How has eating healthier changed your life? What where the top benefits?

[SamC]

My diet sucks and I'm starting to become more and more aware about how badly thos influences my work. That said, I am still very blue eyed when it comes to nutrition and subconciously belive I can get away with eating poorly.

In an attempt to change that, I would love to read your experiences about how changing your nutrition changed your life for the better + some recorce recommendations that can help me open up my eyes on how important nutrition is.

How has eating healthy changed your life for the better? What where the top benefits? Do you have any resorce recommendations for creating a big vision for a healthy sustainable diet? Cheers

 

Edited March 28, 2021 by SamC

[Michael569]

1 hour ago, SamC said:

That said, I am still very blue eyed when it comes to nutrition and subconciously belive I can get away with eating poorly.

yeah, a young body can tolerate a lot of abuse without any consequences but it may start catching up. When you are young, your cells are still powerful, mitochondria mostly functional and the body is better at storing resources. All the energetic pathways function optimally so even at poor nutrient intake, it is easy to have a lot of energy unless you have become very obese or sick. In guys, the peak health is somewhere around 25-30 after which the first symptoms may start to appear usually in form of depression, fatigue, brain fog and digestive problems. However, if the diet was VERY bad and combined with poor genetics and bad growing up in an unhealthy environment (lack of cooking habit, smoking parents, stress, abuse, dysfunctional family dynamics)  you may see the first problem as early as 15 usually in the form of mental health problems. 

I am sure folks n the forum has lots of stories to share on how they transformed their health for the better. Personally I was lucky to have been born to a fairly healthy family so, besides asthma and allergies in past, I was fortunate to have always had good health but I've seen the health of others transform fairly quickly once put on a decent diet and once lifestyle was optimised.  

If you are a mind worker and use a lot of brain capacity, then or nutrition will have 100% impact on everything you do. Memory, concentration, peak attention, executive function, formation of new synaptic connections etc. Your energy will be impacted as well as mental health, digestion, immunity, metabolism and pretty much everything else including skin, hair, eyes, teeth. 

recommended resources
This is very individual and different people resonate with different stuff but generally and statistically the most prevalent evidence aims towards something along the line of Mediterranean diet with an abundance of natural whole foods, cooked at home from scratch with minimal use of processed foods. Ofcourse this is a drastic simplification but there are videos, books, seminars on how to get closer to that. 

Star y eliminating sources of processed junk and deliveries/takeaways replacing them for real food cooked at home and you'll see a great difference within 2 weeks. Hit me up if you have any questions. 

[Rigel]

I don't think about what it has done or what it will do for me. I just ask myself: what does my body want right now? And if I am being honest with myself I'll eat what is healthiest for me.

In my experience eating unhealthy food is not really enjoyable. The only times I eat what my body is not supposed to eat is when I am lying to myself about what I really want. Using food as a coping mechanism to avoid processing certain thoughts, emotions and what not.

[The0Self]

I've been feeling absolutely wonderful on:

Oats, eggs, milk, meat, white rice, fruit (lots of apples, cantaloupe, and grapes), vegetables, lots of potatoes, occasional peanut butter, and occasional cheese. For occasional social dinners I often go out to southern/barbeque restaurants and eat lots of BBQ, mac n cheese, fries, etc lol but not too often.

And lots of fat-free plain Greek yogurt with stevia, unsweetened cocoa powder, and unflavored hydrolyzed whey protein mixed in -- extremely delicious with 42g P / 7g C / ~0g F, if that's what I'm going for on a particular meal.

No gut issues or otherwise whatsoever.

I'm pretty resilient though, so the only time I truly feel just a bit off is on rare occasion when I eat fast food, mainly Chick-Fil-A.

[mandyjw]

It's a beneficial cycle, as you pay attention to how you feel when you eat things, you start to feel better and become more aware of how foods affect you, you start to make better choices effortlessly and those choices make you feel better, think with more clarity and make you even more aware of how you feel. We all are different so outside of general advice about what foods are healthy and what aren't, veggies=good, preservative and too much sugar=not good, it takes a lot of listening to your own body, which, as I said before the awareness thing is really what it's all about anyway. It's easy to get caught up in diet dogma and fear mongering, and that's where intaking too much information about healthy eating can sometimes start to backfire. It's not about judgement, it's about curiosity and greater awareness and enjoyment about food and life in general. 

