Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Is he bashing vegetables and fruits? The average US citizen does not eat the recommended minimum amount for fiber. Is he bashing the 3500kcal diet of average US citizen or is he purposefully demonizing a single macronutrient group?


If you read his writings you'll quickly understand he's chiefly against refined carbohydrates.

Fruit and vegetables contain carbohydrates, but their impact is completely different from refined carbs.


What I get out of it is, the problem with refined carbs is both how fast it gets absorbed in you gut/stomach thus spiking your blood sugar and the sheer amount you can eat. I think those two play off each other. With unprocessed vegetables generally you get a lot of bulk fiber and water along with the carbs. If your gut is full of fiber you tend to not be hungry. If it's mostly empty then you tend to be hungry.

Also one thing I've read more recently is the gut has it's own nervous system and hormonal signaling. It's high;y away of what is going on in it's world. However mostly that information isn't available to your brain. But what it can do is control your feeding behavior. If your gut is full and busing extracting nutrients, then it signals your brain to stop feeding. Ever wonder why if you eat a good meal you can got for hours without wanting to eat anything? That's why.


Don’t you see the trend? “Recommended amounts” may be a large part of the issue. Doesn’t the US recommend 325 grams of sugar (carbohydrates) a day?


Fiber has 0 calories, which implies people in the US in general barely eat fruit and vegetables. No one overdosed on fiber. It's quite silly to claim that 2000kcal of legume carbohydrate (more than 300 grams of carbs) will alter my hormones or metabolism in a negative way, so demonizing a macronutrient is bad science.


> Fiber has 0 calories, which implies people in the US in general barely eat fruit and vegetables

This is true. The vast majority of Americans do not eat sufficient fruit and vegetables. This 2015 CDC study [1] concluded that only 13.1% of the population consumes enough fruit, and only 8.9% eat enough veggies.

> It's quite silly to claim that 2000kcal of legume carbohydrate (more than 300 grams of carbs) will alter my hormones or metabolism in a negative way, so demonizing a macronutrient is bad science.

Nobody claims that. You obviously haven't read the article.

The excess of carbohydrates in today's diets doesn't come from fruit and vegetables (as [1] clearly shows), but from added sugar and refined grains. The article explains the critical role a chronically high level of insulin in the bloodstream plays in throwing the body's metabolic processes out of balance, leading to both obesity and type-2 diabetes.

[1] https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6426a1.htm


Commenter above me equated sugar with carbs, and hinted a government conspiracy theory of how its recommendation influenced people to overeat sugar and become sick.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: