion and obesity?
 * nutritionism, carbohydrates, and human nature
 * eat more low-far foods
 * low-fat cookies, low-carb beer
 * bad science
 * the ideology can mislead the scientist just as much as the eater
 * the method in studying nutrients is very flawed- it takes the nutrient out of the context of food- the food out of the context of diet- and the diet out of the context of lifestyle
 * even simple food is too complex to to study- the compounds and chemicals are constantly changing
 * scientific reductionism is a powerful tool- but it can also mislead us
 * when the scientist breaks down the food into individual single units and ignores the complex reactions and compounds in food
 * people differ- some can metabolize sugars better than others- it all depends on you evolutionary heritage
 * the ecology of you intestines helps determine how efficiently you can digest what you eat
 * to think of food as fuel is WRONG!
 * people dont eet nutrients- they eat food
 * foods behave differently than he nutrients they contain
 * antioxidants in fresh produce
 * beta carotene, lycopene, vitamin E etc. help prevent cancers
 * they get rid of "free radicals" in our bodies that damage our DNA
 * these nutrients added as supplements to diet don't work... but actually increase the risk of cancer
 * antioxidants found in garden-variety thyme
 * 4-Terpineol, alanine, anethole, apigenin, ascorbic acid, beta carotene, caffeic acid, camphene, carvacrol, chlorogenic acid, chrysoeriol, eriodictyol, eugenol, ferulic acid, gallic acid, gamma-terpinene isochlorogenic acid, isoeugenol, isothymonin, kaempferol, labiatic acid, lauric acid, linalyl acetate, luteolin, methionine, myrcene, myristic acid, naringenin, oleanolic acid, p-coumoric acid, p-hydroxy-benzoic acid, palmitic acid, rosmarinic acid, selenium, tannin, thymol, tryptophan, ursolic acid, vanillic acid
 * we don't know exactly what each of these antioxidants do but we do know that they are good for the body
 * people have the tendency to believe that what we can see is all there is to see... but in reality things are always changing and there are much more complexities to foods and nutrients than even the scientists know
 * we keep finding more nutrients in food the deeper and harder we look
 * another problem with studying nutrients is how we eat the foods and what combinations we eat them in
 * just because chicken acts one what when you eat it alone doesn't mean that your body will react the same way when you eat chicken with a glass of milk, or water, or even a coke
 * we've barely started to study and understand the reactions our body has to foods when they are mixed
 * zero-sum relationship
 * if you are eating a lot of meat you probably aren't eating a lot of vegetables
 * this will explain why people who eat a lot of meat have higher rates of heart disease and cancer
 * drink low-fat milk and eat skinless chicken and turkey bacon- inorder to get the protein out of the meat without getting the saturated fat
 * cancer and disease could be caused by the manufactured hormones in meat
 * you need to eat LESS MEAT and MORE PLANTS!!
 * people who take supplements are healthier than most the rest of the population
 * the health has nothing to do with the supplements
 * recent studies have shown that supplements are worthless
 * low fat diets do not cut health risks
 * switch to low-fat animal products
 * there are a such thing as good fats- you need to know the difference between bad fats a good fats and what types of food they are found in
 * the mere fact that people lie about what they eat make it hard to truly study food and the effect they have on people... it also makes it hard to conduct experiments with accurate results
 * people eat anywhere from a third to a fifth more than they say they do on questionnaires
 * people actually eat on average 3,900 calories a day... not 2,000
 * western diet
 * the western diet consistes of lots of meat and processed food.. a lot of added fat and sugar... just a lot of everything in general (except the things there should be a lot of... grains, fruits, and vegetables
 * the every day American eater trys to eat less of a certain nutrient.... and a little more of another nutrient... depending on the latest trend
 * one problem with control groups is that they are too exposed to the latest trends is that the people are too exposed to the latest trends and tend to change their diet accordingly
 * Americans today suffer from:
 * higher rates of cancer
 * heart disease
 * diabetes
 * obesity
 * nutritionism takes the western diet and isolates the bad nutrients (fat, sugar, salt) and encourages the food industries to limit these products in foods
 * rates of diabetes and obesity have increased in the U.S. while cancer and heart disease rates have slightly lowered
 * in scientists best efforts to understand nutrition and food it has, in reality, made everything more complicated and confusion
 * eating is and always has been a relationship amung the species in the food chain which stretches all the way down to the soil
 * humans and food have to have a mutual adaptation which transforms food into something nutritious and tasty
 * EX: cows milk didnt start as a nutritious product... infact it make humans sick.... that is until the farmers bodies were able to adapt and learn how to digest milk
 * what is health?
