- Home
- Healthy Eating
New dietary guidelines: Lean meat OK, cut the added sugars
Just in case you did miss this recent dietary guideline update please make sure to read the following excerpt. As usual I have included the link to the original article as it appeared in the new just 2 days ago
Some Americans may not have to cut back on eggs and salt as much as they once thought, and eating lean meat is still OK. But watch the added sugars, especially the sugary drinks.
The Obama administration’s new dietary guidelines, released Thursday, back off the strictest sodium rules included in the last version, while still asserting that Americans consume too much salt. The guidelines reverse previous guidance on the dangers of dietary cholesterol and add strict new advice on sugars.
After a backlash from the meat industry and Congress, the administration ignored several suggestions from a February report by an advisory committee of doctors and nutrition experts. That panel suggested calling for an environmentally friendly diet lower in red and processed meats and de-emphasized lean meats in its list of proteins that are part of a healthy diet.
But, as in the previous years, the government still says lean meats are part of a healthy eating pattern.
Released every five years, the guidelines are intended to help Americans prevent disease and obesity. They inform everything from food package labels to subsidized school lunches to your doctor’s advice. And the main message hasn’t changed much over the years: Eat your fruits and vegetables. Whole grains and seafood, too. And keep sugar, fats and salt in moderation.
This year, one message the government wants to send is that people should figure out what type of healthy eating style works for them, while still hewing to the main recommendations. The Agriculture Department, which released the guidelines along with the Department of Health and Human Services, is also releasing a tweaked version of its healthy “My Plate” icon to include a new slogan: “My Wins.”
“Small changes can add up to big differences,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
One new recommendation is that added sugar should be 10 percent of daily calories. That’s about 200 calories a day, or about the amount in one 16-ounce sugary drink…
Rethinking Weight Loss
For those who struggle with their weight which I guess must be about 6 out of 10 people , here’s a book you might want to read too:
David Ludwig often uses an analogy when he talks about weight loss: Human beings are not toaster ovens. If we were, then the types of calories we consumed would not matter, and calorie counting would be the most effective way to lose weight.
Dr. Ludwig, an obesity expert and professor of nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, argues that weight gain begins when people eat the wrong types of food, which throws their hormones out of whack and sets off a cycle of cravings, hunger and bingeing. In his new book, “Always Hungry?,” he argues that the primary driver of obesity today is not an excess of calories per se, but an excess of high glycemic foods like sugar, refined grains and other processed carbohydrates.
Recently, we caught up with Dr. Ludwig to talk about which foods act as “fertilizer for fat cells,” why he thinks the conventional wisdom on weight loss is all wrong, and long-term strategies for weight loss. Here are edited excerpts from our conversation.
Q. What is the basic message of your book?
A. The basic premise is that overeating doesn’t make you fat. The process of getting fat makes you overeat. It may sound radical, but there’s literally a century of science to support this point. Simply cutting back on calories as we’ve been told actually makes the situation worse. When we cut back on calories, our body responds by increasing hunger and slowing metabolism. It responds in an effort to save calories. And that makes weight loss progressively more and more difficult on a standard low calorie diet. It creates a battle between mind and metabolism that we’re doomed to lose.
Q. But we’ve all been told that obesity is caused by eating too much. Is that not the case?
A. We think of obesity as a state of excess, but it’s really more akin to a state of starvation. If the fat cells are storing too many calories, the brain doesn’t have access to enough to make sure that metabolism runs properly. So the brain makes us hungry in an attempt to solve that problem, and we overeat and feel better temporarily. But if the fat cells continue to take in too many calories, then we get stuck in this never-ending cycle of overeating and weight gain. The problem isn’t that there are too many calories in the fat cells, it’s that there’s too few in the bloodstream, and cutting back on calories can’t work…
No diet, no detox: how to relearn the art of eating
Here’s an excerpt of an excellent article which was just published in the English quality newspaper The Guardian which I highly recommend you read for I am sure you will find it very interesting as well:
Let’s start with the sub headline:
“Our relationship with food has become disordered and obsessive. As the new year brings diet madness, it needn’t be such a struggle to learn good eating habits”
So many of our anxieties around diet take the form of a search for the perfect food, the one that will cure all our ills. Eat this! Don’t eat that! We obsess about the properties of various ingredients: the protein, the omega oils, the vitamins. But nutrients only count when a person picks up food and eats it. How we eat – how we approach food – is what really matters. If we are going to change our diets, we first have to relearn the art of eating, which is a question of psychology as much as nutrition. We have to find a way to want to eat what’s good for us.
