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This raises again the question of the profile of the average person for whom nutrition recommendations are made, and the relevance of this profile for actual individuals with their own lifestyles. If nutrition advice can only give recommendations for average people and will ultimately be used by the entire population of a country (with people with all lifestyles), then why not look at what entire countries with long living people eat on average? The answer is that there are many factors involved, not only diet. For example, in 2020, India was the country with the lowest meat consumption in the world, which made it the largest vegetarian experiment in the world. Yet, the average life expectancy of its people is well below the others, and, worse, its death rates from heart disease and stroke were the highest. What's more, in China, the consumption of vegetables was more than in any other country, yet the average lifespan was only 78 years. Greece, one of the homes of the Mediterranean diet, claimed by some to be plant-based, was eating 6.6 times more meat than India, yet its life expectancy was 11 years more. Remarkably, while China had a much lower income (per capita) than USA, its rice consumption was much higher than in any other country, yet its life expectancy was still higher than that of USA, and its obesity and diabetes mortality rates were much lower, most likely due to a much lower consumption of ultra processed food. Add to this the fact that three countries with the highest life expectancy (Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea) were countries with the highest rice consumption by far (aside from China and India). This isn't a recommendation to switch to a rice-based diet, but it's pointing out that the population level data doesn't show a problem for rice (in an omnivore diet). Diet is just one of the factors which affects lifespan, clearly not the most important one, and a diet (plant-based for India) can't in any way compensate the other factors. That's how little life expectancy is affected by diet, on average (and with limited ultra processed food), compared to the other factors, factors that we don't really know. Reality, at population level, involves all those factors, so anyone who is interested in being a part of a long lived population should eat and do what a long lived population eats and does. But if the average diet were to actually have a major effect on lifespan, by definition, if you were to eat the average diet (as listed above), you would have the average lifespan (as listed above). But the average lifespan listed above includes people who have health problems which reduce their lifespan, like: smoking, obesity, sleeping too little, no physical exercise, eating a significant amount of ultra processed food and sugar. Remove such people from the data, and the average lifespan increases significantly over what's listed. At the same time, if diet doesn't actually have a major effect on lifespan, then, well, it doesn't matter much and there are more important things to follow upon. Why give nutrition recommendations based on imperfect nutrition studies with conflicting results, which look at foods in isolation, ignoring all other factors, therefore ignoring real life? Why not just remove the clear toxins from food and then live life like the average long lived populations? The most useful way to study the effect of food is to study several complete diets, specifying the exact foods and cooking methods (preferably providing the food to the participants), and even specifying the lifestyle. The people who have preexisting health risks (like smoking and diabetes) should be excluded in order to see the effect of the diets, not of the preexisting risks. Nutrition studies should look at national statistics to see what foods countries consume, compare the countries and extract the common elements that show up in long lived populations, and those that show up in short lived populations, while considering the effects of other factors (because different countries have different living conditions and medical care). Nutrition studies should also look at what people who are significantly older than the average (like 90 year old people) ate and what was their lifestyle throughout their life, because only then you can have the guarantee that something (diet or lifestyle) could in fact increase the lifespan beyond the average.
The DEMO dietThe word DEMO is short for "DEMOnstration". The DEMO diet is a diet that you can experiment with and personalize. The diet is largely permissive and can be followed in the long term. You can avoid eating some of the listed foods, or you can eat other foods. The goal of the diet is to provide you with information about various generally healthy foods that can be combined based on your needs and preferences. Try to avoid optimizing your diet for just one or two types of food because even if a type of food fixes a problem you have, it may cause another one if it's not balanced by other types of food. Main advice to follow:
From the food consumption table above, we can calculate the average amount of food consumed per person per day, for the countries with the highlighted life expectancy (which are the highest 12 life expectancies): meat - 351 g, eggs - 38 g, milk - 451 g, cheese - 45 g, vegetables - 346 g, rice (uncooked weight) - 202 g, potatoes - 312 g, nuts - 35 g, cacao - 7 g, salt - 8.8 g (sodium is 40%, so 3.5 g). If life expectancy were to be influenced only by diet, this average diet would, by definition, produce an average life expectancy of 83.2 years. But life expectancy isn't influenced only by diet, so the diet is less important, so don't make a goal out of this average diet. This average life expectancy would be significantly higher for people who maximize their lifespan (for example people who don't smoke, aren't obese and limit ultra processed food and sugar). Keep in mind that, for example, the listed amount of milk isn't drank, as much of it is used to make other foods (like cheese). Other interesting information that can be observed:
In the sections below you can find details about meat, eggs, fermented dairy, vegetables, nuts, chocolate, and more. Eggs and fermented dairy are the most complex foods that animals can provide for a long time, unlike meat. These foods have a lot of calories, proteins, fats and vitamins, and their essential aminoacids balance is on par with that of meat (see this for the essential aminoacids balance). Eggs are more cost effective than fermented dairy, per gram of protein, and are much simpler to understand than fermented dairy. The downside is that eggs require cooking (so time and energy). Fermented cheese is much more practical than fermented dairy drinks (like kefir) because it's more compact per calorie, and doesn't require a bottle. Also, fermented cheese will bring in the diet a fraction of the sugar that fermented dairy drinks bring, not because the drinks bring in a lot of sugar, but because fermented cheese barely has any sugar. Meat isn't required because eggs and fermented dairy can provide all the needed proteins, and much of the needed calories and other nutrients. Meat is more cost effective than aged cheese, per gram of protein. The downside is that meat requires cooking (so time and energy). People who are allergic to either eggs or dairy can exclude them.
Limit ultra processed foodLimit ultra processed food (= the kind made mostly in a factory) as much as possible. Ultra processed food is the kind of food made from multiple ingredients, usually in a factory, usually containing preservatives (other than salt), and is designed to be ultra palatable, meaning that people have to make a massive mental effort to stop eating it. Ultra processed food can be made in a family kitchen, like deserts. Ultra processed food should be avoided because:
Sugar. Refined carbohydrates (like flour). Refined fats (like oils, lard, butter, melted cheese). Even if they are safe to eat, at the very least you don't need the extra calories. Using a tablespoon or two of refined fats for frying food is fine. Sauces. They are mostly made with refined fats and sugar. Combining a lot of refined fats with a lot of refined carbohydrates (especially sugar). Such a combination isn't present in natural food (natural vegetal foods have virtually no fats, animal derived foods have virtually no carbohydrates), but is present in ultra processed food, whether made in a factory or in a kitchen. This combination makes people overeat calories. Nuts do contain both fats and carbohydrates, but their satiation per calorie is also low, which reinforces this idea. Could it be that one of the (major) reasons of the metabolic disease experienced by the people who eat a lot of ultra processed food is the combination of a lot of refined fats with a lot of refined carbohydrates? Smoked meat. Ultra processed meats, like ham and salami.
Limit sugarLimit sugar as much as possible. There are tens of food ingredients that the food industry uses, which are sugar or have the same negative effects as sugar. The safest thing to do is to limit as much as possible anything which tastes sweet. The need to eat sweets shows that you're not eating proper food, so your body isn't getting the nutrients it needs, and wants more nutrients. Instead of giving your body proper food, you give it sugar, which feels good and numbs your cravings for nutrients, but doesn't satisfy the nutrient deficiency. Sugar has the same negative health effects, regardless of its source: it makes you want to eat more, produces inflammation (bad bacteria grow by eating sugar), and may create mental fog. Sugar, regardless of source (so including from fruits), creates a favorable environment in the throat for bacteria to develop, which makes it easier to catch a cold. Drinking from plastic bottles has a similar effect. Refined carbohydrates (like flour) seem to have a similar effect, but with a lower intensity. Before sugar triggers insulin production and affects the liver (the half of sugar which is fructose), it creates a sludge (in both the mouth / throat and in the digestive system) where the intestinal microbiota can't function properly. Sugar in soft form has worse effects than sugar in hard form, so limit more strictly the sugar in drinks and creams. For example, cream-filled chocolate has worse effects than solid chocolate, and liquid honey has worse effects than solid / crystalized honey. Very low sugar foods like meat, eggs, cheese, nuts and vegetables bring in only a few grams of sugar. Fruits and sweets bring in large amounts of sugar. Fresh fruits are fine to eat, to some extent, but the effects of sugar are the same regardless of its source. While the fiber from fruits slows down the sugar absorption, the entire amount of sugar will still be processed by the body. Also, much of the sugar is still available in easily absorbable form because chewing separates the sugary juice from the fiber. Keep in mind that:
If you eat sweets / deserts, try to limit yourself to those which contain maximum 20% sugar (and no other sweeteners). If you make the desert yourself, the sugar should be maximum 25% from the weight of the other ingredients (which would make the sugar 20% of the total weight of the desert). Also try to limit mixing a lot of fats with a lot of carbohydrates, that is, limit creams (which are fat and sugar). Deserts which fit these criteria: cheesecake, brownie cake (without cream). If possible, replace sugar with allulose. Sugar content of fresh fruits: raspberries 3%, strawberries 5%, blackberries 5%, watermelon 6%, grapefruit 7%, sour cherries 8%, nectarines 8%, peaches 8%, oranges 9%, kiwi 9%, blueberries 9%, pears 10%, plums 10%, pineapple 11%, apples 12%, bananas 12%, sweet cherries 13%, mandarins 13%, mangos 14%. Sugar content of drinks: carrot juice 6%, beetroot juice 9%, orange juice 9%, Coca-Cola 11%, Pepsi 12%, apple juice 12%.
Meat
Land animalsEach 100 g (3.5 oz) of cooked chicken breast contain 30 g of proteins, which is 60% of the minimum daily requirement. To get the entire minimum daily requirement of proteins you need 170 g / 6 oz of chicken breast, but you should get proteins from other foods as well. Examples: chicken, turkey. Chicken and turkey breast has proteins, but has no fats or carbohydrates, so it's not a good source of energy, which means that you have to add fats or carbohydrates to the meal. Prefer meat from pasture-raised animals (who spend their daytime outdoors and can eat naturally from the soil), then from free-range animals (who are allowed access outdoors).
Wild fishEach 100 g (3.5 oz) of wild fish contain 20...25 g of proteins, which is 40...50% of the minimum daily requirement. To get the entire minimum daily requirement of proteins you need 200...250 g / 7.1...8.8 oz of wild fish, but you should get proteins from other foods as well. It's recommended to limit fish to maximum 400 g (14.1 oz) per week. Large fish, like tuna, should be limited more. Small fish, like sardines and herring, can be up to 200 g (7.1 oz) per day. Fresh wild fish: sardine, herring, mackerel (not king), salmon, cod. Fresh can mean refrigerated or frozen. Canned small wild fish: sardine, herring, mackerel (not king).
Farmed fish should generally be avoided:
EggsThe essential aminoacids balance of eggs is on par with that of meat. See this for the essential aminoacids balance. Each 100 g (3.5 oz) of eggs (scrambled) contain 10 g of proteins, which is 20% of the minimum daily requirement, and 11 % fat (which includes the fat, likely butter, considering the shown amount of sugar / lactose). To get the entire minimum daily requirement of proteins you need 500 g / 17.6 oz / 7 large eggs, but you should get proteins from other foods as well. Eggs can provide the same amount of proteins as meat (like chicken breast), at the same price and quality. To get the same amount of proteins, the amount of eggs has to be twice the amount of meat. Eggs also have fat, which means that they also provide energy in the same price, while chicken breast can't because it has only proteins. It's much easier to find top quality eggs (than top quality chicken meat) because the producers prefer to keep the chickens that make them, to make many eggs for a long time. Eggs aren't good for people who are allergic to histamine. Prefer eggs from pasture-raised chickens (who spend their daytime outdoors and can eat naturally from the soil), then from free-range chickens (who are allowed access outdoors). In many countries there is a legally mandated labeling of the egg quality, label which indicates how the chickens (who made the eggs) were raised. The label may be some sort of keyword, category or code. Generally speaking, eggs from pasture-raised chickens have the best quality, then from free-range chickens; you should avoid other types of eggs. Where I live, the label which identifies the top quality eggs requires the chickens to be pasture-raised and to be fed organic food (ignoring what the chickens eat from the soil outdoors). Be careful with eggs which are labeled "organic" / "bio" because these words may not mean what you think they mean, which is the highest quality, but may mean that the food of the chickens was organic, yet the chickens may have been raised in abject conditions. Always look for the legally mandated label of quality. Labels like "omega 3" and "deep yellow yolk" don't say anything about the quality of the eggs. Observational studies (which are low quality) have propagated the idea that eggs aren't healthy because they contain cholesterol. However, randomized control studies (which are high quality) have shown that eating up to 3 eggs per day has neutral or positive effects on blood cholesterol (source, in people with diabetes). No studies were made with more eggs per day. Eggs can be cooked sunny-side-up, in extra virgin olive oil (1 or 2 tablespoons), with the yolk structure having a soft to medium hardness. They can also be made scrambled, which is useful when you want to mix other ingredients in the eggs. You can add fermented cheese over the eggs. Some cheeses, like white hard cheese, don't melt.
Fermented dairyThe essential aminoacids balance of milk and fermented dairy products (like cheese and kefir) is on par with that of meat; see this for the essential aminoacids balance. Dairy products aren't good for people who are allergic to lactose, casein or histamine. Fermented dairy is satiating without creating a feeling fullness and slowness in the stomach, and produces no gas, no bloating, no stomach cramps. Dairy products, especially fermented ones (and even more, the moulded cheeses), are associated with a neutral or beneficial effect on health, despite their high saturated fat content. Milk and butter appear to be exceptions. Fermented dairy products, and fermented foods in general, are generally healthy because they bring into the digestive system bacteria which produces short-chain fatty acids (which are healthy), bacteria which is beneficial for humans. The fermentation bacteria isn't required to be alive when the food is eaten because the food may already contain a significant amount of short-chain fatty acids. Fiber (from vegetables) ferments in the digestive system and also produces short-chain fatty acids, but at the cost of creating gas. The only dairy product which appears to be fine to be consumed daily in a significant amount is cheese which is aged (at least a month). Cheese which is aged less than a month, and kefir, can be fine to a more limited extent. In Denmark, a country with the highest consumption of cheese, the average consumption of cheese per person per day was 77 g / 2.7 oz, while in France was 72 g / 2.5 oz. Any other dairy product, especially unfermented dairy products, like milk and butter, should be limited. If you do drink milk, try goat milk because its after taste feels much lighter than that of cow milk, as if it has much less sugar (although it doesn't). Introducing air into cheese and (sour) cream, through whipping, and making their fat become even more easily absorbed by the body, seems to make them cause a negative health effect. It's not possible to look at a certain product and know whether it contains beneficial fermentation bacteria or byproducts, which is why the desirable products are labeled in a special way which indicates their link to fermentation. Because fermentation is a complex process with a variable degree of fermentation, the labeling varies and isn't easy to understand. A dairy product which is labeled to contain "lactic cultures" or "lactic acid starter (cultures)", like non-aged cheeses and sour cream, has something which is needed to start the fermentation process, but says nothing about whether the bacteria is still alive or whether the fermentation process did actually happen (and to what degree). Note that "lactic acid" is a byproduct of the fermentation started by "lactic acid starter (cultures)". Such dairy products should be monitored if you eat them regularly in large amounts. The taste of fermented dairy products usually varies based on how long / strong the fermentation was. Sourness varies the most, but some products can taste bitter, and some can taste spicy. If you don't like the taste of the products which are strongly fermented, you can find products which are only slightly fermented. You can also eat them together with foods / vegetables whose taste balances the taste of the fermented products. I've seen sheep cheese which was aged for 6 months, yet it was soft and its taste was similar to that of non-aged cheese and lacked any spiciness. Prefer fermented dairy products made from goat or sheep milk over those made from cow milk. Goat and sheep cheeses have more short-chain fatty acids than cow cheeses, about 60% more. Many cows produce an inflammatory protein called A1 beta-casein (and it's nearly impossible to know if you eat that), while goats and sheep don't. In the case of the dairy products made from raw milk, compared to those made from pasteurized milk, the manufacturing process is stricter to avoid bad bacteria, so the products are more expensive (and cheese is usually aged for many months). Lactic acid starter (cultures) are added after the milk is pasteurized, so the fermentation will occur whether the milk was raw or pasteurized. Raw milk has more bacteria which can benefit the intestinal microbiota, but it can also cause issues in some people because it's wild bacteria (unlike the controlled fermentation bacteria). There are 3 main types of pasteurization (a higher temperature destroys more bacteria):
The only ingredients in dairy products should be: milk, whey, salt, and lactic acid starter (cultures). A coagulant (like animal or microbial rennet) may be present in cheese. Avoid products which contain additives, preservatives, thickeners, emulsifiers, stabilizers (like xanthan gum, carageenan, guar gum, carob bean gum), sweeteners, which, at the very least, may cause gas and have a laxative effect. Milk, butter and cream aren't (usually) fermented dairy products. The desirable products are labeled in a special way which indicates their link to fermentation. Do not eat the low fat versions of fermented dairy products. A dairy substitute product is not a dairy product.
WarningsDairy products, fermented or not, aren't healthy for people who are allergic to lactose or casein. Fermentation reduces the amount of lactose from milk. Eating a lot of unfermented dairy products (like unfermented cheese, milk, butter, cream), or not fermented enough, especially when mixed with sugar, may cause a slight pain in the chest (= angina), or a heaviness in the chest (which feels like something makes the heart activity more difficult), or just tingling in the chest. If this happens once you start eating a lot of dairy products, change their type and make sure they are fermented. Other factors, like sugar (whether in fruits or deserts) and stress, can cause the same health problems. When I was eating a lot of cheese (and reduced the sugar), the (slight) angina I was having vanished completely; even in situations of stress when I was expecting it to appear, it didn't, it was literally zero. Some fermented dairy products can cause too much fermentation in the digestive system, which can be felt as inflammation (in the digestive system). If this happens to you then change the product (even if it's only for a few days). Heating or melting fermented dairy products makes the fats easier to absorb and destroys the fermentation bacteria (because of the high heat). Consumption of such products should be limited. Avoid eating dairy products (at least the liquid ones) together with vegetables or fruits, because they can cause digestive problems. Cheese with vegetables is fine. Some deserts with dairy and fruits are fine in limited amounts. Be careful with dairy products made with milk from cows that are raised in an accelerated manner. In the USA cows are raised even 3 times faster than in Italy. If a child were to reach adulthood (18 years old) in just 6 years, you would surely think that such a child can't be healthy.
Fermented cheeseEach 100 g (3.5 oz) of cheese (cheddar or similar) contain 23 g of proteins, which is 46% of the minimum daily requirement. To get the entire minimum daily requirement of proteins you need 220 g / 7.8 oz of cheese, but you should get proteins from other foods as well. The fat content should be 20...35%. The protein content should be 15...25%; yellow cheese usually has 25%, while white cheese (like feta) usually has 15%. Salt should be maximum 2.5%; you can find good cheese with up to 4%, but that's quite salty. Sugar should generally be maximum 0.5%, but can be maximum 1%. Not all cheeses are fermented. Some fermented cheeses are labeled "aged", "matured", "stagionato" or "vieilli", depending on the country and language. Fermented cheese doesn't have to be aged. Prefer cheese which is aged at least one month over cheese which is aged less than a month (or without a specified period); in extreme cases, cheese is fermented / aged for years. Be careful with cheese which is labeled "fresh", "fresco" or "cream". Fresh cheese isn't fermented. Buyers are tempted to buy it because they think that fresh cheese is healthier than old / aged cheese, but the reality is the other way around. Still, you can enjoy it.
Fermented dairy drinksExamples of fermented dairy drinks: kefir. The fat content should generally be around 3.5%, but can be 3...5%. The protein content should be about the same as the fat content. Sugar must be maximum 4%. Salt should be almost 0%. The sugar content shown on the label is from before the fermentation started. If a fermented dairy drink gets more sour as time passes, it means that the fermentation continues and the sugar content decreases. This extra sourness is an indication that it's better to consume fermented dairy drinks which are one or two weeks old rather than freshly made ones; they usually have a shelf life of about 30 days. Fermented dairy drinks must be sold in solid glass or plastic bottles, with a solid sealed cap, in order to withstand the pressure of the fermentation gas. Fermented dairy drinks must release gas (= fizz) when the cap is unsealed, in order to prove that the fermentation did work at some point. If the fermentation bacteria is still alive, more gas will be released when the (half empty) bottle is opened in subsequent days. Yogurts which are sold in a cup will likely not fizz when unsealed, which means that they either haven't been through fermentation, or the fermentation bacteria isn't alive anymore (so the yogurt isn't useful for the body). Prefer kefir over yogurt because kefir has, traditionally, a wider diversity of beneficial bacteria.
