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The Philosopher's Diet (general dietary wisdom thread)

anon_sabw said in #1612 1y ago: received

I've never been tempted to take the peat pill. I get my diet advice from Plato, Tacitus, and ibn Khaldun: the Guardians should eat simple diet of roast meat and avoid allowing Corinthian girlfriends to feed them decadent food. The ancient Germans were strong and virtuous because they ate wild meat, wild berries and fruit, and copious amounts of milk. The strongest and healthiest people known to the medieval arabs were those of the desert tribes who ate milk, meat, and long fasts. If we do our own survey especially of what is known specifically in North America, we see that the strongest (with historical anecdotes verging on the superhuman) tribes grow up eating buffalo meat and chewing buffalo leather (pic related: chief wolf robe has superhuman facial development due to good diet). The closer you can approximate these sorts of things, the healthier you are. I call this "the philosopher's diet" because it seems to be the consensus of serious philosophers across many different historical societies. I should write it up into an article some time.

This backs up what the modern alt-wisdom has settled on which is lots of animal foods (meat, fish, organs, eggs), some fruit and tubers like carrots, and (if you have that steppe ancestry) lots of milk. Absolute minimum of modern garbage with no positive historical attestation like seed oils, white flour, refined sugar, and soy.

Plenty of theory too on why man should be expected to be a foraging carnivore and not a grainoid. I'll let the comments expand on all that.

The corinthian girlfriend problem is probably the hardest aspect of all this. Women seem to love to bake things, and even if they use good ingredients, the ingredients are at best organic flour and brown sugar which are both suspect. It's very hard socially to avoid soft decadent foods, especially with kids. How do we raise our kids to have jawlines like chief wolf robe and the physical constitution of a desert Arab who can leap 20 feet in a single bound.

(The subject of diet and good food came up in the blood and soil thread (>>1607 >>1605 >>1602 >>1600 >>1599), and some of the fringe diets that people have explored to cope with the poisonous nature of default American diet. I was talking to a woman the other day who is grappling with this stuff and I realized in our sphere we have a great deal of wisdom about diet backed up by overwhelming historical and scientific evidence and first-principles theory. I wanted to start a thread for general discussion of dietary wisdom)

referenced by: >>3526 >>3827 >>4116

I've never been temp received

anon_kwka said in #1628 1y ago: received

Just joined, greetings to all.

My suspicion is that the diet discourse has the pitfall of potentially acting as an amorphous fill-in for more easily neglected factors related to optimum breeding: ones daily physical regimen, the effect of an individual's place in the social hierarchy on their physiology (cortisol levels etc).

Let's take your run-of-the-mill UMC white teenager. In all probability, what is likely the actual missing ingredient to turn him into more of a nasty physical beast? My guess: a strict physical training regimen + the opportunity (or being forced) early and often to express healthy levels of aggression\his ownership of space.

referenced by: >>1632

Just joined, greetin received

anon_sabw said in #1632 1y ago: received

>>1628
Physical training as the most acutely missing ingredient between people who are basically healthy and peak humanity. In all the texts I cited in OP the best wisdom comes along also with a culture of bodybuilding and militarism. The diet becomes about how to properly feed that and what kind of diet is natural to that. But the diet is immensely important and many people are wrecking themselves by eating trash out of ignorance and I discipline. The ignorance at least can be corrected if the subject is willing.

As for how to achieve the physical social peak environment, the obvious is sports, but that doesn't quite get far enough. Young men need to be members of a free war-band mannerbund. College fraternities are another approximation. Actual military officer careers used to be a much closer approximation but I don't know if it's any good today.

The elephant in the room is that this kind of social position/environment is very much "not allowed" by various powerful factions of senile women (and aspiring women). Such a (training) regime would be necessarily politically revolutionary in character. Certainly worth planning for, but currently as they say "regime complete". Thus philosophy radicalizes.

Though worse, the people you would want in such a training regime to make it viable are broadly speaking bought off and comfortable in their slavecoin cages. Few can comprehend peak life and fewer still even want it. No reason not to go for it, but this is going to be a heavy lift.

Until then, we will cope with our diets and philosophy books.

Physical training as received

anon_ryze said in #1640 1y ago: received

I've observed that married men are most often derailed by the efforts of their women. This is most often conducted with love. I have an example: A friend's wife, fearful that he was not eating enough vegetables, made him delicious trays of oatmeal cookies spiked with pureed spinach, kale, and chard. There are other temptations, as well. She might be watching her diet all week for an indulgent Saturday night dinner out; he is just trying to get by, eating whatever is put in front of him.

