What are the best foods?

[Rebiu]

What are the best foods with regards to human longevity and well being?

 

What are the possible negative aspects of the food?

What are the percieved strengths of the food?

[Rebiu]

Homemade Kefir offers many of the benfits of milk without much of the down side Kefir

 

 

Many believe the live cultures in Kefir are benefictial to the gut and body as a whole.

 

I find it causes me none of the dicomfort that milk does. However if is a bit rich.

[infamous]

I'm not an expert on nutrition but what I do know is this; A diet high in natural grains and fiber along with fish high in HDL's and Omega 3's along with plenty of fruit will go a long way in sustaining a healthy body...........................Infy

[Michaelangelica]

--

What are the best foods with regards to human longevity ?

The only diet scientifically shown to promote longevity is a calorie restricted one (for humans around 1300 calories PD?) with added vitamin supplements

(in rats at least).

SEE

Dr. Walford & Caloric Restriction

 

The Calorically Restricted Low-Fat Nutrient-Dense Diet in Biosphere 2 Significantly Lowers Blood Glucose, Total Leukocyte Count, Cholesterol, and Blood Pressure in Humans

RL Walford, SB Harris and MW Gunion

The Calorically Restricted Low-Fat Nutrient-Dense Diet in Biosphere 2 Significantly Lowers Blood Glucose, Total Leukocyte Count, Cholesterol, and Blood Pressure in Humans -- Walford et al. 89 (23): 11533 -- Proceedings of the National Academy of Scie

 

This is a data base on food nutrition.

Type in the food name and up comes a list of contents. The net is wonderful!

Dr. Walford's Foods Database Search

 

Every time I go to the supermarket there seems to be more and more 'pre-pared' foods and sauces. Boiling water or operating a microwave seem to be the only skills needed.The list of ingredients on the pack(s) seems to get longer and longer and more unpronounceable

Many, newly built, flats in Sydney have no kitchens! It is cheaper and easier to eat out (The range of food and restaurants available in Sydney is good)

 

The restaurant industry is also full of partially or fully 'pre prepared' foods and sauces.

[Jay-qu]

Anything fresh and natural, you would also want to eat plenty of anti-oxidants.

 

I hear fish is good.

[InfiniteNow]

I hear fish is good.

Absolutely... just need caution with Mercury levels.

 

 

BTW Michaelangelica, You posted the low calorie idea before I could. Well played. :doh:

[Monomer]

Here's an interesting site on the world's healthiest foods. Click on each food and you get a whole bunch of information.

 

WHFoods: The World's Healthiest Foods

[Michaelangelica]

Potatoes have been analysed by anew method called metabolomics. They have found chemicals in them that may help blood pressure and relieve diseases such as sleeping sickness!

The surprising discovery of kukoamine and allies in a range of solanaceous species including potato, a common food crop that has a long history of scientific investigation, provides exemplary evidence for the potential of the nontargeted techniques of metabolomics in studying plant metabolites.

Dihydrocaffeoyl Polyamines (Kukoamine and Allies) in Potato (Solanum tuberosum) Tubers Detected during Metabolite Profiling

 

Research - Quality of Life - Genetically Modified Organisms - A ...

Potato field trial. image, Potato field trial. ... Institute of Food Research Norwich (UK) J-J. Leguay CEA Cadarache Paris (FR) S. Kärenlampi ...

ec.europa.eu/research/quality-of-life/gmo/04-food/04-10-project.html - 31k -

 

On a lighter note a friend sent me this yesterday:)

For those of you who watch what you eat ... here's the FINAL word on nutrition and health.

 

It's a relief to know the truth after all those conflicting medical studies.

 

> 1. The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks

> than the

> Aussies, British or Americans.

>

> 2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the

> Aussies, British or Americans.

>

> 3. The Japanese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Aussies, British or Americans.

>

> 4. The Italians drink excessive amounts of red wine and suffer fewer

> heart attacks than the Aussies, British or Americans.

>

> 5. The Germans drink a lot of beer and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Aussies, British or Americans.

 

CONCLUSION:

Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you.

[Michaelangelica]

"Resveratrol" can increase the lifespan of yeast cells by 70%.

It is found in many plants, where it acts as a defence against disease.

However it is unstable and breaks down quickly, especially in light.

One of the most concentrated sources is the skin of red grapes.

Red Wine with the fermintation process and dark bottle make it the best natural sources of "Resveratrol

Source:

Cosmos01 July 2005

[Bec]

Consult the food pyramid :D

[Michaelangelica]

Consult the food pyramid :D

:D O, Great Pyramid, please tell me what to eat ;)

 

Trouble with pyramids is that they were made by nutritionists who not only don't know much about food, but don't live in the real world either.

 

This may interest those few poor hypographers who live in the polluted northern Hemisphere.?

