MetaFilter posts tagged with diet

Sugar: The Bitter Truth

knave — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 18:04:07 -0800

Sugar: The Bitter Truth. Robert H. Lustig, Professor of Pediatrics at UCSF, discusses the biochemical properties of fructose and makes the case for why it should be considered, essentially, a poison. [Youtube, 1.5 hours] While the cane sugar vs high-fructose corn syrup issue is frequently discussed online, the two substances are remarkably similar. Sucrose almost immediately breaks into fructose and glucose (in 50:50 ratio) in digestion, while HFCS contains both in a 55:45 ratio. In Dr. Lustig's view, refined sugar and HFCS can be considered equally bad for humans, due to their fructose content. His talk is focused on fructose, and goes into detail on the metabolism of it in the liver (since, unlike glucose, fructose can't be used directly by the other parts of the body). He also touches on USDA dietary recommendations, including the recent decades preoccupied with reducing dietary fat, as well as the commonly cited (kcal in - kcal out = weight change) equation and its shortcomings for addressing obesity.

“If you are bitter at heart, sugar in the mouth will not help you”

bigmusic — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 19:33:04 -0800

American Heart Association: American men should not consume more than 150 calories of sugar a day[pdf], American women 100 calories. paper[pdf]

Operation Pancake

divabat — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 01:03:16 -0800

An expose of non-vegan ingredients in pancakes at LA Vegan Thai inspired the QuarryGirl.Com writers to conduct their own extremely thorough investigation of LA vegan restaurants, testing their meals for traces of casein, egg, and shellfish. Over $1000 and a chain of interviews up to Taiwan later, they find that half the restaurants aren't as vegan as they claim, with half registering Positive or High and one registering Overload. Some restaurants vowed to conduct their own tests or requested further assistance; one banned them from the establishment.

Eating tasty raw animals

Not Supplied — Fri, 29 May 2009 08:15:51 -0800

Eat food. Mostly animals. As much as you want. And don't cook em

Diet Trend Smackdown--and no winners?

mecran01 — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 10:32:19 -0800

"People lose weight if they lower calories, but it does not matter how." According to recently published study in the New England Journal of Medicine, "For people who are trying to lose weight, it does not matter if they are counting carbohydrates, protein or fat. All that matters is that they are counting something." “The effect of any particular diet group is minuscule, but the effect of individual behavior is humongous,” Dr. Sacks said. “We had some people losing 50 pounds and some people gaining five pounds. That’s what we don’t have a clue about. I think in the future, researchers should focus less on the actual diet but on finding what is really the biggest governor of success in these individuals.” [full study here] As a big (no pun intended) fan of the work done by Gary Taubes, I find these results distressing. Fortunately for my wavering dietary faith, Taubes responds to the study.

The One That Got Away

netbros — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 14:03:07 -0800

A single nutrient may have turned early humans into civilized man. Has stripping it from our diet given rise to cancer, diabetes, and other civilized diseases? "There has been a thousandfold increase in the consumption of soybean oil over the past hundred years. The result is an unplanned experiment in brain and heart chemistry, one whose subject is the entire population of the developed world." A series of epidemiological studies showed that populations that consume high levels of omega-3s in the form of seafood are the least afflicted by the major diseases associated with the Western diet. (via) For those averse to seafood and supplements, there are non-fishy ways to boost dietary levels of omega-3. You can mill flaxseed in a coffee grinder and sprinkle it on your morning cereal; opt for grass-fed beef and free-range or omega-3 enriched eggs; and load up on walnuts, blueberries, and spinach every chance you get. Most of all, though, favor fats and spreads with a relatively low ratio of omega-6s to omega-3s (think canola and olive oils rather than corn and sunflower oils). And the old wisdom holds true: stay away from trans fats, tropical oils, and saturated fats.

Taking "the road less traveled" in treating ADHD

Deathalicious — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 23:35:01 -0800

If you don't see any patterns in your data, yet day-to-day fluctuations persist, he is reacting to something you aren't tracking. Look elsewhere. A heartrending (and long) online log of one father's 10-year struggle to make sense of his child's ADHD and find a way to treat it without medication.

