And I also wanted to ask about proper nutrition so as not to be a vegetable(Zombie). Any advice? : asklemmy

[–] memfree@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Just about anything can be made with or without questionable additives. What sorts of things do you want to eat?

You can buy bread with preservatives that stays 'fresh' for weeks, but bread made with just water, flour, yeast and salt generally starts getting hard the next day and moldy in around a week (depending on climate +/-). Whole grain bread is dense, more flavorful, and will not rise as much as white bread because the bran and the nutrient rich wheat germ break up the long-chain gluten structure.

So do you pick a bread that lasts or one that molds? Do you pick white bread because it is fluffy or whole wheat because it has more vitamins?

Maybe you don't eat bread. Well, the same applies to rice. Most white rices are fortified to make up for the vitamins lost in milling, but whole-grain (brown) rice is tougher, has a stronger flavor, and is less fluffy. Which would you prefer?

[–] SugarCatDestroyer@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Thank you very much, I just don't understand all this very well, so your answer was extremely useful for me. By the way, is it better to bake bread yourself or buy it in a store? It's just that store-bought bread is either so to speak airy, or some kind of empty, like sand, or something in between.

[–] memfree@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 month ago

Regular store bread has lots of preservatives. I do not think you want that. Many small bakeries make good basic breads without preservatives, but they are usually expensive. If you can afford that price, buy it! Making bread takes a lot of time, but it is cheap, If you can afford that time, make it! Personally, I like whole-grain flavors for almost everything from sandwich bread to fried rice ... but not for the rice in sushi.

[–] blackbrook@mander.xyz 5 points 1 month ago

Whether you bake or buy, I'd suggest moving toward whole grain bread. Looking at the amount of fiber per serving is a good way to assess how 'whole' a bread from the store is.

[–] Getting6409@piefed.ee 3 points 1 month ago

Personally, I think anyone who can should give at least one shot at home baked bread, if only to see whether or not it's something they want to do. I think for most it's going to come down to whether or not they have the time for it in their day to day, week to week, routines. If you've never tried, there's a nice recipe on youtube, first (or top 5) result when you search '5 minute baguette', by Voila. I found this to be pretty doable in a daily routine. The 5 minutes is only referring to final prep time once you got a handle on it; no matter what the dough in this recipe needs to set up for 8 hours.

[–] GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 month ago

I'm not sure how lazy you are, or how much you like to experiment, but someone on Lemmy mentioned Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. While it isn't hyperbole, it will be a while before you reach this speed.

The big points for me are that most of the steps are, "do something else while stuff happens." There is no kneading and no need for special tools, although a big container you can mostly seal and something that can withstand having water poured into it while being at oven temperatures are a big help. A mixer with a dough hook is also helpful if you don't want to put in the effort to mix by hand, but a bowl, plastic wrap, a wooden spoon, and measuring spoons and cups are all you need.

I liked the results enough to buy their book, and everything I've made has turned out at worst alright (which isnt a whole lot because...lazy). Depending on the recipe, you can store the dough in the fridge for a couple weeks (do this regularly), or you can parbake and freeze loaves (never done this). Before doing this, I had only made bread in a bread machine, which never worked out too well for me, or helping my mom with kneading decades ago, which I hated.

[–] nutbutter@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

[–] pineapplelover@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 month ago

Bro is that cobblestone? Man, haven't seen that in a while

[–] eldavi@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

i started on a quest like yours about 15ish years ago because of diabetes, hypertension, sleep apnea, drowsiness, headaches, bloating, etc. and; if it could back and start all over again; i would start with the crockpot.

soups/stews in particular are super easy with almost always delicious results and dirt cheap; you just throw in a bunch of stuff that seems like would go good together into the pot and let time do the rest for you. my creations almost always involve garlic, onions, and some kind of lentil (usually black beans) and even those three by themselves are delicious. (if you add in salt the very beginning you'll end up using less salt overall).

every few months/years insuppressible cravings for fast food usually make me fall off this wagon and that generally feeling of zombiness; like you're feeling right now; is usually enough to push me back onto the wagon. this time around i've been off the wagon long enough for those health metrics to show a significant decline and that coupled with both the general shitty feeling and the tariffs are pushing me back onto the wagon. i wish someone had advice to share with me on this.

