Healthy Diet: A Companion to
Exercise
Exercise, as good as it is, is not a
stand-alone hero when it comes to good health and
fitness; better eating habits is almost always the
partner. Our eating habits are marked in two ways: what
we eat, and how much we eat – the old saying,
“too much of a good thing” is really true. In Asia
they say it’s best to eat only until you are hara
hachi bu, or as the Okinawan’s put it, “eat
until you are 8 parts out of 10 full."
For the
American diet there seems to be a real war battling against who is
the worse villain: carbohydrates or fat. All of the diet fads
– and that is exactly what they are, fads – take a
supportive approach to one of these sides. True, they
will both generate a loss of weight; but is that the
ideal end in mind? We must keep clear that the end goal
is health, not just to lose weight. The purpose of
this article is not to go into great detail about which diet is or
isn’t any good for losing weight; they all tend to do that. It is to
teach you what you must do to achieve a healthy state of living and
maintain it
(that includes losing weight and keeping it off).
In order to accomplish your health and weight goals you
must have a well-balanced proportion of calories derived from both
carbohydrates and fats.
When done right, eating a well-balanced diet
will do exactly what any other “fad” diet will
accomplish. For example, the much-touted Atkin’s diet
is based on the principle of ketosis, the
fat-burning state a body reaches when deprived of
carbohydrates. The idea is to starve the system of
carbohydrates so that the body begins to burn the excess
fat instead. Explaining it simply, carbohydrates are
digested and broken down into sugars, when they reach
the bloodstream your body produces a rise in insulin;
peaks in insulin cause the body to store excess sugar as
fat. If you cut the carbohydrates then in effect you cut
the sugar surges and thus not only store less fat but
also start to burn off more of the fat you have.
There is a problem, however,
by not eating enough carbohydrates; carbohydrates (the
good ones found in whole-grain breads, beans, fruits and
vegetables) contain fiber and therefore break down
slowly when digested and naturally avoid insulin spikes,
and are one of the three principal types of nutrients
used by the body as sources of energy. They help lower
blood pressure and “bad” cholesterol as
effectively as many medications. Fats do not do
this. Fats are good, the right kind of fats, but they do
not do what carbohydrates do. The news today, and what
you should know about carbohydrate-rich fruits and
vegetables, isn’t that they are good for you. It’s
that they are so good for you they could save your life.
How To Begin
Here’s a suggestion to
begin with: eat a lot of fruits and vegetables – a lot
of them. Eat whole-wheat bread when you have the option
over highly processed cereals and make red meat an
occasional treat once in a while favoring fish, turkey,
chicken or pork. Don’t make meat the center of the
meal, but treat it more like a side dish.
Now a word on meats; with all
this talk about the greatness of fruits and vegetables
you shouldn’t look at meat as a villain. Used
sparingly and in moderation it is wonderfully healthy
for you; however, the protein found in meats can easily
be acquired in foods such as nuts and beans. There is no
restraint necessary on the amount of beans you can eat.
Kidney beans, lentils, chickpeas, and the like are low
in fat and calories and loaded with fiber, protein and
minerals. The nice thing about them is they bring an
added bonus of being filling as well.
Remember, not all fats are
“bad.” Good fats do more than help protect the
heart, they can also delay hunger pangs as well. Part of
the problem with the “fat-free” or “low-fat”
craze is that these products are often loaded with sugar
making them real caloric catastrophes. According to Dr.
Walter Willett, chairman of the department of nutrition
at the Harvard School of Public Health, “people on
these high-starch, low-fat diets are often hungry soon
after they eat. They would be more satisfied eating nuts
or a salad with a full-fat dressing.” He continued,
“longer-term studies are showing that people tend to
be able to control their weight better over the long run
on a moderate or higher-fat diet than on a low-fat
diet.”
How Much
You Eat
Your goal is to become a
"grazer." Eat 4-6 small, balanced meals a day.
Not eating or starving yourself causes your body to
conserve fat and go into a "starvation mode."
Waiting until you are too hungry causes you to
"binge eat" and eat high-fat and high-sugar
foods. Every time you eat, you burn 10% of the calories
to digest what you have eaten. Also critical is to eat
breakfast every day. Eating a healthy breakfast
kick-starts your body into fat burning mode for the day.
Also avoid overly processed foods.
Fill up on whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables and
lean protein, such as turkey, chicken and fish. Water is
also an essential nutrient. At a minimum, drink 64
ounces of water a day, more if you exercise. Proper
hydration keeps the body lubricated and running as an
efficient fat burner.
How many calories you consume
during the day depends on what your goal is, whether you
want to lose weight, or simply maintain it. The American
Heart association offers a good rule of thumb how to
determine the quantity of calories you should eat: if
you want to lose weight multiply your weight in pounds
by 13 (15 if you are physically active) and then
subtract 250. Trying to figure out how much you can eat
by measuring it in ounces may take a little practice,
however, if you just want to live the principle involved
then there is an easier way to approach it. Make a fist
with your hand - there you go, the size of your fist is
about what a serving size should be of fruits and
vegetables. Obviously, it will be much smaller for
meats, especially red meats, but this can be a good rule
of thumb to judge by for most things in general.
The basic rules of eating
smarter are very simple. Watch your total intake of
calories; burn off as many calories as you take in. This
doesn’t mean that you have to starve yourself, but you
do need to be smarter in what you eat – if it is
loaded with sugar, and fat then it will have tons of
calories you will have to deal with. Barbara Rolls,
professor of nutrition at Pennsylvania State University
says, “People forget they should be eating a
nutritious, healthy diet for other reasons, they go on
these kooky weight-management fad diets, and they lose
all sight of bone and cardiovascular health.” In light
of what she says, it makes just common sense to eat to
your hearts content all the fruits and vegetables you
want, at least five ½ cup servings a day and preferably
more (nine would be ideal); stick with leaner cuts of
meat giving preference to beans, fish, chicken or pork
over red meat. Just a side note, many people think that
pork is taboo because of it high fat content. This is a
misnomer. Granted, some cuts of port are horrendously
high in fat, i.e. bacon; however, the leaner side of
pork like pork loin for example, actually contains less
fat than some chicken breasts.
Remember this, if you eat it you will eventually
have to burn it and some things burn quicker and easier
than others. For example, taking a random weight of 180
pounds, a man who weighed that much will burn roughly
5.8 calories a minute while walking at a sustained pace
of 4 miles per hour. That means if he ate a 1 oz. bag of
potato chips (150 calories) he would have to walk almost
a half hour (25.8 minutes) to burn it off. On the other
hand, if he chose to eat a medium size apple instead (72
calories), he would only need to walk about 12 minutes.
You can find the caloric content of just about anything
you can think of at www.calorie-count.com,
and you can also find out a good idea of how much
walking you need to do to burn calories at your weight
by visiting:
Caloric Expenditure
on this site.
Bottom line is, be choosy
about what you decide to eat. Dr. John Swartzberg,
editorial board chair of the U.C. Berkeley Wellness
Letter says, “It takes work. We live in a
fast-food world.” A healthy diet coupled with moderate
activity truly does work miracles; it will improve the
quality of your life, give healthy color to your skin
and hair, wipe away wrinkles and sags, give you added
vitality and “umph” back into your life again. Eat
well, and be well!
Resources:
CDC Website on Healthy Aging:
www.cdc.gov/aging
National Institute on Aging:
www.nia.nih.gov
FDA Food Label Information:
www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/foodlab-
NIH Diet Website:
www.health.nih.gov/search.asp/29m.n
Time Magazine, Special Edition: Medicine's New
Frontiers
Related
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