After reading these comments, I'm more confused than entering. Throughout the years, we've constantly been subjected to advertising from fad diets claiming low-fat or low-carb or no-grain or no-sugar or low-whatever is the magic elixir to being healthy and losing weight. It seems that every nutritionist you talk to has a subjective bias as to the key. I understand that the body is an incredibly complex machine, and it's probably impossible to distill things down into a set of manageable steps, but I would just like to know what to eat, what not to eat, some simple science as to why, and not have bullshit or biases injected into the conversation.
People looking for an overriding simple comprehensive rule (or small set of rules) are destined to be confused and disappointed, because we simply don't have one with any degree of confidence. That being said, there are a fair few rules that are common to many of these conflicting diet plans that don't add up to a comprehensive diet plan but can still be applied to your existing diet. See the rest of this thread for examples, but it's _mostly_ common-sense stuff (that is still widely not-followed) like "limit quickly-absorbed sugar/simple-carb intake", "eat lots of vegetables", "eat a hefty amount of good fats (like in fish)", "eat a fixed amount of protein relative to bodyweight". Note that I'm using vague terms here, but a lot of the quantity terms that I'm using are actually directly quantified with not too much variation.
You basically can't go wrong sticking to the simpler rules that are more well-supported, and don't stress too much about the under-determined parts of your diet. For my part (and someone else could follow the same rules and end up with a fairly different diet), I basically eat a certain amount of lean meat or fish, occasional fruits, a middling amount of nuts, a medium amount of carbs with fiber (mostly beans and pulses), and backfill an assload of vegetables. I don't eat simple carbs and do eat the occasional dessert but treat like a special occasion that I know is terrible for me (e.g. like drinking 5+ drinks in a night: I'd be fine not doing at all, I'm aware that it's bad for me, but I don't limit myself to NEVER doing it ever).
What I've been able to gather over the years (and in this thread) and pretty much what I've incorporated into my diet is the following:
- Avoid processed foods
- Avoid added sugars
- Limit fruit intake (especially those high in fructose) and especially avoid fruit juices
- Avoid simple carbs (e.g., bread, tortillas, flour) and look to lower carb intake in general (~300g daily limit seems excessive)
- Eat more meals composed of higher fat/protein and a vegetable (e.g., protein and a vegetable)
- Fats aren't as bad as people believe
When it's all said and done, I think you're right though. The fact of the matter is we all love carbs and sugar way too much. We need to eat more plants.
I'm interested in that last statement regarding aspartame. It seems you find extremely polarized opinions on artificial sweeteners. I've often read that, regardless of the health impact (or lack thereof), artificial sweeteners are more-or-less "tricking" your body into thinking it has calories incoming, when in fact, it doesn't. Your body, feeling jipped, tries to compensate by craving more calories. But, again, this is hearsay.
Finally (N=1) I drink way more aspartame sweetened soda than any sane person should and I was relatively easily able to shred roughly 1/3 of body weight without serious hunger.
