Also: Replace “super” (as in “superfood”) with “sacred” and it works just as wel.
Nutritional Hexes
Submitted 2 weeks ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/97c16140-9fd8-4630-abde-ac2e767dead7.jpeg
Comments
Prunebutt@slrpnk.net 2 weeks ago
RBWells@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Oh how I hate the whole idea of detox and clean as it relates to nutrition. I worked at a health food store when I was young and while there was good nutritious food there, plenty of good people, the whole idea of ‘clean’ comes from a very dark place. I remember the raw foods guys and the idea of breathetarians. Like the less physical and embodied you were, the better person you were, enlightened. The idea of the physical world being unclean and something you should try to be free of, I hate it.
It really is more of a religious idea than anything to do with physical health. I think you have to enjoy being embodied, love the physical plane of existence, to have a healthy body. Not perfect.
ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I worked at a vitamin store chain owned by the parents of a college friend of mine (who is now worth $34 million lol - that chain has turned into a miniature Whole Foods) for a few months. I remember one customer came in because she was going through a divorce, and the cashier said “oh, you need St. John’s Wort for that”. Nobody there thought this was unusual in any way.
bobo@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
I remember one customer came in because she was going through a divorce, and the cashier said “oh, you need St. John’s Wort for that”.
Capitalist witch woman gives antidepressants
AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net 2 weeks ago
I read a thing recently that argued that “purity” is one of the most distinctive thematic motifs in fascistic thinking, and examined how that is a means by which people can slide into right wing ideologies from an initially left wing position.
It was striking because it made it clock for me why there seems to be a “crunchy eco-leftist turns right wing” pipeline. To attempt to summarise some of the article and my own thoughts following it: A purity oriented framework of health situates “toxins” and the like as the Big Bad Other. Many of us are aware of how dangerous the notion of a Big Bad Other is if we’re thinking about people, but it can creep up with us in contexts like this because it doesn’t seem harmful initially. However, by thinking about health in this way, we train ourselves to think in terms of the Big Bad Other, and condition ourselves towards thinking about things in a black and white manner.
balian@lemmy.libertarianfellowship.org 2 weeks ago
+1
ViatorOmnium@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
Pseudo-dermatology is also not very far away. The gap between what dermatologists and influencers say would be hilarious if gullible teenagers weren’t spending ridiculous amounts of money ruining their own skin.
Krudler@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
The one that had me cry-laughing was the “sun your genitals” fad that lasted what, a week?
I lost a ton of weight and that gave me the courage to go to the nude beach. That day I got exactly 30 seconds of sun on my cock and that was enough to sunburn my knob. Itch/burn for days. There’s a reason it’s known as *where the sun don’t shine". Can’t imagine what it was like for the dopes that gave themselves 15 minutes under the Cali sun.
Peruvian_Skies@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
A lot of people go to nude beaches often and don’t have that problem. Did you use sunscreen?
LogicalDrivel@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
my boss does a “cleanse” once a month. IDK what she takes but she also believes ivermectin cures cancer, sooooo…
Its no coincidence that she is one of the sickest “healthy” people ive met. She has no health conditions or chronic illnesses. Shes in good physical shape and doesn’t smoke or drink. Exercises most days, etc. Yet, she “cant get out of bed” or has some mystery stomach flu or something like that about once a month. Funny how that seems to line up just after her cleanses. I suggested once that she was making it worse with the cleanses but she just doubled down.
Willfully ignorant and proud.oatscoop@midwest.social 2 weeks ago
Firehouse in the USA: “right leaning straight white guys that watch FOX news” is over represented. We also work 24 hour shifts and thus cook 2 meals a day a work. Inevitably that means I get to experience whatever stupid diet shit the manosphere/RFK Jr. is pushing. Keto, carnivore, "MORE PROTEIN, etc.
My go-to response is “I don’t do fad diets”: they get hilariously defensive.
BygoneNeutrino@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
…I don’t think I’ve ever met a man in real life that ate a fad diet. They eat hamburger helper and take out.
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
as soon as you hear (X) cures cancer you know shes deep into pseudoscience.
selokichtli@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
Sounds like the chlorine dioxide nonsense, tbh. Dangerous shit.
