37 replies to this topic

[Cephalon]

Dear Imminst Community,

Please be so kind and comment my diet.

This is what I eat every day:

Brekfast
Small bowl with
1/2 cup blueberries
1/2 cup raspberries
1 tbs flax seeds (whole)
100ml soymilk (sugarfree)

Whey Protein Isolate shake
200ml soymilk (sugarfree)
30g whey protein isolate
1 tbs ground flaxseed

chunk dark chocolate 85%
10g Lindt Excellence 85% chocolate (19g carbs/100g)

Lunch
1 whole avocado with lemon juice, salt & pepper
(alternative: cottage cheese 200g with tsp flaxseed oil, salt(little) pepper)

Dinner
Salad
200g Lettuce
100g low fat mozzarella cheese (alternative 50g Parmesan chunks)
10 Almonds
5 Cashews
1 Tbsp Olive Oil, extra vergine
1 Tbsp Flax Seed Oil

(sometimes I add peppers or tomatos)

late night snack
(not every day)
200g cottage cheese
Pepper, Salt (little)

In the end of the day I get round about (depends on the avocado / cottage cheese)


Nutrition Summary for 1. März 2011

General (69%)
Energy 1462,2 kcal 86%
Protein 107,6 g 84%
Carbs 78,6 g 38%
Fiber 31,3 g 82%
Sugars 32,8 g 66%
Fat 85,3 g 150%
Water 1035,4 g 28%
Vitamins (91%)
Vitamin A 17069,6 IU 569%
Folate 345,2 µg 86%
B1 (Thiamine) 0,8 mg 67%
B2 (Riboflavin) 1,7 mg 132%
B3 (Niacin) 14,4 mg 90%
B5 (Pantothenic Acid) 4,1 mg 83%
B6 (Pyridoxine) 1,5 mg 116%
B12 (Cyanocobalamin) 6,8 µg 284%
Vitamin C 128,7 mg 143%
Vitamin D 141,0 IU 70%
Vitamin E 23,5 mg 157%
Vitamin K 378,2 µg 315%
Minerals (83%)
Calcium 1611,1 mg 161%
Copper 1,9 mg 216%
Iron 6,4 mg 79%
Magnesium 248,0 mg 62%
Manganese 1,9 mg 82%
Phosphorus 1152,4 mg 165%
Potassium 2511,6 mg 53%
Selenium 47,4 µg 86%
Sodium 1558,1 mg 104%
Zinc 7,7 mg 70%
Lipids (57%)
Saturated 13,2 g 66%
Omega-3 10,3 g 644%
Omega-6 10,3 g 61%
Cholesterol 8,0 mg 3%


My daly food intake is supplemented with:

Brekfast
2000 IU Vitamin D3 (will go down to 1000IU in Spring)
800mg Tumeric
80mg Benfotiamine
1200mg Piracetam
5g Creatine
500mg Beta Alanine
500mg Taurine
500mg ALCAR

Lunch
1200mg Piracetam

Dinner
1mg Melatonin
1mg Lithium
15-30mg Zinc
3g Glycine
3g Taurine

1mg Methylcobalmine/ every 3 days

[health_nutty]

You don't seem to be getting much veggies. Crustiferious veggies, are particularly beneficial. I would add kale, broccoli, other leafy green veggies, and tomatoes as a regular staple. I'm a little wary of Soy after the study showing it shrinks your brain.

http://www.johnrobbi...what-about-soy/

[Skötkonung]

I would swap the lettuce with something that has more nutritional density and generally increase vegetable intake. I would also not eat whole flax seed, your body isn't likely absorbing much of the ALA. Actually most flax seed I've seen tends to be rancid. Instead you might switch to chia seed (pre soaked / sprouted).

http://www.highonhea...than-flax-seed/

[Cephalon]

@ healthy nutty: thank you for your reply! Yes I should add some broccoli, thank you for this! Broccoli is also thought to have anti cancer
properties.
wow I do not want my brain to shrink ! I have to finish school first at least. I will look more into the soy issue.
Though with about 300ml soymilk / a day my intake is still low - moderate

@ Skötkonung: thank you for your reply as well! Sometimes I use ruccola or a field salad instead of lettuce which at least contain a bit
more minerals. I will implement a small bowl of broccoli with tumeric to up my veggie intake a bit.
Vegetables I sometimes add to my salad are mushrooms. I should definately up my intake of those as well.
Thank you for the tip on ground flax seeds! I only use the whole ones because I like the texture. I will settle to ground
flax seeds only tomorrow morning. I will look up the sprouted chia seeds, thank you!
I like hemp & poppy seeds I will think about adding those for the crunchy texture.


Though I am a vegetarian I eat no veggies I understand I need to change this rapidly.

