zlacker

You can definitely be vegetarian and still be unhealthy. Excessive pasta, bread and cheese is one good path, but also processed foods and sugars. It gets a lot harder to be unhealthy when you're vegan but nothing is impossible.

Many of the other blue zones are heavy on the seafood, but on the flip side there are problems with seafood that have nothing to do with the actual fish themselves and everything to do with chemicals and the way we're trashing out planet.

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I grew up around a lot of Seventh Day Adventists who are mostly vegetarian and they had lots of healthy people but _also_ a good few morbidly obese people who had diets with a lot of dairy and carbs. I suspect the latter might have benefited from being able to satisfy cravings for savory with things like lean chicken breast, etc.

I like a plant-based diet myself and have been on and off them over life, but the one habit that seems to keep me healthier than others is avoiding bread, pasta, and cheese.

>>CalRob+a3
Ah yes, I've definitely struggled personally with a deep love of cheese and pasta. It's not and can never be a silver bullet. It still requires dilligence. Eating well is such a hassle. SO SO much easier to eat badly.

Edit: it's also statistical, not everyone is going to be healthier.

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Absolutely! I found most advice about what to eat to be mediocre, and I'm at a decent weight now (185lb/85 kg, long ago I was 280 lb/127 kg - I could stand to lose a few kg but could be worse) and all that really works is what I call "veg mountain". Basically just eating an absolutely enormous amount of vegetables so I actually feel full. Air fryers help a lot for this, brussels sprouts are pretty filling in particular.

I eat meat too, though. Almost entirely chicken and fish. It would be really hard otherwise, though I do like tofu and a lot of meat substitutes.