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October 25, 2006
have we all been lied to about how much food we need to live healthy?
I took the headline of today's post from a comment by Joseph, one of our new readers (welcome!!!)
Here's the comment in full:
Hi. I read the New Yorker article, of course. I am very interested in the CR diet. I recently lost about 35 pounds by just giving up on eating. I had not heard of CR but having been a practicing vegetarian for years knew for years that I was still eating more than I needed and the wrong kind of food. Old guru's of southeast asia have always recommended not eating after 12:00 noon and eating about 1/3 of what you would normally eat as a working peasant. So I just started eating way less and after a while I began to feel much better and then had to go out and buy new clothes.
It has begun to seem almost weird how little food I actually needed to eat to remain healthy and energetic. I think your regimen is just the thing to tweak my diet so that I know I am getting the correct nutrients. Still I can't help wondering how low can I go? ...and have we all been lied to about how much food we need to live healthy? What a waste! and all down the toilet?!
Posted by: Joseph at October 24, 2006 8:31 PM
Yes, Joseph, we have all been lied to about how much food we need to live healthy.
We've been lied to by family members who just want us to be happy but don't understand that eating a second helping of pasta won't accomplish that.
We've been lied to by a food industry that turns poisons into profits.
We've been lied to by the USDA, which is more beholden to industry and agriculture than to science.
And finally, we've been lied to by our own bodies, which (through no fault of their own!) are adapted to survive famines, make as many babies as possible as quickly as possible, and insulate us for winters.
One of my favorite people, Dr. David Katz, whom I saw speak at my 10th college reunion, gives a great talk about how modern Western folk are like polar bears in a dessert: we're not designed for our environment! Our bodies are made for the environment they lived in for most of human history, where food was scarce, populations were small, and people had to fight to stay fed and warm. We store food really, really well... that's how our genes got naturally selected above those of others of our ancestors who didn't make it through periodic food shortages so well. If you're a woman who tends towards gaining weight like me, then you're really at the top of the evolutionary chain! Back before CR, I had stored enough body fat from eating nachos and drinking margaritas that I was ready to carry triplets through a famine.
Alas, that's not helpful in our current environment. Food is not scarce, but the food industry has figured out how to manipulate our biological programming to get us to buy buy buy, and eat more and more. We're programmed to crave fat and sugar: they're great sources of large numbers of calories. When more and more sugar and more and more fat (often in the most toxic of forms, transfats) are packed into smaller and smaller packages, we're going to eat them. And then, because we're not getting the nutrition we need from those sugar laden empty calorie foods, we're still going to be hungry.
Unless, of course, through education and conscious application of will (one of those things that humans, as opposed to other animals, are famous for) we break out of paradigm and create a new relationship with food.
Evolution wants us to make babies, even if that means carrying them through famines. The food industry wants to make profits, even if that means feeding us foods that will harm us. Our friends and families want to make us happy, but they don't always understand that the short term satisfaction of a calorie-dense meal is less pleasurable for us than the long term satisfaction of healthy, nutrient-dense food that not only satisfies our deepest cravings for the vitamins and minerals our bodies need to live, but also helps us live longer in youthful bodies.
So yes, we have been lied to. And it takes work, a whole lot of work, to get behind the curtain and create a life for yourself that is healthy.
My new commenters, Joseph and Lauren (hi Lauren!) are already on their way. Now both are interested in incorporating some CR principles into their lives to go even further down the path of health.
So how do you start CR if you're not overweight and you're already living in many ways a very healthy lifestyle?
Well, about the same way you start CR if you're overweight and freaking out on the nachos at Happy Hour. First, you take an inventory.
