The “How Not to Die” cookbook also has some good smoothie recipies.

Well, everyone who is surprised by headlines like this one should pick up some books. For example "How Not To Die" from Michael Greger, M.D. [1].

[1] https://nutritionfacts.org/book/

"How Not To Die" - Paul Graham. http://www.paulgraham.com/die.html

"Merry Christmas, Bob" - Chris Shugart. https://www.t-nation.com/powerful-words/merry-christmas-bob

"An Essay on Winning" - Jason Shen. http://www.jasonshen.com/2010/an-essay-on-winning/

It sounds just like advice from brilliant Paul's essay "How not to die". As for me I was sure that Last.fm's founders will get rich, because you have to if your users love you. It's a law)

Anyone interested in science informed nutrition information and advice should check out http://nutritionfacts.org. Great content from Dr. Michael Greger, also author of the bestseller “How Not To Die”. He scours the literature and compiles what he finds into short videos. Totally opened my eyes.

The answer is most definitely a whole food plant-based diet.

See the book How Not to Die for more here: https://www.amazon.com/How-Not-Die-Discover-Scientifically/d...

For nutrition and diet I can highly recommend "How Not To Die" by Dr. Michael Gregger:
https://nutritionfacts.org/book/

"How Not to Die" by Michael Greger describes how a good plant-based diet can prevent and even reverse various common diseases

I don't have the book at hand right now to cite exact pages, but Dr. Greger's "How Not to Die" has a much better explanation and cited sources

That study compares different olive oils, not olive oil vs e.g. whole olives. Dr Greger's "How Not to Die" book explains how oils like olive oil are in general not good for the arteries.

On the general topic of healthy eating, anti-cancer foods and general disease prevention through diet, I found the (sensationally titled) book How Not to Die[0] pretty interesting and quite motivating. Would love any other recommendations or critical reviews!

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25663961

See the book How Not To Die. As I see it it is converging quite a bit lately. But it is hard, sure. We know so much, but how to boil it down to something we can practice (that's what WFPB seems to be about to me).

Is there an essay coming on your new findings? Not to pry but "How Not to Die" is one of my all-time favorites.

> I don't have a concrete answer to "how do I not die"

Michael Greger, MD does: How Not to Die [0]. Basically, to save you from reading the book, go vegan. He has a great cookbook too based on the advice in the book [1]. His nutritionfacts.org site in general is an excellent, science/fact-based resource.

[0] https://nutritionfacts.org/book/

[1] https://nutritionfacts.org/cookbook/

There is the "whole food plant based" diet, see Dr Greger's "How Not to Die" and "daily dozen".

I found it compelling and switched, feeling healthier and lost around 20kg in 6 months without thinking about calories.

They didn't list this, but most things I've heard (eg, "How Not to Die" by Dr. Michael Greger who reads a lot of studies) is to eat a whole food, plant based diet. Might not have to give up meat completely, but the less you eat, the healthier you will tend to be.

Literature supporting a whole foods, plant based diet has already been documented and discussed in the book “How not to die.”

The books of Adelle Davis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adelle_Davis). Writing in the mid-20th century, she was way ahead of her time. She's just as relevant now as she ever was.

She had detractors (and I'm sure someone here will be quick to point them out). Just ignore them and read her best known book Let's Eat Right To Keep Fit: it's an excellent and comprehensive introduction to nutrition.

The final chapters go beyond nutrition - they're a manifesto for building glowing health, first starting with oneself, then family, and finally society; all on a foundation of good soil and sound agriculture. They truly instill a sense of infectious hope and optimism. You'll want to be a soil scientist, or farmer, or nutritionist. Even the references lead one on to the ideas of permaculture, before the term was even invented.

How Not to Die by Dr. Michael Greger is another superb book (mentioned by others here).

> especially vegetarian

Given that you have already made that choice, I'd recommend "How Not to Die" by Dr. Michael Greger. One of my biggest criticisms of Greger is that he is ignores any study that shows benefits of eating animals, even for specific conditions. People who would like to continue eating animals would find it easy to dismiss Greger for being so one-sided in what kinds of studies he cites. However, if you've already made the choice to prefer vegetarian, Greger's book (and videos) are an easy recommendation.

