Have you changed your diet in recent years, or have thought about changing your diet? If so, why the change?

I change my diet regularly. Keeps the body guessing and capable of handling different kinds of things. It is my understanding that when your body gets used to a constant diet, it gets better at storing familiar foods as fat. I would rather avoid that.

@Jude I’m constantly changing my diet but never to the extreme. I have dropped a lot of my poorer eating habits because as I age, I find that my recovery time has weakened.
Yes diet has a lot to do with cancer but there are people who can get cancer. Even vegans. Heredity has a lot to do with cancer as well and other illnesses that can weaken the immune system making a person prime for things like cancer.
It is not only your genes or what you eat or drink that determine these things.
Stress, loneliness, lack of exercise, enviroment, smoking and aging are all determining factors as well.

I stopped eating meat about 5 years ago.

Recently, I have been able to be almost vegan. No dairy, no poultry, no fish most of the time.

Occasionally, when I am out or have a little human tuna left over from Milo’s treats, I do finish the can. And I am slowly finishing the ½ stick of unsalted butter left over from my daughter’s pie making at Thanksgiving.

However, I am happy with rice milk for cereal and tea, Coconut Bliss for a frozen dessert, and veggie broth for soups and stews.

To my astonishment, a pizza with a decent crust and lots of vegetables needs no cheese to be delicious.

I feel fine, my GI tract feels twenty years younger, and I have no cravings (other than the rare need to devour a bag of potato chips. Then the heart burn reminds me of why I stopped eating them originally.

I had breast cancer 16 years ago. I don’t think that a recurrence is what will get me in the end.

In the past five years I’ve gone through periods eating paleo, which means just meat, fruit, vegetables, and nuts, and reducing or entirely cutting out grains, legumes, and processed foods. When I do this, my overall health improves and I lose weight. It’s particularly helpful to my joints, which I sometimes have problems with, because grains (especially wheat) increase inflammation.

I’ve stopped drinking soda for almost over two years. Fast food for almost 3.

I did forget to mention that aging is also a large factor. As we age our cells slow down reproduction and the longer we live the more likely we are to no longer reproduce perfect little replacement cells. Its like being a truck driver on a long, long drive. The longer he is on the road without proper rest the better his odds are that he will get into an accident.
A hundred years ago you didn’t hear about cancer so much because people didn’t live so long. Starvation, poverty, ailments, accidents, wars, infections, stess, poor hygiene, viruses, plagues and childbirth deaths of mothers or infants made sure people usually didn’t live past 50 or 60. Now 80 and 90 are the new norm because of medical help today and better living conditions but not because we come from a long line of healthy stock. Most of us are not meant to live that long.

I’ve changed my diet a few times. When I was 13 I started being a vegetarian, and then I quit when I was 16 and became a vegan. A few times a month I get into my health kicks so all of a sudden I start eating healthy.

@Pandora That’s a usual excuse given, but it’s entirely untrue. In societies that exist that don’t suffer from cancer, it’s fairly typical to live into old age as well. Dr. Weston A. Price’s research into traditional diets shows this, and it’s connections to dental health, as do numerous ethnographies.

Class is the biggest determinant of cancer rates, because industrial pollutants are disproportionately dumped in poor areas, and the working class have a harder time getting access to clean and nutritious food. The saturation of the nutritional discourse with falsehoods backed by agribusinesses has further compounded the problem.

I added fish back into my diet within the last year. After 5ish years of not eating meat, I wasn’t feeling so great and had just about run out of things to take out of my diet, so I added back in.

@incendiary_dan True but I still believe it is a factor as well. Pollutants are enviromental. I did mention poverty as well which doesn’t effect the rich. But you can’t rule out that an unhealthy person giving birth can make an unhealthy child when that child needs all the nurishment it can get. Now that child who has a weak system may give birth some day. We are still physically animals. In nature only the strongest survives and adapts to changes. The weak ones will usually not live long enough to reproduce or not be able to reproduce or abandon a baby or kill it if it is to weak or puny.
(I’m not saying we should do this.) I’m just saying that if we didn’t have the advancements of today, that many people would not be around.

Yes, I have changed my diet several times over the years.
I was a vegetarian/vegan for some years when I was younger, then, shifted back into more animal products again. I eat little meat, few eggs, but REFUSE to give up CHEESE!
I could happily live on cheeses, breads and fruits, veggies, but…sorry, step away from my cheese!
I am also quite the sugar hound and have to watch my sweet tooth closely.
I’d say I’ve been walking on the far side of middle this year and have ramped up my diet again since the holidays. Finally, the last of the cookies, candy, pies and other assorted evils are gone. lol

@Jude If you do decide to try out being a vegetarian and you need some recipes or tips, you know where to find me : )

Oh, I will, and thanks!

Diabetes, that’s all I’m gonna say…

I did the paleo diet that @incendiary_dan mentions for three months in honor of his 10K day. It felt much better than when I tried veganism. I’m never going to give up any particular kind of food forever—see my first post—but the paleo diet was well worth the experiment.

I’ve thought about changing my diet, then I have to remind myself that I just need to skip the excess snacks, and I’d be as okay as things can get around here. I just have to stop reading books; that’s when I snack the most.

But seriously, it took me about 7 months to realize sugar isn’t the problem, it’s carbs. I’m on a life time low carb diet. I’m limited to snacks that don’t go over 14 grams of sugar per serving, which is actually kinda good. Most snacks don’t go over that number. But there’s carbs in almost everything. I remember getting depressed because I was eating super healthy, but I was having high sugar levels. Come to find out, carrots and potatoes are high glycemic. I love vegetables, and when you think of “eating healthy” you think about vegetables. I have to limit broccoli because diabetics have digestion problems (basically I become a fart cannon), cabbage, carrots, potatoes, and some fruits are limited or completely eliminated. I can have like 1 orange a day, no pineapple, no kiwi, almost unlimited watermelon and bananas (I don’t eat bananas though :p)

2 years ago..after reading Eating Animals by Foer and doing a bunch of research, we turned vegan…2 years later, we’re mostly vegan with occasional fish consumption as well as some cheese…but I’d say we’re doing quite well.

Yes, over a year ago I became a vegetarian. I am contemplating veganism now, but I am unsure when I will make the switch. I changed my diet due to ethical concerns. Since then my health has improved, and my iron levels have shot through the roof. My doctor says my iron levels are higher than he would expect for an adult male – and I’m a lady. I was quite low in iron before, and it was a concern for me. The change has worked out really well for me.

No. Not in “recent years.”