[Preety_India]

I'm yet to start with healthy eating. 

Will be a very very long time till I start eating healthy. 

My emotional issues are not resolved yet, so I Indulge to get emotional comfort although I don't gain weight because of a high metabolism. 

So fingers crossed. 

At some point I will make the decision to start eating healthy once my emotional clock is reset. 

 

 

[Matt23]

13 hours ago, Michael569 said:

first symptoms may start to appear usually in form of depression, fatigue, brain fog and digestive problems.

I can attest to this (obviously I can't say 100% for sure what the causes of symptoms are... I don't think anyone can).  But, I'm 27 at the moment and have been dealing with insomnia for the past few years, gut issues for maybe the past like 3-4 years maybe (maybe closer to 3), brain fog with some really heavy periods where it felt like there was something in my head causing lots of pressure - maybe like 2-4 years, muscle fatigue for a long time on and off (10 years or so maybe),  emotional issues for the past 7-10 years, lethargy for a long time as well.  I feel currently lots of things starting to kind of add up and even get worse (e.g., my digestion, brain fog, and energy levels).  I just did an elimination diet for high thiol foods and really recognized how shitty they make me feel (also, I got really big brain fog/pressure which I've felt before but had no idea what was causing it: I thought it was purely psychological/spiritual).  

I haven't made a lot of adjustments yet, but have been vegetarian (some seafood) since 2015-ish.  

I think the biggest thing for me was, in order to be healthier from binge eating desserts, was take Leo's advice and just stick to the diet and cut out processed sugars and wheats, soy, etc., but eat as much of it as I want.   This enabled me to do a diet which I felt was sustainable and health(er) since I could still binge on food (e.g., peanut butter + carrots or bananas or rice, etc.) and feel wayyyyyy better about it (binging on peanut butter and carrots felt wayyyyy better than doughnuts and chocolate). 

I think I may reintroduce chicken though as a protein substitute since I'm doing a low-thiol diet which eliminates beans and a bunch of nuts.  And I don't want to eat fish since it's expensive and has high mercury content. 

It seems to me like the biggest thing I'm learning is that no matter how healthy we deem a food (culturally or individually), it could still have some weird and negative effects for a person.  Like with this high-thiol food thing I discovered, cabbage, onions, beans, nuts (I dunno about all, but defs peanuts), broccoli, cauliflower (the list goes on), are all foods that made me feel like crap (I'm pretty sure) but which are culturally viewed of as "healthy" foods.  

• I guess the lesson is that no matter our ideas of what "healthy" and "unhealthy" foods are, you never know till you try it out and see the effects.  
  • You could be eating some super "healthy" food, like green tea maybe, but it has some weird molecule which makes your body react badly to.  

Edited March 29, 2021 by Matt23

[Michael569]

5 hours ago, Matt23 said:

.  I just did an elimination diet for high thiol foods and really recognized how shitty they make me feel (also, I got really big brain fog/pressure which I've felt before but had no idea what was causing it: I thought it was purely psychological/spiritual).  

Throughout all the years of my training I have never heard of high thiol foods being problematic. I did a bit of digging into this topic and it seems the problem here is the amino acid called cysteine because it has sulphur locked in its molecular structure so I wonder if this comes down to sulphur intolerance. Seems like some people may genuinely have a genetic deficiency in sulphur detoxification but it may also be that the liver needs some extra support and it may also be that your stores of glutathione (the master antioxidant in the body) are not optimal (or something else). 

Here is few things (along the elimination ) you may try 

1. A functional testing could reveal some stuff. Something like this: https://www.gdx.net/product/methylation combined with this https://www.gdx.net/core/sample-reports/Organic-Acids-Sample-Report.pdf. This would be VERY expensive thou so maybe as a last resort. 

2. You could ask your doctor for an assessment of a gene called methyltetrahydrofolate-reductase (MTHFR) and whether there are any genetic "snips", but I would be surprised if this is an issue (may be part of the problem, hard to tell)

3. Experimentally, you could try taking some S-adenosyl methionine (SAMe) along with reduced glutathione as well as a methylated B-complex for a short time (4-6 weeks) and see if that makes you feel better (if it does it would be an indication which way to go next and would reinforce the need for point 1) Observe symptoms thou and stop if it makes you feel worse (it shouldn't). ALpha-Lipoic Acid (ALA) may help as well, it seems. 

