12 Healthiest Foods On The Planet - A Somewhat Different Take Than I've Seen Before...

[BlooInBloo]

I'm not "advocating" for this guy or anything - could be a complete scheister for all I know. I just thought it was an interesting take on the "what's a good diet?" topic.

http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/07/healthiest-foods-nutrition-lifestyle-health-healthiest-foods.html

"What is the best diet for human beings?

Vegetarian? Vegan? High-protein? Low-fat? Dairy-Free?

Hold on to your shopping carts: There is no perfect diet for human beings. At least not one that's based on how much protein, fat or carbohydrates you eat.

People have lived and thrived on high-protein, high-fat diets (the Inuit of Greenland); on low-protein, high-carb diets (the indigenous peoples of southern Africa); on diets high in raw milk and cream (the people of the Loetschental Valley in Switzerland); diets high in saturated fat (the Trobriand Islanders) and even on diets in which animal blood is considered a staple (the Massai of Kenya and Tanzania). And folks have thrived on these diets without the ravages of degenerative diseases that are so epidemic in modern life--heart disease, diabetes, obesity, neurodegenerative diseases, osteoporosis and cancer.

In Depth: The Healthiest Foods On Earth

The only thing these diets have in common is that they're all based on whole foods with minimum processing. Nuts, berries, beans, raw milk, grass-fed meat. Whole, real, unprocessed food is almost always healthy, regardless of how many grams of carbs, protein or fat it contains."



EDIT: Ok, I admit it - I do like the anthropological take on it.

[Deja Q]

1. +1

[FarCenter]

2. One that is balanced, nutritious and has 2/3 the calories you'd normally eat

So say the longevity studies so far. At least in mice, monkeys, etc.

[Touchdown]

5. I can't eat mice or monkeys.

Too gamey.:(

[BlooInBloo]

8. hahaha!

[Oregone]

3. facepalm

[BlooInBloo]

9. Generally I know when I've caused offense...

This is one of the other times.

[Oregone]

11. I just thought you had some facepalm karma built up.

Thats all

[BlooInBloo]

12. LOL!

Fair enough!

[abumbyanyothername]

4. Another thing they have in common

no for profit food industry dominating their society.

[underpants]

6. Bananas are the closest thing to the perfect food

after that scientists agree that it is Hershey bar segments on a saltine cracker

[Jennicut]

23. Bananas are perfect and so portable.

:)

[Odin2005]

28. dried banana chips are my favorite thing to snack on when I have the munchies.

Very filling and very healthy.

[depakid]

7. Cool article

Dovetails with this one:

11 best food you aren't eating.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/30/the-11-best-foods-you-arent-eating/

(includes some spices like cinnamon and tumeric).

[BlooInBloo]

13. lol! Of course it dovetails - it's the same guy!

:rofl:

[depakid]

14. Good catch

I just looked at the content.

[JitterbugPerfume]

10. sounds pretty much like my diet

except for the raw milk

[Warren Stupidity]

15. Here is a shocker:

The only thing these diets have in common is that they're all based on whole foods with minimum processing. Nuts, berries, beans, raw milk, grass-fed meat. Whole, real, unprocessed food is almost always healthy, regardless of how many grams of carbs, protein or fat it contains.

Nobody could have expected that!

:sarcasm:

[demodonkey]

16. Raw milk is all but illegal in Pennsylvania.

The PA Dept. of Agriculture has raided raw milk farms and their farm families in ops that would rival the taking out of meth labs.

[BlooInBloo]

17. (a) Good ol PA, where you have to go to Beer World; (b) I'm a bit sketchy about raw milk anyway...

This coming from a guy who drinks a 1/2 gallon of milk per day.

[JSK]

18. As 90-something year old Jack LaLanne says:

"If man made it, don't eat it."

[patrice]

29. That's what Dr. Jordan Rubin says in The Maker's Diet. Eat what our ancestors ate,

preferably those from before we started making business out of food.

[MannyGoldstein]

19. I Have A Hypothesis...

That populations evolve to do best on local foods - if people have a certain food that's plentiful in their location, over generations they will evolve so as to make good use of that food. Until recently, many generations could pass and nobody went more than a few miles away, so the local food variety stayed constant over those generations.

Now that everyone goes everywhere, and all foods are available everywhere, we're seeing problems, particularly in people whose ancestors lived on unrefined foods, and now eat Western refined foods. More obesity, diabetes, and so forth.

However, that being said, somehow people keep living longer and longer. Life expectancy has been increasing at a steady 4 months per year since 1900, and it's still going up. Cancer and heart disease have dropped dramatically (on an age-adjusted basis, which is the right way to look at it).

So... eat and enjoy! We're doing something right, even if we don't exactly know what it is!

