Jack LaLanne celebrated his 95th birthday in September of 2009. Growing up in the roaring 20s, LaLanne spent his childhood addicted to sugar and fried food, constantly sick and embarrassed to go outside in summer clothes. In 1929, however, LaLanne heard a lecture on the benefits of amino acids from vegan sources given by the groundbreaking nutrition expert Paul Bragg. After that lecture, LaLanne decided that he would change his diet and his life—and today, in his mid-90s, he spends an hour and a half every morning working out in his weight room, followed by a 30-minute walk or swim. Not afraid to show off his still sleek physique, he makes frequent television appearances and does charity work with his 83-year-old wife, Elaine. e secret to LaLanne’s success? Well, it doesn’t hurt that back in the 1930s he invented many of the workout machines seen in gyms today, or that his tiny health club in Oakland, California became Bally Fitness. But LaLanne credits most of his success to a simple, natural diet eschewing meat and dairy and emphasizing foods that are real. “If man made it,” he advised Katie Couric on his 93rd birthday, “spit it out.” ere is no shortage of misinformation about protein, diet, healthy lifestyle, and weight loss now, but the state of public understanding was even worse in the first half of the twentieth century. In World War I, doctors advised their patients to start smoking to relieve stress. In the 1920s and 30s, these same doctors advised patients that good nutrition could be summed up in just two words: Eat meat. Meat is in fact a highly concentrated source of protein. e word protein comes from the Greek term proteios, or “of prime importance.” In the 1800s and early 1900s scientists learned that proteins are strung together from amino acids and that the human body cannot manufacture all the different kinds of amino acids it needs. ey also discovered that the body can manufacture the glucose it needs from many sources, including excess protein. Protein came to be regarded as the essential food, the more amino acids the food had in common with the human body, the better. And milk, the animal food that provides not just protein but calcium came to be regarded as perfect. Four generations of nutritionists and even many nutritionists today continue to counsel their clients that you can live without a lot of foods, but you cannot live without meat. e truth, however, is that meat-based diets are accountable for a plethora of modern diseases. For proof of that fact, you need look no further than the nearest McDonald’s. Introduction 1
Transcript
Jack LaLanne celebrated his 95th birthday in September of 2009. Growing up in the roaring 20s, LaLanne spent his childhood addicted to sugar and fried food, constantly sick and embarrassed to go outside in summer clothes.
In 1929, however, LaLanne heard a lecture on the benefits of amino acids from vegan sources given by the groundbreaking nutrition expert Paul Bragg. After that lecture, LaLanne decided that he would change his diet and his life—and today, in his mid-90s, he spends an hour and a half every morning working out in his weight room, followed by a 30-minute walk or swim. Not afraid to show off his still sleek physique, he makes frequent television appearances and does charity work with his 83-year-old wife, Elaine.
The secret to LaLanne’s success? Well, it doesn’t hurt that back in the 1930s he invented many of the workout machines seen in gyms today, or that his tiny health club in Oakland, California became Bally Fitness. But LaLanne credits most of his success to a simple, natural diet eschewing meat and dairy and emphasizing foods that are real. “If man made it,” he advised Katie Couric on his 93rd birthday, “spit it out.”
There is no shortage of misinformation about protein, diet, healthy lifestyle, and weight loss now, but the state of public understanding was even worse in the first half of the twentieth century. In World War I, doctors advised their patients to start smoking to relieve stress. In the 1920s and 30s, these same doctors advised patients that good nutrition could be summed up in just two words: Eat meat.
Meat is in fact a highly concentrated source of protein. The word protein comes from the Greek term proteios, or “of prime importance.” In the 1800s and early 1900s scientists learned that proteins are strung together from amino acids and that the human body cannot manufacture all the different kinds of amino acids it needs. They also discovered that the body can manufacture the glucose it needs from many sources, including excess protein. Protein came to be regarded as the essential food, the more amino acids the food had in common with the human body, the better. And milk, the animal food that provides not just protein but calcium came to be regarded as perfect.
Four generations of nutritionists and even many nutritionists today continue to counsel their clients that you can live without a lot of foods, but you cannot live without meat. The truth, however, is that meat-based diets are accountable for a plethora of modern diseases. For proof of that fact, you need look no further than the nearest McDonald’s.
Introduction
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Chapter 1. You Deserve a Break Today
In 2003, Morgan Spurlock wrote a book that would be translated into German as The Attack of the Killer-Burgers. Neither a vegetarian nor a food activist in 2002, Spurlock spent Thanksgiving weekend eating turkey and visiting his parents when he happened to catch a news report on two teenagers who sued a fast food chain for causing their obesity.
This news report inspired Spurlock to try an experiment that would change his career and the outlook on fast food establishments for millions. For 30 days in 2003, Spurlock ate three meals a day at McDonald’s—and nothing else. His only rule for choosing food was that he would take the “supersize” option whenever it was offered and not ask for supersizing when it was not offered.
Spurlock also resolved to exercise less. Previously walking 3 miles every day, he lowered his daily physical activity to match the average American’s 1.5 miles a day. The changes in his health became the subject of his bestselling book and box office hit both entitled Supersize Me.