For those of you who are already at a weight you're happy with (the bad news is, you're probably going to lose weight, and you might not love it at first the way us formerly fat chicks do), you really want to cut calories gradually. Get your software (DWIDP, Nutribase, Nutrition Data) and plug in each day what you eat for about a week. You'll see the trends. You'll see what nutrients you're missing and how many calories you're eating. It's very helpful, if you're not already doing it, to weigh or measure most of your food with either a scale or measuring cups/spoons. This is not about being anal and compulsive, this is about equipping yourself with the tools for the task you've said you want to complete. If you saw someone trying to put a nail in a wall to hang a picture, but using her hand to attempt to pound the nail in, you'd offer her a hammer. If she insisted on bruising her hand, or maybe taking off her shoe and using her heel to whack the thing while refusing your hammer, you'd wonder what the hell her problem was. That's my reaction to people who say they want to do CR, be as healthy as they can be, and eat diets complete with optimal nutrition, but who refuse to use software. It's goofy! Grab the hammer!
As you record everything you eat, you will see places where you are eating calories that just aren't helping you that much. I did some informal diet coaching today with a friend who just wants to lose a few pounds. We identified several places in her diet where she could easily and painlessly cut calories. Almost everyone eats more empty carbs than necessary, either in processed foods, mixed drinks, desserts, fruit juices, of refined grains like bagels, pasta, and rice. Most folks find that eliminating some of all of these foods from their diet will result in a significant reduction in calories with very little sacrifice in terms of flavor, feelings of fullness, or social enjoyment.
Now that you've taken some stuff out, put some good things in! I don't know about you, but I was FAT PHOBIC before I started CR. I came of age as a cook (I know that at least one editor at NY Magazine hates my cooking, but most people, CR'd and not, actually like it...) while reading Dean Ornish, John McDougall, and other notorious prophets of the lowfat vegetarian apocalypse. I didn't know how to fry in butter, but I also had no idea what to do with oil besides ask someone to put it in my car at Jiffy Lube. And nuts? Talk about fear and trembling. I had been taught that those things make you fat! And sure enough, they do, if you eat a whole bag! But if measured and included in a low calorie, nutrient-dense diet, they are great sources of unsaturated fat and the essential fatty acids the body needs to function. Not to mention that eating sufficient fat makes your skin beautiful, even in winter! So while you're taking empty calories out of your diet, add some healthy unsaturated fats. My favorites are: flax oil for Omega 3's, 2 teaspoons per day; almonds and hazelnuts; hazelnut oil, and really good French or Australian olive oil. Avocadoes also rock my world. With fat sources, you have to be sure to measure so you don't pack too many calories in. But enjoy healthy fats and all the fun things you can do with them! Flax oil over fresh blackberries... good olive oil on green veggies with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice... almonds mixed into nonfat organic vanilla yogurt... hazelnut oil on fresh fall apples with cinnamon.
As to cutting calories, cut calories slowly. First cut 100, then see how you feel. If you're starting slim, don't lose more than 2 pounds a month (though if you're a woman, don't freak out about daily and monthly water weight fluctuations. Watch the pattern, not just the day to day.) Focus on nutrition.
If you're starting slim, you won't have the fun of going from overweight to normal to thin. I'm sorry! That's one of the most fun parts! But you'll still get the CR-induced euphoria, the invincible immune system, the beautiful healthy skin tone, the shiny healthy hair (you've got to eat fat to get the good hair, so don't even think of skimping!) and the people telling you that you look younger. You'll also get the increased energy, less need for sleep, and greater interest in events that might occur 70 years from now.
Some great books to read (even though I disagree with some of the nutritional recommendations -- I think Walford is too lowfat/high carb):
Dr. Roy Walford's _The Beyond 120 Year Diet_
my good friend and president of the CR Society, Brian Delaney, and Lisa Walford's (Roy's daugher) book _The Longevity Diet_
Barry Sears, _The Zone_
Another of my favorites, while it might seem a bit odd, is Why French Women Don't Get Fat. Though this book does not mention CR, I feel like Guiliano really forwards a philosophy of food that is very counter to the eat fast, get fat fast, turn your money and your will over to the food industry paradigm that seems to dominate American eating. The emphasis on fresh food, enjoyed with family and friends, in a beautiful setting, etc. really appeals to me. It's how I like to cook, how I like to eat, how I like to nurture the people I love. And she recommends drinking champagne with lunch! A girl after my own heart.