Fermented sour creamThe fat content should be 15...20% fat. Sugar must be maximum 4% sugar, but some products have as low as 2.5% sugar. Salt should be almost 0%. Fermented sour cream must be labeled to contain "lactic cultures" or "lactic acid starter (cultures)". Fermented sour cream must release a bit of gas (= fizz) when the cap is unsealed, in order to prove that the fermentation did work at some point. Fermented sour cream should be fine to be consumed occasionally.
Falsehoods about dairy
Dairy is inflammatoryPeople who are allergic to lactose, casein or histamine should not eat dairy. Many cows produce an inflammatory protein called A1 beta-casein, while goats and sheep don't. You may have heard some statistics claiming that 70% of North Americans have some form of lactose intolerance. Oddly enough, the people who make this claim have to justify why Europeans don't seem to have this problem, so they claim that Europeans are an exception. But here's an important question: where do most North Americans come from? Europe. So, unless people start claiming that genetics can change to this level in a few centuries, despite continued immigration during that time, the above statistic makes no sense. If pizza makes you bloated, it's more likely that it's because of the flour / gluten / wheat than because of the cheese. Carbohydrates, especially the refined ones (like flour) cause gas and bloating. Many dairy products have stabilizers (like xanthan gum, carageenan, guar gum, carob bean gum), which, at the very least, may cause gas and have a laxative effect. Analysis of studies shows that dairy products, especially fermented ones (and even more, the moulded cheeses), are associated with a neutral or beneficial effect on health. Milk and butter appear to be exceptions. It's possible that the dairy products made in certain countries are generally inflammatory, but that's not because of dairy as a category of food, but because of the way the animals which produce the milk are raised (= in an accelerated manner), and how the dairy products are processed (= not traditionally, but ultra processed with various additives, preservatives, thickeners, emulsifiers, stabilizers, sweeteners). In the USA cows are raised even 3 times faster than in Italy. If a child were to reach adulthood (18 years old) in just 6 years, you would surely think that such a child can't be healthy. Do you expect the milk of such cows to be healthy? Before you blame an entire food category for health problems, you should start asking how that food is being made.
Pasteurized dairy is a dead foodPasteurization is the process of heating raw milk in order to destroy the bacteria which is dangerous for people. However, pasteurization also destroys the bacteria which is good for people, bacteria which can add to the diversity of the intestinal microbiota. There are several types of pasteurization. The higher the pasteurization temperature is, the more bacteria is destroyed. In fermented dairy products (like cheese and kefir), lactic acid starter (cultures) are added after the milk is pasteurized in order to start the fermentation process. Analysis of studies shows that dairy products, especially fermented ones (and even more, the moulded cheeses), are associated with a neutral or beneficial effect on health. Milk and butter appear to be exceptions. Since these studies don't and can't (normally) analyze the food to know whether the dairy has live bacteria, and because commercial products are varied, it means that fermented dairy products are healthy regardless of the bacteria from raw milk being alive or not, and regardless of the fermentation bacteria being alive or not. Bacteria which is good for human health isn't a nutrient and isn't required in a healthy diet, so it's presence in or absence from food is irrelevant. If your own intestinal microbiota is sick, ingesting more bacteria isn't going to help so long as the cause of the sickness isn't eliminated, and may in fact amplify the microbiota imbalance.
Dairy has a lot of unhealthy glutamateThis claim seems to be a new scheme for promoting a plant-based diet, since meat and dairy are bundled in the same claim. Looking at the data, we can see the aminoacids from various foods, and there we can see how much "glutamic acid" is in each food:
From this, we can see that beans do indeed have an amount of glutamic acid which is lower than that of meat and cheese. But this is the wrong parameter to look at. What you should look at is the total amount of food you eat. This is because the listed values are per 100 g / 3.5 oz of food. How much you should eat depends on what's the purpose of that food. The main reasons for eating food are to get all the necessary calories and proteins (especially the essential aminoacids). To get the essential aminoacids, the following amount of food is required: chicken breast or hemp seeds - 100 g / 3.5 oz, cheese - 150 g / 5.3 oz, eggs - 300 g (10.6 oz), milk - 900 g (31.7 oz), rice - 1'100 g (38.8 oz), beans (chickpeas, lentils, red kidney beans) - 400 g (14.1 oz). So, the amount of glutamic acid from chicken breast and hemp seeds doesn't have to be multiplied, from cheese has to be multiplied with 1.5, from eggs has to be multiplied with 3, from milk has to be multiplied with 9, from rice has to be multiplied with 11, from beans has to be multiplied with 4. This puts the amount of glutamic acid ingested from beans above meat and slightly above eggs and cheese. So, even if you believe that this isolated parameter is unhealthy, cheese is not worse than vegetables. In fact, chicken breast would be a better choice.
VegetablesFresh or frozen vegetables are generally healthy and slow down the absorption of sugar, refined carbohydrates (like flour) and refined fats (like oils, lard, butter, melted cheese), and provide various essential nutrients. Canned vegetables are fine if you throw away any fluid they contain (which is likely to contain sugar and particles from the material of the can) and rinse the content / vegetables with water. I've seen vegetables canned in water vapors. Foods which aren't fresh vegetables: fresh juice (from either vegetables or fruits), fruits (fresh, dried or in any other form), fries. Vegetables should be well cooked. Vitamin C is destroyed by heat, in time, so by cooking. Tofu, a cheese-like food made from soybean, is a vegetal source of proteins whose essential aminoacids rival meat in terms of balance, but some people avoid soy because of its potential phytoestrogenic effect. Edible hemp is a vegetal source of proteins whose essential aminoacids rival meat in terms of balance, and lacks the famous hallucinogenic component. See this for the essential aminoacids balance. Other vegetables are low in proteins, which means that they have to be eaten in a very large amount (which means that the ingested fiber may cause gas, bloating, abdominal swelling), and much lower in at least one of the essential aminoacids (which has to be obtained from a different food). For example, rice is low in lysine, while beans are low in methionine. In the evening, avoid eating a significant amount of vegetables and fruits because their fiber causes gas, and they contain water which has to be eliminated during the night. Refined carbohydrates (especially sugar) may also cause a restless and unsatisfactory sleep. If intestinal microbiota isn't healthy, the abdominal area may later feel battered because of all the digestive effort, but the intensity of the effect varies based on the type of vegetables. You should wash vegetables according to this. Here, you can see what vegetables (and fruits) have the highest and lowest levels of toxic pesticides. If you ever ate, for example, strawberries and then realized that your fingers smell of chemicals, that's the pesticides which you should avoid. If you ever smelled a vegetable or fruit, like a fresh bell pepper, and you felt the smell of chemicals, that's the pesticides which you should avoid.
PicklesFats and proteins have no significant acidifying or alkalinizing effect in the body. However, bile and pancreatic fluid neutralize stomach acids, so too much could cause alkalinization, and a lot of them are required to digest fat. More information about the acidity balance can be found here. The paper mentions that some foods, like dairy products, some types of nuts (like almonds) and most vegetables have an alkaline effect. Other foods, like meat, eggs, rice and pasta have an acidic effect. Eating a large amount of pickles for a long time may create other problems because it's too aggressive with the intestinal microbiota (like acidifying the digestive system too much). Not all pickles are the same. If they don't taste sour, but taste rather bland or sweetish, they aren't good because there isn't enough vinegar or there is too much sugar. The sugar content should be under 3%. Pickles should be made in vinegar, not in water and salt, because the (acetic) acid from the vinegar is important, not more bacteria (found in pickles made in salty water). Also, the pickles should be eaten together with food, so mixed with the food. Drinking vinegar (1 or 2 tablespoons in a glass with water, per meal) wouldn't have the same effect because the vinegar isn't mixed with the food, so it doesn't stay with the food in the same part of the digestive system. Also, high quality vinegar is fermented and unpasteurized, so its bacteria can increase any existing imbalance of the intestinal microbiota. There are food supplements with acetic acid in a powder form. The daily dose should be about 1'000...2'000 mg. Such pills didn’t seem to do anything for me.
Fermented vegetablesVegetables should be fermented in water with salt in order to create bacteria which is beneficial for the digestive system. Things which destroy (most of) the fermentation bacteria: vinegar, acetic acid, heat, pasteurization, desalting. Most commercial canned vegetables are canned with vinegar, and very few bacteria survive such an acidic environment. Pickled food is very likely to not contain fermentation bacteria, because of the vinegar or because they are pasteurized. However, pickles in vinegar bring acidity in the digestive system, and this acidity may be very useful. Examples of fermented vegetables: sauerkraut (= fermented cabbage), kimchi. Bacteria which is good for human health isn't a nutrient and isn't required in a healthy diet, so it's presence in or absence from food is irrelevant. If your own intestinal microbiota is sick, ingesting more bacteria isn't going to help so long as the cause of the sickness isn't eliminated, and may in fact amplify the microbiota imbalance.
NutsNuts are heavy on the digestive system and require a healthy intestinal microbiota to digest them properly; this is why many people exhibit intolerance (possibly even allergy) to nuts. Harder nuts seem to be heavier than softer nuts. Nuts aren't good for people who are allergic to histamine. The satiation per calorie of nuts is low, so it's easy to overeat them, although even so they seem to add at most a few percentages to the weight. Personally, I can eat 300 g (10.6 oz) of (lightly salted) peanuts in under 2 hours, which have almost all the calories that the average person needs in a day. Nuts have high levels of oxalate, so you should limit them severely if you have kidney problems. If you don't have kidney problems, the total oxalate content should be under 300 mg per day. Oxalate content (per 100 g / 3.5 oz): macadamia (42 mg), pistachio (49...56 mg), pecans (64...163 mg), walnuts (74...110 mg), peanuts (147 mg), hazelnuts (212...272 mg), cashews (225...262 mg), almonds (383...539 mg), Brazil nuts (492 mg). According to one source, "showed acute oxalate nephropathy linked to increased oxalate intake in the form of peanuts (> 130 g/day)". If you eat nuts (and seeds) daily, limit them to one handful per day. A handful is 50 g (1.8 oz) for the average man. If nuts feel heavy on your digestive system, stop eating them. Be sure to read my experience with inflammation. Prefer nuts without peel / skin (= blanched) because the peel is unneeded fiber that makes the nuts taste bitter, create thirst, may create microcuts on the tongue (especially the peel of almonds), and may create gas. Prefer nuts that are baked, roasted without added oil, or raw. Unpackaged raw nuts may have mold, so they must be baked / roasted at home. Avoid raw peanuts and raw cashews. Avoid nuts that have a lot of salt on them, since too much salt isn't healthy and creates microcuts on the tongue and lips. If stored for a long period of time, nuts should be stored in a cool place, preferably in a refrigerator, in airtight containers. Almonds contain a substance called amygdalin that is toxic in a large amount; this is present in a massive amount in bitter almonds. For sweet / non-bitter almonds, the risky dose for the average adult is 500 g (17.5 oz) per day, but if you eat them daily, you want to stay as far as possible from this general limit.
ChocolateSome studies show that cacao is good for health, despite its very high amount of saturated fat. Cacao contains polyphenols which show anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-atherogenic (= reduces arterial plaque) activity in the body. Cacao / chocolate isn't good for people who are allergic to histamine and oxalate, so you should limit it severely if you have kidney problems. Pure cacao contains theobromine, magnesium and tryptophan, and reduces blood pressure. Pure cacao contains no sugar (under 1%). If you want to eat chocolate for its health benefits, look for chocolate which:
To be used in chocolate, cacao has to be processed either with natural methods or with dutching (/ alkalized / European style). Dutching means that the cacao is ultra processed:
To get the healthy benefits of cacao, 25 g (0.9 oz) of chocolate (as described above) per day is enough; this makes the price per portion acceptable. If you prefer cacao powder, 1 tablespoon / 15 g / 0.5 oz of cacao is enough. If you eat any other type of chocolate, eat it for its taste, don't expect it to improve your health.
Heavy metals and oxalateCacao contains contaminants, like heavy metals, specifically lead and cadmium. Contaminants are very slow to eliminate from the body. In some cases it takes decades for the level of contamination to be reduced to half, and in the meantime the contaminants have negative effects in the body. The reality is that the entire environment is contaminated with various elements that are toxic for human life. Tea (black and green) and coffee also contain contaminants, so you're not any better by avoiding only cacao. Unfortunately, these plants grow in exotic areas, in countries where avoiding such contamination is not a priority. It doesn't matter if the cacao, tea and coffee are organic or not because the contaminants come from the soil, water and air, not (necessarily) from pesticides. It's important to note that the total amount of ingested contaminants matters, not their mere presence, so the more cacao, tea and coffee you eat and drink, the more contaminants you ingest. To limit the exposure to contaminants, a person's consumption of chocolate with at least 85% cacao should be maximum 30 grams (1 oz) per day. Children should not be exposed to lead at all. Chocolate with less cacao contains proportionally less contaminants. See a list of contaminants in chocolate here. For coffee, you can see these studies: Specialty coffee beans and Instant coffee drinks. Cacao powder has a very high level of oxalate, 623...952 mg (per 100 g / 3.5 oz of powder, more than almonds), so you should limit it severely if you have kidney problems. If you don't have kidney problems, the total oxalate content should be under 300 mg per day. Keep in mind that you can measure the heavy metals in the blood. Considering how much commercial chocolate with 85% cacao I've eaten, I was surprised to see how low my values for lead and cadmium were; cadmium was about in the middle of the normal range (which is actually twice the value of the average person).
Olive oilOlive oil must be labeled "extra virgin" and "cold extracted" (or "cold pressed"). Olive oil should be made from green olives grown in a single country, preferably even a single area in a country. Olive oil should have the production date on the bottle, and should be consumed within one year from that date. The expiration date from the label is not important. Commercial olive oil only shows the expiration date. Olive oil must be stored in dark-colored glass (or tin) bottles. Oil stored in plastic bottles contains bisphenol-A (BPA), a chemical which may be dangerous to health, although the amount is small. Olive oil must be stored away from heat and sunlight, like in a kitchen cabinet. Olive oil must not be stored in the refrigerator. Olive oil is naturally bitter / tangy and creates a slightly burning sensation in the throat (when drank plain). Olive oil has a lot of calories, about 910 kilocalories per 100 ml, so 1 tablespoon (about 15 ml) has about 140 kilocalories. Olive oil contains mostly monounsaturated fats. To get the maximum health benefits, there are some indications that olive oil should be limited to 4 tablespoons (about 60 ml) per day.
AlluloseA possible replacement for table sugar is allulose, a sweetener that is usually made from corn (but can be made from other plants as well). Allulose is less sweet than sugar. Allulose doesn't increase blood sugar or insulin, but can decrease them. Allulose has about 10 times fewer calories than sugar (for the same amount, to keep recipes unchanged). The amount of consumed allulose should be limited to 0.5 grams per kilogram (0.23 grams per pound) of body weight, per day; above this, it can upset the stomach. Allulose is much more expensive than sugar.
WatermelonWhen you pick a watermelon, the more of the following statements are true, the better the watermelon is likely to be:
All other indicators of ripeness are unreliable. You will find people who show you various signs of ripeness, but they don't cut open the watermelons that are supposedly bad, to compare the "good" with the "bad". The best indicator of ripeness is the trust you have in the seller. The farmers and the sellers have more options at their disposal to check the ripeness, like knowing when they planted the watermelons and actually cutting them open and tasting them. Buy watermelons within their season, but avoid those brought from thousands of kilometers / miles away. As with all fresh food, you will likely find better watermelons at the market than at the supermarket. A green stem is an indication of a fresh or potentially unripe watermelon, while a dried stem is an indication of a ripe or potentially overripe / stale watermelon. Watermelons which sit for a few days in the sun at the market become soft inside, so you might want to buy them from shaded shops. The rule about the firm rind might not apply because the fiber inside gets soft faster than the rind, so the rind may be hard when the fiber is soft. Watermelons don't continue to ripe after they are harvested, but they do get softer inside as time goes by. I like to slap the watermelon (when it's on other watermelons), to feel the propagation of the vibration, and expect it to sound like a wood beam, but this is more a need to tell myself that I did everything that I could, than an indicator of ripeness. I've eaten very good watermelons that sounded dull (= the opposite of a wood beam). Avoid eating a watermelon which shows the following signs, because they indicate high levels of pesticides (nitrates) or growth hormones inside the watermelon:
When you slice a watermelon, cover the uneaten slices with plastic foil and put them in the refrigerator, but eat them within a few days. To slice watermelons, use a sharp, thin and rigid knife; the blade should be 20...25 cm (8...10 in) long. A pointy tip is useful in creating a starting spot for slicing, which is a safety measure. The amount of natural sugar in watermelon is about 6%; it's not specified whether the rind is included in the calculation. Watermelons contain mostly water, and a few liters / kilograms of water per day can dilute your intestinal microbiota so much that it makes you sick. When I was young, I used to eat about 1.5 kg (3.3 pounds) of watermelon (without the rind) per session, which is 450 kilocalories, and 3 kg (6.6 pounds) per day (in two sessions that are several hours apart), which is 900 kilocalories. A thin rind has about 50% from the entire weight of the watermelon, a thick one has about 60%. So, to understand how much watermelon with rind I was eating, multiply the weights without the rind with 2.0...2.5. The sickness limit for me was around 4 kg (8.8 pounds) of watermelon (without the rind), of average sweetness, in two sessions per day. If eaten in a single session, in under 60 minutes, the limit decreased to 3 kg (6.6 pounds). This limit appears to depend on how sweet the watermelon is, that is, the sweeter it is, the lower the limit is.
CheesecakeThis cheesecake is a desert which is high in fat and low in sugar (about 20%). This cheesecake recipe is very simple (only a filling and a topping) and requires no (biscuit) crust, no baking, no eggs, no condensed milk, no gelatin, no cornstarch, and little table sugar. This cheesecake tastes like a luxurious, creamy, full fat icecream eaten in a hot summer day. The high fat content makes it taste opulent, decadent, and it feels like you're eating the desert of the rich. If possible, replace the sugar with allulose.
UtensilsTwo large bowls in which to whisk the dairy products. A handheld mixer. A spatula. A tablespoon. A food container for the filling. Instead, you can use several single-serving bowls / ramekins. A sauce pot for cooking the topping. A small bowl for cooling the topping.
FillingIngredients for the filling (for 6 servings):
If you change the amounts of the dairy products (because of how you find them packaged), the ratio of the amounts of cream cheese to sour cream should be close to 2.5. If the fat content is lower than what's specified, the cheesecake will melt, but you can put the filling in single-serving bowls (instead of a single large container). Don't use dairy products labeled "low fat" or "light". Dairy products with a fat content lower than recommended make the filling too soft. If possible, use dairy products made from goat or sheep milk rather than cow milk. Many dairy products, especially cream cheeses, have stabilizers (like xanthan gum, carageenan, guar gum, carob bean gum), which, at the very least, may cause gas and have a laxative effect. Avoid such dairy products (check the product label). Making the filling:
Pour the filling in the container (or single-serving bowls), cover it and keep it in the refrigerator until the next day (at least 12 hours). If you put the filling in the freezer, it will form crystals inside. Starting with the next day, make sure to eat it in maximum 3 days.
ToppingThe topping is a fruit reduction which concentrates the sugar and flavor of the fruits, and produces a syrupy sauce from the juice of the fruits, all by evaporating some of the water from the fruits. Ingredients for the topping:
If you think that the topping is too bland, either reduce the amount of sugar or add lemon (juice). The ratio of the amounts of dairy products to fruits should be close to 2.5. Making the topping:
Don't put the topping on the cheesecake before you eat the cheesecake.
ServingCheesecake slices can be cut perfectly with a knife which is warmed under hot water for a few seconds. When you want to eat cheesecake, put some topping on the cut slices. Put the remaining cheesecake and topping back in the refrigerator. Eat the cheesecake right after a meal because the food will slow down the absorption of the fats and sugar. Cheesecake is desert, an ultra processed and ultra palatable food whose sugar and fat content is easily absorbed by the body, which should be eaten only occasionally. Limit its consumption to maximum 160 g / 5.6 oz per day, topping included. Cheesecake making videos: Anna Olson.
WaterAvoid bottled water because it can't be both of high quality and widely available. When I drink water from plastic bottles, my throat gets slightly inflamed. If your city's water supply is good to drink, put it through a basic water filtration system (which reduces impurities and chlorine, like a Brita jug) and drink that water rather than bottled water. If you need cleaner water, you can either filter it again through the filtration system (have two systems available), or boil it. Don't cover the water while it's boiling, so that whatever chemicals can evaporate, do evaporate. Let the water cool before drinking. Don't filter hot water because it would destroy the filter.
