My Keto Transformation

[Starter986]

Dukan diet...

Tried it for S&G about 5 years ago. Lost 16 pounds the first week. Lost another ~25 over the next 3 weeks.

I was a chick magnet.

[jsceash]

My Oncologist strongly recommended I try a Paleo diet. and recommended the "Plant Paradox" and 2 volume book by Dr Grundy of California, ay one of the Med centers.

I lost 72 pound while on Hormone depletion therapies and Prednizone. Over 4 months. This is directed to people with compromised immune system. It is not easy. and requires a complete change in the diet. No grain! No vegetable from the night shade family! Lectins are forbidden! Hormone and antibiotic free meets, grass fed and humanely raised only. Wide caught seafood only no farm raised. No sugar, or synthetic sweeteners.

[Perfectlap]

Originally Posted by jsceash

My Oncologist strongly recommended I try a Paleo diet. and recommended the "Plant Paradox" and 2 volume book by Dr Grundy of California, ay one of the Med centers.

these are completely contradictory recommendations coming from an oncologist.

Dr. Gundry now recommends eating as little animal based protein as possible. He's embraced the view that most of your protein should be coming from plants as he now says that the hormonal overload of animal products is not significantly diminished if you rely on grass fed or grass finished meat vs supermarket type meats.

A long term study of vegetarians found that "liquid meats" (eggs and dairy) basically nullify the advantages of a vegetarian diet as cancer, stroke, heart disease and dementia/ Alzheimers risks are not any lower in vegetarians who consume dairy as opposed to full on meat eaters. For this reason Dr. Gundry recommends NEITHER. He's basically saying try to be as vegan as your palate will tolerate by reducing the frequency and portion size of all anmimal products. He feels the hormonal risk of animal meats and dairy outweigh the protein benefits. In his view antioxidant deficiency is a far bigger concern than protein deficiency and puts you at greater risk of metastatic cancers. bottom line you have to stick with fruits, vegetables, and the grains that are on his low lectins list. It's a pretty limiting universe granted but if you understand the basic fuel source of cancer cells you realize that the higher the level of IGF-1 in your diet the more cancer cells will take advantage of this to fuel their own growth at all four stages.

50 years ago there was a study that found Europe's shortage of meat immediately after World War II resulted in a significant decline in cancer diagnosis. As meat came back into the food supply the cancer rates began to tick up. These studies were not followed up aggressively because the end game of recommending people eat more fruits and vegetables is not nearly the profit opportunity of developing a cancer drug. it is virtually impossible to link any meat product to a specific cancer because of the variation in people's genetics and activity levels. But the one thing all blue zones (where people live well into their 90s and 100s WITHOUT cancer, stroke, heart disease, dementia and Alzheimers) is that most of their diets are plant based and they avoid a great deal of processed carbohydrates (breads and cereals) and cut out sugar as much as possible (a well known fuel for cancer). Another big factor is the strength of their 'micro circulation'. This is the ability of your small vessels to transport blood to every vital part of your heart and brain. Eating a certain acid found in rosemary plant and a few others apparently clears out these blockages in these tiny vessels that get worse over time and lead to inflammation which is basically the entry point of dementia, hypertension and stroke. This micro circulation can be measured and in certain populations like the Aciorolla Italians the micro circulation of the population over 80 years old is on par with a 20 year old. Allegedly these Italians are sexually active well into their 80s and few wear eye glasses... pretty amazing.

The reason I've read about Dr. Gundry, Dr. Dean Ornish, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Dr. Joel Fuhrman, Dr. Michael Gregger, Dr. Neal Barnard is that my father has late stage prostate cancer. He also has advanced dementia and hypertension. These have all been dropped balls by his physicians so I research literally every course of treatment and dietary recommendation. I'm frankly dismayed half the time by what I'm told. Nutrition shockingly is not an intensive part of their curriculum. Shocking because nutrition plays a huge role in all your health risks. the last straw for me was after his primary physician and several other well known specialists failed to detect a DVT bloodclot in his right leg that had been mainfesting symptoms for a lengthy period. which led to a stroke a year and half ago and he slowly lost the ability to walk and is now incontinent. He's been on Lurpon hormone deprivation (continuous not intermittent) since his very well known urologist mistook a benign enlargement for a malignant one and didnt realize until AFTER his BPH prostate surgery where the part of the prostate not removed was the part with aggressive cancer cells (Gleason 7-10). Two years later the PSA started shooting through the roof.

