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I considered naming this series of articles "All
About Nutrition" because it is going to examine many of
the practical aspects of the nutritional sciences, but
then I realized that nutrition is far too large and
wide-ranging a subject to be discussed thoroughly and
comprehensively in a forum such as this. I mean, only a
bombastic, egomaniacal, self-absorbed, pretentious liar
would claim to be able to write an article that is truly
"all about" such a huge topic, and I can assure you that
I am not a liar.
I chose instead to label these articles "All About
Healthy Eating" because my purpose in writing them is to
foster and encourage eating habits that will help the
reader to avoid some of the health hazards accompanying
the typical modern diet. We will, of necessity, discuss
many topics in the realm of nutritional science, but I
assure you that this will be done only as a means to
better understand the guiding principles of healthy
eating, and without any attempt to turn anyone into a
certifiable food nerd. After all, one of those is all we
really need around here, so I'll wear that mantle with
pride.
Having said all that, my first objective will be to
examine the various types of nutrients that compose the
human diet so that we can all better understand their
roles in our health and well- being. My hope is that,
once we are all singing out of the same songbook with
regard to the fundamentals of nutrition, we'll all be
better equipped to make intelligent decisions regarding
the food and drink we allow to enter our bodies. At
least that's the plan.
Readers who are familiar with my prior "All About..."
essays will probably have noticed that I'm just crazy
about dividing things into categories, and this little
series of articles on nutrition is not going to make an
exception. In order to properly analyze and examine the
various components of a healthy diet, we are going to
divide those components into categories and discuss each
one individually.
For the purposes of this discussion we are going to
divide everything we eat into four categories. People
with big fancy college degrees in nutrition might
consider this to be an oversimplification, and in my own
defense I would tell these people to go and get their
own recipezine if they don't like the way I'm doing
things around here. So there.
The four categories we will be examining in detail
are (with initial upper-case letters to make them seem
more important): Proteins; Carbohydrates; Fats; and a
fourth category I will call Everything Else.
The amateur nutritionists among my readers will
immediately recognize the first three of those
categories as the three primary building blocks of all
the foods we eat. Everything we eat, from a bowl of
oatmeal to a hot pastrami sandwich, is made of protein,
carbohydrates, and fats of different types and in
differing proportions. Together, they represent the bulk
of just about everything we eat.
The Everything Else category includes those nutrients
that don't fall into any of the three categories I just
finished telling you about. These things include
vitamins and minerals, which I'm sure everyone is
familiar with, as well as several more exotic classes of
nutrients such as antioxidants, phytonutrients, and
other things collectively referred to as micronutrients.
It may surprise many readers to learn that we aren't
going to spend a lot of time talking about these things
because, perhaps surprisingly, the average American (and
Canadian, Briton, Australian, etc.) manages to get a
pretty good supply of these things even though the
balance of the diet might be composed primarily of
crud... nutritionally speaking, that is. However, there
are a couple of things that fall into this catch-all
category that we are going to take a very close look at.
The first of the four major categories of nutrients
(carbohydrates, fats, proteins, and "everything else,"
remember?) we are going to look at is proteins. This is
partly because they are a little easier to explain than
the other things, and partly because that is what I
studied over the weekend in preparation for writing this
little article.
I know that if I get overly technical in this series
of essays the sound of slumbering heads crashing onto
computer keyboards will be heard far and wide, so I am
going to simplify all the techy stuff to the point that
even I am able to understand it. Some of my critics will
doubtless decry the oversimplification of matters that
are of supreme importance to an intelligent discussion
of nutrition, and to them I say there's no need to go
around using big words, ya know?
For the purposes of our discussion, all we need to
know is that proteins are the building block used to
make nearly every cell in our bodies. While fats and
carbohydrates can be viewed primarily as sources of
energy, proteins provide nearly all the nitrogen and all
the amino acids our bodies use to make and maintain the
cells and organs that we refer to collectively as "us."
Here's how it works: the proteins we eat, whether
they come from animal or plant sources, are composed of
long chains of molecules called amino acids. (There are
also things called peptides and polypeptides, but I
promised to keep things simple.) Just as the cells of
those plants and animals we eat are made of proteins
composed of amino acids, so are the cells of our own
bodies.
