16. Toward a Sustainable Healthy Diet

16. Toward a Sustainable Healthy Diet

Let’s be clear. Plantation Bay isn’t telling you to swallow pork lard by the cupful daily (though some versions of the Keto diet practically encourage you to do that, so long as you aren’t also consuming carbs). Here’s a quick rundown of various diets that have enjoyed a vogue in past years:

Calorie Restriction. The traditional dieting method, it takes the view that all calories are created equal, and the only way to lose weight is to consume fewer calories than you expend in being alive and in additional physical activities. It does not distinguish between types of food eaten. Of all diets, this is the one that has been shown by experience to be based on the weakest metabolic science, and the least effective.

Most people don’t even know what “calories” are. They’re an attempt to estimate the metabolic energy value of a food by burning it in a sealed, oxygen-filled container immersed in water and measuring how many degrees Celsius it raises one kilo (one liter) of water (1 degree = 1 calorie). This is called the Atwater method, but it would be tiresome to actually burn every conceivable food combination, so food manufacturers are now mostly allowed to just measure the macronutrients protein-carbohydrate-fat, and apply a 4-4-9 per gram factor.

Considering that our digestive systems aren’t sealed oxygen-filled containers, it is probably NOT true that “all calories are created equal” or that “all that matters is calories in, calories out”. The more “cooked” or “pre-processed” food is, the more effective calories it provides to the human body compared to its raw condition. As an illustration, a given amount of raw meat might measure 100 calories if burned ala Atwater. If a person ate it raw, after deducting the metabolic burden of digestion it might provide only 80 net calories. However, if it were baked, the same piece of meat plus its drippings would have been partially pre-digested and might provide 90 effective calories. (By the way, that’s why the invention of fire was such a big deal.) Either way would still be lower than the Atwater count.

Crash Diets. An extreme form of calorie restriction, a crash diet involves reducing food intake almost completely for several days or weeks. As the “Biggest Loser” Reality Show proves, after initial success, almost everyone later gains almost all the weight back. A successful diet will not be based merely on “losing weight”, but will re-educate and re-habituate the dieter to choose and prefer healthy food in healthy amounts.

Fad Diets. Most of these involve eating just one kind of food or drink, such as olive oil, eggs, or whatever. These absolutely do not work and could be outright harmful.

Atkins, Paleo, Carnivore, Keto. These are the principal low-carbohydrate approaches to diet. Atkins was the original exponent of “net carbs”, which excluded fiber from the total carbohydrate count (which is sensible; since you can’t digest fiber, it isn’t a direct nutrient as far as our bodies are concerned, but it does nourish our gut bacteria). It permits unlimited protein and fats and severely controls high-carb foods like grains and most fruits. Paleo permits foods that were generally available to humans before agriculture, and prohibits dairy, grains (including rice), legumes, alcohol, and industrially-processed foods. Carnivore focuses on meat and fats, and avoids anything with a plant origin. Keto explicitly aims to trigger ketosis (see above, Glucose vs. Triglycerides vs. Ketones) with a high-fat, low-carb, moderate-protein diet.

Deficiencies in vitamins and fiber can be made up with supplements.

The appeal of any of these four diets is that you can eat as much as you like of the permitted foods without counting calories, and you are still likely to lose weight. Yes, it’s true. However, though some people seem to be able to thrive long-term on such diets, others eventually develop health issues or just find the diet unpalatable after a while. Read further to see how Plantation Bay solves this problem.

Strict Vegan to Relaxed Vegetarian. On religious, moral, or health grounds, large groups of people around the world follow a plant-focused diet. A strict Vegan will not eat dairy or eggs, or anything made with them, such as most bread. A very relaxed Vegetarian will eat mostly vegetables and fruits, but might also consume eggs and dairy, and (maybe) even fish.

Unless they go overboard on starches and sweets, Vegans and Vegetarians will tend to be leaner people, simply because it requires more time and effort to overeat vegetables. As with the low-carb diets, nutritional deficiencies can be made up with supplements.

Some mixing-up of vegetables might be needed to get all the protein a human body needs. Rice and beans give you all 20 amino acids needed for protein synthesis; quinoa and buckwheat are complete, but grains or legumes by themselves aren’t.

Another potential issue is Omega-3, an essential fatty acid needed for physical growth and repair, and brain health. The easy Omega-3 sources are salmon and sardines. Some plants yield Omega-3 but they’re also high in Omega-6 (linoleic acid), which as discussed in a previous article should probably be actively avoided, even if officially “essential”. Persons unwilling to compromise on the “no taking of animal life” red line can however choose Omega-3 supplements derived from algae. (You probably don’t want to eat the algae directly.)

Intermittent Fasting involves abstaining from all calorie ingestion, with 16-18 hours as the minimum fasting time considered beneficial on a daily basis, going up to several-day fasts on occasion. During a “fast”, only water and other non-caloric beverages are permitted, with some disagreement over artificial sweeteners. During the “eating-permitted” window, persons may eat whatever they wish, as much as they like.

The principal foundation of IF is to give the body a rest from incoming calories, which avoids constant insulin release and thus helps correct insulin resistance. After about 16-18 hours with no food (assuming the previous meal did not include excessive carbs), the body starts switching to fat-burning mode. Any IF regime will fail if the eating window is used for non-stop snacking and eating high-calorie carbs, which will still be affecting the bloodstream during most of the fasting window. It is important to maintain or lower total daily calorie intake.

A second foundation of IF is that, also after about 16-18 hours, a beneficial process of autophagy begins. Autophagy is a relatively recent metabolic discovery. It refers to the dismantling of defective cells in response to unavailability of incoming food. The body apparently selectively breaks down malfunctioning cells to use as fuel, a “clean-up” process which lowers inflammation, improves overall health, and (speculatively) might curb the growth of cancers. A little autophagy probably occurs during 18:6 IF regimes, but occasional 36-hour fasts are better, yielding 18 hours for autophagy to work. Not yet clinically proven but reasonably hypothesized: Ketosis associated with low-carb diets also may slow cancerous growth, because most cancer cells can’t use ketones as fuel; pancreatic cancer cells, however can.

Plantation Bay’s Keto But Not Kwite Diet combines the best features of all the above. It is a cyclical 30-day eating plan which begins with severe carb restriction for 3 days, transitioning to 18:6 Intermittent Fasting with moderate carb and calorie restriction. It concludes the month with one day of 22-hour fasting.

The advantage of this diet is greater flexibility and choice for the dieter, allowing a large variety of dishes, even “bad” food in moderation, with no need for prolonged application of willpower. It can be used flexibly from time to time to trim weight, or as a semi-permanent eating plan. As an optional adjunct to the diet, Plantation Bay recommends certain specific supplements to avoid major deficiencies in phytonutrients and fiber, thus also nourishing the microbiome.