[BlooInBloo]

20. Evolution doesn't happen on that kind of a blink-of-the-eye time scale.

[Odin2005]

26. Actually, I have read that different populations HAVE adapted genetically to local food sources.

Lactose tolerance is the most well-known example and is probably associated with the westward spread of people speaking Indo-European languages into Europe, Scandinavia especially, but there are many more examples, such as people of West African ancestry having issues with high blood pressure because they are adapted to hot tropical conditions and thus retain salt more. Many Native Americans get diabetes very easily because they don't have the tolerance to diets rich in wheat-derived starch.

[MannyGoldstein]

32. I Guess It's Other People's Hypothesis Too!

Thanks for the info!

[Odin2005]

35. No problem!

[abumbyanyothername]

22. Life expectancy rising and two words

Infant mortality.

[MannyGoldstein]

27. Part, But Not Much of It

Infant mortality hasn't changed very much in the last 30+ years, but life expectancy has increased by 10 years.

[Jennicut]

21. As someone who has diabetes my diet has to be whole grains and unprocessed

food. The refined sugars make my blood sugar shoot through the roof.
I only buy whole grain pasta now...its actually quite good.
And I eat so many blueberries and tons of other fruits.

The only problem is eating out or on the run.

[abumbyanyothername]

30. Eating out

I tend to go out with people, but not eat. If forced, I request a simple lettuce salad with tomato and avocado. I usually eat before going out.

As for eating on the run, duck into a grocery and buy 5-8 bananas. Or a head of lettuce and a bag of carrots.

In LA we have the Grand Central Market downtown. Great, almost perfectly ripe (certainly couldn't last another day), fruit at practically give away prices.

[Jennicut]

33. I try to avoid eating at restaurants as I know I will get sucked in to carb overload

But once in while I can't help it. I try to stick to chicken and veggies or like you said a salad.

Vacation was hard, we had only a fast food place to stop at for lunch off the highway so I got a salad at McDonald's.

I love my bananas. I take whole grain granola bars with me too.

[Odin2005]

24. The millitant vegans will soon be on your case spouting nonsense about how eating meat is unnatural

Oh, and meat from grass-fed animals tastes a lot better than factory-farmed shit. I bought several pounds of ground beef from local grass-fed cattle and they made the best burgers I ever had.

[BlooInBloo]

25. Heh. Grind up a ribeye sometime. Yah it's a spendy burger, but MMMMM!!!!

[knitter4democracy]

31. Bison's even better.

Higher in protein, lower in fat, same Omega 3s as salmon. The taste is something else, too. I've gone through all of mine, and I wish I had the money to get another half a bison. We have several local ranches.

Right now, for red meat, I'm down to the venison. Good, good stuff.

[Odin2005]

37. I had that once, given that we have folks raising bison here in the Fargo area.

Tastes awesome, but it costs an arm and a leg.

I'm a hunter, though, so I do loves me some deer-burgers! :D

[fishwax]

39. elk as well

very lean, but quite tasty ...

[flvegan]

40. So defensive.

:rofl:

[Odin2005]

44. The best offense eis a good defense.

:)

[flvegan]

45. Well, you've got offensive down pat.

Nice job.

I crack me up.

Sorry I couldn't stir the militant vegans to respond here. I owe you one, k?

[Danmel]

34. I'm not sure I could eat a beet

at gunpoint.

really.

[BlooInBloo]

36. I can't stand beets either. It's not just you.

[Odin2005]

38. Beets are dusgusting.

[Gwendolyn]

42. Diced up beets and apple salad sprinkled with a home made vinegrette...

'tis the exquisite yummy. You should try it sometime. Red peepee is fun to make. :)

[TexasObserver]

41. K&R

[fishwax]

43. those cultures have something else in common besides whole foods: low life expectancies

Perhaps the the Greenland Inuit thrives on a high-fat diet, but their life expectancy is about 60 years, I believe. The Massai thrive on animal blood for a life expectancy of about 50 years. I believe the Trobriand Islanders life expectancy is under 60 years.

Of course, there are other factors at play in their average life expectancies, and as a general rule I'm certainly favor of whole foods, but even so ...

[Enthusiast]

49. Blood mixed with milk

has never appealed to me. :puke:

[bvar22]

46. Very reassuring.

We went big on Beans and Berries this year.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=268x2601

[Voice for Peace]

47. "all based on whole foods with minimum processing"

"common sense is uncommon"

It took us how many years to evolve, eating only locally available whole unprocessed foods?

And suddenly within a short span of time, eating mostly food that's entirely processed or outright invented synthetically in a lab?

The human body has no idea what to do with that shit. Can't use most of it, can't reject most of it, so it gets all stored up in our bodies.

[bertman]

48. I'm reading Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food", which covers this in great detail.

Very interesting discussion of "nutritionism" and the ill effects it has helped expose us all to.

[Laelth]

50. Um, he would be a "quack."

A scheister is a disreputable lawyer. A quack is a disreputable doctor.

Learned that from the movie S.O.B., long, long ago. :)

:dem:

-Laelth