Thread: Absolute necessity to have an appropriate diet.

It is written that approximately every seven years the biological body ( our personal living organism that we call "" me ""), renews itself. You can Google this up. Our body re-builds itself from our smallest cells to complete functioning organs. If this is the case then it is common sense to seek out the best building materials. We are individuals. What is best for some is not best for all. The secret of good nutrition for oneself is a matter of listening to your inner urges, these indeed are probably indicating the way to go. At different times you will need to be eating that which is needed by the re-building process. Now for the punch line. What, predominately were your ancestors eating? And their ancestors? Were they healthy? Did they have readily available selections or variety of foodstuffs.? Or was the situation dire due to where and under what conditions their lives had to be lived? The Bantu Nation, as opposed to the National people from the Artic Circle. So if your ancestors were from the Artic circle, then you should include plenty of fish in your diet. And, preferably live in a cool climate. Some of my ancestors were Spanish, so I have olive oil, sardines, oranges, dates, and pomegranites. ( HE HE HE )westwind.

I am sorry to tell you this, Westwind, but that is a load of unmitigated rubbish.

1. Only parts of our bodies renew frequently. Some living tissues repair very slowly, if at all. Even then, such renewal that occurs slows with age, and an older person definitely does not renew each seven years.

2. The secret of good diet is not to listen to inner urges. Inner urges all too often induce people to eat food laden with sugar, salt and fat.

3. The secret to a good diet is good science. Nutritionists have a pretty damn good idea of what is best to eat. Listen to them.

4. Our ancestors lived shorter and less healthy lives than we do. Their diets were very restricted, because they did not have access to the wonderful wide range of foods we have. Modern foods are far healthier.

5. Olive oil, sardines, oranges, dates, and pomegranites are all fine, as part of a healthy balanced diet.

A good diet will include a wide range of fruit, and vegetables, nuts, animal protein (a good variety), high fibre starch foods, as well as the above.

I think Skeptic was basically right in saying rubbish. But you did say one thing I agree with, plus you asked a question...

Originally Posted by westwind

The secret of good nutrition for oneself is a matter of listening to your inner urges

Originally Posted by westwind

What, predominately were your ancestors eating? Were they healthy?

Our ancestors were opportunistic omnivores, who sampled a wider range of foods than any other species. This doesn't mean they sat down to a balanced meal thrice daily. They typically glutted on whatever was available: for some days they might deplete a meadow of rose hips, then for some days later they might eat exclusively from a gazelle carcass, and next week's diet could be all the eggs in a rookery, all week. They must have lived in a perpetual state of being overloaded with some nutrients, and deprived of others.

Presumably we are optimized to deal with that lifestyle, and I think we do (or can) by intuitively learning the nutritional properties of different foods: "When I feel this way, chewing cedar leaves makes me feel better." and so forth. How could an omnivore survive in wild without learning appropriate responses to deficiencies? It's all about learning from satiation experiences. We observe other omnivores doing this, and with non-traditional foods too so it's certainly not instinct. Subjectively a food found to repeatably fix some unpleasant sensation becomes a "like" food. Wonderful food-learning capacity we omnivores have, but there's a catch: you cannot intuitively learn the deficiency-curing property of a food (and thereby come to like it) unless you have a deficiency to cure.

Thanks to cultural and economic developments and

The secret to a good diet is good science. Nutritionists have a pretty damn good idea of what is best to eat.

modern humans now may eat a perfect balance of nutrients in every bite of the sandwich. But that fogs our learning-craving system... remember the hunter-gatherers? Few moderns can tell you, by polling their own sensations, whatever nutrients they happen to require most at the moment, i.e. "I could go for a banana right now." They can't develop appropriate cravings.

So when Skeptic says

The secret of good diet is not to listen to inner urges. Inner urges all too often induce people to eat food laden with sugar, salt and fat.

this sadly apples to most of us. Yet I hope I've encouraged you to keep tabs on those inner urges, while sampling so many strange edibles as only a human can.

The secret of good diet is not to listen to inner urges. Inner urges all too often induce people to eat food laden with sugar, salt and fat.

Yes. I remember only one comment from reading Colin Tudge's "The Food Connection" and it was about fat and sugar.

He argued that our hunter-gatherer forebears must have developed a very, very strong urge to eat fats and sugar - because such food sources were so hard to get. If you wanted sugar, the only concentrated source was honey. You had to be willing to climb trees and fight bees for it. And you wouldn't do that without a strong drive to persist against such opposition.

