Fast-5 Diet and Lifestyle: Re: [fast5] Re: Need to Clarify...

Yeah, I'm still on a quest to find the "ideal diet" for a human. I
started this quest really not for me, but for my kids. When you are a
Mom, you have this responsibility to raise your kids in a way that
they grow up as optimally as possible ... but guess what? There isn't
anyone that actually KNOWS what the ideal diet for a human is at this
point. We know a lot more about cow or goat nutrition than we do about
people.

Anyway, we've been working on growing more and more of our own food in
a very sustainable way and a way that is healthy for the land. The
difference between homegrown and storebought is rather absurd and a
little scary, esp. since we are pretty much greenhorns and probably
doing it all wrong. But if you actually deal with a real garden and
real animals, you get a better picture of what our relationship is to
the land, and how land relates to animals. You also soon learn that to
feed a family doesn't really require acres and acres of land, even
when you factor in animals (those little villages in Crete had goats
in little courtyards, for milk and cheese, and pigs and chickens as
garbage-disposals and bug control).

But more to the point in this group: "real food" does different things
to your appetite. It's more filling and satisfying. I can't actually
pinpoint *why* this
is so, but a number of people have remarked on it. It is next to impossible
to get lettuce that is homegrown lettuce, unless you grow it ... but when
you do, the salad is something completely different. Mind you that my
garden is debugged and fertilized with my own chickens and worms
that eat our own garbage, so it has stuff in it that probably is not legal
to sell (live fertilizer is iffy if you are selling produce!).

Anyway, our handful of chickens not only handles the garbage disposal,
they would also provide enough egg protein for most people, without
any moral stress on anyone ... least of all the chickens, who
really are not attached to their eggs unless they are feeling
broody. So I highly recommend a couple of local chickens to
anyone needing protein that has moral compunctions about meat.

The chickens do a great job of helping out a garden and lessening
the amount of leftovers in landfills. They also eat pests like fleas
and ticks, and can be kept in a rather small space ... like in a biggish
cage on the balcony of an apartment: they need room to walk around,
and they shouldn't be crammed like they are commercially, but they
don't need huge space either. We have to pen ours up on occasion
when there are predators around, and they are ok as long as there
is interesting stuff to eat.

As for "getting enough to eat" ... that is really something I don't
know either. I have two kids. One has huge calorie needs, and
loses weight unless he gets a LOT of food. The other, the older,
is far more active, and eats very little. When, in school, her diet
was analyzed, she came up very calorie-short. But she isn't
skinny, and she's tall for her age, big bones, big muscles. Where
does the energy come from? I can only surmise that she really
utilizes what she eats very well. She eats mainly one or two
meals a day, and leaves half the food on the plate usually, doesn't
drink soda.

What I *DO* know is: she eats according to her appestat. No one
ever, in her life, has told her what she should eat. Ok, I experiment
on her too! As in: what will a kid eat, with no parental direction. Her
choices are sometimes odd. But she is supremely healthy. She
dislikes packaged food and most candies and sodas. Her favorite
"junk food" is orange juice, which she will drink in quantity if we
have it. She refuses to eat most commercial meat saying it
"tastes weird" (she's been raised mostly on local longhorn, eggs,
vegies). She's on an athletic team, and competes very well.

Anyway, I look at her, and what she is eating and say: this does
not add up, according to what I read, nor according to my own
experience. But also, she is not eating a "normal American diet".
She doesn't have the gut damage I have, nor the psychic baggage
of people telling her what to eat or what to look like. I kind of think
her own DNA is telling her what to be, and THAT is leading her
to far less-caloric lifestyle than I would have figured.

So ... for you? I have zero idea. But I'm pretty sure that inside
you, somewhere, is a very good chemistry set that is telling
you what you need, at least for this moment in time. And it
sounds like you are listening, which is a good thing.