This is actually similar to PG's "How Not to Die" essay:

http://www.paulgraham.com/die.html

Both "How not to Die" and "How not to Diet" contain hundreds and even into the thousands of references. All meticulously fact-checked by a team of researchers.

If all the research points to "meat" being problematic, wouldn't a truthful book be considered "anti-meat"? I am a meat lover myself, but Greger seems to follow the scientific process to the letter.

I apologize if the submission title is misleading but the message is still valuable. It's not dissimilar to Paul Graham's speech / essay, "How Not to Die."

His message, "You will doubt yourself. But don't give up."

I wasn't as eloquent or elaborate, but still a similar message. The intention wasn't to linkbait anyone with a misleading headline.

Look at the book "How Not To Die" by Dr. Michael Greger.

His two big things were cruciferous vegetables, so mainly brocolli, and the Indian spice turmeric. He hammered away at the importance of these two items across 500+ pages.

"How Not To Die" by Dr Michael Greger, Gene Stone. It really changed my mind about how to achieve long term mental and physical health.

Reminds me also of the themes in pg's 'How Not to Die' essay[1]. There will be deadlines missed, mistakes and blind alleys, but if you can 'not die' for five years then you've probably built a solid company.

[1] http://www.paulgraham.com/die.html

"But I now realize that this is the wrong framing because simply staying alive is an inadequate goal for a company. Founders start companies to find product market fit and grow. Venture capital is designed to speed growth, not to extend runway."

PG says in his essay "How Not to Die": "If you can just avoid dying, you get rich. That sounds like a joke, but it's actually a pretty good description of what happens in a typical startup. It certainly describes what happened in Viaweb. We avoided dying till we got rich."

Aaron pre-empts this by saying that things have changed about the availability of funding to competent founders over the past 10 years, so the advice should change. I don't buy that. Shutting down early and raising new money for a new startup may give you a greater chance of the huge exit, but not dying is the best way to maximize likelihood of becoming rich. Maybe not unicorn rich, but FU money rich.

22, read his whole blog when I was 19. Still go back to his and PG's essays time to time (add "How not to die"[1] by PG to reading list for 3rd time this morning).

I remember skipping my classes in my first year at college to read Joel's blog!

[1] http://www.paulgraham.com/die.html

Super fascinating that meal timing can be so important. I had heard this before but shrugged it off as some kind of diet fad, but I can say from a personal level forcing myself to eat something every 60-90 minutes has really really helped my energy level. In general I have heard that you should not wait more than 4 hours between some kind of consumption.

The fact that it helped so much deeply disturbed me. When I was tired I would just have cup of coffee. Sometimes I still do, but simply having an “RX Bar” or some almonds can be just as powerful. That’s the level of effect we’re talking about here. In ancient history a topic that came up again and again was that many emotions originated in the stomach. I can see how they might have gotten this.

Also for dietary advice in general recommend the book “How Not To Die”. It’s a good book, but the extreme ethical standards of the author and his desire not to get involved in the fitness industry make it even better than usual. It’s good for general diet advice as well as also preventing the chronic diseases which are so hard to treat after a certain point.

How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease https://www.amazon.com/dp/1250066115/

It's interesting that of the many friends I have who started companies (10 - 12), only two of them didn't receive funding. Both businesses built from scratch and now have a revenue somewhere in the neighborhood of $1m a year after two years. That's honestly pretty good IMO.

The other eight or so friends who started companies accepted some form of money. Of those, only two are still in existance. The survival rate of the other guys are 2/2, the survival rate of the funded startups to-date is 2/(8-10) or <25%.

I think part of that is simple because the people who didn't have funding didn't have a choice. It was survive or die.

It reminds me of probably the wisest words I've read regarding startups:

> Startups rarely die in mid keystroke. So keep typing!

- How Not to Die by Paul Graham[1]

The point is, focusing on something practical that doesn't need funding is like the easiest way to succeed and also find real problems. I've accidentially stumbled on solutions to problems other people have had and often those are the greatest little apps that can make you a steady income.

[1] http://www.paulgraham.com/die.html

This has got to be, in my opinion, my 2nd favorite PG essay, right after the 'How Not to Die' essay.