When we eat proteins our bodies digest them using
stomach acid and enzymes (which are also proteins, by
the way) to break them down into amino acids. Our bodies
then shuffle those amino acids around and recombine them
into the many different proteins that our cells and our
organs and our bodies need for the efficient conduct of
their business, which is to stay alive. In other words,
if we don't eat proteins, that's it, game over.
So all we need to do is make sure we eat enough
protein to get along, right? I wish it were that simple.
Although making sure we get the right amounts of the
right kinds of proteins is somewhat simpler than is the
case with fats and carbohydrates, there are still some
smart ways to eat proteins, and some not-so-smart ways.
Our bodies need proteins to survive, yet unlike fats
and carbohydrates, our bodies don't store excess protein
for future use. If we eat more protein than we need, our
bodies digest it and then expel it, mostly through the
kidneys. On the other hand, if a diet is lacking in
protein, our bodies begin to break down the tissues of
our muscles and internal organs in order to feed the
need for amino acids. Fortunately, most people get
plenty of protein, and except for cases of widespread
famine, abject poverty, or the cruelty of man (ask any
concentration camp survivor), cases of extreme protein
deficiency are rare.
This might be one of the reasons that so little
research has been done on the role of protein in a
healthy diet. Most research has historically been
focused on fats and carbs, with proteins being treated
like the red-headed stepchild of nutritional research.
There are a few things we do know, though.
Remember those amino acids I was talking about a
while ago? Well, it turns out that there are about 22 of
them that our bodies need. Most of the amino acids we
need are produced by our own bodies by rearranging the
hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon atoms in our
food, but there are eight amino acids our bodies are not
able to synthesize, and scientists call those
"essential" amino acids because we need to get them from
the foods we eat.
The foods we eat deliver protein in two basic forms:
animal protein and plant protein. Animal protein tends
to have a full complement of amino acids while plant
proteins have a tendency to be lacking some of the amino
acids we need. This is why vegetarians need to round out
the plant proteins they consume by combining proteins
that complement each other. Rice and beans is a well
known example of this combining of foods to complete the
amino acid profile.
So, does it matter whether we eat animal protein or
plant protein? The answer is simple: we don't really
know.
Studies have shown that when people are fed diets
consisting of one or the other, it doesn't seem to
matter where the protein comes from. It is true that the
incidence of heart disease increases as the consumption
of animal protein increases, but that effect seems to be
due to the other things accompanying the animal protein,
such as saturated fats and cholesterol. No one can say
for sure, but when all the other factors are taken into
account, there really doesn't seem to be any difference
between protein that comes from animal or plant sources.
Let's keep in mind that, as far as I can determine,
there is no natural food that consists of 100 percent
protein. About the closest we can get in the natural
world is the whopping 90 percent protein (as measured by
the percent of calories derived from protein) found in
some kinds of fish. By comparison, extra-lean ground
beef is about 43 percent protein, roasted chicken is
about 60 percent protein, and tofu is about 42 percent
protein.
As one of the fundamental molecules essential to
life, it comes as no surprise that everything we eat
(with the exceptions of water and salt) is composed at
least in part of protein. Dairy products such as whole
milk (21%), skim milk (39%), cottage cheese (48%) and
low-fat yogurt (33%) are well known purveyors of
protein, and legumes such as lentils (31%), kidney beans
(27%) and peanuts (18%) are important parts of a
vegetarian diet because of their high protein content.
Much of the protein in our diets comes from the
produce section of the supermarket, with broccoli and
corn pitching in respectable amounts of protein at 43%
and 13% respectively. And it may come as a surprise that
even the foods we think of as primarily starches (one of
the many guises adopted by carbohydrates) can also be
pretty decent sources of protein as well. Whole wheat
bread (16%), white bread (12%), cooked pasta (14%),
white rice (8%), and even baked potatoes (8%) all offer
significant amounts of protein and are important sources
of protein in those areas where they serve as the
primary staple of the diet.
Having established beyond a reasonable doubt, I hope,
that proteins are an essential component of a healthy
diet, the next question is just how much of the darned
things are we supposed to eat anyway? As with so many
other things regarding proteins, this is subject to
debate.
Scientists know that without a minimal amount of
protein in the diet, serious things start to happen. All
it takes is about 1 gram of protein for each kilogram of
body weight to keep us from starving. That works out to
about 50 grams for an adult woman, and 65 grams for a
grown man. That's not very much. A couple of cups of
cottage cheese, or a hamburger patty and a cup of
yogurt, or a chicken breast and a glass of milk every
day is almost enough to provide all the protein anyone
really needs.