BradleyUffner@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
The number of people that don’t believe that taking in fewer calories than you put out will cause you to lose weight still astounds me. Your body isn’t some magic device that doesn’t have to obey the laws of physics.
Zephorah@discuss.online 2 weeks ago
Some people mistake healthier with less calories.
I switched from a box of Little Debbie’s a day to a bag of trail mix! Why can’t I lose weight?
That olive oil you’re using is good for you, sure, but it’s not a freebee. It has calories. Things like this are often not even noticed or counted.
pishadoot@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Tracking calories accurately is a balance between good data and time investment.
I didn’t usually count oils and fats when I made food because I use so little. But I also wouldn’t worry much about very low calorie vegetables either.
To be fair though my goal was to gain weight and meet macros, not to lose weight.
But either way at the end of the day even with really good apps making counting calories way easier than it used to be, there’s still a line that needs to be drawn somewhere as to what your time is worth. If you’re in the ballpark you’re good unless you have very explicit needs to get more detailed data.
absGeekNZ@lemmy.nz 2 weeks ago
Whilst this is true; your body does have some pretty neat tricks to maintain homeostasis; it can shift the energy budget around quite a bit to where it is needed.
Your body will down regulate some systems to try to keep your total energy balance within what is “normal” for each person.
Digestion uses quite a bit of energy; this is why sometimes you feel sleepy after eating; your brain has been down regulated to enable digestion.
Another common example is when runners get into “the zone”; this is your brain prioritising the required processes and reducing the energy of other parts, putting you into a semi trance…this is so your body can maintain an energy balance.
It is also why we sometimes feel sick if exercising hard and then eat quickly afterward; your gut is not ready for that job.
High energy process that can be “switched off” or at least significantly reduced:
- Brain processes (up to 25% of your energy budget)
- Immune system (~20% when fighting infection)
- Digestion (dependent on food 3[sugar] - 30[protein]% of food energy)
Just because you have done some exercise; doesn’t mean you have used more total energy that day…it seems counter intuitive; but your body likely shifted energy from one thing (immune system, brain) to muscles, for the time your were exercising.
In saying that exercising is so good for other things; physical and mental health are enhanced by exercise, there are so many good things about exercise, just don’t rely on it for weight loss.
As the old saying goes “you can’t out run a bad diet”; you are correct, if over the long term you eat fewer calories than your body requires, you will see an effect. But your body is a tricksy beast, it will do all it can to prevent this; it is why dieting is so hard in an age of abundant food.
Tonava@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
Also people tend to focus too much on the “losing weight” part, as in getting the numbers down. Muscle weights more than fat, and having more muscles uses more energy; if you diet the wrong way and don’t exercise, it’s possible you lose weight but you also lose muscle mass, making it even harder to lose more weight and possibly making yourself unhealthier. Getting “thinner” and/or “healthier” might mean you don’t actually lose that much weight, or even gain some
bizarroland@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I’ll just keep repeating this, but your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is not scientifically set in stone.
While it’s accurate for I would say 90% of the population, rough estimate, there are many things that can cause your BMR to not be accurate, like thyroid issues or lack of musculature due to sedentary lifestyle or due to hormone imbalances or any number of myriad things.
I went and had mine tested and it cost me I believe $70 at a sports medicine place, and I burn approximately 200 calories less than my BMR chart says that I should.
So if I wanted to maintain my weight, and I ate the calories the internet says that I should every day, I would actually gain almost 20 lbs a year (a nice rough estimate is every 10 calories a day you cut from your diet you lose one pound a year).
And as I am working on losing weight, and I’m eating 500 calories under my BMR, I’m actually only eating 300 calories under my true BMR, which means my weight loss is incredibly slow.
So yes, while calories and calories out is true, there are external factors that make it difficult to get accurate numbers to compare against.
Therefore calories in calories out is much simpler to say than it is to do for some percentage of the population.
xep@discuss.online 2 weeks ago
Not only is it not set in stone, it appears that your BMR is affected by what you do. If not provided with sufficient nutrition, the body seems to adapt and lowers BMR.