So here in sum is how determination seems to work: it consists of willfulness balanced with discipline, aimed by ambition.

The essay is probably meant to help investors pick good investments. But I say that founders can use it to help pick good co-founders, as well as improve themselves. I would love to read more on things/characteristics about a person that might give evidence of a person's willfulness, discipline and ambition, or lack thereof.

This reminds me of two important things:

The #1 thing you need to do is find a way to sustain yourself and your energy through the long slog - Paul Graham's "How Not to Die"

The #2 thing you need to do is build relationships with customers and understand who's problem you're solving and how you're going to do it.

Figuring out how to make forward progress is easier than figuring out how not to give up and how to get anyone to give a shit.

I understood that the 2/day thing was measured on an on average quite obese population. And that doing the test on exclusively healthy individuals would result in 2/day, everyday, being a disaster. (Not sure where I read this, most likely in Greger's "How Not To Die").

Its like you give the obese a little blood thinner, which is like a medicine for them. But not for the rest.

"How not to die" by Michael Greger .. nearly half the book is the list of references...

The /vegan sub reddit is pretty active and supportive. You will find plenty of folks willing to help there.

Dr. Greger's book How Not To Die is a good source of nutritional information.

My 2 cents as someone who's been vegan for almost 15 years:

- Don't be too hard on yourself. Being vegan is not about being perfect.

- When eating out, explore ethnic foods. You will find that it's easier to find dishes that are vegan by default or almost vegan on non-western restaurants.

- Try to find the macro distribution that works best for you and work with it within a vegan framework. I thrive on high carb, but you will find all sorts of vegan diets out there, including keto.

- Avoid drama. Just by saying you are vegan, you may get negative emotional reactions from people. When confronted, just say it's a personal choice and move on. Too much time can be spent arguing with people who are ignorant on this topic.

Replying to my own comment since it's too late to edit:

I don't mean avoid fats, I mean avoid extracted fats. Oils lack fiber and much of the nutrition that the whole food has. I.e. eat olives over olive oil, avocados over avocado oil, etc. I understand it sounds crazy, and yes it's not easy, but for my family's health it's been worth it. We've all found great benefit in different ways.

Also Dr Greger's "How Not to Die" book is a better source than the YouTube video I linked.

> I feel a lot healthier

This was the clincher for me. I listened to the audiobook "How Not to Die" by Dr. Greger and was convinced of the common sense that eating plant based whole foods is the way to be healthier. The lowered cost and lowered impact on the environment are just icing on the cake. If eating meat was better for me, I'd still do it. The science done so far seems to suggest that a whole food plant based diet is the healthiest diet.

I switched to a whole food plant based diet after reading "How not to Die", and I believe it's served me well during the pandemic, cooking for myself and hitting my micronutrients pretty much every day. I check using cronometer.com, and in pretty much every category I'm getting more than enough.

Eating the same thing every day isn't the problem; it's not eating enough different things to get all your nutrients. Just for example, I pretty much eat beets, broccoli, blueberries, almonds, bananas, mango, dates, oatmeal, greens, legumes (lentils, chickpeas or kidney beans), turmeric, flax seed and nutritional yeast (for B12)) every day. My labs a week ago were perfect, I'm actually over for vitamins D and B12.

This is an ad hominem and quite unfair. Michael Greger states himself that he does not like the term veganism, and he also writes that it was the health benefits of a plant based diet that led him to promote that diet. To call him a "vegan animal welfare crusader" is a bit hyperbolic to say the least.

From Greger's book How Not to Die he writes in the Introduction to Part 2:

> From a nutrition standpoint, the reason I don’t like the terms vegetarian and vegan is that they are only defined by what you don’t eat. When I used to speak on college campuses, I would meet vegans who appeared to be living off french fries and beer. Vegan, technically, but not exactly health promoting. That’s why I prefer the term whole-food, plant-based nutrition. As far as I can discern, the best available balance of evidence suggests that the healthiest diet is one centered on unprocessed plant foods. On a day-today basis, the more whole plant foods and the fewer processed and animal products, the better.

