Darn! oneway has posted something worth responding to!
I like what you've quoted, but have a few quibbles with the great doctor:
Quote from onewaypockets:
reducing your intake of methionine by eating less meat and chicken...
[less, not none, and you have to look at individual meats and what else you're eating]
Whole grain cereals are rich sources of many nutrients that help protect a person from getting a heart attack: linoleic acid, fiber, vitamin E...
[the vitamin E studies are a mess, he has no business just throwing that into the list]
Many different chemical reactions then break down sugar one step at a time to release energy. Each reaction must be started by an individual chemical called an enzyme and the B vitamins are parts of these enzymes that start the reactions that break sugar into energy. If any of the B vitamins are not available, the conversion of carbohydrates to energy is blocked. Instead, the carbohydrates are converted to fat...
[you cannot control the degree to which carbs are converted to fat by controlling just the B vitamins...sounds like someone misapplying the little bit of biochemistry he knows]
That's why you want to eat carbohydrates that release their sugars slowly and restrict carbohydrates that release sugars rapidly...The most healthful carbohydrates are those left with fiber...
[and PROTEIN]
Root vegetables contain stored sugar and cause a high rise in blood sugar levels, but they contain so many healthful nutrients that you need them to be healthy. So potatoes, carrots and beets can be eaten safely with other foods to slow absorption. For example, eating a potato with a piece of fish slows absorption of the sugars...
[wrong, you don't need to be eating potatoes! with respect to the effects of the fish, that's exactly what a low-carber would do: add PROTEIN to balance the carbs, but it need not be fish]
The most healthful way to eat is to leave nature alone.
[now that's just silly; eggs, for example, are being improved nutritionally all the time based on human manipulation; I'm all for fixing the stuff that tastes good whenever possible]
The doctor seems to be generally agreeing with what us lower-carb, higher-protein followers have been saying. But he's also left out some huge factors that affect the adoption of any diet, such as,
- taste
- hunger
- energy
- indigestion
- convenience
For example, if you're ready for a snack in the middle of the afternoon while trading, your highest concern is not whether what you eat will extend your life another 5 seconds. In fact, if you screw up your next trade, it may well take a larger toll in stress and other bad effects.
A really simplistic way to think of the balance between fat, carbs, and protein can be summarized with an equation something like this:
FAT for sustained energy
+ PROTEIN to suppress hunger
- CARBS that spike your blood sugar
The next question would be HOW MUCH more protein and fewer carbs are healthful. This can be answered with a rule that sets a target ratio of net carbs (carbs - fiber) to protein of 1.0 to 1.4.
The issues after that get more complicated (as shown by this thread), such as which fats, which meats, which vegetables, etc., are best to use in such a diet. However, as I've stated before, the premium that the rule puts on fiber and protein leads you in the right direction most of the time (such as to whole grain pancakes
). And even when it doesn't result in eliminating a bad thing like potatoes from your diet, it does exactly what the doctor recommends above: it forces you to eat your potatoes (or crackers or chips) with some protein, thereby lowering the impact of the sugars (more importantly, the protein suppresses your hunger and leads you to eat fewer potatoes/calories).
(Okay, if interesting stuff keeps getting posted that's worth responding to, just remember that I still only intend on visiting ET and this thread once a day, so don't expect any emotional cock fighting from me.
)