Eat Acai, Diet Home

MrChowWow — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 18:43:15 -0800

Nicholle, Amy, Melanie, and Jenny are "in no way affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by the products reviewed , its partners, or subsidiaries."

"...Then I have half a banana (50)"

Acheman — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 05:08:08 -0800

Via Amazon, you can read the first few chapters[PDF] of Carol Lay's new graphic novel-cum-diet book The Big Skinny. Blogger and fellow cartoonist Ampersand/Barry Deutsch doesn't object to the weight loss she documents, he just isn't convinced that it's actually all that healthy. See Junkfood Science for more discussion of the 'Obesity Paradox' (for more articles, scroll a great way down the right-hand sidebar).

One is the loneliest number!

cjorgensen — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 11:59:46 -0800

Have you seen the new ads for Diet Pepsi Max? Reactions have not been kind. Some are comparing it to The Book of Bunny Suicides. The images in the Pepsi links are the same, the comments are not. And I am aware of the irony of posting about Pepsi.

That donut I drank was delicious.

jbickers — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 07:29:19 -0800

How many calories did you drink last night? Alcohol intake, rendered in food equivalents. More on alcohol and weight loss. Dammit.

Ensuring the future of food

oxford blue — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 18:50:18 -0800

A well designed Japanese video about food security

Finish your plate please.

monospace — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 12:49:08 -0800

The Twenty Worst Foods in America. There's something for everyone!

TaB browsing

dersins — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 11:50:27 -0800

TaB history, photo galleries, and Generation TaB: The Motion Picture. ~~Pepsi~~ Coca Cola Pink, I guess. But I still love the look of that logo.

Oh, damn.

miss lynnster — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 09:11:23 -0800

Why most of us believe that exercise makes us thinner—and why we're wrong.

Calling All Meatbeards

chuckdarwin — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 06:28:55 -0800

Scientists are testing a new diet pill that expands to the size of a tennis ball in your stomach. When taken with two glasses of water, the slow-growing 'gelatinous blob' gives one the feeling of having eaten a plate of food. Although it's no replacement for diet and exercise, it could help some people control their urges.

See, not many people know this, but there are two kinds of fat people. There are people that were born fat, and then there are people that were once thin, then became fat.

mr_crash_davis — Thu, 10 May 2007 19:25:01 -0800

"Being thin doesn't automatically mean you're not fat." According to the data, people who maintain their weight through diet rather than exercise are likely to have major deposits of internal fat, even if they are otherwise slim. "The whole concept of being fat needs to be redefined," said Bell, whose research is funded by Britain's Medical Research Council.

Gain 34 pounds of muscle in only four weeks!

craniac — Thu, 03 May 2007 10:41:11 -0800

Tim Ferris claims to have gained 34 lbs. of muscle in 28 days while exercising for only four hours, total.

You Are What You Grow

dw — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 09:09:04 -0800

Obesity and the Farm Bill. Michael Pollan continues his series of articles on the state of the American food supply by looking at the connection between the obesity epidemic and the federal farm bill (NYT, reg. required, blah blah blah). Previously.

The study did not address whether adding a little cocktail umbrella enhanced the effects.

OverlappingElvis — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 15:26:23 -0800

Good news if you want another source of antioxidants in your diet.

I think it might be time to get my own cow - or goat.

bigmusic — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 15:43:35 -0800

What's in your milk? Estradiol, testoerone, and growth hormones (IGF-1) IGF-1 is what Fox News doesn't want you to know is in your milk.

"Don’t eat anything your great-great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food."

jaronson — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 07:27:46 -0800

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Vegetarian is the New Prius.

grapefruitmoon — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 22:57:49 -0800

Vegetarian is the New Prius : following a report from the UN indicating that the billions of livestock raised for meat are wreaking more havoc on the environment than fossil fuels, environmental activists are linking vegetarianism with fighting global warming.

200 calories

Kwantsar — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 18:37:49 -0800

What does 200 calories look like? (via)

"Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are."

Blazecock Pileon — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 11:47:46 -0800

A sampling of the range of medieval and 18th C. European diets from Michael de Leone's Ein Buch von Guter Speise and Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin's Physiologie du goût (The Physiology of Taste).