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Tuesday, July 23. 2019Food volume and weight gain/lossIf lucky enough to miss cancers and heart disease in one's 40s and 50s, low-calorie (low-volume) dietary habits might delay the effects of aging: Calorie Restriction and Aging, Eating less--while maintaining adequate nutrition--is a recipe for longer life in many animals. If you don't care, good for you. If maintaining energy, vitality, and functionality matters to you, then it's worth thinking about. While we recommend low-carb or even keto diets for weight loss programs (and even say skip the exercising - it doesn't help with that goal very much), the simplest and easiest body fat fitness plan is volume control. That means volume of beer, soda pop, meals, and snacks. We've all noticed how avidly overweight people eat with no awareness of satiety - only of "fullness" (or of when all the food is gone). Portion control takes a little thought and planning. My experience is that restaurants in the US and Europe (except for the fanciest ones) tend to serve the equivalent of two or three meals for a fit healthy person. However, there is no law that we must clean our plates. The Great Depression is long gone. I've posted in the past, literally ad nauseum, about "false hunger," and ritual or recreational eating. For devoted weight trainers, heavy-lifters, it is more complicated for any age. Trackbacks
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I seldom order an entree anymore. An appetiser is enough
Cooking at home often has a similar problem. Many recipes fetch up 4 or 6 servings, leading to either big meals or a continuous stream of leftovers. Since I do all the cooking, my wife challenged me to start with "single serving" salads as a tactic for portion and leftover control. Turns out salads were an easy place to start, and now I'm moving on to complete meals. Requires a bit more planning and measuring, but it can be done.
I had an aunt from the Great Depression who always solemnly told us as kids that we had to "eat every bean and pea on our plate". Mentally substituting the latter vegetable's homonym spelling always made us snicker, and it was only much later that I realized that our aunt was setting us up.
Nearly all of the people I dine out with usually take about 1/3 to 1/2 of their entree home with them in a Go Box to eat as leftovers. Some of the couples will each order an appetizer, then split an entree. The more rapacious dining establishments charge an additional fee to split the entree onto 2 plates. We do a lot of from-scratch home cooking, and I'm always amazed at how salty and sub-par most restaurant dining is. The truth is, although we have a pretty enormous large-university-town choice available to us, aside from the enjoyment of being with our friends, there are only a handful of restaurants that I really look forward to dining in. re low-calorie (low-volume) dietary habits might delay the effects of aging
Or it might NOT delay the effects of aging. There's the rub. It's not a sure thing. Well, it may not make you live longer, but it definitely will make it feel longer...
If we were all identical this would be easy. But we are not. Some people can eat all they want and not be overweight. Some people diet their entire life and are obese and their parents were obese and their kids are obese; it is genetic. Perhaps you or others won't lose weight from exercise. But my hike today was 8 miles 1500' altitude gain starting at 5000'. My experience is that rigorous exercise will indeed produce weight loss and it will allow you to maintain weight while still enjoying a full meal. There is no one right diet/exercise plan for everyone. And some people's genetics make weight control easy while for others it is the exact opposite. Life isn't fair.
When the obesity rate quadruples in less than a generation (as from 1986–2000, according to Wikipedia), it’s just irrational to blame genetics. You can’t get four times as many carriers (of what hypothetically would be an anti-survival, anti-reproduction genotype—as fat people die younger and are less attractive to potential mates) in less than one generation. Roughly ten percent doesn’t become roughly forty percent in fourteen years through breeding. Especially for a trait that is certainly not based on a single gene.
The existing population simply lost the willpower to put down their forks in the face of plenty. That’s social and behavioral. That Asians have vastly lower obesity rates and those aren’t climbing as quickly, is very likely at least part genetic—but also to a large extent behavioral and social. Would you please be so kind as to do journal search that would explain this reality to those who claim homosexuality is the result of a genetic difference? As we have watched the homosexual community expand and multiply over just one generation it seems that perhaps you could find the numbers necessary to explain the original con used to force acceptance of the behavior by the larger culture.
Ahhhh! Wikipedia. So it must be true. Actually "obesity" doubled overnight when the medical community abandoned their old measurement and accepted the BMI as the one test of obesity. In the 24 hour period no one gained a pound but the obesity rate doubled. Did Wikipedia tell you that???? No! They left that out. Why would they do that??? Because they have an agenda and their agenda is not "the truth".
Are more people overweight today (and more people obese today) than say 50 years ago or even 100 years ago? Yes, of course there is far more food available today it is far cheaper than it was AND almost everyone works far less than they did 50 or 100 years ago. This is the result of (to quote a army recruiting slogan) that with plenty of food and very little physical work the people became all that they could be. In other words they ate more, worked less and achieved their genetically pre-programmed weight. Real obesity, not just a BMI 30 and above, is indeed genetic. It would be literally impossible for me to become obese. I could eat everything I want (I pretty much already do) and as much as I could and I could never become obese. Why? Because I am genetically predisposed to be the weight I am. Could I lose or gain 10% of my weight? Yes with some effort but as soon as the effort ended my weight would revert to it's pre-programmed range. My poor dear long suffering sister in-law weighs 450 lbs and sadly her children are all on track to be obese as well. Why? Because of their genes, pure and simple. There is another factor as well. IN the last 50-100 years the percentage of Hispanic and blacks in our population as increased dramatically AND both of these genetic groups are dramatically more likely to be genetically pre-programmed to be obese and overweight. But statistics do not recognize this factor it merely lumps everything together and gives a result. You have to dig into the numbers to know this. There may be truth to your case, but I think you over-represent it. Let me give some counterpoint.