And from the Preface of How Not to Die he writes:

> True, I have biases of my own to rein in. Although my original motivation was health, over the years, I’ve grown into quite the animal lover. Three cats and a dog run our household, and I’ve spent much of my professional life proudly serving the Humane Society of the United States as the charity’s public health director. So, like many people, I care about the welfare of the animals we eat, but first and foremost, I am a physician. My primary duty has always been to care for my patients, to accurately provide the best available balance of evidence.

Oh I loved Freakonomics!! What an excellent question. I want to propose 2 books:
1. Getting Things Done by David Allen. It really changed how I approach not only my workday but pretty much everything that could constitute "work" in my daily life. It's a bit of a learning curve to start, but once you implement GTD in your life it becomes second nature. You can learn about it here: https://gettingthingsdone.com/ and there's a good intro to it here: https://zenkit.com/en/blog/a-beginners-guide-to-getting-thin....
2. How Not to Die by Dr. Michael Greger. When you start thinking of plants as medicine it really changes your whole approach to food and life in general. I've started following his 'daily dozen' and I've got to say that I feel absolutely incredible. (Check out his website here: https://nutritionfacts.org/)

Amazing works of fiction that I come back to again and again include Anna Karenina and The Three Musketeers

There's growing research to say that eating any meat (specifically red meat) increases inflammation. Among other things, it elevates levels of C-Reactive protein, which the liver makes when there is inflammation in the body.[1]

Another studied suggests that meat intake increases levels of arachidonic acid, which is another mediator in inflammation and aging.[2]

Those are just a couple of studies. There are plenty more where they came from. I highly suggest reading 'How Not to Die' by Dr. Michael Greger, to all those that are interested in way of reducing inflammation in the body. The book is incredibly well referenced, and a joy to read. [3]

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24284436

[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28146136

[3] https://www.amazon.com/How-Not-Die-Discover-Scientifically/d...

This resonates well with Paul's "How not to die" [1]

[1] http://www.paulgraham.com/die.html

I read "How Not to Die" recently. By LCHF, are you referring to an "Atkins" diet of sorts? High meat/animal fats, vegetables, low carb, low fruit?

I'd be interested in any sources that support that diet for anything other than weight loss - I was under the impression it led to pretty poor health outcomes (apart from bmi/diabetes management)

Misaligned incentives are certainly part of the problem, but this article points to it being more than just that - even if you want to run a good study, it is incredibly difficult to do so.

I have spent a bunch of time on that site and read Dr. Greger's book "How Not to Die". He certainly works hard to understand how studies could be flawed, but he is still limited by the fact that really good underlying studies are hard to come by.

A few things stood out to me reading that book:

1) So, so many studies are hopelessly flawed.

2) Even ones that seem relatively good often have other studies showing the opposite result.

3) The evidence for a plant-based diet seemed fairly overwhelming, but some of the specific recommendations felt more questionable.

4) If you combine all of the claimed increases/decreases in disease risk for a given set of foods, you can fairly quickly get to a ridiculous result where you have something like a 1 in a billion chance of getting a relatively common ailment or are almost guaranteed to get 3 different cancers tomorrow.

If you're looking to make dietary choices based on the results of high-quality dietary studies, my goto is "How Not to Die"[1] and the author's non-profit website at, http://nutritionfacts.org

[1] https://www.amazon.com/How-Not-Die-Discover-Scientifically/d...

Since Paul Graham is a vegetarian, I presumed the title was referring to a review of the book "How Not to Die". https://nutritionfacts.org/book/

You should flip through some pages of "How Not To Die" by Michael Greger some time...

"The End of Dieting", Joel Fuhrman, MD.

"How Not to Die", Michael Greger, MD.

"The Obesity Code", Jason Fung, MD.

You should take a look at Dr Fuhrman’s Eat to Live and Dr Michael Greger’s How Not to Die.

You should take into account that some whole plant high sugar or high starch foods like fruits and beans come packaged with fiber and other nutrients as well that serve to balance the nutritional profile and glycemic impact of the food.

That being said, if you do have a problem with sugar, stay away from sweet or high starch foods that lack fiber like ripened bananas and cooked white potatoes. Beans are healthy because they contain resistant starches that act like fiber.

You should be eating a variety of whole plant foods with high fiber and high nurtrient density.

