Food: What The Heck Should I Eat?

[Jitendra Hy-do-u-no-us?]

Sweeteners: What the heck should I eat?

*Fresh, pureed fruit or fruit juice

*Molasses

*Organic palm sugar

*Date sugar

*Coconut sugar

*Monk fruit

*Organic maple syrup

*Honey (use the Ethical Consumer Guide)

*Stevia, sparingly (only brands certified by the Rainforest Alliance)

*Erythritol, also sparingly, although new data suggest it causes weight-gain.

Here Dr. Hyman suggests those sugars which are not totally refined but have a matrix rich in vitamins and minerals. A little like the SRF diet, Yogananda suggesting honey, molasses, raw sugar.

I do not agree totally with Dr. Hyman though. All the sugars listed, except monk fruit and Stevia and Erythritol which are sweeteners, not absorbed by the body, do spike blood glucose and may give rise to a prediabetic or diabetic condition. Now, that's individual. A couple of years ago I noticed that my fasting blood sugar was drifting upward into prediabetic conditions. I soon eliminated all sugars and all fruit. That avoided spikes in blood sugar but the fasting values kept high, until a little ago when apparently they dropped down.

Bottom line, dietary suggestions have a general part but must also be individualized. All the listed 'good' sugars are detrimental if a person exhibits glucose intolerance. They have the same effect as white, unhealthy sugar. They may contribute to the occurrence of type 2 diabetes, a metabolic dysfunction which elevates the odds of mortality.

If you are glucose tolerant, that's your good luck and you can indulge in healthy sweet food. In my case I've been indulging too much in healthy sugars and this probably gave rise to the recent glucose intolerance.

Mccoy I’m not sure 🤔  what you mean here when you say “ I avoided all sugars but the fasting values kept high”. Can you explain? What fasting values? Do you mean you can run 🏃‍♀️ fast with sugar ingestion? ( I think that would be helpful for my jogging routine )  Also, wonder if ‘spiking glucose levels’  is bad for everyone? Do you have preexisting health challenges that would make bringing up sugar levels deleterious for ‘YOU’? Or perhaps 🤔 you mean  that sweets will over take the best of us healthy specimens. Those who are slowly deteriorating as sweet tooth’s, attempting to still jog a half an hour a day.  We are finding our pace slowing to a cain supported walk without any energy, because all sorts of sweets have been eliminated from our diets?

Also, at one time you brought up protein as very bad for health and increases aging. You gave us many articles from dieticians that explicitly stated the ill affects and consequences of aging quickly with protein; if people continue absorbing protein, when their bodies were past the ‘growing stages’. I noticed your position has noticeably softened since those days. Contrasting those views with the prevailing views at the time, was somewhat like adding gasoline to a flame that was being extinguished.  The 🐄 cattle ranches in southern United States are raking in money with their endless encouragement to eat steak and potatoes 🥔 to get the old dead weight out of social security expenditures. It has taken Americans the length of our countries history to get beyond that. But now they have a new tactic, that attempts to cover up the extreme harm meat does to our bodies and spirit. They made fancy neon  flashing signs on display at McDonalds,with someone holding a Big Mac taking a bite out of it as the blood seemingly drips from their mouths from the killings they are excitingly devouring. As though horror films can now be  seen in short clips by the masses and enjoyed before supporting their sickening practices.

I’m sure the Roman Empire would have relished the idea of having such water dripping horror films to promote killings in the old sports arenas where people watched other people being malled by tigers in the day. Animals, similarly salivate before ripping up their prey. How are  we humans , with the ability to be divine any different then ravenous wolves? Let’s look at it for what it is; cruelty to other living beings. The only difference I see with Dr. Hymen is he makes cosmetic adjustments with the meat he prepares by adding flowery vegetables and lets others kill for him on the off days. I suppose you could say that is an improvement over eating at the death factory; McDonalds; where death 💀 is new and improved with salivation and greasy fingers. No forcing vegetarianism here mccoy just exposing what is only too obvious to a little spiritual sensitivity and follows the principles of Yama, or non injury to all creatures.