Thirty days of eating at McDonald’s had effects on Spurlock’s health neither he nor anyone else could ever have imagined. He had excellent health and superior fitness when he began the project. Just 30 days later he had gained 25 pounds (11 kg) and developed liver disease
and depression. It took Spurlock 14 months to return to his normal weight of 185 pounds (84 kg), and
one of his doctors compared his experience to a detox program for alcoholism.
Do sinister scientists at McDonald’s headquarters in Oak Brook, Illinois really set out to kill us?
Of course not. The brains of the fast food and chain restaurant industries do everything they can to make sure we are satisfied and keep coming back for more with their addictive combinations of sugar, salt, and fat.
If you think about it a moment, every kind of junk food provides some combination of sugar, fat, and salt. Potato chips, for instance, are a high-
glycemic index vegetable sliced thin to soak up fat and provide
lots of surface area for salt. The salt
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enters circulation within seconds of the potato chip’s entry to our mouth, and the starches and industrially refined fats used to make the chip at the factory find their way into our bloodstreams about 45 minutes later.
The sugar, salt, and fat of doughnuts enter our bodies even faster. Doughnuts consist of sweetened, salted dough fried in oil before the addition of a sugary glaze. The glaze on doughnuts is often a sugar our bodies can use without further digestion: glucose. The dough part of a doughnut, however, is sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup rather than glucose (which is also extracted from corn syrup), to ensure the product will stay soft and “fresh” even if it sits on a shelf for several days.
Medical school professor and former commissioner of the U.S. FDA David Kessler theorizes that the combination of sugar, fat, and salt is physically addictive. These essential ingredients of “mouth feel,” he believes, are so satisfying to the brain that they can induce a phenomenon the medical literature terms “conditioned hyperphagia,” or conditioned overeating. Eating sugar, fat, and salt causes changes in the brain itself that make it impossible for us to say no to junk food.1
These three components, when combined, trigger the release of the pleasure chemical dopamine in the brain—as does, for instance, cocaine. The feeling of pleasure we get from eating these foods is so strong that the brain is literally hardwired to seek out more. The intense pleasure derived causes changes in brain chemistry which changes our perception of food and food cues. Anything associated with foods that include a combination of sugar, fat, and salt captures our attention. We remember the intense anticipation associated with these foods. We have fond recollections of the relative who took us to McDonald’s to get our Happy Meal. We recall vivid colors and scents associated with those experiences.
But a typical burger at McDonald’s contains more than just sugar, fat, and salt. It is made with white bread, beef, and dairy. What Dr. Kessler does not tell his readers is that these three foods contain opioids, naturally occurring chemicals that when liberated by digestion and circulated to the human brain, occupy the same receptor sites as opium and morphine.
White bread concentrates 15 different mu-opioid chemicals that the brain finds addictive.2 A “mu” opioid is an opium-like chemical that has a much faster action in the brain that most similar chemicals. The white bread opioids act on the brain in minutes rather than hours. The casein and immune globulins in cow’s milk release fewer opioids and these opioids are slower acting, but milk provides them in greater concentration. The hemoglobin and albumin beef blood contain even greater concentrations of mu-opioids.3
Biting into a cheeseburger literally lulls the brain into a
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state of bliss, and the addictive power of meat, dairy, cheese, and egg can be made even stronger by manipulating sugar, fat, and salt. And that “healthy” side salad you can get at Wendy’s? It’s likely served with a dressing that consists of sugar, fat, and salt too.
Not all junk food comes from fast food franchises and vending machines. Chain restaurants serve junk food, too. Dr. Kessler, mentioned above, only discovered the enormous salt, sugar, and fat content of chain restaurant meals after diving into dumpsters to read the labels on the shipping crates used to transport frozen foods used to make the various dishes. The restaurant chains are just like fast food outlets and convenience store candy aisles—they’re full of products loaded with sugar, salt, and fat.
Other ingredients in processed food also overwhelm our capacity for self-control. These ingredients turn our appetite in a Frankenstein-like monster we cannot control, even when they are combined with other foodstuffs that are fundamentally whole and natural. We call the foods these ingredients are used to make Frankenfoods.
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Chapter 2. Where You Find the Frankenfoods
Consider the cupcake.
Baked from scratch by our mothers, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers, or perhaps by our fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers, cupcakes were once associated with many happy events from childhood. Whenever there was a party, somebody’s parent baked cupcakes.
Good children were rewarded with cupcakes. Cupcakes were used to celebrate all kinds of special occasions. So how could such a delightful childhood treat ever become a Frankenfood?
Grandma’s cupcakes consisted of sugar, salt, and fat held together with dairy. They include all the major sources of food addiction today. Cupcakes are decorated in eye-catching colors and festooned with pretty sprinkles. They captivate all the senses—but nobody has ever started a 12-step group for cupcake addiction. Maybe someone will now that modern technology has given us high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS).
