= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
Qiaochu_Yuan comments on Rationalist Lent - Less Wrong Discussion
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
= 783df68a0f980790206b9ea87794c5b6)
Loading…= b715d02e85f7b3b4ae65ca3d3e450868)
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Powered by Reddit
= f037147d6e6c911a85753b9abdedda8d)
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (81)
I'll start: I'm going to give up rice. I eat a lot of rice by default. I've wanted to try cutting out "bad carbs" for awhile, but this has been the main sticking point, so it's got to go.
What do you expect to happen?
I have generally low energy throughout most days (last Friday morning was a welcome exception that I haven't figured out) and am trying to fix this. I've been told that cutting out processed / refined carbs is an intervention that has fixed this problem in some people. And a hypothesis affords testing. My current estimate of the probability that this intervention will fix the problem (subjectively; I may also try dual N-back testing to quantify the effect but am open to other suggestions) is maybe 40%.
N.B. for self-experimenters: bullet chess and three minute blitz chess are very, very useful for quick, fun cognitive testing once you're beyond ~1400 Elo and aren't improving rapidly. If you're attentive not only will you notice overall performance changes, you'll notice changes in various subskills, some of which I strongly suspect have transfer with rationality subskills. (Not enough time to justify that claim here.) Whenever I try a new drug or am just feeling different for some unknown reason I'll play at least five games of blitz to figure out more precisely what's different about my mind.
(N-back works too of course but is relatively aversive and doesn't factorize into subskills as introspectively-obviously as chess does. But that could very well be because I never got beyond 4-back whereas I've played a lot of chess.)
Do you crave salty food, or salt food more than most other people?
I don't know. How would I test that?
I guess it's simpler to get at what I'm getting at more directly: Look into iodine deficiency, and see if that could be a cause. -Especially- if you have strong negative reactions to high-carbohydrate foods, as reactive hypoglycemia is one of the less common symptoms. (It's one I get, actually, which is why I'm aware of it; white rice knocks me out of commission when I haven't been taking regular iodine supplements.)
I don't have strong negative reactions to high-carbohydrate foods (they sometimes make me tired). The symptoms of iodine deficiency seem pretty severe and inconsistent with my experience.
Of all the carb heavy foods to cut out, I'd cut out rice 2nd to last (potatoes absolutely last). What makes it "bad" to you?
The sources I've been reading are neutral-to-mildly-unhappy about it (Archevore, Bulletproof, Mark's Daily Apple, 4-Hour Body), and I eat a lot of it.
Ah, so the plan is cold turkey to break the habit of using it as a main component of diet? Sounds good.
Yes, at the very least it should force me to explore my other options.
In an effort to cut out "bad carbs" I've been eating a lot more rice as a substitute for other carbs. What are your good carbs?
For what it's worth, quinoa seems pretty benign in terms of how it leaves me feeling.
Based on my reading: potatoes (neutral), sweet potatoes, bananas.
I've also read positive things about sweet potatoes. But don't bananas have a lot of sugar in them?
I suppose, but less of it is fructose than in other fruits. I don't intend to eat large quantities of bananas either way.
Use brown rice rather than white rice. Here is a great table comparing the nutritional differences:
http://www.rebeccablood.net/domestic/rice.html
Brown rice is very healthy. But it takes longer to cook. I just bought a rice cooker - a nice 8-in-1 one from Tefal on Amazon. Easily worth the £50 in saved time, effort, long term health costs. Takes 90 mins to cook.
I usually, after 80 mins, add some broccoli to steam inside the rice-cooker. Then I just need to have cooked some chicken with a little flavour and I have an exceptionally healthy, tastey meal. Great for anyone starting bodybuilding (which if you like sex, is a rational thing to do).