Photo courtesy of moriza

The Building Blocks of a Super Healthy Diet (with a sample meal plan)

Most people know how to eat healthy, and know that they should — it’s just that when it comes down to implementing this knowledge, there’s a bridge that needs to be crossed from knowledge to action.

How do you actually eat healthy, instead of just knowing that you should eat healthy?

Create a meal plan, constructed with super healthy foods that you enjoy eating.

Now, there are three parts of that solution, if you look closely, and all three parts are equally important:

Create a meal plan. Without this, you’ll just know what to eat, vaguely, but you need to actually make a plan and implement it (meaning, go shopping for the foods in the plan and actually cook the foods and eat them).
Super healthy foods. A meal plan without this doesn’t get you to where you want to go. Build your meals around stuff that’s really good for you. You can add other stuff, of course, but the super healthy stuff should be the majority of the food.
Food you really love. This is key. If you don’t enjoy the foods, you won’t stick with the plan for long. No one can eat food they don’t enjoy for more than a month or so (usually less). It’s why most diets fail — anyone can stick with a diet for a couple of weeks, but if you feel that you are suffering by eating it, you’ll fall off it after a little while. Instead, make sure you love your food. Add variety, of course, and mix up the plan every few weeks, but stick with foods you love.

Given those simple components, the solution doesn’t seem so hard, does it? And with a super healthy meal plan like this — one that you love — you can pair it with some exercise and get healthier than ever.

What follows are some of my building blocks. They aren’t the only possible building blocks, and you shouldn’t use them exclusively, but they’re a good starting point for anyone. Below those building blocks are some sample meals you can use, but only if you love these foods like I do. Instead of following it exactly, use it as a starting place, as a few ideas you can use to construct your own meal plan — with foods you love, not ones that I love.

Super Healthy Building Blocks

Spinach and other greens. Spinach is my favorite of the greens, but other good ones include kale, bok choi, collards, dark green lettuce (skip iceberg), and other similar greens. Try to build a couple of your meals around these greens, as they are high in fiber, vitamins and minerals. And best yet: super low in calories. You can eat a whole plate of greens and while they can fill you up, you couldn’t possibly get fat on them (unless you added a bunch of butter or fatty dressing or something like that).

Avocadoes. I love these things. Full of good fats and good flavor, avocadoes are perfect for salads, sandwiches, wraps and more.

Tomatoes. There are other good fruits and veggies, but tomatoes are one of my favorites, not only for their nutritional content but because of the flavor they add to any dish — salads, sandwiches, pastas, soups, anything.

Fruits. Don’t worry about their “carb content”. Fruits are incredible snacks, because they are filled with fiber and vitamins but are low in calories. I eat lots of apples, oranges, bananas, mangoes, pears, grapes, melons. I like to get a big back of small apples and just munch on them whenever I’m hungry. I also add fruits to all kinds of uncooked meals, chopped up or as a side dish.

Berries. They’re fruits, but they’re so special to me that I add them as a separate item. I absolutely adore berries. They are like a dessert to me, eaten cold and slowly and with my eyes closed. I add them to cereal, yogurt, smoothies, desserts, oatmeal and more … and of course just eat them by themselves.

Nuts. Full of fiber and good fats and protein. I like to chop them up and put them in hot cereal or salads or stir frys, or just eat them raw and whole as snacks (almonds are my favorites). I also enjoy almond butter instead of peanut butter (although I eat both).

Beans. Great sources of fiber and protein, low in calories, you can eat beans all day long. I like them in chili, soups, tacos and more. Get a variety — red, black, pinto, white, lentils.

Whole grains. This is a broad category that includes all kinds of cereals, breads, wraps, brown rice, pizza dough, and more. Try to go for as much whole grain as possible — if you see “wheat flour” or “enriched wheat flour” it’s not as good. I especially like sprouted grains, such as Ezekiel sprouted bread or English muffins or cereals. Oatmeal is good (avoid instant) as is muesli.

