taw comments on Rational Health Optimization - Less Wrong

20 Post author: jacob_cannell 18 September 2010 07:47PM

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Comment author: taw 23 September 2010 05:33:05PM 2 points [-]

All paleo I've seen bundled together post-agricultural food like sugar and vegetable oil with agricultural food like potatoes and cereals as if there was no difference.

It's difficult to be more wrong than that. Oh, and I've seen paleo advocating "healthy" vegetable oils, as if we didn't had too much of them already.

A more pragmatic reason is that it's nearly impossible to go paleo these days, while it's entirely straightforward to shift back to agricultural era eating patterns (replace sugary drinks with milk, beer, and water; replace margarine and vegetable oil with butter; stop avoiding bread, rice, and potatoes; check pre-made food you purchase for excess vegetable oil and sugar added).

Not that paleo diets as recommended have really much factual basis.

Comment author: mattnewport 23 September 2010 05:43:29PM 0 points [-]

All paleo I've seen bundled together post-agricultural food like sugar and vegetable oil with agricultural food like potatoes and cereals as if there was no difference.

You must have been looking at some very abbreviated summaries or second hand information then.

Oh, and I've seen paleo advocating "healthy" vegetable oils, as if we didn't had too much of them already.

Not all vegetable based oils are created equal. Lumping them all together ignores a lot of relevant nutritional information and research findings on health effects.

A more pragmatic reason is that it's nearly impossible to go paleo these days

I assure you it is not.

Comment author: taw 23 September 2010 10:16:28PM 0 points [-]

Not all vegetable based oils are created equal. Lumping them all together ignores a lot of relevant nutritional information and research findings on health effects.

I'd definitely lump them together, ignore any distinctions, and strongly recommend avoiding all of them.

People eat such ridiculous amounts of vegetable oil now compared with any time in the past, that until it gets reduced to reasonable level such fine distinctions are only distracting.

Effects of unrefined sugar differ somewhat from effects of refined sugar too - still, the only sensible thing is to cut both.

Comment author: mattnewport 23 September 2010 10:45:45PM 0 points [-]

I'd definitely lump them together, ignore any distinctions, and strongly recommend avoiding all of them.

I mostly do but I'll sometimes use olive oil for salad dressings or low temperature sauteing and coconut oil for higher temperature frying. I prefer butter or lard for low / high temperature frying respectively though.

Effects of unrefined sugar differ somewhat from effects of refined sugar too - still, the only sensible thing is to cut both.

Yeah, sugar's pretty bad in most of its forms. I don't worry too much about sugar intake in the form of raw fruits and berries (which I eat a lot of) though.

Comment author: taw 25 September 2010 01:45:49AM 1 point [-]
Comment author: taw 23 September 2010 11:07:09PM 1 point [-]

I mostly do but I'll sometimes use olive oil for salad dressings or low temperature sauteing and coconut oil for higher temperature frying. I prefer butter or lard for low / high temperature frying respectively though.

I doubt these sane uses would account for even 20% of amount of vegetable oil people consume these days. And there's nothing terribly wrong with using small amounts of sugar of any kind - it's the ridiculous amounts of it that are the main issue.