Peruvian_Skies@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Getting the numbers in practice can be difficult but that’s not the same as saying that CI/CO is bullshit, as many people do sho don’t understand that it’s simple thermodynamics. If your fire isn’t producing enough heat, you add more wood. You don’t start to doubt that burning is exothermic.
idiomaddict@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I can’t digest pork well (it runs right through me and frequently causes vomiting), so I don’t l eat it, but if I were to follow a diet with 500 calories of pork in it, I might get 100 from it. On the other hand, I digest beans and lentils incredibly well, with no noticeable gas. I can imagine that I might actually get 110 calories from a “100 calorie serving.” It is possible to determine your caloric intake despite this variation, but because people aren’t well educated about it, they see a mismatch in the math and reality and think it’s pointless to calculate it at all instead of realizing they need to adjust it for their specific digestive system.
Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
What do you think about keto?
Basically it’s “ditch all sugar”, and the idea is that when you eat sugar, as it’s toxic, the body tries to use up the energy from sugar, storing the rest for later. And vice versa, if you have no fastburning sugar, the bidy have to start to rely on breaking down that stored fat.
Of course, you cannot overcome physics, but it’s not like we don’t store everything we eat either (the body is fantastic but not like 100% efficient).
Some say you just eat less, and it’s true that it’s harder to cook without potatoes, rice, pasta… And sugar makes you want to eat more.
It’s fascinating because we don’t know more than around 10-15% of how metabolism works.
BradleyUffner@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
With every diet, named or not, the weight loss aspect always comes from “calories in vs calories out”.
Some of them, like keto, change the way the body accesses the calories in food, but the math still holds. If your body can’t access the calories in what you eat, they literally become “calories out” when you go to the bathroom later.
Other diets help with mentally being able to track calories better, or to just help you deal with how hard it is to eat fewer calories.
But no matter what, conservation of mass and energy always applies.
U7826391786239@piefed.zip 2 weeks ago
i lost ~50 lb last year just by intermittent fasting and walking more. actually i stopped eating processed junk too
AnchoriteMagus@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Almost like the only “scientific knowledge” you need is to burn more and take in less.
Tiresia@slrpnk.net 2 weeks ago
“Just stop being depressed and enjoy life”.
People are overweight because something in their diet, psychology or physiology overrides the natural desire to stop eating when they’ve had enough calories. As long as that thing isn’t addressed, trying to use willpower to overcome it can easily lead to burnout and disappointment. Sometimes raw willpower works, but most people who are overweight have tried that and found it doesn’t work for them.
Those people aren’t failures, they just happened to have a problem that didn’t eliminate itself when using willpower. If your problem is the chemicals in fast food, then stopping fast food by willpower can solve things, but if your problem is pica for some vitamin deficiency than stopping fast food by willpower will not solve things. People that stop by willpower alone are lucky, nothing more.
So most people who are overweight do in fact need more scientific knowledge, or better environments, or both. A pedestrian-murdering hellscape isn’t great for getting enough exercise. Micronutrients, letting your stomach rest, avoiding blood sugar spikes and dips, metabolism-affecting drugs like caffeine, stress eating, etc can all affect things.
And because people can’t just get up and move to a pedestrian-friendly area, or because vegetables are twice as expensive as meat per calorie, or because their job requires them to sit still for eight hours, they want to try the messy imperfect solutions that do as much as possible in their limited environment.
I can well believe that intermittent fasting works better than “burn more eat less” for someone with the unnatural lifestyle of sitting in an office chair for hours straight. The traditional 3 meal structure was built on a society where people did lots of physical labor throughout the day every day, so just trying to eat less in those 3 meals doesn’t change the fact that your body needs far fewer calories at certain times than that diet frees up, and the same goes for exercising outside of work hours.
homoludens@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
That’s a bit like saying “In order to run faster, you need to make longer steps and more steps per minute”. It’s obviously true, but the hard part is how to do that.
ordnance_qf_17_pounder@reddthat.com 2 weeks ago
Flyberius@hexbear.net 2 weeks ago
That’s just being healthy. I’d hardly call that a fad diet
U7826391786239@piefed.zip 2 weeks ago
some people look at me in horror if i say i’m skipping dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow, or god forbid, not eating until day after tomorrow– they absolutely think it’s a “fad” and that i’m going to die immediately if i don’t eat burgers and fries ASAP
i don’t know where you are, but where i live, skipping a meal or two is like… spitting on jesus or something
svcg@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
When I read “nutritional hexes” I assumed this would be honeycomb related.
