Early Retirement Extreme Forums

Sounds like a fun project. So candy, conventional pastries, adding sugar to food, etc.

brute approves. sugar is literally good for nothing.

...

Why would you quit the healthiest thing you could put into your body? Seriously

I quit cakes and candy between ages 19 and 23 completely because I had some allergic reactions which I've subsequently grown out of. I don't recall any withdrawal, but I was already eating very little (compared to everybody else anyway).

I most distinctly remember my first piece of cake (at a physics seminar) after those years. It was overwhelmingly sweet. Almost uneatable. I recall that when we went to Tokyo for a conference and I ended up at the Japanese table, I was asked why western desserts are so full of sugar. They had a similar experience because Japanese desserts are not based on sugar as ours and the hotel was serving "western" food.

As with not eating something the average person eats, there will be some social issues when eating with others.

Olaz wrote: ↑

Sat Jun 24, 2017 8:52 pm

Sounds like a fun project. So candy, conventional pastries, adding sugar to food, etc.

...every kind of fruit too?

No, no - fruit can stay

fruit is just candy bars from a tree

BRUTE wrote: ↑

Sun Jun 25, 2017 9:09 pm

fruit is just candy bars from a tree

Not really, it's full of fibre which slows the digestion and hence lowers the glycemic impact.

As a diabetic, consuming bananas, oranges or grapes is my top solution when the blood sugar runs low. For desperate moments, (orange) juice does the trick.

ducknalddon wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 26, 2017 5:52 am

Not really, it's full of fibre which slows the digestion and hence lowers the glycemic impact.

fiber is bad too. lowering GI is the only good thing about it.

Havent learned my lesson. Gonna ask again why Brute thinks fiber is bad for you.

increases volume of poop, therefore causing constipation. also ferments in intestines if of the insoluble type, causing bloat and gas. chronic constipation and bloat can cause chronic intestinal conditions.

I haven't learned my lesson either

I recall Brute citing the book "The Fiber Menace" in another thread. I think this book is filled with junk science and fear mongering.

This blog post provides a nice takedown: http://theness.com/roguesgallery/index. ... ce-part-i/

In the comments section, Mr. Monastyrsky, author of the fiber menace, chimes in to defend himself. He cites a Harvard School of Public Health article as saying:

“Fiber intake has also been linked with the metabolic syndrome, a constellation of factors that increases the chances of developing heart disease and diabetes.”

Sounds pretty bad. But here’s the real quote:

Fiber intake has also been linked to a lower risk of metabolic syndrome, a constellation of factors that increases the chances of developing heart disease and diabetes. These factors include high blood pressure, high insulin levels, excess weight (especially around the abdomen), high levels of triglycerides, the body’s main fat-carrying particle, and low levels of HDL (good) cholesterol. Several studies suggest that higher intake of cereal fiber and whole grains may somehow ward off this increasingly common syndrome (emphasis mine).

He didn't just misrepresent a quote. He actually changed the words so that it meant the opposite of what the authors were saying! Even Gary Taubes, the master of taking quotes out of context, doesn't actually change the wording.

In fact, the whole article Monastyrsky cites in his defense is about how good fiber is for you. You have to applaud how brazen he is. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritions ... tes/fiber/

I'm sure there are people who don't do well on high fiber diets, but to say they are universally bad is absurd. Most studies show fiber is health promoting.

The bloating from fiber intake Brute is experiencing may be due to infrequent fiber intake. It may get better as your microbiome adapts to a different diet.

When you eat insoluble, indigestible (by humans) fiber, it's consumed by bacteria. Some bacteria thrive on it more than others and so your diet influences the particular ratios of microbial species in your gut. There are some species that act symbiotically and improve health, and others that do the opposite. The fiber-eating microbes are largely beneficial, maybe because our pre-agricultural ancestors evolved to eat a high fiber diet. Many of our domesticated foods have had oligosaccharide fiber bred out of them, and industrial processing often removes the rest.

@Smashter

brute is not interested in "takedowns" or "debunkings". scientists have proven so untrustworthy in this field that brute only trusts things he tried out himself. there are thousands of "debunkings" and "research" on the dangers of saturated fat and the benefits of complex carbs out there, and they're just as full of shit. brute wouldn't piss on a nutritional scientist to put out a fire.

easy to try out subjective response to fiber. reducing fiber intake drastically improved digestion for brute. maybe it is possible to grow helpful bacteria that will deal with the fiber. or just not eat fiber.

fiber is the only part of human food that even makes it into the intestine intact. protein and fat get turned into bile and fatty acids immediately and are therefore unable to rot, ferment, or bloat. no bacteria needed. they're also liquid - no constipation!

if ThisDinosaur wants to formulate his statement akin to "some humans, when having cultivated the right combination of intestinal fauna, don't have problems consuming fiber", brute would be ok with that.

[edit]

interesting in the whole fiber debate is that it made brute realize that cows and Gorillas get 85%+ of their calories from fatty acids - they ferment the fiber in their stomachs or intestines, where it gets turned into fat. vegans try to emulate this, but are unable to ferment fiber into fatty acids.

Gorillas also probably eat more insect protein than has been estimated by scientists. If Brute prefers a low-plant diet, that's a very different thing than saying its more or less likely to cause health problems. I'm skeptical of every new nutrition study, too. But beware the man of one study.

Where is the line when quitting? Do you give up bbq sauce? flavored yogurt? pasta sauce? Granola? A little sugar in my food, I really enjoy.

Honestly, I also enjoy a lot of sugar. I have no illusion it is healthy, but it is fun. I'm ok with the energy fluctuations. I find eating sugar around exercise helps minimize them, or even direct them constructively.

@Brute. Totally fair. No one knows what works for you except you. I'm just pointing out that it's odd to rage against the medical establishment but confidently cite dubious characters like Taubes, Teicholz, and the Fiber Menace Guy.

Smashter wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 27, 2017 1:02 pm

@Brute. Totally fair. No one knows what works for you except you. I'm just pointing out that it's odd to rage against the medical establishment but confidently cite dubious characters like Taubes, Teicholz, and the Fiber Menace Guy.

brute doesn't rely on the magical authority of these humans, but he did hear about some of these ideas from them. he relies on trying things out for himself.

when what the medical establishment says didn't work for 20 years, and what [TTFMG] say works perfectly within 2 weeks, brute feels like he is right to rage against one party, but not the other.

@ThisDinosaur
brute prefers the low-plant diet because he believes it is less likely to cause health problems, at least for a large number of humans. maybe there are some humans that are super adapted to sugar or fiber, but brute would be surprised. in addition, brute is always happy to rage against establishment ideas that are in their current blanket form harmful to millions - of which "fiber good!" is one. if Low Carb High Fat No Fiber was the default establishment view, brute might rant against applying it to 100% of all existing humans.