If you are like most Americans, your New Year’s resolution about eating healthy and losing weight is already on shaky grounds.
Why is it so difficult to stay with a healthy diet? What is a heart healthy diet any way? Is the Atkin’s diet good? Or is the South beach or the Ornish diet better? How about Weight Watchers? Is coffee good for you? What are trans fats? How come I am eating no red meat and still cannot lower my cholesterol?
These are some of the questions I am asked on a daily basis. In this article I am going to answer most of these.
There should be four essential aims of an ideal diet. It must taste good. It should have all the essential and beneficial nutrients. It should not have harmful components. It should be easily available and affordable.
Whenever a person goes on a “diet”, usually he or she has certain goals in mind, like losing weight, lowering cholesterol or blood pressure or sugar etc. or keeping one’s risk of heart attack, stroke and cancer as low as possible. To create your own ideal diet, the following general principles should be applicable in most situations.
First calculate your ideal body weight (IBW). IBW for men is 106 pounds at 5 feet. Add 6 pounds for every inch above it. For women 100 pounds at 5 feet and add 5 pounds for every inch above it. Allow 5-10 percent variation for “body type” differences.
Then calculate your calorie requirements to maintain that weight (Multiply IBW by 15 to get this). Example: a middle aged woman, moderately active, who is 5 feet 4 inches tall should have IBW of 120 pounds and calorie requirements of 1800 per day.
To lose a pound a week, eat 400 to 500 calories less than the maintenance amount (a negative balance of 3500 calories equals 1 pound of weight loss.) If that’s difficult, just cut 200 calories. You will still lose weight although slowly. To make sure your weight loss is sustainable, I recommend making only changes in your diet that you can live with for the rest of your life.
Now comes the controversial part as to how many calories should come from what source. What are essential nutrients and what is harmful? In my opinion, 50 percent of calories should come from carbohydrates(4 cal/gm, mostly complex carbohydrates like in vegetables and cereals and not plain sugars like in soda or candy, prefer fruits to fruit juices), 25 percent from proteins (4 cal/gm, prefer lentils, legumes, nuts, chicken, turkey and fish, and use less red meat), and 25 percent from fats(9 cal/gm, mostly mono and poly unsaturated fats like in olive and canola oils), but not trans fats like in cookies, cakes and donuts, chips, hydrogenated products like crisco, solid margarines or saturated fats like in butter, cheese and egg yolks.
Try to eat a variety of foods and not the same items again and again. This way you are more likely to get enough of all essential vitamins, amino acids and minerals from diet.
Eat four or five small meals over 24 hours. (Big meals can cause a surge of insulin release leading to insulin receptor resistance which may cause weight gain and increases risk of type 2 diabetes.)
Try and include five to six servings of fruits and vegetables daily even if frozen or canned, also increase soluble fiber intake( as in fruits, oats, barley, peas and beans) and oily fish (like salmon, trout, herring, fresh tuna) because these have been linked to lower risk of heart attack, stroke, and cancer in some observational studies.
Go for water or tea/coffee instead of soda or juices. Even diet drinks are not desirable because they make you eat more calories. An animal study showed that mice fed on diet drinks versus regular drinks (and liberal diets) gained more weight when on diet drinks.
Nothing is absolutely forbidden. If you really enjoy something, incorporate it into you diet while still staying within above guidelines.
In short, eat real food (not processed), mostly vegetables and some meat, watch the serving size, and remember - moderation is the key. You can call this diet by any name you prefer.
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If you are like most Americans, your New Year’s resolution about eating healthy and losing weight is already on shaky grounds.
Why is it so difficult to stay with a healthy diet? What is a heart healthy diet any way? Is the Atkin’s diet good? Or is the South beach or the Ornish diet better? How about Weight Watchers? Is coffee good for you? What are trans fats? How come I am eating no red meat and still cannot lower my cholesterol?
These are some of the questions I am asked on a daily basis. In this article I am going to answer most of these.
There should be four essential aims of an ideal diet. It must taste good. It should have all the essential and beneficial nutrients. It should not have harmful components. It should be easily available and affordable.
Whenever a person goes on a “diet”, usually he or she has certain goals in mind, like losing weight, lowering cholesterol or blood pressure or sugar etc. or keeping one’s risk of heart attack, stroke and cancer as low as possible. To create your own ideal diet, the following general principles should be applicable in most situations.
First calculate your ideal body weight (IBW). IBW for men is 106 pounds at 5 feet. Add 6 pounds for every inch above it. For women 100 pounds at 5 feet and add 5 pounds for every inch above it. Allow 5-10 percent variation for “body type” differences.
Then calculate your calorie requirements to maintain that weight (Multiply IBW by 15 to get this). Example: a middle aged woman, moderately active, who is 5 feet 4 inches tall should have IBW of 120 pounds and calorie requirements of 1800 per day.
To lose a pound a week, eat 400 to 500 calories less than the maintenance amount (a negative balance of 3500 calories equals 1 pound of weight loss.) If that’s difficult, just cut 200 calories. You will still lose weight although slowly. To make sure your weight loss is sustainable, I recommend making only changes in your diet that you can live with for the rest of your life.
Now comes the controversial part as to how many calories should come from what source. What are essential nutrients and what is harmful? In my opinion, 50 percent of calories should come from carbohydrates(4 cal/gm, mostly complex carbohydrates like in vegetables and cereals and not plain sugars like in soda or candy, prefer fruits to fruit juices), 25 percent from proteins (4 cal/gm, prefer lentils, legumes, nuts, chicken, turkey and fish, and use less red meat), and 25 percent from fats(9 cal/gm, mostly mono and poly unsaturated fats like in olive and canola oils), but not trans fats like in cookies, cakes and donuts, chips, hydrogenated products like crisco, solid margarines or saturated fats like in butter, cheese and egg yolks.
Try to eat a variety of foods and not the same items again and again. This way you are more likely to get enough of all essential vitamins, amino acids and minerals from diet.
Eat four or five small meals over 24 hours. (Big meals can cause a surge of insulin release leading to insulin receptor resistance which may cause weight gain and increases risk of type 2 diabetes.)
Try and include five to six servings of fruits and vegetables daily even if frozen or canned, also increase soluble fiber intake( as in fruits, oats, barley, peas and beans) and oily fish (like salmon, trout, herring, fresh tuna) because these have been linked to lower risk of heart attack, stroke, and cancer in some observational studies.
Go for water or tea/coffee instead of soda or juices. Even diet drinks are not desirable because they make you eat more calories. An animal study showed that mice fed on diet drinks versus regular drinks (and liberal diets) gained more weight when on diet drinks.
Nothing is absolutely forbidden. If you really enjoy something, incorporate it into you diet while still staying within above guidelines.
In short, eat real food (not processed), mostly vegetables and some meat, watch the serving size, and remember - moderation is the key. You can call this diet by any name you prefer.