But his physical strength is impressive. He's never been iron deficient. His bloodpressure is like a swiss timepiece in its regularlity. His physical strength is the first thing healthcare workers comment on. He was taken out of hospice despite being on a full time urinary catheter bag with multiple comorbidities. His PSA test has been bullseye on the money after now five years of the hormonal treatments. For those who arent familiar with prostate cancer, the more testosterone you make the more the cancer cells have to feed them essentially. So for the last many years we have avoided animal products, or kept them to bite sized portions and satisfied his protein with brocolli, beans, lentils, sweet potatoes, (any vegetable with an edible skin is cooked in Instant Pot to remove the lectins) and and never leave out the raw vegetables antioxidant powerhouses like red cabbage, red onion spinach and pressed garlic. Just to repeat, Lupron as a cancer medication is basically like chemical castration. You are not making any testosterone in the traditional way your body produces it. Yet my father, who has been stuck in a bed for a year and half, has maintained his baseline of physical strength, particularly in his core and upper body on a largely plant based diet.

At any rate keto diets can be done and are with plant sources for protein. which makes it a win win for weight loss and disease prevention. There is no debating that animal proteins offer far quicker effect in the body and you'll have to do a lot less plant chewing by piling on the meat. but understand that these quick results have a doubled edged sword quality. First your sodium intake will ramp up and that is the real danger not really the fat. In fact carbohydrates are deadlier in the long run than dietary fats and a far better predictor of heart disease and stroke. But sodium is still the leading killer, a country mile ahead of high cholesterol. Excessive sodium's destruction to the heart's mechanics are much harder to repair with medications than the damage of cholesterol which is easily remedied with diet and exercise and statin medications as a last resort. Another big risk not often discussed are all the pesticides fed to livestock vs what you find in fruits and vegetables. A single serving of beef can have 12 times the pesticides of fruits and vegetables. That's because you're consuming a lifetime's worth of pesticides fed to the animal on that one portion vs. the pesticide found in a single crop cycle for the broccoli right next to it. Consuming a significantly higher amount of pesticides will not show up on your standard blood tests ordered by your primary physician. Nor will increasing your hormonal levels beyond your specific genetic breaking point (where dormant cancer cells start to use the excess hormone as a fuel source) become visible as an early stage cancer in these blood tests. Separate specific tests are required. My view is that meat based keto diet can be useful to get you to a certain point if you've been struggling to shed weight. But once the weight is off move towards eliminating the meat drastically and move towards intermittent fasting to burn through your glycogen stores during the day so you are fat burning while you sleep and all the way up towards lunch. Dr. David Sinclair of Harvard University who is a well known researcher on ageing seems to believe that (assuming you are otherwise healthy) you should not eat until you feel a hunger pain as this in his view seems to rev up your body's immune system.

[piper6909]

Originally Posted by Perfectlap

these are completely contradictory recommendations coming from an oncologist.

Dr. Gundry now recommends eating as little animal based protein as possible. He's embraced the view that most of your protein should be coming from plants as he now says that the hormonal overload of animal products is not significantly diminished if you rely on grass fed or grass finished meat vs supermarket type meats.

A long term study of vegetarians found that "liquid meats" (eggs and dairy) basically nullify the advantages of a vegetarian diet as cancer, stroke, heart disease and dementia/ Alzheimers risks are not any lower in vegetarians who consume dairy as opposed to full on meat eaters. For this reason Dr. Gundry recommends NEITHER. He's basically saying try to be as vegan as your palate will tolerate by reducing the frequency and portion size of all anmimal products. He feels the hormonal risk of animal meats and dairy outweigh the protein benefits. In his view antioxidant deficiency is a far bigger concern than protein deficiency and puts you at greater risk of metastatic cancers. bottom line you have to stick with fruits, vegetables, and the grains that are on his low lectins list. It's a pretty limiting universe granted but if you understand the basic fuel source of cancer cells you realize that the higher the level of IGF-1 in your diet the more cancer cells will take advantage of this to fuel their own growth at all four stages.

