Diet Quotes

If our food environment contains too little protein, we will overeat until we satisfy our protein appetite. If the proportion of protein is greater than our bodies require, the protein appetite will be satisfied sooner—when fewer total calories have been eaten. This does not mean that more protein is better—far from it. Organisms from yeast cells to flies, mice, and monkeys have evolved not to overconsume protein for good reasons, mainly this one: eating too much protein switches on biological processes that hasten aging and shorten lives. [2020] - David Raubenheimer

Mary is 45 years old and should contain roughly 15% of total energy as protein. The Harris Benedict formula estimates metabolic rate. There are various online calculators to help do this, based on your weight, height, sex, age, and how active you are. Based on the formula, Mary needs 1,880 kcal per day. If she consumes that daily, she will neither gain nor lose weight. 15% of 1,880—the proportion recommended to come from protein—is 282 kcal. Because protein contains 4 kcal of energy per gram, this amounts to 70.5 grams of protein spread across the day. Once Mary reaches her older years, 65 and above, she will need to start increasing her protein intake a little, by around 25 grams per day, to a 20% protein diet. This is because the protein drain becomes more leaky with old age, and unless Mary increases her intake, she risks losing muscle mass. [2020] - David Raubenheimer

Low-protein (9 percent), very high-fat (90 percent) keto diets are therapeutic in certain circumstances, such as for the treatment of epilepsy in children; and very low-carb, low-energy diets can help reverse the symptoms of type 2 diabetes; but neither is sustainable nor desirable for most of us as a regular diet. Even somewhat less extreme low-carb, high-fat diets have low compliance—most of us soon drift back to a more balanced mixture of macronutrients. The longest-lived, healthiest populations on the planet are those who consume a lower-protein, high-carb whole-food diet. [2020] - David Raubenheimer

Estimate your protein target: 1) Estimate the daily energy (calorie) requirement for your age, sex, and level of activity. You can do this by using something called the Harris Benedict equation calculator, available online at numerous websites. 2) Estimate the portion of those calories that should come as protein (i.e., your protein intake target) by multiplying that value by: Child and adolescent: 0.15 (i.e., a 15% protein diet) / Young adult (18–30): 0.18 / Pregnant and breastfeeding: 0.20 / Mature adult (30s): 0.17 / Middle years (40–65): 0.15 / Older age (>65): 0.20 3) Divide that number by 4 to get the number of grams of protein per day you should eat. [2020] - David Raubenheimer

A practical way to identify an ultra-processed product is to check to see if its list of ingredients contains either food substances never or rarely used in kitchens (such as high-fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated or interesterified oils, and hydrolysed proteins), or classes of additives designed to make the final product palatable or more appealing (such as flavours, flavour enhancers, colours, emulsifiers, emulsifying salts, sweeteners, thickeners, and anti-foaming, bulking, carbonating, foaming, gelling and glazing agents). [2020] - David Raubenheimer

Choose high-protein foods from a variety of animal (poultry, meat, fish, eggs, and dairy) and/or plant (seeds, nuts, legumes) sources to both reach your intake target and ensure a balanced ratio of amino acids, which will satisfy the protein appetite most effectively. If you are vegetarian, which is no bad thing, you will need to make greater efforts to eat a variety of foods, given that single plant proteins tend to be less well balanced in their amino acid content than many animal-derived proteins. [2020] - David Raubenheimer

Include lots of leafy greens, non-starchy vegetables, fruits, seeds, and whole grains to ensure fiber without calorie load. Beans, seeds, and pulses (e.g., butter beans, kidney beans, chickpeas, black-eyed peas, lentils) also add fiber, protein, and healthy carbs. As a bonus, vitamins and minerals will come along for the ride, reducing the need for supplements. Be restrained when adding sugar and salt to food, and choose healthy added fats, such as extra-virgin olive oil.  [2020] - David Raubenheimer

Don’t obsess about counting calories—get your diet right, and your protein appetite will manage the calories for you. Accompany the high-protein foods with lots of vegetables and fruits, beans, and whole grains, which will contain good carbs and fats. That way you will also satisfy your appetites for all three macronutrients at the same time. Try adjusting up and down until you feel in control of your appetites—hungry by mealtimes and satisfied after and between meals. [2020] - David Raubenheimer

When exercising and building muscle mass, the science suggests that eating 20 to 30 grams of protein within a meal best activates the cellular machinery for building new muscle proteins. That is the optimal dose of protein to kick-start muscle synthesis into action. The machinery involved in protein synthesis is the growth pathway which, as an inevitable by-product, also produces cellular garbage and causes damage to cells and DNA. A meal containing 20 to 30 grams of protein will switch on protein synthesis for around 2 hours, limiting the side effects of protein synthesis to those periods within the day. [2020] - David Raubenheimer

To help boost cellular and DNA repair and maintenance, fast overnight and limit snacking between main meals. There are health benefits from simply restricting the number of hours in the day when we eat (called “intermittent fasting” or “time-restricted feeding”). These benefits arise because a period of several hours without food turns off the damage-producing growth pathways and activates the cellular and DNA repair and maintenance processes that support health and longevity. Sleep well. Sleep is the third pillar of health and wellness, along with diet and exercise. Get active—outdoors if possible—and sociable. Physical activity and social interactions are clearly related to improved health and longevity. [2020] - David Raubenheimer

