whole foods eating, heritage based

Sabine_Stroehm

Lots of good information here for folks who are interested in building a nutrient dense, whole foods diet.
http://oldwayspt.org

There is mediterranean style pyramid, a latino/a and latin american pyramid, an asian pyramid among others.

For those wanting to know more about a whole foods back to basics approach, it's a good start.

kommodevaran

I think I eat too much meat to be truly traditional, but these diets appeal to me. Whole foods makes healthy eating and cooking both fun and easy. Would have been interesting to see what a Nordic diet looked like on that site.

melimomTARDIS

i like the oldways vegetarian pyramid, and I use it plan meals.

Sabine_Stroehm

melimomTARDIS wrote: »

i like the oldways vegetarian pyramid, and I use it plan meals.

Nice! I use the Mediterranean one as a reminder. I've even had it as my computer wallpaper when I need more reminding. They are all Such a contrast to the S.A.D.

FatFreeFrolicking

Love love love the Mediterranean style diet.

rosestring

THANK YOU.

Charlottesometimes23

Nice! I would say that I pretty much eat to the standard Med style pyramid because it appeals to my taste buds.

Sabine_Stroehm

Glad a few folks find it useful. I like this site quite a lot.

melimomTARDIS

I have a vegetarian pyramid on my fridge, and one as my wallpaper on my computer. However, I have small kids who I am teaching as well, and I find it helpful to encourage them to try to eat from all the groups each day.

ie- (I say to my six year old "I see you want chips for lunch, maybe we will have hummus with our chips for our protein choice")

(that is a good breakfast of toast and milk, what do you think we could add from the fruit or vegetable group?)

Qskim

Copies link before Sabine gets flagged spam five times and disappears...

Sabine_Stroehm

_SKIM_ wrote: »

Copies link before Sabine gets flagged spam five times and disappears...

Am laughing that It's being flagged at all. If IT disappears PM me. Cheers

Damn that healthy eating on a fitness site. Lol.

Qskim

Roger

Kalikel

This is kind of cool. Thanks for sharing!

Tigg_er

Thanks for the link Sabine ! Another way for me to learn.

JadeRabbit08

Thanks for the link you're up to 4 flags now so post should disappear soon.

kommodevaran

Why flagging??

lemurcat12

The flagging abuse is so irritating.

lemurcat12

Anyway, I don't do any of those traditional pyramids, mainly because I have my own idea of how I like to eat that's focused in part on seasons where I live and because I just prefer to eat more meat/fish/dairy and fewer grains than any traditional diet (though I may rethink this some in the coming year, it's a combination of preference and convenience, as well as a recognition that traditional diets vary and there's good reason for dairy to be in mine).

However, I find them interesting and a source of ideas, so thanks for the link to the site.

Sabine_Stroehm

lemurcat12 wrote: »

Anyway, I don't do any of those traditional pyramids, mainly because I have my own idea of how I like to eat that's focused in part on seasons where I live and because I just prefer to eat more meat/fish/dairy and fewer grains than any traditional diet (though I may rethink this some in the coming year, it's a combination of preference and convenience, as well as a recognition that traditional diets vary and there's good reason for dairy to be in mine).

However, I find them interesting and a source of ideas, so thanks for the link to the site.

I'm totally in favor eating seasonally and eating fewer grains. I also eat much fewer grains than any pyramid. But I do like the mediterranean eating pattern by and large.

and yes, Abusing the spam flags is getting really annoying.

Sabine_Stroehm

Bumping once before this gets removed as "spam". Seriously??

Mr_Knight

Has anybody drawn up what the "pyramid" for the SAD looks like?

Swiftlet66

This is awesome. The Asian pyramid was how my parents ate before moving to the USA. Now, they eat a lot more meat, bread, snacks like chips, breakfasts with sugary cereals and they also cook in a lot more in oils too. Result? My dad has high blood pressure and my mom got high cholesterol and type 2 diabetes. My mom specifically gained some weight too, however, both of them physically don't look overweight but internally, they were suffering. It was worse for my mom because my dad, although having high blood pressure, he snacked a lot less and stuck mainly to a meat and vegetable diet even though it was cooked in a lot more fat/oils.

Sabine_Stroehm

Mr_Knight wrote: »

Has anybody drawn up what the "pyramid" for the SAD looks like?

I've seen some attempts.

Sabine_Stroehm

Swiftlet66 wrote: »

This is awesome. The Asian pyramid was how my parents ate before moving to the USA. Now, they eat a lot more meat, bread, snacks like chips, breakfasts with sugary cereals and they also cook in a lot more in oils too. Result? My dad has high blood pressure and my mom got high cholesterol and type 2 diabetes. My mom specifically gained some weight too, however, both of them physically don't look overweight but internally, they were suffering. It was worse for my mom because my dad, although having high blood pressure, he snacked a lot less and stuck mainly to a meat and vegetable diet even though it was cooked in a lot more fat/oils.

I've heard that's true for a lot of people. Michael Pollan talks about it in his book "In Defense of Food". Says a lot about the S.A.D.

lemurcat12

I'm always confused about what precisely the SAD is supposed to be. Wiki claims 50% carbs (which are supposedly too low, whatever), 15% protein, 35% fat (supposedly too high), but of course the bigger issue is lots of sugar and HFCS, refined grains, and saturated fats, and allegedly 75% of restaurant meals from fast food (which doesn't say how many overall meals from fast food or anything about overall content of fruits, veggies, or whole grains (in the form of high fiber cereals or packaged whole wheat breads, although I will assume the answers are all depressing).

