I'm addicted to tuna.
 
But I tolerate eggs as an easy/cheap protein source.

Guys,
 
Tossing in my 2 cents on this from a generic pharmacist’s perspective. Not an MD, and those guys know everything (maybe…)
 
Cholesterol and stuff… If you look at the physical structure of the human carbon infestation, we are gramiverous by nature. Like a cow minus their otherwise evolved ruminant function that we have vestiges of as a useless appendix.
 
We need cholesterol and lots of it. Human cell cohesion is about as held together the thickness of cooking oil. Without cholesterol as a stabilizing brick in the matrix, we would drip off our bones. Cholesterol needed as a storage precursor to sex hormones, steroids and the like as well. Cholesterol is cool.
 
On a hundred percent vegetarian diet, the liver produces all the cholesterol needed to maintain things.
 
So many systems in the body are controlled by feedback loops. Something gets too low or too hi, correction is made.
 
Since we were never cannibals by nature, we are not wired to down regulate production of cholesterol if there is excess coming in from the diet. Liver cranks out what it thinks and the diet stuffs us with more. Overload condenses and plaques over the arteries until death happen, if something else don’t take us out first.
 
There is no such thing as a low cholesterol diet if animal corpses are consumed. Because everything with fur, feather, scales, puts its menstrual cycle into a shell, has the same cell membrane architecture. Filled with cholesterol and no way currently to remove it.
 
Definitely lower fat content in chickens, vultures, fish. And the reactive benefit of the non saturated oils from fish that can offset some of the damage that is slowly killing us from the otherwise civilized modern diet.
 
Belly fat, and hope you guys can survive to my age in good health. Struggling here also.
 
Like was said, cut down on booze, watch the intake. It all ultimately comes down to calories in versus calories out.
 
We were 20 years old with a slim 6 pack. Now we got the gut bulge. What the hell happened while we slept.
 
Another painful piece of advice…
 
HGR (human growth hormone) is pumped into the system from the pituitary gland in the base of the brain. Strong healthy levels while we are teens and in our 20’s. HGR among other things, regulates the distribution of body fat and muscle mass. You hit half my age, the pituitary is starting to fatigue and HGR is decreasing. Ramification is redistribution of body fat to the abdomen and loss of muscle mass. Just part of the slow glorious death process.
 
Deprivation from all calories, meaning fasting. Sunrise to sunrise fast a couple times a month is a miracle. We depended on this respite from eating in our evolution. HGR is directly affected as in increased levels. The shift helps to maintain fat distribution and muscle mass preservation.
 
Result on fasting as far as directly reducing fat is dismal unless you can go 3 days or more on water. This the breaking point where our physiology says to burn fat. Note however that you can circumvent the deprivation process and get past preservation alarms, directly to fat, by aerobic exercise. Bummer to do, but jog until you get winded and you are burning fat.
 
Cool way to lose weight quickly and not age you faster with the imbalanced carb vs protein etc burnout. Yeah, they may work, but at a severe cost. Raw diet, vegetarian and nothing cooked. Initially avoid hi carb vegetables like avacado, banana. Eat as much as you want (but slow down on the salt). Pounds will shed, several a day.
 
Will not be a happy experience in the detox ahead, but will loose weight and can go thru time a bit longer with a better quality of life.
 
John

smallstonefan

Beepster
errr... watch yer arteries bro.

 
NOPE - this is wrong.

Sorry I've been mangling around with some other stuff here today but have been wanting to respond to this.
 
I'm gonna have to say that "watching one's arteries" doesn't seem like something that could ever be "wrong". I do understand your point and absolutely from an evolutionary standpoint a high fat/protein diet seems to be what caused our brain to evolve as they did and made us the most resilient species on the planet.
 
That said... that high fat/protein diet was useful back then but not so much now EXCEPT for folks who who live lifestyles more similar to our early ancestors. That is LOTS of strenuous physical activity. We haven't chatted much but from some of your pics it seems you are an air force guy (I desparately wanted to be in the RCAF as a kid but it was not meant to be). So that leads me to believe you ain't like a lot of the other schleps out there these days and truly need that extra fat/protein to keep going, repair muscles, feed your brain tissue, etc and have the metabolism to process it. The fat ain't just sitting around collecting around your heart. It's being used throughout your body.
 
I was exactly the same way when I was doing heavy labor day in and out and generally running around like a lunatic with my music stuff at night.
 
BUT... like more and more people in modern society I'm not living like that anymore (for me it's due to injuries but for others it simply that the workforce in the western world is more sedentary/computer based and whatnot).
 
So the need for those regular high fat injections is gone and actually becomes a liability because it's not being used in the body. For folks in that situation less fatty sources of protein are generally better.
 
Even if they exercise, aside from heavy duty weight lifting, it's usually not like hard labor/military work where you are quite literally damaging your muscle tissue so badly and regularly that your body needs and can easily process that extra fat. Just like a subsistence hunter/gatherer.
 
And even all THAT is a massive generalization. So much of it has to do with genetics as well. What works for one person can be the completely wrong thing for another simply due to their genetic make up. A perfect example would be lactose intolerance.
 