[sthira]

Your diet looks great! Nice and spare, keep it up; you've clearly done homework. What's your height and weight, and how long have you managed 1470-ish calories per day?

I agree with other comments, especially more leafy greens. Cheap, easy, delicious: pot of water, chop, boil about a minute. Check COM for the big values you get for collards, kale, mustard, turnip greens, cabbage, chard, spinach, brussel sprouts. Also mushrooms can round out some weird minerals you're short on - please cook them! Your fiber looks low - greens, shrooms, crucifers def help.

My approach to fruit is similar to yours: all eyes on fructose. This is difficult - lack of meat, dairy, grains, oils no problem - it's: how to moderate love of fruit? I lean into berries, citrus, and I cheat and eat lots of it anyway and COM tells no sugar fibs.

I agree with the flax seed comments; I was grinding whole seeds, but I've backed off and replaced them with oil (rise now obligatory oxidation issues with the oil). Chia seeds are fine, just high caloric in tiny amounts. Someone say hemp oil? I support the industry.

I don't say much for soy - good reasons expressed here - occasionally I eat tofu, not too much or too often. I don't like the soy industry. I replace dark chocolate bars with organic, non-alkaline cocoa powder, and I'm glad I did - low cal, no sugar, no SFA (SFA = passionate controversy).

I don't do protein isolates because (more debate) I think RDA-ish protein levels are fine while on CR (I've no big muscle body building goals and I'm not worried about the sins of veggie proteins). I don't do cheese -oh no!- I might die a vegan. Since you're not one of *those* vegan ppl, maybe an oyster or two per day will hop up your zinc and b12 instead of the supplements?

Your supplement use looks entirely more responsible than mine (b12, d2, taurine, carnosine, carnotine). I got spooked away from curcumin pills, and now I'm just adding the ground root onto my veg messes and shirt stains.

Thanks for sharing your diet - we all of us have loads to learn.

[Lufega]

Vegan diets have many shortcomings and they have been proven to shrink your brain. Think about adding a source of choline. Is the soy milk fermented ? Otherwise, it may contains too many lectins and antinutrients. Also, why low fat cheese ? Go for full fat. You also should increase the variety of vegetables you eat. Include thinks like broccoli, kale, chard, etc..

Edited by Lufega, 01 March 2011 - 10:58 PM.

[sthira]

I guess my vegan brain has shrunken so much that I'm unable to find credible evidence that vegan diets shrink the brain.

Indeed vegetarians and vegans do tend to have low levels of omega 3, B12 and raised levels of homocysteine. The effects of these deficiencies remain unclear. Yet the longterm health of vegetarians and vegans appear to be good - worldwide - as long as our diets are nutritious and well-balanced.

[Skötkonung]

I guess my vegan brain has shrunken so much that I'm unable to find credible evidence that vegan diets shrink the brain.

Indeed vegetarians and vegans do tend to have low levels of omega 3, B12 and raised levels of homocysteine. The effects of these deficiencies remain unclear. Yet the longterm health of vegetarians and vegans appear to be good - worldwide - as long as our diets are nutritious and well-balanced.

Here you go:
http://www.neurology...11/826.abstract
"Low vitamin B12 status should be further investigated as a modifiable cause of brain atrophy and of likely subsequent cognitive impairment in the elderly."

http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/19116332
"Vitamin B-12 deficiency is often associated with cognitive deficits. Here we review evidence that cognition in the elderly may also be adversely affected at concentrations of vitamin B-12 above the traditional cutoffs for deficiency. By using markers such as holotranscobalamin and methylmalonic acid, it has been found that cognition is associated with vitamin B-12 status across the normal range. Possible mediators of this relation include brain atrophy and white matter damage, both of which are associated with low vitamin B-12 status. Intervention trials have not been adequately designed to test whether these associations are causal. Pending the outcome of better trials, it is suggested that the elderly in particular should be encouraged to maintain a good, rather than just an adequate, vitamin B-12 status by dietary means."

I also saw a study showing poor EPA/DHA status in vegetarians and vegans. Honestly, if you're going to do a plant based diet, I would supplement EPA/DHA and B12. There are also some amino acids, like taurine and carnosine, which are proving to be essential in regulating glycation. Better to be safe than sorry!

[sthira]

Ah yes, those studies must explain why I'm drooling down my dashiki and why my holotranscobalamin's riding in the short bus. Isn't the effect of a vegetarian or vegan diet dependent on the exact composition of that diet? And don't educated vegans understand that food plants don't contain vitamin B12? May this explain some of why people eat billions in fortified foods and dietary supplements? And while it's been suggested that tempeh and seaweed might contain b12, the claim isn't solid.