The syrup that becomes HFCS begins as white, powdery cornstarch. Our digestive enzymes break it down into first glucose and then fructose. Both glucose and fructose have a desirable sweet taste, but fructose has the advantage of adding volume to baked goods, enabling them to brown during the baking process and not crystallizing in the product as it sits, and sits, and sits, on the shelf. Foods made with HFCS require other stabilizers and preservatives to counteract the effects of
microbial contamination.
When humans consume HFCS, the cells in white fat, bone marrow, and the liver make less of a hormone known as leptin.4
The human body is hard-wired to avoid starvation. Without a signal to the brain that we have eaten enough, our brains direct us into activities that keep us foraging for
food. Leptin is the signal to the brain that the storage depots of the body are full and further eating is unnecessary.
When we eat foods made with HFCS, however, leptin is not generated, and we continue
eating more foods made with HFCS. This Franken-sugar initiates a vicious cycle
of hunger that is increased by eating. A childhood treat we associate with happy memories becomes a drug we need as if it were heroin or cocaine.
That is one reason why corn syrup is added even to foods that are not necessarily sweet. Labeled as corn syrup,
high fructose corn syrup, or dextrose, HFCS is a major ingredient in prepared
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foods ranging from French fries to ketchup and from hot dogs to salad dressing. It’s also used to make the cardboard for the boxes many foods are packaged in.
HFCS, however, is not the only chemical manipulator of appetite added to our food. Soft drinks combine HFCS with caffeine. The corn syrup fuels appetite for more soft drinks, and addiction to caffeine makes it very difficult for the user to quit. MSG, or monosodium glutamate, imparts an extra layer of flavor to all kinds of savory dishes. Its desirability is so well known in the food industry that it is provided under a plethora of label names: MSG, monosodium glutamate, hydrolyzed vegetable proteins, autolyzed yeast, hydrolyzed yeast, yeast extract, soy extract, protein isolate, “spices,” and “natural flavorings.”
People like MSG in their food because it tastes so darned good, but after they eat one food made with MSG it causes them to crave more food. A study published in the British Journal of Nutrition in March 2009 reported that eating a first course of a food prepared with MSG, such as a miso soup, stimulates eating of an additional 150-200 calories in a second course, not prepared with MSG.5 That means that even if all you are having is hot water and a bouillon cube, you are primed to eat more the next time you have food—especially if it is made with corn syrup. So is it any surprise that the number three ingredient on the label of McDonald’s French fries is MSG and the number two ingredient in their hamburger buns is corn syrup?
But wait, there’s more! There is a sinister relationship between HFCS and trans fats. Corn syrup makes fat cells resistant to adiponectin.6 This is a hormone that tells them to burn fatty acids instead of store them. Trans fats reduce the production of adiponectin. So you have one food
ingredient that reduces the production of the fat-burning hormone, adiponectin, and another food ingredient (corn syrup) that makes fat cells less sensitive to any leptin that is produced despite the effects of the trans fats.
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“Since the 1980s virtually all the sodas and most of the fruit drinks sold in the supermarket have been sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS)—after water, corn sweetener is their principal ingredient. Read the ingredients on the label of any processed food and, provided you know the chemical names it travels under, corn is what you will find…Corn is in the coffee whitener and Cheez Whiz, the frozen yogurt and TV dinner, the canned fruit and ketchup and candies…This goes for the nonfood items as well: Everything from the toothpaste and cosmetics to the disposable diapers…right down to the shine on the cover of the magazine that catches your eye by the checkout: corn.
-Michael Pollan
And the fiber-free, highly refined flours that are used with the crystal-free fructose sugar have another effect on appetite. The fiber found in whole grains does not just add bulk to the digestive tract so it’s fuller—it triggers the release of a hormone called cholecystokinin that enables you to feel fuller. White flour products do not trigger the release of cholecystokinin to tell the brain you are full, so again you tend to eat more and more.
Does eating these foods make us sick? The science seems to say it does. The carcinogenic properties of MSG are so well known that scientists add them to the test tubes they use to store brain cancer cells for experiments. Epidemiologists have found that consuming MSG and smoking cigarettes elevates the risk of hard to treat oral cancers.
Scientists from the University of Lund in Sweden, publishing in the Journal of Nutrition, note that fibers from whole grains help reduce inflammation.7 Dr. J. D. Campbell writes that deficiencies in magnesium, zinc, and trace minerals resulting from eating baked goods made from white flour results in inflammatory diseases such as arthritis.8 And we all know about the dangers of eating trans- fats: cardiovascular disease, cancer, autoimmune disease, and overweight.
The first step in regaining control of eating patterns (and your weight) is to simply avoid the addictive salt, sugar, and fat—especially when it highlights the flavors of white bread, beef, and dairy. The second step in regaining control of eating patterns is to avoid highly processed foods laced with corn syrup, caffeine, MSG, and other chemicals. The third step in regaining control over eating patterns is to learn to think differently about animal protein.
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Chapter 3. The Problem with Protein
Human life requires protein. There are hundreds of thousands of different proteins in the human body, many of them enzymes. These enzymes speed up and slow down millions of biochemical reactions essential to life. Proteins are incorporated into various hormones and are structural components of every cell and the connective tissues between cells.
