The Basics

[KenDowns]

My main goal in nutrition is to understand enough of the basics to be able to figure things out on my own and not constantly have to ask, "is this food ok? How about this one?" and so on.

This is kind of hard because of conflicting camps, lobbyists vs. scientists, sports vs. non-sports, men vs. women, people trying to sell things, and so on, but it does not seem impossible to figure out.

By the way, my context is pure amateur enthusiast, there is no "cutting" cycle in my future to show off the amazing bod.

This is about what I've figured out as the top level rules, any comments?

BALANCE. Lifters need lots of protein yes, but everybody needs carbs and fat for basic metabolism. Concentrating on protein and ignoring carbs and fats means your body tries to use the protein for basic needs, which is inefficient. So eat them all, but get plenty of protein.

PROCESSED FOODS. The best advice I heard on this was I think from a book by Colgan, where he said, "if it doesn't rot, don't eat it." Because if it won't rot it's not food!. This explains the resistance to processed "enriched" flour, it's had everything taken out of it to increase shelf life, and so adding a few vitamins afterward hardly makes up for what's been removed.

PROTEIN POWDERS. These are great, if they have Whey isolate and Casein, but probably not as great as the package says, see two points above.

What did I miss at the top level here?

[stuward]

You can sum it up with one rule to rule them all: EAT REAL FOOD.

[Harpoon]

and what isn't real food?

[stuward]

and what isn't real food?

Almost everything in the middle lanes of a grocery store.

Seriously, any processed food, anything with soy in it, anything containing anything you don't recognize as growing in the dirt, swimming, flying or walking.

[KenDowns]

and what isn't real food?

Almost everything in the middle lanes of a grocery store.

Seriously, any processed food, anything with soy in it, anything containing anything you don't recognize as growing in the dirt, swimming, flying or walking.

...or anything that used to grow, swim, fly or walk, but has been processed to the point that you can leave it on a shelf for a year and it will not change shape, size or smell.

[Oscar_Actuary]

and what isn't real food?

anything with soy in it,

Soy nuts?

( if yes, is it bad because of the efa distribution ?)

per cup.

Total Omega-3 fatty acids 2482mg
Total Omega-6 fatty acids 18515mg

or the phyto-estrogen ?

(seems I may have asked this before...)

[stuward]

Soy is a bean, not a nut. The way soy is used today is not the traditional way that soy was used in the past, which usually involved fermentation, lots of water and labour to make the soy fit to eat. Modern soy is a chemical process and I can't say anything good about it. I didn't consider soy nuts because I never heard of them before. Essentially they's simlpy a baked and dried bean and eaten like peanuts. If you make them yourself you might get some benefits from them. http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/QAA300813/s ... ealth.html

Note that the sole health claim for soy rests on the isoflavones. These are the same pyto-estrogens with the potential that cause problems in men and pre-pubesent women. Women can have problems as well. http://www.livestrong.com/article/11158 ... e-effects/ Even without direct health issues, they give soy a bitter taste which either has to be removed in processing or masked by additives in order to be acceptable to eat. This negates any health benefits from soy.

[KPj]

If it has a bunch of ingredients in it that you can't pronounce, it's processed......

[robertscott]

eat loads of meat and veg and cook it all yourself.

easy