Discussion: Diet

What is it currently? It might just like a little tweaking. Like adding a full Irish breakfast ;)

Porridge with milk and fruit for brekkie, leftovers or bought lunch (probably the problem), then meat/fish plus veg with couscous or potatoes for dinner. Some pasta, but not great amounts. Rubbish snacks.

So... I should preface this by saying that most of the hunter-gatherers I know have pretty terrible diets, even the ones who live traditionally. It doesn't make sense to me to just pick one aspect of diet (the paleo-thing) without also recognising the metabolic differences between people who spend an awful lot of the day looking for food and those who spend an awful lot of the day in front of a bench or computer.
From what I've seen, you eat pretty healthily (though my sample is biased, since I've seen what you eat at our place!), so maybe start by cutting down the caffeine, beer and snacks?

... or replacing them with raisins, nuts, dates...

Or you could try heavier breakfast and lunch and lighter dinner, see if that makes a difference.

Earlier this year I read a couple books by Gary Taubes and some other HFLC diet-related stuff. Taubes is rather convincing on the "processed foods are the root of all evil" because insulin response argument. Basically, people are getting sick, or feeling rotten, or getting fat because their bodies don't know how to handle the massive influx of grains and table sugar (that we all eat because agriculture). And everyone handles it differently, of course, since it hasn't been honed by natural selection, agriculture being so new (and, apparently, incredibly evil). I think he makes a lot of good points, and acknowledges that there is not yet tons of science backing him up - but also that there's tons of science that *doesn't* support the current thinking (that high carbohydrate/grainy diets are the healthy way to go).

Anyway, with regards to the paleo diet, the scientist in me thinks it's silly to rule out or include a food *just because* it is or isn't modern. But the basic idea seems to jive with where the science seems to lean. How's that for certainty? ;-)

Jeez, what was the question? I'm not good at this focused response thing. Anyway, seems worth a try. I certainly do not feel worse when I go on spells of paleo-ish eating.

Yup Claire, your meals at our place are pretty representative. Maybe I roast vegetables a teensy bit more than I should, but otherwise evening meals are no problem. I think lunches are a pain, because when I can't be bothered to make them I buy them, and I definitely snack badly. I think more protein containing snacks would be one way to help. I drink one coffee max a day which I may try and do without (except early morning lab meetings on Friday..eurgh) and the beer I drank at the party was the only one in months! The occasional glass of wine will stay too :)

And agreeing with yourself and Cristina definitely on the major philosophy behind it being pretty much nonsense. But I do think I believe some of the insulin response stuff. But this could also be sorted by only eating foods with an appropriate (I forget which is which) GI.

Paleo stuff aside, more fruits and veggies and whole grains for snacks are always good. Sounds like your regular meals (maybe excepting lunch) are great, so what about trying to pack enough food for the entire day, so you don't have to rely on vending machines for snacks? Bringing lunch and snacks saves a bunch of money, too.

Some "healthy" snacks I'm a big fan of are ants-on-a-log (celery filled with peanut butter with raisins on top), fruit of any kind, nuts, carrots and hummus, yogurt, home-made muffins, chocolate... oh wait, chocolate isn't healthy?

I always bring lunch, but that's mostly because I hate sandwiches. I do a lot of bean/grain/veg salads, because they travel well and taste good and are filling, otherwise, leftovers. I also don't really drink anything other than water (and coffee and beer, but those have specific times of day when they get drunk!), and certainly don't feel like I'm missing out on not having soda or fruit juices in my life.

So that's what I do, and generally don't have stomach issues except when it's wicked hot and my body doesn't seem to absorb enough fluids or something along those lines. Oh and for training, I try to carry/drink some sort of sports drink for any workout longer than 1hr, but for refueling tend to rely on fruit (bananas and apples usually win that, for easy portability).

I try to only eat dessert one meal a day... that's a toughie. And of course if there is free food available, I'll eat as much of it as I can cram in my mouth, not unlike a chipmunk...

You can also play around with using other grains than couscous (which is actually pasta) - things like barley, polenta, quinoa, rice. And mix in some sweet potatoes as well as regular potatoes - I guess I think more variety is better.

I like quinoa and rice, but nothing beats couscous for speed! I probably ate too much of it when looking for carbs to go with our grilled meat/fish salsa combos of summer. But it's stew and soup time of the year now, so I'll be cooking for longer anyway.

Stews have to be good for reheating at lunch.

Exactly. And much more likely to have leftovers too then the meat/salsa combos of summer. But it's actually cold outside today, so stews it is!

That reminded me - was today the first day I ran in rain in the USA since the Billygoat? I ran in plenty of it back at home, but don't remember any here!

See, something that the US does better! ;)

I dont really agree with the paleo evolutionary thing,I think its much more to do with how processed stuff is but they have hit upon a plan that works for a lot of people. Everyone's metabolism is different so I think you should try tweaking your diet a bit and seeing what works for you.I'm currently loving boiled eggs and nuts for snacking.

I don't have any experience with this stuff personally, but my brother tried the paleo diet for a month or two and said he felt "amazing" while on it (he is generally a subdued personality; his praise was uncharacteristically enthusiastic). Actually his whole gym tried it and it sounded like most everyone had similar results. What he was referring to by "amazing", as I understand it, was that all of his workouts were easier and he had more energy at the end of them; he could run the same 6:00 mile (an all-out effort for him) and feel like he had something left at the end of it instead of feeling like he was about to die.

But, he's not on it anymore because it's really hard to do. Apparently it pretty much doesn't work unless you really don't deviate from it, which made it impossible to eat anything he hadn't personally prepared, and that was adding a lot of stress to his life.

paleo - not a bad article. I wonder if sone of the "feeling amazing" is just thinking about what to eat and making the effort to be healthy.

I think it may well be. I really wouldn't be surprised if the elimination of sugar had something to do with it too. But yes, I reckon just thinking about what you put in your mouth is probably one of the biggest steps to feeling better.