Each protein is a unique chain of two or more amino acids. Our bodies can make nine of the twenty amino acids, and the rest must be obtained from food. Failure to obtain the “essential” amino acids results in various well-known nutritional deficiencies, but less well known is the fact that, in the standard American diet, the body cannot use up to 35 percent of all the amino acids released from digestion. These amino acids are excreted in the urine and the bloodstream.
The challenge of healthy nutrition is to provide all 20 amino acids without consuming so much protein that some of the amino acids must be stripped of their nitrogen and turned into sugar. The obvious way to obtain all the essential amino acids is to eat foods that are structurally similar to the human body and that contain all the amino acids it needs—namely, meat. The flesh of other animals contains the amino acids needed to make human flesh, and it contains them in roughly the right proportion so that relatively little protein is wasted.
That assumes, of course, that animal flesh is consumed in very small amounts. It typically is not. Americans generally consume a pound or more of meat and dairy products every day. How much protein does the human body really need?
The World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines recommend that a 150-pound man on a 2,000-calorie diet get 22.5 grams (about 3/4 of an ounce) of protein every day. This means about 4 to 5 percent of total calories should come from protein. As an additional level of insurance, the WHO suggests that pregnant women get the equivalent of about 6 percent of total calories from protein.
If you just look at the water-free mass of food, plant foods actually offers a much higher concentration of protein than meat. A white potato, for instance, is about 11 percent protein. Oatmeal contains 16 percent. Beans are about 35 percent protein, and spinach is over 50 percent protein. Plant foods combine their protein with water, rather than fat, so they are more filling but less fattening. The primary advantage of plant-derived protein,
however, is that it is harder to get too much. And the importance of not getting too much protein was made very clear by a massive nutritional investigation that has come to be known as the China Study.
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But is plant protein complete?
The American Dietetic Association says:
Plant sources of protein alone can provide adequate amounts of the essential and non-essential amino acids, assuming that dietary protein sources from plants are reasonably varied and that caloric intake is adequate to meet basic needs. Whole grains, legumes, vegetables, seeds, and nuts all contain essential and non-essential amino acids.
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In 1976, the government of the People’s Republic of China ordered almost all of its then 750,000,000 citizens to be interviewed by trained nutritionists. The nutritionists verified nearly every detail of their daily lives for three days, and then a research team correlated hundreds of nutritional variables with health outcomes across the entire data set of nearly a trillion measurements.
Millions more Chinese citizens were chosen at random to provide blood and urine samples in addition to the food diaries everyone had to prepare. Even yak herders in the steppes of Xinxiang and monks in Tibet were tracked down by government nutritionists and made to fill out three-day food diaries, although they were given extra time to get their booklets back to the inspectors.
If there is any one phrase that would sum up the results of the China Study, it might be “Milk doesn’t do a body good.” In fact, just about any cholesterol-laden food (and only animal foods contain cholesterol) increased the risk of developing one of the diseases associated with affluence: cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancers of the breast, colon, liver, and stomach, as well leukemia and childhood cancers of the brain. The more meat and dairy Chinese people ate, the more likely they were to develop these diseases.
Of course, the more meat Chinese people ate, the higher their cholesterol levels. In 1976, cholesterol levels in China ranged from 90 mg/dl up to about 170 mg/dl. In the United States, cholesterol levels ranged from about 170 mg/dl to about 290 mg/dl. That means the sickest people in China had about the same cholesterol levels as the healthiest people in the United States. Almost no one in the USA had cholesterol levels low enough to protect against cardiovascular disease or the weight gain leading to diabetes, and cancer.
North Amercians eat too much meat, but the excess of cholesterol from eating meat every day (or every meal) is only the beginning of the problem. The human body can store carbohydrates and fat, but it cannot store amino acids. Every day, the body has to “use it or lose it,” and the process of eliminating excess amino acids involves not just placing a burden on the kidneys but also creating an acidic environment for the entire body. The modern Western industrialized meat-centric diet has almost all of us in a constant state of acidosis. We do not have the extreme symptoms that doctors would treat, but almost everyone eating a standard American diet has a total body pH that runs a little low. Even in healthy people,
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chronic acidosis can lead to: • Mild hypothyroidism, fatigue, and weight gain • Higher levels of stress hormones (especially when there is also a high-salt intake) • Resistance to growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor 1, which helps maintain muscle tissueIn people struggling with long-term illnesses such as diabetes, osteoporosis and cancer, the effects of acidosis are even more insidious. The kidneys neutralize acids with two nutrients, calcium and glutamine. Acidity in effect “leaches” calcium out of bone so it can be sent to the kidneys to form alkalis. Weaker bones are more susceptible to metastases. The kidneys use the amino acid glutamine to neutralize the acids formed by the breakdown of protein. The skeletal muscles are the body’s biggest store of glutamine. Their proteins are broken down when too much protein is consumed in an acidifying diet—canceling out the benefits of the protein in the meal!
