[HN Gopher] Effect of Low-Carb, High-Fat Diet versus High-Carb, ...
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       Effect of Low-Carb, High-Fat Diet versus High-Carb, Low-Fat Diet
        
       Author : mikequinlan
       Score  : 40 points
       Date   : 2022-12-13 19:44 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.acpjournals.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.acpjournals.org)
        
       | mattwest wrote:
       | Every time I see some study anchored in dietary impositions, I
       | can't help but wonder:
       | 
       | How have we managed to complicate diet and health so much?
       | 
       | We are humans. We are supposed to move. A lot.
       | 
       | Eat mostly whole food and move. Walk. Walk uphill. Lift if you
       | can. Run if you can.
       | 
       | Buy food in the produce section. Buy food in the meat section (if
       | you eat meat). Buy whole grains. It's not expensive. Maybe it
       | takes time to prepare. Try to find value in that time. Do it with
       | family and friends. There's no food product, diet, or gimmick
       | that's going provide a greater marginal benefit
        
         | fedeb95 wrote:
         | This should be the diet. Let's eat less junk food and we'll be
         | better
        
         | hnuser123456 wrote:
         | And in my case, don't speedrun 100% grubhub for all the 100+
         | restaurants in the college town
        
           | pushedx wrote:
           | I'm an All Tacos% runner myself
        
         | fpoling wrote:
         | Coach potatoes spend approximately the same amount of calories
         | as modern-day hunter-gatherers. The current thinking is that a
         | body has an energy budget to spend. If one does not move, that
         | energy is spent on other things like hormone synthesis.
         | Conversely walking or even running for 5 miles each day will
         | not decrease the weight.
         | 
         | So been overweight is really about eating too much. This does
         | not mean that one should not move. That has a lot of benefits,
         | it is just loosing wright is not one of them.
        
           | mattwest wrote:
           | Having more muscle mass increases BMR.
           | 
           | Having a higher cardiovascular capacity increases the number
           | of potential calories you can burn per hour.
           | 
           | Weight loss strategies that don't include exercise can work,
           | but it is silly to do so. Exercise improves longevity, mental
           | health, and expedites weight loss. All things equal, if you
           | add a 5 mile walk to your daily regiment, you will lose
           | weight faster.
        
             | dualboot wrote:
             | Cool. Glad that works for you. Not everyone can walk. These
             | discussions are always very "me me me" and rarely of much
             | value.
        
               | mattwest wrote:
               | Over 99% of humans can walk. I don't think that's very
               | "me me me".
        
               | dragonwriter wrote:
               | > Over 99% of humans can walk.
               | 
               | Clearly not, even before considering particular
               | disability; average age of children first walking is over
               | a year, and the number of children under 1 is well over
               | 1% of world population.
               | 
               | More relevant to the discussion, though, in the US, 13.7%
               | of adults have a mobility disability with serious
               | difficulty walking or climbing stairs. [0]
               | 
               | [0] https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/disabilityandhealth/infogr
               | aphic-d....
        
               | mattwest wrote:
               | You know what. You are right. This is an excellent
               | critique and I'm quite literally quivering in my boots at
               | the sheer intellectual dominance exuding from your
               | comment. I've learned my lesson and in the future will
               | consider my opinions to be irrelevant and not useful.
               | Please continue enlightening the world with your critical
               | thinking prowess. I look forward to reading your future
               | work.
        
           | wizofaus wrote:
           | Except those that regularly take part in physically strenuous
           | activities are often very much aware that excess weight makes
           | those activities much harder (particularly if you're at all
           | competitive), which provides extra motivation for being
           | concerned with what and how much you eat. Anecdata, yes, but
           | everyone I know that was overweight in the past and has now
           | lost it and kept it off has done so by taking up some sort of
           | sport/regular physical activity (mostly cycling). I don't
           | know anyone who's done so just by dieting alone.
        
