Quote:
Originally Posted by curves2000
One thing I have always wondered about diet's such as Keto or Atkins or whatever the flavour of the month may be, what about the long term HEALTH effects??
In a huge amount of cultures around the world, a very meat heavy diet isn't really prevalent and they have much much lower levels of chronic diseases. There are a lot of places were heart disease isn't nearly as prevalent as it is in North America, where it's the #1 killer of people.
I am of Greek background and many many of my friends are of immigrant backgrounds. A lot of our families have lots of stories from "the old country" where money was tight and meat was a luxury for once a week or a few times a month. They all grew up on really healthy foods such as beans, legumes, pastas, hearty soups and stews, very vegetable and fruit heavy. In a lot of ways, the current recommendations from the Canada Food guide.
Weight loss aside, which friends of mine on Keto have achieved, I don't get why the diet vilifies really really healthy and nutrient rich foods such as REAL bread, beans and legumes? Friends of mine literally have very healthy parents and grandparents who grew up eating really healthy foods such as described above but they consider a lot of the carbs "toxic" as if REAL bread and lentils are bad??
One friend of mine, instead of looking at his parents and grandparents and how they grew up, looks at a Youtube video recommendation on Keto about "eating whipped cream with a strawberrry or two, instead of eating strawberries with a little whipped cream"
I just don't think a can of whipped cream with a couple of strawberries and a 20 oz Alberta Rib Eye is the answer and bread, which we have eaten since the beginning of time, the enemy.
|
From what I've read a lot of the "studies" linking various diets to health/life span are a case of correlation and not causation. The major underlying theme is that obesity is unhealthy. A major issue that people were discounting in previous research into the issue was the amount of cholesterol in the body is already much higher than anything you consume, and temporarily adding small amounts in your digestive system is shown to have little effect. In other words, you are not what you eat.
If you can find a diet that puts you at a healthy weight, whether that be keto or vegetarianism, you are likely to live longer.