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snacking, eating too often, eating constantly
One of the things about Grant's diet is that he really doesn't eat a lot, doesn't sound like he snacks either.
I wonder if this plays into his recovery.
I have an anecdote about this, and maybe you do too. This is a place to post about how important *not eating constantly* might be.
I have this rescue cat and this is a common enough story: You'd think a rescue cat would just blossom, but sometimes they get to you and their health goes down the tubes. (refeeding issues perhaps?)
So, he was skinny and under-developed and of an unknown (but young) age when he arrived.
He was crazy hungry and would eat anything--literally anything--left on the counter, or try to get at your food, pig out on kibble and barf etc. Just a bottomless pit.
Then he got a little less crazy but I did leave kibble out for him all the time. (obviously kibble sucks but...). He was always snacking and sometimes still barfing and then he developed CAT ASTHMA and he has had that for a couple years now. (He's been with me 5 years)
Along comes my son who convinces me to STOP feeding him constantly and bring him down to 2 good-sized meals a day. I didn't change the food much. (He's getting a bit more canned food. And still getting kibble. Not fancy people-food or anything )
Asthma gone.
We hear that Matt Stone has trouble with Asthma and also that he has a sweet tooth. Is he one of those grazers who loves to graze all day long?
One of the things I've noticed is that constant grazing seems to be a thing that those who are diabetic and pre-diabetic do.
(I am far from perfect about this myself)
I don't think snacking was ever a thing in human history before the industrial revolution. The revolution pumped out massive amounts of crap and required consumers and snackers. These were created. The thing was made and then the people were made to want it.
Perhaps in season, when bushes are full of berries and vines are sagging it makes sense, but not every day all year. Digestion is work. Our roads would hold up poorly if rush hour never ceased.
There's an encouragement/poking/prodding toward intermittent fasting in the controlled alternative media. If a person suffers while doing that they need to stop. It should come naturally or not at all.
It is calming for anxious people to eat, just as it calms me to smoke. It's no coincidence that participation in the news cycle and social media induces anxiety.
@joseph-6 "Yes, hunter-gatherers would snack on things they found, as they relied on foraging for immediate food sources. This includes a wide variety of wild foods like plants, fruits, nuts, seeds, small animals, and insects, and they would eat them as they were gathered. "
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- Immediate food: When foraging, hunter-gatherers would often consume what they found on the spot. This is a fundamental aspect of a lifestyle that relied on immediate subsistence rather than a large food surplus.
- Dietary variety: Their diet was very diverse, depending heavily on what was available in their specific environment. It wasn't just meat; early humans ate a high-fiber diet that included many plants, vegetables, and roots.
- High-calorie foods: They would prioritize and consume high-calorie foods like fat, even if they were harder to find, as these provided energy reserves when food was scarce.
- Food processing: Some foods, like certain nuts, required processing to be safe to eat, so they weren't always eaten raw.
- Shared resources: They also shared food, which meant that even if some members were unsuccessful on a particular day, they wouldn't go without, as others could share what they had gathered.
So people before agriculture as hunter-gatherers they would eat whenever they could. Basically exactly the same as other animals like bears, primates, monkeys.. It makes sense.. If they had a lot of meat and fat from big animal and they eat a lot of it they will not eat after for longer period because they are full, but outside of that scenario it is constant fight to keep eating low calorie stuff to get enough. They are constantly moving to find that food. So they need to fuel that searching for food. Like eat something to have energy to find more to eat. Most animals live like that..
So you can't say in general terms people should eat 1 meal a day or 2 or 3 or 6. It depends on how that meal looks and how much active you are.
What you can say in general terms is that people should eat only the amount of food they need and ideally you should move your body and eat more to fuel that activity level instead of doing nothing and eating almost nothing. Because we know that leads to metabolism slowing down which we don't want.
So you end up as healthy, active person with lean body who doesn't have all those modern health problems from overeating like majority of people today have...
You're right about animals, they mostly catch as catch can. But dogs for instance don't seek to eat constantly, while birds and equine do. I like to think we're a bit closer to wolves than we are to chickens, AI response notwithstanding.
edit: On thinking more about it, you're right that finding food is always #1 for the wolf, followed by shelter and sex. I think our conundrum is that food is trivially easy to find in the civilized world. Even our poor people manage to be morbidly obese. It requires self discipline to live in civilization without becoming a glutton.
edit #2: "Uncivilized" humans may have snacked whenever possible, but roots and tubers and so on are not comparable calorie wise to a bag of chips or a bar of chocolate. They would have been getting far more fiber and far less fat (which the latter has got to be the hardest thing to find in nature). Sounds kind of like the kick most of us here are on, come to think of it..
@joseph-6 Yeah wolfs are different. They are not omnivores like we are. If you want to start debate about if we even are omnivores I am not interested in that at all.
So yes wolfs will not snack on all kinds of things. They will kill and eat animal and that's that.
What AI said has nothing to do with what I said. I said that hunter-gatherers don't have some routine of what and where they will eat. They will eat every time they have something to eat. That was my point.