I worked on a rotation schedule overseas for almost 30 years, a month on, month off type rotation. I would travel through the Houston airport to many different countries, but I can tell you that the one thing that jumped out every time, when I returned to Houston was, all the fat people walking around the terminal. It's remarkable, when you spend enough time in a country were obesity is rare because food is not plentiful and cheap, your normative perceptions become realigned over time. The phenomenon was probably at its worst in in the first decade of this century; I've noticed that the apparent severity of the problem seems to have diminished in more recent years. Of course this is purely observational on my part. An additional note, I had a long term assignment which went on for almost 20 years in a developing country, off and on. American fast food franchises made their first appearance near the beginning of that period, and I can tell you, on average people were ripped. You would see tradesmen and laborers and they would have abs and muscle definition galore, all because they were living on fish and lentils and rice and greens, essentially home-cooked healthy diets and low calorie counts because it was the only affordable option for them. Fast forward now in the same country 20 years later, with McDonald's, Wendy's, Pizza Hut, etc. and improvements to the local economy, freeing up cash flow to buy cheap carbs and other junk: Look at all the fat people! Remarkable. I do not disagree that there are more fat and obese people. I do not disagree that a lot of this can easily be blamed on food more readily available AND actual work/exercise being down when compared with life 50-100 years ago. Where I disagree is the faulty conclusion that it is caused by sugar, fast food, carbs, etc. and if we just outlawed that stuff we would all look like ballerinas and distance runners. As long as there is readily available food people will eat what they want and their genetic predisposition will be fulfilled.
The simple truth is that most of us are not in terrible shape or fat. Most of us probably do carry around a few more pounds than optimal. But it is genetic, built into humans over tens of thousands of years of poor food supply and famines. It is a survival method built into our DNA. Some of us have more of it and some of us have less. I personally eat a lot of fast food (McDonalds), I eat four meals a day and my last meal is all junk food (chips, ice cream, candy/chocolate, crackers, peanut butter, trail mix, what ever I can find) and my weight is "normal and has been the same for 55 years. If your parents were fat it is likely that you will be fat OR struggle to keep your weight down. If your parents got a big belly after age 40 or so it is likely that you will too OR struggle to keep your weight down. If your parents were obese it is likely that you will be too even if you struggle to keep your weight down. It is genetic.
#4.1.2.1.1
Anon
on
2019-07-24 13:09
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Low volume does NOT equate low calorie.
100 cubic centimeters of raw sugar is sky high in calories. 1 cubic meter of raw celery has next to no calories. Calories in vs calories out. I have read other studies that also suggest lower calorie intake may extend life, or at least push diseases further out. I have been very conscience of the amount that I consume every day over the last few years. When the hunger pangs hit I tell myself that being a little hungry is okay, I am not starving. There was a good discussion about nutrition on the Starting Strength Youtube channel the other day. Mark Rippetoe and Robert Santana, a nutritionist and starting strength coach, discuss weight gain and loss. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ck2izOvK_YY
Those studies were done on mice. I assume you are not a mouse.
It is important to understand that a nutritionist is used in medicine to adjust the diet of a person with an illness such that it limits certain nutrients or increases certain nutrients consistent with treating their illness. They do not have a hot line to god or know any more about food and how it affects health and wellness than you or I do. I wish they did. I wish that it were possible to know with some degree of confidence that some foods and/or some nutrients were either specifically "good" for you or "bad" for you. It is not possible and in fact the real world evidence shows that virtually all of the food commonly available to us from commercial and private sources is not harmful except for people with specific illnesses that are aggravated by those foods or nutrients. For example sugar/starches are potentially harmful for someone with diabetes but for everyone without diabetes it is merely food. Peanuts are harmful for someone with a peanut allergy but it is a tasty protein packed food for the rest of us. Having said that, I see no problem with your diet choices. But there is no magic in it. In the 70's I used to read all I could about food and diets and one author I enjoyed was Euell Gibbons. He had strong opinions about what food was good for you. Then he passed away in 1975 at age 64 and it kind of burst the bubble. If he was right he should still be alive today. His magic juju failed him. There is no magic food. There is no one "right" diet. There are no "harmful" foods, exception being for individuals with allergies or other specific health problems. Sugar won't kill you or shorten your life (except for the converse situation where lack of sugar will cause death within 24 hours.) Almost everything we "know" or believe we know about food as it relates to health is wrong, unprovable and based on a belief in magic and professed by modern day witch doctors who make a million selling books. As I said. Calories in vs calories out. Any of the nutritionists that I have read reiterate that. They also have stated that most studies are anecdotal, what people tell you that they eat and what they actually eat are two different things. So you no controlled double blind experiments.
yes, starving yourself prevents a lot of diseases associated with old age BY ENSURING YOU NEVER GET OLD.
Interesting. I graduated from HS in 1986 and I don't remember any of us being FAT. I mean, some of us were heavier than we wanted, but more of us were just about right.
Now in 2019 I'm at a HS reunion and nearly everyone is at least overweight. Many, many people are fat to obese (if you understand my sliding scale). Pretty embarrassing if you ask me. Attitudes about eating and weight changed significantly in my generation and they're passing on to the next generation handily. When I was young, some 70 years ago, every older woman was fat. I can remember as a young child seeing an aunt whose dress came to just below here knees with enormous calfs and wondering how is that possible that anyone's legs would be that huge and how scary it was to contemplate what her thighs looked like. And she was no different than all the spinster teachers I had in school or the women I would see when I was out shopping with my mother. That is what older people look like. Their bodies tend to gain a lot of weight with age and their attitudes about how they look changes.
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