Olive or canola oil. You need fats, but they should be the good kind. Avoid saturated, although a little saturated fat is fine. I usually use olive oil or canola oil, although there are other good ones too. Again, nuts and avocadoes also provide good fats. I also use ground flaxseed on lots of things for fiber and good fats.

Lean protein. As a vegetarian, I eat lean vegetable protein — lots of soy protein and beans and nuts. Whole grains also contain protein, as do other veggies. It’s not hard to meet your daily requirements, even with lots of exercise raising your requirements. However, if you’re not vegetarian, fish and lean poultry are best, and lean red meat can be included if you don’t eat too much of it. Note: Please, let’s not get into another debate about soy protein or meat! Let those sleeping dogs lie.

Lean calcium. I try to stick to soy sources, but that’s not necessary for good health. However, try to stick with lower-fat versions, as whole dairy can have too much saturated fat. Lower-fat milk, yogurt, and cheese are good choices. Soy milk and yogurt are great because they are very low in saturated fat.

A Sample Meal Plan

This is not something you should just adopt wholesale, without making changes. In fact, if these are foods you don’t like, ditch the whole thing, but use it just to get an idea of what you can do. These are foods I love to eat, but you should choose your own.

Also remember that I’m not a dietician. I’ve run these meals through online calculators, and most of the time you’ll get plenty of all the things you’ll need, from protein and healthy fats to the major vitamins and minerals, including calcium and iron. But don’t take my advice as the advice of an expert.

Each day, you would choose one of the meals from each category (more from the snacks), or mix them up if you like. Be sure to get a variety, and change the options every few weeks or so.

Breakfasts

Hot oatmeal (using rolled oats) with chopped fruits or dried fruits, flaxseed, and/or berries.
Kashi cereal with soymilk and berries or other fruits.
Sprouted grain toast with almond butter, chopped fruits on the side.
Scrambled tofu with tomatoes, mushrooms, spinach, onions. (Try this recipe).
Fried brown rice — fry up with olive oil, onions, mushrooms, green veggies, tofu, soy sauce or tamari sauce. You can throw in some corn or carrots or other veggies.

Lunches

Veggie sandwich or wrap. Can have tomatoes, spinach or other greens, avocadoes, hummus, bell peppers, maybe some dijon mustard and/or Veganaise. Any combo that works for you. On thick whole grain bread or whole grain wrap.
Whole wheat pita with hummus. Add tomatoes and raw spinach and sprouts.
Veggie burger. Gardenburger is my favorite brand. On a sprouted grain bun, with dijon mustard and ketchup and maybe a touch of Veganaise, lots of veggies (greens, sprouts, tomatoes and avocadoes are my favorites). Add some homemade sweet potato fries (use olive oil and a little salt) if you’re feeling decadent. These fries also go well with the sandwich or wrap.
Amy’s Kitchen lunches. For when you’re lazy or in a hurry. Amy’s Kitchen has a whole variety of fairly healthy, vegetarian lunches made from whole foods. Very little processed stuff. The only weakness is that it’s usually high in sodium, but if the rest of your day is low in sodium (as most of these dishes are), then that’s not a worry.
Big salad. I like to use spinach or other greens, tomatoes, avocadoes, feta cheese, nuts, maybe some chopped fruit or berries, and a little bit of light vinaigrette (Newman’s Own is my favorite).
Leftovers from dinners or fried brown rice (see breakfasts)

Snacks

Fruits.
Chopped veggies. Carrots, broccoli, edamame are some of my favs. Dip in hummus if you like.
Nuts. Almonds are my favorites.
Protein shake. Good after a strength workout. I use soy protein, although whey is also a good choice, along with soy milk, frozen berries, banana and ground flaxseed.
Clif Bar. Good for before or after a workout (or during a really long workout, for that matter). My favorites are apricot or cranberry apple cherry.
Yogurt with berries or fruits and nuts.