Our tastes follow us around like a comforting shadow. They seem to tell us who we are. Maybe this is why we act as if our core attitudes to eating are set in stone. We make frequent attempts – more or less half-hearted – to change what we eat, but almost no effort to change how we feel about food: how well we deal with hunger, how strongly attached we are to sugar, our emotions on being served a small portion. We try to eat more vegetables, but we do not try to make ourselves enjoy vegetables more, maybe because there’s a near-universal conviction that it is not possible to learn new tastes and shed old ones. Yet nothing could be further from the truth.
All the foods that you regularly eat are ones that you learned to eat. Everyone starts life drinking milk. After that, it’s all up for grabs. From our first year of life, human tastes are astonishingly diverse. But we haven’t paid anything like enough attention to another consequence of being omnivores, which is that eating is not something we are born instinctively knowing how to do. It is something we learn. A parent feeding a baby is training them how food should taste. At the most basic level, we have to learn what is food and what is poison. We have to learn how to satisfy our hunger and also when to stop eating. Out of all the choices available to us as omnivores, we have to figure out which foods are likable, which are lovable and which are disgusting. From these preferences, we create our own pattern of eating, as distinctive as a signature…
Tired of Feeling Sluggish? Top 7 Foods You Need to Include in Your Diet Now
If you are tired of feeling sluggish, depressed or disappointed in your appearance, it has to do mostly with your diet. You know the saying, “Garbage in, Garbage out.” There is a solution, but it takes you to make a decision. The decision is to break out from your unhealthy eating habits and start making changes for a healthier lifestyle.
Number One – Quinoa
quinoa salad
Benefits of quinoa are that it is a good source of high-quality protein plus 9 essential amino acids. It also contains potassium, magnesium and manganese. Weight watchers can eat quinoa in place of rice, pasta or oats. A cup of cooked quinoa only has about 250 calories.
What’s great about this superfood is it is also super versatile. You can make it sweet or savory and you can eat it for breakfast, lunch or dinner. It’s definitely an “obedient ingredient” because you can add anything to it like nuts, fruits, meat, vegetables, cinnamon, or feta cheese.
Number Two – Lemon
Instead of having soda or fruit juice every lunch, drink lemon water instead. Lemons are packed with vitamin C, fiber, calcium, iron, magnesium and potassium. They contain more potassium than apples and grapes. Because of the high levels of vitamin C that lemon contains, it can help strengthen the immune system, support brain and nerve function, cleanse your system, fight viral infections and improve digestion.
Number Three – Blueberry
This super fruit is known for its antioxidants properties. Blueberries contain more antioxidants than most fresh fruits and vegetables. They help strengthen the immune system by reducing free radicals from exposure to smoke, pesticides and toxins. Aside from a stronger immune system, eating blueberries can help slow down vision loss, break down belly fat and support bone health.
Number Four – Broccoli
This vegetable is packed with folate and phytonutrients. It is also rich in vitamin C, an antioxidant that eliminates free radicals that can damage cells in the body and vitamin A that is linked to good eyesight. Broccoli is an excellent source of calcium, potassium, magnesium and vitamin K as well. A cup of this vegetable boosts the immune system with its high amounts of beta-carotene and trace minerals such as zinc and selenium.
Number 5 – Salmon
If you don’t like fish maybe you will change your mind when you find out the health benefits of salmon. This superfood is good for your heart. It is a rich source of omega-3 fatty acids which can help lower your cholesterol. Eating salmon can also help speed up your metabolism, prevent muscle degeneration, and multiple sclerosis as well as cancer. Just two servings of this tasty fish every week will allow you to reap its full benefits to your heart health and overall well being.
Number 6 – Potatoes
Potatoes are a healthy root food with loads of butter and other dairy condiments. Potatoes are packed with protein, calcium, niacin and vitamin C. The vitamin C can help repair cell damage.
This nightshade vegetable can also be eaten to relieve inflammation in the intestines and digestive track. Potatoes can also help improve brain functions because of its Omega-3, vitamin B complex and amino acids contents.
