an optimal diet

ehrenfest

I think I am going to reduce my diet to the following four items: power bars, bagels, tomato juice, and water.

It is amazing to look at the nutrition facts of power bars and see how many good things they have in them. And the flavors I eat have almost 0 fat.

The way I see it, there is really no reason to eat anything else. All of the things I listed are portable, tasty (even tomato juice after you get used to it), nutritious, and readily available anywhere around the country. Furthermore, there is enough variety of power bars and bagels that I will never get "bored" of them.

I see no reason to go to fancy restaurants and have elaborate meals when you can just eat and drink the things I listed while you are walking between various places. That leaves the rest of my time to study math and physics and be active on PF. Yay! Another way to optimize my lifestyle.

Maybe eventually I can choose between power bars and bagels and reduce the list to 3 things...

Moonbear

You might want to find a more balanced protein source, and you really do need some fat in your diet (just not as much as most people eat).

ehrenfest

Bagels can be loaded with fat or protein. Some bagels are as unhealthy as donuts.

DaveC426913

This is a bad idea.

It's great that you want to eat healthy, but an important rule in a healthy diet is "all things in moderation". Too much of any one thing will have consequences on your health. Keep variety.

B. Elliott

I don't know about sticking to eating just three or four different things. A friends wife developed some strange health problems from eating nothing but salads and chicken... at least thats what her doctor told her. Too much of anything can kill you! Not saying I lead the most healthy lifestyle, but I try to change it up as much as possible. Our bodies our designed (don't know if that's a good word) to handle a wide variety of foods. Sticking to just a couple could have some side effects.

ehrenfest

OK. Maybe I should consult a professional nutritionist before removing everything else from my diet. However, I am set on the portable meals idea. In fact I have already implemented this and my body handles it quite well. It is shocking to think of how much time people waste traveling to restaurants and sitting down and waiting for their food and then eating food that requires like a entire toolkit to lift from the plate to their mouth. One of the great things about modern society is that food has been compressed in ways one would never have thought possible to allow us to carry it with us and eat it when the time is right.

I will never understand people who go to these weird five-star restaurants or who prepare extensive and time-consuming meals. I think it rather barbaric ironically to spend that much time eating and preparing to eat. Cavemen basically spent all of their time obtaining food and cooking food, but we don't need to do that thanks to our amazing 21st century civilization. We should take full advantage of that.

DaveC426913

Some people enjoy food and the food experience. Some people like taking the time away from their routine, to change thier input, to get in a different headspace. Some people like to savour new sensations and see opportunites for new experiences in even daily routine functions such as the food they put in their mouths.

And I guess some people consider it little more than a necessary bodily function with no opportunity for any enjoyable experience, a function that should be done as efficiently as possible, like showering or defecating.

Moonbear

If you spend some time reading the Food Thread, you'll find lots of suggestions for tasty, nutritious, SIMPLE meals. Restaurant food is almost NEVER healthy...it's cooked in gobs of butter. It's not something you do for sustenance, but more for a social occasion, or when you just want a day off from cooking. For example, look for turbo's recipe for New England boiled dinner. It's simple to make, has ingredients that are readily available anywhere you may live, and is nutritionally balanced. If you choose a lean meat, it's low fat too. Plus, you can make it one day and have leftovers for several more, so all you need to do is reheat in the microwave.

It's really quite a myth that nutritious cooking is difficult or complex. I think it must be that so many people have resorted to eating pre-packaged foods that there is an entire generation of young people who have never seen a proper meal cooked at home to realize how simple it really is.

Evo

Why not make it even easier, just pop a multi-vitamin, a fiber pill, some veggie & protein pills and you won't even need to chew.

I'm joking, that's a terrible idea! Eat real food. Eating a power snack bar once in a while won't kill you, but it's not a substitute for a balanced diet.

ehrenfest

I think those people should reconsider their priorities. When I get old and look back at my life, it would definitely NOT comfort me at all to think of all the delicious food I have eaten just as it would not comfort me at all to think of all the amazing showers I have taken or all the stress-relieving defecation I have performed. I am trying to spend less than 30 minutes a day eating and going to and from meals. It is a real challenge.

Evo

Cooking, eating, and having a good dump in the morning are all that life is about.

Moonbear

Don't forget reproducing. That's pretty high up on the list of life's essentials too.

ehrenfest

Moonbear you said that I "really do need some fat in your diet (just not as much as most people eat)". Do you know if it is safe to eliminate saturated fat from my diet?

hypatia

Nature makes so many foods in their own containers, that a portable healthy diet is easy.

jim mcnamara

ehrenfest -

People have been killing themselves off for years with a perfect diet of say 5 - 6 items.
In fact you may be doing nutritional science a favor, sort of like "donating your body to science". You could demonstrate new hitherto unknown fatal deficiency or food interaction.

A leap in nutritional understanding by one of your soulmates: - a middle aged man lived on soft bolied eggs and red wine. Eggs have long been billed, justifably, as a "perfect food".

Sounds like your impression of power bars. This guy was the first person to develop a clincal deficiency of biotin. As I remember, he died. Avidin in egg white binds biotin and renders it unavailable. But nobody knew that until this gentleman donated his body to science.

Get the point?

DaveC426913

You do realize that I was describing you...

Moonbear

You may not be able to eliminate it completely, but it is recommended to reduce it to a minimum. So, yes, if your diet includes mainly unsaturated fats, that's considered the healthiest of the fats to eat (your body can convert the unsaturated fats as needed to other forms of fats). There are a lot of things you hear people told to avoid in their diet...really what they are told is avoid too much of it in the diet. In other words, everything in moderation. For example, cholesterol is used as a precursor for all the steroid hormones. Aside from the sex hormones most people know about, cortisol is also a steroid hormone, and you'd be very sick without it. You need the fats for proper brain development and function.

As others are pointing out, if you limit the variety in your diet too much, you risk dietary deficiencies. Power bars may have a lot of good things, but they by no means claim to be a completely balanced nutrient.