Most nutritionists agree that this small amount of
protein is all it takes to prevent severe malnutrition,
but when it comes to determining the ideal amount of
protein to keep a body healthy, the consensus gets a
little bit fuzzy.
As I said earlier, research into protein requirements
is pretty scant for two reasons: most people around the
world get enough protein as a general rule; and too much
protein in the diet doesn't seem to have any detrimental
health effects. A survey of traditional diets from
around the world indicates that between 12 percent of
calories derived from protein (as in the case of the
vegetable- and rice-rich diets of Asia) and 15 percent
(such as the meat-centric diet of Americans) seems to be
a pretty safe rule of thumb. When it comes to the major
components of a healthy diet, protein should be the
least of our worries.
The second major category of nutrients we are going
to look at is the often maligned and rarely understood
class of compounds known as carbohydrates. Please don't
judge this chapter as irrelevant and skip it if you are
one of those people who has taken an oath that no
carbohydrate will ever cross your lips again because you
need to understand this stuff even more than the rest of
us.
Let me begin by declaring that every animal, plant,
fungus, and microbe that has ever lived was composed
largely of carbohydrates. In other words, unless you
plan to exist on a diet composed solely of water and
salt, there are going to be a lot of carbohydrates in
your diet, so please stop telling people that you don't
eat carbohydrates because that's just plain ignorant.
But before I get on my soap box, let's take a brief
(very brief, I promise) look at carbohydrates from the
perspective of a biochemist.
Any good biochemist will tell you that, by
definition, a carbohydrate is a chemical compound
consisting of nothing more than carbon, hydrogen, and
oxygen atoms, and that the hydrogen and oxygen atoms
exist in the ratio of two to one (as in H2O - sound
familiar?) Furthermore, the carbon atoms are connected
to each other, forming a chain which the hydrogen and
oxygen atoms cling to. Is everyone still with me so far?
Biochemists will also swear (although I have never
personally held a biochemists toes to the fire on this,
but I have it on good authority that it is true) that
carbohydrates are divided into categories based on the
length and configuration of those chains of atoms. They
call these (beginning with the smallest of the
carbohydrate molecules and leading to the largest)
monosaccharides, disaccharides, oligosaccharides, and
polysaccharides. We are going to refer back to these
things occasionally as our examination of carbohydrates
continues, but basically all we need to remember for now
is that they are all types of carbohydrates.
Fortunately for us, nutritionists divide the world of
carbohydrates into three categories that are much easier
for us to understand. We'll get to that tomorrow.
Those clever nutritionists took that mumbo-jumbo from
the biochemists and turned it into something that normal
humans can understand. Instead of talking about
monosaccharides, disaccharides, and all that stuff, they
decided to divide the thousands of different
carbohydrates found in our diets into three easy to
understand, easy to remember categories: sugars,
starches, and fiber. Silly biochemists.
The smaller of these molecules (the mono- and
disaccharides, in biochemist-speak) are sugars, and
anyone wishing to learn more about them is invited to
read my little essay on the subject cleverly titled
All About
Sugar. For our purposes here, all we need to know
right now is that sugars supply the fuel that keeps our
cells running, and without sugars we would have a great
deal in common with road kill.
Starches are a little more complicated, as you would
expect being that they are composed primarily of
oligosaccharides and therefore are bigger, heavier
molecules. They also provide our bodies with energy
since most of them are broken down by enzymes into
simpler sugars. Some survive the path through our
digestive systems only to be attacked and consumed by
friendly bacteria in the colon, producing noxious gases
as by products. They are what, if you'll forgive the
expression, put the toot in beans.
Even more complex carbohydrates, composed of even
longer chains of carbon atoms, are known as
polysaccharides to those biochemists, and some of those
molecules have names like cellulose, pectin, and chitin.
These compounds are so robust that they form the support
structures of the cell walls of plants, and they are far
too sturdy to be broken down by the feeble chemistry of
human digestion. Nutritionists call this type of
carbohydrate "dietary fiber," and assuming you still
have a little energy left after reading this captivating
summary of nutritional carbohydrates, I hope you'll read
All About
Dietary Fiber.
Now it's time to discuss the third major group of
nutrients found in a healthy diet - fats. I have been
putting this off as long as I could because compared to
fats, proteins and carbohydrates are child's play. No
other aspect of nutrition is more misunderstood or more
complicated that fats. If you'll bear with me, I'll try
to make this discussion as painless as possible.