Some of the foods that stimulate the most acid production are aged cheeses (especially low-fat cheeses), egg yolk, canned meat products and lunchmeat. Foods that stimulate the most alkali production include dried fruits (especially raisins), leafy greens, fruits, and vegetables. The advice used to be that if it formed alkali, eat it, and if it formed acid, don’t eat it. The problem with this sweeping advice is that all whole grains and most protein foods are acid-forming. Protein is absolutely essential for overcoming chronic disease and for maintaining health. What the old advice failed to consider, however, is that it is possible to eat some acid-forming foods and still have a net alkaline diet. It’s just very hard to do that if you’re regularly drinking milk and dining on eggs, cheese, and meat. Something closer to the plant-based Chinese diet is a far better choice for avoiding vascular disease, diabetes, and cancer, and achieving better health all around.
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Children and Soft DrinksScientists at the Research Institute for Child Nutrition in Dortmund, Germany, publishing in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition report that children’s joints and bones form more perfectly when the child consumes enough plant matter to keep the diet alkaline.9 When a child’s diet is acidic, even if that child drinks milk and eats cheese, bones do not model themselves into their optimal, adult contours. And soft drinks—even diet drinks—are especially bad. Children (and adults) consume enormous volumes of diet drinks thinking they pose no ill effects on health. Diet sodas engender acidity and leach calcium out of growing (and aging) bones. There is an enormous volume of research literature linking diet sodas containing phosphoric acid and problems in bone health.
“ “The traditional American diet consists of extremely high levels of animal protein, dairy, and low-fiber processed breads. Some studies have shown that Americans consume 93% of their daily calories from non-vegetable sources. As a result, we are the most obese people on the planet and have the highest levels of cancer and heart disease in the world. Cultures that have high levels of calorie consumption from vegetables have much lower rates of obesity and disease … there are literally hundreds of studies that show that high levels of fruit, vegetable, greens and bean consumption lead to weight loss and reduced levels of life threatening diseases.
–Dr. Joel Fuhrman
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Chapter 4. The Dark Side of Good Fats
You probably have heard of the “essential” fatty acids. Like the essential amino acids, these are a small number of fatty acids the body cannot make on its own. The body uses these fatty acids to make the membranes that line cells and as chemical precursors for hormones. Essential fatty acids are essential not just in growth and development, but also in the prevention of chronic diseases. The existence of essential fatty acids means that not only can it be a problem to eat too much fat, it can be a problem to eat too little fat, too.The two most important essential fatty acids are linoleic acid, an n-6 essential fatty acid, and alpha-linoleic acid, an n-3 essential fatty acid. The three and six in their names refer to the location of a double bond in the carbon chains that make up their respective molecular structures. The body uses n-6 essential fatty acids like linoleic acid to make pro-inflammatory leukotrienes and prostaglandins—hormone-like substances that are essential to the healthy function of the immune system. The body uses n-3 essential fatty acids to make the corresponding anti-inflammatory leukotrienes and prostaglandins that are also essential to a healthy immune system.Both inflammation and a way to stop excessive inflammation are essential to good health. Inflammation, if it is controlled, protects the body against physical injury and infection. The anti-inflammatory hormones put a brake on processes that otherwise would destroy healthy tissues.The problem with most meat-based diets is that they provide too many n-6 essential fatty acids and not enough n-3 essential fatty acids. The n-6 fatty acids are found in meat, butter, lard, and canola and corn oil. The n-3 fatty acids are found in flaxseed, flaxseed oil, nuts such as walnuts, soybeans, and tofu. Essentially, to avoid inflammation, we all need less of the n-6 fatty acids and more of the n-3. The best way to ensure an adequate supply of n-3’s is to eat a handful of seeds or nuts or a modest serving of soybeans or tofu every day. Supplementation is not essential, and not necessarily healthy (see sidebar).The n-3 essential fatty acids are also abundant in the flesh of cold-water fish such as herring and salmon. The trouble with consuming fish to get your essential fatty acids is that the
Environmental Protection Agency has showed that virtually every freshwater fish sample tested from lakes across the U.S. is contaminated with mercury. So eating fish
twice a week may not be as smart as we’ve been told. The good news is these same healthy fats are found in flaxseed
oil, borage seed oil, and evening primrose oil among many other sources. To ensure, good nutrition, it is better
to get most of your calories from grains, legumes, vegetables, seeds, and nuts, which also provide all
the essential and non-essential fatty acids.
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Chapter 5. Recognizing Nutritious Foods
Let’s review the basic problems of modern diet.
First, processed and prepackaged foods manipulate sugar, salt, and fat, especially when combined with white bread, meat, and dairy. High fructose corn syrup, MSG, and caffeine intensify the addictive effect.
Second, modern diets provide as much as 15 times more protein than the body can use. Excessive protein is broken down into urea and glucose, (the sugar released from excess amino acids) which contributes to high blood sugar and weight gain.
Third, diets that are high in meat and dairy create an acidic environment inside the body. The acidification caused by excessive consumption of dairy products leaches calcium out of bones even faster than products like cheese can provide calcium to be put back in.