Number 7 – Spinach
spinach salad
“Healthy Eating” Trends You Should Skip in 2016
Are you all set for the start of the new year? Have you drawn up your new years’ resolutions yet? If so than losing weight by changing your eating habits and finally getting back to some serious exercising is probably on that list. Before you stick that list on your fridge I recommend you read this interesting article from GoodHousekeeping about those healthy eating” trends
1. Paleo Products
Enough with the “bullet-proof coffee” and “Paleo-wraps.” Most of these marketing-heavy products are just that: All fluff. (And did I mention high in calories and saturated fat?). Most paleo products swap coconut for whole-grains or dairy — an easy way to add calories from fat to an otherwise healthy food! While there’s nothing wrong with some good-for-you fat in moderation (see point #6), the paleo product industry has seriously capitalized on the fat-frenzy… which in the long term will likely lead to a tighter belt and an emptier wallet (did I mention most of these are super expensive?!). Skip ’em to save unnecessary calories … and dollars.
2. Weight-Loss Teas
File this under, “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” Just … no. Skip these herbal teas that promise a 10lb weight loss in the next hour, dropping a dress size by tomorrow, or fitting into your skinny jeans in time for NYE. Drink tea you love for taste (and other health benefits!), not for weight-loss.
3. Juice Masquerading as Water
Coconut water, watermelon water, maple water … they may have a healthier surname, but they’re just juice, dressed up for Halloween and pretending to be water 365 days of the year. While many are lower in sugar than juices from concentrate, you’re still better off eating your calories and drinking water or seltzer — especially if you’re looking to lose weight (as many of us are) and decrease your risk of chronic disease (all of us). The only people who should drink the occasional juice-water? Athletes (not you, my regular gym-goer!). If you’re exercising vigorously for more than one hour daily, you have my blessing to drink these as what they are: Sports drinks…
Read on
4 Healthy Snack Ideas to Bring to Work
One of the most difficult aspects of sticking to a strict, balanced diet is keeping that balance when snacking at work. Long days at work often need to be broken up, and people snack to keep their energy levels up or often just to break up the day. While it can be quite easy to carefully plan the main meals of your day, planning your in between meal snacks can often prove problematic. However, it can be done. With a little preparation and the right mind-set, you can ensure that those mid-morning or late afternoon snacks don’t ruin your diet! Let’s take a look at a number of simple snacks that are easy to prepare and tasty to eat!
Mixed Fruit
Fruit is an excellent source of vitamins and nutrients, and yet it’s something that most of us don’t eat enough of. Bringing an apple or banana in to work involves no preparation, little cost, and is a tasty way of boosting your energy levels. For those looking for a little more variety, why not prepare a fruit salad. Chop up your favourite fruit or berries and you can have a delicious treat that won’t mess up your daily diet!
Yoghurt
Yoghurts can be a superb source of probiotics, vital for maintaining a healthy gut. Much like fruit, yoghurts involve little no preparation, and also offer a range of flavours for a varied experience from day to day. Similarly, by choosing healthy yoghurts, you can ensure that your afternoon snack doesn’t ruin your appetite, nor your waist line!
Smoothies
Smoothies can be a superb way of treating yourself during the working day. By preparing a smoothie to bring to work, you can ensure that you are getting enough fruit and veg in your diet, and give yourself an excellent energy boost when the afternoon lag sets in! Smoothies also allow you to vary your snack from day to day, ensuring that every day feels like a new treat!
Salads
Salads don’t have to be grand, extravagant affairs. A simple salad can consist of a hard-boiled egg and just a few of your favourite vegetables. The preparation time for a salad snack is minimal, but the benefits are huge. Tasty and healthy, salads are one of the most under-utilised workplace snacks
So why not ditch the chocolate bar and crisps for a healthy, easy to prepare workplace snack!
Do You Eat Enough Fruits and Vegetables Every Day?
Many of us grew up with parents and teachers advocating that we should be eating fruit and vegetables 5 times a day. “One of your 5 a day” has long been an advertising slogan for branded foodstuffs, more often than not slapped on an item that really shouldn’t be considered a fruit or veg helping. Yet, in adulthood, we often forget that which we learned as a child. Few people doubt that fruits and vegetables are a good source of vitamins and nutrients, but does that mean that we are eating enough of them?