Learning about fats might make you think your brain
is about to explode, but it is important because fats
play several important roles in our bodies. They store
energy and can be broken down into glucose, the magical
molecule that fuels our bodies. They are also essential
for dissolving several important nutrients (such as
vitamins A, D, E, and K) which are insoluble in water.
They play a vital role in healthy hair and skin, and
provide essential fatty acids needed by every living
organism to grow and reproduce. Like protein and
carbohydrates, fat in various forms is found in darned
near everything we eat, so eliminating it from the diet
would be impossible from a practical standpoint. It
would be unwise as well because without any fat in the
diet, we would all be as dull and uninteresting as a
fat-free cookie. And we'd be just as dead, too.
Let's begin with the fact that all fats consist of a
molecule called glycerol to which several strings of
molecules called fatty acids are attached. Almost all of
the fats in the human diet are composed of a glycerol
molecule with three strings of fatty acids attached, and
that's why they are called triglycerides. Are you still
with me?
Okay, if your head hasn't exploded yet, let's take a
closer look at those strings of fatty acids. They are
composed of chains of carbon atoms with atoms of
hydrogen attached. When the chain of carbon atoms has
all the hydrogen atoms it can hold, it is saturated with
hydrogen and is therefore a saturated fat. Is any of
this starting to ring a bell? I thought so.
Forging ahead, if there is room for one more hydrogen
atom on any of the strings of fatty acids, the fat is
monounsaturated. And if there is room for more than one
hydrogen atom, the fat is considered to be - yes, you
guessed it - polyunsaturated.
I don't know about you, but my head is so close to
going kablooie all over the place that I had better
retreat for a reinvigorating nap or two. I recommend you
do the same if your schedule allows.
Let me try to condense
everything we need to know (for now) about fats into two
easy to remember categories: saturated and unsaturated
fats, and let's try to remember one thing about each of
these categories: saturated fats bad, unsaturated fats
good.
There, I think even I can
remember that. Saturated fats bad, unsaturated fats
good. Pretty simple, eh? So how do we know which fats
are saturated, and which fats are unsaturated?
Fortunately, that's pretty simple too.
Although this isn't strictly
true for all fats, and I have no doubt that a biochemist
could supply an endless list of exceptions to this rule,
it's good enough for our purposes. Saturated (bad) fats
are solid at room temperature, and unsaturated (good)
fats are liquid at room temperature.
Picture the thick layer of fat
that surrounds the meat on your favorite steak, and the
stick of butter that sits next to your toaster, and even
the little tub of whipped who-knows-what that food
engineers call margarine, and you get a pretty good idea
of the saturated fats that inhabit our diets. They're
all solid at room temperature, and they are all composed
primarily of saturated fats.
Now let your mind wander to the
bottle of olive oil that I hope you keep next to the
stove, and to the peanut or corn or vegetable oil you
keep on hand for those rare occasions you fry something,
and you have conjured up the images of some of the
unsaturated fats found in the typical diet.
I have already warned you that
we aren't going to spend a great deal of time discussing
the fourth category of nutrients our bodies need, the
one I dubbed "Everything Else." That's because we tend
to get all the vitamins, minerals, antioxidants,
phytochemicals, and micronutrients we need just by
eating a regular diet. The good news is that vitamin and
mineral deficiencies are relatively rare in the
industrialized world. The bad news is that many
manufacturers of dietary supplements would have you
believe differently.
(In addition to the vitamins,
minerals, and other things mentioned above, this
category also includes water and dietary fiber, both of
which our bodies require in considerable quantities. We
aren't going to ignore those completely in this series
of essays, but we will only gloss over them here since I
have already dealt with them in detail. Please see
All About
Water and
All About
Dietary Fiber.)
I can hear you asking yourself,
"If we don't really need these dietary supplements, then
why did Americans spend 23.7 billion of their
hard-earned dollars on them in 2007." Am I right? I
thought so.
First of all, let me commend you
on knowing that obscure bit of economic data. No matter
how you measure it, the dietary supplement industry is a
whopper. Yet the American Dietetic Association (ADA) is
quick to point out that dietary supplements are no
substitute for the nutrients obtained by eating a
healthy diet, and that with a few exceptions (pregnant
women, nursing mothers, strict vegetarians, people with
food allergies or intolerances, senior citizens, and
people suffering from some diseases), most people have
no need for them. Then why do the manufacturers sell so
darned many of them?
