Alexandre Matos Martins

Alexandre Matos Martins

Data Scientist with background in Computer Science

Health, Food & Exercise

Rule of Thumb

Our bodies are result of evolution over thousands of years on a specific diet and on a specific type of physical exercise, and that is what the body was “trained” to understand better, so the closer we live to that the more likely to be healthier.

Experiment, although every body has common needs, every body has unique needs also, some will be more deficient in greens, some more deficient in proteins, some saturated with cholesterol, etc… so test and experiment for your unique case and your background to find what works best. Same goes for sport.

On the Plate

  • 1/2 vegetables and fruit
  • 1/4 protein: fish, (white)meat, nuts, beans
  • 1/4 whole grains

Reference:

  • http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/pyramid-full-story/files/2012/10/healthy-eating-plate.pdf

General Food Guidelines

  • Almost anything that is industrially processed / refined is bad, refined flour, artificial flavorings, etc… General Rule, the less industrially processed the better.
  • Deep reds natural foods are healthy and prevent cancer, many antioxidants - berries, raisins, pomegranate.
  • AB test routines, foods, cooking methods, etc… try find what better works for you. Every body is a tiny bit different.
  • Depression, anxiety disorders seems to be correlated to bad gut = a damaged / unhealthy intestinal track for prolonged periods of time. Good bacteria helps recover the gut, go for natural fermented foods: sauerkraut, keefir, yogurt.
  • Sleep is underrated, make an effort to sleep well.

Cooking

  • High temperatures cooking often alters chemical properties and if overdone can became harmful. Keep the cooking temperature low. (see sous-vide cooking)
  • Soups(made at home) can be very nutritious. Outside(of home) are not mandatorily healthier, because can have blended anything into them..

Loosing Weight

To loose weight, eat less calories than body consumes:

  • calculate how many calories your body consumes
  • count / estimate the calories of your food
  • make sure you eat less then you consume
  • increase body calorie “spending” by exercising

Food and Nutrients:

  • Calories, what makes gain weight
  • Protein, makes feel full
  • Reduce portion size, smaller plate
  • Soups are great, for filling
  • Calcium blocks fat from being absorbed: whats is best yogurt or keefir ?

Note that loosing weight is normally healthy, but not mandatory. When loosing weight too fast, beware of nutrient deficiency.

Observation: losing weight makes one smarter. I’ve heard this explained by evolution: long time ago we sometimes found ourselfs without food, and in those times naturally the brain gets “smarter” in order to solve the food problem.

Reference:

  • http://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/wiki/faq
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xS8nt0qoRuc - BBC how to be slim
  • http://matt.might.net/articles/least-resistance-weight-loss/

Low Carb Diet

Great to loose weight, lack of carbs forces body into ketosis state, which burns fat instead of carbs, causing weight loss.

  • Avoid carbohydrates: rice, potato, bread, pasta, flour
  • Avoid sugars. (Fruit slows down the weight loss, but is healthy)
  • Use protein to feel full: meat, egg white, fish
  • Legume(beans) contains protein and good nutrition

As with anything else, too much of 1 thing might be bad if prolonged for too long, so probably better for only a limited period of time.

Beware very monotone diets can lead to specific nutrient deficiency.

Digestion

  • Order of food matters. Mixing slow digestion food with fast digestion, will force some food to stay longer in intestinal track than it should. Food starts to go bad, and gets absorbed into blood stream.

  • Fast to Slow digestion: water, fruit, vegetables, legumes, chicken, whole milk, pork.

  • Good trick to fill full: soups. Water by itself goes fast in intestinal track, but if mixed into a soup with other food, it will remain in stomach longer, and signal fullness.

Sport & Exercise

  • Intensity: short but very intensive exercises, seems to yield the best results.
  • Fun: Try different types of exercises, go for the one that is more fun to do (the more fun the more likely to stick).
  • Experiment: everybody will be deficient in some parts more than others, due to routine, and habits, so test&experiment for your body to find what works best for you.

Reference: The Truth About Exercise http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyQSzx0ofto

Body Recovery

  • How 2 Stay Young & Beautiful - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMC-D7uu3L8

Vitamins

  • A: avoid in excess, enough from food
  • E: ok to take
  • C: not harmful, but probably getting all from foods

Truth about vitamins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zp7WdxvoBfI

Cancer

Phases

  • Initiation: happens from bad chemicals that get to our system.

  • Germination, needs animal protein, and can be dulled by removing animal protein.

  • Adult stage, grown cancer

Blood cholesterol is a key indicator, and strongly related to heart disease and for cancer development.

Animal products are strongly correlated with dietary fat intake, animal products are very fat by default

Reference: “the china study” book.

Avoiding Burnout

http://andrewdumont.me/avoiding-burnout

Updated:

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