Consensus differs amongst academics regarding specific quantities, but the most up to date recommendations on this subject would advocate that an adult eat five servings of vegetables and two servings of fruit every day. That might sound like a lot, but when you break it down it really shouldn’t be considered all that much. In fact, it should be a basic standard.
When considering breakfast, many people will stick to that which they know. This often involves toast, cereal or even nothing more than a cup of coffee. Whether breakfast is or is not the most important meal of the day may be debatable, but there is no doubt that a good breakfast sets your body up for the day ahead. Very few people consider fruit for their breakfast, when it should be a staple. Switching a bowl of cereal full of added sugars for a banana could make a huge difference in your overall diet.
Lunch is a great time to load up on vegetables. Again, all too often people repeat the same mistake that they make at breakfast time. Deli made sandwiches and rolls may taste nice, but they are packed full of carbs and calories, and are often severely lacking in proper servings of vegetables. Swapping the sandwich for a homemade salad can be the perfect way to redress an imbalance you may have in your diet. Vegetables also make for ideal snacks. Ditch the packet of popcorn, the biscuits or the fizzy drink you have to keep you going between lunch and dinner and swap it for a piece of fruit, or even a fruit and veg smoothie.
These are all small changes you can make to your diet, but these small changes can do wonders for your health, and your waistline. Fruit and vegetables should be at the core of our daily dietary intake, and yet they are all too often forgotten about for their more attractive carb-cousins. Ask yourself this; are you eating 5 servings of veg and 2 of fruit every day? If not, you’re probably not eating enough fruit and veg.
Become a water warrior
It’s no secret that we need water. It doesn’t just detoxify and hydrate us, it literally keeps us alive. The cornerstone of good health is water and proper hydration. In fact, drinking the correct amount of water is essential to live life at your optimum level.
When most people think of water, they think about hydrating their system. But the reality is that water does more than just hydrate the system, it actually flushes the system. What’s the difference? Hydrating is essentially adding moisture or water to something, while flushing means that there is so much water in the system that it literally pushes the bad things out of your system.
Flushing yourself with water is recommended for getting rid of excess fluid in the body, (also known as ‘water weight’), oxygenating the blood, aiding in the digestion of food and even keeping dirt from getting into your eyes. Just to be clear, flushing your system does not mean that you drink as much water as you can as fast as you can. When you drink the correct amount of water throughout the day every day, you are flushing your system.
Of course, when most people desire water the most is when they are in the middle of a heavy workout. While it might seem like it is simple thirst that has you reaching for your water bottle at the gym, it might be even more. Water is able to regulate the body temperature and fight muscle fatigue. Even if your mind feels like it is simply thirsty for water, your body likely has many reasons it wants you to hydrate during these times.
Another great reason to drink water is to keep your bowel movements regular. While this is not a popular topic there is no way around it, everybody has to move their bowels every day to be healthy. Only when you are moving your bowels every day is your body able to remove all of the waste buildup that gets created on a daily basis.
Do you ever find yourself reaching for that second helping even though you know you are full? Water can save you from that. Because it helps you to feel fuller faster, drinking a bottle of water before your meals can help you to eat only what you truly want to eat during your meals.
in addition to drinking throughout the day try drinking a bottle of water first thing in the morning and before you go to bed to really feel the cleansing effects, for an extra kick add a few drops of lemon to a glass of warm water first thing in the morning – this is a great detoxifier.
Most of us are already aware of the importance of water to our well being, but struggle to drink enough and are actually walking around in a dehydrated state. Many people think of dehydration in relation to being violently ill and needing to be hospitalized, but that is just not the case. Many of us are suffering from some level of dehydration and don’t even know it. If you have dry skin, blackheads, brittle nails, or even itchy eyes you may be dehydrated.
If you get bored with taste of plain water, try some simple fruit infusions to liven up the taste such as lemon or strawberries. A bit of stevia can also help. Herbal teas can also serve as a substitute for water, although nothing is as pure as the real thing It is also important to note that coffees and soda cannot substitute for water.
The healthiest way to consume water on the go is by investing in a portable water bottle with a glass insert or one made from stainless steel. Keep this bottle with you and refill it throughout the day.
The Benefits of Superfoods
What are superfoods? They are foods that are able to take your health to the next level. When a food is classified as a ‘superfood’ it means that it is packed with more nutrients and health benefits than most other healthy options. It is no wonder so many people swear by them.