Mercury in fishGenerally, the smaller the fish is, the less mercury it contains. Fish which is low in mercury (starting with the lowest): sardine, salmon, trout (not saltwater), herring, mackerel (not king), cod, light or skipjack tuna. It's recommended to limit fish to maximum 400 g (14.1 oz) per week. Large fish, like tuna, should be limited more. Small fish, like sardines and herring, can be up to 200 g (7.1 oz) per day. This research indicates the maximum amount of fish that can be eaten by pregnant mothers daily, amount below which the fish has a beneficial or neutral effect in their children (these are the more restrictive values). Here is a study about the advantages and disadvantages of wild and farmed salmon, which includes data about mercury and other chemicals.
OxalateA high oxalate content in food can cause kidney crystals and stones, and other health problems. Calcium neutralizes oxalate; the recommended dose is 1'000...1'200 mg per day; dairy is a good source. The average adult who has kidney problems should limit the oxalate intake to 50 mg / day. The limit isn't clear for people who don't have kidney problems, but there are indications which show that sickness appears at 300 mg / day. According to one source:
According to another source:
Meat and dairy contain virtually no oxalate. Cacao powder and nuts have very high levels of oxalate. Oxalate content in food: Nutritional Management of Kidney Stones, Wake Health, Oxalate in nuts, UCI Kidney Stone Center.
Kitchenware toxicityColored glass (= which isn't transparent) contains various heavy metals (which are toxic). Same for colored ceramic (= which isn't beige or white). Heavy metals (usually lead and cadmium) are also used to strengthen the glazing of ceramic kitchenware (glasses, mugs, bottles, plates). Same for crystal glass. Some manufacturers make crystal glass with titanium instead of lead. Plain transparent glass usually doesn't contain heavy metals. The presence of heavy metals doesn't mean that they will necessarily contaminate fluids or food, but any scratch in the glass or ceramic glazing may cause these metals to leach into the fluids and food. It's highly recommended to keep fluids only in (and drink only from) transparent glass recipients (glasses, cups, mugs, bottles, jars). Pay special attention to the rim of glasses because many manufacturers add a decorative colored line (which contains heavy metals) that your lips will touch. If you can't use transparent glass recipients, you should avoid keeping fluids in the recipients you have, for a long time. For example, don't let water sit in your drinking mug for a long time, pour water in the mug only when you drink. It's highly recommended to keep food only in (and eat only from) beige or white ceramic, or transparent glass, recipients (plates, storage containers). It's highly recommended to use only stainless-steel cookware (= anything which is heated).
ConstipationFoods which are rich in fat make the output smaller and harder (and easier to clean after), and reduce the evacuation pressure. Foods which are rich in fiber make the output larger and softer (and harder to clean after), and increase the evacuation pressure. If you follow a low fiber diet, with little vegetables or with low-fiber vegetables, your body will have little matter to eliminate, so the bowel movements will be small and possibly even more rare (like once every two days). This isn't constipation, and there's no gas or bloating. This isn't a health concern, there is just less matter to eliminate. It may be undesirable to have a low evacuation pressure. If you want to increase it, eat more fiber. For example, eat daily a significant amount of beans (like chickpeas, 200 g / 7.1 oz). However, if the fiber creates a lot of gas, if your digestive system is sick, the effect will be opposite, so they wouldn't help with the constipation. If you are constipated and you don't know why, avoid sugar (from any source, so including fruits) and, possibly, refined carbohydrates (like flour).
MultivitaminsIt's actually cheaper to get the essential nutrients from multivitamins than from food because multivitamins are made either from the actual chemicals that form the essential nutrients, or from plants that aren't normally used as food and are easier to grow than food is. However, since people have to eat, and since they can live well without having the extra amount of multivitamins, taking multivitamins may be an unnecessary cost. Fluorescent-yellow pee indicates that some component of the multivitamins that you are taking is being eliminated by the body because either it doesn't need it, or because it can't assimilate it. Usually, multivitamins contain this component in a dose much higher than the body needs because it is known that such a high dose has no negative effect, and is likely used as a simple way to see that the body does process (though not necessarily assimilates) the multivitamins. If you see any side effects, like itching skin or headaches (but which can even be as severe as blood loss), immediately stop taking the multivitamins. Your body is reacting to the specific recipe with which those multivitamins were made. Some people, including some physicians, might tell you that the yellow pee is proof that you are wasting money on multivitamins, but this shows that they misunderstand and misrepresent several factors: both food and multivitamin cost money, the recommended doses of vitamins and minerals can't be obtained from food by most people, multivitamins contain larger than recommended doses because the body absorbs what it needs, but only a part of the multivitamins are absorb by the body. There is in fact a trend of denigrating multivitamin supplementation. However, if you read such articles you can see that the people writing them, aside from trying to provoke emotions instead of explaining facts logically, imply that the people who take multivitamins do so in order to heal themselves of various diseases, a fact which is false (excluding what is told by the people who have a financial interest to say that they heal diseases). Nutrients, vitamins and minerals don't fight diseases, but taken in appropriate doses they give the immune system the resources with which to fight the body's enemies. That's it. So, while they may help the body avoid a cold, they will not work against disease X (unless the body's immune system can fight it with the extra resources). While multivitamins may prevent a cold, if a cold has (nearly) installed, it will continue its usual course, but the symptoms of the cold may be less severe (although the duration stays the same, even though it may seem shorter). So, why do some people who change their diet to vegetables think that these have cured their disease? It's not because of the magic nutrients from vegetables, it's because they have stopped eating whatever foods were poisoning their bodies before the change, or because some vitamin or mineral deficiency that they had was filled. These clarifications aren't meant to be merely semantic, they are meant to limit any potential irrational enthusiasm regarding the healing potential of vegetables, multivitamins and "supernutrients". As for the ability of various vitamins to decrease the chances of cancer, there is no evidence that they do so with a significant relevance. In fact, vitamin E taken in a daily dose of 400 IU appears to increase the risk of prostate cancer by 17% (this increase represents an extra 1% of the total male population). The most popular multivitamin supplements contain less than this dose of vitamin E.
Should multivitamins be from a natural or artificial source?Generally, it doesn't matter because the essential nutrients are literally chemicals, not magic elements, so they can be precisely created in laboratories. More important are the absolute amounts and ratios of the compounds, in what amount they are assimilated by the body, and what potentially toxic chemicals do the pills contain (chemicals which are used during manufacturing). When you decide which to take, go for the company that you trust most, and for the ones that you can afford.
Should I take breaks from taking multivitamins?It's generally recommended to do so, for example take multivitamins for 3 months then stop for a while, and so. The main claimed reason is that the body gets used to them and therefore they become less useful. I have not seen scientific evidence that this is necessary, or that the claimed reason is based on studies rather than mere precautions. Vitamins and minerals are chemicals that the body uses in its normal operation, like water, air and food. When things are put in this perspective, it sounds silly to say "stop eating because the body will get used to food or to the vitamins and minerals from it". Just as well, it sounds silly to say "stop taking multivitamins because the body will get used to them". However, it's important to note that multivitamins usually contain some elements which are in a dose far higher than the daily recommended dose. Studies have shown that they don't present a risk on the average population, but you can never know how your body will react to them on the long term. You also can't be sure how your kidneys will react while processing (for elimination) huge amounts of those vitamins and minerals. Then again, you also can't be sure how your kidneys will react while processing the calcium (/ limestone) from the water you drink. One way to follow precautions and still take multivitamins is to take a dose smaller than the daily recommended dose, like two thirds.
Should I eat foods with added multivitamins?You should avoid foods (including water and milk) which are specifically marketed as having added multivitamins and minerals, because you can't control their type and amount. There are studies which show that food fortification benefits people on the average, and people with a low income in particular. However, you can't know if you are part of that average, especially if you don't have a low income, so you can't know that you are indeed deficient with regards to those multivitamins and minerals. Multivitamin pills can be easily controlled, especially by not taking them, but you can't avoid the food that you want to eat (and is fortified).
Supplements
Omega 3 supplementsTake omega 3 supplements only if you don't eat fatty wild fish (like sardine, herring, salmon) regularly. Study about omega 3 in canned fish. Some fatty wild fish are rich in omega 3 (DHA and EPA). Examples (per 100 g / 3.5 oz of fish): mackerel (not king) 1'900...2'500 mg, salmon 1'000...1'800 mg, herring 1'100...1'700 mg, sardine 1'000...1'400 mg. In the spring (north hemisphere), the amount is much smaller. Some farmed fish doesn't have omega 3 because it's fed with grains. Some farmed fish is fed omega 3 supplements. Wild fish gets its omega 3 from oceanic algae. If you don't eat fish which is rich in omega 3, you can take omega 3 supplements. Look for supplements in the form of capsules with krill oil (phospholipid form) or fish oil (triglyceride form). Check the label of the supplement for how much DHA and EPA is in a capsule; ignore the total content of the capsule because it contains other things as well. The combined daily dose for DHA and EPA should be 1'000...3'000 mg; for krill oil, the dose can go as low as 700 mg. If a capsule contains less than the minimum dose, you can take several capsules per day. Take this into consideration when you're evaluating whether a specific product is worth the price. It's unknown what the ratio of DHA to EPA should be, but the safe choice is when the lower of the two is at least half of the other one. It's generally considered that DHA is better for the brain. Take each capsule with a meal. If the supplement is in the form of ethyl ester (check the product label), the meal has to contain fat, else the omega 3 will not be absorbed well. The bioavailability of the omega 3 is not very different between fish and krill oil (source 1, source 2). A high temperature makes fish oil prone to oxidation, especially after the supplement is unsealed. Manufacturers usually specify to store the supplements below 20 Celsius (68 F), so a refrigerator is likely the best place. Omega 3 supplements are more useful for people who have a high level of triglycerides. Omega 3 supplements may make bleeding more likely, so avoid combining with blood thinning / coagulation medication. They may also make atrial fibrillation more likely. If you want to test your omega 3 blood level, wait at least 4 months after you start taking an omega 3 supplement.
Lutein and zeaxanthinPeople who work a lot in front of a computer display can benefit from a lutein and zeaxanthin supplement. A common daily dose is around 30 mg (total, could be 25 + 5 or 20 + 10). Take this supplement during a meal which contains fat, else the lutein and zeaxanthin will not be absorbed well. The marigold flower is a common source for the lutein and zeaxanthin used in supplements. Within two weeks of taking this supplement, you should see the white of your eyes becoming extremely white, and your eyesight should feel slightly improved and more resilient.
Washing vegetablesBefore you eat fruits and vegetables whose rind / peel can be removed, like oranges, wash them vigorously by hand. If you wash them with soap, the chemicals with which the food was sprayed will be easier to remove and will not be able to stick as much on your hands. Before you eat fruits and vegetables that you can't vigorously wash by hand, and whose rind / peel can't be removed, like berries and grapes, soak them in water. Get a bowl and pour (room-temperature) water in it, enough to contain the food without it being crowded. For example, for every 250 g (8.8 oz) of berries or grapes, you need (less than) 1 liter / quart of water. To better clean the food:
Put the food in the bowl and let it sit in the water for 10...15 minutes. Don't drop the food into a strainer because that would only move the dirt back, from the bottom of the bowl, over the food, and would leave all the dirt in the strainer's small holes (making it very difficult to clean). Take the food out of the bowl, with your hands, and rinse it with fresh water. Baking soda is similar to salt, so if it's left on the food it can cause dehydration of the tissue that it touches, like lips.
Elimination dietIf you have health problems, like an inflammation of the digestive system, mental fog, or dizziness right after you eat, it's possible that you have bad bacteria in your digestive system, bacteria which produces toxins when it eats (which is usually when you eat). In such a case, you can try an elimination diet for a few weeks or months, that is, a diet which is very limited in the types of food. If you can't quickly determine which foods cause your issues, you'll have to experiment. Start by eating just one type of food, for a few weeks. If you feel good, try to introduce other types of food, but only one at a time in order to see which works for you, and which doesn't. Experimenting with foods may be virtually impossible because, in some cases, the healing of the damage produced by the root cause (be it a specific food or toxin) may take months, during which time you wouldn't know if the healing works or not. Experimenting for too long with foods may irreversibly degrade your health, so don't experiment more than you have to. Use an elimination diet as soon as possible. A common starting point for people who go on an elimination diet is to eat chicken breast and rice (cooked without fats / oil); potatoes (boiled and mashed with a bit of oil) are a possible option. Oil should not be used during cooking. Nuts, dairy products and eggs are some of the major allergens; "major" refers to the majority of the people who have allergies to food, majority which is a small part of the whole population. You have to be ready for anything, including the bad bacteria's ability to adapt and use a different fuel, meaning that the foods that were fine for you at one time, might no longer be fine at a later time. If the healing is too slow, eating only on meal a day (OMAD) may be very useful because the digestive system has more time (for the rest of the day) during which to heal. You might want to at least skip breakfast because it seems that a sick digestive system needs many hours to get at maximum efficiency after the night; alternatively, eat only proteins. If vegetal foods (like vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, beans, grains) cause you a negative reaction, you can still test if you can eat very well cooked vegetables (the mushy type), since the intense cooking may destroy whatever compounds are causing you problems. For example, canned beans may cause problems, but rice or potatoes (boiled and mashed with a bit of oil) could be fine. Vegetables, even when mushy, can add variety to your diet. Be sure to read about kitchenware toxicity and get the tests for evaluating toxicity. Be sure to read my experience with inflammation.
Carnivore dietIf you eat a carnivore diet, do it only because it works for you, not because you believe that humans have evolved to be carnivores. You may hear some arguments in favor of the idea that humans have evolved to be carnivores. Some of them have no basis in evolution:
Adjacent claims:
Fiber doubtsThe intestinal microbiota has to be fed the food it needs to keep you healthy, but this food can vary from person to person, depending on the specific types of bacteria from the microbiota. Bad bacteria can be stimulated by various things and by any kind of food, including by the same foods that the good bacteria eat. The one thing that fiber does well is to slow down the absorption of various things, be they good or bad, or of good things which could have a negative effect if they were absorbed faster by the digestive system in the absence of fiber. There are some indications that the fibrous material which remains when you squeeze the juice out of vegetables and fruits (think of oranges), so the colloquial fiber, literally the vegetal matter, is more protective for the digestive system than the dietary fiber which is listed on food packages. As an aside, this fiber is missing from ultra processed food. The idea that fiber is food for the good bacteria is wide spread, but this mechanism says nothing about its relevance, that is, how much does it actually influence human lifespan and life quality. Also, if you have digestive (or even general health) problems and you don't know which type of bacteria causes your problems, eating fiber to improve your health is a coin toss because the bad bacteria might also eat fiber. Of course, you can base your decision on how you feel after you eat fiber, but that means that you have more information to base your decision on. If fiber were very important as food for the microbiota, why would people have to avoid fiber during elimination diets? Why would starving the microbiota be a positive thing in all elimination diets? There is also the issue of carnivores, be they human or other animals (like lions). How is their bacteria thriving? A possible answer is that they are adapted to the carnivore diet. But that means that it's possible for bacteria to thrive on various diets, in certain conditions. Perhaps not eating fiber makes carnivores sensitive to eating vegetables and fruits. But lions don't seem to care about being unable to eat vegetables and fruits. On top of this, if the microbiota were able to survive and thrive only in the presence of fiber, why is it that people who eat very little fiber for years, and whose stool is small, once they start to eat a lot of fiber their stool gets as big as that of people who always eat a lot of fiber? How did their microbiota survive all those years of very little fiber? It seems like it survives by eating whatever food is in the digestive system. There is a claim that if the microbiota doesn't get fiber to eat, it starts to eat the stomach lining. But why, in the absence of fiber, would the microbiota prefer to eat the stomach lining instead of whatever food is in the digestive system, like meat or starch? Why would it be either fiber or stomach lining? It makes no sense. Personally, I am an omnivore and I like being able to eat various foods, so I don't have a reason to avoid eating vegetables, unless my digestive system rejects them. But I'm not convinced that fiber is required for a healthy life. Note that I'm talking specifically about fiber, not about vegetables in general. I'm not convinced that we know what keeps the microbiota healthy. Maybe it's fiber, maybe it's some types of fiber, maybe it's something else that fiber happens to also affect (which means that other foods / lifestyle / things may also affect that). My experience with inflammation showed me that other things may be far more important, specifically eliminating from the diet the foods which have a negative health effect. The conclusion is that the nutrition advice which says "eat in this specific way" is a coin toss. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't. Without knowing the specifics of a person's digestive system and lifestyle, such advice is just a coin toss.
Specific application foodsRice: Useful in elimination diets, cooked without fats / oil; the cooked rice must not be sticky / glutinous. Not good for people who avoid carbohydrates because cooked rice has 30% carbohydrates (raw rice has 80%, no water). See this for how to cook rice. Potatoes: Useful in elimination diets, cooked without fats / oil; has to be boiled, optionally mashed with a bit of extra virgin olive oil. Not good for people who avoid carbohydrates because boiled potatoes have 20% carbohydrates. Avocados: Have 12% unsaturated fats, considered to be healthy. Not good for people who are allergic to histamine. Must be ripe, soft under the peel; the peel should not be bright, shinny green, but should be matte and should have slight brownish spots. Taste a bit like a hard boiled egg yolk. If they aren't ripe, they taste horrible and causes digestive discomfort. Unripe avocados can be bought and kept for a few days, in the kitchen, at room temperature, to ripen, but this makes them impractical. While avocado is a fruit, it has very little sugar and should be eaten as a vegetable. Avocado is expensive. Mushrooms: Have ergothioneine. Examples (ergothioneine in decreasing order): enoki, king oyster, pioppini, lion's mane, oyster, shiitake, maitake, beech, portobello. Bell peppers: Very high in vitamin C. Green bell peppers have only about 70% of the vitamin C of the red / yellow bell peppers. Vegetable smoothie. Blend several types of vegetables. Use a (high-speed) blender with a capacity of 1...2 liters. A chopper chops the vegetables in chunks, but can't make a smooth paste. A fluid, like water and olive oil, is required, as the blender won't blend without it. When using water, the water should raise (from the bottom of the blender) to about a quarter of the vegetables height; too much water makes the smoothie watery, while too little won't blend. Tea: Prefer chamomile, roibos or green tea. Warm (chamomile) tea may be relaxing enough to cause drowsiness at night, and facilitate sleep. Corn, negative: Personally, I find that eating a lot of canned corn (over 200 g / 7.1 oz per day) changes the smell to something similar to paint remover, which isn't normal.
What I eatI am an omnivore. I optimize my diet based on the effect of food over the long term, not based on individual mechanisms and studies. Here are my health biomarkers. My experience with inflammation left me intolerant (but not allergic) to fats (from any source, even extra virgin olive oil mixed with various foods), sugar (including from fruits), fiber, nuts, dairy, refined carbohydrates (like flour; pasta was okayish). It also forced me to mostly eat lean meat and rice. Cooked chicken breast has 3% fat. I avoid foods which produce significant gas. Fiber, sugar (including from fruits) and refined carbohydrates (like flour), cause all the gas. I particularly avoid foods which produce bloating, contractions and writhing of the digestive system (remember the feeling of fiber or refined carbohydrates being broken down in the stomach). When I eat eggs, I eat 6 large chicken eggs (400 g / 14.1 oz), cooked sunny-side-up in extra virgin olive oil (1 or 2 tablespoons), with a soft yolk. If I add cheese, I use the type which doesn't melted (like feta). I eat virtually no red meat because I don't like its taste. There are ways to cook it so that it tastes good, but that's because its true taste is hidden. I strongly dislike the taste of alcohol, so I only occasionally drink wine, and then either frizzante (7% alcohol) or demi-sweet (because sugar balances the taste of alcohol). I never drank coffee because I strongly dislike its smell and taste. I take omega 3 supplements, unless I eat small wild fish (like sardines, herring, mackerel). I try to avoid having snacks (= foods that can be readily eaten, without cooking) in the house because I would eat them. I eat breakfast and dinner. I don't do fasting, unless it's accidental. I go to sleep well after midnight. (Not a good thing.) Twice a year, in the spring and autumn, usually when a slight fog appears in the air, I used to catch a cold that would last about 2 weeks. For a few years it seemed that multivitamin supplements were able to keep away the cold, but they no longer seem to help. Some solutions which seem to work are:
I spend most of my life sitting in a chair (at the desk) or sleeping. The only physical exercise that I do is to walk outdoors a lot, fast. This means that the result is due to my diet, and in no way related to strenuous physical exercise. I have a slim body with a BMI of 20 (maximum was about 26.5). I do have a small amount of unneeded abdominal fat, but you can't see that even if you see me dressed in tight clothes. A diet which is very low in sugar, even from fruits, and in refined carbohydrates, improves my personal scent (skin, perspiration and output) compared to when I eat a significant amount of sugar (which produces an unpleasant sugary smell). The best scent I had, by far, was when I was eating a lot of blanched almonds (125 g / 4.4 oz per day). It was sweetish nutty / buttery. This was an experiment, don't eat this amount of almonds daily; read here details about nuts.