         | eastbound wrote:
         | The root cause for a lot of people is being addicted to the
         | sugar hit. And for a reason: We like to perform. At first for
         | baccalaureat, then for exams, then at work. I need my sugar
         | hit, because I love being a good coder, focussed and in the
         | flow. I love feeling clever. Sugar is a bit like cocaine, if I
         | understand well, in terms of the way it works on dopamine. And
         | our society demands a lot from us.
         | 
         | I wish I got into slow living, but I don't have enough
         | friendships to be happy with less work. Vicious circle ;)
        
         | Rodeoclash wrote:
         | We're also fundamentally lazy creatures. Useless expenditure of
         | energy does not promote survival. We're predisposed to do
         | nothing. Couple that with our ability to amuse ourselves with
         | endless entertainment and it's tough to get people moving.
        
         | jibe wrote:
         | "It's not expensive"
         | 
         | Maybe whole grains are not expensive, but the outside walls of
         | a grocery store (produce, meat, eggs, dairy) are very
         | expensive, and have gotten a lot more expensive on the last two
         | years. Especially if you are buying higher end (organic,
         | pasture raised, etc..) stuff. Nuts and seeds, also very
         | expensive right now. Good oils like olive oil also expensive.
        
           | mattwest wrote:
           | https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-022-00588-7
           | 
           | "The percentage of the population who can afford the least-
           | cost diet adhering to food-based dietary guidelines
           | (henceforth 'a nutritious diet') increases from 15% (at the
           | median) in countries with rural and informal food systems to
           | nearly 100% in countries with industrial and consolidated
           | food systems (Fig. 1). We estimate that nearly all residents
           | of industrialized countries and a median of 82% in countries
           | with an emerging and diversifying food system are able to
           | afford a nutritious diet"
           | 
           | Besides, the question is relative to what? What percent of
           | your income is worth spending on healthy food? Put a number
           | on it and then we'll talk.
        
             | jibe wrote:
             | _A recommended diet is considered affordable if it does not
             | exceed 63% of the median income_
             | 
             | 63% of income on food is expensive
             | 
             |  _the question is relative to what_
             | 
             | Relative to the standard American diet, what you are
             | suggesting is expensive. Processed foods may be bad for
             | you, but they are unarguably cheap calories.
        
         | SamoyedFurFluff wrote:
         | I think this works but only in a vacuum. I'm a single human
         | with a humans natural stressors, getting dopamine from food.
         | Food these days are literally engineered to maximum
         | craving/hunger/whatever, with a bunch of ads and marketing also
         | designed by people with literal lifelong studies of how to get
         | people craving junk. Armies of em.
         | 
         | This isn't even talking about what sort of thing forever
         | chemicals are doing to me. No idea what microplastics in my
         | bloodstream are up to.
         | 
         | Im just a dude, my dude. I didn't make the game so hard.
        
           | mattwest wrote:
           | I'm sorry to hear about your loss of free will.
        
             | SamoyedFurFluff wrote:
             | Dude I'm just a guy, I'm not like perfect or anything. I
             | get tired, sleep like crap sometimes, get stressed about
             | money and inflation like everyone else. Sometimes I don't
             | feel like fighting a whole system with armies of
             | psychologists keeping me a lazy consumer or whatever, so
             | maybe some dinners is something out of a microwave or a
             | can. Condemn me, or whatever, for not being so free willed
             | as others here. I'm just not as enlightened I guess.
        
               | mattwest wrote:
               | No one is perfect. I'm sorry for being snarky, but how
               | else can we make meaningful change without starting with
               | personal responsibility. We can't blame big food for our
               | choices.
        
               | SamoyedFurFluff wrote:
               | Im not tying to shift blame, I'm pointing out that this
               | is much less simple than the original poster described.
               | It's no so simple as just walking more and taking the
               | time to eat whole food precisely because there is a
               | broader system designed to keep people fat consumers that
               | should be seriously and skeptically examined for dodging
               | their influences on society. We know cigarette kept
               | dodging their involvement in getting kids addicted early.
               | We know Perdue was lying about how their opioids worked
               | to guarantee addiction cycles. We know the original
               | nutrition guidelines were originally developed by the
               | agriculture department and that several agribusinesses
               | had their thumbs on the scale to skew what was told to
               | the entire nation on how to eat well.
               | 
               | Are those kids who were exposed to cigarettes personally
               | responsible? How about those folks who are addicted to
               | opioids now? And of course all those Americans at the
               | time, they just should've decided against following
               | official nutrition guidelines by their government
               | (assuming they can afford to! Poor kids were fed
               | according to these guidelines in school lunches...)
               | 
               | And that's just the stuff we know about!
        