If experts more or less agree
that dietary supplements aren't needed by the average
American who eats even a moderately nutritious diet,
then why do we buy so many of them? Is it because the
American consumer is ignorant when it comes to matters
of health and nutrition? Is it possible that the
manufacturers of dietary supplements exploit this
ignorance? Could it be that many people believe anything
they hear regarding health and nutrition? Is it because
many people think they can treat diseases with foods
(and nutrients) as though they were medicines?
I think all of these things are
factors that contribute to American wasting billions of
dollars every year on dietary supplements that don't
work and that people don't need. Let me offer an
example.
One of the hottest fads these
days is dietary supplements that promise to "restore
colon health" and to "detoxify your system" by providing
a thorough "cleansing" of the colon. In the first place,
who says your colon is sick? Did your doctor say, "My
goodness, that is one feeble colon you have. You must
take some pills to make it more healthy"? And if you are
so full of toxins, how come you didn't keel over years
ago? And do you really think having a nice, clean colon
is really a good idea? I mean, that's where we make our
poop, ya know? It's not supposed to be clean.
The simple truth behind all of
these scare tactics is that some less-than-scrupulous
supplement manufacturers have found that it's a pretty
good strategy for selling more fiber products. Don't get
me wrong, I'm a big fan of dietary fiber, but do we
really need to make people believe that they will die a
horrible death by hypertoxicity of the colon if they
don't buy some stupid pills? I hope not.
The only defense against such
shameless marketing techniques is to educate ourselves
and maintain a healthy level of skepticism whenever we
hear anyone make any claims pertaining to health and
nutrition.
I hope it has occurred to you
that those are the reasons I am writing this little
series of essays, and I hope that your skepticism also
extends to the things you read right here. I am always
happy to demonstrate that I'm not making this stuff up,
so here are a couple or articles I hope you will read:
The Truth Behind the Top 10 Dietary Supplements at
WebMD
5 Vitamin Truths and Lies at ReadersDigest.com
Now that we have taken a brief
look at the four major categories of nutrients
(proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and "everything else,"
remember?), it's time to talk a little about how we
should go about getting those required nutrients into
our bodies while doing as little damage as possible. I
have been putting this portion of our discussion off as
long as I possibly could because, no matter what advice
I offer here, it almost surely will be proven wrong at
some point in the future.
The whole question of proper
nutrition is very much like a "good news, bad news"
situation. The good news is that nutrition researchers
are expanding our understanding of the complicated
matter of human nutrition every day; the bad news is
that we still don't know very much.
Let's take a look at the example
of saturated fat. For more than four decades
nutritionists have been warning us to stay away from
saturated fats because they raise LDL ("bad"
cholesterol) and triglyceride levels in the blood while
simultaneously lowering HDL ("good" cholesterol), all of
which lead to an increased risk of stroke and heart
disease. This was, more or less, nutritional "gospel"
until just a couple of weeks ago.
A major study has recently
suggested that saturated fats aren't what's contributing
to our elevated risk of heart disease and stroke as much
as the added sugars in the foods we eat are. In other
words, saturated fat might not be nearly as big a
villain as high fructose corn syrup is. Go figure.
Keeping in mind the many other
examples of the shifting sands of nutritional wisdom
that professional nutritionists are forced to build
their advice upon, and also reminding ourselves that I
can only sift and sort through so many conflicting
opinions and study results before my head explodes, I'll
go ahead and try to put together some suggestions for
healthy eating that might stand the test of time... at
least for a little while.
Okay, let's start with protein.
We have already discussed how, even though the
metabolism of protein isn't the best understood of our
metabolic processes, we do know that the human body
doesn't really seem to care whether the protein it gets
comes from animal or plant sources. "Protein is protein"
seems to be the conventional wisdom these days.
However, let's keep in mind that
none of the foods we eat consist solely of protein, and
that all the proteins we eat contain pretty hefty
portions of fats and carbohydrates as well. Let's call
this the protein package.
Healthy eating involves making
intelligent decisions regarding our choice of protein
packages. Beef and pork (and the other red meats) are
excellent sources of protein. They are also excellent
sources of saturated fats. Bummer.