 * the result of being actively involved in the relationship between the members of the food chain
 * when one of the links in the chain is unhealthy the rest of the chain is in jeopardy
 * EX: when the soil is poor the grass will be poor in nutrition... the cows who eat that grass will then be poor in nutrition... the person who then eats that meat or drinks that milk will then be ill and malnutritioned as well
 * our health is dependent on the health of the whole food chain
 * health depends on knowing how to read biological signals such as, "this sells rotten", or "this looks ripe," or "this animal looks healthy"... the only problem with this is... the food industries have tricked our senses with processed foods and substances such as artificial flavors, say, or synthetic sweeteners
 * health is based on the relationship between humans and FOODS not humans and NUTRIENTS
 * our bodies do now know how to handle the new substances that have come to existence with processed foods
 * reductionism (the form of science used to study nutrients) used as a way to understand food or drugs isn't harmful... but in "practice" it is capable of leading to serious problems
 * the western diet is:
 * an extreme and increasingly increasing change not only in foods nutrients but also a major change in the relationship with everything involving the meal... all the way down to the soil the food came from
 * modern diet:
 * is a move towards a lot more refined foods... mostly carbohydrates
 * humans have been refining grains since the Industrial Revolution (mainly while flour and white rice) humans have been refining grains to taste better at the expense of nutrients
 * refining grains also allows the food to last longer... making them less attractive to pests
 * refining makes the grains easier to digest by removing fiber the would typically slows the release of sugar
 * fast food
 * fast food is "predigested" and is in return the food is absorbed by the body faster
 * the rapid rate at which this food is absorbed overwhelms the insulin... which leads to type 2 diabetes
 * this new diet and speed of food shocks the body and can even be deadly
 * simplicity of the new diet
 * chemical fertilizers simplify the chemistry of the soil... which also simplifies the chemistry in the food that is grown in that soil.... the quality of crops in America has declined
 * processing foods strips them away from many vital nutrients... which are then added back by "fortification" (folic acid in refined flour, vitamins and minerals in cereal)
 * the variety of foods found in grocery stores decieves the buyer.... they are thinking they are getting variety in their diet... but in reality they are getting exposure to less species
 * food today is mainly made up of four crops:
 * humans historically ate about 80,000 different species... the average American today eats about 3,000 species
 * a real simplification in the food chain!