       | fpoling wrote:
       | The so-called Low-Fat diet still allowed for 20%-30% of calories
       | to come from fat. There are a lot of indications that this is not
       | really low to make a meaningful conclusion. One needs to target
       | max 10%-15% of calories from fat to make a difference.
        
       | JesseMReeves wrote:
       | Maybe ancient nomadic humans ate low-carb / keto in winter (which
       | is why it seems good for using up fat resources efficiently) and
       | high-carb in summer (which is why it seems good for filling up
       | fat storages)?
        
       | nonameiguess wrote:
       | Many comments so far responding with a reader's personal feelings
       | on how all people should eat. This was a study of the effect of
       | these diets _on diabetics_. As such, it 's not a huge surprise
       | that low-carbohydrate, high-fat would come out ahead, given
       | diabetes is a disease that prevents your body from properly
       | processing carbohydrates. The authors here have made no claim
       | whatsoever that anyone who is not diabetic would see any of these
       | same effects and would even want to see these same effects (note
       | that the only thing that might matter here to a non-diabetic is
       | the LDL change, which was worse for the high fat diet). It's just
       | too bad the participants that saw improvement still didn't stick
       | with it and all benefits disappeared 3 months after the
       | intervention was complete.
        
       | maerF0x0 wrote:
       | Note that many of the beneficial effects to blood markers are
       | identical so long as weight is lost. Yes, ad libitum consumption
       | maybe lower on HFLC, but both diets when equated for deficit off
       | TDEE, protein grams, and fiber grams will result in improved
       | blood markers.
        
         | sph wrote:
         | You need to prove that first, it is not a given. Because a n=1
         | counter argument is seeing my triglycerides, blood pressure and
         | heart rate drop significantly in 2 weeks, while still being
         | overweight on a very low carb diet and having lost a negligible
         | amount of weight (can't do much in two weeks).
         | 
         | It is possible that some markers improve as a function of
         | weight, but it is not necessarily so.
        
       | atlgator wrote:
       | Funded by Novo Nordisk, an insulin manufacturer.
        
       | mikequinlan wrote:
       | Effect of Calorie-Unrestricted Low-Carbohydrate, High-Fat Diet
       | Versus High-Carbohydrate, Low-Fat Diet on Type 2 Diabetes and
       | Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease
       | 
       | Result:
       | 
       | The mean age was 56 years (SD, 10), and 58% were women. Compared
       | with the HCLF diet, participants on the LCHF diet had greater
       | improvements in hemoglobin A1c (mean difference in change, -6.1
       | mmol/mol [95% CI, -9.2 to -3.0 mmol/mol] or -0.59% [CI, -0.87% to
       | -0.30%]) and lost more weight (mean difference in change, -3.8 kg
       | [CI, -6.2 to -1.4 kg]). Both groups had higher high-density
       | lipoprotein cholesterol and lower triglycerides at 6 months.
       | Changes in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol were less
       | favorable in the LCHF diet group than in the HCLF diet group
       | (mean difference in change, 0.37 mmol/L [CI, 0.17 to 0.58 mmol/L]
       | or 14.3 mg/dL [CI, 6.6 to 22.4 mg/dL]). No statistically
       | significant between-group changes were detected in the assessment
       | of NAFLD. Changes were not sustained at the 9-month follow-up.
        
         | altairprime wrote:
         | n=165
        
         | chrisco255 wrote:
         | Meaning the diets were not maintained (on avg) after the trial?
         | Can't imagine how difficult it must be to run a properly
         | controlled dietary study. Even if you feed the participants,
         | how can you be sure they're not ingesting additional food
         | outside of the experiment for months on end?
        