[guest587]

Agreed mccoy, you can't just assume what works for one works for another. An individualized approach is best. Learning to listen to our bodies is a beautiful thing.

The chapter on Sugars and Sweeteners, before diving into the bullet points, says this on summing things up:

There's only one long-term solution to the sugar problem: We all need to wean ourselves off sweetness as much as possible. As long as we keep eating sweets, we'll keep wanting more. Learning to live without them may take some time. It requires cultivating an appreciation for all the other tastes that make food so delicious- the savory, the sour, even the bitter. But it's possible. Having said all that, we need to be realistic. We're always going to love the taste of something sweet. Even animals love it. Just ask any bear gorging on honey and wild blueberries before winter. So, we need to find a reasonable, healthy way forward.

If you have insulin resistance, diabetes, cancer, or an autoimmune disease, then you should stay away from sugar and sweeteners altogether. But for everyone else, if you're cooking at home and your recipe calls for sugar, you should use as little as possible and stick to one of the healthier choices.

One of the most important things to keep in mind is the difference between sugar and added sugar. It's the latter that's the real problem here.

[Jitendra Hy-do-u-no-us?]

you can't just assume what works for one works for another. An individualized approach is best. Learning to listen to our bodies is a beautiful thing.

I have a different approach that is supported by Sri Yukteswar in this comment;

What is natural living? To understand  what natural living is it’ll be necessary to distinguish it from what is unnatural. Living depends upon the selections of food, dwelling and company. To live naturally, the lower animals can select these for themselves by the help of their instinct and the natural sentinels  placed at the sensory entrances, the organs of site, hearing, touch, smell and taste. With men in general, however, these organs are so much perverted by unnatural living, from very infancy that little reliance can be placed on their judgments. To understand, therefore, what are natural needs are, we ought to depend upon observation, experiment and reason. ~ Sri Yukteswar

[mccoy]

Mccoy I’m not sure 🤔  what you mean here when you say “ I avoided all sugars but the fasting values kept high”. Can you explain? What fasting values? Do you mean you can run 🏃‍♀️ fast with sugar ingestion? ( I think that would be helpful for my jogging routine )  Also, wonder if ‘spiking glucose levels’  is bad for everyone? Do you have preexisting health challenges that would make bringing up sugar levels deleterious for ‘YOU’? Or perhaps 🤔 you mean  that sweets will over take the best of us healthy specimens. Those who are slowly deteriorating as sweet tooth’s, attempting to still jog a half an hour a day.  We are finding our pace slowing to a cain supported walk without any energy, because all sorts of sweets have been eliminated from our diets?

Sorry for not being clear. I meant the blood glucose (or glycaemic) values when fasting, a measurement usually taken in the morning before eating. This is a measure which suggests if you are in the good side (non-diabetic), in the bad side (diabetic), or drifting toward the bad side (prediabetic). A couple of years ago, my measurements (taken at home with a glucose meter and strips on a drop of my blood) started drifting toward the prediabetic camp, so I had no choice but to intervene.
Spikes in blood glucose can be, on the long run, deleterious to health, so another condition which would make you a diabetic is to have a blood glucose value higher than a determined threshold after 2 hours from the ingestion of a determined quantity of glucose and water. There is on top of that Glycated hemoglobin, also known as HbA1c, which is the average quantity of blood glucose in about the 3 months before the measurement, and it shouldn't be above a determined threshold.

As to sugars and running, if you drink something very sugary before running (like, fruit juice), the muscular exertion will prevent an excessive spike in blood sugar, in function of course of the amount of sugar ingested and the degree and duration of the run (or whatsoever other exercise).

