Interesting graph/article about the changing American diet.

http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2008/08/...phix.ready.html

Some notes:

-Overall, dairy consumption is down 20%. Whole milk consumption plummeted, reduced fat milk consumption has partially replaced whole milk, and cheese consumption is up.

-We're eating 15% more vegetables per week. Notably, we're now eating 6x as much spinach.

-We're eating 25% more fruit per week, but half our fruit intake is in the form fruit juice.

-We're consuming 42% more grains, and 90% of that comes from refined grains. Oat and barley consumption is down, wheat and rice consumption are up.

-We're eating 17% more sweeteners.

-We're eating 59% more oils. Given that most restaurants have switched from traditional fats like butter and beef tallow to vegetable oil, I would assume that most of that 59% increase comes from polyunsaturated, monounsaturated, and trans fatty acids.

-Beef, lamb, and veal consumption is down. Seafood and poultry consumption is up.

Soaking your food in bleach--an alternative to organic foods?

http://www.preventionisbest.com/Default.as...s&ItemID=12

Has anyone ever heard of this? The article claims that soaking your food for a certain length of time in a solution of water and Clorox brand bleach can "revive foods, remove pesticides, toxins, and chemicals from food, as well as help preserve food in your refrigerator for much longer." The ratio of bleach to water is 1 teaspoon to 1 gallon.

A diet that provides at least 100% of the RDA for most vitamins/minerals

I was bored, and so decided to devise this diet that provides you with most of the nutrients you need without a single fortified food, and in only 1500 calories.

The vitamins/minerals are measured in terms of the percentage of the RDA. The fat, protein, and carbs are in grams. The list of foods, and their amounts, are listed at the bottom.

Vitamin A (retinol) - 435
Vitamin A (beta carotene) – 1118

Thiamin - 84
Riboflavin - 330
Niacin - 193
Pantothenic Acid - 103
Vitamin B6 - 172
Biotin - 120
Folate – 256
Vitamin B12 - 1231

Vitamin C - 288

Vitamin D - 108

Vitamin E – 119

Vitamin K - 2159

Calcium - 100
Magnesium - 115
Iron - 137
Manganese - 274
Selenium - 212
Zinc - 124
Potassium - 125
Copper – 727

Calories – 1520
Fat – 77
Carbs – 92
Protein – 102

1 cup spinach
1 slice liver
3 oz Chinook salmon
28 grams almonds
28 grams pumpkin seeds
1 egg
1 cup strawberries
1 cup collard greens
1 cup plain, whole milk yogurt
1 cup mushrooms
3 oz beef
1 sweet potato
1 cup asparagus

Saturated fat BENEFICIAL to blood cholesterol?

The study: http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/78/3/370

Laurie Barclay, MD

Sept. 2, 2003 — Consumption of dietary trans fatty acids (FAs) is associated with a deleterious increase in small, dense low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol particles, according to the results of a study published in the September issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. This finding further reinforces the importance of promoting diets low in trans FAs to improve the lipoprotein profile.

"Dietary trans FAs, which are formed during the process of hydrogenating vegetable oil, are known to increase plasma LDL-cholesterol concentrations," write Jean-François Mauger, from Laval University in Quebec, Canada, and colleagues. "Accumulating evidence indicates that the size of LDL particles confers an independent risk, with small and dense particles being more atherogenic than are larger, less dense particles."

In this study, 18 women and 18 men each consumed five different experimental diets in random order for 35-day periods. In each diet, fat accounted for 30% of total energy intake. However, the diets differed in fat composition, with two thirds of the fat in the form of semiliquid margarine (0.6 g trans FAs/100 g fat), soft margarine (9.4 g trans FAs/100 g fat), shortening (13.6 g trans FAs/100 g fat), stick margarine (26.1 g trans FAs/100 g fat), or butter, which was low in trans FAs (2.6 g trans FAs/100 g fat) but rich in saturated fat. Polyacrylamide gradient gel electrophoresis identified LDL particle size and distribution.

With increasing amounts of dietary trans FAs, LDL particle size decreased significantly and in a dose-dependent fashion compared with LDL particle size seen with the butter-enriched diet (P < .001). Cholesterol concentration in large (>260 Å) and medium (255?260 Å) size LDL particles also increased proportionately to the amount of trans FAs in the diet.

"Interestingly, compared with the four diets enriched in trans fatty acids, the diet enriched with saturated fat (butter) was associated with the highest plasma LDL-cholesterol concentrations but, paradoxically, the largest LDL particles," the authors write. "These data reinforce the importance of promoting diets that are low in saturated fat and that contain a minimal quantity of trans fatty acids from hydrogenated fat in order to favorably affect the lipoprotein profile and thus contribute to a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease."

The authors report no potential conflicts of interest in this study.

My updated diet

Since this has changed quite a bit since the last time, I thought I would post my diet again. Here ya go...

Breakfast

Hard-boiled eggs

-4 hard-boiled eggs
-Salt
-Pepper

Tomatoes

-1/2 grilled tomato

-1 cup water
-25 mg zinc
-133 mg magnesium
-600 mg fish oil
-400 I.U. Vitamin D3
-B Complex 25 w Vitamin C

Calories: 310
Fat: 15 grams
Sat. Fat: 6 grams
Omega-3 fatty acids (not including supplementation): 1,000 mg
Carbohydrates: 7 grams
Protein: 25 grams

Lunch

Rice

-1/2 cup brown rice
-Seasonings

Beef

-5 ounces grass-fed beef

Broccoli/Spinach/Kale

-1 cup broccoli or spinach or kale

-1 cup water
-600 mg fish oil
-400 I.U. Vitamin D
-B Complex 25 with Vitamin C

Calories: 400
Fat: 15 grams
Saturated Fat: 5 grams
Omega-3 fatty acids: Unsure, about 600 mg or more
Carbohydrates: 26 grams
Protein: 22 grams

Snack

-1 ounce salted, soaked almonds
-1 cup organic blackberries / blueberries
-1 ounce organic carrots


-1 cup water

Calories: 300
Fat: 15 grams
Saturated Fat: 3 grams
Omega-3 Fatty acids: 50 mg
Carbohydrates: 26 grams
Protein: 7 grams

Dinner

Too lazy to type this out right now; but essentially the same as lunch, but lettuce-based instead of the grains.

I'll finish this later.