50 years ago there was a study that found Europe's shortage of meat immediately after World War II resulted in a significant decline in cancer diagnosis. As meat came back into the food supply the cancer rates began to tick up. These studies were not followed up aggressively because the end game of recommending people eat more fruits and vegetables is not nearly the profit opportunity of developing a cancer drug. it is virtually impossible to link any meat product to a specific cancer because of the variation in people's genetics and activity levels. But the one thing all blue zones (where people live well into their 90s and 100s WITHOUT cancer, stroke, heart disease, dementia and Alzheimers) is that most of their diets are plant based and they avoid a great deal of processed carbohydrates (breads and cereals) and cut out sugar as much as possible (a well known fuel for cancer). Another big factor is the strength of their 'micro circulation'. This is the ability of your small vessels to transport blood to every vital part of your heart and brain. Eating a certain acid found in rosemary plant and a few others apparently clears out these blockages in these tiny vessels that get worse over time and lead to inflammation which is basically the entry point of dementia, hypertension and stroke. This micro circulation can be measured and in certain populations like the Aciorolla Italians the micro circulation of the population over 80 years old is on par with a 20 year old. Allegedly these Italians are sexually active well into their 80s and few wear eye glasses... pretty amazing.

The reason I've read about Dr. Gundry, Dr. Dean Ornish, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Dr. Joel Fuhrman, Dr. Michael Gregger, Dr. Neal Barnard is that my father has late stage prostate cancer. He also has advanced dementia and hypertension. These have all been dropped balls by his physicians so I research literally every course of treatment and dietary recommendation. I'm frankly dismayed half the time by what I'm told. Nutrition shockingly is not an intensive part of their curriculum. Shocking because nutrition plays a huge role in all your health risks. the last straw for me was after his primary physician and several other well known specialists failed to detect a DVT bloodclot in his right leg that had been mainfesting symptoms for a lengthy period. which led to a stroke a year and half ago and he slowly lost the ability to walk and is now incontinent. He's been on Lurpon hormone deprivation (continuous not intermittent) since his very well known urologist mistook a benign enlargement for a malignant one and didnt realize until AFTER his BPH prostate surgery where the part of the prostate not removed was the part with aggressive cancer cells (Gleason 7-10). Two years later the PSA started shooting through the roof.

But his physical strength is impressive. He's never been iron deficient. His bloodpressure is like a swiss timepiece in its regularlity. His physical strength is the first thing healthcare workers comment on. He was taken out of hospice despite being on a full time urinary catheter bag with multiple comorbidities. His PSA test has been bullseye on the money after now five years of the hormonal treatments. For those who arent familiar with prostate cancer, the more testosterone you make the more the cancer cells have to feed them essentially. So for the last many years we have avoided animal products, or kept them to bite sized portions and satisfied his protein with brocolli, beans, lentils, sweet potatoes, (any vegetable with an edible skin is cooked in Instant Pot to remove the lectins) and and never leave out the raw vegetables antioxidant powerhouses like red cabbage, red onion spinach and pressed garlic. Just to repeat, Lupron as a cancer medication is basically like chemical castration. You are not making any testosterone in the traditional way your body produces it. Yet my father, who has been stuck in a bed for a year and half, has maintained his baseline of physical strength, particularly in his core and upper body on a largely plant based diet.

