Sunday, November 7, 2010

Nutritarianism Explained

Thanks to Darryl McCullough, a math professor at University of Oklahoma and a nutritarian, I would like to present a big one-page summary of nutritarian principles:

How to Eat

Darryl does a good job explaining the basics for those who want to understand the science of the nutrition. In my own "best practice,"* I have a few differences:

  • occasional alcohol and the equivalent of one mug of caffeinated coffee per day
  • use of 1% cow's milk or yogurt instead of soy or nut milks and soft tofu in small amounts in recipes
  • use of "regular" vitamins (Costco Kirkland brand multi-vitamin/mineral) with a 2:1 calcium/magnesium supplement (Kirkland) for heart palpitations and a single D3 (Kirkland again) bead each day
  • occasional tiny amounts of regular sugar (in amounts like a spice) and salt, though I'm getting away from any additional salt in my recipes
  • with just a couple of animal product servings per week, I plan to make use of the grass-fed beef we're buying from friends soon, but for no more than one serving per week, carefully planned

I just don't see a need to be so ultimately purist. For example, this week I had some grapefruit in a smoothie and someone suggested that it's been associated with higher estrogen levels and strongly associated with breast cancer in post-menopausal women. I'm not there yet :-), but I passed on the article/study to hubby, who is a biophysicist who has studied some of these toxicology/metabolism issues. I take his counsel on things like this. Handy to have around!

*Note that "best practice" does not mean "what I do every day, without exception." It means what I do when I'm doing what I know I should be doing. :-)

5 comments:

  1. Hi Cindy, thanks for your post at the Member Center. One of the many things I like so much about the nutritarian approach is that it it not fanatical. It can be with or without small amounts of animal products, occasional moderate alcohol, etc. Lisa Fuhrman is quite open about the fact that the Fuhrman household is flexible, and the kids are not under restriction about what they can eat at parties or out with friends. Each of us finds our own way, and our tastes and preferences keep evolving as the years go by. I've just been truly amazed by how much I've come to enjoy these foods, I would never have believed it.

    Darryl

    ReplyDelete
  2. Me, too, Darryl! A family member or two has complained recently that "this needs salt," but I sure don't think so! Amazing how fast that changed. Thanks for taking the time to reply.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hello Cindy, I found your blog from Lean to the sun. I loved this post as I am eating exactly like this. I love Dr F diet plan and following it to the best of my ability is making me feel 100% better than I was 2 months ago.
    Thanks for sharing.
    Elizabeth

    ReplyDelete
  4. I like your attitude about Nutritarian eating. It's pretty much the way I feel. I call myself 90% on target. I've never heard that before
    about grapefruit..surprising considering I have heard that about soy. Thanks for some great recipes!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for the note, Mary. Here, almost five months later, I'd say I'm pretty much keeping with what I posted in this post, though I have less dairy product now--after almost thirty years drinking coffee with milk or creamer, I've started drinking it black, and mostly decaf.

    ReplyDelete

I'd love to know what you think of these or if you have suggestions for improvements!