[–] jet@hackertalks.com 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

this time around i’ve been off the wagon long enough for those health metrics to show a significant decline and that coupled with both the general shitty feeling and the tariffs are pushing me back onto the wagon. i wish someone had advice to share with me on this.

Doing a ketogenic eating pattern allows for the soups and stews and provides the energy. Without the sugar triggers in the daily diet it is easier to stay on the wagon long term. I also find using a CGM to get back on the wagon super helpful, seeing immediate feedback about blood glucose keeps the diet on track.

[–] eldavi@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

i've had cgm's for several years and they were effective at telling me which of the foods i made were good or bad and it lead me to using crock pots like i described.

the cravings overpower any sort of sensibility when it comes to my diet and invariably bump me off the wagon for months to years at a time and that's the one thing i haven't yet figured out. i've learned that that fast food is addicting and i think that explains the cravings.

[–] jet@hackertalks.com 1 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Maybe a accountability buddy who can see your CGM data in real time can help?

Strategies I've found to get over cravings:

Stuff my face with a safe food like cheese, eggs, butter (yes, really)
Having my personal trainer get my CGM data
Tell myself I can cheat but only if I eat a can of tuna and 100g of cheese first
Set small multi-day goals, I'm just going to stay clean for 3 days in a row
Removing all illegal food from my house
Staying at a friends house where I don't have the familiar triggers
Only allowing myself to cheat if my blood glucose is <5.0 and I eat the cheese first.

What do you find helps you?

[–] eldavi@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

i was going to ask if you're me because i've tried all of these except the accountability buddy and; given that fast food is addicting; i think it makes the most sense.

the first bullet point is the reason why i'm off the wagon for months at a time. my craving for a double whopper with bacon, onion rings, & extra cheese is VERY STRONG and i sublimate it by letting myself eat chicken breast, pork loin, fish, cheese, etc. for months at a time. these efforts help keep me away from the fast food chains, however it's not fool proof because i still cave into the cravings, but at SIGNIFICANTLY reduced level compared to before i started wrestling with these demons.

i used to eat fast food at least once every day and the longer i stay off the wagon the more i slowly inch towards going back to this old habit over the ensuing months; until i have some sort of realization that pushes me back onto the wagon, like op. i'm on the wagon for roughly as long as i'm off it, so i stay on the wagon for months at a time as well; but i've been repeatedly going on/off this wagon for the last 15ish years. the crock pots let me jump back on very easily.

the cgm's always let me fool myself into believing that i can go off the wagon responsibly and; before i realize it; i'm stuffing my face with whoppers again a few months later. an accountability buddy would need to have a 20ish month view of my cgm results to know that i'm backsliding.

i learned a few years ago that studies that used accountability buddies to treat drug addictions were effective because they kept track of drug addicts' gps coordinates and; whenever the addict visited a place where they could obtain their drug of choice; the accountability buddy would pop up to help them. i need something like this that can track my proximity to fast food chains so i don't have to bother with trying to sublimate my cravings because that's always my first step to falling off this wagon again.

[–] jet@hackertalks.com 1 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Is it possible to never go to a fast food chain?

We have the physical addiction to glucose, but you have overcome that before

We have the habitual triggers, something in your life makes you think of your old addiction, those you have to find a way to get past, maybe the snacking

We have the situational triggers, seeing a place, going past a place, triggers old addictive cravings, this is where having a buddy you can call and talk it out can be helpful.

If you are willing to wear a CGM all the time, you can have a buddy monitoring it and get alerts if it goes outside of a predefined range (say 6.5) so your buddy can help you deal with the recovery

When you fall off the wagon before, you mentioned fast food, but what is different the month before falling off and the day you fall off?

[–] eldavi@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 weeks ago

i've spent so much time trying to mitigate the impact of the fast food cravings that it never occurred to me analyze other triggers and i had a "no duh" moment when i read this because i learned by accident the last time i went on the wagon that tv advertisements were a trigger that made me crave that double whopper. lol

[+] floo@retrolemmy.com 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

[removed by mod]

[–] SugarCatDestroyer@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yes, I am gradually learning, although at first it was awkward, especially with meat, but it was worth it.