Highest amount of fatsThe highest amount of fat I've eaten from dairy products, at lunch and dinner during a day, was about 170 g / 6 oz (from cream cheese and sour cream, that is, an entire cheesecake and some leftover sour cream, so from easily digested food). By the end, my body was very much in the red zone, as I was feeling tired, slightly nauseated, the start of a headache and slightly light-headed. The main problem was likely the fact that the fat was easily absorbed by the body (the equivalent to ingesting about 185 ml / 6.3 floz of oil within a few hours), not the fact that it was saturated fat. I went for a walk in the freezing cold and most issues went away within 10 minutes, with walking feeling fast, precise and energetic. The body felt to be running significantly hotter than usual, and had a slight sweat, even during the night. An IR thermometer showed that the forehead temperature was as usual, at 36.7 Celsius (98 F; at temple was similar: 36.6...37.0 C). Later that night I've measured my blood pressure and it was lower than that morning, 98 / 60 and pulse 73 (compared to 101 / 66 and pulse 60 in the morning). It took about an hour to fall asleep because I had too much energy and a slight nausea, but sleep was as usual. The next morning, the blood pressure was higher, and by evening it was 123 / 68 and pulse 61; the highest I had seen up to that point was 111 or 113. A few hours later, after dinner, it had dropped to 103 / 63 and pulse 90. Two days later the blood pressure was the lowest I had ever seen, 88 / 59 (pulse somewhere near 70), about 10...15 points lower than the usual. This was probably my genetics at work, compensating. In my youth, I always had a low blood pressure, which is probably why I've always liked to eat a lot of salt, which supposedly increases blood pressure. Food doesn't usually seem to change my blood pressure (or the delay is much higher than expected), but the quality of sleep seems to. I did this experiment at some point during my inflammation issue, and it didn't seem to cause any inflammation (at that time). I do such crazy experiments so you don't have to.
Low abdominal sizeThe biggest factor that made a difference in the reduction of abdominal size, after I've achieved a slim body, was to eliminate from my diet sugar, fruits, high-fiber vegetables and nuts. Other carbohydrates, like pasta and rice, were also limited, but not necessarily eliminated; they do cause abdominal swelling but only temporarily. I've replaced the calories with commercial chocolate with 85% cacao (and under 15% sugar). Since the extra abdominal size was persistent throughout the day, it was likely caused by the (size of the) fiber from the fruits, vegetables, and nuts. This isn't a recommendation of what to eat, it was a test to see what happens.
Proteins and musclesOne experiment I did, that may help performance athletes, was to eat a lot of proteins. I had a months-long period when I was eating 400 g (14.1 oz) of salmon (farmed), every evening; I wasn't eating anything else with it, except for some lemon juice. That's about 100 g of proteins in one meal, for an average, slim body. After the meal, I was going for a walk and I was feeling exceptionally light and strong, with no feeling of stuff filling my stomach. My body posture felt like that of an athlete, with muscles effortlessly supporting the upper body, and with shoulders clearly wanting to spread out. Eating that much protein felt like my muscles were powering up in the half hour that I needed to eat. At some point, when I looked in the mirror I was shocked to see that my (naked) torso looked like that of a swimmer, with the size of the upper torso and shoulders looking clearly impressive compared to before. I tried the same experiment with only 200 g (7.1 oz) of salmon, but the effect had a much lower intensity. Chicken and turkey breast had a similar effect, but the intensity was much lower, and the swimmer torso was gone; this was with 320 g (11.3 oz) of chicken breast, which has about the same or more proteins than 400 g of salmon. Perhaps the salmon is better because its fat provides some extra energy, or perhaps the salmon does have some extra nutrients that help. My body doesn't look like that when I eat a similar amount of proteins from anything other than fish. I can look like that only if I breath in and hold. If I eat carbohydrates or fats to replicate the so called "energy for the gym", my body is no way at that level of look, posture and energy, while my stomach feels full and slow. Is this effect worth the price, for the average person? Absolutely not. But a performance athlete might benefit from it. Getting 100 g of proteins from vegetables would cause an enormous amount of gas. There is a study which shows that 100 g of proteins eaten in a single meal are used by the body to build muscle.
What I cookSome examples of food that I cook.
Experience with inflammationDuring my experience with the inflammation of the digestive system, the problems were caused by an imbalance in my intestinal microbiota, or possibly by a leaky gut, imbalance which was likely caused by a combination of several of the following factors:
For about 20 years, I had been going to sleep between 1 and 2 o'clock in the morning. Then, for about 2 to 3 years, I delayed going to sleep further, between 3 and 4 o'clock in the morning (and a significant number of times after 4 o'clock), which is when the health problems started. I did recognize that the problems were becoming systemic, but I wasn't expecting them to manifest as they did. Sleep duration seemed less important because the later I went to sleep, the more time I had to sleep to feel as rested, so the time of going to sleep was more important. For about 10 years, I had been eating about 150 grams (5.3 oz) of peanuts every day (the kind with a red peel, without eating the peel), together with oranges (1...1.3 kg / 2.2...2.9 lbs), without a visible negative effect. During the last 2 years (of those 10), I had been occasionally replacing the peanuts with other types of nuts (like peeled almonds, cashew, macadamia). My diet had become increasingly more fat-based over the years. When I was young, I was avoiding to eat fat in any form, except for small amounts of butter and cheese. I was especially avoiding oil and the fat from meat. Maybe this instinct was there for a reason, maybe my body can't metabolize fat well. At some point, the health problems became more severe and were visible much quicker, so I was finally able to see that they were linked. The root caused led to a cascade of problems which started with the inflammation and the inability to process sugar (especially from fruits, likely due to the large amount that I was eating) and fiber, followed by the inability to process fat (any kind of fat, which explains why I first became aware of the inflammation when I started eating a lot of olive oil). These problems have in turn caused mental fog, dizziness and a minute leakage (from the other end). Various foods seemed to stimulate the growth of some bad bacteria which was out of control, bacteria which was then releasing toxins whose negative effect was lasting for days. The common foods which were causing the most problems were: nuts, fats (from any source, even extra virgin olive oil mixed with various foods), sugar (including from fruits), fiber, dairy (cheese, kefir, sour cream, milk), refined carbohydrates (like flour). I didn't try to eat just fat because it has no practical use as a food, it has to be combined with something. However, I did try various foods (including rice) with different types of pure fats (including extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, lard). The more fat there was, the more intense the problems were. The foods which were causing the least problems, and were even able to reduce the mental fog, were chicken breast and rice (cooked without fats / oil). Nothing else worked as well, by far. Rice was able to actively reduce the mental fog when the problems weren't too bad, but sometimes even rice created mental fog (although this usually disappeared within an hour). Potatoes (boiled and mashed with a bit of oil) and pasta were okayish options. However, eating anything in the morning, even rice, was causing mental fog. I don't like the taste of red meat so I can't say much about its effect. Occasional portions of lean red meat did seem to have a positive effect. Warm showers were almost completely eliminating the mental fog, for a short while. Multivitamin supplements made no difference. Moments of high stress, or sudden stress (like from environmental noise), were causing inflammation, in a much larger part of the digestive system (including the mid part), but to a lower intensity than food. The problems were very insidious and misleading because they were subtle, delayed, unconnected and progressively worse over the years, so I was initially attributing them to: aging, lowering testosterone, degrading eyesight, eating too few calories, eating enough fats to enter ketosis but too much carbohydrates to allow ketosis to set in (this was a natural drift, I never intended to follow a ketogenic diet). The symptoms which seemed to be directly linked to the digestive problems were (somewhat listed in the order in which they've appeared over many years):
A few times, the cramps (from the near exit of the digestive system) manifested like this: the cramps occurred, a few minutes later a bit of turmoil (/ internal gas) occurred in the middle of the digestive system, and a few minutes later the mental fog had almost disappeared in real time (in seconds). It was very weird and it felt like some sort of reboot of the microbiota. The effect lasted a few hours. Sometimes, there was a minute leakage from the other end, which was as fun it sounds. This was worse when the symptoms were more intense, and when there was gas, and could happen at any time during the day, including during the night. The leakage was especially evident when I was eating a lot of fiber (from beans), or anything which produced gas. Eventually, it became clear to me that all the symptoms above were linked to the unhealthy state of my digestive system. A slight angina may have also been caused by the same root cause, although it's possible that it was caused by sugar and simple carbohydrates. A rare issue was a slight acid reflux which was occurring when I was eating a lot of refined fats (like olive oil, butter), or a lot of refined carbohydrates (like bread). My digestive system was otherwise functioning as expected based on what I was eating, that is, I wasn't experiencing the symptoms that are associated with, for example, SIBO. There was no acid reflux or heartburn. During that period (and for years before that), I didn't have any other medical problems or medical interventions, I wasn't on any medication, I didn't have any food poisoning (that I know of), I didn't have abdominal pain. Mental fog wasn't clear to me as such, initially, but as tiredness, a low drive to do things, unclear vision and a desire to try to open my eyes wider by lifting the eyebrows, in an attempt to wake up. The facial muscles also changed as in a tired, mean person. I was having this kind of tiredness for years before the original inflammation occurred, and during that time there was nothing to indicate that they were connected to digestive issues. How can anyone make a connection between mental fog and digestive issues when there are no digestive issues to be felt (because the microbiota isn't connected to the nervous system)? Without the inflammation, I would have never known that the other problems were caused by an imbalance in my intestinal microbiota. Ultimately, it became clear that the mental fog was setting in after I was eating various foods and ingredients, like sugar (even in small amounts, regardless of source, so fruits included) and fats. Eventually, I was getting an inflammation in the digestive system when I was eating just about anything. I was having a generalized mental fog which felt like being tired, not sleeping enough, aging. The good part was that I also getting real time feedback, as at some point I could feel the mental fog increasing or decreasing as I was chewing the first bite or two of certain foods. It seemed that some foods (like meat) somehow partially neutralized the problems, in the sense that the inflammation and mental fog were reduced. The proteins didn't seem to be the neutralizing factor since eggs seemed to work fine only up to 3 or 4 eggs, but more eggs were causing mental fog. Cheese also has proteins and did cause problems, but that could be because its bacteria amplifies the existing bacterial imbalance. The really insidious part was that most foods were causing problems, and nuts, sugar and fiber were having the worst effects. Because of this, I thought that I should eat more fat. But as I was eating more and more fat, the problems were getting worse and were lasting for days after stopping from eating fat. Fat was amplifying the imbalance. I was getting more and more cornered into eating fewer and fewer foods, until I eventually had to eat mostly meat. At some point I started to feel how, after a good sleep, I would wake up with a clear mind, but after moving around (but before eating) I could feel a slight mental fog setting in, as the microbiota was disturbed by the movement. Similarly, when I went outdoors for a brisk walk, with a clear mind, I could feel the mental fog setting in. High quality sleep in combination with a restrictive diet were able to reverse the problems to some extent. Even laying horizontally in bed, reading (I read in a sleeping, not sitting, position), seemed to reduce the inflammation; from all indications, sleeping was (and is) better than reading. However, it took 10...11 hours of reading and sleeping (over 8 hours of sleep) to feel a decrease of the digestive inflammation; 12 hours seemed best. How do I know that the sleep / relaxation was beneficial rather than simply the long duration? Because when I was spending much of this time on a chair, working at the computer, the health effects were negative. However, sleep wasn't enough, or healing was taking too long (the microbiota is expected is undergo a cycle of positive change in 3...4 months). This makes sense considering that my microbiota was already sick and food was causing problems. I also had to follow a restrictive diet which required the elimination of foods which are in any way stimulating the growth of bacteria (like foods which ferment in the digestive system). My diet had to be more restrictive than FODMAP diet. For example, the inflammation also appeared when I was eating fat (even pure fat like extra virgin olive oil mixed with various foods). Also, the inflammation always appeared at the start of the digestive system, where the fermentation should be lower, and I had no gas in the absence of fiber and carbohydrates, whereas in their presence the gas was as expected. I had to stop eating nuts and foods which contain bacteria and stimulate the bacterial imbalance, like fermented foods, dairy, sugar, fruits (due to their sugar), chocolate (due to its sugar and because cacao is fermented), vegetables (especially the ones which are high in fiber), preserved meats (like sausages, ham), bread and pizza (because of the yeast or sour dough). I had experimented with canned chickpeas and green peas, 400 g / 14.1 oz, but they were causing inflammation, mental fog and digestive discomfort. It seemed that they weren't allowing the inflammation to subside, so I stopped eating them. I also had to stop eating fats because it looked like my microbiota or mitochondria couldn't process fats or the combination of fats and carbohydrates. Switching in either direction between foods which contain only fats or only carbohydrates, at least during a day, was causing me physical and mental weakness. My energy levels were fine when I was eating only fats or only carbohydrates (aside from proteins). The foods which were causing the least problems, and were even able to reduce the mental fog, were chicken breast and rice (cooked without fats / oil). Nothing else worked as well, by far. Rice was able to actively reduce the mental fog, when the problems weren't too bad. Potatoes (boiled and mashed with a bit of oil) and pasta were okayish options. Pasta was an okayish option. This is likely because pasta doesn't contain yeast since it's dense, and any raising ingredient would do the opposite. Also, boiling is better than baking at destroying bacteria because water transfers heat better than air, and the thinness of pasta makes it easier for heat to reach deeper inside. My diet wasn't really strict because I was doing all sorts of experiments. For example, the rice had some oil in it, and I was eating a significant amount of sugar once per week. I was doing the experiments to make sure that my deductions were reproducible. A few times I had a mental clarity beyond anything I had ever experienced, like I was observing the world through a magnifying glass. It's possible that this was a normal experience when I was young, but I can't remember. This had been occurring only when I was eating either extremely high fat (similar to a ketogenic diet), or extremely high carbohydrate (similar to a reverse ketogenic diet). Because fats were causing me inflammation, and later mental fog, I couldn't maintain a high fat diet. A biomarker showed that I may have histamine intolerance. The result was just slightly in the red zone. Histamine intolerance is caused by digestive problems, not their cause. Histamine intolerance may be caused by digestive problems (including bacterial overgrowth) which cause the bacteria to produce more histamine, and may block the (diamine oxidase) enzyme which breaks down histamine. After a lot of experimentation, the main things that I was doing consistently were:
All solutions had worked only for a while, and no single solution had produced a clear long term improvement of my digestive health. It took about 2 months to get the feeling that what I was doing (sleep and diet) was healing me. After about 3 months, the healing process had reached about 75% (starting from generalized mental fog, toward a clear mind). After about 4 months, the healing had reached about 90%, and the inflammation had been subsiding (very slowly). The healing process wasn't linear, there were flare ups which made me doubt that I was doing the right thing. Once the healing process had almost completed, I started to eat nuts (various types, about 125 g / 4.4 oz per day). The problems returned after 3 days (but I ate nuts for one more day), ending with a 16-hour long splitting headache. Considering how I had been feeling (a very localized inflammation in the stomach), I think the nuts were causing some sort of physical damage. It took 30 days for the healing process to start looking like it was going in the right direction, which was immediately followed by a flare up after flare up after flare up. It's almost certain that the large amount of nuts that I had been eating had caused my digestive problems. It was extremely difficult to understand that nuts were the root cause of my problems because not eating nuts doesn't make a difference in the short term. Stress, low quality sleep and smelly toxins were clearly amplifying the problems. Still, this is likely the cause of the latest phase of the digestive problems since some symptoms were present for many years before I started eating a lot of nuts, although with a lower intensity. Both times when the healing took a clear positive turn, was when I was not working (= in vacation) and walking a lot outdoors in bright (summer) sunlight. That type of sunlight seems to have a strong anchoring effect on biological rhythms; having a lot of sunlight indoors doesn't seem to do much, but it's much better than artificial light. After about 17 months, near the end of the experience, I had found out that many of my symptoms (especially the mental fog) are part of a condition called D-lactic acidosis which is caused by an elevated level of D-lactate. There is a blood biomarker called lactate (D-lactate) to check for this.
