I think they prefer that we eat their fruits & berries, then plant the seeds somewhere else.
There are some incredibly intricate and sophisticated relationships between plants, fungi, bacteria and animals.
Like specific fungi that take over the neurological systems of certain insects in order to ensure ideal spore dispersion or habitat. Or colors of flowers that attract only certain pollenators, among other things.
This speaks to that very relationship you speak of. To entice us to eat these things, plants make them sweet. And our brains taste sweet and say “Holy cow, we need to eat a LOT of this stuff”. And that sweetness triggers an insulin response, because our brains ALSO know “crap, if this stuff is here NOW, that means winter is coming SOON and we need to store some fat!” Same reason bears prepping for hibernation are found eating berries and honey.
Meanwhile, like idiots, we’re at the table screaming at our kids to eat their broccoli and veggies, when THEIR biology is so much smarter than our parenting. It KNOWS that these things shouldn’t get eaten: that’s why they taste so bad! Haha.
Beef and eggs have been the only two foods I’ve “liked” for my entire life. My parents would get us to eat vegetables by dousing them in a delicious, home-made cheese sauce recipe that I also mastered decades ago. They both worked in Wisconsin’s finest restaurant of the 60’s and 70’s, so a lot of decadent recipes would get made in our home. I loved it when they made flaming desserts like bananas flambe or baked Alaska.
Stripping the diet down to beef and eggs, which give me no discernable issues when I consume them, has allowed me to identify some specific foods that cause me digestive issues (like sugar alcohols in certain low-carb treats or large quantities of raw veggies), cravings rollercoasters from carbs, along with things like heartburn and tonsil stones simply disappearing. I haven’t had heartburn at all since cutting out all refined sugar.
I never really understood individual reactions food reactions in my body until doing that. When you convince yourself that variety is necessary and good you can go a long time where you can only look at the totality of your diet’s effects without gaining any awareness of how you respond to individual foods.
That said, the connection between cabbage and powerful farts has been well-understood by my entire family for quite some time, forming the basis for many crude jokes and pranks over the years.
100%. An elimination style diet is really powerful in that regard. I know @TrainForPain had some pretty interesting observations when he took his own turn at this and started gradually re-introducing foods.
And it’s funny how we’ve been sold on the necessity for variety in the diet, when, historically, there was no WAY to accomplish that. Our ancestors ate very homogeneous diets: you could only eat the stuff that grew locally. You didn’t get to eat pineapples in the winter in Nebraska, or snack on buffalo in Alaska.
Steak, eggs… >
I think the nuance should be IS IT OPTIMAL? The answer is no. The body will use glucose if provided; however, it’s been my observation that we function far better and more optimally on animal fats. Plants being survival foods.
Only humans do this “balanced” diet BS… and only humans have the laundry list of diseases, syndromes, etc… people simply repeat mantras without digging into the context
For sure! Stuff that I was so certain was good for me that I forced it into my “bodybuilding meals” absolutely killed my gut when I started adding it back in. Pepper and onions were the things I remember surprising me the most. I’d always considered those to be sneaky ways to get my veggies in to whatever meal I was eating - no more!
I’m way on the steak and eggs bandwagon, but I’m becoming a very irritating hippie around food lately - I’m getting real convinced that there’s such a difference between organic/ grass fed/ farm-raised foods and the regular grocery store version that they aren’t even the same thing. Like it’s not that this steak is some percentage better for you than that steak; it’s closer to “that is not a cow.”
So I guess my power foods would be whatever I can get from the local farm. This year, that’s eggs, beef (a whole side), pork, and some berries.
And animals do…?
My recent favorite:
A small handful of frozen blueberries, one cup of plain, full fat kefir, 2 scoops of whey + 2 scoops of casein protein (totaling 50g protein), raw honey, and a small handful of raw almonds. Stir it up into a goop, and eat. The blueberries thaw just enough to keep it cold, the almonds give it crunch and more satiety.
And, I don’t have to clean my blender after. If you’re hungry enough, serve with 4 over easy eggs on the side fried up with butter. (This was my lunch today and it was pretty damn good).
That was pretty funny
And that’s the thing: NOTHING wants to be eaten. Animals can run away or fight. Plants can’t, so how do THEY fight back? Chemical and biological warfare vs kinetic ops.
So go nuclear on them.
They’re all edible…
…Once!
I found a new one.
Damn I miss runza
The food that always seemed to give me best results for heavy lifting was cheap all you can eat Chinese buffet. White rice, orange chicken, Mongolian beef, egg rolls, and those delicious sugar bun things. Was it healthy…not really. Did I get bloated…absolutely. But it was effective.
I imagine the bloat was probably one of the biggest contributing factors there. Always been a plus in strength sports
Definitely brings up another important caveat: if we’re talking about performance foods, we’ve got to ask what is the performance?
Your example makes a ton of sense on a powerlifting platform. If I was about to go play a football game, however… let’s just say I hope we’re wearing the away pants.
Seems like I always had my best performance about 12-16 hours after a feast. So the pickup game of tackle football the Friday morning after thanks giving.
Opposite ends of the culinary fence for me, but after a heavy training session two of my favorite meals are slow smoked brisket sliced fatty from the point, potato salad and unsweetened tea or a poke wrap.
I guess it depends on whether or not I want to tap in those mayo super powers (potato salad).
Regarding chili, if the recipe includes tomatoes or beans it’s a soup. Nothing wrong with soup but appropriation is out of vogue right now so it’s important to be accurate.
Oats, berries, avocado, ginger, sauerkraut and peppers are all high on my list. I sincerely feel better when eating anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory foods regularly.