[mccoy]

Also, at one time you brought up protein as very bad for health and increases aging. You gave us many articles from dieticians that explicitly stated the ill affects and consequences of aging quickly with protein; if people continue absorbing protein, when their bodies were past the ‘growing stages’. I noticed your position has noticeably softened since those days. Contrasting those views with the prevailing views at the time, was somewhat like adding gasoline to a flame that was being extinguished.  The 🐄 cattle ranches in southern United States are raking in money with their endless encouragement to eat steak and potatoes 🥔 to get the old dead weight out of social security expenditures. It has taken Americans the length of our countries history to get beyond that. But now they have a new tactic, that attempts to cover up the extreme harm meat does to our bodies and spirit. They made fancy neon  flashing signs on display at McDonalds,with someone holding a Big Mac taking a bite out of it as the blood seemingly drips from their mouths from the killings they are excitingly devouring. As though horror films can now be  seen in short clips by the masses and enjoyed before supporting their sickening practices.

True enough Steve, you have a good memory. A few years ago I adhered to the idea that very little protein could be advantageous to health and longevity because protein and specifically some essential amino acid like leucine trigger the activity of the mTOR complex, a metabolic master switch which regulates anabolism and catabolism. When mTOR is little active, then autophagy and other mechanisms favorable to longevity are triggered.

The above is oversimplified. Too much protein can be deleterious but too little will result in loss of lean mass, or musculoskeletal tissue, or muscle mass. What I'm doing now is trying to eat the minimum amount of protein which will prevent loss of lean mass. This should be individually determined since there is not a single value valid for all, also considering the various degrees of activity we have.
Also protein per see does not govern the individual requirement, rather essential amino acids do, which cannot usually be synthesized by the body. For example, we may eat the minimum requirement for protein, but not eat the minimum requirement of each essential amino acid and that would mean trouble. That's why I studied the various indexes of protein quality and digestibility like the recent DIAAS score. I want to make sure that I'm eating a sufficient amount fo the essential amino acids.

Last, presently there are many researchers, including the anti-meat ones like Valte Longo, who underlined by epidemiological studies, that after growing older we require more protein because protein is less utilized and there is a drop in the hormone IGF-1, related to synthesis of muscle tissue. Also, there is a way around it if you lift weights regularly, since exercise triggers the release of the mechanogrowth factor MGF, which has the same signal role as the IGF-1 and requires only the mechanical stress of loading.

Sorry if I'm summarizing sometimes complex issues!

[mccoy]

No forcing vegetarianism here mccoy just exposing what is only too obvious to a little spiritual sensitivity and follows the principles of Yama, or non injury to all creatures.

I totally respect your propensity toward Yama. I myself grew perhaps a little more callous with age and don't mind very much other people killing, as long as they don't interfere with my own regimen and ethical principles. The others will reap their bad karma. I don't mind. I just mind my own karma. That's my present attitude, which may be more or less wrong.

[mccoy]

There's only one long-term solution to the sugar problem: We all need to wean ourselves off sweetness as much as possible. As long as we keep eating sweets, we'll keep wanting more. Learning to live without them may take some time. It requires cultivating an appreciation for all the other tastes that make food so delicious- the savory, the sour, even the bitter. But it's possible. Having said all that, we need to be realistic. We're always going to love the taste of something sweet. Even animals love it. Just ask any bear gorging on honey and wild blueberries before winter. So, we need to find a reasonable, healthy way forward.

If you have insulin resistance, diabetes, cancer, or an autoimmune disease, then you should stay away from sugar and sweeteners altogether. But for everyone else, if you're cooking at home and your recipe calls for sugar, you should use as little as possible and stick to one of the healthier choices.

One of the most important things to keep in mind is the difference between sugar and added sugar. It's the latter that's the real problem here.

The above is a very sensible quote from Dr. Hyman

[Jitendra Hy-do-u-no-us?]

No forcing vegetarianism here mccoy just exposing what is only too obvious to a little spiritual sensitivity and follows the principles of Yama, or non injury to all creatures.

I totally respect your propensity toward Yama. I myself grew perhaps a little more callous with age and don't mind very much other people killing, as long as they don't interfere with my own regimen and ethical principles. The others will reap their bad karma. I don't mind. I just mind my own karma. That's my present attitude, which may be more or less wrong.