Now it’s time for some good news. It’s not difficult or complicated to eat in a healthy way. It’s not difficult to reach your optimum weight and maintain that weight for decades. It doesn’t involve portion control or counting calories. All you have to do is to choose the right foods.
You already know what the right foods aren’t. As Michael Pollan writes at the beginning of one of his essays, “Eat (real, not industrially modified) food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Here is a list of healthy foods, beginning with the foods that pack the greatest concentration of nutrients with the smallest number of calories:
Raw, leafy, preferably dark-green, or green vegetables: Cilantro, collards, daikon, kale, leaf lettuce, Romaine lettuce, parsley, spinach Swiss chard.
It’s healthy to eat raw leafy greens in unlimited quantities, and, as diet expert Dr. Joel Fuhrman notes, the more of these greens you eat, the more weight you lose. An entire pound of raw leafy vegetables only sets you back 100 calories. Raw leafy greens pass through the digestive tract quickly, and they speed up the transit of other foods through the digestive tract, too.
Other green vegetables (eaten raw or cooked): Artichoke, asparagus, bok choi, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, celery, chayote, cucumber, kohlrabi, okra, peppers, snow peas, string beans, zucchini.
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Non-green vegetables low in starch: Bamboo shoots, bean sprouts, beets, cauliflower, eggplant, mushrooms, onions, radish, red and yellow peppers, summer (yellow) squash, tomatoes.
Like their leafy counterparts, these vegetables in the second and third groups are also low in calories, only 100 calories per pound. Try to eat a pound of raw vegetables and a pound of cooked vegetables from these three groups every day. Choosing a variety of colors in your vegetables ensures that you get a variety of nutrients, notably alpha-carotene (yellow vegetables), beta-carotene (orange vegetables), lycopene (red vegetables), lutein (dark green vegetables), and zeaxanthin (yellow and dark-green vegetables, especially spinach and sweet corn).
Legumes and beans (should always be eaten cooked or sprouted to avoid stomach irritation from lectins): Black beans, black-eyed peas (cowpeas), cannelloni beans, lentils, lima beans, navy beans, pigeon peas, pinto beans, soybeans.
Legumes and beans can be spiced and flavored in interesting ways, and you should eat least a cup of them every day.
Eat an unlimited number of fruits per day, but don’t drink fruit juice (with the exception of pomegranate). Fruit juice removes the fiber that regulates nutrient absorption and allows you to pack in three times as many calories in the same space in your digestive tract. The sugars in dried fruit are too concentrated for inclusion in any diet geared toward weight loss. Frozen fruit is good too. In fact, if you live in an area where fresh fruit has to be trucked long distances, frozen fruit may even have
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superior nutrient content. Canned fruit should be avoided.
Fruit is a great way to add variety to your diet. Citrus makes a nice addition to a green salad. Pineapple combines well with green, red, yellow, and even purple peppers and can be cooked with tomatoes.
Starchy vegetables: Acorn squash, butternut squash, carrots, corn (kernels not chips!), parsnips, rutabagas, white potatoes, sweet potatoes, turnips, water chestnuts.
Eat a cup of starchy vegetables or whole grains daily. (If you are diabetic, or if your objective is rapid weight loss, you may want to eat less of these.)
If you have time, soaking whole grains, such as brown rice, buckwheat, and quinoa, for a full 24 hours before cooking greatly enhances the availability of their mineral nutrients. The 24-hour soak initiates germination, but you will not see sprouts.
Raw nuts and seeds (never roasted in oil): Almonds, cashews, filberts, macadamias, pine nuts, pecans, pistachios, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds.
As noted in Chapter 4, some fat in your diet is essential. Nuts and seeds are a great way to get your n-3 essential fatty acids. They should be eaten raw, not roasted, because cooking the nut or seed can oxidize the fat into unhealthy forms. If you get tired of eating your nuts and seeds raw, you can lightly toast them in a pan, but never fry them in oil. Try to limit consumption to about an ounce a day. That is about the amount that can fit into a cupped hand.
The above foods are all good but some are better than others. Here are the top 10 vegetables and top 10 fruits you can eat if you want to get the most fuel for your body in the form of nutrients:
Fish Oil May Be Dangerous If You Have Congestive Heart Failure
The British Medical Journal reports that some reports of enhanced heart health among some people who use fish oil are, well, fishy. During a heart attack, some cells in the heart are severely damaged by lack of oxygen. After the heart attack, they survive, but they are surrounded by scar tissue. They barely receive enough blood supply to survive, and they are easily excited by nervous stimulation.Fish oil acts on the membranes of these cells so that it takes greater nerve stimulation to cause them to contract. In most people, this is a good thing, since “jumpy” heart cells trigger irregular rhythms. When there has been damage to the heart that is so extensive that there is congestive heart failure, however, these damaged heart cells are vital to producing adequate circulation in the rest of the body. Fish oil can actually be deadly for people who have congestive heart failure. Dr. Alexander Leaf writes in the journal Fundamental & Clinical Pharmacology, “Any patient with an advanced state of impaired cardiac function should not be prescribed fish oil fatty acids or encouraged to eat cold-water fish.”
