November 16, 2009 - 30 Comments - permalink
• Familiarize yourself with the glycemic index of carbohydrate foods – these convert to glucose rapidly – avoid high glycemic foods.
• Consume no more than 40% of daily calories from carbohydrates.
• Eliminate candy and soft drinks.
• Eliminate the use of table sugar and high-glycemic carbohydrates, which include dry cereals, breads, and other bakery products. Reserve sugar-containing desserts as rare treats on special occasions, but only when part of a 40:30:30 balanced meal.
• Appetite (hunger) cannot be controlled unless carbohydrates, in the form of sugar and starch, are controlled.
• Do not use sugar substitutes. Even though they are not carbohydrates, they behave like carbohydrates in stimulating insulin production and promoting synthesis of body fat and cholesterol.
• Obtain your dietary carbohydrates primarily from fruits and vegetables. Use low-glycemic whole grain foods sparingly.
• Substitute apples for bread. For people who consider a meal incomplete without a slice of bread or a dinner roll, try quartered or sliced apples as a satisfying and healthful substitute. They are a good bread substitute because their flavor compliments all kinds of foods, from breakfast eggs to dinner steak, and they have the added advantage of being available year round.
Zero In On Proteins
Unlike glucose (carbohydrate) and fatty acids (lipids), protein is not stored by the body. It is required to make muscle tissues, hair, nails, tendons, hormones, enzymes, antibodies, and a wide variety valuable biochemicals. Regular intake of good quality protein is necessary for optimum health.
• Protein, primarily from meat, fish, eggs, or cheese, should constitute 30 percent of the calories at every meal.
• Do not exclude animal proteins from your diet plan, if possible. Animal proteins are more efficient sources of amino acids than are vegetable proteins. In addition, they contain certain valuable nutrients that are present in limited quantity or not found at all in vegetables.
Zero In on Lipids
Dietary fats perform valuable and necessary functions in the body. They are much more than merely fuels to provide energy. Enig’s Know Your Fats (6) contains important and factual information about dietary fats that every person who is interested in a healthful diet should know.
• Dietary fats cannot make excessive body fat or cholesterol unless accompanied by excessive carbohydrate intake.
• A variety of lipids, including saturated fats, unsaturated fats, and essential fatty acids, should constitute at least 30 percent of your diet. Do not exclude from your diet whole eggs, full-fat dairy products, and reasonable amounts of fat from beef, lamb, chicken, or pork.
• Control your omega-6 fatty acid intake by reducing to a minimum products that are based on or contain vegetable seed oils, including salad oils, shortenings, and margarine. Instead, use virgin olive oil, butter, lard, and coconut oil.
• Control your trans fat intake. Trans fats are unhealthful fats. They occur primarily in refined vegetable oils, vegetable shortenings, and products labeled as containing hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.
• As a general rule, learn to read food labels so you are aware of the contents of products and can control what you eat.
• Both omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids are essential for life, but an excess of omega-6 fatty acids is detrimental to good health. For optimum health the ratio of omega-t to omega-3 fatty acids should be less than 4 to 1. Improve your omega-3 intake by including 1,000-2,000 milligrams of alpha-linolenic acid (flax oil) and 600-1,000 milligrams of EPA + DHA (fish or fish oil) a day. Fish oil supplements are especially important for people who do not eat cold-water fish at least several times per week. Simopoulos’ book (3) is a good reference for planning a healthful essential fatty acid program.
• It is extremely important to remember that an imbalance of essential fatty acids and an excess of glucose-forming foods (sugar and starch) are two of the most important nutritional causes of the modern nutritional diseases.
Review Your Use of Nutritional Supplements
Make a list in your diary of the amounts of each vitamin, mineral, other nutritional supplement, and herbs you are regularly taking. This will document your current status, enable you to evaluate your current intakes, and determine where they may be lacking, or even possibly in excess.
Murray’s Encyclopedia of Nutritional Supplements and Duke’s The Green Pharmacy are excellent sources of information about nutritional supplements and commonly used herbs, respectively.
Supplement Your Diet
At a minimum, take a daily multivitamin/mineral supplement. If you are taking prescription drugs, talk to your physician before taking any other supplements or herbs. After medical consultation and/or reviewing your current program, consider taking the following supplements in addition to a daily multivitamin/mineral supplement. The following are especially important for people past middle age:
• Vitamin C – consider taking 1,000-2,000 milligrams of vitamin C daily. Take it in divided doses, preferably as ascorbic acid crystals dissolved in a glass of water. One quarter of a teaspoon of crystals equals approximately 1,000 milligrams.
