Nutrition Fridays

I haven't posted for a few days, for two reasons: 1) I had to do post-storm clean-up and 2) I am an instructor and I am grading essay papers!

This blog will be a bit of switch in gears.  It will discuss the methods that I use for recommendations for my own clients.

I use a combination of ideas and documented studies for my dietary recommendations, gleaned from various sources.  First and primary is the Mediterranean Diet along with information from the The China Study.  After these two sources would be information that assists in consuming proteins that are none-meat sources, regulation of blood sugars and jump-starting the metabolism, and finally, Alkaline/Acid balance of the body.

So I will here transition to a discussion about a couple of books that I have used, helping me lose 20 pounds over the last year. It also has taught me to eat less at a sitting.

The best guide for weight-loss, I have ever found is The Food Doctor Everyday Diet written by Ian Marber. First of all, there is NO counting of calories. There is no weighing of food portions.  He uses another form of weighing and counting.  The proportion used, or amount of food to place on the plate.  Marber uses the size of your hands as the indicator! I like that, it keeps it simple, no kitchen scales to purchase, no measuring or calculating.

He explains in his book about the GI factor / insulin and metabolism in very simple layman’s terms.  I think along the lines of “don’t get all scientific on me, just tell me how it works and why”. 

He has numerous pages with comparative charts, one side with the average meal people prepare and the other with what is better / i.e. balanced.  There are a number of recipes (I have tried) in the book.  

You do have to translate some terms from British to American English, such as: “mash”.  We would call it a “spread”.  Its only draw-back is that the Brits tend to eat some foods in strange combinations for our American tastes. 

Along with this book, is another book he wrote (with Vicki Edgson): Healing Foods for Mind and Body. In the book you can find detailed information about foods that assist in healing specific ailments, such as inflammatory diseases. 

Next blog: Food Combining for proteins

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.