At any rate keto diets can be done and are with plant sources for protein. which makes it a win win for weight loss and disease prevention. There is no debating that animal proteins offer far quicker effect in the body and you'll have to do a lot less plant chewing by piling on the meat. but understand that these quick results have a doubled edged sword quality. First your sodium intake will ramp up and that is the real danger not really the fat. In fact carbohydrates are deadlier in the long run than dietary fats and a far better predictor of heart disease and stroke. But sodium is still the leading killer, a country mile ahead of high cholesterol. Excessive sodium's destruction to the heart's mechanics are much harder to repair with medications than the damage of cholesterol which is easily remedied with diet and exercise and statin medications as a last resort. Another big risk not often discussed are all the pesticides fed to livestock vs what you find in fruits and vegetables. A single serving of beef can have 12 times the pesticides of fruits and vegetables. That's because you're consuming a lifetime's worth of pesticides fed to the animal on that one portion vs. the pesticide found in a single crop cycle for the broccoli right next to it. Consuming a significantly higher amount of pesticides will not show up on your standard blood tests ordered by your primary physician. Nor will increasing your hormonal levels beyond your specific genetic breaking point (where dormant cancer cells start to use the excess hormone as a fuel source) become visible as an early stage cancer in these blood tests. Separate specific tests are required. My view is that meat based keto diet can be useful to get you to a certain point if you've been struggling to shed weight. But once the weight is off move towards eliminating the meat drastically and move towards intermittent fasting to burn through your glycogen stores during the day so you are fat burning while you sleep and all the way up towards lunch. Dr. David Sinclair of Harvard University who is a well known researcher on ageing seems to believe that (assuming you are otherwise healthy) you should not eat until you feel a hunger pain as this in his view seems to rev up your body's immune system.

As a prostate cancer patient, Gleason 7-9, Radical Prostatectomy, Radiation and Lupron, I have an idea of what your father is going though. My thoughts are with him. I was diagnosed and operated on 7 years ago, been off radiation for 6, off Lupron for 5 and my PSA has been undetectable since ending radiation. *Keeping fingers crossed*

I've already eliminated added sugar, but being Italian pasta is my weakness. What you wrote made me realize that I have to be more serious about other things I can do, diet-wise. And I thank you for that. Funny how doctors love to push pills, but don't tell you these things.

Best wishes to your father and mother, as I understand she's going through some things as well.

[Perfectlap]

Originally Posted by piper6909

As a prostate cancer patient, Gleason 7-9, Radical Prostatectomy, Radiation and Lupron, I have an idea of what your father is going though. My thoughts are with him. I was diagnosed and operated on 7 years ago, been off radiation for 6, off Lupron for 5 and my PSA has been undetectable since ending radiation. *Keeping fingers crossed*

I've already eliminated added sugar, but being Italian pasta is my weakness. What you wrote made me realize that I have to be more serious about other things I can do, diet-wise. And I thank you for that. Funny how doctors love to push pills, but don't tell you these things.

Best wishes to your father and mother, as I understand she's going through some things as well.

thanks for your will wishes. If you aren't already on it I would strongly recommend you check in with your cardiologist as frequently as he/she sees fit. And get a good one from a top medical school and part of top notch heart institute that is within your best hospital. Cancer patients are prone to coagulation and that needs to be monitored. My father should have been on a low dose blood thinner like Xarelto with his cancer, age, history of stroke and being on a long term hormonal treatment. He was a good candidate for a blood thinner because he was extremely mobile and physically coordinated for someone with so many incurable diseases. At over age 80 he rode an exercise bicycle for over an hour, could walk long distances without the slightest fatigue, which the dog loved and had really remarkable visual coordination for a person with advanced dementia. He would be the first to have his seat belt on and always knew to step over the parking block. No falls whatsoever. But he couldn't tell you his address, flushed his $4k dental bridges down the toilet (bah useless) and he didnt know who his son or wife were...he just thought of us as his roommates. Lol.

I'm a half full glass type person who is always in fight mode so I watched him closely. But man did the doctors fail to forsee the possibility or mitigate against a major blood clot. Even after his stroke the second rate hosptial he was unfortunately rushed to did not perform a doppler of his arteries the entire week he was in the hospital and it wasnt performed for almost a month as part of his cardiologist follow up. Once the imminent danger had passed I should have transferred him to a hospital that was capable of surgical intervention of blood clots. They would have performed the doppler test right away and found the DVT blood clot. Incredibly not all hospitals can perform interventions of blood clots. They just let you sit there in the bed until your vitals are stable to send you home with a ticking time bomb. This is important to point out because he had what I now believe was a second stroke at the second rate hospial while I was helping him walk around the floor of the hospital. He was simply rushed back to his bed and no further tests performed other than CT scan. Total **************** show.
Once he was back home I had a second doppler performed about 9 months later to confirm that his coagulation was not chronic condition. So better management of this might have prevented my father's bed bound confinement completely. You really have to stay one step ahead of your doctors. The best way is to fire any IMMEDIATELY if they show a lackadaisical, cynical or apathetic demeanor. They should exhibit a sense of urgency or seriousness like a Marine on point. Especially if you live in an area where there is a high senior population and you become like just another can of peas on the production line.