Marine algae can provide EPA and DHA that are acceptable to vegetarians. And recently, it's been shown that plasma levels of EPA and DHA in vegans are "not related to the duration of adherence to the diet over periods of ?20 years, suggesting that the endogenous production of these fatty acids in vegetarians and vegans may result in low but stable plasma concentrations" (Rosell et al. 2005c). And it's unknown whether the low levels of EPA and DHA in the plasma of vegetarians have effects on health.

Did I mention taurine, carnosine, carnotine above or has my shrunken brain failed to bedazzle? I also say (not that anyone's reading anyway) that we are many in search for what's best for our own sacred health in a nutrition world that's still a young, soft science. But that fledgling science does point a shaking finger to one big moon: eat loads and loads of fresh, preferably organic, fruits and vegetables. Few people do it, the universe twirls on.


Rosell MS Lloyd-Wright Z Appleby PN Sanders TAB Allen NE Key TJ (2005c) Long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in plasma in British meat-eating, vegetarian, and vegan men American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 82 327 – 334

[Skötkonung]

Ah yes, those studies must explain why I'm drooling down my dashiki and why my holotranscobalamin's riding in the short bus. Isn't the effect of a vegetarian or vegan diet dependent on the exact composition of that diet? And don't educated vegans understand that food plants don't contain vitamin B12? May this explain some of why people eat billions in fortified foods and dietary supplements? And while it's been suggested that tempeh and seaweed might contain b12, the claim isn't solid.

Marine algae can provide EPA and DHA that are acceptable to vegetarians. And recently, it's been shown that plasma levels of EPA and DHA in vegans are "not related to the duration of adherence to the diet over periods of ?20 years, suggesting that the endogenous production of these fatty acids in vegetarians and vegans may result in low but stable plasma concentrations" (Rosell et al. 2005c). And it's unknown whether the low levels of EPA and DHA in the plasma of vegetarians have effects on health.

Did I mention taurine, carnosine, carnotine above or has my shrunken brain failed to bedazzle? I also say (not that anyone's reading anyway) that we are many in search for what's best for our own sacred health in a nutrition world that's still a young, soft science. But that fledgling science does point a shaking finger to one big moon: eat loads and loads of fresh, preferably organic, fruits and vegetables. Few people do it, the universe twirls on.


Rosell MS Lloyd-Wright Z Appleby PN Sanders TAB Allen NE Key TJ (2005c) Long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in plasma in British meat-eating, vegetarian, and vegan men American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 82 327 – 334

Well if you're supplementing then I don't see a problem. Obviously there are a lot of vegans and vegetarians who don't get enough B12, which seems odd given how many veggie foods are now being fortified with it. As for EPA / DHA, i'm not sure that having high levels of these fats is good in any diet, but having adequate levels is certainly recommended. If you can get that from algae, more power to you!

[Cephalon]

Thank you so much for all your replies!

I think the Vitamin B12 is not a big issue in my case, since I get almost 3 times the RDA through diet alone.

@sthira: thank you for your post! I'm running this diet since new years eve So now for two month.
I'm 25 and live on a vegetarian diet for 18 years straight. Since staring the diet above I dropped 5KG, from 73 to 68 KG.
My weight stays more or less stable now since about 2 weeks. I already starded adding more vegetables to my diet.

I'm so convinced of calorie restriction! Ok it is just 2 month, but I already feel much more vital! I read the CR Way and Longlivety Diet and found both books realy helpful. Until now I only experianced the positive aspects and do not have any issues with hunger or cold sensitivity.
I switched straight from a Pizza/Pasta diet to CR making a 1 month "adjustments phase" eating healthier and plugging my intakes into COM.


Question: Do you eat the cocoa powder ? Or do you make a hot chocolate?
Has anyone eaten raw cocoa beans yet? I think those are great to supplement one's diet with, aren't they?

@ Lufega: thank you for your reply! I acctualy supplement with 500mg choline bitartrate EOD as part of my "study stack". Could you help me a bit in how far I would benefit from choline? Are you refering to fat metabolism?
I need to check the soy milk and will take your advise into account, thank you! To be honest, the reason why I eat the cottage cheese low fat, is because my mom bought some 30 packs in wholesale and geve them to me I never trusted in the low-fat hype actualy. I understand that fats are essential and that fat is replaced by carbs in many low-fat products.
Another issue with low-fat products probably all vegeterians (at least here in Europe)have is gelatin. Gelatin may have some benefits (? joints? skin?) but I just do not find it aesthetic eating a cheese with added animal waste in it. Though I must admit that not all supplements I use come in a vegeterian cap. Though being a strict vegeterian, I used to supplement with fish oil but switched to flax seed oil until I get convinced of fish oil again.

Edited by Cephalon, 05 March 2011 - 02:36 AM.