 * since humans are omnivores (needing somewhere between 50 and 100 different chemical compounds and elements to be considered healthy)
 * it is unlikely that we are able to get all of these compounds from a diet centered around processed corn, soy beans, wheat, and rice
 * we have started to rely mainly on grains
 * they are great at efficiently changing sunlight into macronutrients (carbohydrates, fats, and proteins)
 * these macronutrients are then change dinto animal protien... when the animals eat these grains
 * they are also easily changed into processed foods
 * they can be stored for long periods of time... they have other functions besides just food
 * over supply of macronutrients
 * creates a serious risk for our health
 * diabetes and obesity
 * under supply of macronutrients can be just as bad for humans and can lead to death
 * we are eating more seeds and less leaves
 * there are a lot of crucial microntrients that are hard to get from a diet based on refined seeds and are easier to get them from leaves
 * antioxadants, phytochemicals, fiber, omega-3 fats are all found in green plants
 * omega-3
 * most people associate this fatty acid with fish... whom get it from algae
 * leaves make this fatty acid that our bodies are unable to produce on their own
 * leaves produce omega-6... another fatty acid the body is unable to produce
 * it is very important to have a balance between the omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids- they are very competative with each other
 * omega-3
 * have a major role in neurological developing and processing
 * permeability of cell walls
 * metabolism of glucose and inflammation
 * fast and flexible
 * low levels are
 * omega-6
 * storage of fat
 * rigidness of cell walls
 * clotting and inflammation response
 * sturdy and slow
 * high levels are linked to chronic disease, heart disease, and diabetes, depression and disabilities
 * the ratio of these omega-3 and 6 fatty acids has shifted- omega-3's are less stable than omega-6's they spoil faster
 * industrial meat raised on seeds instead of leaves have fewer omega-3s and more omega-6's than unindustrialized meat
 * if we alter the intake of omega3's we also need to alter the intake of omega-6's
 * industrialization of food has changed the traditional food culture- people have started to rely on information from science rather than culture and their society
 * culture has played a major part in the relationship people have with nature and food
 * they have a lot to say about what, how, why, when and how much to eat
 * food was never made to optimize health
 * 17,000 new food products are made each year- the marketing tools to sell these products has overpowered the force of culture and tradition- and now we rely on science and journalism to help us decide and "understand" what to eat
 * in the end people will get used to this new way of eating... our bodies will learn to adapt and change in order to metabolize the nutrients in the appropriate way
 * but we arent able to do this now because we have rely on natural selection in order to allow the body to adjust.... meaning we would have to allow the people who are sick from the diet (diabetics and obese people) will have to die
 * medicine is preventing these people from dying because we are finding ways to keep these sick people alive... rather than letting them die and have out bodies adapt
 * it is estimated that $200 billion a year go into diet-related health care
 * rules for staying healthy
 * eat food
 * dont eat anything that you great-great-grandmother wouldnt be able to recognize as food (if she cant recognize it... its probably not real food)
 * stay away from foods that have health claims
 * they are most likely to be heavily processed and the claims are usually a stretched version of the truth
 * dont think that just cause a food doesn't advertise itself as healthy... that it isn't healthy!
 * stay away from food that has ingredients that are:
 * unfamiliar
 * unpronounceable
 * more than five
 * that are high in fructose corn syrup
 * dont shop in the supermarkets
 * if you get away from the grocery stores you are bound to find natural foods that are picked at the hight of their nutritional quality
 * pay more and eat smaller portions
 * the American system has now stressed the importance of getting more food for less money
 * the truth of the matter is... real food will cost more but cause it has been grown with more care and less intensity
 * paying more for real food that has been well grown and raised will not only help your health but it will help the soil and the people who grow the food... therefore helping the food chain in general
 * eat less is the hardest piece of advise to take
 * calorie reduction has proven to slow agin in animals and it is believed that it has the strongest link between food and cancer prevention
 * you should eat until you are about 80% full
 * the better quality of the food... the less you need to fill you up
 * eat mostly plants... especially leaves
 * they have fiber, antioxidants, and omega-s
 * you will eat less calories
 * they are less "energy dense"
 * vegetarians are healthier than carnivores
 * eat more like the French
 * eat according to the traditions of culture
 * if the diet wasn't healthy and safe then the people who practice it wouldn't still be alive
 * its not necessarily the nutrients you get from the food that keep you healthy.... its the habits
 * small portions
 * nor seconds
 * no snacking
 * communal meals
 * eating should be pleasurable
 * let culture guide you... not science
 * cook your food
 * plant a garden
 * the kitchen has more knowledge about what you should eat than science
 * it holds the traditions of the cultural eating
 * the food you grow on your won helps your health even before you eat it
 * eat like an omnivore
 * try to eat new species... not just new foods
 * the more diversity of species the more likely you are to get all the nutrients you need
 * diversifying the fields will mean less chemicals (fertilizers and pesticides), healthier soils, healthier plants and animals... and healthier people
 * whats good for the soil is most likely good for you too