As far as the pasta, I think you can rewire your brain's carb craving by eating more fiber with that particular
carb. My theory is that people have three cravings: sugar, savory and carb. The sugar craving is a result of not eating enough fruit during the day. If you're having enough forest fruits (low sugar) and avoiding tropical fruits (high sugar) the fiber in the fruit will drip feed the sugar into your bloodstream on flattened plane vs a spike. The savory craving is a result of not enough healthy fats which is the strongest urge because calorically its lifting the most weight. So if you eat more avocado and nut varieties (avoid any non-organic nut butters and eat "Natural" peanut butter sparingly), chia puddings (never consume chia seed dry) your fat cravings for bacon, steak and eggs will fall. The bigger your appetite for these meat based fats the more plant based fats you have to replace with. dont worry about the calories at first, you want to make the withdrawal as easy as possible otherwise you'll just quit and go back to the piles of salty meats.

So For the carb cravings the antidote is eating more beans and lentils. These suppress appetite so you can walk past a plate of pasta. You should cook these legumes under pressure (Instant Pot) and wash them after. What I do for my pasta craving, I'm a bucatini fan, is to mix in plenty of spinach, red cabbage, the small lentils that look more like seeds, in with a smaller portion of the pasta and blend into the sauce cooked cauliflower, humus. Use pressed garlic and raw onions for an net antioxidant benefit. The higher fiber content of these addions brings down the net carbs of the pasta so your insulin spike isnt as high and long in duration. Yet you still feel like you ate a plate of pasta. And very important, DO NOT add more than a tiny bit of olive oil. Think teaspoon in stead of tablespoons. If you want the olive oil flavor blend a whole olive into the sauce or dice and mix in with the pasta and vegetables. Omega 3's are vital but not without its original fiber source. Processed oil (aka straight vegetable oil, all kinds) hits your bloodstream all at once just like the sugar in fruit juices except that instead of an insulin spike you get something far more dangerous if you don't have the ability to break down oil quickly: rapid inflammation in places you really dont want that. And this inflammation begins in a remarkably fast process as well, almost as soon as you're done eating. When Samuel L. Jackson went in for his 50th birthday at the Mayo clinic's famous head to toe in a day physical he was told he had a life threatening blockage in a major artery. His options were: A) surgery with one of the highest death rates (moving an artery from an arm to his leg if memory serves). Or option B) an immediate course of medication with an absurdly strict diet that cut out all meats, chicken, fish, etc. and .....cutting out ALL OILS. Why? because they accelerate the inflammation that could dislodge the blockage and trigger a stroke. So he picked option B and within six months his arteries were clear. Jackson's experience was educational for others because it showed the inflammatory risks of fiber-less oils they don't warn you about, and that routine blood tests, the sort a primary physician orders once a year, do NOT show the full picture of what is going on in your arteries.

[Starter986]

Perfect and Piper:

Fascinating. Absolutely fascinating. Thank you, both, for extraordinary reads. Truly food for thought, no pun intended.

[piper6909]

Originally Posted by Perfectlap

thanks for your will wishes. If you aren't already on it I would strongly recommend you check in with your cardiologist as frequently as he/she sees fit. And get a good one from a top medical school and part of top notch heart institute that is within your best hospital. Cancer patients are prone to coagulation and that needs to be monitored. My father should have been on a low dose blood thinner like Xarelto with his cancer, age, history of stroke and being on a long term hormonal treatment. He was a good candidate for a blood thinner because he was extremely mobile and physically coordinated for someone with so many incurable diseases. At over age 80 he rode an exercise bicycle for over an hour, could walk long distances without the slightest fatigue, which the dog loved and had really remarkable visual coordination for a person with advanced dementia. He would be the first to have his seat belt on and always knew to step over the parking block. No falls whatsoever. But he couldn't tell you his address, flushed his $4k dental bridges down the toilet (bah useless) and he didnt know who his son or wife were...he just thought of us as his roommates. Lol.

