Nutritional Fridays

Food & Nutrition as an Alternative Healing Modality

In the “Nutrition Fridays” blog, I asked “what is a ‘serving’ of food?”

Answer:

1 slice bread

½ cup cooked grains

1 cup pasta

½ cup cooked vegetables or ¾ cup of vegetable juice

1 ½ ounces of cheese

2-3 ounces of meat

2 Tablespoons  of peanut butter

½ cup of lentils or beans

Why use nutrition as a means to heal?

One of the big reasons to use nutrition as a means of healing is that it is natural.  There are no chemicals, re-actions to medication, it is long-term, and your body absorbs it better.  Unfortunately, it takes the body longer to rejuvenate.

We have previously looked at one diet that has “proven its salt”.  I had discussed studied conducted with this diet, that was immensely productive.  That is the Mediterranean diet. Today we will begin a discussion on the Food triangle  for this particular diet.

The Old Ways Preservation and Trust is an organization based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  They list the typical characteristics that are inherent to the Mediterranean diet. 

This list includes:

1. Whole food based on plant sources
2. Foods that are locally grown and / or have been minimally processed 
3.   The PRIMARY source of fat is Olive Oil
4.  The fat consumed is around 25% to as much as 35% of the total calorie intake and minimal saturated fats
5. Cheeses and Yogurt are minimal each day and these are usually low fat
6.  Low to moderate consumption of fish and poultry every week (usually 3 X weekly)
7.  And no more than 4 eggs a week, which would include eggs used in baking or cooking
8. Desert is fresh fruit
9.  Beef is eaten rarely, it is recommended to consume less than 16 ounces of beef a month.
10. If alcohol is not a “problem” it is recommended that one glass of wine is consumed with a meal. 
11.  Exercise and socialization

Note: some information is repetitive. But, we learn best by repetition, right?

Nutrition Fridays

Last week, I asked you the question: “Are you ready to try something different?"

The image above is the current Food Pyramid, from the FDA site. It is much more balanced than the former food pyramid.  You will soon begin to see the difference between it, and the one I will be discussing next week!

Now, I’m not going to advocate that you throw in the garbage all the food in your fridge and in your cupboards.  Most of us could not afford to toss-out food and replace it.  Besides, you need more information!

There are two very well-known studies: The Seven Countries Study (which resulted in the well-known Mediterranean Diet) and The China Study...

We will begin with what was gleaned from the Seven Countries Study:

The countries studied were Greece, Italy, Croatia and Serbia (then both were a part of Yugoslavia), Japan, Finland, the Netherlands and the United States. The methodology was not through surveys, but by observation in the homes of those studied; through careful measurement of portions eaten and tests. The countries with the highest saturated fats in the diet were the United States, the Netherlands and Finland. Correlated to this information, they also had the highest rate of heart disease. The lowest rates out of all-causes, age-specific death rates were the lowest in the Mediterranean regions (Cloutier and Adamson, 25)”.

It is not just diet, of course, that stands-out in this study. It is the age of the person, blood pressure, and cigarette smoking. It is these and blood cholesterol that came to be known as “risk factors”. While a high-saturated fat diet was a clearly indicated factor, so did the life-style of the persons studied.

The life-style has to do with state of mind. A person can eat extremely healthy, but without lowering stress, living actively (exercise), having close family and community relationships, connection to nature, slower pace of life, enjoying the preparation of and eating food and the zest for living/loving a person may still have health problems.  

Just sit with this information and ponder it.