Of course, i already know what the downsides are to eating a higher percentage of carbs, and "bad" carbs at that. But i also already know that fasting significantly ameliorates them. ...Which leads me to this nutritional thought for today:
Kitava is not an example of victory for carbohydrates.
KITAVA IS A VICTORY FOR INTERMITTENT FASTING*.
Those people, as i've heard it said, eat one meal a day comprised mostly of yams, coconut, and fish, late in the day, and then abstain from food until the next day's dinner.
So you see, my highway habits reflect a very old practice, albeit one on the other side of the world. ...Hmmm, maybe my visit down south should include an experiment in which i spend extended hours in the sun, and a lot of fish and sweet potatoes? ;-)
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* I'm adding Dr. Fung's blog to my list on the right, he being the modern-most advocate of fasting for health ... or should i rephrase that to say "fasting for health through knocking insulin back from pathological levels to physiological ones"
That's more or less what I was doing until a couple of weeks ago: eating a bag of potato chips and not much else. Apparently it wasn't enough (in my case) to screw up insulin levels--I lost a few pounds. But at that low calorie/low nutrient level, my mind wasn't functioning well.
ReplyDeleteguilty confession -- when i saw a bag of avocado-oil chips i had to try them ... and they're GOOOD! :-) too dangerous to buy often though.
DeleteThose things gave me a stomach ache. Too much PUFA, maybe.
DeleteHave a good trip Tess ...
ReplyDeleteAll the best Jan
thank you, Jan! :-)
DeleteI noticed Peter eats in a similar pattern - small amounts of high-fat food on the morning and at a lunch time and root vegetables with meat at a dinner time.
ReplyDeleteyes, i agree with his meal-patterns!
DeleteAdd some fish, chicken, and port to your sunny diet ;o)
ReplyDeleteI get so tired of the "Kitavans eat "this" and Okinawans eat "that" and Inuit eat "such and such" to support people's pet diet theories. It's baloney. ALL of them have omnivorous diets that include meat, starches and fat. Kitavans eat coconut--coconut is largely fat. The Okinawans use pork fat in their cooking, the Inuits eat greens when they are available.
I've been thinking about Okinawa in particular (I grew up there, and they eat fish, port, beef, eggs, and chicken along with their vegetables--they are NOT vegetarians, and they eat about the same amount of starches as mainland Japanese). Prior to and during WWII there was massive starvation on the Ryuku islands (Okinawa is the largest of the Ryuku chain). Some of the fiercest battles in the Pacific were fought there. People who are centenarians now were the survivors of severe starvation, incredibly stressful situations and horrendous losses.
So this fits with your fasting theory, and I think it's also survival of the fittest. If there had been no war and starvation, the percentage of the population living into their hundreds on Okinawa would have been less remarkable. People who could live through what they lived through have strong constitutions to begin with.
I have made the same observation about WWII holocaust survivors. I know several who are now into their 90's and hundreds and it astounds me. They endured prolonged starvation and horrible abuse and stressors we can't begin to imagine. But these are the people who made it through the horror. Many of them are healthy and strong relative to their age, and still cognitively intact. It's not only their diets that are responsible for their longevity (though many whom I know still follow their European style way of eating--mostly real, whole foods, very little added sugar--and they eat meat). They had strong constitutions to survive what they did.
Pork not port, but that's not a bad idea ;o)
Deleteyou have an excellent point in their survival qualities being linked with personal resilience ... and i agree about port-wine use, too! :-D
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