01011@monero.town 2 weeks ago
Shout out to “alkaline water”.
Peruvian_Skies@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
I loved it when Gwyneth Paltrow said she drinks alkaline water for the health benefits… with a slice of lemon.
Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
With a squeeze of lemon!
undergroundoverground@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
100%. For example right now the meat and dairy lobby groups are pushing hard for everyone to eat for more protein than they need. Now, I have people who can’t tell the difference between a cytokine and a histone without using Google, even if it slapped them round the face, telling me they need 100g plus a day in Brotien. Its just a coincidence that this so called health advice makes those groups a lot more money.
captcha_incorrect@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I’ve heard that you cannot absorb (for lack of a better word) more that 30g of protein/day (adjust for your body weight).
Is that remotly true?
ayyy@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Nah bro I’m a Paleolithic human so I eat my burger without a bun.
Burghler@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
You still cooking your patties? Amateur. 🥱
NewOldGuard@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
You still make patties?? Poser, just bite the cow
Soapbox@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Someone has to repackage the low carb diet in a new way every decade.
mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
All over the place, we’re dealing with people who Do Not Get science, because they don’t really inhabit an objective reality. They’re doing the same woo-woo nonsense humanity has always done. It’s all just stories and belief. The signifiers just changed from headdresses to lab coats, and the jargon has a bit more Latin.
Soapbox@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
The “I don’t want to eat chemicals I can’t pronounce.” crowd get really mad when you try to explain that everything in the known universe is made of chemicals whose names they can’t pronounce. That meme listing the chemical makeup of an apple is a classic.
mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Ban dihydrogen monoxide!
DeathsEmbrace@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Bro you ever try to make money selling horse radish extract? You gotta find creative ways to convince people to buy your product. 100% a marketing scheme.
StickyDango@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Speaking of marketing scheme, I still have a laugh when people think the air fryer is the greatest kitchen equipment ever and so healthy because there’s no oil used.
It’s a bench top conventional oven.
DagwoodIII@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
I know people who refuse to eat gluten even though no doctor told them to.
Krudler@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I don’t eat gluten because it provokes my auto immune disorder and makes my psoriasis bloom.
25 years of doctors telling me that diet cannot influence the condition(s) while prescribing progressively more intense medications. They would sarcastically smirk when I asked… Ohohoho silly patient why would you ask such a dumb question. Not just GPs but Dermatologists too.
I found out by accident when I taught myself to cook and accidentally cut out wheat and barley.
Lots of people are intolerant but don’t realize. Many people realize and cut it out of their lives, then have to deal with the sarcasm/cynicism/ignorance of others.
nightshade@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
I think it’s important to know that doctors don’t always know best. I made a post a little higher up about the saturated fat hypothesis with regards to heart disease. Many people get set in their ways, whether they have a “Dr.” in front of their names or not. I’m just a lowly trainer, and I have to take continuing education courses so I’m keeping pace with the latest research and best practices. I think it’s only fair that all doctors be forced to stay updated as well.
Viceversa@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Now is it gluten or is it another component of wheat?
And do you experience classic celiac symptoms?
Zephorah@discuss.online 2 weeks ago
I put this one on the shelf next to the MSG.
I_am_10_squirrels@beehaw.org 2 weeks ago
I love gluten and MSG, gotta give the seitan some flavor.
Hazel@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
Feeling bad eating sweetened white bread and thinking gluten is the problem…
xep@discuss.online 2 weeks ago
They could both be problems. White bread by itself, even without being sweetened, is still very high in carbohydrates which turns into glucose in the body.
stray@pawb.social 2 weeks ago
I have a celiac diagnosis now, but I had to diagnose myself online and fight to get tested. I don’t judge people who try to figure out their own healthcare because the system is happy to abandon them.
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
i was tested for it i was negative, you have to convince the doctor to even test it/. im not in the susceptible demographic, apparentlys is specific to certain ancestry in the europe, and not asia.
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
they believe in the gluten, leaky gut thing. but they dont make the connection between CELIACS disease and gluten proteins.
ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
You know gullible people
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
alot of people buy into the “flouride-free” gluten free, and inflammation, lysine diet apparently.
