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0 sats \ 10 replies \ @Undisciplined 5 Sep \ parent \ on: Returning to SN after a break, with a new nym. mostly_harmless
It doesn't have to be all or nothing. Let us know what you decide to do and why. I think there's a lot of interest in this stuff.
Yeah, balance is key. There is plenty of scientific evidence for that. The Mediterranean diet has proven it's worth too.
If you wanna go extreme, fully carnivore for instance, you're basically relying on anecdotical evidence. You're a guinea pig as science hasn't fully grasped the effects of such extreme diets in the long term. Not saying there aren't benefits, just that things aren't clear yet. And you just seemed to have experienced some of the disadvantages of such a diet.
I prefer sticking with what is known to work.
Cutting out most processed food and sugars is probably the best thing you can do.
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There's a whole chapter in the book The Big Fat Surprise about the Mediterranean diet. Very interesting, how the whole idea came about (to support olive oil producers) and how research has been twisted to support it. It appears that much of the research that shows benefits for the Mediterranean diet is because it's very low sugar.
I definitely agree that no processed foods or sugars is far better than the SAD (Standard American Diet).
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Cutting out most processed food and sugars is probably the best thing you can do.
This is usually my advice to people. I'd probably add seed oils to that list now, although you have to know which ones are actually a problem.
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I found it easier to cut out processed food on a carnivore diet.
After a huge steak, you have enough fuel for many hours, and there is no room left for anything else. It's like doing an intermittent fast, and I suspect this is why it works, at least initially.
This is harder to achieve with a plant based diet during the winter times, and probably explains why many vegan influencers on Youtube tend to move to warmer climates to maintain their lifestyles
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It's interesting that you feel that way about a vegan diet. My favorite vegan meals are more winter than summer foods. We eat a lot of hot soups and curries, which are quite filling.
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Interesting. If I'm not mistaken, this looks similar to what the late Dr. Mc Dougall used to recommend. I have found one of his books in my bookshelf a few days ago, and will reread it for more inspiration.
Tbh, I was actually more fruitarian/raw-foodist. I usually just say vegan, because fruitarianism and rawfoodism are quite niche, and most people i know have never heard of it.
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I've heard of pretty much any fringe health thing you could name. I get the idea behind raw, but fruitarian never made nutritional sense to me. That said, the only fruitarian I've ever met was in great shape and extremely active, so maybe it's just my lack of understanding.
I can definitely see why that diet would be more of a summer thing.
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Arnold Ehret, who lived in the early 20th century, was one of the biggest fruitarian influencers. He was also in excellent physical shape, and was able to reverse chronic disease with his lifestyle.
Most of today's fruitarians are direct or indirect "disciples" or followers of his teachings.
He's written several books, and I've read two of them: one, on fasting, a fascinating book, the other one, about what he termed "the mucusless healing diet system" where he advocates for a fruitarian diet and fasting regularly to "cleanse" the body. He was against meat consumption, that he claimed causes mucus formation (inflammation) in the body.
He was a bit of an "extremist" with fringe ideas, and in a way reminds me of today's carnivore advocates who claim that plants are toxic for the body and should be avoided.
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Both of those diets make it really obvious that the conventional understanding of nutrition is very lacking, because there are a bunch of "essential" nutrients that are basically absent from them.