A Journey to Wellness: Food

on 2024-05-16

There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path. - Morpheus

DISCLAIMER: I am not a healthcare professional. This post is based on my personal experience. Please consult a doctor before making any significant changes to your diet or health routine.

Surgery appointment

I started experiencing constant nose congestion while trying to gain muscle at the gym by eating chicken and rice with little to no oil. Despite seeing three doctors who all recommended surgery, I decided to research the issue myself before my scheduled surgery appointment. I wondered why my nose was swelling and began to uncover clues about the significant impact of diet on our bodies.


Omega 3-6 balence

Omega Sources
One of the first things that I noticed was the omega 3-6 balance in our bodies. Both of them are essential oils that your body can neither produce nor store. So, you have to take them from outside sources regularly. The more important thing is the omega 3-6 ratio. It has to be balanced or, at worst, 4 to 1, omega 6 to omega 3. Omega 3 sources are very scarce. They are mainly oily fish like salmon, tuna, and sardines. It just clicked in my mind that I had not been eating almost any fish for months; in a year, I was eating it maybe once or twice. On the other hand, omega 6 is very common in our diets. It is found in lots of things, but one of the worst excess sources is sunflower oil or other plant oils. The ratio is 40:1 for sunflower oil and 83:1 for corn oil. So, what happens when you lose the omega 3-6 balance? Since I am not an expert, to my understanding, it works like this: omega 6 causes an increase in the production of inflammatory molecules, while omega 3 helps produce anti-inflammatory molecules. The thing is, inflammation is not just one thing; it depends on your body how it will react to inflammation. It can manifest as anxiety, depression, or just nose congestion, or all of them at once.

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Allergy/Inflammation

Allergy pills
So, I was using allergy pills at that time just to be able to breathe. But after this enlightenment, I bought a salmon fish that day and just ate it, nothing else. After a while, my nose congestion cleared up as if I had used allergy pills. It was completely gone. Then I started to think about all three doctors who had suggested that surgery was the only solution. After following my new diet for a couple of weeks, I was sure that it was working. So, I canceled my surgery appointment.

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Ketogenic Diet

Keto Pyramid
I continued to research eating healthy and being healthy. The omega 3-6 ratio was only one part of the puzzle. Then I learned about the ketogenic diet, which is mainly a low-carb diet, eating at most 20-50 grams of carbs, with the rest being fat and protein depending on your needs. What this does is, in a diet as we see as normal in today’s world, we eat lots of carbs, and carbs are our primary fuel source. So, the body is adapted to burn carbs, and excess carbs are stored as fat in our body. When you switch to a keto diet, your body will be forced to use fats as its main source of energy. When fat is used, it produces something called ketones as an energy source. Some parts of your body still need carbs, specifically glucose, but there is no need to worry because your body can produce the necessary glucose using a process called gluconeogenesis. There are no essential carbohydrates required in the diet because our bodies can produce the glucose we need.

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The Bro Diet

Chicken/rice/brocoli
I was consuming very little to no oil while trying to gain muscle, following my so-called healthy diet. But when you think of it, our body needs a lot of oil. Your skin has a lot of fat, our brains are the fattest organ in our body, consisting of 60% fat, and our bone marrow and nerve tissues have it. We need it even for hormone production, and the list goes on. Despite carbs, there are essential oils that your body can't produce. So, it's very risky to consume less fat. Also, when you don't consume enough fat, your bile production decreases, leading to a higher risk of bile stones due to reduced bile movement. Of course, there are other factors related to bile stone generation, but this is one of them.

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Stomach Acidity

Mineral water
Another part of this equation is stomach acidity. Heartburn and acid reflux don't have to be caused by excess acidity; instead, they can be caused by low acidity. Because there is a valve in your stomach and it won't be triggered if there is not enough acidity. You can lower your stomach acidity using things like mineral water, antacid pills, excess liquid consumption with food—even water can lower stomach acidity. What happens afterward? You end up digesting foods partially. Normally, acidity is supposed to kill microbes in your food, but if you prevent this, microbes can start to go through your digestion, causing all sorts of stomach and intestine problems like heartburn, reflux, and bad breath. So, reconsider consuming these antacid pills.

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About Green

Green vegetables
Vegetables, especially green vegetables, actually vital parts of plants. So, it actually doesnt want to be eaten and has lots of toxins in it like lectins, oxalates. If you don't cook them correctly, or eat excess amount you can quickly observe side effects in your body such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

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Cut the crap, what do you eat now?

I did strict keto for about 3-4 months but experienced an acne breakout about a month in. It subsided after 3-4 weeks, but when I quit keto and returned, the same thing happened again. So, I decided to continue with a low-carb diet, but not as strict as keto. I try to eat twice a day, breakfast and dinner, and keep my eating window to 6 to 8 hours for intermittent fasting. Since I am lactose intolerant, I try not to consume dairy products, except occasionally butter, yogurt, ayran, and some kinds of cheese. Goat and sheep cheese cause fewer issues for me. You can also try raw milk and raw milk products if you are lactose intolerant to see if they work for you.

For breakfast, I generally eat:

  • Eggs cooked in various ways with olive oil
  • Sometimes avocado
  • Sometimes walnuts
  • Sometimes eggs with sucuk, pastirma, kavurma, minced meat, or mushrooms

For dinner, I have:

  • Meat products such as ribeye, lamb or veal chops, any fish
  • Occasionally tavuk/et doner or chicken meat
  • Organ meats such as liver, heart, or kidney cooked with extra beef tallow like tail fat

I would consume some vegetable dishes if I had that much talent/time in kitchen, I don't see any problem with them that much but it's much easier for me to just prepare a piece of meat on pan or airfryer quickly.

In between meals, since I don't want to be in strict ketosis, I eat fruits and honey. That's all unless I eat out and go off my regular diet. As beverage I consume diet coke although it's not innocent, ayran, coffee sometimes with coconut oil(bullet-proof coffee), black tea, herbal tea such as sage, mint and lastly as supplement, I only take vitamin D and omega - 3. So that's all. In the future, I am planning to share my take on other aspects of a healthy life. Thank you for reading this far.