Since I feel and strong hunch that I was living in India in a recent incarnation and was bit by a cobra 🐍 and died at an early age,  I also wonder about the karmic debt people accumulate from being cruel to animals. This incarnation so far, I’ve witnessed a tremendous urge for animals to get near me and I have made continues effort to be kind to them and not let others kill them for my eating habits. Having witnessed people that have dormant anger in them being attacked by animals I am increasingly interested in the apparent instinct or intuition of animals and other creatures.

[mccoy]

I have a different approach that is supported by Sri Yukteswar in this comment;

What is natural living? To understand  what natural living is it’ll be necessary to distinguish it from what is unnatural. Living depends upon the selections of food, dwelling and company. To live naturally, the lower animals can select these for themselves by the help of their instinct and the natural sentinels  placed at the sensory entrances, the organs of site, hearing, touch, smell and taste. With men in general, however, these organs are so much perverted by unnatural living, from very infancy that little reliance can be placed on their judgments. To understand, therefore, what are natural needs are, we ought to depend upon observation, experiment and reason. ~ Sri Yukteswar

Very good strategy to quote Sri Yukteswar, since the Jnanavatar is the Jnanavatar, his wisdom is unsurpassable.

Sri Yukteswar cited empirical arguments why meat is not the ideal food for man. His logic is simple and indisputable.

The same Sri Yukteswar though would love us to use our God-given logic and discrimination to elaborate further and find what's best for us, stick to it, and forget about it. His own words. Forget about diet, there are more essential things, like meditation, Dharma, Karma, Yama, you name it.

I like the details and subtleties of modern science and try to apply them to prevent premature death. It is not easy since nutritional science today is chaos. My reasoning is guided by discrimination and the basic guidelines of Raja Yoga, as expounded by Sri Yukteswar and Yogananda. We have been very lucky in coming across these spiritual giants!

[mccoy]

Since I feel and strong hunch that I was living in India in recent incarnation and was bit by a cobra 🐍 and died at an early age,  I also wonder about the karmic debt people accumulate from being cruel to animals. This incarnation so far, I’ve witnessed a tremendous urge for animals to get near me. Having witnessed people that have dormant anger in them being attacked by animals I am increasingly interested in the apparent instinct or intuition of animals and other creatures.

I agree that animals should always be respected. What are your thoughts about the vegans insisting that keeping cows for milk equals torturing them?
My thought is that extremely intense farming of cows is not a good thing, but the Dharma of cows is being milked. The real dark side of it is the killing of calves, which is practiced in industrial milk production.

[Jitendra Hy-do-u-no-us?]

I have a different approach that is supported by Sri Yukteswar in this comment;

What is natural living? To understand  what natural living is it’ll be necessary to distinguish it from what is unnatural. Living depends upon the selections of food, dwelling and company. To live naturally, the lower animals can select these for themselves by the help of their instinct and the natural sentinels  placed at the sensory entrances, the organs of site, hearing, touch, smell and taste. With men in general, however, these organs are so much perverted by unnatural living, from very infancy that little reliance can be placed on their judgments. To understand, therefore, what are natural needs are, we ought to depend upon observation, experiment and reason. ~ Sri Yukteswar

Very good strategy to quote Sri Yukteswar, since the Jnanavatar is the Jnanavatar, his wisdom is unsurpassable.

Sri Yukteswar cited empirical arguments why meat is not the ideal food for man. His logic is simple and indisputable.

The same Sri Yukteswar though would love us to use our God-given logic and discrimination to elaborate further and find what's best for us, stick to it, and forget about it. His own words. Forget about diet, there are more essential things, like meditation, Dharma, Karma, Yama, you name it.

I like the details and subtleties of modern science and try to apply them to prevent premature death. It is not easy since nutritional science today is chaos. My reasoning is guided by discrimination and the basic guidelines of Raja Yoga, as expounded by Sri Yukteswar and Yogananda. We have been very lucky in coming across these spiritual giants!

