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Thursday, September 15, 2011

Humans Are Starch Eaters









  1. I disagree. I think humans are predators. We are at the top of the food chain. Starch eaters are pudgy. Cows, hippos, elephants, gorillas are starch eaters. They all have big bellies. They store their energy in white adipose tissue. Everything that eats protein is lean (unless we have put them in a zoo and feed them pellets instead of their regular diet). They store their energy in their muscles.

    I've lost about 50 lbs from avoiding starch and eating primarily meat, beans, and green leafy vegetables. This required no exercise.

    I was obese when I ate lots of pasta, white rice, and bread. When I cut those things out fat melted off, blood sugar normalized (the real cause of diabetes is high blood sugar and insulin resistance), and the real indicator of heart disease risk, VLDL level, dropped significantly.

  2. You may disagree with the world's foremost nutritional epidemiologists if you wish; but to impress me, you'd have to cite a lot of really impressive research that they have inexplicably overlooked.

    Some people do lose weight on Atkins-style diets, simply because they are taking in fewer calories. The effect is due partly to restricted food choices and partly to ketosis-induced appetite suppression. When people do get reduced insulin resistance as a result of such a diet, it's because the beneficial effects of the weight loss outweigh the harmful effects of the high fat consumption on insulin resistance. When compared to a low-fat, plant-based diet, the Atkins-style diets pose a risk of long-term complications: an increased risk of heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis, autoimmune disease, and liver and kidney disease. There are far safer ways to maintain your weight.

  3. What are some examples of edible tubers other than potatoes that one could include in their diet?

    Also, what are the best type of starchy carbs recommended to include other than tubers?

  4. A tuber is a modified stem. Potatoes are technically tubers, not roots. But the difference is of interest only to botanists. For practical purposes, you can classify lots of different things as root vegetables, even if they are technically tubers, roots, or buds. Here's a list of "root vegetables: