New Year’s resolutions fading fast?
Heart Health month (February) encouraging you to eat more healthfully? There are so many ideas out there. What to do?
Time Magazine, Dec. 28/Jan. 4, (usually known more for fads than facts about healthful eating) published six factual, rational, practical guidelines for food choices – just in time to address those winter doldrums. Without repeating the article, here is the kernel of truth from each of their six considerations.
Protein is over emphasized. Cut back on refined carbs and trans or saturated fat, but don’t be anxious that protein must be added. While amino acids are necessary to build body parts, only 10% of calories as protein are required to do the job. If you eat enough calories, you get enough protein – 56 grams for men and 46 grams for women – a day. When the diet contains more than 20% protein, the risk for cancer goes up 400% and the risk for heart disease climbs as well. High protein diets promote high rates of aging, disease and death.
Take out the artificial flavors and colors? Yes. But what to put in the food is the question. What is the best diet? The winner is . . . real food – fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts, and seeds.
Ignore the latest health fads. There are NO super foods. A balanced diet of whole foods with their natural nutrition work just as well as any super food fad.
What basic nutrient are 97% of Americans missing in the diet? Fiber. Fiber “scrubs” the bowel, captures and eliminates cholesterol, and hastens and eases bowel evacuation. Fiber optimizes gut bacteria to decrease Type II diabetes, autoimmune diseases, obesity, and arthritis. Fiber decreases heart disease and cancer, gall bladder disease and appendicitis. Eat more fiber!
To lose weight, avoid hidden fats and sugars. Yes. But also avoid artificial sweeteners which change the brain’s response to the “sweet” taste in food, making one more hungry. They also alter the gut bacteria which alters the body’s response to insulin – glucose intolerance – which leads to Type II diabetes. The answer? Cut down on the sweet taste, period – real or artificial. It’s addictive.
Not only do calories count, but the kind of calories really count. Refined carbs are absorbed quicker and elevate insulin levels higher, resulting in the refined carbs being quickly stored as fat, leaving the person still feeling hungry. The result? Extra fat stored in a person who still feels hungry and wants to eat more. Instead, olive oil and nut oils decrease the insulin spikes and actually increase calorie burning.
Basic health information, good science, and simple rules lead to healthy eating. KISS.