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To be avoided all the time:
Any food made with high-fructose corn syrup, MSG, or added caffeine.
Should you never, ever consider eating meat or dairy? In general, it’s a good idea to avoid them. If avoiding all animal proteins is impossible for you, however, consider a 90-10 rule. Let 90 percent of your calories come from plant sources. On rare occasions, allow the remaining 10 per cent of your calories come from refined sugars, saturated fat, meat, eggs, dairy, or fish.
Many people, however, find it easier never to stray from healthy eating at all. Try to plan your meals with a vegetable main dish and a fruit for dessert. Try this simple plan:
Breakfast: Fruit.
Lunch: Salad first with beans or nuts and seeds, then fruit.
Dinner: Start with a salad and if you haven’t had them with an earlier meal, have your starch vegetable or beans and legumes. End with fruit.
What this means for your shopping list is you will always need to have the ingredients for vegetable salads. To preserve their antioxidant content they should only be peeled and sliced just before you eat them.
You should also have a ready supply of vegetables for cooking: artichokes and asparagus and unusually colored vegetables (purple carrots, for instance) provide variety. Plan for a variety of textures, crunchy and soft. Use cooked mushrooms for the “mouth feel” of your more familiar protein foods. The more variety you can provide for your meals, the more you will want to eat—and eating more of these foods actually helps you lose weight.
It also helps to have something for a breakfast on the run, and for this diet plan, that means ready-cut fruit. Even frozen fruit has significant nutritional content—just don’t indulge in fruit juices for breakfast.
For your higher-calorie choices, think before you eat. Don’t keep a jar of nuts where it’s easy to snack. Plan your higher-fat foods well in advance in eating them.
Sometimes the consideration of whether a food is good or bad for you, however, is not just whether or not it is of vegetable origin. There are broader considerations. Is it fresh? Was it locally grown? Is it organic? Was the farming method used to produce it ecologically sustainable?
For some common practical questions about plant foods and weight loss, please proceed to Chapter 6.
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Chapter 6. Frequently Asked Questions About Plant-Based Diets
Here are some quick answers to common questions:Q. If I don’t drink milk, how do I get calcium?
A. All leafy greens are great sources of calcium, actually far more concentrated than milk.
Q. If I don’t eat milk, how do I get enough protein?
A. Please re-read Chapter 3. It’s hard to avoid getting enough protein. When discounting water, plant foods offer a higher percentage of protein than animal foods.
Q. Is raw plant food essential or can I cook my food?
A. Some foods shouldn’t be eaten raw, like beans and legumes. If you are eating a large volume of plant foods, you can vary flavors and textures by eating a balanced mixture of cooked and raw foods and still get your enzymes and nutrients. Just don’t fry your plant foods (especially nuts).
Q. Can I eat seafood? What about omega-3’s?
A. It’s better to avoid any ocean-borne contaminants and rely on organic plant produce. You get plenty of omega-3’s in nuts and seeds, and there are vegan, plant-sourced omega-3 supplements if you desire more.
Q. Should I buy my foods organic?
A. Whenever possible, yes. In general, the foods you really want to be sure to choose from organic sources are berries (especially strawberries, which are typically treated with fumigants in the field) and stone fruits (peaches, pears, and apples), which hold pesticides and herbicides in their peels so that you can’t wash them out. It’s also impossible to wash contaminants out of Bell and hot peppers, celery, and spinach.
Q. Can’t I lose weight faster on Atkins or South Beach or one of the prepared foods plans like NutriSystem?
Actually, the question is not whether you can lose weight faster on another diet plan, it is whether you can lose weight at all. The February 26, 2009 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine published the results of a 2-year follow-up study
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of Atkins and competing diets. Participants who followed an Atkins-style diet for six months lost an average of 13 pounds, and if they stayed on the diet for two full years, they maintained an average weight loss of 9 pounds. That is a very long time to go without a slice of bread or even a serving of acorn squash.
The medical journals also report that the typical South Beach dieter gains back all but 8 pounds within 18 months, the average NutriSystem dieter loses 2 pounds in a year, and the average member of Weight Watchers gains weight within a year of starting the program. Studies of a vegan whole foods weight loss plan, on the other hand, show an average weight loss of 30 pounds in 3 months that is maintained indefinitely.
Q. I started a vegan diet 10 days ago and I have headaches, I feel tired, and I have a problem with gas. Is this due to the diet?
A. If you have been eating the typical diet high not just in meat and dairy but also in high-fructose corn syrup, white flour, white sugar, and MSG, your body literally needs a period of detoxification as you adjust to eating healthy. There are enzyme pathways in the liver that are overloaded by food additives, and when you stop eating food that’s loaded with additives, these enzymes find other chemicals to detox. An adjustment period of up to two weeks is not unusual when starting a vegan diet.
