[sebleon]

Sigh... this article presents a false dichotomy: you either eat a high fat diet, or you mostly eat refined carbs.

Based on dozens of nutritionists I've talked to, focusing on macronutrients as the primary metric is not great. Personally, I look at these things before macros: is it plant-based, is it whole (not refined/processed).

[hammock]

Your body has minimum protein (and types of protein, AKA essential aminos) and fat (and types of fat, essential fatty acids) requirements, or you will die. And that is not a clickbait headline. So hitting those macros are vital even if you are focusing on whole foods

[justin66]

> Your body has minimum protein (and types of protein, AKA essential aminos) and fat (and types of fat, essential fatty acids) requirements, or you will die. And that is not a clickbait headline.

Yeah it is. Well, it would be, if people ever talked about amino acids in headlines.

People die of malnutrition, but good luck finding a population where people dying because they missed out on a specific amino acid is even remotely commonplace. Seriously, to whom does that happen?

[hammock]

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2007/05/21/opinion/21planck.html

Also, http://m.med-health.net/protein-deficiency-diseases.html

[justin66]

These are extraordinary examples that amount to clickbait.

[hammock]

In addition to the American vegan baby who died in 2004 that I linked above, here are some more extraordinary examples.

French vegan baby dead (2008) https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/mar/29/vegans-trial-d...

Belgian vegan baby dead (2014) http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-40274493

Italian vegan baby almost dies (2016) https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/4xkk3n/couple-lose-cu...

Another Italian vegan baby almost dies (2016) https://www.thelocal.it/20160629/two-year-old-in-serious-con...

Futhermore, malnutrition - divided into a)protein deficiency, which is the biggest component, and b)micronutrient deficiency - is globally the most important risk factor for illness and death. Over 19% of young children in India have a protein deficiency[1] and over 41% of young children in rural Nigeria[2]. It's obviously worse in undeveloped nations but check the dead babies above if you think it can't happen in the developed world too.

[1]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4005205/ [2]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10768411

[justin66]

These are tragic instances of children being underfed or, in the case of the 'vegan babies,' being fed very, very stupidly. Babies should be breastfed and children should get enough to eat. I don't think any mainstream or even oddball medical or dietary understanding is being challenged here.

(promulgating the myth that "complete proteins" are an important idea is still bothersome, but now I'm not sure that's what you were doing)

[sebleon]

> Your body has minimum protein [macronutrient] requirements

True, but counting macros isn't a practical framework for eating well. Empirically, the US obesity epidemic is not about people missing macronutrient goals; it comes from eating low-quality processed pseudo-foods.

[hammock]

I agree with you, but I'm suggesting hitting (for example) at least 50g complete protein and 50g fat as a requirement of whatever whole foods requirements you want to set. Going on a fruit- or juice-only diet for two weeks could be pretty painful otherwise.

[sebleon]

Yeah that's fair - making sure macros are not totally off makes sense.