Re: FITNESS: Diet and Exercise

From: Damien Sullivan (phoenix@ugcs.caltech.edu)
Date: Mon Apr 14 2003 - 15:58:08 MDT

  • Next message: Adrian Tymes: "RE: FITNESS: Diet and Exercise"

    On Mon, Apr 14, 2003 at 05:08:12PM -0400, Harvey Newstrom wrote:

    > > selection, adaptation) and 2) modern nutritional science is
    > > incomplete and fraught with contradictions
    > >
    > > The conclusion then is that evolutionary science is a more
    > > reliable guide to making diet choices than nutritional science.
    >
    > So whatever "nature" has given us is the best answer, and science can never
    > hope to improve upon that? This seems to go against everything

    Re-read his text.

    "Modern nutritional science is incomplete". It is. And the way it keeps
    twisting and turning makes it an unreliable guide. Fifty years from now
    things will hopefully be better. But right now it's not unreasonable to view
    science as not very useful for reductionist changes in this area, vs. finding
    a gestalt with historical evidence and eating that.

    He didn't say anything about 'never'.

    > research, as well as life-extension studies. I'd rather take my supplements
    > than eat a "default" diet. There is no reason to believe that evolutionary

    But do the supplements help? Do they do damage? Are they ignoring harder to
    isolate factors in normal food, or based on studies on yeast? Is the
    recommended supplement of 5 years ago collecting cautionary studies about it
    today?

    Having read a lot myself I think the only reliable nutrition recommendations
    are "eat more fruits and veggies" and "eat less/don't be a pig". Avoiding
    added sugar and hydrogenated fats also seems a good bet. And the right fish
    is probably good, but look out for mercury, and maybe worry about the
    conservation side of things too (audubon.org has good fish listings). Beyond
    that it's all various gambles, whether vegetarianism, supplements, paleo,
    Okinawa, or whathaveyou. Even CR (sure they live longer, but I wonder about
    effects on the brain.)

    > do it. Science trumps nature all the way. I want to live *longer* than a

    Only after science knows what it's talking about, which can take a while.

    -xx- Damien X-)



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