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Comment by cageface | Hacker News Reader

One of the best things I've ever done for my mood is to switch to a plant based diet full of natural anti inflammatory foods. I noticed a big lift in my mood after the first week and it's stuck with me almost two years later.

Check this video for more details: https://youtu.be/4xbNNxQZEgA

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Did you also eat less sugar/carbs? Because I think sugar is the main culprit.

Sugar and refined carbs can also cause inflammation but I cut those out of my diet years ago. I didn't see the real benefits until I switched to a plant based diet.

I don't want to be that guy again (I've been heavily downvoted in every nutrition threads I contributed in HN), please understand that I'm trying to learn and improve myself. But I'm curious how did you come up with a plant-based diet that's not high in sugar. As far as I know pretty much all (except very few) plant based food are very high in sugar. Especially most fruits have exorbitant amounts of fructose. I usually eat high fiber veggies (like broccoli, brussel sprouts, soybeans etc...) but it doesn't give much variety. Remember that most animal based food (eggs, most cheese, chicken, turkey, red meat, fish etc) are 0 sugar. Also, nuts are low carb, high fat but they're very high in Omega 6 (except walnut and some seeds like flaxseed) and there is some research indicating synergy between sugar and Omega 6 for inflammation (I can find the link if you want, but I'm too tired right now). I'm all for veganism but I can never find a suitable vegan cookbook. People say veganism is easy, as far as I'm concerned this is simply not true. If you go full vegan you have absolutely no choice other than soybeans to get adequate amount of protein. Any other protein source such as beans are very high in carbs (e.g. 600 cal of black beans have only 40g of protein (which is only 1/3 of my daily need as a bodybuilder) but have 116g of carbs only 30g of which fiber, in my book a very unhealthy food). And since you cannot supplement your diet with seafood, you have very few choices of Omega 3 sources (various seeds, acai berry, walnut come to mind).

To make myself clear: I think vegan diet is efficient, sustainable and ethical. But there is simply no easy way to go full vegan and get enough macro nutrients (in particular protein, and fats) without getting a lot of sugar. I have a lot of problem with inflammation and even 5g of sugar is too much for me, so it seems like the only plant based food I can eat are soybeans and broccoli. Maybe I'm missing something. Care to help?

A nutritionist/dietitian would be your best bet. But my 2c about the sugar in fruits, they're not as bad as refined sugar because of the fiber. You have to look at food as a whole, not as macronutrients combined together.

Nutritionists are mostly useless ; you are better off doing self-experimentation.

You should take a look at Dr Fuhrman’s Eat to Live and Dr Michael Greger’s How Not to Die.

You should take into account that some whole plant high sugar or high starch foods like fruits and beans come packaged with fiber and other nutrients as well that serve to balance the nutritional profile and glycemic impact of the food.

That being said, if you do have a problem with sugar, stay away from sweet or high starch foods that lack fiber like ripened bananas and cooked white potatoes. Beans are healthy because they contain resistant starches that act like fiber.

You should be eating a variety of whole plant foods with high fiber and high nurtrient density.

Dr Fuhrmans list of foods you should consume everyday for a healthy immune system. G-BOMBS Greens Beans Onions Mushrooms Berries Seeds

There is a huge difference between complex carbohydrates bound up in natural fiber and refined starches and sugars. The former are the foundation of the healthiest diets around the planet. The latter are unhealthy. The current anti carb hysteria fails to make a distinction between the two.

I think you'll find you can eat plenty of carbs if you stick to whole grain, unprocessed carbs and also avoid oil. I've been on this diet for two years now and I've lost weight and feel amazing.

You can get enough Omega 3 from non animal sources but if you're worried about it you can supplement with algae-derived Omega 3. Fish get it from algae anyway so you're just cutting out the middle man.

I recommend Michael Greger's book "How Not to Die" for a lot more detail on a healthy plant based diet. I think you'll find it a lot easier to eat this way than you might think.

Refined sugar is not inherently unhealthy.

Could you be more specific? Why do you think it’s not inherently unhealthy. I’ll argue the contrary here. Humans are primates; we evolved to eat an unrefined plant-based diet.

Consuming refined sugar is inherently unhealthy because it’s consumption causes insulin spikes and eventually insulin desensitization which leads to diabetes which is a strong predictor of inflammation. The same logic applies to any refined foods with concentrated amounts of fat or salt.

No whole plant-based food has the concentrated amount of macronutrients that are in processed food. You could argue that honey might be one, but honey’s been refined from pollen by bees.

When I consume refined sugar, I digest it and use it for energy - like any other food. Perhaps some people have intolerance to refined sugar, resulting in the negative outcomes you described.

Here is a doctor that disagrees and gives a fairly detailed explanation of why it is unhealthy for you: https://youtu.be/dBnniua6-oM

Have you tried the carnivore diet?

Devil's Advocate (also personal experience): http://meatheals.com

Carnivore diets can help people with damaged guts. But you’re much better off fixing your gut than adopting a diet that is longer term going to cause a lot of other serious problems.

Fixing the gut is impossible in certain cases. And carnivore diet has be shown to cause no long-term problems in subjects before.

A strict carnivore diet contains no vitamin C, so you’ll get scurvy if you follow it religiously. And a diet so high in saturated fat and cholesterol will massively increase your risk of heart disease. This is documented in literally hundreds of studies. Annecdotally I have several friends that have dramatically improved their cholesterol levels by cutting out all animal products from their diet.

I think it’s also worth mentioning that the carnivore diet is the absolute worst diet imaginable in terms of the environment and animal welfare. It’s a selfish diet for rich people.

The only populations we know of that eat this way have serious athlerosclerois issues and short life spans or, in the case of the Masai, a rare mutation that makes it easier for them to live on this kind of diet.

I'd like to hear of even one of those hundreds of studies that shows that a strict carnivore diet (not a hybrid diet) leads to those problems.

I bet you can't because they don't exist.

If so the words you write here are but reflective of your beliefs. Which is not gonna help anyone (I'm certainly glad that I did not come across these words while looking to resolve a chronic medical condition).

There are plenty of studies of populations that historically have eaten essentially carnivore diets. The Masai and the Inuit are the two most common. They have all the problems I've enumerated.

If you think about it for even five minutes a diet with zero fiber and zero vitamin C makes no sense.

I prefer to be well-informed[1] than think about it for five minutes.

And no wonder you can't cite any specific study I requested for. :P

[1] https://youtu.be/isIw2AN_-XU

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