Personal Development for Smart People Forums - View Single Post - Recommendations for totally changing my diet

DRK · 02-02-2008, 09:36 PM

Wow, congratulations on choosing to make such a positive change. Be prepared for tons of conflicting advice, though.
To start with, read Steve's advice on quitting coffee.
After that, at the very least start adding in lots of vegetables & fruit, and if you keep eating pasta & breads, choose whole grain versions. It's really a very short adjustment to the different taste/texture of whole grain flours.
I prefer being vegan, and find it quite beneficial, but if you choose to keep eating meat/dairy, stick with as low fat as possible, and keep the quantity down. Think of those items as condiments, not the main course. (Like in much Asian cuisine, where the base of the meal is noodles or rice, with very small amounts of meat.)
For nutritional information (again, you'll get tons of different opinions here), I'd look to Dr. John McDougall (he has a website, books, etc. - for inspiration, read the testimonials by "star mcdougallers" on his site) and T. Colin Campbell, author of the China Study (recommended by Steve). Other doctors in the same low-fat vegan arena include Dr. Esseltyne & Dr. Barnard.
Really, you could have a much healthier diet that's very similar to your current one. Drop the coffee. Switch to whole grain pasta, with tons of vegetables. Use as little added fat as possible. Eat a huge salad once a day. Make veggie sandwiches on whole grain bread. Try cheese-less, meat-less pizza on whole grain crust. (It really is much better than it sounds.)
Dr. McDougall's wife, Mary, has written some cookbooks, including ones with super-simple recipes.
For me, I've gone from a really lousy diet (I'd get my ground beef burritos from Taco Bell with extra cheese) to feeling much better following a McDougall-style diet, more or less. I feel even better following a Dr. Graham-style, 80-10-10 raw vegan diet (similar to Steve's 30-day trial), but that's such a radical change that I hesitate to recommend it.
Good luck. One final piece of advice - find a diet that seems right to you, and give it a 100% effort for a few weeks, at least. That will be much easier than trying to find a middle ground between all the possible options. You could spend months reading about all the options, but you'll learn more by focusing on just one approach at a time. If it doesn't work, try something else.

02-02-2008, 09:36 PM	#2 (permalink)
DRK Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 35	Wow, congratulations on choosing to make such a positive change. Be prepared for tons of conflicting advice, though. To start with, read Steve's advice on quitting coffee. After that, at the very least start adding in lots of vegetables & fruit, and if you keep eating pasta & breads, choose whole grain versions. It's really a very short adjustment to the different taste/texture of whole grain flours. I prefer being vegan, and find it quite beneficial, but if you choose to keep eating meat/dairy, stick with as low fat as possible, and keep the quantity down. Think of those items as condiments, not the main course. (Like in much Asian cuisine, where the base of the meal is noodles or rice, with very small amounts of meat.) For nutritional information (again, you'll get tons of different opinions here), I'd look to Dr. John McDougall (he has a website, books, etc. - for inspiration, read the testimonials by "star mcdougallers" on his site) and T. Colin Campbell, author of the China Study (recommended by Steve). Other doctors in the same low-fat vegan arena include Dr. Esseltyne & Dr. Barnard. Really, you could have a much healthier diet that's very similar to your current one. Drop the coffee. Switch to whole grain pasta, with tons of vegetables. Use as little added fat as possible. Eat a huge salad once a day. Make veggie sandwiches on whole grain bread. Try cheese-less, meat-less pizza on whole grain crust. (It really is much better than it sounds.) Dr. McDougall's wife, Mary, has written some cookbooks, including ones with super-simple recipes. For me, I've gone from a really lousy diet (I'd get my ground beef burritos from Taco Bell with extra cheese) to feeling much better following a McDougall-style diet, more or less. I feel even better following a Dr. Graham-style, 80-10-10 raw vegan diet (similar to Steve's 30-day trial), but that's such a radical change that I hesitate to recommend it. Good luck. One final piece of advice - find a diet that seems right to you, and give it a 100% effort for a few weeks, at least. That will be much easier than trying to find a middle ground between all the possible options. You could spend months reading about all the options, but you'll learn more by focusing on just one approach at a time. If it doesn't work, try something else.