I sit down for dinner with my wife and son, but I don't always eat what they eat. While keeping trim, she can eat a diet of carbohydrates, minimal fat, and lean protein (maybe this is what they mean by human biodiversity: I would balloon on this diet, while she thrives). My son, who runs and lifts weights on days he doesn't play judo or swim, is granted unlimited calories, with his already generous meals (the rice and fish my wife eats) supplemented with whole milk, butter, bread, and meat from my plate.

I am happy to select from a limited menu of meats and vegetables, prepared simply. I like to cook; I usually make them for myself, but my wife can competently prepare them, too. I lift and run sprints with my son, but I couldn't say I'm particularly active. I eat strictly enough to afford occasional meals out.

I wish I had figured these things out much earlier. I was the result of parents raised poor in a large families, who worked too many hours. I ate a lot of Pop-tarts. Out of necessity, I learned to cook, but it took until I was in my thirties to understand how to feed myself.

I've observed that m received

anon_hugw said in #1644 1y ago: received

One of my biggest frustrations is that people are quick to seek nutritional advice when nutritional self-experimentation is incredibly easy.

People should gather a handful of empirical facts about their own diet and body before they take the plunge into theory world.

The natural slave reveals himself so quickly when he turns to Twitter before trying an elimination diet or similar approach.

That being said, when heuristics are needed appealing to the lindy principle or walking away from the “standard American diet” won’t do anyone any harm.

One of my biggest fr received

anon_dicy said in #4338 7d ago: received

Kiwis left on the countertop became alcoholic and soft. I ate all 6 of them without hesitation. This style of eating, now that I think about it, is extremely strange to any modern: squishy fermented fruits with wafting alcohol aroma, self-made yogurt viscous without gums, throat-burning carbonated water, game meat with thyme and cumin, free-ranged eggs and tallow, raw green onion in red miso, juicing machines, and dissolved collagen or steamed beef tendon.

referenced by: >>4339 >>4340

Kiwis left on the co received

anon_dicy said in #4339 7d ago: received

>>4338

That's a great pick-up line too. "Want to eat some alcoholic kiwis with me?"

That's a great pick- received

anon_dicy said in #4340 7d ago: received

>>4338

Going to explain in case not self-evident:

- Fruits left in warm countertops ferment due to natural yeast and become alcohol. Animals can get drunk this way.
- Many foods add carrageenan gum and guar gum because the yogurt they naturally make is so runny at room temperature they have to adulterate it to make it seem palatable. The thickness is due to things the bacteria does. Rule of thumb: cold yogurt = solider, warm yogurt = liquider.
- Carbonated water has CO2 and fizzes your mouth like Coke
- I prefer thyme and cumin because they're earthy herbs that go well with game meat
- Free-ranged eggs are important because PUFAs transfer into eggs through feed, which is primarily corn/soy for chickens
- Eating raw onion is a Balkans thing, but I like adding salty miso (used to make soups) to make it taste better. I like it cause it wakes me up in the morning, but sometimes I munch a jalapeño.
- Gelatin is good, as per Ray Peat. Tryptophan is bad. I try to get enough gelatin.

referenced by: >>4343

Going to explain in received

anon_wize said in #4343 7d ago: received

>>4340 How do you consume your collagen? Collagen is about 30% of the protein in the human body…on the principle that you are what you eat, I’d like 30% of my protein to come from collagen, which means 8+ tbsp of the powder from Whole Foods. I can blend it in a smoothie but other options would be nice. I suppose you can dissolve quite a bit in a bowl of soup?

referenced by: >>4345

>>4340 How do you co received

anon_dicy said in #4345 6d ago: received

>>4343

Oxtail soups are decent, as is shank or shoulder. Your problem with primal cuts will be cutting through bone to fit into your pot, as USDA permits no outside meats in butcher shops. A manual butcher saw is workable but tedious, though I've gotten the hang of it over time. Long-term I should just find a small grocery store or hunter to cut it under the table.

You can pick up beef tendon at an Asian market, which can be made into aspic. Sometimes you see it as an add-on ingredient to Vietnamese Pho. I've seen variations of cow hooves (Egyptian Kawareh) or chicken/pig feet (used in broths). I don't like factory farmed meat even if just it's the hooves/feet. Sometimes I cut a beef tendon into slices and steam it inside my pressure cooker as a meaty mastic gum.