TimelineThis timeline is a repository of events, it's not relevant for the conclusion. I had been eating about 150 grams (5.3 oz) of peanuts every day (the kind with a red peel, without eating the peel), together with oranges (1...1.3 kg / 2.2...2.9 lbs), for about 10 years, without a visible negative effect. Sometimes I was replacing the peanuts with 125 g (4.4 oz) of other types of nuts (like peeled almonds and macadamia). At some point I had started following a high fat diet because it was easy to eat most calories from nuts (50% of calories) and butter, and no more oranges (for the last 2 years of the period). I also stopped eating lunch. I was optimizing my time. At the same time, the acids from fruits were getting through a tooth nerve, which was causing pain when I was brushing my teeth with an electrical toothbrush. I was also trying to limit sugar as much as possible, so eliminating the (about) 100 g of sugar from the oranges seemed like a simple way to do it. While sugar has the same negative health effects, regardless of its source, fruits aren't just sugar, and their fiber matters a lot. Lack of fiber, writhing and gas in the digestive system feels amazing (and the flat abdomen looks amazing), but it's the wrong thing to optimize for. This is why it's wrong to study (nutrition) mechanisms and food macronutrients and ingredients in isolation. Health is the result of all the mechanisms and (whole) foods interacting together, they can't be separated. On top of these things, I was encouraged by my abdomen getting flatter and flatter. Problems started to appear (long) after I stopped eating oranges. I was also not eating vegetables regularly because most need cooking, and I was optimizing for time. Not eating oranges meant: I wasn't eating fiber (other than what's in nuts), I wasn't ingesting the acids from oranges, I was overwhelmingly getting my calories from fats and proteins (since I was eating few carbohydrates from other sources). My digestive system became sensitive to certain things. After about two years of this diet, inflammation started to occur whenever I was eating fats or carbohydrates. In less than half an hour I was feeling some abdominal organ having no more room in my body. The inflamed organ was, likely, the stomach (the pancreas tail was also a possibility). The location was mostly on the left-front side of the body, at the level of the lower half of the ribs, and sometimes below the ribs. When the intensity wasn't at the maximum, the inflammation was occurring in slightly different places, from the middle of the body all the way to the left side (next to the arm, slightly above the elbow); it was very rarely occurring on the right side. The first time the inflammation occurred was when I ate a lot of olive oil. I was testing with about 60 grams (2.1 oz) of high quality 80% fat organic butter, and 80 ml (2.7 floz) of high quality, organic, cold extracted, extra virgin olive oil, at breakfast and lunch, each with 100 grams of bread; this is the equivalent of about 120 grams of fat and 100 grams of carbohydrates; I've also tried only with oil. In less than half an hour I've felt the inflammation occur. In this case, the inflammation appeared immediately and disappeared after two days of not eating the oil. I've later seen that a lot of refined fat (olive oil, butter, lard, around 100 g / 3.5 oz), ingested in one meal, was causing me problems like inflammation or nausea. Not eating for lunch, and stress were causing the same kind of inflammation, but to a lower degree. For the foods that did cause the inflammation (some didn't), the effect appeared to be proportional with the amount of fats and carbohydrates. I couldn't clearly determine any specific element that was causing the inflammation, especially because some (unknown) elements were able to block the inflammation (when present in some foods that did contain a lot of fats and carbohydrates). The inflammation was the first and main problem that I became aware of. A secondary problem was that when I was trying to eat a lot of fruits, even if the inflammation wasn't present, there was soon a need to eliminate them (on the other end), and the need appeared to be proportional with the amount of sugar (and maybe of water, water alone wasn't a problem). Oranges were relative fine, but nectarines were really bad, even though the weight of the nectarines (with the pit) was smaller; cantaloupe was toward the bad side; watermelon was in the middle, as I had to eat 2...3 times the weight (rind excluded) of the nectarines to have the issue. Vegetables and fruits were causing me not just the usual gas, but (low) gas pressure which was leading to a minute leakage (from the other end). Fruits were the worst, by far, likely due to the high amount of sugar, and their effect was visible in hours, not days, so their fiber didn't have much slowing effect. There was one issue I had even years before, which now seems relevant: occasional cramps in the digestive system (almost at the exit). Quite painful, like leg cramps, but with no ability to press on the soles in order to stretch the muscles to force them to relax; walking did help. All these problems seemed to be independent in the sense that various foods seemed to trigger one or multiple of them, but not all of them. So, multiple mechanisms were interacting in the body, when eating each food and all foods together. Even not eating was causing some inflammation and mental fog. Walking was also causing dizziness (perhaps the bad bacteria was disturbed by the walking). The inflammation started to decrease in intensity only after I've stopped eating nuts for several weeks and added more diversity in my food (although the diversity could have been a coincidence). Later, I've done further tests with macadamia nuts, which have caused a mild nausea (likely due to the very high percentage of fat). Even two months after I've stopped eating nuts, I was still having inflammation (although with a significantly lower intensity than before), and some sort of slight angina and slight tingling on the left side of the heart. I've then stopped eating farmed fish (I was barely eating canned fish anyway), and the issues decreased a lot in less than a week. My body also appeared to get much better at processing fruits. I've later also stopped drinking bottled water and the issues have decreased further in about a week. Maybe it was a coincidence, but I have no reason to go back. It was a very difficult to track sugar being a problem because that small amount can come from anything, including the kefir that I was eating (which I've stopped in order to test the effect of its absence, but that didn't improve much). About 5 months after the original inflammation, the problems mostly vanished. The minute leakage disappeared, and vegetables and fruits started to cause only the normal gas. However, a bit later, there was inflection point when the inflammation returned and two other problems started to occur: dizziness and mental fog. Rarely, there were also low intensity headaches. I don't know what caused the inflection point. Maybe the bad bacteria had adapted to my new diet, or maybe I was eating too much cheese (which I started to eat because it wasn't causing any inflammation). Since cheese is a fermented food, it's possible that it started amplifying the microbiota imbalance. Another possibility is that I was severely undercaloric because so many food categories were causing problems... and I wasn't feeling hungry because the low amount of carbohydrates and the (about) 150 g (5.3 oz) of cheese that I was eating daily was that satiating. Long before the inflammation, when I was eating nuts (150 g / 5.3 oz) and oranges (1 kg / 2.2 lbs), I was eating about 500...700 more calories per day, and my weight was only about 3...4% higher. A few weeks later, after eating a handful of nuts for several days, the inflammation reappeared, it was only at about a third of the original intensity, and more clearly localized (perhaps because the lower intensity meant a lower diffusion of sensation). Continuing to eat vegetables and fruits made the minute leakage return. The only exceptions seemed to be soft vegetal foods like rice, mashed potatoes and pasta, seemingly because they weren't causing gas. Even worse now, it seemed that sugar (regardless of source, so fruits included) and my fermented dairy breakfast were causing dizziness and mental fog immediately; other non-sugary, non-fatty foods were also causing dizziness. But this time I did one thing differently: I've considered that the food wasn't necessarily the problem, but the restaurant where I was eating almost every evening, so I've stopped going there. In about three days, the inflammation subsided. What's more, my mental fog and tiredness started to clear. This was something that I was previously attributing to my insane sleep-work schedule, so I didn't think it could be from something else. The dizziness after the breakfast also vanished. In hindsight, it took months of going to that restaurant for the mental fog to occur, and about a year for the inflammation to occur. Understanding the problem was made more difficult by the fact that not going to the restaurant took several days to show a positive effect. Eating food fried in oil, at any restaurant, seems to cause the inflammation, but this doesn't mean that it's the actual cause, it could be just an irritant. I'm saying this because even when I wasn't eating foods cooked in oil for several days, the inflammation was still there, so either the oil isn't the issue, or there is a very long delay in healing from its effects. I've retested eating nuts several times (as low as 10 g of walnuts, peanuts, hazelnuts and almonds), and I've had an unpleasant feeling in my digestive system, including a feeling of slowness of the food moving through. The last tests were very clear, as about 12 hours after eating the nuts, the minute leakage reappeared. The problems last a few days. So, I won't be eating nuts anymore. It's clear that even small amounts cause me problems. Interestingly, the desire that I was previously feeling to eat them, disappeared. I've then returned to that restaurant and the problems showed up within two days, so I've stopped going there completely. I've then started eating at a different restaurant and the problems returned, to a more limited extent, so I've completely stopped eating at restaurants. This time the inflammation did subside, but much slower, it took several weeks. More foods started to cause problems like inflammation in my digestive system. Moreover, the effects that foods had seemed to flip. For example, cheese, kefir and commercial chocolate with 85% cacao (and 12% sugar) initially had positive effects, but after about 5 months they started to cause dizziness and mental fog. I also tested chocolate with 80% cacao sweetened with erythritol, and it's effect was roughly similar with the chocolate sweetened with sugar; I couldn't test chocolate sweetened with allulose. On the other side, canned fish (in oil) and olive oil caused inflammation. The health problems became more severe and were visible much quicker, so I was finally able to see that they were linked. Warm showers were almost completely eliminating the mental fog, for a short while. If the problems continued, it seemed that I had to go on the carnivore diet. Most carnivores recommend eating red meat because it has fat, whereas chicken breast doesn't. Aside from the fact that this is a very restrictive diet, I dislike the taste of red meat. Also, eating a lot of lard (with bread, instead of butter) was causing me nausea. Sidenote: Some people recommend avoiding chicken breast, for people who have a high cholesterol, because, they say, it's high in saturated fat. According to USDA, chicken breast has 1 g of saturated fat per 100 g. As for its cholesterol, the cholesterol in food doesn't increase the cholesterol in blood. Besides, eggs have about 5.5 times more cholesterol, and studies show that they are fine. Some people might think that the solution to my problems would be to eat more fiber. But, as I said above, vegetables and fruits were causing gas and a minute leakage. Beans cause a particularly high amount of gas. That doesn't sound healthy. Rice (cooked without fats / oil) didn't seem to be a problem. Eating varied made things worse because each food had its own effect, and all foods together produced all problems: inflammation, dizziness and mental fog. Fruits (like oranges), cause all problems, seemingly because their absolute amount of sugar is high. However, for the sugar in fruits to cause problems, it has to be more than in non-fruit sources (like chocolate). Other refined carbohydrates, like bread, seem to have an effect similar to sugar. It's interesting to note that the fiber from 0.5...1 kg / 1.1...2.2 lb of oranges wasn't able to compensate the negative effect of the sugar, and above 0.5 kg the effect was clearly negative. It seemed that I had become intolerant (but not allergic) to nuts, sugar and dairy. These issues manifested as inflammation in the digestive system, dizziness and mental fog. The intolerance meant that I couldn't eat nuts, sweets, fruits and dairy products. Cheese was very helpful for about 5 months, and I've eaten a lot of it, but it eventually started to cause dizziness and mental fog, along with many other foods. After about 9 months from when the initial inflammation appeared, the mental fog became persistent. Going back to the 5 month inflection point, what had happened was that I was no longer eating fruits (because sugar was causing problems), nor vegetables (because their fiber was causing gas and a minute leakage), nor dairy and chocolate (because their effect had flipped at the inflection point). This meant that I was eating under 15 grams of carbohydrates per day, virtually no fiber, and less fat than before. My brain was, perhaps, no longer getting enough fuel from either fats or carbohydrates, or my body was unable to convert fat to glucose (in order to feed the brain). This explanation is unsatisfactory because while my brain was slow and foggy, my body was energetic, but it would make sense if the brain running at full capacity isn't a priority for the biology of a human who doesn't get enough calories (without feeling hungry). I then started to eat more and more bell peppers and avocados, because their low fiber was causing little gas. Once I had ramped-up these vegetables daily, and also started to eat oranges and other fruits, the mental fog had reduced in less than a week. For example, after a dinner consisting of 6 eggs, an avocado and (shimeji) mushrooms, the mental clarity became extreme. However, right after that, after eating oranges (about 90 g of sugar), the inflammation, some mental fog and a bit of dizziness returned. About two days later, I had no lunch and, in the evening, I was feeling some mental fog, so I ate 80 g / 2.8 oz of chocolate with 85% cacao (12% sugar). It initially reduced the mental fog, then created a bit of dizziness (within 30 minutes) which disappeared quickly, then the mental fog disappeared (a few hours later). The next day I tried chocolate with 75% cacao (22% sugar), but it wasn't even able to reduce the mental fog. I've tried the same with nuts, and it worked similarly, with a lower intensity, but later caused more mental fog. This was meant to show me that my brain would benefit if I ate some food between breakfast and dinner, even though the body was energetic anyway. In the evening, I ate 150 g / 5.3 oz of cheese (with 200 g / 7.1 oz of small canned fish, 2 large avocados and 200 g of bell peppers), which first created slight waves of mental fog, and then a light but persistent state between dizziness and mental fog, and some slight abdominal discomfort, and finally inflammation. This was meant to show how complex the interaction of multiple nutrition mechanisms is in the body, in real time, and how fiber isn't be able to compensate negative effects, at least not in the short term, just like the fiber from oranges wasn't able to compensate the effect of sugar. By this point, eating almost anything was producing mental fog. After another week of eating up to 3 avocados per day, plus bell peppers, it was fine to eat in one meal, though with a slight digestive discomfort, oranges (1 kg / 2.2 lbs), nuts (mixed, up to 200 g / 7.1 oz), and crackers (100 g / 3.5 oz, 20% fiber, made from various seeds, like flax seeds). Some inflammation was still present after eating nuts or oranges. I wasn't eating nuts and oranges regularly at the time. While eating eggs, I could feel the mental fog clearing by the middle of the meal, then I could feel the mental fog setting in again. Up to 3 or 4 large eggs increased the mental clarity, but more eggs increased the mental fog. As time went by, I had started to have longer and longer periods of almost complete mental clarity, especially a few hours after a meal (as meals were creating more or less mental fog). Then, I started eating again large amounts of nuts, around 100...200 g / 3.5...7.1 oz per day. In about a week, the inflammation reappeared, and so did the minute leakage and mental fog. So, large amounts of nuts are causing me digestive problems. Even eating 50 g of nuts causes me a slight digestive discomfort, but, oddly, not in the area which gets inflamed, but throughout the center, discomfort which mostly disappears within 15 minutes (which I remember was there years before, but which I ignored since it was short-lived). Eventually, I had to eliminate from my diet the following: sugar (including from fruits), nuts, dairy, vegetables which were causing significant gas. However, the problems didn't disappear. Maybe the bad bacteria had adapted again to my diet, clinging to the smallest amount of sugar. Perhaps it even started to eat fiber from the vegetables that I was eating. After all, why wouldn't the bad bacteria also eat fiber, just like the good bacteria? I was thinking how I could go back to what I was eating before the inflammation, mainly the oranges. However, since sugar was a problem (and eating oranges caused some mental clarity initially, but mental fog later), I though that I should try another important component from oranges: the acids. It seemed a real possibility that, for whatever reason, my digestive system wasn't acidic enough. Almost one year after the initial inflammation appeared, I've found out that eating pickles in vinegar made the mental fog disappear quickly, and virtually completely for many hours. As soon as I ate a few pickles, the bad bacteria didn't like it and immediately caused mental fog and a slight headache. I ate more, and while nothing more happened then, I had a more intense headache during the night, and some in the morning. I also ate pickles during the breakfast, and until dinner there was virtually no mental fog. In total, during dinner and breakfast, I ate 360 g / 12.7 of (solid mass) pickled cucumbers. That's a lot of vinegar. After just a few days of the "pickle diet" I was able to eat 1 kg / 2.2 lbs of oranges daily. I had also started eating unsalted nuts and noticed that the sweetness of the nuts produced a desire to eat pickles afterwards. I think salty nuts numb this desire, which may be a problem. After a few days of eating nuts (mixed, no peanuts), they started to feel heavy on my digestive system and slowly caused mental fog, a slight temperature, dizziness, a slight feeling of my brain being stretched and then compressed, nausea, and a slight inflammation in the digestive system. Peanuts (baked, salted) did cause a minute leakage within a few hours. The most important things were that the minute leakage stopped, the massive mental fog turned into a light mental fog (with some hour-long periods of extreme clarity), and the inflammation generally vanished. Over the course of two weeks it seemed that the acid didn't solve the problem but forced the bacteria to move downward instead of upward, because the mental fog returned, and I started getting bloated and I was retaining a lot of water. I then tried the last remaining unchanged part of my diet: I reduced the fat as much as possible, and switched to carbohydrates. The inflammation started to disappear, but then returned. About 15 months after the original inflammation, I switched my water drinking mug from a colored glass mug to a transparent glass mug. The mental fog almost vanished within 24 hours, while the inflammation from the digestive system almost vanished within 3 days. I had been drinking for that mug for about 4 years. Ignoring the mug was a severe failure on my part because I had known all along about the heavy metals present in colored glass and ceramic. Also, while I did thought about my drinking water containing toxins, I didn't think that between the water (from various sources) and my body there was a mug, and water was sitting constantly in it (which can only amplify the toxin leak). Considering the color of the glass, very dark green, the most likely toxin was chromium. Make sure to read about kitchenware toxicity. After that, I ate about 80 g / 2.8 oz of commercial chocolate with 85% cacao (and under 15% sugar). This immediately triggered mental fog, physical weakness, dizziness and a slight inflammation. These problems could be explained by previously considered factors (like fat, sugar, oxalate and histamine), but another factor is the amount of heavy metals from such a significant amount of cacao. I had previously considered that the root cause of my digestive problems was a hand cream, but I hadn't tested its absence for long enough. I had been using this cream for over 20 years without an apparent problem, so it's unclear why it had started to cause problems after so many years. Some problems were present for many years before the inflammation, although at a very low intensity. Maybe it took this long for the toxic effect to accumulate, or maybe I had become careless, or maybe its ingredients had changed. This cream was entering my body because after bowel movements I was wiping my butt with it in order to make washing afterward much easier. But I was too effective in my attempts to clean because I was pushing the cream inside, and my body was absorbing it and pushing it up through the digestive system, forcing the intestinal microbiota to move up, toward the stomach, in an attempt to run away from the chemicals from the cream coming from the other way and poisoning their home. This explains why when the symptoms were at maximum intensity, the inflammation had reached up to the sternum / breastbone level: the microbiota was trying to get out the only available way. This also explains why using pickles had worked only in part: the microbiota was forced by the acidity to move back down. Unfortunately, the other way was poisoned, so the microbiota couldn't go that way either, causing bloating, so I had to stop. The symptoms variability that I was experiencing was likely due to how much cream was being absorbed by the digestive system in the previous days. This scenario can't explain why the output had been as expected, depending on what I was eating. In other words, if the microbiota had indeed moved up in the digestive system, how was it possible for food to be transformed to normal output? (For washing, soap didn't seem to be a problem, likely because cream is designed to be absorbed by skin / tissue, whereas soap is designed to come off skin together with grime, plus I wasn't pushing soap deep inside.) You can read about the conclusion above.
Possible causesThese were various possibilities that I was thinking about during my investigation. I will leave them here. One possible cause of the inflammation is that I've developed some sort of reaction to nuts in general. Not an allergy, but a reaction, since I can still eat them occasionally, in a small amount, without serious problems. Another possible cause of the inflammation is an excess of oxalate from nuts. This doesn't explain why nuts did cause the problem, but not oranges (the 1 kg / 2.2 lbs I was eating at times is high in oxalate). It also doesn't explain why it happened with olive oil. Olives contain a lot of oxalate, but olive oil appears to not contain any (I couldn't find something definitive).
Another possible cause of the inflammation is a vitamin C deficiency. Vitamin C is required for the body to use fats for energy, through the production of carnitine, and since my diet was extremely restricted and I was eating a lot of fats (mostly from nuts) and no more oranges (which contain vitamin C), this could have been the cause. However, I had inflammation even in the days when I ate bell peppers and oranges, which have a high amount of vitamin C. Another possible cause of the inflammation is the farmed salmon that I was eating at the restaurant, 400...600 g (14.1...21.2 oz) per week, for over 2 years. I knew for a long time that something was... fishy. Considering all the factors (especially the taste), the quality of the fish had to be low (which means that it may have had traces of antibiotics). As more time was passing, I was feeling that my digestive system was becoming more and more sensitive, but since this wasn't synchronized with eating the fish, I've ignored the possible link. The only issue I was having with the fish was a small sensation of the fish moving in the abdomen for a short while (something that wasn't happening with any other food, at least not immediately), but I was thinking it may be from the lemon juice I was eating with the fish. This is how my attention was directed toward the nuts. But it's possible that the fish was the problem, although a delayed problem, and the nuts only amplified it.
Effect of foodsFoods that have caused (at least some) inflammation, initially:
Foods that have caused little to no inflammation, initially:
Foods which had a mixed effect:
Things which didn't help:
My health biomarkersI optimize my diet based on the effect of food over the long term, not based on individual mechanisms and studies, so here is the measured result. By comparing the results over time, I can see what's the relevance of the things that I do and eat. If you're asking how many people are represented by my personal experience, I'll ask how many people are represented by studies of averages. If you don't know the answer, measure the result. If you do know the answer, you also know that you have to measure the result. The biomarkers were measured in two separate years: 2007 and 2024, in the summer, so 17 years apart. In 2007, I had measured some basic biomarkers. In 2024, about 15 months after the original inflammation in my digestive system, I had measured almost all of these blood biomarkers. MPO, OxLDL, TAC (Total Antioxidant Capacity) and Zonulin weren't available, the genetic tests made no sense for my case (and were very expensive), and I had done only the main heavy metal tests. At the time, I hadn't known about lactate and the fact that mental fog is a condition called D-lactic acidosis which is caused by an elevated level of D-lactate. The blood was drawn in 2 sessions, 24 days apart, fasted, at 10 AM. In total, there were 89 distinct biomarkers, plus the ones from the hemogram, the omega 3 and the omega 6 panels. On top of these, there were also a few repeated biomarkers, to check a few things. It took 25 (13 + 12) vials of blood, about 5 ml each. When your blood drawn, you have to clench your fist. If a lot of blood is drawn, your arm will start to hurt. Tell this to the nurse, who will then tell you to unclench your fist. Lifestyle and diet:
Changes 2007 → 2024The changes in the basic biomarkers between 2007 and 2024 show improvements, especially for the liver (since in 2024 I had been limiting sugar / fructose severely). They are marked with "→":
The liver processes the fructose from sugar, but since in 2024 I had been limiting sugar severely, and the rice I had been eating doesn't contain fructose, the ALT and AST biomarkers were very low. In both 2007 and 2024, the hemogram (evaluates the immune system) showed abnormal (somewhat below the bottom reference) biomarkers for leukocytes / white blood cells, thrombocytes / platelets, neutrophils, monocytes. In 2024 they were lower than in 2007.
Biomarkers (2024)The biomarkers with a red background were outside the lab's reference ranges, and indicate a health issue. The biomarkers with a yellow background were outside the lab's reference ranges, but don't (normally) indicate a health issue. The rest of the biomarkers were within the lab's reference ranges. The biomarker changes from the first to the second session are marked with "→". Blood pressure (taken at home, at night). In my youth, I always had a low blood pressure. However, I don't have any recorded values from 2007. Typically on the level of:
Cardiovascular biomarkers (which seem to show that relying on LDL alone to evaluate cardiovascular risk isn't a good idea):
Considering that I had been eating mostly carbohydrates (very little sugar), my (fasting) glucose and insulin were fine:
Liver:
Pancreas:
Kidneys (under strain by urea):
TGB (Thyroglobulin; evaluates thyroid; reference = 3.5...77 ng/mL): abnormal 1.84. Normal thyroid biomarkers: TSH, TRab, T3, T4, ATG, ATPO, PTH. Hemogram (evaluates the immune system): abnormal (somewhat below the bottom reference) leukocytes / white blood cells, thrombocytes / platelets, neutrophils, monocytes. Cortisol (reference = 4.8...19.5 mcg/dL, 133...537 nmol/L; blood drawn at 10 AM when cortisol is at maximum): abnormal 20.3 mcg/dL (560 nmol/L) → 18.1 mcg/dL (498 nmol/L). ACTH (reference = 7.2...63.3 pg/mL): 34.4. DAO (Diamine Oxidase Activity; evaluates histamine intolerance; reference < 34 U/ml): abnormal 37 → 26. The first session showed a possible active allergy, but the second session showed an improvement (which corroborated what I was feeling). Oxidative stress:
ANCA (c-ANCA, p-ANCA; evaluates vasculitis, glomerulonefrita, ulcerative colitis, inflammatory bowel disease; reference < 1/10): < 1/10. Heavy metals (low values are good); considering how much commercial chocolate with 85% cacao I had eaten, the biomarkers for lead and cadmium were quite low:
Cholinesterase (exposure to pesticides; reference = 5.3...12.9 U/mL; low is good): 8.5. Iron (reference = 33...193 mcg/dL): 150. Ferritin (reference = 30...400 ng/mL; inflammatory bowel disease > 100): ? → potential IBS 207. Vitamin B12 (reference = 197...771 pg/mL): ? → 641. Vitamin D (25 OH / Hydroxy; reference = 30...56 ng/mL, deficiency < 20): ? → abnormal 20. Testosterone:
PSA and FPSA: abnormal. They improved a bit during the second session: PSA dropped, FPSA increased. I have to monitor these closely in the future. Omega 3 and Omega 6. I had stopped taking omega 3 supplements and eating canned mackerel / herring / sardines with about 3 months before the blood was drawn, so I was surprised to see the omega 3 biomarkers being so good:
QA
Should I count the calories that I eat?No, because you have no idea how many calories your body needs. However, you should compare how many calories are in the types and amounts of foods that you eat, so that you can choose the ones with fewer calories.
