About Diets

To treat someone who seemingly has depression, while isolating this from any other situation, event or circumstance that might have triggered it is a flawed way to diagnose a potential mental illness.

The root cause of the problem of depression is not addressed in this way.

Antidepressant prescription and eventually their doses have doubled over the past decade, yet depression and anxiety are spiraling out of control.

The real cause of depression does not seem to be completely inside our heads, and pill-popping is just a stop-gap measure, which may even be harmful.

The brain’s response to caloric restriction tends to be to increase cravings for foods that are highly rewarding and reducing our perception of being full. 

Diets frequently fail because they have an endpoint and are not a real lifestyle change. Maintaining a lifestyle that promotes a healthy weight and metabolism is often a lifelong journey. 

The actual food you eat isn’t the main thing that enables you to keep weight off.

Maintaining a weight-reduced state is a lifelong journey and many dietary approaches can work to facilitate weight loss and keep it off.

• Basal metabolism is the energy our body needs to keep our cells working and accounts for 65-80% of most adults' caloric consumption.
• The thermic effect of food is the energy our body uses to process food and accounts for 10% of most adults' caloric consumption.
• Physical activity accounts for 10 - 30 % of most people’s caloric consumption .

Not everyone overeats and becomes overweight, and not everyone who becomes overweight or obese develops illnesses like diabetes or heart disease. 

There was never a special diet, exercise regimen, or supplement that worked universally to control weight. Through trial and error, we have to discover habits and routines we can stick with that help us eat less and move more. 

It can take 10 to 12 hours to use up calories in the liver before your body changes over to use the stored fat.

After meals, glucose is used for energy, while fat is stored in fat tissue. During fasts, once glucose is depleted, stored fat is broken down and used for energy.

To lose weight, strive for sixteen calorie-free hours. Stop eating by 8 pm, and eat again at noon the next day. Results can take up to four weeks to notice.

Intermittent dieters should eat healthy foods, including whole grains and healthy fats and protein. They should limit saturated fats and avoid sugar and refined carbohydrates. Be sure to stay well-hydrated.

The new guideline, funded by Obesity Canada, acknowledges their clinical limitations. Obesity is a complex, chronic condition that needs lifelong management.

There is a dominant cultural narrative regarding obesity that adds to the assumption about personal irresponsibility and lack of willpower. Research shows many doctors discriminate against obese patients, and that can lead to worse health outcomes.

Obese person's "best weight" might not be their "ideal weight." A small reduction of about 3-5% can lead to health improvements.

The new guideline notes that keeping the weight off is often difficult because the brain will compensate by making the body feel more hungry. The guideline encourages doctors to provide support like psychological therapy, medication, and bariatric surgery. Physicians should ask permission before discussing a patient's weight and work with them to reach their health goals.

We consume ultra-processed foods every day without even realizing it.

• The morning cereal and flavored yogurt.
• The savory snacks and sweet baked goods.
• The vegan hotdog and the chicken nuggets available on the street.
• The doughnut or the premium protein bar we buy as a snack.
• The carton-packed almond milk put in our coffee or the diet coke we have.

Most cooked foods can be termed as 'processed foods', but ultra-processed foods are in a different domain, with few people having the clarity to differentiate.

A cooked carrot is processed food, but a bag of industrially-produced, carrot-flavored veggie puffs are ultra-processed and are still aimed at toddlers as a portion of natural food. Other examples include frozen peas or pasteurized milk.

• Ketosis occurs when the body does not have sufficient access to its primary fuel source, glucose.
• Ketosis describes a condition where fat stores are broken down to produce energy, which also produces ketones, a type of acid.
• In small amounts, ketones serve to indicate that the body is breaking down fat, but high levels of ketones can poison the body, leading to a process called ketoacidosis, a serious condition that can prove fatal.
• People with type 1 diabetes are more likely to develop ketoacidosis, for which emergency medical treatment is required to avoid or treat diabetic coma.
• Some people follow a ketogenic (low-carb) diet to try to lose weight by forcing the body to burn fat stores.

Adhering to the ketogenic diet can lead to short-term weight loss, consuming fewer calories without feeling hungry while following the diet.

It supplies energy under circumstances such as fasting or caloric restriction to certain organs (e.g. the brain, heart, and skeletal muscle).

In ketogenesis, our livers start to break down fat into a usable energy source called ketones. Ketones can stand in for glucose as fuel for the body when there’s a glucose shortage. 

Once ketogenesis kicks in and ketone levels are elevated, the body is in a state called “ketosis,” during which it’s burning stored fat. 

That means eating mainly meats, eggs, cheese, fish, nuts, butter, oils, and vegetables while avoiding sugar, bread and other grains, beans, and even fruit.

Minimalism is about experiencing the world directly and engaging with your surroundings.

The style now seems more like numbing yourself and creating a protective environment from the overwhelming visual experiences on the internet.

Minimalism these days has an aura of moral superiority.

The problem with minimalism today is that the style is associated with moral purity and outsiderness but it's being adopted by wealthy women and tech billionaires. The style of minimalism we see today is a reality that's not very minimal at all.