           | cableshaft wrote:
           | I did a Keto diet for 4 months and lost 45lbs. Those pounds
           | started coming back quick after I eased off of it (my
           | triglycerides and cholesterol numbers were getting worryingly
           | high). I also found it incredibly difficult to jump back into
           | Keto for any sustained period of time afterwards. Tried and
           | failed within a couple of weeks multiple times, kind of like
           | whenever I try to go off of caffeine.
           | 
           | Been finding just eating lower-carb (not as low as keto, and
           | some days where there have been carb binges) and focusing
           | more on whole foods and not eating high-fat foods and my
           | triglycerides and cholesterol numbers are back to normal
           | levels, and I'm back to losing weight again, albeit a lot
           | slower (down 25 lbs this year).
           | 
           | I know another guy who lost 107lbs off Keto (he was my
           | initial inspiration to try it, in fact) and he eventually
           | went off it and he had regained about half of that when I saw
           | him last (according to him).
           | 
           | I'm sure there are people who have been able to keep the
           | weight off, but it was difficult for me.
        
           | AnEro wrote:
           | Exactly why it is normal that nutritional science is taken
           | with a grain of salt, not cause researchers are slacking or
           | producing bad studies. Just the fact they have data sources
           | with a giant astrix attached.
           | 
           | Imho i think this also plays into the misinformation in the
           | space. It's hard to prove anything and I find I mostly wait
           | for a good meta analysis before putting my eggs in that
           | basket
        
             | BLKNSLVR wrote:
             | Aside: "astrix"?
             | 
             | If intended to be funny, it certainly is. If not, I believe
             | "asterisk" is the word you're looking for.
             | 
             | However, I could see astrix becoming the word of 2023.
             | 
             | Related: https://www.asterix.com
        
           | chasebank wrote:
           | Why not run these trials in a prison?
        
             | chrisco255 wrote:
             | Ha, probably ethics reasons. Plus prisons aren't
             | representative of general population.
        
       | peter_retief wrote:
       | Still so much resistance to the high fat diet. It works and it
       | seems to be way healthier than any high carb diet
        
       | hirundo wrote:
       | > It remains unclear if a low-carbohydrate, high-fat (LCHF) diet
       | is a possible treatment strategy for type 2 diabetes mellitus
       | (T2DM)
       | 
       | N=1 personal non-random uncontrolled experiment: 4+ years of
       | drug-free diabetes control to below pre-diabetic levels via an
       | LCHF diet, regularly measured with continuous glucose monitoring.
       | I suspect that the success rate among self-selected followers is
       | higher than among the randomly assigned.
        
         | coreyp_1 wrote:
         | How did you get the continuous glucose monitoring? I have only
         | found it available through a prescription. (I'm in the US.)
         | 
         | In OTC A1C tests, I reduced mine from 10.6 to 7.6 to 6.0 over
         | the course of 6 months with keto. I wanted to get a continuous
         | glucose monitor so that I could discover if any foods were
         | unwittingly sabotaging my efforts, but I can't find any that I
         | can buy without a formal diagnosis and prescription.
         | 
         | I haven't gone to a doctor yet b/c I don't have a primary care
         | physician and, to be blunt, it's expensive, even with
         | insurance!
        
           | ntonozzi wrote:
           | You can get a CGM from Levels Health
           | (https://www.levelshealth.com/) but it will cost you and I
           | don't think it will be covered by insurance.
        
             | kmonsen wrote:
             | There is also push health, supersapiens and nutrisense.
        
         | readthenotes1 wrote:
         | I have also met adults who control their diabetes with hclf
         | (high complex carbs, 0 to no simple carbs)
         | 
         | I believe that the common denominator is nearly zero sugar.
        
           | hirundo wrote:
           | Agree, and I succeeded with that too, but for a shorter
           | period. As a raw vegan my blood sugar was low, but I
           | developed brain fog and intense cravings after about six
           | months. I believe that path is sustainable for people with
           | lower protein requirements and a healthier digestive system
           | than mine.
        
             | sph wrote:
             | > As a raw vegan my blood sugar was low
             | 
             | Interestingly, as a pre-diabetic zero carber my blood sugar
             | is excellent in as little as a week. Not meaning to make
             | fun of your diet, just observing that what you ingest !=
             | what's in your blood stream, we are very complex chemical
             | machines.
             | 
             | In this case a moderately high carb diet like yours results
             | in low sugar, while a diet with <5g of carbs a day results
             | in healthy sugar levels.
             | 
             | (The reason is insulin. Remove dietary carbs, you generate
             | less insulin, so blood sugar flatlines, with
             | gluconeogenesis to maintain the minimal levels to function,
             | while the rest of the energy is provided by fatty acids)
        
           | hollerith wrote:
           | A carrot, a cabbage, a bell pepper or a butternut squash will
           | contain a significant amount of carbs, all of which is in the
           | form of simple sugars (glucose, fructose and sucrose mainly)
           | so they avoid those foods?
        