Dinners

Tofu veggie stir fry. Just stir fry some onions, cubed tofu, and chopped veggies — various greens such as kale or bok choi work well, as do broccoli, bell peppers, carrots, anything really. Add some soy sauce or tamari, black pepper and anything else you’d like to add — nuts, sesame seed oil, ginger, garlic, a little honey all work well in different combinations. Serve over brown rice if you like.
Tacos. Some low-fat refried beans and/or black beans on soft corn tortillas with salsa (try Newman’s Own salsa or Amy’s), greens, tomatoes, maybe corn or even some Sour Supreme.
Chili. Here’s my veggie recipe. Great with brown rice or corn bread or on its own.
Spaghetti or other pasta. Cook any kind of pasta you like. Cook some onions with diced tomatoes and bell peppers and some tomato sauce and basil. Add some fresh Parmesan if you like. For a meatier version, cook some veggie “ground beef” (Bocca or MorningStar) with onions and then add some pre-made pasta sauce.
Homemade pizza. Get a pre-made whole-wheat pizza crust, add some pre-made spaghetti sauce, and then any chopped veggies you like, brushed with olive oil. Kale, broccoli, spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, bell peppers all work great. Add some grated fresh cheese if you like.
Leo’s fabulous veggie soup. Simple awesome. Here’s the recipe. Will last you several days, even with a ridiculously large family like mine.

What are your favorite super healthy building blocks and recipes? Share in the comments!—
If you liked this article, please share it on del.icio.us, StumbleUpon or Digg. I’d appreciate it. :)

The Building Blocks of a Super Healthy Diet (with a sample meal plan)

How do you actually eat healthy, instead of just knowing that you should eat healthy?

Create a meal plan, constructed with super healthy foods that you enjoy eating.

Now, there are three parts of that solution, if you look closely, and all three parts are equally important:

Create a meal plan. Without this, you’ll just know what to eat, vaguely, but you need to actually make a plan and implement it (meaning, go shopping for the foods in the plan and actually cook the foods and eat them).
Super healthy foods. A meal plan without this doesn’t get you to where you want to go. Build your meals around stuff that’s really good for you. You can add other stuff, of course, but the super healthy stuff should be the majority of the food.
Food you really love. This is key. If you don’t enjoy the foods, you won’t stick with the plan for long. No one can eat food they don’t enjoy for more than a month or so (usually less). It’s why most diets fail — anyone can stick with a diet for a couple of weeks, but if you feel that you are suffering by eating it, you’ll fall off it after a little while. Instead, make sure you love your food. Add variety, of course, and mix up the plan every few weeks, but stick with foods you love.

Super Healthy Building Blocks

Avocadoes. I love these things. Full of good fats and good flavor, avocadoes are perfect for salads, sandwiches, wraps and more.

Beans. Great sources of fiber and protein, low in calories, you can eat beans all day long. I like them in chili, soups, tacos and more. Get a variety — red, black, pinto, white, lentils.

A Sample Meal Plan

Each day, you would choose one of the meals from each category (more from the snacks), or mix them up if you like. Be sure to get a variety, and change the options every few weeks or so.

Breakfasts

Hot oatmeal (using rolled oats) with chopped fruits or dried fruits, flaxseed, and/or berries.
Kashi cereal with soymilk and berries or other fruits.
Sprouted grain toast with almond butter, chopped fruits on the side.
Scrambled tofu with tomatoes, mushrooms, spinach, onions. (Try this recipe).
Fried brown rice — fry up with olive oil, onions, mushrooms, green veggies, tofu, soy sauce or tamari sauce. You can throw in some corn or carrots or other veggies.