How fast should I be losing weight?If you can lose at most 1 kilogram (= 2 pounds) per month, that's great, but if you want to lose your extra weight faster than you can increase this limit several times without negatively affecting your health. If you lose a lot of weight, especially if it happens fast, your body will not lose fat everywhere just as much or just as fast, and some fat will remain in certain areas, like on the abdomen, making the skin look floppy. While losing weight, fat isn't the only thing that you will be losing, but muscles as well. Read this for details.
What about fried foods?Beware of fried foods! Fried oil can be toxic. See here when oils become toxic. Cooking in oil can bring you a large amount of unnecessary fats. Boiled potatoes have 20% carbohydrates and have a small amount of calories (per 100 grams). However, home made french fries have 2 times the number of calories because they absorb the frying oil. The ones fried at fast foods restaurants have 4 times the number of calories (I don't know why, but you can check this at the USDA food list).
What if I crave sweets?If you eat sweets / deserts, try to limit yourself to those which contain maximum 20% sugar (and no other sweeteners). Alternatively, try fruits. If you were to abstain from eating something sweet, you would increase the probability that you would simply drop your new eating habits and start eating without limits again.
Should I eat a lot of food fewer times a day, or little food more times a day?You should eat satiating food, when you feel the need. You have to find your own balance depending on how you feel. Refined carbohydrates reduce satiation, so people (desire to) eat much more calories than they need, which makes it very difficult for people to stop eating only the calories they need. It's better to eat a small treat every day than a lot of them once a week.
I feel the need to eat a lot as if my body is looking for a specific type of food, but I don't know which. Why is this?Leaving aside any possible health problems that you may have and the medical tests that you could take, one possible cause is that your body is low on some essential nutrients, and perhaps most importantly, low on water. Many people delay drinking water when their bodies request it, and when they get used to it and feel no more thirst, they think that they don't need water so much. However, the body simply starts getting water from food, and asks for a lot of food in order to get the needed water. If at the same time you feel that you are low on energy, you should reduce the ultra processed food as much as possible, and eat proteins. If you are limiting the number of calories for fear that you may gain weight, you could eat more and at the same time do some physical exercise in order to burn the extra energy.
Should I avoid eating meat?There is no scientific reason for the average person to avoid eating meat. To the contrary, eating meat is associated with increased life expectancy. Avoiding to eat meat will make it more difficult for you to get the vitamins and essential aminoacids needed by the human body, will most likely push you to eat things that should never be part of a diet (like refined carbohydrates and refined fats), and will produce massive amounts of gas (from the fiber and carbohydrates of the vegetables and fruits). Avoiding to eat eggs and dairy makes it even more difficult. Be aware that "proteins" is a generic word which encompasses any combination of aminoacids, but the body needs a specific combination of aminoacids which are essential for it, and meat provides a much better balance, among the essential aminoacids, than vegetables do. It's more difficult to get the essential aminoacids from vegetables than from meat. If you want to avoid eating meat, you need a vegetal source of balanced proteins (with aminoacids in the ratio that people need). "Ultra processed meat" (for example, burgers) is in fact not meat because it may contain (for example) 30% meat (where the rest is anything except meat). Frequent eating of ultra processed meat has been linked to some health problems.
Should I avoid eating carbohydrates?The dominance of sugar and refined carbohydrates (like flour) causes serious health problems. Also important is which type of food you eat and how it's cooked, because the carbohydrates from raw vegetables and fruits are absorbed much more slowly by the body. Carbohydrate content examples: oranges 12% (9% sugar), bananas 22%, nuts 10...30% (40...60% fats, 20% proteins), cooked pasta 30% (raw pasta 75%, no water), cooked rice 30% (raw rice 80%, no water), boiled potatoes 20%, bread 50% (10% proteins), and sugar 100%. Wheat bread has 50% carbohydrates, so 100 grams (3.5 oz) of bread contain 50 grams (1.8 oz) of carbohydrates, which has 200 kilocalories, which makes 10% from the 2'000 kilocalories daily dose recommended for an average adult.
Does eating carbohydrates cause tooth decay?Yes, eating sugar and refined carbohydrates (like flour) creates an acidic and sticky environment in the mouth which dramatically increases the risk of teeth deterioration (like cavities), and an unpleasant breath smell (which is common since most people eat sugar and refined carbohydrates). A high risk is indicated by the presence of the biofilm, which is a soft and white substance between the gums and teeth, which mostly forms when eating (refined) carbohydrates. The frequency of sugar ingestion, not the amount, is the most important factor of tooth decay. When sugar is eaten, the formed acids soften the tooth enamel and leave it vulnerable for about half an hour. Eating more sugar doesn't increase this time, but eating sugar more often leaves the enamel vulnerable for longer, so it's better to eat sweets once a day rather than eat a bag of candies throughout the day. Tooth decay can be reduced by flossing (after dinner) and brushing the teeth with an electrical toothbrush (twice a day, after breakfast and dinner).
Does salt increase the risk of cardiovascular disease?It's commonly thought that salt (actually the sodium from salt) increases the risk of cardiovascular disease by increasing blood pressure. The recommended maximum daily dose of sodium is 2300 mg, which means 5.8 g of table salt. This dose includes the sodium from the eaten food, it doesn't refer strictly to the sodium from the table salt that you add to food. The population-level data shows that the top 12 consumer countries of salt, consume 8.8 g (sodium is 40%, so 3.5 g). If you hear people saying that chicken is rich in sodium, keep in mind that each 100 g (3.5 oz) of cooked chicken breast contain 52 mg of sodium, so to reach the recommended maximum daily dose (of 2300 mg), you would have to eat 44 portions (4'400 g / 1 pound) of chicken breast per day. Too much salt has some effects which indirectly cause health problems, like creating cravings for sweets, that is, for sugar.
Which is better: fruits, fruit juice, vegetables or vegetable juice?Fruit juice isn't fruit, it's water with sugar. The fact that the sugar comes from fruit makes no difference. Avoid drinking fruit juice because it has the same amount of sugar as sodas, so they have the same negative effects on the body (both on the flora of the digestive system, and on the liver). Fruit juice contains a concentrated amount of calories and acids, due to the high amount of natural sugar, more specifically, about the same amount as sodas, which is about 10%. If you drink fruit juice, sip it with a straw in order to keep the acids off your teeth (as much as is possible). Fresh fruit, in its entirety, has a positive health effect because its fiber makes it satiating and slows down the sugar absorption. If you want to drink juice, choose (unsweetened, unsalted) vegetable juice, but still avoid drinking it in large quantities. There are practical advantages to drinking vegetable juice over eating vegetables, like availability (can be purchased all year around). The amount of sugar from vegetable juice can be close to that from fruit juice. For example, beet juice contains about 10% sugar. Tomato juice contains 2.5% sugar, but it often contains 2% salt (in grams), which for 1 liter is 20 g, several times the daily recommended amount.
Some people say to not eat many vegetables because they can't be digested by the body. Is that correct?It can be, but the amount depends on how your body handles each type of vegetable. Some vegetables may have to be cooked in order to make them easier to digest. It depends on each type of vegetable, and also on the specifics of your digestive system (mainly on the types of bacteria which reside in your digestive system). For example, it's unlikely that your digestive system requires apples and oranges to be cooked, but it does require rice, potatoes and beans to be cooked. An unfortunate side effect of eating vegetables and fruits is that the digestion of their fiber causes gas, but so does the digestion of carbohydrates; carbohydrates are also present in vegetables, fruits and nuts. The amount of gas produced depends on how you prepare the food for eating; for example, a cream soup of vegetable X produces less gas than the whole, uncooked vegetable X.
Is canned food safe?Canned food is very practical, but it's important to understand its health effects, and what can be done to minimize the possible health risks. In part, canned food is safe to eat if you throw away the fluid from the can (which is likely to contain particles from the material of the can, or a sugary sauce). Fat / oil should not be thrown down the drain because it solidifies and will clog the pipes. However, despite the cooking at a high temperature and the complete insulation from the air outside, some canned food still contains preservatives to protect it from bacteria. It's recommended for the fish to be canned in water / brine. If it's in oil, the oil isn't going to be of the best quality. In modern times, the cans are made of steel, aluminum or tin, possibly coated inside with a plastic layer which prevents the metal from leaching into the food; some producers even use plastic envelops instead of metal. The healthiest choice is to use glass jars, but they are also the most expensive products (if available at all). However, the plastic layer usually contains bisphenol-A. Some producers use a plastic layer which doesn't contain bisphenol-A, but there is no guarantee that the replacement is safer. The problem is that the bisphenol-A (BPA), a chemical which may be dangerous to health, leaches into the food. The amount of leached bisphenol-A which ends up in the body depends on the type of food, with canned soup being by far the worst. This doesn't necessarily make the canned food unsafe, because the absolute amount of ingested bisphenol-A is still below the level which is considered safe. Both Europe's and USA's food safety administrations say that bisphenol-A is safe to use in the packaging of foods. Bisphenol-A is present in most plastics, including plastic water bottles, so it's quite difficult to avoid. There are some alternatives to this chemical, but there are no guarantees that they are any safer. Buy canned food with a lower shelf life (below 5 years), presumably because these contain less preservatives. Look for cans which are close to their manufacturing date, because the metal or plastic had less time to leach into the food. Throw away the cans that are bulging, dented, cracked, leaking or rusted. Wash the lid, especially its rim, before you open a can. After you empty the can, smell it inside. If you have a tingly sensation, if it smells like metal / oxidation, don't buy that product / brand again. You may even be able to smell the oxidation in your breath, after you eat the food. Basically, the metal of the can has leached into the food, which makes it taste bad and unsafe in the long term. Looking at meat from a metallic can, you can see that it's pink inside, but grayish on the outside. This is because the meat has oxidized on the outside. This doesn't happen with meat from glass jars. If there is oil in the metal or plastic can, throw away the oil because it attracts bisphenol-A. Oil should not be thrown down the drain because it solidifies and will clog the pipes. Throw away the liquid from the can because the it contains (more) microparticles from the material of the can (either metal or plastic). If possible, rinse the food with water. Don't scrape (the inside of) the can. Never cook food in the can, first move it in your normal cookware. Since heat is normally used during canning, vitamins B and C are destroyed in part. However, this also happens during cooking at home, it's not limited to canning.
Should I do strenuous physical activity to lose weight?Studies show that the average people don't lose weight if they do strenuous physical activity over long periods of time, and that the composition of their bodies doesn't change either. That's because the body is very efficient at energy consumption while doing strenuous physical activity (no matter how tired you feel afterward), because the body asks for the consumed energy to be replaced by eating afterwards, and because the caloric intake from small amounts of food overwhelms the calorie burning that happens during the strenuous physical activity. Strenuous physical activity should be done for health reasons, not for losing weight. However, simple exercise, like walking at an average pace, or even standing rather than sitting, should complement a healthy diet and may help losing weight because it doesn't triggering hunger to compensate the loss of energy (like strenuous physical activity does). However, some types of strenuous physical activity may be particularly effective at removing fat from specific areas of the body. When you realize that you can't lose the fat from, say, your abdomen, by dieting, some strenuous physical activity may help you do that.
Why do I feel tired after eating?A possible cause of fatigue after eating is that you've eaten a lot of carbohydrates, especially sugar and refined carbohydrates (like flour). The digestion of carbohydrates requires the body to generate insulin, and the need of the body to produce a high amount of insulin causes the fatigue.
Why do most people get fatter as they age?This is because the physical activity of older people is reduced, because the body's basal metabolic rate (BMR) is slightly reduced with aging, yet people continue to eat as much as they were used to eat when they were young. Older people should eat fewer calories than they were eating when they were young, in order to maintain their weight.
What are some general habits of people who maintain a normal weight?Stop eating when their bodies tell them that they are full, not when their plates are empty, and not when their parents or friends tell them to stop. Eat mostly unprocessed food, meaning the way it grows in nature, without heavy processing, without extracting it's "essence", without adding preservatives to it. Avoid sugar. Walk a lot (like an hour every day). Prefer to stand or walk rather than sit.
How much alcohol is it safe to drink per day?It's recommended to avoid drinking alcohol, or drink it only occasionally. The USA and UK governments specify a maximum of 150 ml of wine (5 fluid ounces) (with 13% alcohol) for men and women, 400 ml (13 fluid ounces) of beer (with 5% alcohol). The USA government allows for men a maximum that's double, but, considering other sources, this appears to be too much. This amount is per day, you can't accumulate a week's amount in a single day of the week. Since women generally have a lower mass than men, they should drink less than men in order to get the same amount of alcohol per unit of mass (kilogram or pound). Constant alcohol drinking increases the risk of cancer. Studies show that daily drinking of an amount of alcohol found in 180 ml (6 fluid ounces) of wine increases the risk of cancer by 5%. If you drink alcohol, do so only during meals in order to slow its assimilation. You may have heard that in the Blue Zones, where there are more centenarians than usual, they drink wine. There is nothing magic about that wine. Those people drink wine because they are happy to be together with their family, while modern people drink because they feel lonely and miserable. That makes the difference in lifespan, not the wine.
Should I do what the studies say it's good for health?One of the biggest problems of studies is that they are either performed in test tubes, on animals, or on very few people. You are neither of these and human bodies, maybe yours included, often reacts in opposite ways. Worse, the researchers measure several (even tens) of health parameters, and in small studies one of them is bound to come out looking good / bad, looking as if eating whatever is studied has made a difference. But the difference exists because there is a huge variation in human physiology and behavior, and in environmental factors. And the more parameters are measured, the higher is the chance that one of them will look good / bad. This is why many studies of the same thing show opposite results. For details, read the Skirts don't cause cancer principle. But leaving aside the weakness of studies, what you should do depends on what matters to you. Is it health, happiness or a long life? Ask yourself how happy are the people who follow that path (compared to those who don't). Are you sure that something which appears to improve health also increases the life expectancy? Studies don't normally look at these factors. In fact, some studies which do look at these factors show that even though some foods and life styles do improve various health characteristics, they don't increase the life expectancy of the people who eat those foods and have those life styles. In other words, in terms of longevity, the improved health has been lost in the noise of life. So, if people feel miserable when eating something and their life expectancy stays the same, why should you eat that? Sometimes, a nutrient which shows a positive effect in a certain amount, shows a neutral or even a negative effect when the amount is increased. This is called hormesis. This is a possible explanation why, for example, antioxidants from some foods show a health benefit, but show none or a negative effect when the antioxidant is taken in a larger dose as part of a food supplement.
I hear a lot about antioxidants and polyphenols. Are they really good for health?While you will hear that they are very good for your health, you will not hear how much the dose should be (= how much you should eat), how they compare with each other or with other things (= which one is worth the trouble), or by how much they improve your health. Most studies regarding these things are done in test tubes, and at best on animals. People are neither of these and the human body often reacts in opposite ways, especially when you consider that it needs a large amount of these things in order to be affected by them. There have been some studies done on people, but while some of them show health benefits, some show no health benefits, and some show a negative health impact. The most important thing is that they don't cure any fatal disease, as claimed by the fans and sellers of the foods which contain antioxidants and polyphenols. When you read any health claims about a nutrient, think about this: if it can't keep the common cold away, never mind heal it, how could it possibly keep away cancer or whatever other serious disease?
All of this is just not working. I barely eat, I have no energy and I'm still gaining weight. Why?If you want to lose weight, you should avoid barely eating. It's possible that your metabolism is storing calories rather than using them to generate energy. You may have to seek medical advice if you want to lose weight.
Does a diet with caloric restriction increase the lifespan?Yes and no, depending on what you actually eat. According to the largest such study, if you are eating a lot of refined carbohydrates (especially sugar), there is an increase in longevity if you then change to a calorie restricted diet. However, if you are eating very little refined carbohydrates, there is no increase in longevity if you then change to a calorie restricted diet.
Was cooking food necessary for human evolution?Some people claim that cooking food has been an important factor in human evolution, and this claim is used as argument in favor of cooking food today. However, cooking food was only a tool for, not a cause of, evolution. The actual cause was an increase of calorie availability in the diet of primates, calories which the body has used to develop, transform and evolve. As it happens, in those times, cooking food was almost the only way that the primates could use to obtain more calories, since calorie rich foods were scarce. Today, calories can be found in abundance without cooking, with virtually no physical effort, so cooking food is not necessary to increase the availability of calories.
Why do I have cramps in my soles / calves?It's possible that you are missing some essential nutrients, like calcium or magnesium, but a simpler possible cause is that you're wearing shoes or slippers with soles which are too soft. I had such cramps, and in my case the cause was the slippers. The healthy alternative isn't necessarily the absence of slippers because the people who walk barefoot on hard surfaces (like tile or parquet) would have problems with the knees.
Any tips about wine?Red wines are (usually) astringent, white wines are (usually) not astringent. Rose wines are in between. Astringency is a feeling in the mouth similar to that produced by the dentist's numbing spray. The alcohol level of wine doesn't change with the wine's age. This is because the alcohol level remains fixed once the fermentation process ends (and wines aren't sold before this happens). However, the changes which occur during the aging process do modify the perception of the alcohol level, usually amplifying the taste of alcohol. If you dislike the taste of alcohol, try wine with an alcohol content around 7...8%, rather than the usual 12...14%. Also try this with a frizzante wine, that is, a lightly sparkling wine.
Any other advice?Stress makes people eat more. The digestion of the fiber present in vegetables and fruits causes gas, but the level varies wildly depending on the type of food and on the bacteria present in the digestive system. The digestion of carbohydrates causes gas. The digestion of fats and proteins doesn't cause gas. Fruits, vegetables and nuts may cause colon contractions or spasms (a few hours after they are eaten). It's recommended to not be obsessive about hygiene to the degree that you try to sterilize your hands / skin / body. The reason isn't, as it's commonly believed, to let your immune system practice fighting bad environmental bacteria, but to avoid destroying your microbiome, that is, the entirety of the good bacteria which has successfully protected you (from the bad bacteria) from birth.
Cooking tipsThese tips are about cooking everyday food, in maximum 20 minutes, but they aren't recipes. All the heating powers below are specified for an induction cooktop with a maximum power of 14 (the power boost mode is extra). Therefore, all the values are very precisely expressed relative to the maximum (of 14). At heating power 14, the used electrical power is 2.3 KW, which is common for household induction cooktops.
Induction cooktopAn induction cooktop is an electrical cooktop which uses induction in order to directly heat the bottom of the cookware. This results in it working like a gas stove, where changing the heating power results in an immediate transfer of temperature changes on the cookware's bottom, and therefore on the food. An induction cooktop is extremely efficient in transferring energy to the food, as the energy is only transferred to the iron in the bottom of the cookware, not around the cookware. Unlike a gas cooktop, an induction cooktop always transfers the exact same electrical power to the food, for a given heating power. However, professional gas cooktops may be able to produce more heat, which some cooks may need. An induction cooktop is hot only in the area where the cookware's bottom is in contact with the cooktop. The surrounding area remains cold to the touch. An induction cooktop is very easy to clean because of its glass top, although some induction cooktops have a stainless-steel edge. Since induction cooktops are already using electricity, they usually have an integrated timer, so they're great for timed cooking. Gas burning produces water vapors, but induction doesn't, and this results in induction cooking producing less humidity in the kitchen. Keep in mind that the actual cooking of food produces water vapors because food contains a lot of water. A plain electrical cooktop, without induction, directly heats the cooktop surface which then heats the cookware's bottom. Because of this, changing the heating power of the cooktop results in a slow transfer of temperature changes to the cookware's bottom. This slowness makes a plain electrical cooktop inferior to an induction cooktop.
CleaningAfter cooking, before you wash the cookware, wipe any fat / oil from it with paper towels and throw those in the trash bin. Fat / oil should not be thrown down the drain because it solidifies and will clog the pipes. After you wash your cookware, wipe it dry as soon as possible, starting with the silverware; wash knives last and wipe them first. If you don't do this and let the water dry naturally, limestone (and even rust) marks will remain on stainless-steel, glass and ceramic. If you get burn marks on a glass cooktop (like an induction cooktop has), the only way to remove them is to scrape them with an utility razor. Knives don't work (because the handle must be perpendicular on the blade in order to let you push the blade with force).