Intermittent fasting is a promising nutritional approach for cancer prevention, as it protects against many of the risk factors such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and inflammation. Low-carbohydrate diets reduce glucose and insulin, but not the other nutrient sensors, mTOR and AMPK. Fasting simultaneously reduces all the human nutrient sensors and most of the growth pathways, such as PI3K, mTOR, and IGF-1, and also increases autophagy and mitophagy. One recent study found that women who fast for fewer than thirteen hours per night, despite having a lower BMI than other women in the study who fasted for that duration, had a 36 percent higher risk of recurrent breast cancer. [2020] - Jason Fung

In 2000, researchers in Japan found that high consumption of green tea delayed the average age of cancer onset by 7.3 years and reduced breast cancer recurrence. Green tea extract supplements were shown to reduce the incidence of colorectal adenomas by over 50 percent in small pilot studies. In prostate cancer, green tea extracts block the progression of high-grade precancerous lesions. These studies are promising but highly preliminary, but green tea is one of the few chemopreventive tools that is a low-cost, natural food with no negative side effects. [2020] - Jason Fung

There are four principles of a Nutritarian diet: 1) The only proven strategy for slowing aging and prolonging lifespan is moderate calorie restriction in the environment of micronutrient excellence. 2) A diet has to be hormonally favorable to enable maximal lifespan. 3) Optimal exposure to all macronutrients and micronutrients humans require is needed to maximize health and lifespan--this is called Comprehensive Nutrient Adequacy (CNA). 4) Synthetic chemicals, toxins, pathogenic bacteria, parasites, and other disease-causing substances should be avoided.  [2020] - Joel Fuhrman

Even though brown rice is a whole grain, I no longer recommend its consumption because of significant arsenic contamination of most of the brown rice available for purchase in the United States--even organic brown rice and wild rice. Arsenic is a causative factor in many cancers, and it also promotes heart disease. Recommended intact whole grains include wheat berries, steel cut oats, quinoa, buckwheat, barley, millet, teff, and amaranth. [2020] - Joel Fuhrman

Restricting animal protein during most of adult life to maintain a relatively low IGF-1 is an important objective for people who desire superior health and life extension. For most adults, keeping IGF-1 levels below 175 ng/mL is likely important, with less than 150 ng/mL being even more protective. However, serum IGF-1 levels less than 80 ng/mL are likely detrimental, especially after the age of 75. Older adults require adequate protein intake (such as a pea and hemp protein powder and/or a small amount of animal products) coupled with strengthening exercises to counteract the muscle loss and prevent functional decline and falls. [2020] - Joel Fuhrman

Eating a diet rich in natural plants can raise health issues if it is not supplemented property. Though a vegan diet may be the most lifespan-favorable diet, there are drawbacks and risks from lack of exposure to beneficial nutrients, such as vitamin B12, zinc, and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), which are more readily available in animal products. Deficiencies and even chronic insufficiencies of these three micronutrients can have life-threatening consequences. [2020] - Joel Fuhrman

Antioxidants found in plant food, called phytates, limit the absorption of zinc from plants such that only about 20% of zinc present in beans and greens is absorbed by the body. So even if the content of a plant-based diet appears to meet our zinc requirements, the levels supplied are still suboptimal, and with absorptive capacity decreasing further with aging, this potentially places the aging vegan at increased risk. [2020] - Joel Fuhrman

Exposure to some fish or a small amount of fish oil seems to offer benefits. However, the minute you start taking high doses (more than 1 gram daily) of fish oil, problems seem to erupt and negate many of the benefits. I recommend supplementing EPA and DHA to prevent insufficiency only if you do not eat fish regularly. That said, you must not overdo supplementation. It is ideal to use an algae-based DHA and EPA supplement in a relatively low dose (such as 200-300 milligrams total) to prevent deficiency--and also to protect yourself from exposure to the environmental contaminants potentially found in fish and fish oil. [2020] - Joel Fuhrman

Acrylamide is one of hundreds of chemicals known as Maillard reaction products (MRPs) formed when foods are heated at high temperature with dry heat. Acrylamide has been classified as a Group 2A carcinogen (probably carcinogenic to humans) by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). To reduce your exposure to acrylamide, cook starchy foods like turnips and sweet potatoes mostly in stews or soups because cooking in water prevents acrylamide formation. When you bake or roast vegetables, do not allow them to brown. Increasing the water content helps--soaking starchy foods in water before roasting reduces acrylamide formation. [2020] - Joel Fuhrman

Farmed salmon had 16 times more PCB (polychlorinated biphenyl) content than wild-caught salmon and 4 times more than beef. Sport-caught fish or shellfish are often high in PCB and DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane). Commercial fish that are high in these pollutants include Atlantic or farmed salmon, bluefish, wild striped bass, white and Atlantic croaker, blackback or winter flounder, summer flounder, American eel, and blue crab. Seafood that is lower in both PCBs and mercury include oysters, sardines, rainbow trout, sablefish, and arctic char. [2020] - Joel Fuhrman