Yes AI is right hunter-gatherers can't snack on high calorie refined junk food. So what. People in modern world have a choice. They can snack on stuff hunter-gatherers are snacking on.
hunter-gatherers have it somewhat easier because they don't have a choice and they don't have to apply strict self discipline to not eat that junk food all the time.
If you give hunter-gatherers unlimited amount of food and if they don't have to move their body to get that food like people in modern world they would get fat ans sick very fast as well. That's why you see healthy wolfs in nature and many dogs with the same health issues like people have. Because they don't have to move their ass and they can snack on garbage if their owner is bad one..
Anyways like I said. YOu said "I don't think snacking was ever a thing in human history before the industrial revolution" and I just showed you that it is not true. That people as animals will eat every time they can. Obviously carnivores will eat less often than herbivores or omnivores. Because it is much harder for carnivore get that food and when they get big meal they are good for longer. Omnivore who was not able to hunt down big animal will "snack" all day on all kinds of things to get as much calories as possible. Bear is a great example of that or we humans as hunter-gatherers...
Carnivores binge when bigger prey presents. Then go days without eating. They also build tolerance to sparse times. Hunting hungry is an advantage. It is a necessity.
As to who is omnivore, carnivore, vegan - consider stomach acid. The lowest pH goes to the nastiest diet - carrion eaters. Note that men have lower pH than dogs. Have seen plenty of coyote scat filled with raspberry seeds. Constant battle to keep ours out of chicken feed, compost bin and dead squirrels/bunnies.
Our dogs rush through 7oz of meat per meal. Their stop, puke, re-eat and rest point is 40oz. The few times they stole that much, they did not care to eat over 24 hours. They slept. Until they hit 40oz, they are frantic about any and all possible foods. Everything is possible food. Even the steel bowls their food is served in.
Wolves and coyotes up north are notorious for eating mice. Tons of mice. In winter it is a mainstay. That is a constant snack scenario. Hard to catch more than one at a time. When following herds and taking down larger prey, it is done in packs. Kills are shared. Few of the pack get their fill.
@will did fair work so far destroying CaloriesInCaloriesOut model on obesity. More likely toxins and deficiencies in food are driving obesity epidemics.
https://willofeuropa.substack.com/p/fat-you-dont-need-to-burn-it-off
Fat - You don't need to BURN it off - Will Of Europa
Toxins cause deficiencies of nutrients used to get toxins out. Add unlimited availability of addictively flavored nutrient deficient food like substances. Almost like an entire population is being dumbed down, attacked and subverted.
In all physical jobs I did in all cultures I worked in, the best performers did zero snacks. Food was saved until and savored after all work was finished. I did 30 years with breakfast stoking up before work and dinner after work. I did 12 years one meal a day. One meal a day outperforms all other systems by magnitudes of order. Working hungry drives focus, strength and endurance. Getting to level of strength that tolerates OMAD, let alone flourishes on it is a skill in itself.
It has been 35 months since I was able to do OMAD. At my worst cachexic episode 30 years ago, I needed 5 to 8 meals a day to survive and later recover. Barry Sears' zone diet worked well. I am down to 2 meals a day now. Might go to one soon. Looking forward to it. Noteworthy that sore stiff muscles after heavy days fade fast during hungry morning work.
@joe2 "One meal a day outperforms all other systems by magnitudes of order. Working hungry drives focus, strength and endurance."
yes and where that focus and energy comes from? From elevated stress cortisol and in more intense scenarios elevated other stronger stress hormones as well.
So this "fake energy" is not free. It has its cost like faster aging, slowing down of metabolism, lower muscle mass. Over time...
Pro metabolic people/fitness people know this. That's why they eat 6 meals a day in case of bodybuilders for example.
It just depends on your goals. Someone will prefer that high cortisol state because he doesn't care about his body and needs to get shit done. Doing two jobs feeding family whatever. Someone will prefer eating ever 3 hours because he wants to speed up his metabolism as much as possible and keep muscle mass or even gain more muscle mass..
If you are getting older and you care about longevity we know for a fact that you want to keep as much muscle mass as possible and and also fastest metabolism possible. Because there is no question from some point you will no longer gain any more muscles. It is only about slowing down the loss of muscles as much as possible. SO you are able to be active as long as possible.
Doing OMAD is the worst thing for that.
I like the quote I heard from.. somewhere, goes "Eat when you're hungry, love when you're young."
In the context of the low vitamin a diet, it does seem as though hunger slowly recedes the longer you are on it. I know it worked that way with Grant. When I started I was eating 2 lbs of beef a day. After several months, 1 pound. Now at 7 months, 1/2 pound. It would be different if I was an ambitious workaholic always with ten pots on ten burners and hungry children to feed. So it depends on the person.
I hope I didn't come across as implying that we're not omnivorous - That would be silly. My point was that our natural bent to seek calories at all costs works perfectly in the natural world and is disastrous for many in the civilized one. Convenience kills. Joe2 talks about the need for movement and that's not even a need but a requirement if a person is eating three meals a day and snacking in between. Whereas a lazy potato such as me can get by on beans and rice, a bit of meat, and a bit of oats before bed.