Cooking in a panWhen food has to be cooked in a pan, in oil, beginner cooks are likely to see: the food sticking to the pan, food that is burned underneath and around the edge, hot oil flying out of the pan, lots of smoke rising from the burning food and oil, burned / black oil in the pan, burn / black spots in the pan, and burn marks on the cooktop (underneath the pan). All these problems are very simple to avoid: heat the pan, and any oil you use, at a medium power before you put the food in, and cook at a medium power. If there isn't enough (hot) oil in the pan, once the food is put in the pan, the oil starts to sizzle strongly and burns; the same may happen if the food is wet (like wet meat). At all times, the handle of the pan must be on your left / right, not toward you (/ the edge of the cooktop). This ensures that if anyone (like a child) accidentally pulls or presses on the handle downward, the hot oil and food doesn't fall over them. Start by putting the pan on the cooktop and setting the power at medium. Pour some oil in the pan before you start the heat. In a stainless-steel pan the oil can be poured after the pan is hot, without fearing that the empty pan would degrade under heat. If the pan has a non-stick coating, use one or two tablespoons of oil. The reason why you have to put oil in a non-stick pan is that there should be something in the pan to absorb the heat, not because it's going to keep the food from sticking to the pan (like is needed for a stainless-steel pan). The oil should have a high smoke point. Extra virgin olive oil and butter have a low smoke point, although since you're cooking the food at a medium power, so the oil is sizzling not frying heavily, it's fine to also use extra virgin olive oil. Even butter is fine if you're using a medium heating power, but keep in mind that butter has a smell and taste that overpower the smell and taste of other foods. Refined oils have a higher smoke point than their unrefined / virgin versions. Clarified butter has a very high smoke point. You should heat the pan at the power you intend to use for cooking. Heat the pan at heating power 7 for 4 minutes. Once the pan is heated, put the food in the pan. Keep in mind that the longer you heat the oil, the hotter it will get, and will start to smoke and sizzle when you put the food in the pan. From time to time, move the oil all around the bottom of the pan, by tilting the pan left to right (it's best to avoid tilting it toward you), to ensure that the non-stick coating doesn't overheat. When the oil heats, it becomes more liquid and it's easier to move it around by tilting the pan. There is no need for the oil to lubricate the vertical sides of the pan. Once the pan is hot, if you want, you can wipe the oil off the pan using paper towels. Hold the paper with grill tongs, not with your hand! Careful, the oil is very hot and sticky! You can now put food in the pan. Keep in mind that the food will cool down the pan a bit, so adjust the heating step if necessary. The food should be at room temperature, else it would cool down the pan and oil too much. If the food is meat and you're handling it vertically with grill tongs, place first in the pan the side of the meat which is hanging at the bottom, and then the upper part away form you, in order to avoid the oil splashing toward you (especially if you accidentally drop the meat in the pan). Put in the pan vegetables. You can cook the vegetables separately from the meat. Add seasoning in the pan. Move the food around the pan in order to avoid it sticking to the pan. For eggs use a spatula, for meat use either a spatula or grill tongs. The heating power at which cooking should be done is a matter of taste. A low power makes the food soft and cooked homogenously (throughout the food's thickness), whereas a high power makes the food crisp on the outside while the inside is less cooked (than the outside). Keep in mind that the crispy outside hardens as the food cools, and becomes unpleasant if the food is not eaten quickly. In a pan which has a non-stick coating:
As the heating power is increased, the oil starts to sizzle, the smell of the seasoning intensifies, and smoke may start to appear. Make sure to reduce the cooking time when using a higher heating power. I avoid cooking at powers above 11 because it's messy, and at 14 there is hot oil splashing, some smoke, the food gets burned easily, the food smell is quite intense, and requires a very fast cook. If you add any fluid in the pan, the food (especially meat) will cook as if steamed instead of fried, so it will be soft and moist instead of crunchy. The same can happen if you cover the food with a lid. If you add any fluid in the pan, the cooking time will have to increase because the fluid absorbs some of the heat that would otherwise go into the rest of the food. Using a high heating power will evaporate the fluids from the pan, making the vegetables drier, so you should use a maximum heating power of 10 or use more fluids. The easiest way to cook food is to put in the pan all the food (almost) at the same time. All the food would then be cooked at the same heating power, for the same amount of time, but each food may need to be cooked more or less. The only way to influence how much food gets cooked is the size of the cut of each food, from minced, to diced, to sliced. The smaller the cut is, the faster the food gets cooked. In doesn't matter if the pieces are equal in size because having some pieces cooked less and some cooked more brings interesting variety. You can't cut bones (like the backbone of fish) with a normal knife, you have to chop it with a chopping knife. Cooking with the skin can be useful for salmon, for example, which becomes flaky the more it's cooked; salmon can be cooked perfectly fine with or without the skin. The skin protects the meat from getting burned, but it also blocks its caramelization. An alternative is to cook the fish with skin for a few minutes, on the skin side, after which the fish can be flipped over to (easily) remove the skin, after which the fish can be flipped over again to continue cooking that side. If the pan's bottom is covered with meat and the vegetables have to sit on top of the meat, the meat blocks the cooking of the vegetables. When the food is overcrowded it will cook less than when it's not crowded, in the same amount of time. If you follow these steps, you will have none of the issues above. While there will be no smoke, it's still a good idea to turn on the kitchen hood for practical reasons (like water vapors and lingering food smell). If you do see (a trace of) smoke raising from the pan, it's possible that the pan is not up to the task, that is, it heats up irregularly. While the oil may sizzle a bit in the pan, it will not splash out of the pan, unless you use the highest heating powers. Have everything ready to eat because the food will cool down very quickly once it's out of the pan. So, if you want to add (uncooked) vegetables on the plate, chop them before you put the food in the pan, because you'll be busy moving the food around the pan, so you won't have time to do anything else. If you cook at a high heating power, the temperature of the food will be higher, so it will remain warm for longer.
If you want meat to get caramelized on the outside, you can do several things: increase the heating power so that you can see the oil sizzling, don't move the meat around the pan, put the meat over sizzling oil (make sure there is enough oil), avoid adding any fluid (other than oil) in the pan, use a stainless-steel pan (not a pan which has a non-stick coating). Caramelization is blocked by covering the meat with a lot of seasoning because a protection layer is formed between the meat and the pan; salt is an exception because it melts quickly. Caramelization is also blocked by skin; if meat has skin on it, it will be soft and fatty under the skin. Caramelization is blocked by fluids other than oil and butter (= fats).
FishFollow the steps from the section Cooking in a pan. This is about cooking fish that cooks quickly, like salmon, dorada (gilt-head bream), sea bass, sardine, herring. Dorada and sea bass have a bland taste, so they need strong seasoning. A portion (for a person) should be about 200...400 g (7...14.1 oz) of fish, depending on what you serve it with. Take the fish out of the refrigerator and leave it at room temperature for a few minutes. You should lightly wash the fish with water. I prefer to cut the fish in small pieces in order to cook it faster and to get it infused with more of the taste of the vegetables. Cooking with the skin can be useful for salmon, for example, which becomes flaky the more it's cooked; salmon can be cooked perfectly fine with or without the skin. The skin keeps the meat soft and fatty, on the side with skin. It's possible to cook the fish with skin for a few minutes, on the skin side, after which the fish can be flipped over to (easily) remove the skin, after which the fish can be flipped over again to continue cooking that side. You can season the fish, on both sides, or you can mix the seasoning with the vegetables. Once the pan is heated, you can put the food in the pan. Put in the pan vegetables. Put the fish in the pan. Cook the fish until the original color of the meat disappears, on the outside. For example, salmon is cooked well when it turns entirely whitish instead of pink. Once the fish in cooked on one side, flip the fish over (with a spatula / tongs) and cook the same way on the other side. Use either a spatula or grill tongs to move the fish around the pan in order to avoid it sticking to the pan. If the fish is thick, like salmon, I cook it for 10...12 minutes at power 10. I flip it over at half time. This way, the fish is well cooked inside, without being overcooked on the outside. I've noticed that my body prefers the way I cook salmon (more white fat in between the salmon flakes) rather than how it's cooked at restaurants, but it's more likely just the difference in fish quality. Herring is one fish that I think tastes better when it's crispier, so try cooking it at a high power, which also breaks down most of its tinny bones. You could squeeze one lime or some lemon over fish, especially herring.
EggsFollow the steps from the section Cooking in a pan. If you're making scrambled eggs, put the eggs in a bowl, add seasoning and whisk the eggs. You can add (in the bowl) fermented cheese which doesn't melt. There are types of cheese that you can put in the pan from the beginning, which will barely melt, like white hard cheese. If you want to add fresh vegetables to scrambled eggs, you can put them in the pan together with the eggs. You can also cook them first for a few minutes, then move them in the bowl with eggs, mix, and put the whole mix in the pan. Heat the pan at heating power 7 for 4 minutes. Once the pan is heated, put the eggs in the pan. Add seasoning over the eggs. Mint gives eggs a fresh, breakfast-like taste. You can add salt at any time, either at the beginning or at the end of cooking, with virtually the same result. Some people say it should be added only at the end, but my experiments don't show a difference (I'm using Himalayan salt). From time to time, at least if you cook at high heat, insert a spatula under the eggs and move them around the pan in order to ensure that the eggs don't stick to the pan and that the oil doesn't burn. If you don't stir the eggs in the pan (sunny-side-up eggs can't be stirred, but scrambled eggs can be), cook the eggs at power 7 for 7...8 minutes. For sunny-side-up eggs, let the eggs cook until the white becomes solid but the yolk is still liquid. A slightly liquid egg yolk is easier to eat and digest. If you prefer faster cooking at a higher power, sunny-side-up eggs will have to be flipped over (and cooked for 1 more minute); alternatively, you can use a spoon to move the hot oil from the pan over the eggs, but it's much more effort. Scrambled eggs are whisked with a spatula, so the eggs which are still liquid on the top can flow under the cooked eggs and cook. Once the cooking is finished, you can put on the eggs cheese which melts quickly, like the yellow-colored hard cheese; this will continue to melt even though the heat is off, because the eggs are still hot. You can add various vegetables that don't need to be cooked, like fresh tomatoes.
RiceHave ready 100...125 g (3.5...4.4 oz) of rice, per person. Cooked rice has 30% carbohydrates (raw rice has 80%, no water). When cooked, the weight would be about 2.7 times higher because of the water absorbed by the rice. In my experience, it's 2.4 times higher. It's recommended to use white rice with short / round grain. Avoid hulled rice because the hull contains toxins. Brown rice has more arsenic and phytic acid than white rice; phytic acid reduces the body's ability to absorb micronutrients from food. Get a pot that can contain all the rice that you'll be cooking, and has a lot of space left for the water to boil. For 2 portions, the pot's volume should be 4 liters / quarts. Put cold water in the pot so that it more than covers the rice. The water's weight or volume should be 6...8 times the weight of the raw rice; some of the water will be absorbed by the rice, some of the water will evaporate. For example, for each portion of rice of 125 g / 4.4 oz, use 1 liter / quart of water. Let the water boil at the highest power of the cooktop. Once the water starts to boil, turn the kitchen hood on in order to absorb the water vapors. When exposed to the colder air, the boiling will cool down for a few moments. Put the rice in the pot. The rice will absorb some heat from the water, so the boiling will reduce for a few seconds. After that, a foam will start to bubble up from the water and try to overflow from the pot, so you must reduce the heating power enough to stop the foaming, but keep the water boiling. I use power 12 or 13, depending on how the water is boiling (this depends on the type of used rice). You can add in the pot various vegetables. Add seasoning in the pot, especially salt. Mint gives rice a fresh, breakfast-like taste. Some seasoning will make the water foam and bubble up, so be ready to stir it in order to slightly reduce the temperature of the water, or temporarily reduce the heating power. The rice will absorb a bit of the seasoning; for example, salt will make the rice taste a bit salty. Most seasoning will remain in the water, so the amount of seasoning has to be quite high. If you want all the seasoning to be served with the rice then put it in a sauce. For fine salt, add about half of a teaspoon per liter / quart of water. For coarse salt, add about three-quarters of a teaspoon. For Himalayan coarse salt, add about a teaspoon, because it's less salty than table / sea salt. You should keep the water boiling for at least the amount of time specified on the rice package, which is usually 15...20 minutes. From time to time, stir the rice in order to keep it from sticking to the pot's bottom. Be extremely careful when you (slowly) pour the rice into a colander / sieve to drain the water! The water was just boiling and will splash in the direction in which you pour it, so pour it away from yourself and away from other people and pets! Having excess water (in the pot) which can be drained, allows you to remove a lot of the arsenic from the rice. You can then rinse the rice with hot water, if you like. Make sure to have everything ready to eat because the rice will cool very quickly once it's out of the boiling water. To blunt negative effect of a large amount of carbohydrates, in particular the refined ones, like a massive insulin rise, you can add to a meal fat like extra virgin olive oil or fermented cheese, or something acidic like pickles in vinegar. Eating rice with eggs (cooked sunny-side-up) is a good combination. Arsenic:
Rice may be useful in elimination diets, cooked without fats / oil; the cooked rice must not be sticky / glutinous. The only seasoning which is likely safe is salt.
PastaHave ready 100...150 g (3.5...5.3 oz) of pasta, per person. Cooked pasta has 30% carbohydrates (raw pasta has 75%, no water). When cooked, the weight would be about 2.4 times higher because of the water absorbed by the pasta. When you decide which type of pasta to use, note that shell-shaped pasta is unlike any other type of pasta because each shell may trap moisture and other parts of food inside, like other shells, sauce or minced meat, making each shell like a small package. This is very interesting because the moisture makes oil / fats / sauce unnecessary and, for example, when several shells clump together, the texture becomes a bit firmer for the same amount of cooking. Get a pot that can contain all the pasta that you'll be cooking, and has some space left for the water to boil. For 2 portions, the pot's volume should be 4 liters / quarts. Put cold water in the pot so that it more than covers the pasta. The water's weight or volume should be 6...8 times the weight of the raw pasta; some of the water will be absorbed by the pasta, some of the water will evaporate. For example, for each portion of pasta of 125 g / 4.4 oz, use 1 liter / quart of water. Let the water boil at the highest power of the cooktop. Once the water starts to boil, turn the kitchen hood on in order to absorb the water vapors. When exposed to the colder air, the boiling will cool down for a few moments. Put the pasta in the pot. The pasta will absorb some heat from the water, so the boiling will reduce for a few seconds. After that, a foam will start to bubble up from the water and try to overflow from the pot, so you must reduce the heating power enough to stop the foaming, but keep the water boiling. I use power 12 or 13, depending on how the water is boiling (this depends on the type of used pasta). You can add in the pot various vegetables. Add seasoning in the pot, especially salt. Mint gives pasta a fresh, breakfast-like taste. Some seasoning will make the water foam and bubble up, so be ready to stir it in order to slightly reduce the temperature of the water, or temporarily reduce the heating power. The pasta will absorb a bit of the seasoning; for example, salt will make the pasta taste a bit salty. Most seasoning will remain in the water, so the amount of seasoning has to be quite high. If you want all the seasoning to be served with the pasta then put it in a sauce. For fine salt, add about half of a teaspoon per liter / quart of water. For coarse salt, add about three-quarters of a teaspoon. For Himalayan coarse salt, add about a teaspoon, because it's less salty than table / sea salt. Some types of cheese are so salty that you don't need to add any salt for seasoning. You should keep the water boiling for at least the amount of time specified on the pasta package. Personally, I find that the time from the package always produces severely undercooked pasta, so, for example, if the package says to cook them for 7...8 minutes, I cook them for 15; the time from the package is probably for cooking at the maximum heating power (which requires a very large pot to keep the roiling water in). From time to time, stir the pasta in order to keep it from sticking to the pot's bottom. Be extremely careful when you (slowly) pour the pasta into a colander to drain the water! The water was just boiling and will splash in the direction in which you pour it, so pour it away from yourself and away from other people and pets! Make sure to have everything ready to eat because the pasta will cool very quickly once it's out of the boiling water. To blunt negative effect of a large amount of carbohydrates, in particular the refined ones, like a massive insulin rise, you can add to a meal fat like extra virgin olive oil or fermented cheese, or something acidic like pickles in vinegar. Pasta may be useful in elimination diets, cooked without fats / oil. Pasta doesn't normally contain yeast since it's dense, and any raising ingredient would do the opposite. Also, boiling is better than baking at destroying bacteria because water transfers heat better than air, and the thinness of pasta makes it easier for heat to reach deeper inside. The only seasoning which is likely safe is salt.
VegetablesFollow the steps from the section Cooking in a pan. Vegetables should be well cooked. The smaller the food is cut, the faster it gets cooked. The less crowded the food is in the pan, the faster it gets cooked. Some fresh vegetables that cook fast:
Heat the pan at heating power 7 for 4 minutes. Once the pan is heated, put the vegetables in the pan. In the pan, first add the onion and the bell pepper, and stir for a minute; then add the other vegetables. Onion absorbs all available oil and becomes soft, so don't put too much oil in the pan before cooking the onion for a minute. This layering will improve the smell of the food. You may have to add in the pan some fluids other than the initial cooking oil, like: (olive) oil, lime or lemon juice, tomato juice. Various vegetables, like tomatoes and beetroot, release some of their juice. As the vegetables are cooked, the fluid will thicken, but will ultimately evaporate. Adding in the pan fluids like water or orange juice has a steaming effect on the vegetables, which is not what you want in fried vegetables. If you add in the pan canned vegetables, since these are already cooked, you can add them after the other vegetables have been cooking for a few minutes. Throw away the liquid from the can because it contains (more) microparticles from the material of the can (either metal or plastic). If possible, rinse the food with water. Cook the vegetables at power 7 for 15 minutes. The "output" of beetroot will be red, so you should not worry that you're bleeding.
Pike fish eggsFisherman recipe for (pike) fish eggs, refined by my mother. Because they are eaten raw, fish eggs must be preserved with salt for a minimum of two weeks in order to destroy any bacteria they may contain. Nothing other than salt should be in the fish eggs. I've never heard of farmed pike, so it's likely only wild. Ingredients: 100 grams (3.5 oz) of fish eggs, 120 grams (4.2 oz) of oil, 1 teaspoon of vinegar (average wine vinegar), lemon juice squeezed from a quarter of a lemon, water (only if the fish eggs are too viscous), a small onion. Using less oil than what is specified is not recommended. In the original recipe, the oil is canola oil because (my mother said that) its taste is more neutral. The taste does seem slightly better with canola oil than with olive oil. Place the fish eggs in a soup plate (because of its depth). Using a fork, softly move the fish eggs around to find the threads and other abnormal things that have to be removed. It's easier to work with a large fork. Add the vinegar in the fish eggs and softly mix it in. Add oil, little by little, while you continue to mix the fish eggs. If the fish eggs are too viscous, add a tablespoon of water. When all the oil is in the fish eggs, cut the onion very finely and mix it in the fish eggs. The fish eggs can be served spread on (toast) bread. The entire preparation and serving is meant to offset the fatty nature of the prepared fish eggs. Personally, I eat about half of the resulted fish eggs, with 100 grams (4 slices) of (toast) bread, although that is too fatty for most people. The fish eggs should be taken out of the refrigerator one hour before they are prepared, to reach room temperature. If the fish eggs are cold then the oil must be cold too; the plate should also be cold. While the fish eggs can be mixed the day before you eat them, the onion must be added at the time of eating. The mixing must be done in a single direction, not in both, and without interruption (other than that necessary to add the ingredients) from the moment the preparation begins. This recipe makes very high density fish eggs compared to store bought prepared fish eggs (where a lot more oil is used). The type of fish eggs is critical for the quality of the result. You can see this before you prepare them. For example, pike fish eggs have little interstitial matter and this makes them look and taste very well defined. On the other hand, carp fish eggs have a lot of interstitial matter and this makes them look and taste mushier and fattier.
Tools to useA pan with a 28 cm (11 in) diameter; optionally, another pan with a 24 cm (9.5 in) diameter. While you don't necessarily need the space for a few eggs, you need it for vegetables and meat. For 2 portions (of rice or pasta), the pot's volume should be 4 liters / quarts. One or two chopping boards of 45 * 30 cm (18 * 12 in) each, made of soft wood (to reduce the wear of knives). You can work with slightly smaller ones. You can start with a single board. A chef's knife with an 18 cm (7 in) blade. Learn to cut vegetables with the rocking method. Spatula (for stirring the food). Vegetable peeler, the vertical kind (with a blade perpendicular on the handle).