Dr Fuhrmans list of foods you should consume everyday for a healthy immune system.
G-BOMBS
Greens
Beans
Onions
Mushrooms
Berries
Seeds

There are important differences. Losing weight is almost always a good thing, however you also have to look on the inside of the body. What makes ateries clog? And here comes meat and diary into play. Ppl tend to look on a lean muscular body but do not consider what makes the body work.

Pls have a look into Michael Greger's How not to die, or Colin Campbell China Study.

Vegan is not always healthy. Plant based, unprocessed food does the trick. Fatty and salty french fries are technically vegan. There is a lot of junk food on the vegan side, which is also highly processed and features lots of sugar. It is not enough to stop eating dead animals, drinking milk or eggs.

However dismissing meat is inevitable for a healthy diet.

It seems the author is already kind of biased when he set out to analyse the data.. use of the term 'overzealous vegans' in the first paragraph sets of a few alarms for me.

I think it would be interesting to look at other long term studies (like the 7th adventist study someone else mentioned here) as well as studies that look at plant based eating as a cure/preventative method for more specific/acute diseases (like Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn's WFPBN solution for cardiovascular disease, or Dr. Greger's 'How Not to Die' which compiles and summarizes research in the WFPB space https://nutritionfacts.org/book/)

"How not to Die" by Dr. Michael Greger is all you need.

I don't have the book at hand right now to cite exact pages, but Dr. Greger's "How Not to Die" has a much better explanation and cited sources on why one would want to avoid oils in favor of the whole plant source. Looking at longevity, it's relative and multifaceted - maybe oils aren't as damaging as not exercising, but it doesn't make them healthy.

In turn, I recommend you read How Not to Die by Dr. Michael Greger. http://nutritionfacts.org/book/

If that is really why youre not vegan I recommend the book 'How not to die' by Michael Gregor.

The health benefits of a whole food plant based diet are astonishing, and the whole missing vitamin mineral thing is trivially taken care of.

Becoming vegan will lead to immediate and long term health benefits. And from personal experience its much easier and more fun than you could dare to expect.

Likewise, except my recommendation for you is How Not to Die by Michael Greger, or just see http://nutritionfacts.org

Consider reading Whole by Campbell and Starch Solution by McDougall. Add How Not To Die by Greger and if you want some more add End of all Diets by Fuhrman.

The gist: Limit the fats. If your exercising and/or are at least moderately active, you can have some more nuts and seeds etc. But if you're sitting at the computer all day, limit fats to the absolute minimum. Eat lots of carbs. The body will not turn them into fat. Lot's of studies (100 years+) on this. Just open your eyes and read online and the books I mentioned.

Funny example: Oven chips vs french fries. Prefer oven chips with <= 2% fat and your "OK". Steamed potatoes with zero fat are, of course, better in this context.

Not saying keto diets (meat based or not, but protein+fat instead of starchy/sugary carbs based) don't work. Just really bad karma with the cruelty against animals in meat farms etc. Not cool. Not cool. Anyway, long term data isn't there yet on keto diets. And generally speaking: The world is getting sicker. And Campbell & Co seem to hint at food - mainly animal products - are the cause. McDougall etc show that the human race survived and thrived on starch. (Low fat! Actually.)

Consider this..

Vegetarian or vegan means little. WFPB (whole food plant based) is a better term. And find your sugars and starches under this WFPB umbrella and your good. These foods have only little amount of natural fat. Look at WFPB / 80/10/10 athletes for examples..

Just my two cents..

pg's How Not To Die essay:

http://www.paulgraham.com/die.html

pmarca's The Only Thing That Matters post:

http://pmarchive.com/guide_to_startups_part4.html

Pretty much everything Steve Blank has written on Customer Development:

http://steveblank.com/category/customer-development/

Mark Cuban on How To Get Rich:

http://blogmaverick.com/2008/10/04/how-to-get-rich/

Mark Cuban on Success & Motivation:

http://blogmaverick.com/2007/12/24/success-and-motivation/

Jamie Zawinski's Groupware Bad post:

http://www.jwz.org/doc/groupware.html

Consider reading Whole by Campbell, How Not To Die by Greger, Starch Solution by McDougall, End of all Diets by Fuhrman.

