Thoughts on Diet

So tonight I decided to watch a couple of documentaries one was called the Perfect Diet and it basically covered how we as humans diet has changed over evolution and how our bodies have been effected by those changes and that it is best to eat more of a paleo typical diet as our hunter and gather anscetors did. Then I was watching Hungry for Change this was particularly interesting as it addressed some of the reason we become addicted to food.Now I know post op our diets are to be protein first and then vegetables/fruits and grains if we have room, one of the theories presented was the eating grains even whole grains prevented our bodies from absorbing nutrients because our digestive tract was not anatomically built to digest these things. The other things I found interesting was the theory that we should only be eating animal meats that are fed like human beings should be fed, which contradicts that grass fed cows are better for you then regular meat. It also said that larger cuts of meat are better for you. Anyone have any thoughts or insight to these theories??

They also compared sugar to as addictive as cocaine yet we as a society fail to realize it can be just as addicting and acknowledge people can truly be addictive to food because of this yet we do nothing to fight and combat that as a drug.

I will say the one point they made that i totally agree with is that diets are set up to make you fail and that is why it becomes a vicious cycle.  

I think if one is going to eat meat, grassfed cows are better for you because that is what cows are meant to eat.  They are healthier, therefore healthier to eat.  Eating poorly nourished, sickly cows cannot be good for you, can it?

But really, I think the healthiest diet would include little to no animal protein at all.  I think a vegan diet is healthier.

I find your answer very interesting Kelly -- can you explain why you think a vegan diet is healthier?  

It's a complex answer.

I don't think adult humans are meant to drink cow's milk.  All other mammals only drink milk when they are infants, and that is milk from their own species.  Also, as we age, our stomachs produce less and less of an enzyme called lactase, which is needed to digest the lactose in milk.  That's why some adults become lactose intolerant, especially older adults, even if they could digest milk fine as children.  I think that is an indication that physically, we aren't designed to be drinking lots of milk (or eating lots of dairy products).

I also think, physically, our bodies (at least at this point in time, maybe there were physical differences back when we were cavemen, but even then, people ate plants more than meat because meat was not always available) are designed more for eating plants than animals.  If you look at our teeth, we do have a couple teeth that are sharp and pointy and designed for tearing meat, but most of our teeth are flat and designed to eat veggies and grains.  If we look at the teeth of animals, our teeth are closer to, say, those of horses than those of lions.  We do have a couple teeth designed for meat, so maybe we are not designed for a totally vegan diet, but our teeth are made to eat more plants than animals.

Our intestines are also designed to handle plants better than animals.  Animals that are carnivores, like cats (whether house cats or lions) have shorter, smoother intestines.  That allows all the meat they eat to pass through faster.  But animals that don't eat meat, like horses or cows, have longer, more wrinkled intestines.  Meat doesn't pass through very fast and can start to rot in there.  We have long, wrinkled intestines, like animals that are herbivores.

I also think the meat and dairy products that are readily available these days are really unhealthy.  Most cattle raised for beef are fed antibiotics and hormones, as are most dairy cows.  There is no way those things are healthy for us.  Now, you can source antibiotic and hormone free meat and milk if you are willing to pay more and go to the trouble.  For a while I bought raw milk from a local farm, where the cows ate grass and, in winter when grass wasn't available to them, organic grain.  And they got no hormones or antibiotics.  I think that milk was a lot healthier than milk you buy at the grocery store.  And despite what the USDA says, I definitely think what we feed dairy cows affects the nutrition in their milk.  After all, do we tell breastfeeding mothers to eat whatever junk they want?  No, we tell them they need to eat a really healthy diet so their babies will be healthy.  So anyway, I think we can get healthier meat and milk if we want, but it's still probably healthier not to eat it at all, or to eat little of it.

Dr. Garth Davis is a bariatric surgeon that advocates a vegan diet and he has a lot of interesting things to say about it.  He believes that animal protein is basically unhealthy.

I also think a vegan diet is better for the environment and  more human for animals, of course, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's healthier.  But I do think it's healthier.

And I do eat dairy products, although I've made efforts to eat less of them, but I'm lazy and I really like dairy.  And I occasionally eat free range eggs from a local farm, but I don't eat those very often.  I'm certainly not perfect.  I think ideally, I would eat a vegan diet.  But like I said, I'm lazy and I like dairy products, and I am a work in progress.

This is getting awfully picky but most of the physicians who lead this movement don't like the word vegan and prefer whole-food, plant-based.  As you said, a vegan diet is overall much better for you than the typical western diet, there's still a lot of vegan food that Dr. Davis wouldn't touch.  For example, deep-fried cauliflower is vegan but that doesn't make it healthy!  Being 100% WFPB makes you vegan but being vegan doesn't make you WFPB.

But I love that you mentioned Dr. Davis.  I agree with 99% of everything he says and I'm drifting in that direction.  :)

Oh, i totally agree that not all vegan foods are healthy!  Aren't Oreos vegan?  And Maybe whole food plant based is a better term.

For the most part, I am a believer in all things (or most things, anyway) in moderation.  While I think a vegan diet, or a WFBP diet, is healthier than a diet high in animal protein, I don't really think small amounts of animal protein are going to harm one's health.  Just like I don't think an occasional Oreo is going to harm one's health.   I just don't think they should be eaten very often, though.

I really need to eat less dairy.  I wish I could find a good alternative to yogurt but the soy yogurt I've tried was absolutely disgusting.  I can eat vegan cheese.  But that yogurt... ugh.

There's a lot of good ideas in paleo, like its emphasis on a lot of whole plant foods, but its almost neurotic obsession with meat and saturated fat is just bonkers.  They're awfully big on cherry picking a study or two they think supports their position - but usually doesn't - while ignoring the overwhelming body of research stacked against them.