4.You may also try to ask your doctor if you could have your liver function assessed including the CYP family of enzymes. 

+ While doing all of that look up some foods beneficial for liver health and if you can tolerate them, add them in. Adding teas like dandelion or milk thistle may help as well. And finally, sufficient fibre content is also important in detoxification so make sure to keep consuming enough high fibre foods (the ones you can tolerate) to help you eliminate detoxified stuff from the body. 

++ Also adding few choline-rich foods (if you can tolerate) as well as beets (if you can tolerate) to support methylation pathway. 

+++ adding some zinc-rich foods you can tolerate. You said you can't consume legumes and don't consume any seafood so we could assume a potential zinc deficiency. Perhaps adding 1-2 oysters 3 times a week if you can tolerate them? Or just 25mg of zinc citrate before bedtime for up to 3 months. 

This article was very helpful but may be a bit too advanced but perhaps you could print it for your doctor? 

You may also consider working with a functional medicine doctor or someone well versed in functional medicine, this a very complex stuff and there is only so much MD will be able to help here. 

[StarStruck]

You need a healthy mindset. If you have the wrong mindset you won't be able to stick to your healthy diet anyway. It will feel like a mental and emotional struggle every day. Get into mediterranean diets. Ditch the 3 whites as much as possible: sugar, wheat, and salt. It feels great and look great. And most importantly you won't age that fast!

Edited March 29, 2021 by StarStruck

[The0Self]

6 hours ago, Michael569 said:

ALpha-Lipoic Acid (ALA) may help as well, it seems

Despite its well-known benefits, there is very good reason to avoid this for anything except chelation (wherein it is taken e3h around the clock for a bare minimum of 72 hours running) -- to prevent mercury redistribution.

ALA is the most effective mercury chelator there is, and when blood levels fall, some mercury, perhaps trace amounts, will be mobilized into tissues. And if there are any significant mercury sources in the body, such as dental amalgam, the ALA will mobilize this and spread it to tissues, most concerningly the brain, as ALA crosses the BBB.

Avoid ALA unless chelating by taking it e3h for 72+ hours straight, with copper control (7.5-10mg zinc and 250-500mcg molybdenum 4x/d). Preferably far longer than 72 hours (weeks, even), to reduce the amount of times the blood concentration falls, which leads to redistribution into tissues including the brain.

Please do not take ALA.

[The0Self]

36 minutes ago, neutralempty said:

@Michael569 silymarin extract is insandly good at supporting the liver.

At 210mg/d it's unbeatable. And it's synergistic and effects are maximized when split into 4 doses per day, each taken with:

-- Taurine (though apart from vitamin E, this is the only substance that ever produces acne for me, and it does it every time)

-- Glycine

-- Phosphatidylcholine or lecithin or whole eggs

 

This intervention greatly increases bile flow. To the point where copper deficiency can actually become a problem, so be careful. Eat some nuts every now and then.

Edited March 29, 2021 by The0Self

[Heaven]

@Michael569 May I ask if you overcame the allergies and asthma? If yes, how?

Thanks?

[Matt23]

@Michael569 Cheers.

9 hours ago, Michael569 said:

I wonder if this comes down to sulphur intolerance.

Could be.  I guess I the only source I'm going by at the moment is Andy Cutler's stuff and my own experience with eliminating high-thiol foods.  Andy Cutler says that many non-sulfur food lists on the internet don't cut it since they don't account for thiols.  But maybe if I just did eliminate simply sulfur in general I might get the same effects.  I can tell you though, I feel a decent amount better on the low-thiol diet (could be placebo, I dunno) and felt like crap doing high-thiols.  ---  I also wonder how much heavy metals can be involved here.  As in like, if those are more of a root issue than sulfur intolerence (etc.).  People on the ACC facebook page seem to think (also from their reported experiences) that after detoxing mercury and heavy metals, they could eat all the high thiols they wanted, whereas before they couldn't without feeling bad.  

 

9 hours ago, Michael569 said:

liver needs some extra support

I suspect this as well (and probably a butt-ton of other stuff as well).  Poo discussion alert:  I put a post on the ACC facebook page describing my poos and they said poor liver is probably the cause (my poos are often runny, pebbly, pale, and/or yellowish with like sometimes some mucus-type stuff).  I guess ACC says that that is a sign of poor functioning liver.  What do you think?