Promoting animal products seems to be somewhat en vogue.

But please open your eyes and look at the data, the history of the human race (starch based!), and for the love of "god" (ie the universe with all that it contains, not the religious kind), look at the cruelty against animals. Bad karma. Really bad karma.

And considering that the human population nowadays with meat, dairy and eggs in their diet is getting sicker and sicker (studies, numbers, all there for you - just have to look), maybe animal products aren't exactly on the safe side..

:-/

You want to look at Mc Dougall's Starch Solution. It can be argued (studies included) that a few foods are enough if you consume enough of it. Potatoes are an example.

I'm not saying you should only eat a few foods. But Adding multi vitamins has been shown to be somewhat more on the detrimental side. See for example How Not To Die by Dr Greger.

Just my two cents..

It follows the same trajectory as the tobacco industry. I think when it comes to tobacco we already can "not believe" how prevalent smoking was just 50 years ago.

> at this point the food industry is almost guilty of mass murder for profit

Agreed. Now how to fix it?

I like Dr Greger's "How not to Die" book, as it brings a lot of scientific evidence to the table. He also has an app "the daily dozen" that helps people improve their diets.

Given the power of lobby groups I do not expect that we can effectively use gov't to change the status quo.

Let's also consider the other direction -- how fresh vegetables and fruit, plus whole grains, beans, nuts, seeds, and herbs improve mood, behavior, resilience. Throw in some vigorous exercise, and for most people, drugs can't do better, without the drugs' side effects and cost.

For many people, switching from a standard American diet to largely those ingredients would register as changing who they are.

I just finished reading a chapter on it in Dr. Michael Greger's How Not to Die -- the chapter is "How Not to Die From Suicidal Depression" with plenty of footnotes to primary sources.

Funny thing is that Dr. Valter Longo suggests the exact opposite - a take-in of 80 grams of olive oil a day: https://valterlongo.com/cardiovascular-diseases/

I read both books - "How not to die" (Greger) and "the Longevity Diet" - and I thought about their opinions as well. ATM I tend to stick to good oils from plants as well as nuts. Greger is not very convincing - mostly because he suggests nuts as well, and a good produced oil (like extra virgine olive oil) does not loose much nutritional value. I don't care about reduced antioxidants in oil if I combine it with greens that have loads of them.

Having read (what I like to think as quite extensively) into the current research on the subject, I'd be inclined to dismiss these findings. Like said by /u/lawlorino elsewhere in the thread, the p values used seem questionable to say the least. There is also substantially more evidence to the contrary. I highly recommend Dr. Michael Greger's book "How Not to Die", and reading through the references section at the back. I've linked a summary of the book below but I do recommend reading it to completion[1]. It contains a vast selection of data that seems to directly oppose the evidence given in the linked article. While I personally disagree with Greger's recommendations on sodium intake (no one ever controls for potassium...), he's incredibly thorough with his research, albeit stretching slightly with some of his declarations (my criticisms with the book mirror that of the summary linked).

Anecdotally, myself and my father have been using Greger's 'daily dozen' app for the past year or so; myself fully vegan, him only eating animal product on weekends up until the beginning of this month where he has been trying veganism. I've managed to reduce my body fat by about 10% and reached a mental clarity I haven't ever had before, and my dad has come completely off his statin medication, reduced his body fat by closer to 15%, and in his words "feeling healthier now then I did in my 20's". I hate to sound preachy, but I only say this all because I want to help others. Please take the above article with a large pinch of salt.

[1] https://www.allencheng.com/how-not-to-die-by-michael-greger-...

Not suggesting this is an end all solution, since CHF can also stem from non diet related issues, but eating a whole food plant based diet can start to reverse heart disease in as little as a few weeks. It can also prevent and reverse many other diet caused/related diseases.

I think part of the issue has mainly been a lack of education on what a poor diet consists of.

If anyone is interested, Dr. Gregor is a great resource of knowledge on this subject. He did a talk at google https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7rNY7xKyGCQ which is based on his book "How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease" https://www.amazon.com/dp/1250066115/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_bEXs...

His website is http://nutritionfacts.org

All not for profit.

