Making a Fresh Start

Excerpt from The Garden of Eating: A Produce Dominated Diet & Cookook by Rachel Albert-Matesz & Don Matesz (Planetary Press, 2008) and an article that appeared in the Jan/Feb 2003 issue of Herbs for Health Magazine.

Many people start the New Year with resolutions to lose excess body fat. This often leads them to search for  some magic bullet supplement to help with fat loss, or to embark on whatever might be the latest food-restriction fad.

Although the intention is good, usually this approach produces little or no loss of body fat. If it does produce some fat loss, in 95 percent of cases the individual eventually abandons the supplement(s) or restrictive diet. This almost invariably results in a regain of weight, and the gain is usually larger than the loss!

This approach consistently fails because it focuses on quantity, not quality, of food consumed, and fails to effect a permanent change in food choices and activity habits that cause accumulation of excess fat. This year, try a fresh approach. Instead of focusing on restricting the quantity of food you consume, focus on improving the quality of the foods you eat. Most people will lose much of their excess body fat simply by taking this step toward better health.

Here are some suggestions:

1. Stop eating processed vegetable oils, hydrogenated oils, margarine, and shortening.
Substitute extra-virgin olive oil, unrefined coconut oil and coconut butter, ghee (clarified butter), and butter, and use them in moderation. 

Processed fats and oils, including refined and most polyunsaturated oils, are unwholesome promoters of heart disease, cancer, obesity, and diabetes. In contrast, the natural fats and oils (above) have nourished humans for millennia, and there is no evidence that they are harmful when used in moderation.

2. Minimize or avoid refined white-flour products and white rice.
Replace them with 100 percent whole-grain products that have been soaked, sprouted, or naturally fermented. Replace spongy white wallpaper-paste bread with 100 percent whole-grain breads produced without yeast, using traditional desem or sourdough methods.  Dimpflmeier and French Meadows are examples of brands of this style of bread, sold in natural foods stores and the freezer section of some supermarkets. Try 100% sprouted whole grain breads such as Ezekial and Food for Life.

Note: If you follow a gluten free diet, buy brown rice tortillas or try making your own gluten free bread or serving brown rice, quinoa, or wild rice as side dishes instead of bread.

Replace cold cereals with non-instant oatmeal
Oatmeal is less refined, richer in soluble fiber, and better at controlling your appetite, blood sugar, and energy levels than are cold cereals. 

For the cost of one box of cold cereal, you can buy enough rolled or steel-cut oats to make 30 or 40 large bowls of oatmeal! Better yet, replace bread, pasta, and rice with a wide assortment of colorful fresh vegetables and fruits, which have a higher nutrient and lower calorie density, so you will take in more vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants and be able to eat more food volume for fewer calories!

3. Eat a protein- and produce-rich breakfast or brunch every day.  Numerous studies have confirmed the importance of a nourishing breakfast, linking it to lower cholesterol and body fat levels, increased attention span, better blood sugar control, and longevity. 

What you eat also counts. Protein and healthy fats and oils (from free-range eggs, nuts, olive or coconut oil, or butter), and the fiber-rich fresh vegetables and fruits provide greater satiety and insulin control than high-carb, low-protein breakfasts of bread, cereal, or pastries. 

4. Eat at least five 1-cup servings of fresh vegetables each day.
Every week, try at least one new vegetable, until you are regularly eating at least two dozen different vegetables. Also experiment with new fruits and new varieties of your favorites. 

5. Eat at least one serving of dark, leafy green vegetables per day, work up to two or three.
One serving equals 1/2 cup cooked or 1 cup raw greens. Eat at least one serving of one of dark-green leafy vegetables—kale, chard, spinach, collards, mustard greens, turnip greens, bok choy, or broccoli—every day and rotate these so that you aren’t using only broccoli or spinach!

6. Replace sugar-laden desserts with fresh, frozen, or dried organic fruits.
Enjoy a cup of sliced fresh raw, poached, or stewed fruit drizzled with raw coconut butter or sprinkled with chopped, toasted nuts. Go light on the nuts, think of them as condiments for your fruits and veggies. One handful (half a cup) packs 350 to 400 calories.

7. Eat at least two servings of fruit per day.
One serving equals 1 small apple, banana, or orange, 1/2 cup berries, 1/2 cup cooked fruit, or 1/4 cup dried fruit. Add fresh or dried fruit to a green salad or a bowl of oatmeal. Have a piece of fruit for a snack or appetizer. Add fresh or frozen fruit to a smoothie for breakfast.