             | kmonsen wrote:
             | They come with fibers to offset it
        
         | hollerith wrote:
         | What food or foods have been your main source of fat while on
         | this LCHF diet?
        
           | anonymousab wrote:
           | I'm not OP, but I also adhered to an LCHF diet for ~8 months
           | a few years ago. I found that, early on, maintaining a
           | consistently high ratio of fats was hard, but over time, it
           | simply became a natural aspect of things like e.g. eating
           | normal/non-extra-lean beef.
           | 
           | For the first while I found that using coconut oil or olive
           | oil was a trivial way of adding just pure fat to my daily
           | numbers. Both of them are relatively cheap (though high cal)
           | and can be added to any heated drink like coffee or tea with
           | minimal impact on for flavor. Over time, this just became
           | unnecessary, but it was helpful early on as it was trivial to
           | prep a small container with n grams of oil every morning.
           | 
           | There are also nutrient bars that are explicitly higher on
           | fat and protein and lower on carbs for this very purpose,
           | e.g. 'good fats' bars.
           | 
           | Unlike what others report, while I felt generally good and
           | had energy for day to day things, I simply could not ever
           | work up enough energy for more rigorous cardio or
           | weightlifting, compared to when I'm on a normal/carb-rich
           | diet.
        
           | hirundo wrote:
           | Beef, butter, eggs.
        
         | mountain_peak wrote:
         | N=2 10+ years of ultra low carb diet, but not quite as high fat
         | as the study (obviously a greater percentage of protein). My
         | BMI has been ~18 and I've been a runner my whole life, but
         | (like my father), had neuropathy and 'fuzzy' vision in my 30s,
         | and eventually found out that I was glucose-intolerant with
         | large 'spikes' in my glucose levels after meals with carbs. Two
         | weeks after cutting out carbs, vision fuzziness went away, and
         | pins-and-needles subsided (although I still can't tolerate heat
         | or cold in my feet).
         | 
         | Never looked back. Never went on any drugs, running is slower,
         | but can last much longer. Don't really feel hungry - just eat
         | to my activity level and snacks.
         | 
         | Eating is simple - if it has more than 2g of carbs per serving,
         | then I don't eat it. Only supplements required are chlorides:
         | sodium - that's easy, potassium - from NoSalt, and magnesium -
         | an occasional capsule.
        
       | ablatt89 wrote:
       | I think this is not so surprising, given that the calories are
       | not restricted in the study. High carb, low fat foods I think are
       | not satiating relative to low carb, high fat foods. As an
       | example:
       | 
       | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36051903/
       | 
       | Any type of caloric restriction will improve health outcomes.
        
         | user3939382 wrote:
         | Weight isn't the product of calories in vs out, that's an
         | overly simplistic model that doesn't account for the effect of
         | hormones on how we metabolize different compounds and
         | nutrients. This area of nutrition science is nascent and
         | unsettled, and fraught with research funded by parties with
         | conflicts of interest, but here's for example a pretty good
         | talk that discusses some of the research
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKC3hiyLeRc&t=159s
        
           | Beaver117 wrote:
           | Here comes the CICO cult to lynch you. They never seem to
           | understand that your body regulates its CO by
           | reducing/increasing movement and NEAT, so how can you really
           | measure it?
        
             | mattwest wrote:
             | Maybe you can't consciously manipulate NEAT, but you can
             | control movement. You are literally saying that we can
             | choose to move more in order to offset over-consumption,
             | which is true. NEAT holds a different level of influence
             | based on the individual. Adjust to it or pick an average
             | percent and move on. This appeal to "CICO is
             | oversimplification" is a distraction and excuse.
        