On the other hand, the leaner
meats such as chicken, turkey, and fish offer a
healthier protein package than you'll find between the
buns at your favorite burger joint. And if you want to
go with the absolute wisest choice of protein packages,
stay away from meats and plan on getting most of your
protein from plant sources, especially beans, nuts, and
grains.
The same protein package
approach applies to milk, cheese, and other dairy
products. The protein content is essentially the same in
whole milk and fat-free milk, so the better choice is
obvious. If calcium intake is on your list of
priorities, make sure that you don't go overboard on the
fat as you get your calcium fix from milk products.
Like proteins, carbohydrates are
found in virtually everything we eat, and unlike
proteins, sources of pure carbohydrates are readily
available. We call them sugars.
Carbohydrates of varying
descriptions account for the bulk of the food we eat,
and for the lion's share of the calories we consume.
So-called "simple" carbohydrates such as glucose,
fructose, galactose, and all the other -oses are found
in practically everything, from the naturally occurring
sugars in fruits and vegetables, to the refined sugars
and high-fructose corn syrups that are added to
practically everything these days. (Since when is it
necessary to put several types of sugar in almost every
bottled salad dressing, anyway?)
The other types of
carbohydrates, usually designated "complex," are long
strings of sugar molecules arranged in such a fashion
that the body has to work harder to convert them into
"simple" carbohydrates. These include starches and
dietary fiber.
I wish choosing the right
carbohydrates were as simple as choosing complex
carbohydrates over simple carbohydrates, but it's not
that easy. Even though choosing complex rather than
simple carbohydrates has been standard dietary advice
for decades, the truth is that some simple carbohydrates
are better for us than some complex carbohydrates are.
The current thinking in
nutrition circles is that a thing called glycemic index
is what we should be concerned with when it comes to
choosing which carbohydrates to eat and which to avoid.
Glycemic index is a measure of how easily carbohydrates
are converted to glucose by our bodies. Carbohydrates
that are converted quickly are said to have a high
glycemic index (that's bad), and carbohydrates that are
converted slowly are assigned a lower glycemic index
(that's good). Stated differently, foods with a low
glycemic index (GI) don't raise the level of glucose in
the blood as quickly as foods with a high GI do.
For decades it was believed that
simple carbohydrates such as sugars would have a higher
GI than more complex carbohydrates because they are
closer in molecular structure to glucose, but several
years of testing has demonstrated that some complex
carbohydrates cause a bigger spike in blood sugar levels
than some simple carbohydrates do.
The GI of a food is an important
thing to keep in mind if you are diabetic or trying to
lose weight, but unfortunately, a food's GI is a hard
thing to pin down. For example, white potatoes in
general have a high GI, but the GI of two potatoes of
the same type, grown in the same field and harvested on
the same day can have very different GI's. To further
complicate matters, the same food can have different GI
values depending on the time of day it is eaten.
So how the heck are we supposed
to choose foods with low GI values then? Good question.
Even though determining the
exact glycemic index of a given food is an inexact
science, we can still get an idea of which sources of
carbohydrates have a high GI and should be avoided, and
which have a low GI and should be chosen whenever
possible.
I hope it comes as no surprise
that foods with a low GI are the foods that responsible
nutritionists have been advising us to eat all along.
They include fruits and vegetables, whole grains and
products made from whole grains, and beans and nuts.
Most dairy products also fall into the low GI category.
Foods with a high GI and which
should therefore be avoided include white bread, white
rice, and foods high in starch such as corn and
potatoes. Processed and extruded breakfast cereals such
as corn flakes and puffed rice are among the foods with
the highest GI and, as such, are more appropriate for
marathon runners than for school children.
Now, as I try to wrap this whole
subject up, it would be nice if I could publish a list
of "Top 10 Tips for Healthy Eating," or something like
that. It would be nice, but it's not going to happen.
You see, articles with titles like that may sell tabloid
newspapers at the grocery store check out lane, but when
it comes to delivering solid and sensible advice, they
always fail. Why? Because it ain't that simple, that's
why.
So what is a breathtakingly
handsome yet nap-deprived food writer going to do to
summarize a subject as huge in complexity and importance
as nutrition? He's going to put together a handful of
strategies and suggestions for getting the right mix of
nutrients without having to monitor every bite we take
at every meal. It's a daunting task, and certainly not
one I would take on without a full complement of daily
naps.
