Cooked food..

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Permalink Reply by PK on August 20, 2012 at 2:39am

Hey everyone:

To answer everyone's questions and concerns about Japan, the Okinawa, and their consumption of rice, life spans, health, and other things too, I ended up writing a blog:D  

Sorry this is a bit late.  What I thought was going to take a few hours to put thoughts to words to blog took days in part because of some personal distractions and in part because of research.  

Diet and Health in Japan and USA

Peace, PK

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Permalink Reply by Ted Runco on August 20, 2012 at 3:21am

I wouldn't say that.. look at the olympics.. didn't someone from china just beat michael phelps (I'm guessing they eat similar)

Manny Pacquiao is said to eat TONS of rice... all he eats is rice and soup (upwards of 7000 calories a day from it). lol maybe some sauce in there too though (arguable)

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Permalink Reply by PK on August 20, 2012 at 3:26pm

@Ted,

If I remember that race though, they were still very close.  And I believe this time Michael Phelps was also focusing more on fruit in his diet and still won other medals:D  

Because rice is calorie and carb dense, many athletes may choose to supplement their diets with it short term.  (I believe DR and Freelee might use fruit juice when extra energy is required)

I believe The Fruitarian Michael Arnstein will eat potatoes (sorry if I am wrong) before a big race too.  

This is the typical traditional concept of carbo loading that many athletes do before the big event.  

However, this is not how most of them eat when they are not training.  

We are looking for long term health and benefits not just short term here.  

If we look back at the (British) sailors during the 1500s-1800s and beyond, they would typically try to survive on grains mostly in the form of wheat and bread products. Because of lack of vitamin C in the diet, many of them contracted scurvy and or died from scurvy. 

Short term, the starchy grains probably did provide energy in calories and carbs to allow them to carry out the heavy tasks associated with sailing.  Long term, a diet focused on grains only proved fatal.  

So what is the compromise here.  For most of us living an average life, and doing average training, a diet of raw fruit and lettuce greens suffices.  As competitive athletes get closer to their events, and training becomes more intense, then supplementing short term with calorie and carb dense things like rice might be of short term benefit.  

My blog explains some of the long term health problems though of making rice and grains a staple of the diet and I personally do not recommend it. 

Peace, PK

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Permalink Reply by PK on August 21, 2012 at 4:16am

@bmoojeni,

The example in the discussion given is that the Japanese eat rice and fish and high oxalate foods like kale and spinach and some fruits.

However, in spite of living about 5 years longer than their USA counterparts, they still contract the same degenerative diseases, die from those same disease, and have higher rates of some disease like stomach cancers.  So much for eating rice.  

Diet and Health in Japan and USA

We are here to assist people in finding and maintaining ultimate health and healing, not follow some grain eating culture in suboptimal health, or to eat grains and meat because people have been doing so for thousands of years.

********

Scurvy is alive and well in various clinical and subclinial forms, and in fact, in many cases it might be underdiagnosed.  The reason is that in some Western cultures, medicine is become very specialized.  When the classic scurvy symptom of gum swelling, bleeding, and disease manifests itself, we go to a dentist for palliative care, but not necessarily a cure.  

Scurvy is a disease that occurs when you have a severe lack of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) in your diet. It causes general weakness, anemia, gum disease, and skin hemorrhages.

Scurvy is also seen in cases of malnutrition that can happen even on a high calorie diet lacking in Vitamin C, in eating disorders, in people with disease, and the elderly.  

Many people get unexplained skin lesions, eruptions, and symptoms like 

corkscrew hair that might even be overlooked by a doctor or dermatologist.  

Other classical symptoms of scurvy can happen around the nail areas with brittle nails and or bleeding around the nails.  

Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is still prescribed in the USA.  If diets high in grains and meat were all that, then these supplements would not be necessary.  

Peace, PK

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Permalink Reply by banana - boy on August 21, 2012 at 4:18am

good points interesting though vit.c is super high in potato yet we do not know what happens when cooked how much is lost. cronmeter has it with large amounts of C and id presume they presume people cook potato ?  

additionally POW in WW2 lived on potato alone . so the rule if you can make meal out of it seems to work with potato , yet its clear they did not THRIVE .  : )

for me fruit is best and my cooked carbs is going down to 600 or so calories....

better to get vit C from oranges and they make me happy potato/rice is flat food

fruit make me high    rock on everyone here ! VEGAN

doug

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Permalink Reply by Lisa Dee on August 21, 2012 at 5:37am

The poor Irish also lived on a potato diet - which is why so many starved to death during the potato famine in the 1800s.

They survived on such a diet but as you said, did they thrive?

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Permalink Reply by banana - boy on August 21, 2012 at 6:19am

no way  ! it was truly i think a survival diet--thriving was just staying alive even the idea of thriving may not exist then

i always heard it was a blight that caused many 1 million many many to perish . also heard that many stayed alive with only potato stored under ground....

if i was alive back then up in northern climates id be eating potato! 

we are evolving species  getting better and better

the growing of a single crop of potato that became blighted was how i learned it   i am by no means a historian    i was not there  : )

rock on !

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Permalink Reply by Ted Runco on August 20, 2012 at 3:12am

Glad I could keep you busy ;)

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Permalink Reply by PK on August 20, 2012 at 3:28pm

Ha!  I am assuming this was directed towards me?  

I did not mind, and actually some of these questions have been asked before.  I already had some links in place, but a few of them were broken.  So, I redid the research and fact checking, and now have a blog that I can refer people to in the future.  

It was fun.  Peace, PK

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Permalink Reply by banana - boy on August 20, 2012 at 4:36am

nothing digests better then fruit  . from this one truth (for me)  says a lot and there is a reason for it.  

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Permalink Reply by Eric on August 20, 2012 at 3:47pm

Hey pk...great blog post. Just so it's clear.. While I do stand by my previous post, i want to clarify that i always feel best eating ripe fruit over cooked carbs, especially grains. I will always choose ripe fruit over starch when possible and very rarely am unable to get at least dates or dried mango if no fresh ripe fruit is available. Fruit is no doubt our ideal food but as much as i hate doing it, sometimes in the winter i have to resort to potatoes and do not worry about getting fat. Definitely agree its not a matter of weight necessarily but of overall health and fruit is the ideal for this. Still, cannot wait to move to Thailand soon though.

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Permalink Reply by PK on August 20, 2012 at 4:16pm

@Eric,

I think many of us have been there with the fruit emergency.  I keep rice on hand for those days I do not have enough ripe fruit and I try to eat a lot of lettuce greens on those days.  

(edit here, although potatoes and sweet potatoes might be more nutritious, I feel sick and or vomit if I eat them.)

But, that is a last resort.  I would rather people eat starches than starve themselves.  However, I am convinced that starchy foods like grain products and rice probably should not be the focus of our diet for long term health if we can help it.

Thailand sounds like fun!

Good luck and Peace, PK 

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