[–] Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Hey, send me a DM, I'll give you my recipe collection and you can ask for tips any time you like.

[–] Manifish_Destiny@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Learn to cook.

Find 3 or 4 meals that are healthy and get very good at them. That will make it easier to add new recipes and expand your repitoire.

[–] A_Wild_Zeus_Chase@lemmy.world 3 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

The key to eating healthy is to find healthy foods that are reasonably inexpensive that you can eat as is, or cook simply and quickly with minimal chance of ruining it.

For drinks, water first and foremost, with maybe milk/juice occasionally.

For breakfast, toast/bagel and fruit, or maybe a granola, yogurt, and frozen berry parfait

For lunch, something like pretzels, mixed nuts/raisins (the hidden gem in any healthy diet), cheese and an apple/grapes.

Both of these meals are quick, healthy and require no cooking. The trick is dinner.

What I recommend is having a three piece meal, a carb so your not hungry, and then a vegetables and a protein for nutrition, all cooked separately.

For carb, pasta is fine, rice is better, but best would be an ancient grain like quinoa or farro, which nutritionally blow them out of the water.

For veggies, sweet potatoes and sauted spinach are nutrition kings, but anything is good.

Finally, steer clear of red meat for the most part for your protein. Beans, chicken, turkey and wild caught fish are your friends.

An absolutely killer meal is something like quinoa (boiled), sweet potato (sliced and boiled or baked whole), spinach (sautéd first), and turkey (sautéd second)

Nutritional, filling, two pots, one pan, about 20 minutes total, and the only thing you need to watch is the pan, and spinach/turkey don’t burn fast anyway.

But the most important thing is what you don’t buy. Most people, including me, have poor impulse control when we’re hungry. So go shopping full, and then don’t buy yourself anything unhealthy, because you will eat it later.

[+] ganamasawa@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

[deleted]

[–] pineapple@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Ideally avoid sugar as much as possible. This also includes simple carbohydrates like you would find in bread and other grain. Sugar acts like any drug, once your dependant on it you only feel normal when you have sugar in your system.

Fats are a really good sauce of long lasting energy which lasts throughout the day, pretty much all natural fats are healthy including saturated fats like butter, contrary to popular belief. Processed fats like what's found in vegetable oils on the other hand are bad.

[–] BussyCat@lemmy.world 20 points 1 month ago (3 children)

That is a ton of misinformation

Starting off with stating that bread and other grain are only simple carbohydrates when whole grains are an easy source of complex carbs. And while sugar can be addictive it’s literally a nutrient that our body needs and if we fail to eat it, our body will just break down protein to produce it

Then while fats may by a good source of energy (because they offer 9 calories per gram) they are also an easy way to over consume calories because they are so dense.

Saturated fats are still problematic and try and look for some articles published outside of the U.S.

Then you start talking about vegetable oils being bad when olive oil has been the gold standard for healthy oil. There has been a ton of misinformation going around about seed oils trying to make them into the devil but again look for some RFK free Studies

“Recent research studied the diet and health of over 200,000 people in the US for around 30 years. The researchers found that people who consumed more plant oils (including seed oils) were less likely to die from cardiovascular disease or cancer over the course of the study. On the other hand, those with a higher intake of butter were more likely to die during the same period.”

[–] pineapple@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

whole grains are an easy source of complex carbs

This is just my opinion but I wouldn't consider wholegrain a source of complex carbs. It still spikes your blood sugar levels a lot. Actuall complex carbs lie in vegetables mainly especially leaf vegetables.

Saturated fats are still problematic and try and look for some articles published outside of the U.S.

I’m not going to lie it was difficult to find a non u.s. but here is a comprehensive European review compiling many studies finding that there is no reasonably correlation between saturated fats and cardiovascular disease or heart attack.

Then while fats may by a good source of energy (because they offer 9 calories per gram) they are also an easy way to over consume calories because they are so dense.

This is true when you eat straight butter but when you have it with meat or dairy or other natural sources of fat it's generally lower volume

Also olive oil is not a vegetable oil you can search it up. I agree olive oil is healthy, that's because it's not a vegetable oil.