Okay, let's start compiling the
various tips, techniques, and strategies we can use to
help us make healthier eating choices. I'm not going to
number these tips because that implies they are arranged
in some sort of order, but I am going to give the
collection a name. It's called...
Tips for Healthy
Eating
- Spend most of your grocery
dollars in the produce section
Keep in mind that, with very few
exceptions, every fresh fruit and vegetable is healthier
than anything in a box, bag, bottle, or jar. (Exceptions
include the pre-washed salad greens in a bag in the
produce section, and frozen fruits and vegetables that
have no added salt, sugar, or preservatives.)
- Eat whole-grain foods
whenever possible
More and more whole-grain
alternatives to common, everyday foods are becoming
available, but be on the lookout for misleading
advertising claims. "Multi-grain" is not the same as
whole-grain, and just because your kid's breakfast
cereal heralds the fact it is made from whole grains
doesn't mean it's healthy - most of them are still
loaded with sugar.
- It's not what you
eat, it's how much you eat
If you are trying to lose
weight, quit worrying about carbs and fats and all those
other diet "theories." The only thing you need to worry
about is calories. You'll never lose weight just by
changing the source of your calories, but if you reduce
the number of calories you take in, your weight will
reduce as well. In other words, eat less... of
everything. Be sure to eat a well balanced diet, and
consult your doctor before beginning any weight loss
program.
- Say "no" to the fries
I love good French fries, but
not at every meal. Depending on how often you eat at
restaurants, you could be getting a heaping mound of
French fries with the majority of your meals. Restaurants love
to pile them on because they're cheap, even a teenager
can learn to cook them, and they fill the customers'
bellies. Order a steamed vegetable, a small salad, some
fresh fruit, or a scoop of cottage cheese instead.
- Choose your proteins wisely
Your body doesn't seem to care
whether the protein you feed it comes from plants or
animals, but it does care about the other components
included in the protein "package." Avoid sources of
protein that are high in fats, especially saturated
fats. Poultry and seafood are generally better choices
than beef and pork, and vegetable sources rich in
protein (legumes, nuts, whole grains, and leafy
vegetables) are better still.
- Choose your fats wisely
Limit the saturated (solid at
room temperature) fats in your diet as much as you can,
but don't be afraid of healthy unsaturated (liquid at
room temperature) fats. Olive oil is always a better
choice than butter or bacon grease. And don't be tricked
into buying the low-fat or fat-free frankenfoods that
substitute natural ingredients for high-fructose corn
syrup and other products of modern chemistry. A little
real sour cream or mayonnaise won't kill you, and
they're definitely smarter choices than their synthetic
counterparts.
- Choose your carbohydrates
wisely
Anyone who tries to entirely
eliminate carbohydrates from their diet is on a fool's
mission because carbohydrates are in literally
everything we consume except for water and salt. Choose
carbohydrates with a low glycemic index such as whole
grains (especially oats and barley) and buy breads and
pasta made with whole grains whenever possible. Avoid
starchy foods such as potatoes, corn, and white rice.
Eat more fresh fruits and vegetables. Educate yourself
regarding "good" and "bad" carbohydrates by learning
more about the glycemic index of different foods and the
relationship between glycemic index and diseases such as
diabetes and heart disease.
GlycemicIndex.com
is a good place to start.
- Avoid added sugars
Remind yourself that added sugar
is in just about every manufactured food product on
supermarket shelves, and while you're reminding yourself
of that remember that added sugar is nothing but "empty"
calories that provide no nutrition. Added sugar is
fine in some foods - ice cream, cookies, and candy bars
wouldn't be right without it - but do you really need
added sugar in your peanut butter, salad dressing,
sandwich bread, mayonnaise, or any of the other things
we don't normally associate with sweetness? Read the
ingredient label and resist buying anything that has the
words sucrose, glucose, fructose, maltose, dextrose, and
any other word ending in "ose" among the ingredients.
Also avoid products that contain any type of syrup,
honey, fruit juice (concentrated or not) and, obviously,
sugar, brown sugar, and molasses.
