High carb vs high protein/fat

[sportsfan8724]

So im always looking at information. I’ve always followed a high protein (chicken, salmon, eggs, deer meat) diet with some potatoes and veggies thrown in but mostly meat. Physically I look great super strong. However I’ve noticed the longest lived people on earth all eat mostly carbs with minimal meat and the longest lived area is high carb with 69 percent of the carbs being sweet potatoes. With all the high protein, low carb push these days could we be all making a mistake? It’s hard to grasp how all the areas where age is longest the diet is high plant foods. Thoughts

 

[Guided_by_Voices]

Here are some other things common to long-living people:

- They eat little or no breakfast
- They tend to get a good amount of exposure to the sun
- They don't eat industrial foods
- They're lean with little or no organ fat
- They have low fasting insulin levels
- They're fairly active, but not excessively so
- They have strong social and family bonds (but not social media)
- They eat organ meats and connective tissue, not just muscle meat
- They eat a fair amount of fish
- They eat fairly paleo
- They generally have healthy sleep patterns
- Their food tastes great and they enjoy eating it
- They're not posting on forums on a Saturday night

I'd say all of these (and more) are more important than worrying about macros or being "plant based". Also, IMO, it's surprising that the longest living people don't live substantially longer given everything they appear to be doing "right", which says to me that we need to do something in addition to what they're doing if we want to stay youthful and healthy. So even if your figures are correct (I don't think they are, at least for some regions like Okinawa) they are actually an argument for looking for something else to combat aging, which low-carb may partially do.

 

[madman]

Regardless genetics plays a strong role.....my grandmother and all of her sisters lived into their late 80s/early 90s and as far as lifestyle/overall health there would be extremes between some of them!

 

[JimGainz]

There was a Ted talk from a 96 year old who looked fantastic that said he ate lots of meat and fat. I’ll try to look for it. But I would not necessarily say heavy plant based diets are the best. They may be for some - especially for those who have issues from meat (like cholesterol, etc). Also, living a long time may not be the best thing either (many vegans in their 90s are so frail they look like death warmed over). Go for performance. If your diet is working keep at it.

 

[abe]

For longevity, I believe the hunter gatherer diet is best. It may not be best for bodybuilding. Our genes developed on a low-carb hunter-gatherer diet and I believe that's what we are meant to eat.

 

[abe]

For longevity, I believe the hunter gatherer diet is best. It may not be best for bodybuilding. Our genes developed on a low-carb hunter-gatherer diet and I believe that's what we are meant to eat.

Ancient hunter-gatherers didn’t all eat paleo | Popular Science

I believe all autoimmune diseases are caused by grains.

 

[Guided_by_Voices]

That popular science article is not very accurate. The iceman is not ancient. He lived about 5000 years ago, well after farming of grains started. Paleo is generally defined to be before about 10-12,000 years ago. Also, the idea that you should eat a little of everything and "you'll be just fine" is completely wrong and neither necessary nor desirable. There is no reason to eat any foods fried in vegetable oil for example, and for me, even a small amount of whey protein activates a food sensitivity I have. The Paleo diet is about what not to eat, not about a specific diet.

 

[Gianluca]

I recently gone through this as well, at the end I got to understand that most studies showing benefits of High Carb Low fat diet, more like vegetarian, are nonsense Epidemiological observational studies. But then I got to see the data provided by Loren Cordain here in the protein debate, you should see this http://www.catalystathletics.com/articles/downloads/proteinDebate.pdf

and the data on Low Carb/High fat diet and longevity is much stronger, there are many clinical trials showing that