 

9 hours ago, Michael569 said:

this a very complex stuff

Ya.  From my POV and the little I've researched, it's looking for and more like this. 

[Michael569]

4 hours ago, neutralempty said:

silymarin extract is insandly good at supporting the liver.

on its own it is mostly useless but there is decent evidence for its use if combined with other protocols and a well balanced diet aimed at liver support 

3 hours ago, The0Self said:

Despite its well-known benefits, there is very good reason to avoid this for anything except chelation (wherein it is taken e3h around the clock for a bare minimum of 72 hours running) -- to prevent mercury redistribution.

ALA is the most effective mercury chelator there is, and when blood levels fall, some mercury, perhaps trace amounts, will be mobilized into tissues. And if there are any significant mercury sources in the body, such as dental amalgam, the ALA will mobilize this and spread it to tissues, most concerningly the brain, as ALA crosses the BBB.

Avoid ALA unless chelating by taking it e3h for 72+ hours straight, with copper control (7.5-10mg zinc and 250-500mcg molybdenum 4x/d). Preferably far longer than 72 hours (weeks, even), to reduce the amount of times the blood concentration falls, which leads to redistribution into tissues including the brain.

Please do not take ALA.

You'd first have to assume that ALA can only be found in supplements, the body is creating it constantly in each cell as it is one of the greatest antioxidants intracellularly and a major protector of mitochondrial integrity which is often compromised in conditions like depression, alzheimer's CFS etc. ALA has a great amount of evidence for diabetes and CVD and I'm yet to see evidence of its side effects but I have to admit I am not familiar with the chelating side of it so perhaps you're right on that if somebody has extreme stores of heavy metals. 

49 minutes ago, Matt23 said:

I also wonder how much heavy metals can be involved here.  As in like, if those are more of a root issue than sulfur intolerence (etc.).

Yes, I think so too that this is not any sort of immunological thing (like allergies) but this is linked to something else, my guess is either enzymatic deficiency or past liver damage or something going on in the gut (eg gut permeability) but could be a combination of all since gut & liver are connected through the gut-brain-liver-microbiome axis which pretty much means that if liver struggles, depression will quickly follow. You also mentioned insomnia above, which can be caused by a deficiency in liver detoxification as well, massively

49 minutes ago, Matt23 said:

ften runny, pebbly, pale, and/or yellowish with like sometimes some mucus-type stuff).

pale stools may also be pancreatic insufficiency your doctor can test for Pancreatic Elastase 1, it is really easy to test and very very accurate. It may also be bile deficiency (do you have your gall bladder still? EVer had a gall stone or bile duct obstruction? it is more yellow meaning there is undigested fat left in it. Definitely mention this to your doc, I think stool testing would reveal much. Either that or something like Organic Acids Tests privately. (usually costs up to 400 $ thou. 

I would say Matt that it seems like you are heading the right way with investigating this so definitely keep it up. 

 

[Michael569]

1 hour ago, Heaven said:

May I ask if you overcame the allergies and asthma? If yes, how?

Yes I did, at least I hope so, haven't had asthma attack for over 3 years and allergies for over 2 so fingers crossed  

You know I threw so much stuff at those two that I don't even know anymore but with asthma, the greatest difference happened by going mainly plant-based and reducing the intensity of my workouts. With allergies, I did a bit of immunomodulation using medicinal mushroom complex, echinacea and buteyko breathing which included taping my mouth at night. It really depends on whats your trigger. For example, asthma may be coming from compromised gut integrity or from chronic inflammation caused by poor diet and environmental toxins.  Being obese is also a risk factor for it because the fat body is constantly inflamed.  it may also be caused by being born through c-section, not having been breast-fed, having had too many antibiotics as a kid ((especially before year 1) as well as being born to a house with extreme cleanliness. 

