Best Posts in Thread: The rice you eat is worse than surgary drinks

This is simplistic and missing the mark. The issue isn't eating white rice, but rather what a typical diet high in rice is missing.

White rice and sugary beverages are absorbed quickly by the body, but much of your digestion is handled by the bacteria in your digestive system. This bacteria is known as your "micro biome". Your micro biome is important for the overall health of your body and you can't survive without it. A proper diet feeds this micro biome as well as your body. Sugar and meat don't feed this ecosystem (and too much meat creates other issues, such as throwing your bile out of balance by creating too much).

To feed the micro biome, you need fiber. Most Western diets don't meet the suggested minimum in fiber, which leaves the bacteria to feed on the cells of the walls of your digestive system. As the bacteria eats away at the walls, your digestive system becomes porous and food particles may leak into your bloodstream. The body then attacks these particles as invaders, triggering inflammation as an immune response (AKA, leaky gut syndrome). This response can cause all sorts of issues with your body and could be a partial cause of many modern diseases.

Additionally, doctors in the Philippines have an issue with being too quick to prescribe antibiotics. And the mindset of Filipino's doesn't help. At least in the U.S. doctors are aware of problems of bacterial resistance due to over-prescribing antiobiotics. I don't go to hospitals often, but when I got sick as a kid I remember that I would usually get tested for a bacterial infection before receiving a prescription. In the Philippines, I always hear "have you taken your medicine?" when I tell people I'm sick. People can't seem to grasp that antibiotics don't do anything for a viral infection and the kids I watched after never got tested for an infection. And doctors are an authority and high status here, so foreigners should just know their place and shut up.

The problem with antibiotics is that it affects the essential bacteria as well as that which you are trying to get rid of. One prescription of antibiotics can throw off your micro biome for a year, which can lead to weight gain and other problems.

Advice on diet fails because it doesn't take the whole picture into account. You may adjust on advice, but you then miss the core problems. This article is addressing symptoms. For a proper diet, balance is key.

The science around the micro biome is recent. The above is my understanding, which may be off. Take a look at the linked article. There is a lot of great material out there for further reading. If you want to get to the full understanding of dieting, look at the micro biome.

What Your Food Is Really Doing to Your Body

 

Another issue is that in the West, people generally associate a healthy and balanced diet as eating more salad. The problem with that is that lettuce is mostly water and contains little nutrients and fiber. You might as well be a like a cow eating grass all day to get what you need from it. It's best to look up veggies which are high in fiber and nutrients (superfoods).

And yet another issue is cost. Eating well is relatively expensive. A typical Filipino family doesn't have the budget to eat much other than rice and some toppings. Food is already a major budget item for most families with not much room left over. And the neighborhood stores get much of that budget from selling crap bread and packaged snacks. In the U.S. you also have an issue with antibiotics in the food supply, which you avoid by dishing out a premium for free range and organically grown meat (I don't know how much of a problem this is in the Philippines). However, the savings in medical expenses and quality of life should offset this.