Raedwulf said, "The 'balanced diet', previously mentioned, is mostly the result of one influential scientist getting the ear of the USDA in the 50's."

I agree. The balanced diet concept was a good start but I think it should be re-evaluated as nutritional studies bring more evidence.

As for guinea pigs in diet studies, someone I knew, by naming a specific well-known diet, used to justify eating high fat, high meat-based protein meals with very little vegetables or fruit but it appeared that he was simply eating what he liked to eat, ignoring the diet's healthy focus on vegetables, fruit and increased plant-based protein, and then was wondering why he wasn't losing weight. He wasn't following the diet as it was proposed by it's author.

I watch a lot of Dr Michael Mosley's health documentaries and one interesting item on Trust Me I'm a Doctor was that eating pasta which has been cooked, cooled and re-heated turns it into a resistant starch.

"So, according to scientist Dr Denise Robertson, from the University of Surrey, if you cook and cool pasta down then your body will treat it much more like fibre, creating a smaller glucose peak and helping feed the good bacteria that reside down in your gut. You will also absorb fewer calories, making this a win-win situation."

.........

"Chris [Dr Chris van Tulleken] was certainly blown away by this finding.

"'We've made a brand new discovery on Trust Me I'm A Doctor', he says, 'and it's something that could simply and easily improve health. We can convert a carb-loaded meal into a more healthy fibre-loaded one instead without changing a single ingredient, just the temperature. In other words our leftovers could be healthier for us than the original meal.'"

This works for potatoes too, so that's good news for me because I love potatoes. I also add potato starch, which is a resistant starch, whenever I cook with flour or in my high-fibre fruit smoothies.