- Get your vitamins and
minerals the natural way
The average person gets all the
vitamins and minerals they need, even if they eat a
typical modern diet high in saturated fats and refined
carbohydrates, so there is no need to spend your
hard-earned money on dietary supplements. If you eat a
varied diet composed of as many different fruits,
vegetables, grains, nuts, and meats (if you choose to
eat meats) as are available to you, you are almost
guaranteed to get all the micronutrients your body
need... except for one. Owing largely to our indoor
lifestyles, many people don't produce enough vitamin D
through exposure to sunlight, and studies have suggested
that taking a daily vitamin D supplement might be a good
idea. Consult your physician before taking vitamin D or
any other dietary supplement, and naturally follow your
doctor's advice if a dietary supplement is prescribed to
combat a dietary deficiency or medical condition.
- Every bite of every meal
doesn't have to be healthy
People have a tendency to go
overboard when they undertake to change their diet in
order to lose weight or just eat healthier. I know a gal
who wouldn't buy anything at the supermarket unless it
had the words "fat free" written across the label in big
red letters. Needless to say, everything she bought
tasted like crap. If you eat an overall healthy diet,
then an occasional breaking of the "rules" won't do any
harm. Go ahead and have that hot fudge sundae or
double-decker hamburger if you've been eating sensibly
otherwise. If you eat wisely in general, then you've
earned an occasional reward.
- The only fad diets that
work are the ones where you eat less
Forget about all the low-carb,
low-protein, and low-whatever fad diets that exist only
to make their inventors rich. They don't work. The only
diets that work are the ones that convince you, one way
or another, to consume fewer calories. Much is said
about the "obesity epidemic" in the United States and
other industrialized nations, and many pundits will
blame this on an increase in the consumption of fatty
foods. That is surely part of the problem, but the
underlying cause of this epidemic is that we are eating
more of everything than we used to. According to the US
Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, the
average American consumed 523 more calories per day in
2003 than he (and she) did in 1970. Yes, we're eating
more fats and sugar, too, but the main problem is that
we're just eating too much. Don't take my word for it -
read it for yourself
here.
- If you're hungry, eat
Skipping meals is no way to
control your waistline because over eating is more
likely if you are very hungry. You are also more likely
to choose less healthy foods if you haven't eaten for a
while. Snack on some fresh fruit or vegetables whenever
the mood strikes, just make sure that your snacks don't
turn into meals.
- Keep the portions small
It always bothers me when
someone recommends a restaurant because the portions are
large. Think about it. Would you recommend a musician
because his music is really loud, or would you favor a
certain painter simply because his paintings are
enormous? Sounds pretty stupid, doesn't it? Yet we sing
the praises of restaurants whose main claim to fame is
the size of their portions all the time. Let's stop
doing that and let's try to remember that quality is
what really matters, not quantity. The same goes for the
meals you cook at home. I'm sure I'm not the only one
who thinks a full plate looks better than a plate with
lots of empty space, but that's another example of wrong
thinking. When it comes to portion size as related to
your health, it's definitely a case of "Less Is More."
- Eat less salt
The medical community has been
waffling on the subject of salt for decades. One day it
is a major contributor to high blood pressure, and the
next it isn't so bad after all. Now there is mounting
evidence that it is a major cause of heart disease and
diabetes. Try getting by without adding salt at the
dinner table, and try cooking with less too. Be
especially wary of processed and cured meats such as
bacon, ham, sausage, salami, lunch meats, and hot dogs.
A major new study has determined that these are a bigger
factor in heart disease and diabetes than plain old red
meat. Read more
here.
- Set specific goals
If you are attempting to change
your eating habits, keep in mind that specific goals are
easier to reach and have a greater chance of proving
effective than vague, general goals. "I will always
order cottage cheese instead of French fries" is a much
more attainable goal than "I will eat fewer
carbohydrates." Likewise, "I will only buy whole wheat
pasta from now on" is much more likely to produce
results than "I am going to eat more fiber." And
regardless of how you phrase your goals, make sure they
are realistic and attainable. Nothing is more
discouraging that setting a goal and then realizing you
will never reach it.
©
2010 Worldwide Recipes. All rights reserved. |
Joe Barkson has been
writing and publishing under the pen name
"The Chef at Worldwide Recipes"
since 1998. He came to food writing late in life following checkered careers in computer marketing,
graphic design, and teaching high school Spanish. A lifelong
interest in food and cooking ("I've been eating since I was a
baby," he is fond of saying) was nurtured by extensive international
travel during his formative years, and this accounts for the
emphasis on world cuisine in his choice of recipes and themes.
Twice married and currently happily single, he lives in rural
Georgia with a hyperkinetic schipperke that answers to Cooky when the mood
strikes him.