[sthira]

Ceph, I agree CR is pretty amazing. Even if it doesn't lead to wild life extension and thousand year old geezers, it's still a nice, lighter-footstep way to walk the troubled planet. It sounds like you're doing great with it - congratulations for taking control of and placing self-moderated limits on what you consume. It's rare and difficult - which is why most can't, won't, shouldn't, wouldn't, couldn't, mustn't and oh-you-mustn't-either-youre-too-skinny(!)(!)(!)

Re cocoa powder, piggy consumption is not without controversy. Some don't touch it, others in moderation, others pig out till they're giants. There's concern over high sugar, sfa, high cal, maybe weird metals like lead, and other crud. Plus treatment of field laborers. But the heart healthy benefits of dark chocolate seem really solid. So I find organic unsweetened non-alk cocoa powder and take my spoon, measure out 10-15/g, put it into a bowl with a tiny bit of water, then pour in some berries, mix it all up and it's just so damned delicious!

[Cephalon]

Hi Sthira,

Thank you for your post!

Yes reducing calories is great. I feel better then ever, honestly. I do not eat lunch at lunchtime but more around 5 - 6 pm because I noticed that nothing keeps me more productive at work than "skipping lunch".
But I'm not as strict as you may think. I eat 99% of the time as stated above, but when I dine out with my girlfriend who does not support my CR enthusiasm I will order a big pizza not to make her upset. She often says my hand were so cold and that I dropped so much weight ...
I will just eat a blueberry and an almond less on the next morning and may cut dinner a bit. But over the three month I developed kind of a feeling when I did get to many calories. I will feel tired and full all day. The human mind is unbelievable ... I should feel great beeing full, that is what I'm programmed to, but when you ever got that energy rush when on CR you do not want to miss it.
I weight 67 KG now and understand that this is might be an unhealthy -, because to rapid, weight loss. I will add a few more carbs like sweet potatoes to my diet.

Yes I also read some good findings of cocoa and heart health! And it should even reduce risk of stroke. Like coffee and black tea.
I drink moderate amounts of black coffee and felt bad about that, but I just received a newsletter from Life Extension Magazin refering to a Sweedish study I need to look up, claiming moderate coffee consumption reduced stroke risk. And there was a link to cocoa. I will dig this out when I get a minute.

Edited by Cephalon, 12 March 2011 - 12:13 AM.

[Cephalon]

Update on supplements.
Diet basically remains the same, though I added a lot more vegetables in form of a pure vegetable curry (no rice).
I acutally dropped the chocolate due to the heavy metal reports.
I added coconut oil as a dietary fat source. I will post a cron-o-meter report as soon as I find some time to keep track.

My daly food intake is supplemented with:

Brekfast
2000 IU Vitamin D3 (2x 1000IU Jarrow brand)
500mg Advan-C (buffered vitamin C)
1mg Methyl B12 (Jarrow brand)
x Jarro Dophius EPS (Jarrow brand)? **

2-3g Creatine (Creapure)

500mg & 100mg sublingual Resveratrol
50mg Jarrow Pterostilbene (pTeroPure)
x Polydatin ?*

250mg CDP Choline (eod) (smart powders brand. will switch to Jarrow soon)


Lunch
1200mg Piracetam (Aliud Pharma)
500mg ALCAR

(additional enhancers as needed, mainly Piracetam, Oxiracetam or low dose Modafinil)

Dinner

1mg Lithium (from 5mg vitacost brand lithium aspartate pill)
1 x Magnesium Optimizer (Jarrow brand with 100mg magnesium, potassium and taurine)

* Polydatin, depends on my further research and the conclusion drawn from this thread:
http://www.longecity...__fromsearch__1

** Started Jarrow Probiotic: Jarro Dophius today. Will see if I keep it or not.


You see I turned to a true Jarrow fan
I don't like all their products, but some are great in my oppinion.


Edit: It's good to do such reports. I totaly let my Copper - Zinc ratio out of my eyes. I will see if I find a good
7 or 10mg Zinc supplement.

Edited by Cephalon, 04 November 2011 - 02:23 AM.

[Luminosity]

I would add carbs and cooked foods. I realize you may have omitted them intentionally, but I feel that that would be a bad idea. I also feel that too much cold food is bad. In Chinese medicine, food and drinks should be warm or room temperature. I wrote a thread about why. You can look for it if you want to. I think that eating a steamed green vegetable every day is optimal. Did I read the flax seeds should be ground up for digestibility??

[Cephalon]

Hi Luminosity,

Thank you for your reply!

You are absolutely right, I was eating way to much uncooked stuff before.
That is why I added the vegetable curry (small print in my last post).
It's a curry made of:

Coconut milk
Cashewnuts (just some very few)
Cauliflower
Tofu (sometimes)
Broccoli
String Beans
Eggplants
Tomatos
Tumeric, Chilli and var. other spices

I make it realy hot and spicy, like a tandoor curry.