[–] BussyCat@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Did you read the article you linked? It doesn’t talk about saturated fats being good but instead talks about the protective effects of olive oil, nuts, and omega 3s. The best part about it is they talk about how the linoleic acid is one of the protective elements and linoleic acid is the “scary” thing about seed oils as they are our primary source of linoleic acid… as a whole though it wasn’t a study or even a meta review it was just an editorial as in no data was actually analyzed

By definition olive oil is a vegetable oil unless you want to go by taxonomic terms where it would be a fruit oil (since vegetables are not a term in official taxonomy which is why tomatoes are also fruits)

Whole grains are also by definition complex carbs

A pound of bacon (16 strips) is over 2400 calories and can be consumed fairly easily by the average person in a single sitting especially if you contrast that to eating lower fat food like chicken breast which you would need to eat 4.5 pounds of or rice that you would need to eat over 3 cups of (uncooked) to get the same amount of calories. I am not saying fats are evil but the argument that they fill you up faster is just wrong

[–] pineapple@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 weeks ago

Sorry I linked the wrong article, i've corrected it so you can read one I meant to link.

[–] jet@hackertalks.com -1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That is a ton of misinformation

Actually it's really solid advice and lines up with my reading.

Starting off with stating that bread and other grain are only simple carbohydrates when whole grains are an easy source of complex carbs.

It really doesn't matter, complex or simple all carbohydrates get turned into blood glucose, the only difference is a 15m onset delay. Blood glucose is blood glucose, if you want to fight cravings and low energy, you want to keep it low and even.

And while sugar can be addictive it’s literally a nutrient that our body needs and if we fail to eat it, our body will just break down protein to produce it

We absolutely do not need to eat sugar, the body will produce the tiny amount of glucose required via gluconeogenesis, when someone is fat adapted the vast majority of the body will run on fat, reducing the need for any glucose at all (only red blood cells, and 3-5% of the brain will still require glucose)

Then while fats may by a good source of energy (because they offer 9 calories per gram) they are also an easy way to over consume calories because they are so dense.

Fat is very satiating, it is VERY difficult to overeat fat in the absence of sugar. As a example think about eating a stick of butter by itself, that would be a difficult task if your not very hungry indeed.

Saturated fats are still problematic and try and look for some articles published outside of the U.S.

https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/saturated-fat#evidence-to-date

Saturated fat has been pilloried unfairly by the lipid heart hypothesis which is based on fabricated data. It's vilification does not stand up to modern scrutiny. Basically fat is good for you.

Then you start talking about vegetable oils being bad when olive oil has been the gold standard for healthy oil. There has been a ton of misinformation going around about seed oils trying to make them into the devil but again look for some RFK free Studies

Industrial oils are examples of extremely processed foods which have many downsides, causing whole body inflammation, interfering with cholesterol rafts, artificially lowering lipoproteins (this is a bad thing). It's true real authentic olive oil can be produced without heavy processing and avoids these issues, but it's nearly impossible to source genuine olive oil, it is almost always adulterated with cheaper industrial oils (vegetable oils).

There is no nutritional requirement in human health for industrial oils, they provide nothing essential, it is more prudent to eat real animal fats instead of fats from a chemical factory.

[–] BussyCat@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Actually it's really solid advice and lines up with my reading

Then read more.

Your information is on par with the fitness influencers who are at the peak of the dunning Kruger curve after reading a few research articles from a predatory journal.

[–] jet@hackertalks.com 1 points 1 month ago

Then read more.

I've actually read quite a lot so far.

Reading about nutrition and metabolic health is my hobby.

That said I'm always happy to read more, if you have any primary non-epidemiology publications you can recommend I'd be happy to read them.

[–] jet@hackertalks.com -1 points 1 month ago

Everyone has different health goals, which can be achieved with different foods.

Foods that nobody requires for optimal health, which you can safely reduce or eliminate to your preference:

sugar
glucose
fructose
processed oils
processed foods (anything from a box)

As far as lifestyle interventions to trend toward better living I'd say

Easy: Avoid any foods containing sugar
Medium: Avoid any processed foods, including oils
Hard: Whole food diet (vegan/vegetarian/ketogenic/carnivore)

Personally I've chosen Carnivore This is why I choose it in detail

It's important to have a clear idea of what your goals are - If not being sluggish is the only goal, removing sugar from your diet should help considerably - low carb may help alot.

Asklemmy