Diet Musings

[zekko]

My doctor told me to eat Mediterranean. Real med, as in tons of veg, fish, limit red meat, no butter or processed food and little red meat. I felt incredibly healthy but quite hard to eat a lot of protein.

I'm on a Mediterranean diet. Really, nothing is expressly forbidden, but some things are best kept to a minimum. So like you say, you can eat red meat, but limit it. I might have a steak once or twice a month. Mostly fish, chicken, turkey. I love fish, but the problem with that is it has mercury in it, so you shouldn't eat it more than a couple times a week. Similarly, I like oatmeal, but they say it has pesticides in it (even the organic kind), so again you have to limit it. The modern world has hurt some of our healthiest foods.

For protein, aside from the meat, I eat a lot of nuts and seeds. You have to watch the nuts though, because they're high in calories. Eggs are good, omelets with veggies and low fat cheese. Chickpeas (garbanzo beans) are also a good source of protein, I learned to make falafels (baked), and I developed a taste for them, I crave them now. Don't like tahini sauce though, I like them plain or with hot sauce. I haven't tried them with tzatziki sauce yet, that might be good.

 

[EyeBRollin]

I love fish, but the problem with that is it has mercury in it, so you shouldn't eat it more than a couple times a week.

The mercury concerns have been debunked. Selenium counterbalances mercury in the body. As long as the ratio is healthy, you can excrete the mercury. Most fish contain good amount of selenium, as do nuts (especially Brazil nuts) and chicken. Tuna for example is high in selenium. Some fish species, such as swordfish have extremely high mercury and insufficient selenium, thus should not be consumed at all. If you stick to salmon, sardines, herring, and other low food chain fish you will be fine.

 

[zekko]

Some fish species, such as swordfish have extremely high mercury and insufficient selenium, thus should not be consumed at all. If you stick to salmon, sardines, herring, and other low food chain fish you will be fine.

Well, I hope you're right, and if you are that's good news. I love fish, and I hate the idea of being punished for liking a healthy food.

 

[Ricky]

Protein leveraging hypothesis is interesting. Essentially we eat and stay hungry until we hit protein targets. It partially explains why high protein foods are so satiating and other foods which are lower in protein arent.

 

[BackInTheGame78]

The mercury concerns have been debunked. Selenium counterbalances mercury in the body. As long as the ratio is healthy, you can excrete the mercury. Most fish contain good amount of selenium, as do nuts (especially Brazil nuts) and chicken. Tuna for example is high in selenium. Some fish species, such as swordfish have extremely high mercury and insufficient selenium, thus should not be consumed at all. If you stick to salmon, sardines, herring, and other low food chain fish you will be fine.

Have they?

Considering there is NO safe level of mercury per EPA recommendations in humans, I would take that with a giant grain of salt.

 

[BackInTheGame78]

Ive read similar but one thing which is never really addressed is the position for the overweight and obese.

If you’re, say, 40% bodyfat then I really don’t believe this metric applies. If you’re dragging say 100lb of fat you surely don’t need 120g protein.

a man who is LBM of 150 and ideal weight of 175 but is currently 275lb surely shouldn’t eat 330g protein. This in chicken breast would be about 1500 cals alone and eating at 2300isj would be well over 50% as a macro.

1) If you are 275 lbs and even doing moderate exercise, 2300 calories is way too big of a deficit. Your TDEE at that weight and average height at 40 years old is like 3250 calories for maintenance. A 500 calorie deficit puts you at 2750ish calories.

2) You could easily do 1g per pound of bodyweight, which would be 275g of protein. There are days I am taking in 220-230g at 2300ish calories so it's definitely possible to do it.

At the end of the day when losing weight, the most important thing is to ensure the weight being lost is coming from fat as much as possible and not from LBM and eating at least 1g of protein per lb of bodyweight is pretty much required if you want to do that.

 

[Fruitbat]

What do we think about this legendary bodybuilding diet?

 

[Manure Spherian]

What do we think about this legendary bodybuilding diet?

Stupid. And a great way to feel like garbage and undernourish oneself.

 

[EyeBRollin]

Have they?

Considering there is NO safe level of mercury per EPA recommendations in humans, I would take that with a giant grain of salt.

Yes, they have. Mercury from fish is not all absorbed, much of it is excreted from the body. This isn’t even new research. You would think mercury poisoning would be a lot more common in populations that regularly consume fish.

Selenium is an important factor, as is the fish species (lower food chain is better).