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Drink when you're thirsty your body will let you know.

Geesh Bruce!
You probably think that a person doesn't need OXYGEN either!!!

Anyways, I read that as you get older your body looses its' desire for water, and it needs it but doesn't signal you until it's too late.

Drinking water has so many benefits. But do whatever you like, it's your body and I think dry up their brains for lack of water.

I drink way more than 8 glasses a day. I feel and sleep much better.

No need to comment . . . Bruce!

Coffee, coke, tea and energy drinks all contain quite a lot of water.

I suppose my mid-20s diet of reefer, alcohol, acid and tobacco is out the window then!

I certainly FELT more creative then. :-)

Forrest

Yeah. That's why I can only eat 1200 calories a day; I'm really a duck.

You're on to something there Dave, but I would be cutting back on the butter. Butter, and cooking in butter is high in Trans-fats. You don't want those. Blood chemistry testing will not reveal this. Transfats are linked to all sorts of damaging processes in the body. You should stick with the more robust oils - especially olive oil. Even then, you should keep cooking times down to a minimum because any oil will start to produce transfats if it's boiling for long enough.

I'm assuming that's mostly in insect and pellet form?

I also use lots of olive oil ... and I keep the cooking times and temperature to a minimum whether it's butter or olive oil.

(As long as we're off topic here ... if anyone's interested, do a YouTube search for the Oiling of America ... for just one talk to view. )

My diet consists mainly on fat, meat and carb (spagheti, pizzas and the such). Oh... and lots of sugar too.

It's not recomended to anyone who actually wants to lose weight or at least keep his figure in a shape that doesn't resemble the pirelli man

If I went to Africa and saw this . . . I'd want my money back!

I generally eat very healthy.

Diane this is the promotional poster of McDonalds, right?

I can agree with this. The last few weeks have been absurdly busy for me, and as a result I've been eating fast food more and I can certainly notice a difference in my energy levels and in my ability to hear as I'm playing. I need to get back onto being more disciplined there.

Aren't we all making a mountain out of a molehill?

Diet isn't rocket science - it's not even quantum mechanics, or string theory.

It's just eating what homo sapiens were designed (by your favorite deity, or by evolution, depending on your predilection...) to eat - i.e. 'real' food that's real and looks real, not something churned out by a huge machine (or several machines) which bears no resemblance to what it was fed with.

Do any other animals eat processed junk (other than our pets, and what we choose to feed them with)?

+1

Not really piano related, but just a point of information here. Butter has a very small amount of naturally occurring trans fat, but the really high amounts are in artificially processed fats like margarine and other foods with hydrogenated oils.

Some manufacturers have tried to avoid trans-fats by replacing the disgusting hydrogenated stuff with palm oil (especially in USA, where everything has to be labeled), but don't forget palm oil is saturated and works the same way as lard on your blood vessels.....

The thing is, eating well for a healthy lifestyle and eating to strengthen the mind to make playing the piano easier are not always a match. For instance,
meal plan 1:
Breakfast: whole wheat bread with peanut butter, glass of milk, orange.
Lunch: yogurt with banana and mango, peppermint tea
snack: raisins, nut and seed mix
Dinner: Pork chop, steamed cauliflower, baked potatoes, glass of red wine; pumpkin pie.
Extra supplement. daily vitamin

Meal plan 2:
Breakfast: Oatmeal with blueberries, cinnamon , vanilla and honey; Decaf coffee.
Lunch: Omega 3 egg sandwich with whole wheat bread,carrots and spinach; green tea.
snack: walnuts, sunflower seeds with fresh strawberries; glass of almond milk.
Dinner: salmon with almonds, broccoli, whole grain brown rice; Jasmine tea with 80% dark chocolate.
Extras: b complex vitamin(25mg), zinc supplement,omega 3 supplement, cranberry supplement, vitamin D. Sage leaf before bed.

Meal plan 3:
Breakfast: Honeynut cherrios with milk and banana; two coffees
Lunch: kraft dinner , diet soda
snack: cookies,chocolate raisins, sport drink
Dinner: T-bone steak , mashed potatoes, and canned cream corn; ice cream , 2 glasses white wine.

So there's three meal plans. The first one is healthy and will help a bit, but there are no real mind building foods in the list. The second meal plan if full of mind strengthening foods, the brains supper foods. I make sure I eat the foods in Meal plan two, 2-4 times a week, and I really notice a huge difference in my playing, HUGE!!!. Meal plan three, in my own personal experience, has created learning and memory problems and helped create injuries and pain while playing. Now, playing is pain and injury free, and learning is easy.
Google the foods in meal plan three along with tag words: research,prevention, university, cancer, alzheimer's, dementia, memory,diabetes. You will notice a positive pattern.
Then google the foods in meal plan three along with the words sugar, processed food, alcohol and hearing loss to the tag list and you will find they are linked to the cause of the above mention diseases.

Foods that help with ________

motor skill and proprioception sense: strawberries, cranberries
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkUir-ne7tg

Stage fright and perspiration:
sage, raw garlic
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/09/030901091846.htm
http://www.prevention.com/term/new-herb-ease-anxiety
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-the-best-tips-for-controlling-cortisol.htm

memory: salmon, walnuts, strawberries
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110327191040.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071106122843.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120307145825.htm
http://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyl...abetes/4KxSHuPOmpYEBXMtEsO6sJ/story.html


Foods that slow us down(mentally), improve sight reading, help focus:
cranberries, strawberries; Flaxseed and almond milk drink.

Prevent hearing loss:
carrots,zinc supplement, Ginkgo Biloba
http://american-hearing.org/disorders/tinnitus/

Love of playing: 80% dark Chocolate

Muscle joint strength: Brazil nuts(one a day is all you need), raw garlic, spinach, zinc, strawberries(yah, strawberries are a musicians super food), vitamin D.


Fewer mistakes: strawberries, exercise, cranberries, ginkgo

thats it
Disclaimer, I am a guy on the internet, not your Dr. . Do some research into the foods above -pro's and cons before taking them.Don't overdose.


I added some links

I would like to point out that walnuts are high in good fat, not like butter
You can google that

Drinking water only when thirsty may be a bad idea for a musicians. A lot of musicians also sing a bit, the vocal chords require water, or they will get damaged. Drinking 6-8 glasses of FLUIDS is still recommend by some. Drinking 8 glasses of water + fluids a day may be overdoing it.

a little off-topic, but I was thinking years ago to take up martial arts.. maybe kung-fu? the precision and fine motor movements associated with it would seem to stimulate the area of the brain that is responsible for coordination..the martial arts and piano playing would seem to complement each other. just an idea though..

no input on diet, except moderation and balance.

Well, I love McDonald's "sausage Mcmuff & egg". and I have a "Burger King Whooper every Tuesday. It's just "fun" food . . . but my body has a mind of it's own!!! Oh yes it does. It's like a child that wants what it wants and I'm discovering it's selfish and doesn't have "my" interests at heart.

Just like practicing the piano takes discipline, so does my mind have to discipline my "crying baby body needs"

My body wants "chocolate" 24/7, it wants ice cream every day, cheese cake, chips, etc. it doesn't want to get on the treadmill, and it doesn't want to push weights. But . . . I force it to do things and as I said, it's a "fight" to the finish. I have my own personal reasons for this.

Anyways, treats are treats. Not everyday luxuries. I have to stop and think what is best for my body not the other way around.