For so many Americans, food causes pain. People are dying from diet-induced illnesses like diabetes and heart disease. People are suffering with obesity and all the consequences thereof. People are feeling guilty about what they ate, yet craving more and more in an attempt to get the nutrition their bodies need. When you change your relationship with food and make eating an experience that about loving yourself and those you cook for, the pain goes away. Those of you who are already well down the path towards a healthy lifestyle have an advantage. I hope you enjoy the next step, and please let me know if there's anything I can do to assist you along the journey!
Posted by april at October 25, 2006 8:57 PM
Comments
What a wonderful post, April! This information & advice is so sound, so logical and so true but so difficult to get across to people that it's the road to health and slimness. I have a friend who, through her work in sales & marketing a "health product", has just won a one week, all expenses paid trip to Cancun in December and told me she's going on an immediate "diet". She really needs to lose about 50 pounds to be at a healthy weight (never mind just to look good in Mexico) . I suggested to her that if she'd simply cut out bread, pasta, potatoes and rice, she'd easily and healthily lose 10 lbs but she simply won't do that. Instead, she's going to semi-starve herself (while still eating useless carbs & gak). She has done this so many times over the years, losing 20 lbs really fast then gaining them all back, that it's got to be doing her harm. I kind of despair sometimes, seeing people I care about continuing to damage themselves by what they eat. It is not difficult, once you make up your mind to commit to healthy eating.
Today, I attended a day-long seminar where they had laid on a wonderful buffet lunch. I filled my plate with large servings of two great salads and a small chicken breast with a little lemon-curry sauce. It was delicious, reasonably Zoned and my belly was happy. The girl I was with remarked that I eat a lot. Yes, I do now -- but it's a lot of HEALTHY stuff, not the pastries, breads, rice & gooey desserts that were also available. While other people were nodding off in the afternoon, I was awake & alert -- AND looking great in a size 8 suit! :-)
Posted by: Judith at October 25, 2006 6:06 PM
April, this is slightly off-topic, but what do you recommend for flour? I know you (and/or MR) make megamuffins a lot, so I wondered what you use and why. I bike to work and I need something easy to eat when I get there. I'm concerned about having a zone-ish ratio of macronutrients overall as well as using a flour that is nutritionally worth the calories. I eat a lot of veggies, so it's difficult to work grain-carbs into my diet without overdoing the carbs. Generally the only carbs I get are from oatmeal once or twice a week.
I know that soy flour has higher protein than other flours, but I'm trying to limit the soy in my diet.
Thanks!
Sara
Posted by: Sara at October 25, 2006 11:53 PM
Hello. I found you through the New York Magazine article, and I am working my way through your archives. I am very intrigued by CR, although I worry about the preciseness of it. I recently stopped counting my Points with Weight Watchers, as it was driving me crazy and making me as obsessive about food and weight as I was when I was dancing (and struggling with an eating disorder). I'm quite the fan of "French Women Don't Get Fat" for it's espousal of "slow food" and "slow life". I know that eating and living a healthy lifestyle does require attention to details, but do you ever worry that the "cooking by laptop and software" is its own sort of eating/food disorder?
Posted by: Gina at October 26, 2006 10:39 AM
I've been slowly slipping into CR, and found your site through the NYT article. This post was particularly interesting to me because of your mention of software.
Tools! I like tools. And am looking for some new ones, specifically: I'm moving one of the iMac's into the kitchen, where I'll have easy access to recipies without killing trees. The software you mentioned is all PC-centric. Can anyone recommend something that works (kcals, nutrients, et cetera) and also has a globe-travelling gourmand's database (I *like* kimchi) that works in either the Mac or the Linux world?
Many thanks!
Posted by: Scott at October 26, 2006 5:44 PM