BearerOfPickles@hexbear.net 2 weeks ago
Sounds like somebody isn’t retaining his semen yeah-buddy
sirico@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
But life is an RPG and you get buffs from potions you make up. It’s always stuff that’s fun and easy too these fads are never hard graft or embracing simple balanced diets.
I_am_10_squirrels@beehaw.org 2 weeks ago
I’m almost finished with the first Dungeon Crawler Carl book, it’s an easy read along the same premise.
socsa@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
Bro clearly isn’t getting enough protein.
ThermonuclearHoxha@hexbear.net 2 weeks ago
This is why I macrodose botox, which is grounded in real science, and proven to actually be fatal.
vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
My body is an engine that turns food into lifting a hundred pounds of machinery. I dead lifted a generator about a week ago, yet it was the tree I felled a month ago that fucked up my shoulder.
dickalan@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
did you figure out which underworked muscle group you have to work out next because of that
vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Yeah not my thing more of a listen to Tyr and Hulkoff while doing yardwork type of guy. As for why my arm got messed up, it was my offhand and I used it to push a ten year old orange tree the exact opposite way it was falling, because I didn’t want to risk the chainsaw sputtering and jumping into me.
balian@lemmy.libertarianfellowship.org 2 weeks ago
One of my past flatmates literally self-diagnosed himself with diabetes out of nowhere and started extreme dieting - made all sugar and high-carb foods haram and even started mixing his own flour to make it “multigrain”. Since we were sharing kitchen expenses all of our meals then started involving coarse bread and either chicken or tofu at all times. Made me constipated for a while.
I think all he really wanted was an excuse for that diet and it does seem to have worked well in him; shame it didn’t do so on me and just made me eat outside more instead.
nightshade@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
I’m a personal trainer with certifications in fitness nutrition (I’m not a dietitian, those are actual licensed medical practitioners you go to see about dietary needs. I can legally provide guidelines, but I can’t prescribe meal plans.)
Our body is great at getting rid of toxins and waste products. It’s almost as if we’ve evolved ways of dealing with such things. Anyone talking about “toxins” and “waste products” as if they’re ‘stuck’ in your body is either very ignorant, or trying to sell you snake oil. Probably both. I’ve seen a lot of it, especially in my profession. People making up bullshit to sound knowledgeable and sell you something you don’t need. And yeah, a lot of trainers are just as ignorant and just trying to sell you something you don’t need.
waigl@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
There are bio-accumulative toxins that really do get stuck in your body. Lead is a good example. Not that the supposed cures being peddled by these people can actually do anything about those.
Also, for the normal kind of toxin, the biggest factor keeping the levels in your body high is continued intake. Reducing that totally makes sense. However, you need to first have a real, based on science, understanding of what those toxins are in the first place and not just randomly blame junk food or 5G radiation, and it needs to be a permanent life style change. A two week “cleanse” does nothing. A juice will not detoxify you. (Depending on the juice, especially how filtered and how sugary it is, it may be healthy for other reasons. Standard orange juice is not, it’s way too sugary.)
GreenShimada@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
There are bioaccumulative toxins, but nothing over the counter sold in a plastic tub by some guy in a tank top will get rid of them. And some, like lead, have symptoms that are not reversible. Lead poisoning is a lifelong condition. So a magical “detoxifying” shoe insole or smoothie additive isn’t going to do much. I think @nightshade@piefed.social 's point remains that any toxins that stay in the body are either gone for good after a short time, or there to stay.
nightshade@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
You make good points. I guess what I really wanted to say is that 90% of the time when people talk about toxins and try to offer up a solution, they don’t even know what they’re trying to talk about. There certainly are substances that bio-accumulate. And as you say, understanding what is actually there, what can be measured, what is problematic, and then reducing intake should be key in solving the issue.
Another thing I think is important to understand is that the science is continually evolving. I’ve encountered plenty of doctors who insist you should eliminate saturated fat from your diet as much as you can, and that’s key to reducing your odds of heart disease. This is the old hypothetical model of heart disease. Modern studies tend not to agree. But people are still being told the same old things.
JustEnoughDucks@slrpnk.net 2 weeks ago
Wouldn’t the only really possible “cleanse” be something like water fasting or similar since you wouldn’t be taking in more of the so-called “toxins” (well I guess it does technically exist like alcohol but that gets metabolized)?