Simple Heuristics and Simple Rules of Nutrition
Let me provide you with some simplistic heuristics about your diet. The first heuristic is for you to think of yourself as a vegetarian that eats meat. Your diet should contain substantial portions of vegetables and fruits and whole grains and should include a palm sized portion of meat at your protein meals. I think that the protein you acquire in the form of small amounts of lean meats are essential for optimum health.
The second heuristic is to think of your diet as a medical prescription such as that prescribed by a doctor to a diabetic. I once was in a phase where I wanted to explore the world of nutrition and began to read many books on diets aimed at increased performance, weight loss, cleansing, and life extension. I have read many diet plans and diet books and I have rarely, if ever, seen a diet that is a vastly improved over the American Diabetic Associations 1800 calorie diet. Professional nutritionists know this diet as the ADA 1800. I found some of the diets in the diet books I read to be outright ridiculous and the majority to be hyped up versions of existing diets. Because I worked at a hospital I compared the diets in these books to the diets the patients were receiving. What I realized was that the calorie restriction, and weight loss diets, lacked any significant improvements over the ADA 1800 diet. Now I personally eat more calories a day than 1800, but if you are looking for the basic building blocks of nutritional planning I think that you will benefit from reviewing the American Diabetic Association and the American Dietetic Associations guidelines on healthy eating. Another excellent source of diet information is a professional nutritionist. Yes, getting diet information from a professional nutritionist is a good idea (imagine that).
There appears to be a lot of health benefits gained from NOT overeating. This may already seem obvious and the evidence is getting stronger all the time. With regards to Life Extension it seems that calorie restriction is the most reproducible way to increase the life span of an animal. Please take the time to read or view some material presented by Aubrey de Grey PhD on this topic. I personally find him to be very entertaining as he comes across as a bit of a kook. However, I think the findings on life extension, primarily the evidence on calorie restriction, are very convincing. There are currently many scientists working on the riddle of calorie restriction, autophagy, telomeres, and DNA repair, on a prolonged life span.
Some simple rules with regards to healthy eating include; 1) eating less overall, 2) eating smaller meals, 3) eating the majority of your food early in the day, and 4) eating foods that do not come with a list of ingredients (natural foods), 5) eating foods that are locally grown and are in season, 6) eating different colored foods, and avoiding “white” foods, namely potatoes, pasta and rice.
Leave a Reply