Food for a year

Paul and Jocelyn's podcast reviewing movies Supersize Me and Fathead: http://www.richsoil.com/permaculture/?s=supersize

It's hard to say whether hybrids or pure varieties, which are best.

I think it depends on each variety.
Sometimes I have good results with F1, sometimes worse results, yield-wise.
Sometimes I have good results with common non hybrid commercial varieties, sometimes not.
And sometimes I have good results with tradicional heirloom varieties, sometimes not.

Anonymous wrote:

craftylittlemonkey wrote:

Hybrid plants, any plant that requires lots of care and attention, are not as capable of pulling nutrients out of the earth. They are weak and what they give to those who eat them is weak in comparison to plants in their natural state.

Not sure about that. There is a concept called 'hybrid vigor' where a cross between two strains is often better than either strain.  A mutt dog is a hybrid, and I would take them over a purebred (ie, 'inbred') dog for many reasons -  tougher/smarter/more disease resistant. Hybrids tend to have more genetic diversity than purebreds, and bad genes do not accumulate so rapidly as with purebred/inbreds.

I have not seen any good data that shows that hybrid plants are inherently less nutritious. The big problem with F1 hybrid plants as I see it is that they do not breed true, and to grow them year after year requires someone who specializes in seed production. 

I can't understand how can someone go on a low carb diet (without having to resort to extra fat), without suffering.

I asked this because I eat mostly vegetarian, and I eat fish only ocasionally. And if I stop eating grains, carbs, then I become weak and hungry. I think you must replace with carbs with fats, or protein.

If you live under less calories than you need, you lose weight, and I am already underweight so eating less calories than I need is totally out of the question, I certainly become weak.

I think most people trying these diets they have more weight than I do, and if they eat less calories, then their body uses their fats! Since I have almost no stored fat in my body, I can't do that.

ps: I was always like this, even when I was eating meat several years ago. But I agree that a healthier diet requires less carbs than most people eat (reducing potatoes and grains)

Warren David wrote:

Emerson White wrote:

"The theoretical minimal level of carbohydrate (CHO) intake is zero,

I have been low carbing for years. I get a few carbs from things like leafy salad vegetables and courgettes (zucchinis) but get no urge to eat something with more carbs.

I have never heard of anybody suffering a carbohydrate deficiency even though I have visited several low carbs forums on and off over the years. I had a bit of a search on Google and didn't  find anything to be concerned about.

Paulo Bessa wrote:I can't understand how can someone go on a low carb diet (without having to resort to extra fat),

Most low carb diets contain "extra fat."

That would be also my ideal diet. However we do know there is some challenges with it.
Which tubers would you get the carbs? Potatoes, sweet potatoes and others like groundnut?

Other than potatoes I cannot see any other staple for carbs. I m far away of achieving that.
What would I eat as a serving or breakfast? Vegs but no pasta, rice or bread. Only potatoes every day, because you probably cannot make of other tubers like groundnut, tiger nuts or sweet potatoes a staple. THis is one of my largest challenge. The other is finding more sources of protein in addition to pulses, nuts and eggs. I am a vegetarian, eating sometimes fish, therefore I guess self-sufficiency is even more complicated for me than other people (I believe its much easier if you do have a cow/chickens and eat the meat)

Tyler Ludens wrote:My ideal diet grown at home would include lots and lots of vegies, plenty of nuts, fruit, some eggs, and small quantities of meat.  But the largest volume of food by far would be fresh vegies.  Calories would be from tubers, nuts, seeds, and meat.  Probably virtually no grains.

But I am very far away from being able to grow this diet! 

That's where everything becomes complicated. As a mostly vegetarian most of my fat comes from milk, eggs, ocasional fish and vegetable oils and ocasional nuts. Most seem to be difficult to "grow" yourself if you are a beginner.

Eggs are easy, but nuts requires plenty of time for the trees to go, fish is complicate (aquaculture also requires plenty of space and time), olive or sunflower oils require pressing equipment to extract the oil, and milk requires a cow (more hard work and space) or a goat (much easier).

"Growing your own fat" seems to be a quite complicate self-sufficient step!

Tyler Ludens wrote:

Paulo Bessa wrote:I can't understand how can someone go on a low carb diet (without having to resort to extra fat),

Most low carb diets contain "extra fat."

Yes it does, unless you're in the subtropics or tropics and can grow fatty fruits such as avocado (oh how I wish I could grow them!)......

Paulo Bessa wrote:
"Growing your own fat" seems to be a quite complicate self-sufficient step!

Olive oil! For when you're in Portugal, not Iceland.

Also nuts, dairy, and animal fat like lard, or even chicken fat.

Tyler - can you grow almonds? They seem to be one of the most drought-tolerant of the trees we try to grow. We lose a lot of stuff we plant, but it's very rare we lose an almond tree, which is more than can be said for any other kind of nut-tree we've tried.

Almonds won't produce consistently here because of our late frosts, but we might be able to grow pistachios.

In any case most of my almond trees died, mostly by sheep attack.....I planted them before I found out they probably will never produce nuts.....