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which is the best diet for overall health and weight loss

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  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    nvmomketo wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    "Plant-based diet" to me is just a way of saying "vegan" that doesn't imply it's being done from ethical considerations or require no longer wearing leather. It doesn't even mean you are eating particularly healthfully, although it usually does tend to correlate with more of a focus on nutrition and health than merely being vegan (as that again may have to do with nothing but concern about animals). (But it's also a common religious discipline -- not so common in the US as eating "no meat but fish," of course -- and for that I wouldn't think it means you are focusing on eating super healthfully.)

    I don't think a plant-based diet is the healthiest or ideal diet (because as mentioned above I don't think such a diet exists, there are many healthy diets and the best is the one that is sustainable and non stressful and enjoyable, and also other lifestyle considerations are probably more important once you have a not terrible diet and a calorie appropriate one).

    That said, I do think eating "mostly plants" is probably healthier than not (I personally would not call that a "plant-based diet"), that eating a significant amount of non-starchy veg and some fruit correlates with positive health outcomes, and that after a point more meat in a diet (especially more high fat or processed meat, like bacon and sausage) tends to have a negative correlation. But that governs my own preferences and way of eating, I don't go around telling people who eat lots of meat (common in the US) that it's bad for them or that they should reduce meat consumption. In fact, I think probably if your diet is otherwise healthful (I'd think eating a good amount of non starchy veg also, and not a ton of low nutrient foods that would crowd out other sources of calories) and you are not overweight and active, that it's probably not even much of a difference. I think for some eating more meat may make those other things easier to achieve.

    So true. I completely agree with the bolded. :) And that starchy or refined foods can crowd out the veg - hat is likely where low carbers who have increased their veg intake are coming from.

    Yeah, I'm just saying that if you compare healthy diets, a healthy or nutrition-focused moderate or high carb diet wouldn't crowd out veg with starchy or refined foods. But on the bigger point it seems we agree anyway.
    As an aside on terminology, I've always thought plant based meant it was a mostly plant diet: not having meat at every meal or the focus of all meals.

    I think some use it that way, but mostly these days I see it used to mean diet without animal foods, but in diet only, not a vegan (which is an ethical thing). I think it's kind of a dumb term in that I also think one can eat a mostly plant diet (and thus a "plant-based" one) without cutting out meat and dairy and eggs, but I'm bowing to standard/common usage, at least where I live, and it is a useful term in that "vegan" assumes an ethical commitment and no animal products in clothes or skin creams or whatnot too.
    I think of animal based as animal products being the basis for most meals like bacon and eggs, or a big steak with a side salad...

    That just seems like the all-American midwestern diet I grew up with! ;-)

    I'm not debating the "plant-based" term, btw, I just think it's used in different ways and was clarifying how I was using it/usually interpret it.
  • VUA21
    VUA21 Posts: 2,072 Member
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    The one that you can stick to for the rest of your life and keeps you healthy. It's different for everyone.
  • tennisdude2004
    tennisdude2004 Posts: 5,609 Member
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    snowflake954 wrote: »
    tennisdude2004 wrote: »
    kimny72 wrote: »
    tennisdude2004 wrote: »
    AnvilHead wrote: »
    tennisdude2004 wrote: »
    AnvilHead wrote: »
    tennisdude2004 wrote: »
    LCHF! Any diet which reduces inflammatory foods and increases intake of foods high in anti oxidants!

    Bacon, cheese, coconut oil, bulletproof coffee and "fat bombs" are anti-inflammatory and high in antioxidants?

    Foods high in saturated fats are definitely less inflammatory than foods high in polyunsaturated fats!

    Are you suggesting that the foods you listed are the ‘only’ foods you can eat on a LCHF diet?

    Are you suggesting that the foods eaten by people not on ketogenic diets are all inflammatory and low in antioxidants?
    AnvilHead wrote: »
    tennisdude2004 wrote: »
    AnvilHead wrote: »
    tennisdude2004 wrote: »
    LCHF! Any diet which reduces inflammatory foods and increases intake of foods high in anti oxidants!

    Bacon, cheese, coconut oil, bulletproof coffee and "fat bombs" are anti-inflammatory and high in antioxidants?

    Foods high in saturated fats are definitely less inflammatory than foods high in polyunsaturated fats!