If you wanted a strongly fatty meal, the only way to get it was to kill a fairly large animal and crack open the bones for marrow and the skull to get at the fat laden brain. Once again, you had to really, really want it to take the risks and make the effort involved.

Seeing as there are still hunter-gatherers even now, we're not at all removed from that genetic inheritance. We still have strong preferences for fats and sugars. It's just that they are now easy to get rather than supremely difficult.

Dear skeptic. No, not at all old man, give me honesty everytime. At my age skeptic, feelings are a luxury that I cannot really waste time on. But nutritional food, I'm a sucker for, if it wasn't for the carriage I'm riding in I should grow young again very quickly. My mum used to say my eyes were bigger than my belly. She couldn't say that now. The Heinze food company packed up in melbourne australia recently and galloped to NZ. We , maybe sour grapes, but we were of the opinion that the move wasn't going to enable australians to enjoy fresh vegetables grown in NZ., but to allow Heinze to process imported food frm Asia as having been out of the NZ. kitchen. What say you skeptic? westwind.

Dear skeptic. No, not at all old man, give me honesty everytime. At my age skeptic, feelings are a luxury that I cannot really waste time on. But nutritional food, I'm a sucker for, if it wasn't for the carriage I'm riding in I should grow young again very quickly. My mum used to say my eyes were bigger than my belly. She couldn't say that now. The Heinze food company packed up in melbourne australia recently and galloped to NZ. We , maybe sour grapes, but we were of the opinion that the move wasn't going to enable australians to enjoy fresh vegetables grown in NZ., but to allow Heinze to process imported food frm Asia as having been out of the NZ. kitchen. What say you skeptic? westwind.

Westwind

I really cannot comment on why Heinz is moving.
Business moves are nearly always because the decision makers see more dollars after a move. How they plan to get these extra dollars is not something they have chosen to confide in with me.

Dear skeptic. You are being too kind. Australians, as a rule, trust New Zealand and New Zealanders, this is important for our two Nations. Everything must be seen as open and above board to encourage that trust. If Australians perceive that the New Zealand Government was enabling Food Companies from Australia to set up in New Zealand to help with their employment situation and their bottom line, disregarding the average Australians wishes to feel confident of the Quality of Produce coming into Australia from these said Companies, then that would generate a feeling of being let down. westwind.

Westwind

Not to worry. One thing the NZ government is really, really bad at, is keeping secrets. You would know!

Not to worry. One thing the NZ government is really, really bad at, is keeping secrets. You would know!

But we do know! The central issue is the free trade agreement.

Under the terms of OZNZ agreement, Australians are permitted to clearly show the place of origin of fresh fruit and vegetables only. It is against the terms of the agreement for an Australian processed foods producer to have a label that says, contents 100% grown and packed in Australia.

Because ............ ?

NZedders have a different standard for their own foods and their export products. So our labels are only allowed to say that a product was made from 'local and imported' ingredients. They're not allowed to specify that, for example, the tomatoes came from Australia, the spices from Vietnam and other countries supplied sugars or thickeners. Equally, they're not allowed to say, tomatoes from China, minor flavourings from Australia. That's the standard that went into the agreement. I suspect it's probably a boilerplate set of paragraphs from the WTO that's been extended to apply within Australia rather than just to external trade as a means of allowing NZ greater 'access' to Australian markets.

Truely? Food processors ar not allowed to state the origen of the product? I can see not being required to state the nation of origen, but not being allowed to seems strange. I just ate a chocolate bar that proclaimed itself to be "Belgian Chocolate" In NZ would that have to be labled "chocolate of imported origen"?

West wind

yes west wind why are you worry about that....remember that the NZ government have no skills to save their secrets.only wait for the someday.

For einfopedia. Well, I was never very good at Cryptics. Lets face it, I haven't a clue what Cryptics mean, is it some kind of World Language being introduced by generation giggle and grasp.? To answer your Post. And thank you for posting. I worry about the need for Australia to delegate any of its responsibilities to another country, even if New Zealand is really part of Australia. Have we in Australia set it up so that we can blame New Zealand when we all die of contaminated goose livers? I love New Zealand scallop Pies, South Island. Skeptic might send me a couple over it I go about it in the right way. westwind.

Still waiting for the scallop pies skeptic. westwind.