Lunches

Veggie sandwich or wrap. Can have tomatoes, spinach or other greens, avocadoes, hummus, bell peppers, maybe some dijon mustard and/or Veganaise. Any combo that works for you. On thick whole grain bread or whole grain wrap.
Whole wheat pita with hummus. Add tomatoes and raw spinach and sprouts.
Veggie burger. Gardenburger is my favorite brand. On a sprouted grain bun, with dijon mustard and ketchup and maybe a touch of Veganaise, lots of veggies (greens, sprouts, tomatoes and avocadoes are my favorites). Add some homemade sweet potato fries (use olive oil and a little salt) if you’re feeling decadent. These fries also go well with the sandwich or wrap.
Amy’s Kitchen lunches. For when you’re lazy or in a hurry. Amy’s Kitchen has a whole variety of fairly healthy, vegetarian lunches made from whole foods. Very little processed stuff. The only weakness is that it’s usually high in sodium, but if the rest of your day is low in sodium (as most of these dishes are), then that’s not a worry.
Big salad. I like to use spinach or other greens, tomatoes, avocadoes, feta cheese, nuts, maybe some chopped fruit or berries, and a little bit of light vinaigrette (Newman’s Own is my favorite).
Leftovers from dinners or fried brown rice (see breakfasts)

Snacks

Fruits.
Chopped veggies. Carrots, broccoli, edamame are some of my favs. Dip in hummus if you like.
Nuts. Almonds are my favorites.
Protein shake. Good after a strength workout. I use soy protein, although whey is also a good choice, along with soy milk, frozen berries, banana and ground flaxseed.
Clif Bar. Good for before or after a workout (or during a really long workout, for that matter). My favorites are apricot or cranberry apple cherry.
Yogurt with berries or fruits and nuts.

Dinners

Tofu veggie stir fry. Just stir fry some onions, cubed tofu, and chopped veggies — various greens such as kale or bok choi work well, as do broccoli, bell peppers, carrots, anything really. Add some soy sauce or tamari, black pepper and anything else you’d like to add — nuts, sesame seed oil, ginger, garlic, a little honey all work well in different combinations. Serve over brown rice if you like.
Tacos. Some low-fat refried beans and/or black beans on soft corn tortillas with salsa (try Newman’s Own salsa or Amy’s), greens, tomatoes, maybe corn or even some Sour Supreme.
Chili. Here’s my veggie recipe. Great with brown rice or corn bread or on its own.
Spaghetti or other pasta. Cook any kind of pasta you like. Cook some onions with diced tomatoes and bell peppers and some tomato sauce and basil. Add some fresh Parmesan if you like. For a meatier version, cook some veggie “ground beef” (Bocca or MorningStar) with onions and then add some pre-made pasta sauce.
Homemade pizza. Get a pre-made whole-wheat pizza crust, add some pre-made spaghetti sauce, and then any chopped veggies you like, brushed with olive oil. Kale, broccoli, spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, bell peppers all work great. Add some grated fresh cheese if you like.
Leo’s fabulous veggie soup. Simple awesome. Here’s the recipe. Will last you several days, even with a ridiculously large family like mine.

Spewed into the world on 28 July 2008 in Health & Fitness |
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Brilliant comments (113)

Laurel Vogel at Ninth Elegy Says:

July 28th, 2008, 22:47 pm

Thanks for this Leo–perfect timing as this is my next goal and meeting with someone tomorrow to go over just this thing. It’s like you read my mind. In gratitude!

Fit Bottomed Girls Says:

July 28th, 2008, 22:48 pm

Great post! I’m not a vegetarian, but I try to make at least one meal a day vegetarian and eat beans as protein. i think it’s a good compromise. :)

Also, I’m a huge fan of organic, low-sodium cans of soup for lunch. Pair that with some sliced fresh veggies and yogurt, and you’re good to go for the afternoon!

Debs - Food Is Love Says:

July 28th, 2008, 22:49 pm

I love this blog, and rarely disagree with things I see here. I like your take on food enjoyment in this post, and your goal of helping your readers eat healthful, wholesome foods that they’ll enjoy, but I respectfully disagree with your advocacy of low-fat dairy over high fat, and avoidance of saturated fats.

While that is a common recommendation, evidence is actually quite to the contrary about saturated fat. Looking at dairy specifically, low-fat dairy seems detrimental, and high-fat dairy actually seems to be protective in terms of cardiovascular/metabolic health risks. Check out this study which shows a strong association between high-fat dairy and lower metabolic risk, and this one which suggests that not only is high fat dairy helpful for women with ovulatory fertility problems, but that low fat dairy can be detrimental for such women.

