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Comment by denvaar | Hacker News Reader

I've recently been trying to "eat better" in an effort to improve/maintain my overall health. I'm not overweight, just trying to be as healthy as I possibly can. Maybe prevent future disease if I can. I don't want to end up with diabetes. But it is surprisingly difficult to know what eating healthy actually looks like. One minute I'll be convinced that I should cut out carbs, then sooner or later something else comes along claiming that I should do the opposite.

The only thing that I feel comfortable doing with a surety is to cut out sugar as much as possible. Also eat a variety of fruits and vegetables.

Wondering if other feel that it's way too difficult and confusing to get serious about eating healthy.

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It’s not you. The state of nutrition science is terrible. I think you’ve got it right: cut out sugar as much as possible. After that, I suspect exercise is much more important than any other diet intervention you could do.

Little story on this: I went low carb to have an easier time handling my diabetes. When the doctor found out, they sent me to a nutritionist. So the nutritionist would whip out the food pyramid and say: "you know this, right? We know that people who eat like that stay healthy in general. We don't know whether people who don't eat like that stay healthy." Then I got some specific advice for my diet. I still remember that intro as one of the best trust-building measures I've experienced with doctors.

One thing I learned the hard way in life is that unusual solutions can lead to unusual problems. Keto is very unusual and very recent, despite what people want to believe.

This is the new food pyramid, correct? I think there was a really bad one from the 90s.

Even the updated pyramid was replaced with MyPlate in 2011.

for an article: https://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/guide/myplate-food-groups...

an actual image: https://www.myplate.gov/

I am in the “ignore science and listen to your body” stage.

Eg, I tried vegan and was utterly miserable. But I learned how to make delicious plant based dishes and as a result of my vegan period. I actually eat much less meat/dairy and have higher plant intake now than before my vegan experiment.

Another is how much shit cardio gets from fitness experts. The moment I stopped doing cardio and resistance only I gained weight, my face got a “haunted” look to it and I got depressed. Added back my 40 minutes of cardio and I feel normal and healthy again. 30 min resistance followed by 40 minutes of cardio. 30 because thats the programme I follow. I dont know why 40 min of cardio. Its just what seems optimal for me after a few years of trial and error.

I never eat breakfast. I eat more during the day if I am forced to eat breakfast. I get heartburn if I dont have an evening snack.

Traditional (not “quick”) oatmeal is probably a safe bet, it contains carbs so you get some balance but due to its β-glucan is easy on your insulin levels.

Yeah, that's the only thing rock solid. That said, and contrary to popular opinion, the recommendations haven't changed too much.

There's been quite a bit of misinformation (eg. 90's food pyramid), but reputable professionals have been pretty close. I'm not sure on the history, but I think there we've semi-recently found that carbs can be less healthy than we initially thought, and the story with fat is pretty complicated (vs. all fat being bad).

I'll put this another way. If you had followed recommendations as far back as the 60's you should be perfectly fine. You would be reducing sugar, and eating lean meats, and plenty of fruits and vegetables. You might even be eating less refined carbs (although that could be a newer discovery).

People are simply off base to claim that we don't know what we're talking about and the recommendations change constantly. I'm sure you can find some shifts in recommendations, but you've always supposed to eat plants, and watch fats and sugar... I think even some of the ancients knew this.

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