Anyone here really into nutrition?
i know most nutritionalists will say everything in moderation, but to me thats just an easy way out to simplify something for people so that they dont have to learn what the real skinny is on everything and plan a diet accordingly.

For example,
ive been reading that soybean products that are not fermented for long periods of time (eg tofu, soy milk) cause problems with your thyroid, blocks enzymes for protein digestion, blocks the uptake of essential minerals (calcium, magnesium, copper etc etc)

Now for milk, ive been reading that contrary to popular belief - milk and other dairy byproducts have problems when it comes to humans digesting them. Cows milk is meant for calfs, human breast milk is meant for human babies. Apparently the reason why most of the worlds population is lactose intolerant is because nature removes the enzymes that let a baby digest their mothers milk. If you keep drinking cows milk the enzymes still stay there, but many people will have difficulties with digestion, intestinal problems, osteoporosis etc etc.

Now unsaturated fat used to be thought to be the good fat since it lowers cholesterol, but it does this by suppressing many bodily functions. this actually causes damage to the system over a period of time.

Of course there are arguments for each of these listing the positive effects or discounting the negative....i duno who or what to believe:(

wow, so does that mean i can't eat cheese anymore :( ? cool sig, whered you get the picture?

[ 10-21-2004, 04:57 PM: Message edited by: armageddon272 ]

When it comes to nutrition, there's always alot of rumors and contradictious research results flying around. "Don't eat X or Y, it gives you cancer" and so on. Food related research is probably the most popular research topic to print in magazines and newspapers.

Generally, it appears that any bad effect of a certain type of food takes a long time to present itself, or you have to consume massive amounts before you notice any changes.

As for diets, there's something called the Paleolithic diet or Stone Age diet, which try to recreate the diet the average stone age man ate, with the argument that this is the kind of food that mankind has eaten for most of her history and thus is "designed" to eat. Roughly speaking, it involves more fish and lean meat, fruits and vegetables, but less or no cereals, rice, potatoes and dairy products.

[ 10-21-2004, 05:23 PM: Message edited by: Stratos ]

<font color=skyblue>My wife is a nutritionalist that works for WIC. looking over my shoulder, she said that she could answer all your questions, but cannot take time to do so at this very moment. She said she'd come back and post the answers herself when the kids are in bed.</font>

www.pubmed.com

The database of scientific publications in the fields of medicine, nutrition and human physiology. Most extracts that are free to read contain any conclusions reached after the experiment, but they all contain the details of the experiments and the results so you can draw your own conclusions. Since nutrition is a science where old truths are shattered and new revelations are made on a daily basis, I tend to trust pubmed more than most nutritionalists since many who've been in the business for some time sadly base their counselling on knowledge gained way back in college, though a nutritionalist who keeps herself up to date with the latest news is of course the best.

Happy researching.

[ 10-21-2004, 07:47 PM: Message edited by: Rataxes ]

What Stratos said. You don't really have to worry all that much about the various effect of foods, unless you eat large (e.g. unbalanced) amounts of certain things. There is also significant variation from person to person about how much something affects them. For example, using your soybean comment, mineral uptake and thyroid production are affected by many factors, including genetics, diet, age, etc. And food research is a research fad at the moment. Practically everything you eat has had something negative said about it.

Re: tofu - plenty of people eat soybean products with little or no problems.

Milk: it's true - if you stop eating milk products for a while (we're talking months, I think), you do lose the enzymes to digest them.

Unsaturated fat - it is a better fat than saturated fat. It may suppress certain body functions, but I'm not sure which ones. The whole point here is that unsaturated is somewhat more healthy than saturated. Neither of them are an especial problem if you get lots of exercise and DON'T have a genetic predisposition to cholesterol buildup in your arteries.

Now I'm no nutritionist, but I pay attention to this kind of stuff. In general, balanced diets are better - Atkins may have damaging longterm effects. For weight loss and greater overall health, eat more vegetables (raw if possible so the vitamins aren't cooked out), drink more water and less soda, coffee, etc, and cut down on caloric intake - carbohydrates are the easiest target, as most dieters can tell you. Also, paying attention to the type of calories is important - good carbohydrates (starches with nutritive value and fibre) such as whole-grain breads instead of white bread or candy - sugar is empty calories.

I was all ready to contribute with articles relating to evolutionary biology and make some broad claims about generally eating less and eating a broad array of natural foods, BUT a nutritionist is on her way [img]smile.gif[/img]

I read a book from a Dr. Andrew Weil once, and it was pretty insightful re nutrition. Need to buy that book again. I gave it out to a friend's husband years ago, and later heard he thought I was a witch, not just cause of the book, but cause I played RPG games and painted lead dragons. :rolleyes: Never got the book back LOL.

Anyways, in it there are so many foods he says are bad for you in one way or another, including most meat, especially beef. Also that is a no-no is any kind of oil except olive oil, can't remember what he said, something about your body unable to completely digest/absorb it. Salmon he recommends highly, also brown rice. His book also gets into things like stress, and what emotions do chemically inside our bodies, and how it ultimately can affect our health. It also goes through all the vitamins and what they do, and also, surprisingly, that taking multivitamins is not always a good idea, as certain vitamins, taken together, cancel eachother out. (sorry can't remember which ones LOL!). Again, I gotta just buy the book again and read it LOL.

You ARE a witch Wendy, and it's about time you give me my broom back. :D

LOL Johnny, OK here it is back. Sorry the bristles are black now, I was doing you know, witch things, with it. [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]