I'm cautionous with carbs, because once started they make me hungry 24/7
Though I sometimes added a sweet potato to my curry in the past, which made a tasty addition.
(sweet potato cubes, cooked in the veg. curry)

[Luminosity]

The curry sounds delicious. I've never heard of carbs making anyone hungry around the clock. Do you think that might abate if you ate a normal amount of carbs for a while? Sweet potatos are good for you though. There is no culture whose traditional diet has no carbs, except Eskimos, (life expectancy 40). Japan is the major country with the highest life expectancy. White rice is the food they eat most of. I can think of no traditional culture which eats mostly raw foods. It certainly would have been easier not to scrounge for firewood and keep a fire going, but they choose otherwise.

I have was on a no carb diet for years, and then I was on a raw food vegetarian diet for years. I feel that they both harmed me and lead to binges.

Good luck.

Edited by Luminosity, 04 November 2011 - 11:49 PM.

[Cephalon]

Hi Luminosity,

I should have better said, that with a low carb diet I do not feel as hungry as I feel with a regular diet.
I think that is what many people observe and why low carb diets are so popular "crash diets".
I'm afraid adding more carbs, because then the caloric restriction would be harder to realize.

But I will add a few more complex carbs like sweet potatos, since high protein diets do not seem to be the way to go.

Thanks for your input!

[yoyo]

Given that your (pre-update) nutrient breakdown shows you to be grossly deficient in potassium and magnesium, i would consider a legume as a starch source, esp. since you do consume soy already. Buckwheat is another option.

Anyway, that curry looks good and more, and more variety of veg is good. You could try making a second variety of curry with more greens. spinach is traditional. I also make a spicy african-influenced stew with kale. Eat your greens, they will fix most of your deficiencies.

[Cephalon]

Hi Yoyo,

Thank you for your input!

Yes potassium and magnesium are realy problematic.

I supplement with magnesium and potassium through Jarrow Magnesium Optimizer, though the potassium needs to be upped through diet of course.
Thanks for the tip on buckwheat, I will look into that as well.

The curry does a good job, skyrocketing my Cron-o-meter targets. except calories of course. I just typed it in and would like to export the report, though I did not find the option in the new web version yet. Cron-o-meter is available for Android, now. I totally missed this. Great app!

Anyways, the curry brings me to 74% of my potassium and 81% of my magnesium target.

I'm currently trying too improve my curry. I'm prety easy with variation. As long as one meal gives me overall nutritional balance, I do not care eating it 5 days a week. Though I have been variating the color a bit, from tumeric yellow over chilli pepper red and back. Maybe a green curry next?

Edited by Cephalon, 09 November 2011 - 11:17 PM.

[scottknl]

You could try potassium salt in your curry. It's sold here under the brand names nusalt, nosalt etc. In terms of getting more magnesium the top foods in my diet for magnesium are:

1) cooked spinach (40g) = 34 mg magnesium
2) Raw spinach (33g)-coleslaw(67g)-soy yogurt(30g)-salsa(30g)-oliveoil(4g)-paprika with nuts/raisins mixed up and eaten as a salad = 81 mg magnesium
3) cashew nuts (12g) = 31 mg magnesium

cheers.

edit: if you don't like the soy in soy yogurt, you can just use regular plain yogurt too for the salad.

Edited by scottknl, 10 November 2011 - 12:03 AM.

[Cephalon]

Hi Scott,

Thanks for your reply!

I will look for the potassium salt, but I would feel more comfortable finding foods naturally high in potassium. Thanks for the tips on Magnesium! I already added the Spinach, and a few cashewnuts are also sometimes in the curry, but unforutnatelly they are high in calories and do not provide as good nutrtion density, than other nuts, like walnuts. I have not problems with soy yogurt that will make a good addition.

Below the Nutritional Values cron-o-meter generated. (without cashews).

It's actually prety high in saturated fat, because of the coconut milk. I should reduce it a bit.

I'm currently on an average of 1800 kcals.

I', "deficient" in Choline, Vitamin D3, Biotin and have a bad copper - zinc ratio. Due to the coconut milk cron-o-meter tells me to enhance my lipid balance. O3 -O6 - sat. Fat. Those nutrients that are too low or out of balance are supplemented seperately.

I was planing on adding more tomatos, since they are high in Lycopene and low in Cals. Maxwatt posted in the Resveratrol Forum that there might be a synergy between Lycopene and Resveratrol. Probably also between CR and Lycopene.

I get 158% the RDA on VitB12 so I'm thinking about dropping the B12 supplement.

You think I should keep it? I read that high B12 intake is associated with some sorts of cancer ...