How can this help you in your paleo journey? It’s simple math really, when you add two or more amazing things together you get better results. For instance, the paleo diet is great for overall strength and health, while superfoods tend to be rich in nutrients and other extremely healthy things. When you add superfoods to your already healthy paleo diet, you will be supercharging your healthy efforts.
And starting can be easy, just adding one superfood to each meal is enough for you to really see a difference in your health – as long as it is paleo friendly of course.
What superfoods should you be adding to your healthy lifestyle?
1. Blueberries – packed to the brim with vitamins, soluble fiber and phytochemicals these little blue specks can be your new best friend. But don’t discount the other members of the berry family, cherries, cranberries, blackberries and strawberries are also important for your body. To get the healthiest berries you can find, always choose organic.
2. Kiwifruit – kiwi is an easy way to increase your intake of important vitamins, including vitamin A, vitamin C, and vitamin K. But the benefits of kiwifruit doesn’t stop there, you also get a healthy dose of calcium, magnesium and antioxidants. But one of the best, and often overlooked, things about kiwifruit is that it acts as a mild laxative, which is essential for cleaning the body.
3. Kale – love it or hate it, kale is definitely a great superfood. Not only does it have vitamins and calcium but when it becomes part of your everyday life it can also reduce your cholesterol.
4. Salmon – because they contain omega-3 fatty acids, salmon are considered an essential superfood by many. When you eat it, you are lowering your chances of stroke and heart disease, two silent killers that change thousands of lives every year.
5. Coconut oil is very nutrient dense and makes a superior cooking oil. It’s high in short and medium chain fatty acids which are more easily digested. It is thought to be helpful for boosting metabolism and the immune system.
These are just a few of the superfoods that can make a difference in your new paleo life. While some of these foods, like salmon, can easily be staples of the paleo lifestyle there are others, like kale, are not always given the attention they deserve.
Paleo Detoxifying Foods You Should Eat Every Day
Every day, our bodies are bombarded by a variety of pollutants in our environment. Unfortunately much of it is as unavoidable. This is why it is so important to add detoxifying foods to your everyday life. If you aren’t eating to cleanse your body from all of the bad things that you are exposed to each day, your health can literally be affected. But there is good news, you don’t need to go on a fancy or expensive detox diet, and you don’t need to starve yourself. You just need to include some detoxifying foods into your everyday life.
So what are some of the best foods to get your body detoxing?
1. Turmeric – it contains powerful medicinal properties that are great for reducing inflammation. It also contains Circumin as its active ingredient, which is a strong antioxidant. If you don’t like the taste of turmeric in food, try it in chai tea.
2. Avocados – filled with healthy fats, avacados can help to relieve constipation and get your bowels moving. Having regular bowel movements can help minimize the buildup of toxins in your body.
3. Cauliflower – loaded with antioxidants, cauliflower is a great addition to any plate. It isn’t just healthy, it has also been known to increase heart health and fight cancer.
Some easy ways to enjoy cauliflower include roasted, shredded into ‘rice’ or blended into soup.
4. Walnuts – are a good source of glutathione and an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids. Walnuts can boost your brainpower and help to clean the liver. While you may not want to eat it at every meal, as it can be fattening, it has huge benefits when it is added into your favorite foods.
5. Carrots – you likely know that carrots are supposed to be good for your eyes, but did you know they are good for other things too? Carrots are not only a great source of antioxidants, they are also good at fighting inflammation, protecting your liver, and even keeping your brain healthy.
6. Broccoli – usually recognized as a cancer preventative, broccoli offers many amazing detoxifying benefits for the body. Not only is is it high in fiber, allowing for the body’s natural detoxification through waste elimination, it is also high in water content, and a powerful antioxidant.
7. Lemon – you can’t talk about detoxifying foods without talking about the lemon. It is recommended that you drink a glass of warm water with lemon first thing every morning to boost your digestion, help your body to flush out toxins, and keep your liver healthy.
8. Beets – believe it or not, beets are a great way to detox the body. Beets not only prompt the liver to start letting go of toxins, they also help to flush those toxins out of the body so they do not get reabsorbed.
One of the best things you can do for your body is to start detoxifying on a regular basis. Find ways to add these foods to your meals and you will reap the benefits.