Generally, the two are tied together very much and they are, sometimes, the same condition just manifesting itself in a different way because some of those trigger molecules are the same. Or it could be one causing the other such as the body inappropriately reacting to an antigen which causes constriction of the throat and wheezing. Allergies are still a great mystery 

Also generally the longer you've been on a corticosteroid inhaler, the more difficult it is to treat but I would say in the majority of cases, asthma is curable although allergies are a tougher nut to crack

[Heaven]

14 hours ago, Michael569 said:

Yes I did, at least I hope so, haven't had asthma attack for over 3 years and allergies for over 2 so fingers crossed  

You know I threw so much stuff at those two that I don't even know anymore but with asthma, the greatest difference happened by going mainly plant-based and reducing the intensity of my workouts. With allergies, I did a bit of immunomodulation using medicinal mushroom complex, echinacea and buteyko breathing which included taping my mouth at night. It really depends on whats your trigger. For example, asthma may be coming from compromised gut integrity or from chronic inflammation caused by poor diet and environmental toxins.  Being obese is also a risk factor for it because the fat body is constantly inflamed.  it may also be caused by being born through c-section, not having been breast-fed, having had too many antibiotics as a kid ((especially before year 1) as well as being born to a house with extreme cleanliness. 

Generally, the two are tied together very much and they are, sometimes, the same condition just manifesting itself in a different way because some of those trigger molecules are the same. Or it could be one causing the other such as the body inappropriately reacting to an antigen which causes constriction of the throat and wheezing. Allergies are still a great mystery 

Also generally the longer you've been on a corticosteroid inhaler, the more difficult it is to treat but I would say in the majority of cases, asthma is curable although allergies are a tougher nut to crack

Wow this is great for you!
I'm constantly improving my diet but obviously not enough..
The environmental allergies(Pets, dust and pollen) triggers my asthma. So probably if I was able to heal it, the asthma would be less significant.
I guess I need a radical change but it's pretty hard to maintain it.


  

[SamC]

On 2021-03-28 at 6:20 PM, Michael569 said:

yeah, a young body can tolerate a lot of abuse without any consequences but it may start catching up. When you are young, your cells are still powerful, mitochondria mostly functional and the body is better at storing resources. All the energetic pathways function optimally so even at poor nutrient intake, it is easy to have a lot of energy unless you have become very obese or sick. In guys, the peak health is somewhere around 25-30 after which the first symptoms may start to appear usually in form of depression, fatigue, brain fog and digestive problems. However, if the diet was VERY bad and combined with poor genetics and bad growing up in an unhealthy environment (lack of cooking habit, smoking parents, stress, abuse, dysfunctional family dynamics)  you may see the first problem as early as 15 usually in the form of mental health problems. 

I´ll have to look out for that. I am 20 now, 25 is not that far into the future.  It´s so hard to know what to listen to though..

Leo very often telling us that vegan, raw food diet is the best diet out there while some is saying Mediterranean diet is the best.  Maybe the one doesn´t have to exclude the other one? what do you say?@Michael569

Btw, big thanks for your time, one can sense that you´re really passionate about this topic. Do you mind sharing how that passion emerged, I would be curious to know what makes you tick and why this is your " life purpose" ( why you have chosen to work with this,

 

On 2021-03-28 at 6:20 PM, Michael569 said:

recommended resources
This is very individual and different people resonate with different stuff but generally and statistically the most prevalent evidence aims towards something along the line of Mediterranean diet with an abundance of natural whole foods, cooked at home from scratch with minimal use of processed foods. Ofcourse this is a drastic simplification but there are videos, books, seminars on how to get closer to that. 

Star y eliminating sources of processed junk and deliveries/takeaways replacing them for real food cooked at home and you'll see a great difference within 2 weeks. Hit me up if you have any questions. 

Thanks a ton man! Any specific book, course, channel or video that come to mind that you would recommend?

 

[SamC]

On 2021-03-28 at 6:21 PM, Rigel said:

I don't think about what it has done or what it will do for me. I just ask myself: what does my body want right now? And if I am being honest with myself I'll eat what is healthiest for me.

My body often times say it wants Icecream, and you know what - I usually listen

On 2021-03-28 at 6:21 PM, Rigel said:

In my experience eating unhealthy food is not really enjoyable. The only times I eat what my body is not supposed to eat is when I am lying to myself about what I really want. Using food as a coping mechanism to avoid processing certain thoughts, emotions and what not.

I´m trying to get to this point in my life where my body chooses more healthy food, but for right now - it still wants those cheese doodles.

[SamC]

@The0Self  mmmm, mac N cheese

[SamC]

On 2021-03-28 at 6:23 PM, neutralempty said:

Going plant based made my acne disappear (especially giving up meat), gave better stamina/recovery after physical activity, reduce necessary sleep time to 5-6 hours, harder/more volume errections.

This is the insane benefits that I like to see. Thanks for the share