Today I'm sick, with a sore throat. I probably caught some infection. It's getting cold in Germany ... And all the vitamin C did not protect me ... :(

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size: 1 full recipe (1262g)
Amount Per Serving
% Daily Value*
Calories
786
39%
Total Fat
54g
83%
Saturated Fat
44g
218%
Trans Fat

Cholesterol

0%
Sodium
1052mg
44%
Total Carbohydrate
65g
22%
Dietary Fiber
28g
113%
Sugars
19g
0%
Protein
30g
59%
Vitamin A
131% •
Vitamin C
560%
Calcium
65% •
Iron
105%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calories needs.

Edited by Cephalon, 12 November 2011 - 04:57 PM.

[Mind]

I have to disagree with Luminosity's suggestion to add carbs. No disrespect Luminosity.

Your diet looks great. If you are feeling great on your diet right now, there is very very very very little reason to add carbs. Why potentially spike your insulin if you don't have to? Extra carbs are useless unless you think you need a little more energy before working out or something. Or if you are trying to gain mass (body-building).

[TheFountain]

ScienceDaily (June 11, 2005) — Brain shrinkage, a common symptom of ageing when people hit their 60's, appears to have no impact on an individual's capacity to think or learn, according to Australian National University research.


Professor Helen Christensen, the Director of the Centre for Mental Health Research (CMHR), said the findings challenged traditional beliefs about the impact of ageing on the brain.

"The common belief is that the brain shrinks with age and that this shrinkage is linked to poorer memory and thinking. There is also a belief that greater education, or continued, sustained intellectual activity might allow people to better accommodate the effects of brain ageing," Professor Christensen said. "Our findings do not support these beliefs. It is known that the brain shrinks over the course of a person's life, although the exact trajectory is not well understood, and there are huge individual differences.

"In this study, we found that, on average, men aged 64 years have smaller brains than men aged 60. However, despite this shrinkage, cognitive functions - like memory, attention and speed of processing - are unaffected.

"In the present study, we found no relationship between brain shrinkage and education level".

Low educational attainment has been found to predict the development of major memory difficulties and the recognition of dementia in previous work. However, little is known about whether education is protective of brain changes in the general population.

"Our findings do not support the role of education in protecting against either brain change or cognitive performance.

These findings are good news for the large proportion of baby boomers out there - and probably better news for the baby boomer women who show no evidence of brain shrinkage over this short period of time".

The ANU researchers conducted a combination of MRI scans and surveys of 446 people in their 60's in Canberra and Queanbeyan.

Their findings are the latest from the PATH Through Life project, which was initiated by the CMHR in 1999.

Other outcomes of the project have included:

• Strong associations between childhood adversity and adult depression. Factors most strongly related to depression include: mother's depression, reports of neglectful upbringing, too much physical punishment, having an unaffectionate father, and experiencing a lot of family conflict.
• Bisexual people tended to suffer more from anxiety, depression and suicidal tendency than homosexual or heterosexual study participants.
• Young Australian adults are the least likely to obtain GP care, compared to other age groups - despite evidence of significant mental health problems, such as tendencies towards suicide and substance abuse. The study found that those who used GPs were most likely to be female, to have been or be undertaking higher education and to be living with children. Young adults were also identified as having poorer physical health, more chronic diseases and higher levels of suicidal ideation when regularly using marijuana.
• Elevated symptoms of depression, anxiety and negativity were related to levels of tobacco consumption and marijuana use for both young men and women.

"The PATH Through Life project is set to shed much information on health, wealth and happiness, and hopefully show the way for health care and targeting of support to better meet the needs of individuals at different stages of life," Professor Christensen said.

http://www.scienceda...50611153907.htm

[Cephalon]

Hi Mind,

Thank you for your post! Yes actually I feel great on my diet.
I honestly do not know where to put any additional foods
I already use 1kg frozen veggies for the curry alone.

From what I read so far the benefits from CR are tightly connected to low, even glucose levels.
All pathways discussed, AMPK, Sirtuins, IGF-1, AGE, ROS all have to do more or less with glucose levels.

Low glucose, high fiber, medium fat and protein, together with most vitamins not exceeding rda ratios is the way to go IMHO.


Hi Fountain,

Thanks for your post!

I was already a bit afraid about soy shrinking my vegetarian brain

Isn't Luteolin also supposed to shrink the brain? ... need to check where I read that. Some tyrosine kinase something ...

[scottknl]

Hi Scott,

Thanks for your reply!

I will look for the potassium salt, but I would feel more comfortable finding foods naturally high in potassium. Thanks for the tips on Magnesium! I already added the Spinach, and a few cashew nuts are also sometimes in the curry, but unforutnatelly they are high in calories and do not provide as good nutrtion density, than other nuts, like walnuts. I have not problems with soy yogurt that will make a good addition.

Below the Nutritional Values cron-o-meter generated. (without cashews).