    Are you suggesting that the foods you listed are the ‘only’ foods you can eat on a LCHF diet?

    Are you suggesting that the foods eaten by people not on ketogenic diets are all inflammatory and low in antioxidants?

    I’m suggesting a person on a LCHF (not necessarily keto) will likely be eating less inflammatory and oxidising foods (less grains and refined sugars)! Are you suggesting otherwise?

    Are you familiar with Blue Zones? Lots of fruits, veggies, legumes, whole grains, incredibly high incidence of healthy and active centenarians?

    Fruit and veggies, saturated fats, nuts and seeds are all great inclusions in a LCHF diet - especially the veggies, nuts seeds.

    I should think a diet like the blue zone is very high in antioxidants and low in most types of inflammatory foods.



    Hi Dude--welcome back. I was wondering what happened to you. The forums have been tamer since you left. Still on a meat based diet I see. I would just like to comment on the blue zones in Italy. Pasta is a basic here, so is pizza, so I guess they're not that inflammatory, or the "healthy" foods are cancelling them out.

    Hey Snowflake, yep I'm still here :)

    For sanity reasons I took a break from the forums (only to replace them with Brexit ones instead lol).

    And yes I'm still a carnivore at heart.

    I have noticed that the forums seem a little different (more polite).

    Hope you and yours are well.



  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,400 Member
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    tennisdude2004 wrote: »
    snowflake954 wrote: »
    tennisdude2004 wrote: »
    kimny72 wrote: »
    tennisdude2004 wrote: »
    AnvilHead wrote: »
    tennisdude2004 wrote: »
    AnvilHead wrote: »
    tennisdude2004 wrote: »
    LCHF! Any diet which reduces inflammatory foods and increases intake of foods high in anti oxidants!

    Bacon, cheese, coconut oil, bulletproof coffee and "fat bombs" are anti-inflammatory and high in antioxidants?

    Foods high in saturated fats are definitely less inflammatory than foods high in polyunsaturated fats!

    Are you suggesting that the foods you listed are the ‘only’ foods you can eat on a LCHF diet?

    Are you suggesting that the foods eaten by people not on ketogenic diets are all inflammatory and low in antioxidants?
    AnvilHead wrote: »
    tennisdude2004 wrote: »
    AnvilHead wrote: »
    tennisdude2004 wrote: »
    LCHF! Any diet which reduces inflammatory foods and increases intake of foods high in anti oxidants!

    Bacon, cheese, coconut oil, bulletproof coffee and "fat bombs" are anti-inflammatory and high in antioxidants?

    Foods high in saturated fats are definitely less inflammatory than foods high in polyunsaturated fats!

    Are you suggesting that the foods you listed are the ‘only’ foods you can eat on a LCHF diet?

    Are you suggesting that the foods eaten by people not on ketogenic diets are all inflammatory and low in antioxidants?

    I’m suggesting a person on a LCHF (not necessarily keto) will likely be eating less inflammatory and oxidising foods (less grains and refined sugars)! Are you suggesting otherwise?

    Are you familiar with Blue Zones? Lots of fruits, veggies, legumes, whole grains, incredibly high incidence of healthy and active centenarians?

    Fruit and veggies, saturated fats, nuts and seeds are all great inclusions in a LCHF diet - especially the veggies, nuts seeds.

    I should think a diet like the blue zone is very high in antioxidants and low in most types of inflammatory foods.



    Hi Dude--welcome back. I was wondering what happened to you. The forums have been tamer since you left. Still on a meat based diet I see. I would just like to comment on the blue zones in Italy. Pasta is a basic here, so is pizza, so I guess they're not that inflammatory, or the "healthy" foods are cancelling them out.

    Hey Snowflake, yep I'm still here :)

    For sanity reasons I took a break from the forums (only to replace them with Brexit ones instead lol).

    And yes I'm still a carnivore at heart.

    I have noticed that the forums seem a little different (more polite).

    Hope you and yours are well.



    The forums are polite--for a reason. Everything has changed. Back to the OP. The very "best" diet? Hmmm, hard to say because things change. I like the idea that I had growing up, a well-ballanced diet. This means a bit of this and that, without demonizing or eliminating any food group. I find that the macro split that MFP gives me is perfect. I personally eat the Med way because I live here.

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