If you’re concerned about nutrition, you know the good guys from the bad guys: oat bran, beta-carotene, antioxidant vitamins and omega-3 fatty acids versus red meat, fats and sugar. Read the reports of research, though, and you’ll often be disappointed.
Several studies of antioxidants such as beta-carotene and vitamin E failed to find the cancer preventing effects that were expected. And results of the Women’s Health Initiative Dietary Modification Trial were equally disappointing. Starting in 1993, nearly 20,000 women between 50 and 79 years of age were randomly assigned to follow a low-fat diet, reducing their total fat intake from 38 percent to 20 percent of daily calories–a substantial commitment to austere, healthy eating.
Eight years later, women in the study group had been able to get their fat intake down to 29 percent rather than 20 percent (as was their goal). Yet results showed none of the expected benefits. The women following the low-fat diet had no reduced risk of breast cancer, colorectal cancer or cardiovascular disease. And their weights were generally the same as those of women in the control group who continued their regular diets.
What does it all mean? Are you better off going back to burgers and fries? Actually, no. If you’re over 40, one look at your high school yearbook will tell you that there are more overweight Americans today than there were 20 years ago. Children and adolescents are being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, once found primarily in adults in their 50s and 60s. Of the top 10 killers of Americans, at least 4 are diet related. And persons who come to the United States from cultures with more traditional diets quickly acquire a taste for the American way of eating... and dying.
Whole Foods, Not Nutrients
Food writer Michael Pollan is not surprised by the disappointing results of nutrition studies because the focus of such research is invariably on nutritional substances rather than whole foods. Pollan prefers to keep it simple: eat food, not too much, mostly plants.
GOOD FOOD, according to Pollan’s definition, is simply real food as opposed to the food-like substances that line the shelves of supermarkets. That means food that is fresh, unprocessed, preferably grown in your own garden or produced by farmers near your home rather than manufacturers–nothing added, nothing subtracted to make the food more marketable.
Corn on the cob or corn tortillas are foods that your grandparents would recognize and eat. Corn curls and high fructose corn syrup are another category altogether.
Hippocrates said, “Let food be your medicine,” but that shouldn’t keep you from enjoying yourself at the table. The French, Italians and Greeks have food-loving cultures. And even though they may eat more saturated fat and drink more alcohol than Americans do, they are generally thinner and healthier.
Fresh whole foods bought at the Farmer’s Market may be a bit more expensive than food-like items purchased at the supermarket. They have been grown with more care and less attention to high yield and long shelf life. But they taste better. Try a real egg from a chicken that has been allowed to roam freely, and you’ll never go back to the kind that come from egg laying factories.
NOT SO MUCH: People in traditional cultures, where obtaining enough food is sometimes a challenge, generally have no problem with obesity. They eat less meat and more rice, beans and vegetables...because that is what they can afford. And they are healthier as a result.
In American culture, unfortunately, those at the bottom of the socioeconomic chain are less able to afford fresh, whole foods. As a result, they are at the mercy of the food producers who offer inexpensive food products that are high in calories as well as sodium, trans fats and saturated fats. Corn curls will fill the stomach fast at a low cost. Who can resist the lure of super-sized drinks, jumbo fries and half-pound burgers?
But it’s not just poor Americans who are getting fat. According to one theory, Americans started gaining weight when they started following the low-fat, high starch regimen that became popular during the 1980s and 1990s. Calories count, and many Americans who tried to follow an overly austere approach to fats compensated by adding high-calorie carbohydrates.
MOSTLY PLANTS: If you’ve ever followed a Weight Watchers’ plan, you know that most fruits and vegetables cost you virtually nothing in terms of points or calories. Eat as many as you like, and you’ll win the battle against excess weight.
They are also the good guys in terms of nutrition with substantial quantities of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and phytonutrients.
The best way to obtain them is through whole foods–a wide variety eaten regularly. The DASH diet, which has been proven to lower blood pressure, includes five servings a day of fruits and five of vegetables. Fruits are particularly high in potassium, a mineral that encourages the kidneys to excrete excess sodium.
All That Meat and Potatoes
The American diet that has led to weight and health problems is based on meat and potatoes with a token vegetable or two (such as lettuce and tomato on a burger). A more sensible diet starts with the vegetables and fills in with smaller quantities of meat and starches. Focus, if you can, on vegetables in season in your area, and you’ll save money while getting the freshest of foods.
Vegetarianism is often cited as a heart-healthy habit, but a better choice for many is “flexitarian”–plant centered but with modest amounts of meat, fish and poultry.
Whole grains, dairy products and nuts round out the good foods that should be part of any healthy diet.
With the benefit of hindsight, it’s easy to see that one flaw in the design of the Women’s Health Initiative was the focus on low fat without attention to the type of fat or the number of calories in the daily diet. It’s now accepted that the type of fat is more important than the quantity.
A strict low fat regimen is difficult to achieve and will not protect you from heart disease or cancer. A better approach is to enjoy fresh, whole foods with some attention to portion and proportion.
REFERENCES:
Daniel J. DeNoon, “7 rules for eating: choose food over food-like substances, food writer Michael Pollan tells CDC,” WebMD, March 23, 2009.
“Healthy eating,” Information from BUPA, December, 2010.
Nancy Hellmich, “Eating the right foods can do a number of bad cholesterol,” USA Today, updated August 23, 2011.
“How much food should I eat?” TeensHealth, reviewed by Mary L. Gavin, M.D., June, 2011.
“Low-fat diet not a cure-all,” Harvard School of Public Health: The Nutrition Source.
National Cancer Institute, “Antioxidants and cancer prevention: fact sheet,” reviewed July 28, 2004.
Tara Parker-Pope, “The Women’s Health Initiative and the body politic,” New York Times, April 9, 2011.
Michael Pollan, “Unhappy meals,” New York times, January 28, 2007.
Heidi Skolnik, “Eat the right foods before and after a workout,” TODAY.com, MSNBC, updated February 8, 2008.
7/27/2012
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