I'm a half full glass type person who is always in fight mode so I watched him closely. But man did the doctors fail to forsee the possibility or mitigate against a major blood clot. Even after his stroke the second rate hosptial he was unfortunately rushed to did not perform a doppler of his arteries the entire week he was in the hospital and it wasnt performed for almost a month as part of his cardiologist follow up. Once the imminent danger had passed I should have transferred him to a hospital that was capable of surgical intervention of blood clots. They would have performed the doppler test right away and found the DVT blood clot. Incredibly not all hospitals can perform interventions of blood clots. They just let you sit there in the bed until your vitals are stable to send you home with a ticking time bomb. This is important to point out because he had what I now believe was a second stroke at the second rate hospial while I was helping him walk around the floor of the hospital. He was simply rushed back to his bed and no further tests performed other than CT scan. Total **************** show.
Once he was back home I had a second doppler performed about 9 months later to confirm that his coagulation was not chronic condition. So better management of this might have prevented my father's bed bound confinement completely. You really have to stay one step ahead of your doctors. The best way is to fire any IMMEDIATELY if they show a lackadaisical, cynical or apathetic demeanor. They should exhibit a sense of urgency or seriousness like a Marine on point. Especially if you live in an area where there is a high senior population and you become like just another can of peas on the production line.

As far as the pasta, I think you can rewire your brain's carb craving by eating more fiber with that particular
carb. My theory is that people have three cravings: sugar, savory and carb. The sugar craving is a result of not eating enough fruit during the day. If you're having enough forest fruits (low sugar) and avoiding tropical fruits (high sugar) the fiber in the fruit will drip feed the sugar into your bloodstream on flattened plane vs a spike. The savory craving is a result of not enough healthy fats which is the strongest urge because calorically its lifting the most weight. So if you eat more avocado and nut varieties (avoid any non-organic nut butters and eat "Natural" peanut butter sparingly), chia puddings (never consume chia seed dry) your fat cravings for bacon, steak and eggs will fall. The bigger your appetite for these meat based fats the more plant based fats you have to replace with. dont worry about the calories at first, you want to make the withdrawal as easy as possible otherwise you'll just quit and go back to the piles of salty meats.

So For the carb cravings the antidote is eating more beans and lentils. These suppress appetite so you can walk past a plate of pasta. You should cook these legumes under pressure (Instant Pot) and wash them after. What I do for my pasta craving, I'm a bucatini fan, is to mix in plenty of spinach, red cabbage, the small lentils that look more like seeds, in with a smaller portion of the pasta and blend into the sauce cooked cauliflower, humus. Use pressed garlic and raw onions for an net antioxidant benefit. The higher fiber content of these addions brings down the net carbs of the pasta so your insulin spike isnt as high and long in duration. Yet you still feel like you ate a plate of pasta. And very important, DO NOT add more than a tiny bit of olive oil. Think teaspoon in stead of tablespoons. If you want the olive oil flavor blend a whole olive into the sauce or dice and mix in with the pasta and vegetables. Omega 3's are vital but not without its original fiber source. Processed oil (aka straight vegetable oil, all kinds) hits your bloodstream all at once just like the sugar in fruit juices except that instead of an insulin spike you get something far more dangerous if you don't have the ability to break down oil quickly: rapid inflammation in places you really dont want that. And this inflammation begins in a remarkably fast process as well, almost as soon as you're done eating. When Samuel L. Jackson went in for his 50th birthday at the Mayo clinic's famous head to toe in a day physical he was told he had a life threatening blockage in a major artery. His options were: A) surgery with one of the highest death rates (moving an artery from an arm to his leg if memory serves). Or option B) an immediate course of medication with an absurdly strict diet that cut out all meats, chicken, fish, etc. and .....cutting out ALL OILS. Why? because they accelerate the inflammation that could dislodge the blockage and trigger a stroke. So he picked option B and within six months his arteries were clear. Jackson's experience was educational for others because it showed the inflammatory risks of fiber-less oils they don't warn you about, and that routine blood tests, the sort a primary physician orders once a year, do NOT show the full picture of what is going on in your arteries.

Wow! I did not know that about oils. I use plenty of extra virgin olive oil. I thought I was doing a good thing because I had all but completely cut out butter.