8. Replace fatty, conventionally-raised meat and poultry with naturally raised, preferably pasture-raised (grass fed), meat and poultry. 
You’ll enjoy safer, cleaner, lower-calorie meat that packs more vitamins, antioxidants, and essential fatty acids and avoid hormone, antibiotic, and pesticide residues. 

Check your local natural foods store or farmer’s market. Do a google search for grassfed meat in your state.

Get a copy of Jo Robinson’s book Why Grassfed Is Best or Pasture Perfect (Vashon Island Press, 2000, 2002) or visit Jo's web-site for a directory of pasture-raised animal producers in your area ().

9. Replace anemic supermarket eggs with eggs from free-ranging chickens, or DHA-rich eggs. These eggs will have more color and flavor and provide more vitamins, antioxidants (such as lutein) and essential fatty acids.

10. Avoid eating after 7 p.m.
The digestive system is at its lowest energy level after this time, until morning. From a Traditional Chinese Medicine perspective, eating late can cause indigestion, food stagnation in the intestines, and promote phlegm formation and disorders (including tumors and cysts), insomnia, obesity, and circulatory diseases. This is a major cause of morning sluggishness and lack of appetite for breakfast.

 If you eat three meals a day and fast after 7 p.m., you are more likely to wake up with a hearty appetite for breakfast!

Changing your tastes
Many will say that they don’t like the taste of some of the natural foods I mentioned above. Realize that your tastes are not engraved in stone for eternity, but are just conditioned habits. They will change if you are persistent. In fact, although your mind might prefer processed foods, your body certainly does not.

Your body prefers foods with real flavors that come with a high nutrient density. The problem is that due to the effects of advertising and familial habits, your mind is out of harmony with your body. So remember, it’s only your mind that must be trained to accept natural foods. If you practice eating natural foods, you will grow to like them so much that you may rarely if ever want anything else.

So I always recommend this: Whenever you try a new food, try at least three mouthfuls and do that at least three days in a row, and make sure that you try this with at least three different recipes using that food. If that seems too difficult, then every time you try a new food, eat at least three mouthfuls and try the food on at least three days in a row, then try the food again in at least two other recipes. Want a simpler approach? When you first try a new food, try at least three mouthfuls, savoring each mouthful, then try it three days in a row—then find at least two other ways to prepare it and try it again.

Yes, I did just repeat myself several times. The reason is that there is only one way to change your habits—just do it. Ultimately, if you want better health, you have make food choices that meet your body’s nutritional needs. Of course some things will be unfamiliar, but your body will thank you eventually for making the switch to natural foods.

Excerpt from The Garden of Eating: A Produce Dominated Diet & Cookook by Rachel Albert-Matesz & Don Matesz (Planetary Press, 2008) and an article that appeared in the Jan/Feb 2003 issue of Herbs for Health Magazine.

Comments

[Heather]

Great advice, Rachel! I don't have a problem with any of it, except the eating after 7:00. It's a challenge when I rarely get home before 7:00, but I'm working on it!

[Grass Fed Beef]

Thanks for the mention of grass-fed beef. This is a point that most people just don't realize when they shop at the supermarket; how their food is produced.

PS The initial link in the post has a typo (add a b to Cookbook)

[Ingeborg B Steinmetz]

Good article -- I have diabetes 2 and hope to some day get rid of it before any damage is done to my vital organs.

I have trouble with sugar and starches. Maybe some day I will conquer these.

[Chef Rachel]

Hi Heather,

Great point. If you get home later you might need to eat dinner a little later. I recommend making sure you stay up for at least 3 hours after you eat so you have time for optimal digestion.

You could plan to cook some things ahead---put sweet potatoes and maybe even chicken in the oven to bake before you hop in the shower and eat breakfast in the morning, so they don't have to do a lot to get dinner on the table in the evening. You can pull a salad together then sit down to eat.

[Chef Rachel]

Hi Ingeborg,

The great news is that you can be well nourished without starches in your diet. Grains are certainly not essential. In fact, cutting them out might be just the thing to encourage you to explore more vegetables and fruits. You can enjoy a wide variety of fish, poultry, meats, and eggs, colorful vegetables, fresh fruits and nuts.

Where do you live? You might find help from a practitioner of oriental medicine who can help you heal your body with herbs and acupuncture.