Knox gelatin smells like a barn. The Costco collagen peptides taste better being tasteless, dissolving better too. Both are unpleasant to me and I will not repurchase after finishing up this supply.

You may want to look into pressure cookers and dutch ovens. I don't recommend clay pots because some require soaking with little benefit but more hassle. If you want to save time go for an instant pot or slow cooker, though a slow cooker sometimes overdoes the cooking. I want the meat to be chewy to work my jaw, not soft like baby food.

Oxtail soups are dec received

anon_dicy said in #4355 4d ago: received

>>4353

Much of this forum seems to be about weird building choices. If you're into greco-roman futurism or whatever, knock yourself out, it's a free country.

For the rest of us, the basics are simple.
1. Only copy building habits from people who are more powerful than you. I used to live in Washington DC, surrounded by many more excellent buildings than I am currently surrounded by. Not a single one of them, afiak, was researching architectural practices like the GSA PBS-P100 facilities standards or the McMillan plan. Instead, they all built what looked good and followed this basic strategy:
2. Make sure the sketches look good. In particular, avoid what people agree as ugly.

That's it. The very basic advice will get you there if you follow it rigorously. What does it mean, in practice?

You use marble, not granite, because marble looks like the outside appearance of the federal buildings in Washington DC. Granite is reserved for countertops. Put some large columns out front because the Greek Parthenon did that.

Don't skimp on ingredients, especially where you quarry your marble from. You can get the cheapest imported planks and stone, or you can respect yourself more than that.

You can build well from any general architecture firm in this country, for a reasonable price and without spending a ton of money. Keep it Simple, Stupid.

You must construct buildings, but never build them as a monument to vanity. Make sure the windows have shutters. If you're serious, try adding fasces (sticks bound together) on your columns to signify Imperium. Have fun! Don't forget to chill and vibe as you're building.

referenced by: >>4358

Much of this forum s received

egon said in #4358 4d ago: received

>>4355

Look, the title says "general dietary wisdom thread". So we could use some general dietary wisdom.

> Make sure the sketches look good. In particular, avoid what people agree as ugly.

Snark aside this is just correct. Every big city in America could be improved dramatically if the mayor, planning dept and permitting bureaucracy took that line to heart.

referenced by: >>4359 >>4360

Look, the title says received

anon_dicy said in #4359 4d ago: received

>>4358

Yes, glad we can meet and talk. I mainly am unconvinced of general advice being sufficient. It reminds me of telling a fat person to "just eat less," causing them great agony in the process while ignoring the details of their condition. Some nevertheless are culpable for their lack of self-control, but it is known addictions wire chemical pathways in the brain making them somewhat not entirely free willed.

Though the "exercise, eat well, and get sun" advice is in many parts true, I felt the tone of the original post to uphold mediocrity hence my re-writing to get another perspective.

Being able to describe what needs to be done is necessary for others who don't share your same understanding to do things. That is better than assuming others know how to do things and them building something terrible. Ideally everybody is learning and curious because a rote memorizer or builder isn't adaptive, but these people are rare and don't seem to exist at the bottom today.

High level theory and writing -> infographics, short essays, blog posts, cartoons, pictures -> rules, laws, catchphrases

Yes, glad we can mee received

anon_dicy said in #4360 4d ago: received

>>4358

I had hoped there to be more of the high level theory and writing on this forum but I feel the upvoting system leads to whatever is emotionally catchy becoming popular

I had hoped there to received

egon said in #4365 4h ago: received

Much of this thread is about esoteric diets. Here are the basics:

- Eat lots of protein.
- Reduce carbohydrate intake. In particular, avoid sugar.

That's it. "Not an easy answer, but a simple one." Your diet should consist of high-quality protein, fat, and slow-metabolizing carbs, mostly in that order.

What does this mean in practice?
- Lots of fish, chicken, other meats
- Lentils, legumes, root vegetables, salads
- Brown rice, not white
- Smoothies, not fruit juice

Whole milk and eggs are great. Peanut butter is great. Protein shakes are convenient. Quality matters, especially for animal products. Buy good, hormone-free meat, eggs and milk.

I've known serious athletes who lived on Sunfare, specifically this plan: https://sunfare.com/fit-fuel.aspx

“It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.”
-Socrates, via Xenophon

Every man should train seriously at some point in their life. Sun and steel. During training, eat a gram of protein a day per pound of body weight. Lifting and athletic advice beyond that is a good subject for another thread.

Much of this thread received

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