What you say makes sense. I'm going to start substituting legumes for pasta. My biggest hurdle is going to be cooking them. I like to coo and have plenty of ways to cook pasta, but I have no variety when it comes to prepping legumes.

Thank you!

[Perfectlap]

Originally Posted by piper6909

Wow! I did not know that about oils. I use plenty of extra virgin olive oil. I thought I was doing a good thing because I had all but completely cut out butter.

What you say makes sense. I'm going to start substituting legumes for pasta. My biggest hurdle is going to be cooking them. I like to coo and have plenty of ways to cook pasta, but I have no variety when it comes to prepping legumes.

Thank you!

oil is very controversial. Especially the MCT oil popular with Keto and olive oil with vegans, and Mediterranean diet. But every person process oils differently because of genetics and activity levels. People in Italy and Greece are pretty liberal with their use oils and SOME of them are the healthiest people in the world. others drink and smoke a lot and never exercise. These Mediterraneans have some genetic advantages as well. They get a great deal of sunlight while they are climbing up stairs and steep streets. These two things are incredibly healthy activities that Americans in the same age groups dont really do as a lifelong daily habit.

Most Americans are sedentary and are not outside at "solar noon" when the proportion of healthy sunlight is high and momentarily outweighs the negative of unhealthy sunlight. You get them at the same time, just that the healthy rays dwindle the closer you get to sundown. There's actually an app called "D minder" that plugs in your location and send you an alert when you should step out for 15 minutes or so sunlight. Lay off the orange juice if you spend a lot time in the sun by the way (topic for another day).

And by the way, sunlight is by far the most important healthy activity you can participate in without spending any money. Vitamin D is actually a hormone that is crucial in repairing every major tissue of your body, from bone healthy to eyesight and everything in between. This is a big reason why seniors deteriorate in nursing homes as they spend days on end in sunless rooms. Even with my bed bound father we position the hospital bed he has at home near the window and remove the blankets so he can get some rays at noon. You simply
cannot address the vitamin D deficiency with food... it has to be sunlight. Whole milk may only provide hundreds of units when an older person will need thousands of units a day as they age. Each day without the minimum amount of vitamin D the harder the organs have to work to keep up.

Long story short unless you are very physically active, have a healthy weight, and get a healthy dose of sunlight regularly, use the olive oil sparingly. Eat olives instead, fiber and all. For the salad, if you have no digestive issues use vinegar instead. olives and vinegar thats a good non-inflamatory mix.

As for the beans, just get the canned. There are so many varieties and every one is healthy because fiber, protein and antioxidants at less than $2 bucks is not possible in any other food. Open the cans, rinse the beans well, toss them in an electric pressure cooker. add some chopped garlic, onions, italian parsley, maybe a small amount of ginger, add a cup or two of purified water (tastes better), some vegetable broth maybe, close the lid, hit the digital button to high pressure, close the escape valve on the lid and set it for 10 minutes. The flavorings will soak into the beans under pressure much better than in saucepan. Once its done carefully release the valve with a towel, open the lid and give the beans a final rinse to remove the lectins. You can get one of these electric cookers like the Instant Pot for like $50 on Amazon, Ebay or Walmart. Some work with an app that tell you how long to cook and what setting to use. There are an epic ton of videos on YouTube on how to cook every vegetable, meat, grain, pasta even cheesecake with the Instant Pot. I bought one about 6 years ago before they were really popular. The founder used to sell them by the dozens out of his car and now sells millions on Amazon. Every nationality of people use these to cook beans.

By the way, At least one clinical study found that cultures that ate the most beans (as a major protein source with less emphasis on animal protein compared to infrequent bean eaters) had substantially greater longevity, as much as 10 years. my theory on that is less damage to your telomeres occur with less pesticide exposure. The telomeres to keep it simple are like the caps on your tires air valves. They keep your chromosomes in tact to fight off ageing and protection from disease. Some people with autoimmune diseases and skin issues do not break down the lectins found in the skin of beans and other vegetables like tomatoes, potatoes and eggplant but steaming under high pressure and peeling these foods removes most of the lectins. Other people have the correct genetic code and can break down the lectins without it wreaking havoc in the gut thus avoiding leaky gut or wearing away of the healthy lining of the gut that supports your immune responses.