If fiber seems to be making you gassy, the problem may be that you do not have the symbiotic bacteria in your colon needed to digest it. Try taking a probiotic supplement (preferably an encapsulated form) for about a week to establish the healthy, fiber-eating flora you need. Be forewarned, however, that the first 1 or 2 days you take probiotics your problem with flatulence may temporarily worsen.
It’s more likely, however, that your colon simply is not used to healthy fiber. Over many years of a low-fiber diet, the colon has adjusted its peristaltic waves (alternating contractions and expansions of muscles lining the colon to propel stool and gas outward) for a slow-transit time. When the colon suddenly absorbs a lot of fiber, feeding hungry bacteria that make gases, it is not timed to release gas in small, unnoticeable amounts. Until the colon adjusts to the new, higher content of fiber in the diet, gas may be a problem no matter what you do.
There are rare individuals who actually need to get their protein from meat. If you have Crohn’s disease, or short bowel syndrome, or if you have had a colostomy, you may not be able to get enough protein from plant sources and you may have severe issues with fiber. If you have any of those three conditions, consult a physician or a nutritionist before beginning this or any other diet program.
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Q. What about salt?
Salt contains sodium, and excess sodium forces the kidneys to remove it and other mineral nutrients into the urine. Excessive salt consumption is a risk factor in high blood pressure, osteoporosis, and some forms of cancer. Some sodium, of course, is absolutely essential to health, but it is almost impossible to avoid getting enough sodium even if you only eat plant foods.
If you want to know that a food is not too high in salt, go to www.nutritiondata.com and use their food search tool in the upper right-hand corner of the home page. Click on the data for a 100-calorie serving. If a food contains more than 200 mg of sodium in a 100-calorie serving, it is a high-sodium food you should generally avoid.
At a minimum, avoid salt-crusted foods like potato chips and pretzels (which you should not be eating anyway) and pickled vegetables. If you just can’t resist soy sauce, teriyaki sauce, ketchup, mustard, and relish, use them sparingly. Over time, you may come to recognize and enjoy other flavors in your food that are masked when you use too much salt.
Q. What about low-calorie or no-calorie sweeteners?
A. Even if they were completely safe—and they are not—low-calorie and no-calorie sweeteners would only perpetuate your appetite for unhealthy food. One study comparing women drinking sugar-sweetened beverages to women drinking beverages flavored with Nutrasweet found that the women who drank the no-calorie colas ate more calories later.
Although there is no clear scientific evidence for some of the more alarming claims made about the dangers of aspartame (Nutrasweet), it is true that rates of brain tumors in the U.S. and 20 other countries began increasing several years after the approval of this no-cal sweetener by their food and drug regulatory agencies. Stevia is often recommended as a natural substitute, (in the U.S. it is now widely available under the trade name Truvía). Some animal studies, however, suggest stevia also could have toxic effects, to the kidneys. It is better to learn to taste the natural sugars in fresh fruits and vegetables.
Q. Is this diet something I can sustain for a long period of time?
A. Yes, but you need to be sure to eat enough. Minimally processed whole plant foods can provide all the calories, carbohydrate, calcium, fat, and protein you need, but not if you are trying to “diet.” Eat as much as you want until you are full, but eat only from healthy vegan choices. In this way you can stay on the diet comfortably for months, years, and even longer. As Dean Ornish says, “Eat more, weigh less.”
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Q. Does a vegan diet provide enough iron?
A. First of all, consider whether you need iron. Many people carry one or both of the two genes associated with hemochromatosis, the iron overload disease. For this 1 to 3 percent of the American population, getting more iron actually causes “bronzing” of the skin, diabetes, shrinking of the gonads, liver disease, and neurological problems. Some people’s bodies extract iron from food so efficiently that it becomes toxic.
But everyone can get all the iron the body needs from a plants-food diet. Eating soybeans, lentils, spinach and quinoa, all foods high in iron, will get your needs met.
Q. If I can’t use eggs or milk, can I still make baked goods?
A. You don’t need eggs as a binder. You can substitute 1/4 cup (2 oz/56 g) of soft tofu, or 1 mashed banana, or 1/4 cup (60 g) of applesauce for one egg. You can substitute crumbled tofu for ricotta cheese or cottage cheese in some recipes, and you may also want to experiment with almond and rice milks.
Q. Is it safe to feed children a vegan diet?
A. The World Health Organization has confirmed that children growing up in affluent households in large vegan cultures, such as India, usually develop at the same rate as children growing up
in affluent households in meat-eating cultures, such as the USA—except that children in vegan households are thinner.
There is frequent concern that children cannot get enough calcium from a vegan diet for healthy bones. Actually, the problem is not the absence of milk in the child’s diet, it is replacing it with soda. Carbonated beverages, even if they are not sweetened with sugar, acidify the urine and accelerate the excretion of calcium. If the child does not consume either
milk or soda, however, the primary concern then becomes vitamin D. Children who play outside in the sun, even 20 minutes a day, typically have the vitamin D their bones need to use the calcium from vegetarian sources.
The foods we eat in childhood become the foods we love all our lives. There is no better way to use food to tell your children you love them than to give them a plant-based diet early in life.