Various tipsDon't use too many types of vegetables in one meal. Focus on making the vegetables and the meat taste as good as possible. When you add seasoning to the food which is in a hot pan or pot, you expose the spoon with seasoning (or the seasoning itself) to hot water vapors, and if you reuse that spoon to get more seasoning from a seasoning jar, that jar will get wet inside. So, before you put the seasoning on the food, gather it all elsewhere, like in a small cup. In pans that have a non-stick coating, use silicone tools (not stainless-steel tools because they can scratch the non-stick layer). Food fragments stick to plastic / nylon, but not to silicone, when used in pans with sizzling oil. Silicone is also more resilient than plastic / nylon. Seasoning to try: salt, lime / lemon juice, herbes de Provence, peppercorn (powder), (granulated) garlic, coriander, ginger (powder), dill, parsley, dry mint, chili. Mint works with spicy foods too. The smell of fresh mint is too strong for most food. Put all seasoning in a small cup, and mix it. Be careful with store bought seasoning. For example, most powder seasoning contain around 50% salt. Why? Because similar seasoning but without the salt is twice the price. The problem is that the salt makes it impossible to adjust the flavor with more seasoning, since the amount of salt is proportionally increased. Also, make sure they don't contain food additives and preservatives because they aren't required and don't improve anything for you. Dry seasoning, like the store bought ones, have a less intense smell than fresh seasoning.
Maximizing lifespanTo maximize your lifespan, do the following as much as possible:
SleepIn order to allow the body to regenerate to the maximum extent possible, and to maximize your level of energy during the day, you should follow the advice below. Eat light in the evening, preferably with several hours before going to sleep. In the evening, avoid eating a significant amount of vegetables and fruits because their fiber causes gas, and they contain water which has to be eliminated during the night. Refined carbohydrates (especially sugar) and refined fats may also cause a restless and unsatisfactory sleep. It's highly recommended to go to sleep before midnight, else various hormones won't get a chance to act. If you have to go to sleep toward the morning, like if you work night shifts, try the following:
The bedroom should be as dark as possible. Any (night) light will block the production of various hormones, which will restrict the body's ability to regenerate. Noise will have a similar effect. Ideally, you should sleep as much as your body needs to wake up without an alarm clock (or any noise). Wake up early, once sunlight becomes strong. Expose yourself to strong sunlight as soon as possible. For even better results, expose yourself to clean, fresh and slightly cold air as soon as possible. An agitated sleep or the lack of dreams could be indicating that you are stressed, and this means that your body, especially your brain, can't fully regenerate. A restless and unsatisfactory sleep may make you look frowny in the morning. If you like to read books before sleep, read this.
How long to sleepWhen it comes to food, the general advice is to not rely on feeling fine, but rather eat according to the nutrition advice of the day, because you could have a heart attack at any time even if you feel fine. But when it comes to sleep, the advice is that you can sleep for a short time so long as you feel fine. Isn't that funny? Yet, this is the best we can do. If you wake up because of an alarm clock (or any noise), or because of artificial light, it means that your body doesn't have the opportunity to regenerate to the maximum extent, and the effects will be visible after years or decades. It doesn't matter that you can sleep for 6 hours and feel fine. Elsewhere, you'll hear things that confuse you, because some people, including researchers, don't (want to) understand the difference between what people can afford to do and what is healthier to do. This is why you'll hear claims like "this is how people used to sleep". The fact that people used to sleep interrupted, and in an environment which was noisy and which was not dark (they were sleeping under moonlight), simply means that was all that people could afford to do, not that it's what the body needs. Also, the fact that some people sleep with their TV on, simply means that people use the TV to drown the environmental noise, not that the body needs some noise. Also, the fact that some people dislike sleeping in an absolutely quiet environment simply means people know and fear that some environmental sounds will disrupted their sleep, not that the body needs some noise. Some people feel more tired, even have headaches, if they sleep for 8 hours instead of 6.5 hours, and they mistakenly believe that this means that it's better to sleep 6.5 hours. But this is a wrong interpretation of what is happening. The brain can go through multiple cleaning cycles during sleep / night, during which it flushes out the trash that has been produced inside the brain during the day. The problem is that if such a cycle is interrupted, tiredness and headaches will follow. This is similar to trying to stop peeing while in the middle of peeing, when something startles you. However, if the brain wakes up between cycles, there is no such problem. At the same time, if there are fewer cleaning cycles, the brain won't be as clean as it could be, and the effects of the accumulation of the trash in the brain will manifest years or even decades later. So, while for some people it may be better to sleep for 6.5 hours instead of 8, it could be healthier to sleep for up to 9 hours instead of 6.5. From personal experience, I can say that sleeping less than 6 hours, even for a single night, is catastrophic for the brain. How much you should sleep depends on the time of day when you go to sleep, the time of day when you wake up, and how many cleaning cycles the brain goes through. Sleeping more time than your body needs doesn't mean that more brain cleaning cycles will occur. If you were to sleep in a dark and quiet room, away from regular life's stress, and you didn't have to wake up during the night to pee, and you didn't have any illness keeping you from sleeping, and no alarm clock were to wake you up, how long would you sleep? That's how much sleep you really need. The inability to sleep that long every day doesn't change the way biology works.
Sleeping too muchSome people say that sleeping for too long has negative health effects. However, this is a correlation, not a causation. The only people who sleep over 9 hours every day are people who have a health problem which cause them to sleep for longer than normal. How can you be sure of this? How many people do you know who normally sleep for 8 hours every day, but can choose to sleep for over 9 hours every day? Virtually nobody can choose. Why? Because the human body doesn't need that much sleep every day. The people who do sleep for that long, do so because a health problem requires their body to sleep a lot longer than normal, which means that sleep duration is an indicator / effect, not a cause of those problems. Put differently, if the people who sleep for 10 hours every day were to choose to sleep only 8 hours, they wouldn't be healthier because the long sleep period isn't causing their problems. In fact, they might be less healthy because their body isn't able to recover (during sleep) to the same degree. During my experience with inflammation, even when I was sleeping over 9 hours per night, I was still feeling tired. Aside from specific health problems, some general problems to consider are what's actually happening during a longer sleep: a higher accumulation of carbon dioxide, and increases in temperature and humidity, in the bedroom. Carbon dioxide causes negative health effects (like headaches). An excessive level of carbon dioxide in the blood is called hypercapnia. This accumulation is particularly bad in small bedrooms, and is proportional with the number of people sleeping there. When this is combined with heat and water vapors, sleep quality degrades dramatically. If you do have air conditioning, you have to also consider the accumulation of bacteria within the air conditioning system, bacteria which may degrade your sleep quality and impact your health. The quality of sleep is clearly improved when sleeping with a window open during a hot summer day (with no air conditioning), if the outdoor air is cooler and cleaner. Unfortunately, most people can't sleep with a window open due to noise or chemical pollution.
Health biomarkersHealth biomarkers are indicators of the medical state of people, which can be measured objectively, accurately and reproducibly. They contrast symptoms which are indicators perceived by the people. For their intended purposes, biomarkers work for a significant percentage of people, but they never work for all people. They can be valid even for just 30% of people, which is why relying on a single biomarker is not a good idea. Most biomarkers are measured in (a tiny amount of) blood. The following biomarkers should be measured from blood drawn in the morning, usually between 7 AM and 10 AM. Don't eat or drink anything other than water for at least 12 hours before the blood is drawn. Don't take multivitamin supplements for at least 48 hours (/ 2 days) before the blood is drawn. The reference values below are orientative only, for adults, and may vary based on age, gender, ethnicity, time of day and lab used to perform the test. The test report should contain the proper reference values. The top limit of the reference values below are set so as to include people who have mild health problems, so getting a value at the top limit doesn't mean "healthy", it means "average". If the results of the tests are outside of the specified range of values, the diet may be causing health problems, meaning that it may also be possible to correct it through diet. If some tests are too expensive for you, ignore them or ask a physician if they are useful for your context.
Evaluating cardiovascular riskBlood pressure (at rest; can be done at home):
Heart rate (at rest; can be done at home). Should be = 60...90 beats per minute; rates as low as 40 are common in healthy people, at rest. Blood biomarkers:
Combined rules for decreased risk:
Combined rules for increased risk:
If you're trying to optimize your diet to reduce cardiovascular risk, take into consideration the results of all the tests and combined rules, not just one result. One result which is out of the recommended range may not necessarily indicate a high risk, but several of them will surely do.
Evaluating general riskHemogram. Is a panel of tests which measure various blood components, like hemoglobin, hematocrit, red blood cells (erythrocytes), white blood cells (leucocytes), thrombocytes (platelets). Evaluates the immune system. HbA1c (Glycated Hemoglobin). Should be < 5.7%. Evaluates hemoglobin glycation level, diabetes risk. Fasting Glucose. Should be = 70...100 mg/dL. Evaluates insulin resistance. Fasting Insulin. Should be < 10 mcU/mL. Evaluates insulin resistance. FFA (Free Fatty Acids). Should be < 0.72 mmol/L. Evaluates metabolic function. The body uses FFAs as fuel during fasting or when glucose isn't available. Carbon Dioxide (Bicarbonate). Should be = 23...29 mmol/L. Evaluates lung or kidney disorders, respiratory or metabolic disorders, diabetic ketoacidosis, Addison disease. Cortisol. Should be = 5...25 mcg/dL. Evaluates stress response, adrenal gland function. Usually, cortisol is at maximum at 9...10 AM, so when blood is usually drawn. ACTH (AdrenoCorticoTropic Hormone). Should be = 10...60 pg/mL. Evaluates stress response, cortisol production, Addison disease, Cushing syndrome. Determined around 7...10 AM, so when blood is usually drawn. CK (Creatine Kinase). Should be = 55...170 U/L for men, and = 30...145 U/L for women. Evaluates tissue damage. LDH (Lactate Dehydrogenase). Should be = 140...280 U/L. Evaluates tissue damage. Myoglobin. Should be = 25...72 ng/mL. Evaluates tissue damage. Myoglobin. Should be < 155 mcg/L for men, and < 106 mcg/L for women. Evaluates muscle damage. Hs-cTnT (High-Sensitivity Cardiac Troponin T). Should be < 14 ng/L. Evaluates heart muscle damage. ALT (Alanine Amino Transferase). Should be < 41 U/L. Evaluates liver function. AST (Aspartame Amino Transferase). Should be < 40 U/L. Evaluates liver function. ALP (Alkaline Phosphatase). Should be = 44...121 U/L. Evaluates liver function. GGT (Gamma Glutamyl Transferase). Should be < 55 U/L for men, and < 38 U/L for women. Evaluates liver and bile ducts function. Haptoglobin. Should be 45...200 mg/dL. Evaluates liver function. Bilirubin Total. Should be = 0.3...1.0 mg/dL. Evaluates liver and bile ducts function. Bilirubin Direct. Should be < 0.3 mg/dL. Evaluates liver and bile ducts function. TSBA (Total Serum Bile Acid). Should be < 10 mcmol/L. Evaluates liver and bile ducts function. HA (Hyaluronic Acid). Evaluates fatty liver disease, liver fibrosis, cirrhosis. Lipase. Should be < 160 U/L. Evaluates pancreas function. Lipase is a type of digestive enzyme which helps the body digest fats. Lipase may be very high in cases of acute (= short term) pancreatitis, possible bowel obstruction. Amylase. Should be = 30...110 U/L. Evaluates pancreas function. Pancreatic elastase. Should be < 3.5 ng/mL. Evaluates acute (= short term) pancreas disorders. eGFR (Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate; estimated). Should be > 90 mL/min/1.73 m2. This can exceed 100, usually in young people. Evaluates kidney function. This is usually estimated (by the lab) based on creatinine, but it's better to be based on cystatin C; if you get those biomarkers measured, the linked eGFR will come together with each. Uric Acid. Should be = 3.5...7.2 mg/dL, and = 2.6...6.0 mg/dL for premenopausal women. Evaluates kidney function. Cystatin C. Should be = 0.6...1.0 mg/L. Evaluates kidney function. Creatinine. Should be = 0.6...1.2 mg/dL for men, and = 0.5...1.1 mg/dL for women. Evaluates kidney function. Albumin. Should be = 3.4...5.4 g/dL. Evaluates liver and kidney function. Urea. Should be < 43 mg/dL. Evaluates kidney function. BUN (Blood Urea Nitrogen). Should be = 7...20 mg/dL. Evaluates kidney function. Prolactin. Evaluates pituitary gland function. LH (Luteinizing hormone). Evaluates pituitary gland function, fatigue, unexplained weight loss, weakness. FSH (Follicle-Stimulating Hormone). Evaluates pituitary gland function, hypothalamus, ovaries or testicles. TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone). Should be = 0.4...4.0 mcU/mL. Evaluates thyroid function. TRAb (Thyrotropin Receptor Antibody). Should be = 0.3...1.75 U/L. Evaluates thyroid function, Graves disease. T3 (Triiodothyronine). Should be = 80...200 ng/dL. Evaluates thyroid function. T4 (Total Thyroxine). Should be = 5...12 mcg/dL. Evaluates thyroid function. TGB (Thyroglobulin). Should be = 3...40 ng/mL. Evaluates thyroid function. ATG (Anti-Thyroglobulin). Should be < 115 U/mL. Evaluates thyroid function, Hashimoto disease. ATPO (Anti-Thyroid PerOxidaze). Should be < 34 U/mL. Evaluates thyroid function, Hashimoto disease. PTH (ParaThyroid Hormone). Should be = 15...65 pg/mL. Evaluates parathyroid function. DHEA-S (DeHidroEpiAndrosteron-Sulfat). Should be = 25...510 mcg/dL for men, and = 15...320 mcg/dL for women. Evaluates adrenal gland function, Addison disease, polycystic ovary syndrome. Total Testosterone. Reference range varies based on age and gender. Evaluates sex hormone function. Free Testosterone. Reference range varies based on age and gender. Evaluates sex hormone function. Bioavailable Testosterone. Evaluates sex hormone function (not bound to SHBG or albumin). DHT (DiHydroTestosterone). Evaluates sex hormone function, specifically a potent form of testosterone. Estradiol. Reference range varies based on age and gender. Evaluates sex hormone function. SHBG (Sex Hormone Binding Globulin). Evaluates a protein (produced by the liver) which binds to sex hormones (testosterone and estradiol). PSA (Prostate-Specific Antigen) and FPSA (Free PSA), for men. Evaluates prostate function. Abstain from ejaculating for 48 hours before the blood is drawn. If PSA > 4 ng/mL and FPSA < 25%, do the following:
Total Acid Phosphatase. Should be < 10 ng/mL. Evaluates risk of various diseases, and metastatic prostate cancer evolution (use PSA for normal screening). Prostatic Acid Phosphatase, for men. Should be < 2.5 ng/mL. Evaluates metastatic prostate cancer evolution (use PSA for normal screening). IGF1 (Insulin-like Growth Factor). Reference range varies based on age; for 50 year old people should be around 120 ng/ml. Evaluates cancer risk, but uncertain. Milk contains IGF1, but milk fermentation reduces it. hGH (Human Growth Hormone). Should be < 5 ng/mL for men, and < 10 ng/mL for women. Evaluates growth disorders. Omega 3 (O3) and Omega 6 (O6); DHA, EPA, AA (Arachidonic Acid) included. Should be O6 / O3 = 5...14, AA / EPA < 4. Evaluates cell membrane fluidity. Electrolytes (Calcium, Chloride, Magnesium, Phosphate, Potassium, Sodium). Evaluate various functions. Folate (Folic Acid). Should be = 2.5...20 ng/mL. Evaluates possible anemia, weakness. Ferritin. Should be = 20...250 ng/mL for men, and = 10...120 ng/mL for women. Evaluates possible anemia, weakness, inflammatory bowel disease. Iron. Evaluates possible anemia, weakness. Vitamin B12. Should be = 200...900 pg/mL. Evaluates vitamin B12 deficiency, which can cause fatigue, weakness, anemia, intestinal problems, numbness, memory loss, celiac disease, Crohn disease. Vitamin B1 (Thiamine). Should be = 25...75 ng/mL. Evaluates vitamin B1 deficiency. Vitamin D (25 OH / Hydroxy). Should be = 30...50 ng/mL. Evaluates vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin C. Should be = 4...15 mcg/mL. Evaluates vitamin C deficiency. TAC (Total Antioxidant Capacity). Evaluates the antioxidant capacity to reduce oxidative stress. SOD (Superoxide Dismutase). Evaluates oxidative stress. It's an antioxidant. According to a source, when cells are sick or injured they make increased amounts of superoxide radical and hydrogen peroxide; superoxide dismutases removes superoxide radical. According to source 1 and source 2, a high level of SOD is beneficial (when a health problem is present), but it's unclear what the normal range should be. GPx (Glutathione Peroxidase). Evaluates oxidative stress. It's an antioxidant. MDA (MalonDiAldehyde). Evaluates oxidative stress. MDA is a mutagenic and carcinogenic compound which is generated by free radical damage to polyunsaturated fatty acids. NBT (Nitroblue Tetrazolium, Nitrotirozin). Evaluates oxidative stress.
Evaluating inflammation and infectionESR (Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate, Sed Rate). Should be < 15 mm/h for men, and < 20 mm/h for women. Immunoglobulin (IgG, IgA, IgE). Evaluates inflammation or infection. Total Protein. Should be = 6.0...8.3 g/dL. Evaluates inflammation or infection, liver or kidney function. ANCA (AntiNeutrophil Cytoplasmic Antibodies; c-ANCA, p-ANCA, x-ANCA). Evaluates vasculitis, glomerulonefrite, ulcerative colitis, inflammatory bowel disease. Helicobacter Pylori Antibodies IgG. Should be < 0.75 U/mL. Causes very common infections. Evaluates chronic gastritis, stomach infection, ulcer. Cholinesterase. Should be = 5...13 U/mL; low is good. Evaluates potential exposure to organophosphates (pesticides, insecticides, herbicides). Zonulin. Should be < 38 ng/mL. Evaluates the permeability of tight junctions between cells of the wall of the digestive system (= leaky gut). Current tests may be unreliable. DAO (Diamine Oxidase Activity, Histamine Intolerance). Should be < 34 U/mL. Evaluates histamine intolerance. People who have histamine intolerance should avoid: fermented foods and drinks (like cheese, cured / preserved meat, fermented vegetables and fruits, wine, beer), preserved foods, dairy products (especially the fermented ones, like aged cheese), eggs, avocados, nuts, fish, tomatoes, spinach, eggplant, soy, mushrooms, beans, canned vegetables, citrus fruits, bananas, strawberries, cacao / chocolate, green and black tea. Foods which should be fine: fresh meat, rice, potato, quinoa. Histamine. Evaluates allergic reactions, like anaphylactic shock, mastocytosis or mast cell activation syndrome. Should be performed within an hour of a potential allergic reaction. Tryptase. Should be < 11.5 mcg/L. Evaluates allergic reactions, like anaphylactic shock, mastocytosis or mast cell activation syndrome. Should be performed within two hours of a potential allergic reaction. Lactate (L-lactate and D-lactate). Should be < 2.1 mmol/L. D-lactate evaluates D-lactic acidosis (an elevated level of D-lactate may cause mental fog), short bowel syndrome (SBS), kidney failure. Notes for D-lactic acidosis (source 1, source 2):
Evaluating heavy metalsThese tests evaluate exposure to heavy metals. Such evaluations are partial because the tests can only detect the current exposure to heavy metals; some heavy metals remain in the body for a very long time and continue to do damage, but aren't seen in blood or urine. Another issue is that the tests may be able to detect only either the organic or inorganic form of the heavy metals, but not both, although this isn't necessarily a problem because only one of the two forms may be toxic. These tests can also be performed in urine, to extend the evaluation. It's recommended to get the heavy metals tests if you suspect that you were exposed to kitchenware toxicity, or if you eat a lot of fish or cacao / chocolate, or if you drink often from mugs / glasses / bottles made from colored glass or from crystal glass, or if you have amalgam tooth fillings (the silver looking type). Pregnant women should minimize the ingestion of (foods rich in) heavy metals. The tests are listed by priority, top to bottom. Low values are good. Mercury (detects only organic). Should be < 10 mcg/L. Lead. Should be < 5 mcg/dL. Cadmium. Should be < 1.2 mcg/L. Chromium, Cobalt, Nickel. Arsenic (detects only inorganic). Should be < 13 ng/mL. Evaluates acute (= short term) exposure; arsenic can be detected in blood within maximum 2 days after ingestion / exposure. Aluminum, Antimony, Copper, Iron, Lithium, Manganese, Molybdenum, Selenium, Sulfur, Tantalum, Thallium, Tin, Vanadium, Zinc.
Evaluating toxinsMycotoxins, fungi (antibodies): Aspergillus.
Urine testsArsenic. Evaluates chronic (= long term) exposure. Oxalate. Evaluates exposure to oxalate.
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