"lack the emotional development to know these things"

Being told things (at any age actually, think of having a conversation with your doctor about a medical problem) allows you to frame and put things in perspective. The perspective is what is important and what can be very helpful. So a more experienced person (who could be older or could have just gone through the hoops) tells you "that's not a problem in fact here is a similar situation ...".

An example is PG's "How not to Die" where he says:

http://www.paulgraham.com/die.html

"We avoided dying till we got rich.

It was really close, too. When we were visiting Yahoo to talk about being acquired, we had to interrupt everything and borrow one of their conference rooms to talk down an investor who was about to back out of a new funding round we needed to stay alive. So even in the middle of getting rich we were fighting off the grim reaper."

There is a huge difference between complex carbohydrates bound up in natural fiber and refined starches and sugars. The former are the foundation of the healthiest diets around the planet. The latter are unhealthy. The current anti carb hysteria fails to make a distinction between the two.

I think you'll find you can eat plenty of carbs if you stick to whole grain, unprocessed carbs and also avoid oil. I've been on this diet for two years now and I've lost weight and feel amazing.

You can get enough Omega 3 from non animal sources but if you're worried about it you can supplement with algae-derived Omega 3. Fish get it from algae anyway so you're just cutting out the middle man.

I recommend Michael Greger's book "How Not to Die" for a lot more detail on a healthy plant based diet. I think you'll find it a lot easier to eat this way than you might think.

> Dr. Greger's "How Not to Die" has helped in some of the education and all the references to studies relating.

At the risk of belaboring the obvious, you may buy yourself some years with virtuous living, but you are still going to die. It's worth considering whether you want to give up all your small temporal pleasures.

Maybe you want to consider to switch to a whole food plant based diet. Other than the other „lifestyle“ diets such as low carb, the plant based is actually backed by science. A good source is nutritionfacts.org and the book „how not to die“ by the same author.
If you asked me to switch two months ago, I‘d say no way. But the science behind it convinced me to try it and it is so much easier than expected.

I'd start with a movie, not a book. The movie is "Game Changers", directed by James Cameron, and released last month on Netflix and Amazon Video. If you're skeptical about the science behind the movie, read the critique published in Men's Health magazine along with the rebuttal from one of the MD's interviewed in the film.

Next I'd read "The Engine 2 seven-day rescue diet" by Rip Esselstyn. If you a more in-depth treatment, try "How Not to Die" by Michael Greger, MD. If you want scientific journal articles, I recommend the work of Caldwell Esselstyn. MD and Dean Ornish, MD. Dean Ornish's TED talk is also a good reference.

Multiple mentions of "How not to Die" by Dr. Michael Greger which is great and extensively researched - and he just came out with a new book "How not to Diet" which looks like the same quality.

Also, if you like videos better, there is a huge collection by him on https://nutritionfacts.org/ - searchable by condition (like "cholesterol"), or on his youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/NutritionFactsOrg

Spoiler alert: all of his conclusions boil down to just a few things:

- don't drink calories

- eat less processed food

- eat less meat and dairy

- eat more fiber (beans, greens, fruits, veggies)

We don't need more research to answer most questions on what to eat - eating real food, namely plants, prevents diabetes, atherosclerosis, etc. When doctors do tell people to eat plants people usually don't listen.

I think Doctors need to be better trained, Americans need to completely rethink nutrition and health (I can't speak for other countries), government needs to help inform people, and laws about marketing food may need to be changed.

In addition further research could help, but in my opinion nutrition is a solved problem, eat real food and avoid meat and processed junk.

My opinion is based on how little my friends in the medical profession and/or training know about nutrition and the book How Not to Die which focuses on how diet affects deadly diseases.

Eating a whole foods planet based diet can reverse diabetes and significantly reduce inflammation.

I didn't believe this until I had a dear friend pass away from a heart attack at 33. This forced me into getting my blood work done. I was astonished how bad my numbers looked across the board even though I was skinny.

By eating a planet based diet all my numbers have normalized. I eat and sleep better. My energy has increased. I take 0 drugs. It's been a really eye opening experience. I'm 38.

The standard american diet needs to be fixed. It should look more like this

https://food-guide.canada.ca/en/

https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/foods-that-fi...