On Sat, Jul 11, 2009 at 11:57 PM, Paul Katz<paulcats02@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Great post, Heather, you bring up some excellent points.
>
> agree to disagree, that's a good thing.
>
> The challenge for either a vegetarian (whether for ethical or health reasons) or an omnivore who eats a mostly plant-based diet, especially one following fast 5 or any other caloric reduction appears to be how to get enough nutrition i.e protein, fats, and fiber not to mention vitamins minerals enzymes and other micronutrient stuff.
>
> I know there are small amounts of protein in all fruits & veggies as well as varying amounts of fiber, the you have fats in fruits like avocado, olives & durian, then of course grains & beans will have protein & fiber while nuts & seeds have fats & protein plus you can eat spirulina or other algaes... but you'd have to eat a whole lot of volume, wouldn't you?
>
> And how much can one eat in 5 hours?
>
> As an early post said 1 big meal and a snack or two, maybe 2 moderate meals, or just graze on and off?
>
> Personally i'd like to eat as natural and unprocessed as possible but can we get the "optimum nutrition" from eating buckets of fruits & veggies, beans, greens & whole grains?
>
> that's why i still eat the powders and analogs...
>
> --- In fast5@yahoogroups.com, Heather Twist <HeatherTwist@...> wrote:
>>
>> Hey, we are all into everyone doing what works for them.
>>
>> Personally I'm also into "what works in the lab" ... some things are
>> not just personal opinion, there is good science to back them up. This
>> is one reason I really respect Dr. Bert. This diet, Fast-5, is not
>> something he made up to make a buck. It's well-researched and he
>> packaged it to make it easier to understand and follow for more
>> people.
>>
>> So if someone here gets up and says: "I don't like eating food that is
>> colored purple" ... hey, I totally respect that, it's a personal
>> choice. Personally I can't stand food with certain textures, such as
>> pancakes or French toast. No real reason: my brain just doesn't like
>> them.
>>
>> If someone gets up and says "Purple foods cause cancer" though, it's
>> likely to provoke a debate, because *that* is something that can be
>> argued based on lab results.
>>
>> Vegetarianism, in web groups in general, falls somewhere between those
>> two. For some people it's an aesthetic or emotional thing: they don't
>> like the idea of eating what was once alive. For others, it is
>> scientific: they are convinced that meat causes, say, cancer.
>>
>> For me personally, it's somewhere between the two. I'm convinced that
>> farming is one of the big things killing lots and lots and lots of
>> animals (turning rainforest into soy farms is a biggie right now:
>> feeding soy to humans is bad. Feeding soy to cows is worse). And I'm
>> also pretty sure that our way of raising beef right now produces a
>> very unhealthy kind of beef. However, people are extrapolating from
>> that, that ALL beef and ALL animal products are unhealthy. This is,
>> overall, producing more and more soy production to create fake-meat
>> products, because humans really can't live long on plain fruits and
>> vegies, though it's a great way to lose weight. If you want to find
>> the ideal diet for human beings, you need to look at the whole of
>> human history, paleantology, anthropology, and even old cookbooks.
>> Don't look to modern humans: our food system is seriously weird from
>> an historical perspective.
>>
>> Anyway, I don't think anyone is offended. Some of us here are from a
>> group that routinely argues these things and you can expect an
>> argument (complete with references!), but it should be a good-natured
>> argument. Dialog is a great thing, and it didn't go away with
>> Aristotle.
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Jul 11, 2009 at 3:46 PM, craztrader<craztrader@...> wrote:
>> > I just want to say that the things im saying on here about meat and cooking food and all are just my personal beliefs and I dont mean to offend anyone and I hope I havent. Everyone has their personal beliefs and by saying what Ive said doesnt mean that thats the way it is and everyone else is wrong, lol! I completely respect everyones beliefs and thoughts. I just read back thru my posts and it just kinda looks like Im giving that impression. I just truly feel that our bodies are not designed to digest meat and that meat is the culprit for many diseases
>> > such as cancer and diebetis etc. But once again thats just me.
>> > Rob
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > ------------------------------------
>> >
>> > Yahoo! Groups Links
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Heather Twist
>> http://eatingoffthefoodgrid.blogspot.com/
>>
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