               | Beaver117 wrote:
               | NEAT holds a different level of influence every single
               | day, maybe even hour, based on your body's supply of
               | energy, hormones, and other unknown stuff. Have you ever
               | been extremely fidgety while people next to you are
               | completely still? You would have been burning at least 2x
               | the calories they were in that time.
               | 
               | Basically, its simple and accurate to measure calories
               | in. But almost impossible to measure calories out. So
               | TDEE actually shifts by a couple hundred calories every
               | day. That's small but not insignificant, and explains why
               | some people end up quite underweight and others quite
               | overweight, even if they eat the same foods (over a long
               | period of time).
        
               | mattwest wrote:
               | I'm am quite aware of how TDEE and NEAT work, but they
               | average out in the long run. If you choose to give little
               | credence to CICO, then so be it. I've spent the past
               | decade in various sports which require different
               | bodyweights and body comps, successfully going up and
               | down as needed. I know it works, and it's not unique to
               | me. For some reason I never have these arguments with
               | other athletes. I wonder why
        
           | ablatt89 wrote:
           | I don't think that YouTube cites any sources that show
           | there's scenarios where metabolism is significantly different
           | for net weight and other health outcomes, when it comes to
           | low fat vs low carbohydrate diets. There might be some
           | genetic disorders causing some pathway to be inhibited, but
           | on average, if we want to give generic advice for every
           | individual, I think it's best to say to reduce calories and
           | choose the appropriate method that satisfies your lifestyle
           | and allows you to adhere to the diet, to improve your health.
           | 
           | I don't think it's sustainable to do a keto diet if you live
           | and partake in society. You might encounter many scenarios
           | where food options are carb heavy, and in this case, keto is
           | not an option whereas caloric restriction is.
        
           | mattwest wrote:
           | It's simple enough to be useful and applied. If you continue
           | to reduce your calorie intake, you will lose weight. This is
           | a fact. Build a model to explain weight gain/loss and calorie
           | intake will always be the most influential variable full stop
        
             | maerF0x0 wrote:
             | You're correct with the caveat that the system is not
             | totally static so TDEE tends to decline as the body endures
             | deficits. Therefore it "appears" that CICO is broken... its
             | not, it's just that to keep a static deficit over time you
             | have to eat fewer and fewer calories.
        
             | SamoyedFurFluff wrote:
             | Is it actually simple enough to be useful? We've known this
             | for decades and it hasn't slimmed anyone down
             | statistically. What precisely is it useful for? Because it
             | isn't useful in losing weight... people simply aren't
             | losing.
        
               | mattwest wrote:
               | Total BS. We've known if for forever and the reason
               | "people simply aren't losing" is because they aren't
               | doing a good job of counting. Go ask a fighter, wrestler,
               | runner, or bodybuilder how they manage body weight. They
               | don't do it by tossing a coin into the wishing well, I
               | can tell you that.
        
               | SamoyedFurFluff wrote:
               | Dude I'm not saying it doesn't exist, I'm asking what is
               | it useful for in a statistically significant manner. I'm
               | not really interested in some outlier professional
               | fighters or whatever have to say about it. What fat
               | person doesn't know CICO is real? You don't think they've
               | heard it a million times? Yet statistically we're only
               | getting fatter. Trying the same stuff expecting different
               | results is stupid, and yet we're telling every fatty out
               | there CICO, millions of them, for decades, with nothing
               | to show at a population level.
               | 
               | This is stupid. Thus I'm questioning what CICO is useful
               | for beyond some academic, theoretical sense. Actual
               | applications. Because the application ain't applying.
        
             | rhinoceraptor wrote:
             | This is like saying the way to become financially
             | successful, is to simply earn more money than you spend.
             | 
             | These two explanations are correct, but not particularly
             | helpful, because they are tautologies.
        
       | raajg wrote:
       | The conclusion is in line with Tim Ferris's 'Slow Carb Diet'
        
       | smcleod wrote:
       | Note: Very small sample size (165 participants) of primarily
       | older aged people (mean 56 years), all located in the same
       | geographic region.
        
       | Beaver117 wrote:
       | Yet another useless study clouding peoples minds. Stop eating
       | ultra processed foods, meat is okay, rice is okay, most bread
       | from the store isnt (look at the ingredients). Potatoes are
       | possibly the most nutritious vegetable provided you dont deep fry
       | them in seed oil. Stay away from cheap oils like canola, corn,
       | soybean, safflower. Stick to olive oil, coconut oil, tallow,
       | lard, ghee, etc BUT KEEP IT LIMITED.
       | 
       | No need to go on a restrictive keto or carnivore diet, it does
       | have some benefits yes but you're missing out on variety.
        
