Had a stroke in July due to blood pressure

[peter mcneil]

I agree that genetics plays the largest role in blood pressure and heart disease but lifestyle, especially a very bad one also is a factor not to be ignored. There is no excuse for being a fat pig, your health will get compromised and you're likely a shittier person in the process. Theres increasing evidence that high sodium and high sugar diets as well as diets extremely low in sodium fuck with our moods to the point of mimicking depression.

After I quit drinking years ago I noticed a very clear link between awful food and my moods, especially the day after a horrible late meal. Personally I am incredibly happy and optimistic when I string days and weeks together eating a diet under 2300mg per day of sodium and no refined sugars. Of course I fall off the clean eating occasionally and without fail I notice my mind gets rooted in more negative thoughts, I get irritated more easily and I rarely give someone the charitable option when I'm unclear what their intent was in a convo/email/text.

For those of you in love with your bad diets you'll instantly disregard this info as nonsense. Much like in the drinking thread people will find ways to defend their behaviours. It's a wicked blind spot tons of us have. If anyone is interested I can link some studies and share how I eat. I promise if you get through the initial sugar flu (lasts a week) you'll notice a drastic increase in moods, you won't get irritated with silly shit anymore and you will obsess less in negative thoughts

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2491403/

Good post and you make a good point about feeling good based on food you eat.

While it can be debated how much genetics plays a role, there is really no doubt in my mind that the food you eat effects the way you feel. People that dismiss this generally are people that have been eating shitty their whole lives so they dont know there is any other way to feel. With that said, I drink too much so you can say i am being hypercritical which would be fair. However, I realize that having two vices is worse than one. I never liked sweets so it has been easy for me to stay away from sugar. I also dont have a big thing on "food." For example, some people cant wait for lunch to have sweet and sour pork, I just know it would make me feel sick. You are absolutely right that if you stop eating sugar and then re introduce it in large amounts your body gets pissed off. It is almost like drinking for a long time, stopping, and then drinking heavily again. Your body isnt ready for the poison and has no tolerance.

I pretty much each the same shit every day:

Breakfast - Two hard boiled eggs, coffee or piece of toast with peanut butter (no added sugar)

Lunch - Some kind of mexican salad or Lebanese bowl. No rice in any of the bowls and no chips or tortillas for mexican bowl . Pork, chicken, steak or gyro. Avocados are great, beans, tomatoes, etc

Snacks - packs of almonds and Epic Pork rinds.

Dinner - Some sort of meat, usually fish, salad . I throw in some broccoli sprouts everyday as there has been some interesting studies on those.

I also run 5 miles a day, 6-1 and fluctuate between 180-190. I also go in the sauna every other day for 20 mins as there is some interesting studies on sauna use and longevity.

If you are a drinker, beer is the worst for putting on weight. Anything distilled (like whiskey) has way less of an impact on weight gain.

There are really no longer term clinical trials on nutrition (comparing one diet against another) so a lot of it is speculation as to if a diet plays any sort of role in longevity. But who cares. If you are going to live to 75 regardless of what you eat, I would think you would want to do so with as much energy as possible and to feel good as much as possible.

I don't think it's hypocritical at all to be aware of the mood altering effects of bad food but still choose to drink, humans are pretty nuanced creatures. I like to hunt and eat meat, my wife hates hunting but loves meat, I think one can reconcile those two seemingly counter facts just by being a human being. If I could control my eating I'd likely still drink but it seemed drinking, awful food, gambling and hookers all went together. Anything I could do to get a dopamine and beta endorphin rush I'd do. All or nothing.

It's also likely you don't crave sugar because you get plenty from the alcohol. I never cared for dessert but as soon as I took booze out of the equation I couldn't get enough.

How do you control your eating when drunk or hungover? I had no free will in those moments.