Yes Sri Yukteswar takes discrimination to a higher level, using observation, experiment and reason to determine what is the best course to take and we are not always able to follow the dictates of our bodies desires and arrive at a helpful outcome. I have the challenges of my body wanting one thing and my spirit wanting another. So I have determined that I would not have been a good candidate for the monastic life this lifetime with that type of inner turmoil manifesting. Perhaps that is why I’m a bit more forgiving of some of the moral issues I’ve found you have brought to our attention with  monastics you and I have witnessed in their struggles. Sri Yukteswar does instruct us to join the right company as part of the equation to rise above our bodies desires and separate needs from desires and food is only one of many areas where that is an issue.

I often find I’m able to do quite a lot of exercise with the right type of stimulation, although using those types of stimulation may at times have mixed results in health and spiritual elevation. We are all faced with dilemmas in our life and recognizing how to balance them with a productive outcome for our current evolution.

[guest587]

Swami Vidyadhishananda has shared that during his time living with monks atop the Himalayas they survived off nothing but, "green elixir."

They did not need to eat food, and the minerals in the mountain enhanced certain capabilities.
 
In AOY we read accounts of Babaji able to teleport an entire group of devotees. He is able to materialize and dematerialize. All these things I believe are possible, all of which would leave the established science and people like Dr. Mark Hyman dumbfounded.

Correct me if I'm wrong... Didn't Sri Yukteswar consciously exit his body at death- eyes opened and all? And did not Yogananda share accounts of telepathy with him(among others) and even a very specific chapter where Sri Yukteswar materialized before Yogananda after his passing?

[Jitendra Hy-do-u-no-us?]

Swami Vidyadhishananda has shared that during his time living with monks atop the Himalayas they survived off nothing but, "green elixir."

They did not need to eat food, and the minerals in the mountain enhanced certain capabilities.
 
In AOY we read accounts of Babaji able to teleport an entire group of devotees. He is able to materialize and dematerialize. All these things I believe are possible, all of which would leave the established science and people like Dr. Mark Hyman dumbfounded.

Correct me if I'm wrong... Didn't Sri Yukteswar consciously exit his body at death- eyes opened and all? And did not Yogananda share accounts of telepathy with him(among others) and even a very specific chapter where Sri Yukteswar materialized before Yogananda after his passing?

Yes and Swami Vidyadhistananda sounds like he may have been with Babaji as well, or at the very least a group of advanced devotees himself.  I cannot really say what these minerals were or the green elixer, but as if to answer the question, if we can live off cosmic energy I have thought over that for most my life; and as if to answer my question, from the timeless sate of the gurus several weeks ago I was meditating and felt hungry since I had not eaten that day; suddenly my body felt as if it had been given some food during meditation.

The Himalayas sound like an interesting mountain to climb , I’m not a mountain climber but even a visit would most likely be a blessing.

[guest587]

Yes I believe it. That's very nice. Now that we've deviated from the book, I've taken a little break and wanted to chime in with some more random thoughts...

I believe when we eat to please our senses, it can create awareness(or lack thereof) around physical organs and ultimately create thoughts focused on the little self or the big Ego. Though we satisfy temporary pleasure, there's the potential of becoming saturated with misery making thoughts. Like feeling full for deciding to binge, or regretting the chocolate binge you knew you shouldn't have done.

Though, in hindsight, we aren't our thoughts...  and if we can learn to avoid fullness- or hunger, we can alleviate ourselves from being so preoccupied with the self- and find a more liberated expression by being Present.

Ultimately I think it's how fast can we realize we've attached ourselves to a negative mindset- and do we really wish to linger there? But being full has really interfered in my ability to see people with compassionate eyes- same with the itching to satisfy cravings.

So I admire the comment about switching to a more natural diet, with whole foods. Items minimally processed with less manmade chemicals... Things that don't cater to addictions or trick your brain into gorging behaviors.

A lot about the food industry, from quick fixes to satisfying unique cravings- which includes our subliminal advertisements- keeps us focused on the little self or entrenched by the big Ego.

[Jitendra Hy-do-u-no-us?]

How much do friends with good intentions influence friends? See this post for photo….

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