It's actually prety high in saturated fat, because of the coconut milk. I should reduce it a bit.

I'm currently on an average of 1800 kcals.

I', "deficient" in Choline, Vitamin D3, Biotin and have a bad copper - zinc ratio. Due to the coconut milk cron-o-meter tells me to enhance my lipid balance. O3 -O6 - sat. Fat. Those nutrients that are too low or out of balance are supplemented seperately.

I was planing on adding more tomatos, since they are high in Lycopene and low in Cals. Maxwatt posted in the Resveratrol Forum that there might be a synergy between Lycopene and Resveratrol. Probably also between CR and Lycopene.

I get 158% the RDA on VitB12 so I'm thinking about dropping the B12 supplement.

You think I should keep it? I read that high B12 intake is associated with some sorts of cancer ...

Today I'm sick, with a sore throat. I probably caught some infection. It's getting cold in Germany ... And all the vitamin C did not protect me ... :(

Hi Cephalon, My diet is kind of close to your diet except for the sat fats. You should have a look and see if it gives you any ideas. It's posted in the CR forum as Vegetarian CR and at around 1750 kcals has many of the same items in your diet, but with better balance of micronutrients I think. With respect to the Vitamin B12 supplement I've recently reduced my B12 too and take 100 mg a couple times a week instead of every day. I had the same problem getting pantothenic acid that you do: it's stuck at around 90% and can't find any foods rich enough that don't screw up something else in my diet. My solution is to supplement once per month with pantothenic acid to bring me up to 100%. Most of the CR Society people seem to subscribe to the approach of eat as much nutrients as you need to get to RDA on most things, then supplement the remaining 2 or 3 things. With regard to getting colds, I've found that after about 9 months on CR I stopped getting colds and flu. Once you drop all the excess fat and reach your target CR weight, then the colds and flu seem disappear, or only last overnight (it's kinda hard to tell).

What do your numbers look like after you modify the curry and add it to your daily diet?
Cheers and good luck to you.
(PS you're the second German I've encountered doing CR in the last few weeks. The other guy is in Frankfurt.)

Edited by scottknl, 13 November 2011 - 04:03 AM.

[Cephalon]

Hi Scott,

Thanks for your reply!

Frankfurt is just around the corner

Thanks for linking your diet, I will carefully read your posts.

The awfull sat.fat comes from the coconut milk, because I do not have any animal fats, except from cottage cheese which is prety low in fat.
Coconut oil is supposed to be a good fat allthough it's saturated. So I still hope, that it's not too bad.

My balance looks much better now with the additional vegetables.

Sidenote: you mean 100mcg B12 every other day, right?

My average kcal are 1762kcal /day.
78g Protein
140g Carbs (30g fiber)
100g Fats

Multiple times RDA in all B-vitamins, except Biotin.
No Vitamin D except from Sun and Jarrow Formulas.
Multiple times RDA in Carotenes.
Multiple times RDA in vit. C
5 times RDA in Vitmain K
Potassium still a bit low with 74% RDA. (though I add a bit through supplementation)
Magnesium is in check now with 100% RDA + supplementation

Zinc - Copper ratio is awful, always 70-80% RDA Zinc and 200-250% RDA Copper.
So at the moment I balance this through supplemental 15mg Zink.

Iron is a bit high at 200%. I guess it should be at RDA levels.
Actually I do not intake Chromium. Should I be concerned?
I will ask the Cronometer oracle for suggestions.

3liters water /day.

If anyone knows, how to get out an report from the new web version of cron-o-meter, please let me know!


Edit: should I add brewer's yeast for the chronium? That stuff is supposed to be prety healthy, right?

Edit2: Your diet looks great Scott, are you preparing this every day or are you making that ahad for the week? With all this ingredients. I will definately copy a few things. I actually like Quorn very much, but it's awfully expensive in Germany (imported from the UK by a small retailer over here). But Quorn would help me with the Zinc I guess.
Does the potassium salt actually taste like NaCl salt? I will add a few mushrooms. I love mushrooms but they did not fit in the curry I thought. But now I remember eating mushrooms in a thai curry. Otherwise I will eat them in a salad. They are delicious and low in kcals. Cool you are a vegetarian, too. Will you keep it up? I'm eating vegetarian for 15 years now and don't regret it yet

Edited by Cephalon, 13 November 2011 - 04:06 PM.

[yoyo]

Potassium salt still has the cloride, which is probably doing most of the harm from salt...

[scottknl]

Potassium salt still has the cloride, which is probably doing most of the harm from salt...

As I understand it from reading multiple sources, it's the balance between the sodium and potassium that makes all the difference. I can't claim to know what happens to the chloride after it dissociates from the sodium or potassium, but as long as I keep my potassium and sodium intake near RDA, I feel fine. If my sodium gets too high it causes me GI distress. Salt reduction is a controversial subject, so even if we knew the current science, it's doubtful we'd come to any agreement anyway.

