[Slyosa]

To people of various backgrounds: What foods, and what proportions of protein, fat and carbohydrate, bring you the best health (energy, body fat, cholesterol, blood presure, etc.)? Also, are you intolerant of lactose, gluten, casein or certain foods?

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Name : Slyosa, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Agnostic, Age : 21, City : San Jose, State : CA Country : United States, Occupation : student, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Nancy]

My ancestors were primarily Irish, although my family has been in a farming community in the American South for about 300 years. I seem to feel best on a 'meat and potatoes' kind of diet that is modified with an eye toward the 'food pyramid' (lots of grains, fruits and vegetables, little fat). I eat a lot of meat, much more than the few ounces or so a day that the food pyramid says we need, because I do not feel right unless I eat about a pound of meat each day - I get light-headed, and I am always hungry without it. These symptoms set in after about two days of not eating meat. However, I tend to eat much leaner meats than the meats I ate when I was a child - mostly chicken, turkey and some very lean beef, instead of lots of fatty pork and beef products. I am also much more satisfied with potatoes than grains as a source of starch. I don't know if my preference for meat and potatoes is due to my Irish genes, or the way I ate for 18 years at my mother's table, but I am certain that I feel better on this particular diet.

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Name : Nancy, Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Episcopalian, Age : 35, City : Atlanta, State : GA Country : United States, Occupation : education, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Jennifer R.]

I am an American black person who has lived in the Midwest all of her life. My heritage has exposed me to some foods that may be characteristic of African-American/Southern culture, but my upbringing has been much more influential on my eating habits. My father is a research scientist, more specifically cancer research, a lifelong athlete and a student of Eastern theology, philosophy and medicine. He also did the vast majority of the meal preparation in our family from the time I was a very small child. Therefore, I was raised with a knowledge of the importance of vitamin and mineral supplements, and a balanced diet, as well as the merits of non-traditional diets. This has led me to experiment, and over the last 10 years, I have adopted a mostly vegetarian lifestyle. I rarely eat meat, fish or fowl. I don't eat many dairy products. I eat a lot of leafy-green vegetables, beans, grains, fruit and other non-processed whole foods. I take megadoses of vitamin C, as well as mineral supplements. I drink lots of water. When I eat this way, I feel incredibly strong, clear-headed, positive, vibrant and happy. This is the main reason for my dietary choices. It's not the way for everyone, but given what I know about the higher incidences of hypertension, cancer, diabetes and other life-threatening illnesses among black people, and the way that our traditional eating styles contribute to those, I'd say it's a good choice in that respect as well. In a way, it makes sense. Africans eat much more healthily as a matter of course than Americans do.

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Name : Jennifer R., Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/African American, Religion : Humanist, Age : 29, City : Saint Paul, State : MN Country : United States, Occupation : Writer/Student, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Sarah28411]

I'm a vegetarian, but most of my family is not. I'm a 3 1/2 generation Chinese American (long story, but it makes sense, really), so we eat lots of different foods. I was raised on Chinese, Japanese, Italian and basic red-blooded American food ... with some hippie and junk food mixed in. My non-immediate family seems to eat more 'on the go' than my immediate family or I do, though whenever we have family get-togethers, it's Chinese food 100 percent. When I turned 21, our big dinner was at Hungry Hunter. HA. :-) Apparently I have a very worldly palate, something I haven't noticed until recently. I'm 23 and went vegetarian at the age of 14.

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Name : Sarah28411, Gender : F, Race : Asian, Religion : Agnostic, Age : 23, City : San Francisco, State : CA Country : United States, Occupation : student, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, 

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