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/eat-more-plants-fewer-an...

Book recommendation - How not to die - Michael Gregor

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”
― Hippocrates

Eating meat is killing your health, your body imagine, your productivity. It’s killing YOU.

Meat consumption is the reason heart disease is our number one killer.

Will that convince you? Eating a plant-based diet is simply logic: for your health, for the environment, for ethics, for the health of society, etc, etc.

Read How Not To Die by Michael Gregor. Read Pubmed. Get educated on what meat is doing to your body.

I didn't fail my first time. And you're not guaranteed to fail by any means so please don't let anyone convince you of that.

I have never recommended a Paul Graham essay on this site (something that I'll never be able to claim again), but I highly recommend you read this one:

"How Not to Die" (August 2007)
http://www.paulgraham.com/die.html

I can't speak for others but yes personally I've started reducing meat and added veg.

I think my shift came after reading "How not to die"[1]. This book has a lot of scientific info about the benefits of veg diet over non veg and it really changed my perception of food and nutrition and the effect of all dieseases being caused by bad food choices.

[1] https://www.google.com/search?q=How+not+to+die&oq=How+not+to...

Good luck!

If you swap my big players and niche for your big players and niche, I could have written your reply here.

Specifically:

1. We've been called a one stop shop by multiple people.
2. We're self-funded by my day job with a trivial burn rate.
3. I've probably read "How Not to Die" > 100 times.

Before my current project, I tried to create small niche websites that would eek out enough to get me out of my day job. They never did. Some success, but not enough. So I decided to go big or go home. I like this approach way better.

I think grabbing a beachhead is crucial in a competitive space. I'm in year two. I pursued 5 or 6 different niches my first year, following the philosophy that you should release a minimum version one. And if you are going to be a one stop shop, the minimum has to thinly cover several niches/sub-niches. I was definitely embarrassed by some aspects, but people sent me unsolicited emails with feedback and appreciation.

I laughed a bit at the fact that I was trying to outdo the big players as a solo shop, when everyone else is trying to carefully test their lean startup principles. I convinced someone to join me because of the initial traction. And now we're beefing up 2 of the initial niches. Under the theory that we'll hopefully get traction in one of them by the end of the year. And patching holes in the rest will be sufficient until we have time to work on them more. Or find another team member.

If we can get traction in a 2nd sub-niche, we're going to be working on monetization in the highly competitive space (as well as the sub-niches we've got traction) in year three (next year). As it turns out, even when things have gone right, making money in a competitive space is still tough! We were able to grab traction in the first sub-niche because there isn't a clear path to revenue in it. We've got some ideas though; we just don't have enough people to go after both user growth and revenue growth. So we're going after user growth right now, given our infinite runway to learn ... limited only by our ability to stay motivated.

Really well written article! And a lot of things I've never heard of.

While keto is mentioned, I do think that another diet deserves a mention here: WFPB (whole food plant based).

In the book, How Not To Die, Dr Greger bring together the science that underpins this diet. Some one switching to this from a standard american diet can expect to add some healthy years to their lives, based on sci evidence.

Post author here. We're quite serious that our startup would have failed if not for hard-committing to gradual daily improvement like this. The article quotes Paul Graham a lot, who basically claims (in How Not to Die) that if you do something like this your probability of success will be 90%. To us it feels like a transformative lifehack and we're keen to convince more startups to do it!

Hey, author here. I don't usually comment on my own articles on HN, but this comment was one of the more negative ones I've seen here.

A lot of us here on Hacker News (formerly Startup News) are working on startups. One of the biggest challenges facing startups is finding the determination to work hard during the long initial period where you might see very few fruits from your labors. Personally, I like to read pg's "How Not to Die" frequently (http://www.paulgraham.com/die.html). It was in this light that I wrote the article. I submitted it to HN and apparently it struck a chord with a lot of readers here, and they upvoted it.

Not every article on HN is going to appeal to every reader. Perhaps you're not working on a startup, so this article doesn't really apply to you. Maybe my next one will. Recognize that not all HN readers are in the same situation in life; enjoy the articles that apply directly to your situation, and read the others to give you perspective on the lives of your fellow HNers.