Amber Fields of Bland

By DAN BARBER

Published: January 14, 2007

THERE’S invariably something risky, if not risible, about allowing Congress to decide what’s for dinner. Bad decisions about agriculture have defined government policy for the last century; 70 percent of our nation’s farms have been lost to bankruptcy or consolidation, creating an agricultural economy that looks more Wall Street than Main Street.

 

Now, after the uprooting of a thousand years of agrarian wisdom, we chefs have discovered something really terrible — no, not that the agricultural system we help support hurts farmers and devastates farming communities, or that it harms the environment and our health. What we’ve discovered is that the food it produces just doesn’t taste very good.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/opinion/14barber.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

 

the Japanese are playing around with flavour. A water stressed carrot is tastier than one that is watered ever day. Their might also be truth in what organic farmers have said for along time that organic produce tastes better.

 

Old crop varieties available from heritage seed suppliers, France and organic growers often taste better/different. Often new crops are breed for self life, colour size, ability to withstand shipping etc., etc., rather than flavour.

[Bec]

:D O, Great Pyramid, please tell me what to eat ;)

 

Trouble with pyramids is that they were made by nutritionists who not only don't know much about food, but don't live in the real world either.

 

This may interest those few poor hypographers who live in the polluted northern Hemisphere.?

 

I disagree, I think the food pyramid is quite logical in terms of what foods to eat regularly, and what foods to eat occasionally, or rarely.

 

And the thread starter did ask what was healthiest, not what is convienient to today's society.

[Monomer]

I disagree, I think the food pyramid is quite logical in terms of what foods to eat regularly, and what foods to eat occasionally, or rarely.

 

And the thread starter did ask what was healthiest, not what is convienient to today's society.

 

 

The food pyramid is great for moderating daily intake of food, and ensuring people are at least aware of the quantities and types of food they should be consuming. If people followed those guidelines then perhaps there wouldn't be so many people with weight problems. However, convenient food is appealing to today's society. People are so busy that they don't have time to prepare a healthy, nutritious meal; they'd rather grab something that can be ready in 5 minutes.

 

Also, it's interesting looking at the nutritional value of different types of food. The thread starter asked what are the best foods with regards to human longevity and well being, and there is so much research looking at this. People have been told to look to the food pyramid, but research has shown why those foods are good for you. Yeah, we all know that fruits and vegetables are full of vitamins and minerals, but now we know things like broccoli contains sulforaphane and the indoles, which have significant anti-cancer effects. So for people at a greater risk of developing cancer, perhaps it wouldn't be such a bad idea to consume more broccoli and other foods with similar properties.

[Monomer]

I found this website the other day which talks about how the food pyramid was built on "shaky scientific evidence" and now it's undergoing a restructure:

 

 

More than a decade ago, the U.S. Department of Agriculture created a powerful and enduring icon - the Food Guide Pyramid. This simple illustration conveyed in a flash what the USDA said were the elements of a healthy diet. The Pyramid was taught in schools, appeared in countless media articles and brochures, and was plastered on cereal boxes and food labels.

 

Tragically, the information embodied in this pyramid didn't point the way to healthy eating. Why not? Its blueprint was based on shaky scientific evidence, and it barely changed over the years to reflect major advances in our understanding of the connection between diet and health.

 

 

Food Pyramids: Nutrition Source, Harvard School of Public Health

[Jay-qu]

Eat fresh, raw as possible produce, and everything organic.

[HydrogenBond]

Deep fried lard balls covered in gravy. With a diet coke.

 

Seriously, maybe we need to see what the oldest people on the earth eat. It may be mostly genetics but there may be a common set of food links. I think chocolate and some form of alcohol in low quanties seem to be part of the blend.

 

There is a myth about fresh produce always being better than frozen. This true in many cases, but often fresh produce will sit for weeks before it is consumed, causing a lost of vitamin value. Frozen is often preserved right off the farm and can contain more of its orginal nutrient value. Out of the garden, though is probably the best. Try eating a tomato while it is still attached to the vine.

 

I still think diversity and moderation is the best approach.

[Monomer]

Seriously, maybe we need to see what the oldest people on the earth eat. It may be mostly genetics but there may be a common set of food links. I think chocolate and some form of alcohol in low quanties seem to be part of the blend.

 

We could follow the diets of people who are still alive in their 90s and 100s, but we'd also have to look at their lifestyles and living environments, and the age at which other family members died. Apparently people who live up in the Himalayas live very long lives. They live fairly peaceful lives, they grow their own food and they get lots of exercise. Maybe it's also the thin air. It would be interesting to look at a common set of food links, though.

 

 

There is a myth about fresh produce always being better than frozen. This true in many cases, but often fresh produce will sit for weeks before it is consumed, causing a lost of vitamin value.

 

Fresh would definitely be better if we could eat it the same day, but sometimes we don't know just how long this "fresh food" has been sitting in the supermarket. We need to get food from a market that got its food straight from market gardeners that morning. Or better still, grow it ourselves.

 

 

I still think diversity and moderation is the best approach.

 

I agree. Enjoy the food you eat, have some variety, but don't over-indulge.