• B Vitamins – consider a daily B-complex supplement that contains at least 10 milligrams of B6, 400 micrograms of B12, and 400 micrograms of folic acid. If you cannot find a combination product, take them as individual supplements. The combination will help protect against cardiovascular damage caused by excessive blood homocysteine levels, as described by Kilmer McCully in The Heart Revolution. Individuals worried about cardiovascular damage and high cholesterol levels should also read Ravnskov’s The Cholesterol Myths and Sears’ Enter the Zone on the impact of diet on cholesterol levels.
• Calcium/Magnesium – for bone health, drink at least a quart of whole or 2 percent milk (not skim) a day. A quart provides about 1,200 milligrams of calcium and 130 milligrams of magnesium. Body needs calcium, Vitamin D, Magnesium ratio for absorption of calcium and to keep it liquid to stop calcium deposits and hardening of arteries.
Because dietary magnesium should be about half to three quarters that of calcium (for good heart health and function), take a supplement of about 500-600 milligrams of magnesium for each quart of milk you drink. If for any reason you do not drink milk, take daily supplements containing about 1,200 milligrams of calcium and 600 – 750 milligrams of magnesium.
• Fish Oil – Omega-3 keeps clots from forming and supports brain and heart functions. Also supports blood vessels in the body, especially the smaller blood vessels in the eyes and helps to prevent depression.
• Beta Carotene (1-raw carrot daily) – Food for eyes, protects against cancer and will help keep arteries clean as will 4-sticks of celery daily.
• Sulfur/Methylsulfonylmethaane (MSM) – organic sulfur in the average diet is provided only by the two sulfur amino acids in protein, cysteine and methionine. Low-protein diets are deficient or, at least, only marginal in organic sulfur. Take 750 – 1,000 milligrams of methylsulfony methane (MSM) a day. The only sulfur the body can use to make skin, hair, connective tissue, hormones, enzymes, and helper of biochemicals of all sorts is organic sulfur. The great importance of sulfur is described by Jacobs in The Miracle of MSM: The Natural Solution for Pain.
• Selenium – be cautious in supplementing with selenium. The margin of safety between the amount that is essential and the amount that is toxic is very narrow. Check the label of any vitamin and mineral supplements you are taking to make sure you are getting at least 50 micrograms and no more than 100 micrograms a day.
• Bilberry – This is an herb that supplies valuable anthocyanosides that are important for the integrity of blood vessels, especially those in the retina of the eye. The same or similar anthocyanosides are found in blueberries, strawberries, and blackberries.
Rather than taking a daily herbal preparation, consider an ice-cream-like dish that contains blueberries. The recipe is ¼ to 1/2 cup of plain full-fat or plain low-fat yogurt, 1 heaping teaspoon lecithin granules, 1 teaspoon flax oil, and ¼ to ½ cup frozen blueberries. Mix ingredients together well, and eat before the blueberries thaw completely. This is a delicious, healthful dessert for any meal.
• Alpha-Lipoic Acid – take 30-100 milligrams of alpha-lipoic acid a day. Alpha-lipoic acid is an important antioxidant and coenzyme that participates in many biochemical reactions. Although the body can make alpha-lipoic acid, its biosynthesis declines with age, while the need for it increases.
• Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ) – take a daily supplement of 30-100 milligrams of CoQ. CoQ is of vital importance in the utilization of oxygen by all cells and tissues of the body. The heart with the greatest oxygen demand of any tissue, needs a good supply of CoQ. The aging process increases the need for CoQ, but reduces the ability of the body to synthesize it.
Perhaps more important, many drugs, including the commonly prescribed statins for high cholesterol, produce deficiencies of CoQ. A deficiency of CoQ leads to heart disease, including congestive heart failure, caused by a weakened heart muscle.
• Lecithin – Lecithin, which should be classed as a food, is an inexpensive yet very important nutritional source of phospholipids. A heaping teaspoon a day mixed in with any food provides a good supply of phosphatiddyl groups. Lecithin is an excellent emulsifier that can be used in soups and stews to blend together the oil and water phases. The blueberry dessert mentioned above is a good way to take lecithin.
• Vitamin E – 100 mg daily prevents cholesterol from oxidizing.
• Trimethylglycine (TMG) – TMG is widely distributed in plants and animals, albeit in small amounts. In nutrition, it supplies methyl groups (one-carbon unites) that are required for a number of important biochemical processes. Therefore, an occasional or even daily supplement of 50 milligrams is appropriate for a reasonable supply of methyl groups.
• Artichokes – Main ingredient is cynarin same thing cholesterol lowering medicine is made from.
30 Responses to “Plan A Healthy Diet”
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