For the past month, I’ve removed all sugar, oil, and salt in my diet. If there is any it’s from the whole foods plant based diet.
If you feel you need to add salt because you are running low on it then do as you need.
This diet is the goal, it’s not the military. But learn self-control and don’t lie to yourself.
Sodium in vegetables:
https://www.nutritionix.com/list/which-vegetables-are-highest-in-sodium/6D9ZE5
I get plenty of protein, fiber, and antioxidants from it.
Getting pleasure from food is not the no. 1 priority. It’s secondary. If it tastes good then it’s just a bonus but that’s not what I look for as the primary anymore. I look for how healthy it is. The plant based food is like pills in a different form.
My only beverage has been plenty of water. I got rid of all drinks.
I walk 7 miles and burn 500 calories a day from it. I also weight lifting. I’m more ripped than I’ve ever been before.
My skin has cleared up. I’ve lost 15 pounds.
I think my gut microbiome is happy and thus my brain is happy and has clarity and in stable mood.
Anxiety has decreased as well.
by thirsty116
18 Comments
Good for you! However, I think eating healthy food *is* pleasurable.
Same! Food is medicine! Taste is a bonus (and thankfully I do have a taste for healthy food)
It can be both.
This sounds like a manifesto written in a mossy shed in the woods, using ink made from blood and feces, on paper made from fingernails
I’m with you on all of this but one thing. You have no salt in your diet? That’s not healthy, salt is so important
Why tf should i take medicine 3+ times a day? 😱
May I ask where do you usually eat ? I like this way to think towards food but at the moment of searching what is the healthiest option to have, the information variates
You speak a basic truth. There’s no added sugar, oil or salt in my diet either. No alcohol either. My mood is pleasant. I run up to 6 days per week and up to 10 miles an outing and have absolutely no need for added sodium. I think it’s all industry created BS that caused all of this fear about needing to supplement sodium daily. There is plenty of sodium in real whole plant based foods. Supplementing sodium daily as people do is harmful in the long term in my opinion. I do enjoy my food but that is secondary to what consuming that food does for me. Folks who supplement sodium daily move to being sodium excreters by necessity because of sodium’s toxicity. Furthermore, the excess sodium gets stored throughout the body. Just look up sodium MRI if you don’t believe me. With no added sodium you return to the body’s natural state of being a sodium conserver. Studies that show little benefit when reducing sodium intake are often ridiculous in decreasing sodium from 5,000mg to 3,000mg or 3,000mg to 2,000mg. Those are still very unnaturally high sodium intake levels! I encourage everyone to at least try to avoid all added sugar, oil and salt and start to enjoy the natural taste of whole plant based foods.
Pleasure from food is overrated and not eating hyper palatable food does not make you depressed or unhappy. In fact, this assumption is based on a lack of understanding of how the brain works. Those dopamine hits from indulgence actually do make the balance tip to the other side. Exactly why substance abuse be it alcohol or drugs, which involves supernatural dopamine hits also eventually leads to a low.
On the contrary, with wfpb sos free eating, where not all meals are hyper palatable, first you eventually stop minding it since neuroplasticity adapts your palate. The positive effects of improved arterial health and better blood flow, less inflammation make you feel great, which you yourself know.
Great going OP, can you please share more details about how you find time to workout, you 7 miles are impressive.
Also food transmits culture and history, food connects family and community, food is nurturing to the body, food provides pleasure and meaning. Food is however not good, evil, your friend or your enemy. Attaching such metaphoric significance sounds like a puritanical control dynamic. Using medicine and pills as simile is disturbing.
Salt is not unhealthy so removing it is nonsensical. It’s a necessity and no dietician would advise that.
It’s okay to feel pleasure when eating. That’s also natural and healthy.
I eat food for pleasure, both sensory and social.
I think you do you but from a mental health workers perspective this would be considered an disordered eating indicator. Because you’re not sick, hence no need for “medicine”.
Would eating something “forbidden” or not “being ripped” make you feel anxious/stress you out? What is the primary source for your “health” information?
Could you find peace of mind in every state that isn’t dependent on lifestyle choices, appearance and following self-set limitations?
You are using diet and exercise to “self-medicate” that much is true. If it’s healthy that’s another question entirely.
Healthy and tasty shouldn’t be, and aren’t, mutually exclusive 🙂
What foods/recipes are you eating with your active life style to stay “ripped.”
No offense, you do what works for you, but this sounds so awful to me. I don’t want every aspect of my life to be something that is simply tolerated.. Work is a chore, exercise is a chore., things that aren’t fun or enjoyable but must be done. I think we need something in our lives that is enjoyable, not just sustaining. I find I can eat healthy and still have tasty, enjoyable food in my life, it not be only fuel.
Again, if how you’re approaching things works for you, and makes you happy and healthy mentally and physically, then that’s great. Super restrictive would drive me nuts. My inner teen, I guess, lol
Lol who let the alpha dude bro in here? Jk good for you buddy.
I wonder if this will only be temporary benefit, and you will need a more varied diet later. I fear eliminating animal food, but can’t seem to find a HCLF omnivore sub.