I always have a disconnect between this and my own idea of the traditional American diet, which is how I grew up. Like I've posted before, I'm a more adventurous eater and far less likely to used canned foods than how I grew up, and probably eat a lower percentage of carbs and more/a wider variety of veggies. (We always ate lots of fish because of where we lived at various times and because my dad loves it and likes to fish, and I know that's somewhat less usual.) But basically the traditional American dinner I grew up with was meat, potatoes (sometimes something else in this vein, but potatoes were the most common), and vegetables. Sometimes also a salad (with bottled dressing) and sometimes also bread of some sort. Adults had water to drink (or maybe some kind of booze) and kids had milk.

Lunch was a sandwich on whole wheat bread and/or some kind of soup (I know not everyone did whole wheat, because I pointed out to my mother at one point that our bread was "wheat" and brown, but not "whole wheat" (we'd learned about this in school), so we might as well get white like various friends of mine, after which she switched to a brand that had actual "whole wheat." Special breakfast was bacon and eggs or ham and eggs, and/or pancakes (one of my dad's specialties). Weekday breakfast was cereal (hot or cold) and fruit (I have always hated cold cereal and at some point started skipping breakfast or having a banana and toast).

Soda was a special treat, fast food (or going out at all) was a special treat, dessert was a special treat or something simple like pudding. Afterschool snack would be cheese and crackers or maybe a cookie, if there were some (cookies being mostly based on the chocolate chip package recipe).

Not amazing, but not what the SAD seems to be understood as today, and other than the wheat bread thing my family wasn't one of the weird strict ones that people thought of re the families that had only health food.

It seems like things are different today, although it's also always too easy to get into "kids today" mode.

Sabine_Stroehm

If motherjones doesn't offend, the graphics sure are interesting:
http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2014/01/standard-american-diet-sad-charts

lemurcat12

Hmm, interesting, although not surprising.

Some kind of change since the late '70s (although MJ's blaming advertising seems weak to me, since I recall quite a bit of advertising back then), but I guess I still don't think the SAD is really a thing. Part of the problem is that what's been happening seems to be the US (and other developed nations or whatever we are supposed to call them) are going away from having any kind of traditional diet at all. It's having a traditional diet that enforces communal food choices, defines what you think of as a proper dinner and the rest, and thus results in people eating foods like vegetables (in addition to them in fact being tasty, of course) and generally making less convenient choices, I think. I can nitpick the diet I grew up with, but I know it's one reason I find it so difficult to understand how people don't know what normal healthy eating is--I have a template in my head that isn't all that different from MyPlate, even if I personally think some of the details (like high fiber cold cereal being some kind of super healthy ideal breakfast or skim milk being always better than full fat or a continued overinvestment in being anti fat in general) are questionable.

There's quite a lot of diversity even now in how Americans eat. Most people I know don't eat the SAD, I don't think (and not coincidently the subculture I'm in is a lot thinner than the US average, although not thinner than what I recall from the '80s for a much broader swath of the country).

melimomTARDIS

My family wasnt a health foodie type family, and I am not that way now, but we didnt eat out or have soda/or chips unless it was a special occasion. And my mom called that stuff "junk food".

However I have eaten many a jif with banana on white bread sandwhich, washed down with an 8 oz glass of milk with ovaltine mixed in. Mmm MMmm. Health!

Sabine_Stroehm

lemurcat12 wrote: »

Hmm, interesting, although not surprising.

Some kind of change since the late '70s (although MJ's blaming advertising seems weak to me, since I recall quite a bit of advertising back then), but I guess I still don't think the SAD is really a thing. Part of the problem is that what's been happening seems to be the US (and other developed nations or whatever we are supposed to call them) are going away from having any kind of traditional diet at all. It's having a traditional diet that enforces communal food choices, defines what you think of as a proper dinner and the rest, and thus results in people eating foods like vegetables (in addition to them in fact being tasty, of course) and generally making less convenient choices, I think. I can nitpick the diet I grew up with, but I know it's one reason I find it so difficult to understand how people don't know what normal healthy eating is--I have a template in my head that isn't all that different from MyPlate, even if I personally think some of the details (like high fiber cold cereal being some kind of super healthy ideal breakfast or skim milk being always better than full fat or a continued overinvestment in being anti fat in general) are questionable.

There's quite a lot of diversity even now in how Americans eat. Most people I know don't eat the SAD, I don't think (and not coincidently the subculture I'm in is a lot thinner than the US average, although not thinner than what I recall from the '80s for a much broader swath of the country).

Something has definitely changed in the US and is changing around the world. None of my peers eats very SAD and my subculture, as you call it, is definitely thinner than the average American. My family (of origin) does eat much as MJ describes. And have all the health and weight woes that are said to go along with it.

Sabine_Stroehm

melimomTARDIS wrote: »

My family wasnt a health foodie type family, and I am not that way now, but we didnt eat out or have soda/or chips unless it was a special occasion. And my mom called that stuff "junk food".

However I have eaten many a jif with banana on white bread sandwhich, washed down with an 8 oz glass of milk with ovaltine mixed in. Mmm MMmm. Health!

My family growing up was very Bologna on white bread with a coke. We didn't eat out much and didn't have a ton of junk food but did get one thing in our lunch. A Twinkie ho ho ding dong thing.

FrankWorsley

I like these pyramids and how they show the variety that is available to provide excellent nutrition. It's all about wisdom and balance. It's we who determine what we become.