I’ve started looking at cultural diets. I think the average American is so far disconnected from food, culture and tradition, that it’s evolved to convenience.

If you look at any culture. They figured out to survive with their foods and balance out tastes…. And they vary.

Some cultures are meat heavy. Some are plant heavy. Some are fish heavy. Some depend on the season.

The issue is fillers that are stripped of micronutrients that serve no nutritional purpose (except macronutrients for energy) but prioritize shelf stability, texture for hyper palatability, and cost resulting the over use of highly subsidized crops: corn, soy, wheat, etc.

Also food is just one factor of health. Movement. Sleep. Stress. Relationships.

Edit: I wouldn’t be surprised if this large push for eating cows is pushed by cow ranchers. Whether is good for health or not is hotly debated but one things for sure it’s bad for the environment and other countries thrive on alternative sources of protein.

Absolutely, though their life expectancy is similar to the US ranking around #50-60. Still impressive especially with the population size and rapid industrialization.

Hong Kong on the other hand tops the list.

China has made a lot of progress in health and longevity since the 1990s (and before that).

The reason why vegetable trans fat is called “artificial trans fat” is because it’s not naturally occurring in plants

Artificial trans fats (or trans fatty acids) are created in an industrial process that adds hydrogen to liquid vegetable oils to make them more solid.

You may be right, functionally similar to natural ruminant trans fat

Except that foods containing ruminant trans fat has small amount while processed foods containing partially hydrogenated vegetable oils has a lot more.

Tl;dr: most of the trans fat consumption in the US is from plants not from meat due to high consumption of highly processed foods.

The reason? Crops like soy, corn and canola are highly subsidized and are used in a lot of food processing

Isn’t almost trans fat consumption from hydrogenated vegetable oils and some margarines which are plant based and not meat based?

Doesn’t ruminant trans fats (from dairy) have less health risk than trans fats from hydrogenated vegetable oil and margarine?

I wouldn’t say as people don’t understand as much as ultra processed foods which are refined carbs and fat are convenient, affordable and hyper palatable. We’ve lost our traditions of making traditional meals at home with fresh ingredients.

You are absolutely right, more fiber (veggies or whole grains) and micronutrients, or protein have high satiety. Fat by itself or with protein is also good for satiety. Fat with refined carbs (eg donut, fries, ultra processed foods) have low satiety and also cause inflammation and have low amounts of micronutrients and polyphenols.

As for BMR, that could fluctuate based on many factors… and like you said if people aren’t eating high satiety food, they will basically try to override their hunger cues with willpower which is not good long term and may result in weight loss but may not necessarily be good with metabolic weight (weight cycling, yo yo dieting) eating the right foods and honoring hunger cues is a much more gentler approach while increasing lean muscle tissue through exercise may help increase BMR. So I totally agree with you there.

Okinawan/Uchinanchu diet is different than Yamato (mainland Japanese) diet as they didn’t eat as much fish. Some theorize because of the extremely hot/humid weather they didn’t have as much fish as the Japanese.

Another thing about Okinawan diet is “Hara Hachi Bu” eat until you are 80% full which implies lower caloric intake.

Interesting enough less eating = longer life according to some researcher but there are trade offs.

Okinawans have a shorter average height and the older generations even more so.

Veggies, legumes are staples. I think of Goya which is bittermelon, kabocha (winter squash), etc. as well as Okinawan sweet potatoes. Less rice than the Japanese counterparts though. Some grains.

Alcohol and for the older generations ocassional pork (nowadays it’s a lot more meat). Interesting even enough in the late 1800s, Japanese didn’t really eat pork but Okinawans did and Okinawans eat all the different parts of pork, feet, ears, organs. Sources say less than 1% of diet.

Also: Okinawa has a unique culture, language, diet that is different than the average Yamato Japanese and was it’s own separate kingdom until the 1600s and had its own king until the late 1879.

A lot of cultural diets are healthy.

Mediterranean diet was popularized by Ancel Keys and the seven studies diet in the 1960s. Had they did a more comprehensive studies in other countries, I’m sure they’d find other beneficial diets and lifestyle.

Instead we base everything on this diet which was approached (and accepted) with cultural biases.

When you look at obesity, cardiovascular disease, and longevity you got countries like Korea and Japan who rank high on health list that aren’t on the Mediterranean diet.

Excercise, great social health and community, and loweric caloric intake.

Not OP, but I read Blue Zones which had to do with centireans and longevity. There were some examples but keep in mind there are so many other reasons too like exercise and exceptions to the rules.

If you look at countries that have the best health there is no indicators that they are on plant based diets.

A lot of cultural ancestral diets are healthy.