Diet and Health

There is always an ongoing conversation regarding health and diet. And opinions on the subject are endless. A lot of us are keeping an open mind, but are skeptical about giving up some of the foods we love without some real scientific evidence that it would make us healthier. After all, we've already given up so much with this disease. For me, food is one of great pleasures of human life, something I have a much deeper appreciation for now than before the cloud over my head arrived.

Here's an article I read on the subject. Most of you probably won't be surprised at the conclusion which is basic knowledge: "A diet of minimally processed foods close to nature, predominantly plants, is decisively associated with health promotion and disease prevention." I think a lot of people are trying to overcomplicate this simple truth: nature is very good at producing things that are nutritious and healthy to eat.

This is encouraging news for me because I really enjoy eating those kinds of foods already. So don't overthink your diet, it's really not complicated.

Here's the link if you want to read it:

theatlantic.com/health/arch...

[Dayatatime]

The whole diet and cancer controversy is sometimes overwhelming. Every time I eat I wonder if it is going to benefit me or feed the cancer cells. Truth be known it does both. Cancer cells are still cells and take nourishment from healthy food too. I miss the days where I could eat anything and never give it a thought. I did at one time eat like an idiot and have since cleaned that up after being diagnosed. It does help your immune system and helps to prevent weight gain while on hormone therapy. Though sometimes I miss being a glutton I actually feel much better about myself eating right and have learned to enjoy it. Feeling good can be as important as anything and keeping your body nourished while on the treatments we face is vital. When I am asked what kind of diet am I on my reply is always that I just try and eat healthy.

[Hidden in reply to Dayatatime]

Sounds like you are doing the right thing: making reasonable changes to your diet based on what we already know. The good thing is that we can eat healthy and still enjoy delicious foods. I've found that the two aren't mutually exclusive. But I'm still not entirely giving up some things that are not healthy such as bacon. Not having them very often will just have to be good enough.

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

BACON, best part of the pig. Hmmm...

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Bacon today, because tomorrow you might get by hit by car.

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Pork bellies are through the freakin roof, up, up, and away...Really.

[pjoshea13]

I was puzzled by this:

"Katz and Meller wrote, "if Paleolithic eating is loosely interpreted to mean a diet based mostly on meat, no meaningful interpretation of health effects is possible." They note that the composition of most meat in today's food supply is not similar to that of mammoth meat, and that most plants available during the Stone Age are today extinct. (Though it wouldn't surprise me to learn that Paleo extremists are crowd-funding a Jurassic Park style experiment to bring them back.)"

My understanding of the Paleo diet is simply that it is pre-industrial scale farming. No dairy - which turns out to be very sensible for men with PCa - & no great dependence on wheat, etc.

Does anyone expect those on a Paleo diet to be foraging in the wild? Let alone looking for mammoth meat? There is nothing in the vegetable department of a supermarket that is excluded by Paleo as I understand the term. & none of it would be familiar to my paleo forbears.

For PCa, my only suggestion would be to limit starchy vegetables, but to eat as many vegetables as you want. Nuts can be used to get fat up to 40%. There is no need to gorge on meat. I certainly couldn't do it.

Where did Katz get the idea that Paleo=mostly meat? Is he confusing it with Atkins Phase 1?

For meat, game would suit me, but here in America I can't buy game. I can get hold of farmed versions, where there is a lot of corn & soy in the diet. What's the point? I think that men in the U.K. can buy game from their local butcher. & I don't believe that feedlots have totally taken over in the U.K. beef industry.

The comment about "Paleo extremists" is snide & suggests extreme prejudice. In my foray into the Paleo literature, I don't think I have ever come across a "Paleo extremist".

-Patrick

[Hidden in reply to pjoshea13]

They do kind of pick on Paleo Diet people unfairly. There's quite a wide interpretation of what a "paleolithic diet" really means. They do point out the good things about it in the article: Minimization of processed foods. Emphasis on natural plant food and lean meats.

To me, the broader concept is again to avoid the processing that humans have done to foods and go back to a time when people only ate foods as they existed in nature. For example, animals weren't fed antibiotics and growth hormones, larded with extra fat. Plants weren't genetically modified, stripped of a lot of their nutritious value by various processes, preserved with chemicals, etc. I'm sure that there are extremists in every kind of diet, just like religions have their fundamentalists. I just ignore the subjective value judgments about theoretical extremists. It's best to just take what's good and leave the rest.

[Hidden]

Mankind has been eating things provided by the earth for a long time. Like, 6,000 years, and we had dinosaurs as pets.....aahhhhhh!!!!! Save me. The point is, from nuts and berries, to hunter, to farmer, to today, it's basically the same food. Many diseases seems to have a diet story, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity, and stroke.

I attempted to make a major change in my diet, but was ill prepared. I decided to cut out all processed foods, which worked somewhat, and all store/processed baked goods and meats. Fresh baked breads only. Try it, you'll like it. Well, I'm feeling damn good, I'll do all the red meat I want, pork, the same, milk, butter, fried food....I'm all in. Just, no walnuts!

Joe

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

People who lived thousands of years ago didn't have to worry about the chemicals in their food, they only had to worry about whether they were going to have anything at all to eat. We could fantasize that they had better food, and maybe in some ways they did. But they didn't live as long as we do because they had much bigger problems than where to find gluten-free products.

[j-o-h-n]

Buddy Hackett "I went on the Atkins water diet and after two weeks I had an uncontrollable urge to suck a fish".

j-o-h-n Tuesday 07/18/2017 6:41 PM EST

[Kuanyin]

He also wrote another book, "Disease-Proof: Slash Your Risk of Heart Disease, Cancer, Diabetes, and More--by 80 Percent," which adds another diet guru to the mix. 80% reduction, not bad, I'll take those odds.