[scottknl]

Hi Scott,

Thanks for your reply!

Frankfurt is just around the corner

Thanks for linking your diet, I will carefully read your posts.

The awfull sat.fat comes from the coconut milk, because I do not have any animal fats, except from cottage cheese which is prety low in fat.
Coconut oil is supposed to be a good fat allthough it's saturated. So I still hope, that it's not too bad.

My balance looks much better now with the additional vegetables.

Sidenote: you mean 100mcg B12 every other day, right?

My average kcal are 1762kcal /day.
78g Protein
140g Carbs (30g fiber)
100g Fats

Multiple times RDA in all B-vitamins, except Biotin.
No Vitamin D except from Sun and Jarrow Formulas.
Multiple times RDA in Carotenes.
Multiple times RDA in vit. C
5 times RDA in Vitmain K
Potassium still a bit low with 74% RDA. (though I add a bit through supplementation)
Magnesium is in check now with 100% RDA + supplementation

Zinc - Copper ratio is awful, always 70-80% RDA Zinc and 200-250% RDA Copper.
So at the moment I balance this through supplemental 15mg Zink.

Iron is a bit high at 200%. I guess it should be at RDA levels.
Actually I do not intake Chromium. Should I be concerned?
I will ask the Cronometer oracle for suggestions.

3liters water /day.

If anyone knows, how to get out an report from the new web version of cron-o-meter, please let me know!


Edit: should I add brewer's yeast for the chronium? That stuff is supposed to be prety healthy, right?

Edit2: Your diet looks great Scott, are you preparing this every day or are you making that ahad for the week? With all this ingredients. I will definately copy a few things. I actually like Quorn very much, but it's awfully expensive in Germany (imported from the UK by a small retailer over here). But Quorn would help me with the Zinc I guess.
Does the potassium salt actually taste like NaCl salt? I will add a few mushrooms. I love mushrooms but they did not fit in the curry I thought. But now I remember eating mushrooms in a thai curry. Otherwise I will eat them in a salad. They are delicious and low in kcals. Cool you are a vegetarian, too. Will you keep it up? I'm eating vegetarian for 15 years now and don't regret it yet

I do 100 mcg B12 2 or 3 times per week. I think you're supposed to get 6 mcg per day. Maybe I should cut down even more since recent reports have called into question taking more B12 than necessary.
OK, You shouldn't add brewer's yeast because it raises IGF-1 levels which is thought to counter the benefits of CR. Same for the high protein levels you have in your diet (recommended levels are between 0.67 and 0.8 g/kg/day). It feels good, but you're aging won't be slowed and health will still deteriorate with age. The point of doing CR is first for good health and second for a potential longer life. I also try to keep my methionine levels around RDA too since too much can also block CR benefits. That said, make changes slowly and you can change those things gradually. Don't panic because everything isn't perfect right from the start.
I consider the expense of the quorn worth the cost. I dropped my protein levels to 56 g/day so I have the amount now reduced to one 17g quorn meatball per day which is quite cheap. Quorn hasn't been tested for it's ability to increase IGF-1 levels as far as I know, so it stays in my diet for now.
The potassium salt does kind of taste a bit like NaCl salt. I recommend adding it to soups/stews and cooked vegetable platters.
Mushrooms should be cooked according to many sources that suggest that some kinds of raw mushrooms contain benzene. So I eat lots of cooked mushrooms stir fried in a spoonful of grapeseed oil, but not usually raw in a salad. I really like the mushrooms because they make a nice addition to my B vitamin status (except for B12).
http://www.mykoweb.c...wMushrooms.html
I like the vegetarian diet so far (2.5 years and counting...) so I'll continue for a couple of decades and see how it goes. It's pain free compared to the omni diet I used to have. I had the low B12 thing soon after starting and since starting supplementation, everything's been pretty good.

With regards to the breakfast, I make the beans, quinoa, he_shou_wu, flax meal, sesame seed, walnut, raisins, maybe with almond powder in a sort of base porridge on the weekends in a big pot and put it in the refrigerator Each day I take more he_shou_wu, huang_qi, goji, cocoa, orange peel and boil it with 20 g (dry) yogurt soaked oatmeal (reduces phytic acid), then add 75 g of the base porridge, 30 g of mixed nuts and add some olive oil and black strap molasses. Total weight of my morning porridge is 300 - 350 grams and represents > 50% of my vitamins and minerals for the day in around 400 calories. It's some work, but my wife (also CR) eats it too, so the work is kind of shared.

Glad I could help a bit with the magnesium. Cheers, Cephalon!

Edited by scottknl, 14 November 2011 - 01:42 AM.