Absolutely not arguing that high fat diets can be extremely beneficial... just that it's certainly not for everyone and this is exactly why a good (and legit) dietician can be so important for people struggle with a range of physical issues.
 
Glad you found what works for you though.
 
Cheers.

Beepster
I'm addicted to tuna.
 
But I tolerate eggs as an easy/cheap protein source.

Costco tuna is the bestest ever.  Love the stuff.

BobF

Beepster
I'm addicted to tuna.
 
But I tolerate eggs as an easy/cheap protein source.

Costco tuna is the bestest ever.  Love the stuff.

I just realized I'm down to my last couple of cans... and one of them is about to be devoured in tuna salad sammich form.
 
YURMZ!!!!

But of course nice big hunks of tuna sashimi with wasabi and soy sauce... oh man.
 
Now I'm drooling.
 
urrrrgh... haven't sashimi in freaking years now.
 
 
 

Beepster
I tried being a vegetarian once and nearly croaked... 

Every summer, I seem to gravitate towards a more plant-based diet, though I've never called myself a vegetarian because I never took the decision to never eat meat again. And it never was a very strict diet either.
 
This year however, things happened more gradually and I started looking for alternatives to certain products, slowly phasing animal protein out of my diet. Some things like mayonnaise I've not yet quite replaced but I now eat a strict vegetarian diet - just not vegan. 
 
Other things, like Trader Joe's meatless Italian sausages I've tried out of curiosity, as an alternative, and now prefer to the traditional counterpart.
 
Anyway, I hate labels and I've not decided to never eat meat again, though at this point, I can hardly imagine going back to it. I'm not on a crusade either although the vegetarian-vegan diet does matches my personal values.
 
I'm a firm believer in making gradual changes. To me, following a diet is like learning stuff by heart for an exam, whereas making gradual changes is like understanding what it is you're learning - takes more time but in the long run, it pays back a whole lot more. 

Rain

Beepster
I tried being a vegetarian once and nearly croaked... 

Every summer, I seem to gravitate towards a more plant-based diet, though I've never called myself a vegetarian because I never took the decision to never eat meat again. And it never was a very strict diet either.
 
This year however, things happened more gradually and I started looking for alternatives to certain products, slowly phasing animal protein out of my diet. Some things like mayonnaise I've not yet quite replaced but I now eat a strict vegetarian diet - just not vegan. 
 
Other things, like Trader Joe's meatless Italian sausages I've tried out of curiosity, as an alternative, and now prefer to the traditional counterpart.
 
Anyway, I hate labels and I've not decided to never eat meat again, though at this point, I can hardly imagine going back to it. I'm not on a crusade either although the vegetarian-vegan diet does matches my personal values.
 
I'm a firm believer in making gradual changes. To me, following a diet is like learning stuff by heart for an exam, whereas making gradual changes is like understanding what it is you're learning - takes more time but in the long run, it pays back a whole lot more. 

Exactly. I worked in a borderline militant vegan restaurant as a teen. Long story I won't get into but I learned a lot about nutrition AND about how nuts people can get about diet issues. It's like it turns into a dogma... and I don't roll like that.
 
I kept eating meat (and even eeeevil fast food and whatnot because I was working HARD and was huuuuungry) but I also developed an EXTREME appreciation for exotic and not so exotic veggies, beans, rice, grains, spices, etc.
 
I don't think I could ever be a vegetarian (don't have time, money or energy to sustain that diet in any healthful sort of way) but that don't mean I can't eat that type of food and just add a side of chicken or eat a burger/hot dog every now and then or fry up a nice ole classic breakkie with toast.
 
It's soooo cliche'd but moderation is indeed a very good thing.
 
And as you've described sometimes our dietary needs change. I've learned to listen to what my body wants to eat and try to accomodate. If your body is saying "I want veggies"... well hell, your body seems to got a good head on its shoulders.
 
;-)
 
Hope you've been doin' alright, man. Happy and healthy again?
 
Cheers!

Thanks Rain, Beep,
 
Cardinal advice is gradual for any change.
A hard core cannibal going overnight to a pure vegetarian existence will suffer shell shock and the body not knowing how to immediately deal with the radical shift. Good move ultimately for physical health and cleaner karma going forward, but not advised for most to turn 360 degrees overnite unless there is a flaming moral purpose to change.
Vegetarian diet has to be based on a moral purpose to have any lasting effect beyond just keeping the arteries less plugged for a few short more years.
Principle should be that anything we eat has to take life. The cow is there not for the purpose of us filling our gut with worms. The apple, same thing.
We are killing something to survive. Higher evolved consciousness of the entity we kill to eat gets us further into debt in proportion. Thus a plant diet is advised. Health of the body beautiful is a perk, but only secondary to the greater lesson.
 
John

Heh... it's hard to tell where the satire begins and ends with you sometimes, John.
 
But ya... going from an all fast food diet to an all veggie/vegan diet overnight is a baaaaad idea. I've seen it done but there were after effects. Lasting ones.
 
PS: This was my favorite part...
 
but not advised for most to turn 360 degrees
 
classic