         | idlehand wrote:
         | Potatoes are a brilliant food. They're filling, contain an
         | appropriate amount of calories, a lot of nutrients and a lot of
         | potassium which helps balance out all that salt we're eating.
        
           | StephenSmith wrote:
           | https://www.healthcanal.com/nutrition/potato-diet
        
         | CabSauce wrote:
         | Do you have any studies to support your recommendations?
        
           | Beaver117 wrote:
           | No, I learned these myself through trial and error
        
             | SketchySeaBeast wrote:
             | I sincerely hope you spent time on a 100% ghee diet to
             | justify saying you figured this out through trial and
             | error.
        
               | Beaver117 wrote:
               | I certainly did. Can't say anything bad about it.
               | Although now I don't use it much, I don't use much
               | oil/fat at all.
        
               | SketchySeaBeast wrote:
               | I think you're mistaking me, I mean 100% ghee. Only ghee.
        
               | smegsicle wrote:
               | instead of saying something you think is ridiculous and
               | then accusing others of misunderstanding you, why not
               | just say what you actually mean?
        
               | SketchySeaBeast wrote:
               | > I sincerely hope you spent time on a 100% ghee diet
               | 
               | I thought I did.
        
         | sprayk wrote:
         | what is the difference between a processed food and an
         | unprocessed food? what degree of processing makes a food ultra-
         | processed? what ingredients should I be looking for and why?
         | what is so nutritious about potatoes, and why does frying
         | change anything? what is special about seed oil?
        
           | N_A_T_E wrote:
           | Generally speaking, I think of processed foods as anything
           | padded with sugar, salt and/or fat. Food which comes from a
           | factory, not a farm. Processed foods are digested quickly
           | which has issues. They have a high caloric density with low
           | nutrients due to the sugar,salt+fat.
           | 
           | Think candy, chips, soda, bread, cured meats and things in
           | bags. Low in nutrition, high in calories.
        
           | pushedx wrote:
           | One rule of thumb is to be wary of anything not sold on the
           | perimiter of a grocery store.
        
           | piaste wrote:
           | "Processed" is a slightly confusing shorthand for "has
           | undergone processes which either damaged its nutritional
           | properties or added a ton of unhealthy shit for the sake of
           | becoming more appealing and/or easier to preserve and
           | consume".
           | 
           | A chopped apricot or a smoked salmon are in a literal sense
           | processed food, but nobody is referring to that kind of
           | processes. Rather, they're referring to the processes that
           | turn an apricot into a Sachertorte, or a salmon into
           | spreadable salmon-flavoured cheese. Dehydrating, extensive
           | cooking, adding massive amounts of salt/sugar/fats -
           | processes that destroy vitamins and other nutritionally
           | important characteristics and mix the original food with
           | large quantities of unhealthy ingredients.
        
           | Beaver117 wrote:
           | "I know it when I see it"
           | 
           | Just be aware of whats in your food. I don't look for
           | specific ingredients just learn what the makeup of your food
           | is and decide if you should be eating that. Awareness is 80%
           | of the battle.
           | 
           | Boiled/roasted potatoes are really satiating for their
           | calories. But most people associate potatoes with a lot of
           | fat, like french fries or mashed potatoes which make them
           | very high calorie.
           | 
           | Deep frying anything I think should be a special occasion,
           | you shouldn't be having deep fried food every day or even
           | week, it adds a lot of useless calories. Stir frying is
           | healthier
           | 
           | Seed oils (modern oils like canola, invented in 1974) are
           | suspicious. There is a lot of conspiracy theories out there
           | and not a lot of data, but I try to stay away from it. After
           | all we've been using olive oil for thousands of years, no
           | need to stop.
        
         | WillPostForFood wrote:
         | Why is rice ok? It is processed, high carb, low fiber. Good if
         | you are starving, tastes good, but seems like it should be
         | skipped as much as a typical junk food.
        
           | [deleted]
        
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