Good quality (grass-fed, organic) animal fat also has the essential fat-soluble vitamins we need especially A, D and K2. And cultures have traditionally valued and thrived on good quality saturated fats like lard, coconut oil, and butter. The saturated fat in meat and dairy isn’t the problem with our diet. Sugars, (refined) grains, and refined vegetable oil are.

Incidentally, there is also some evidence that whole grains aren’t all that much better for you than refined ones, although in moderation sprouted grains, fermented grains, and some not-quite-grains like quinoa and buckwheat seem to be not so bad.

My personal guidelines on nutrition:
- Traditional foods on which cultures have depended are better than refined and processed innovations
- Foods that are similar to those one which our hunter-gatherer ancestors thrived are optimal.
- Eat well and share food to build community

I prioritize simple, fresh, unprocessed foods and fermented foods. Butter, meat, liver, vegetables, eggs, berries, fruits, cheese, fish, nuts, soaked or sprouted beans, herbs, spices… Delicious and good for you.

Debs
Food Is Love

Leo Says:

July 28th, 2008, 22:59 pm

@Debs: Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this. I would agree that if you have a high-quality diet in general, including high-quality meats and dairy, you’d be healthy.

However, my post is aimed at people who are more likely to be eating the standard “American diet” of fast food and too much meat and dairy. That diet has too much saturated fat, and that’s known to cause cardiovascular disease. I’m hoping to help people lower those risks.

If you keep saturated fats to reasonable levels, as it sounds like you do, there isn’t any problem with it.

You talk about traditional foods … and I agree, but I would like to point out that traditional cultures have very little meat and dairy … as did ancient humans. Dairy and meat were much harder to come by in ancient times than they are now … they didn’t have industrial dairy and meat factories … and so those types of food were not a health hazard then.

Ancient humans had to hunt for meat without guns, and that’s pretty difficult. When they did make a kill, they would eat all the meat before it went bad (no refrigeration), and then store the excess calories as fat to prepare for longer periods of not enough saturated fat, as their diet between meat was mostly vegetables, grains, nuts, etc … and therefore, when we eat fatty meat, we tend to store the excess calories as fat.

All this is to say that your diet is healthy, but the modern diet of excessive meats and dairy … as well as the processed sugars and grains and oils you mentioned … are not healthy for us.

Writer Dad Says:

July 28th, 2008, 23:02 pm

Leo’s right about the American diet; it’s terrible. I’m proud to say it’s been almost a year since I’ve rolled down my window for a meal. I can follow just about any plan, as long as I follow the first rule. If I have a menu to follow, it’s easy. Otherwise, it’s always way harder than it needs to be.

metroknow - AlmostFit.com Says:

July 28th, 2008, 23:05 pm

I strongly agree with Deb as well. Whole foods are a much better choice, and the right kinds of saturated fats are critical (grass fed, pasture raised, and so forth). We are now buying all of our eggs locally from a local farmer, as well as our meat. We also recently purchased pasture-raised chickens direct from the farmer, and it was a substantial savings as well.

It is the subject of my site, so I wholeheartedly agree!

Ann at One Bag Nation Says:

July 28th, 2008, 23:11 pm

I’m not sure that I agree that most people know what constitutes a healthy diet. I’m continually amazed by people who really are in the dark about it!

As for meal planning, that’s the key to success for me, both as way to stay on track and to greatly reduce stress in the early evening, when everyone is tired and cranky!

So much easier to have a plan than to stand in front of the cupboard/fridge at 5:45 wondering what’s for dinner!

Debs - Food Is Love Says:

July 28th, 2008, 23:16 pm

Leo,

I completely agree with you that the standard American diet is awful! Though I don’t actually think it’s the meat and saturated fat that’s doing it. The evidence suggests that meat and saturated fat aren’t the cause of obesity and cardiovascular disease. If you look at the last thirty years, Americans actually haven’t eaten more fat, but what they have increased is their intake of refined vegetable oils (think trans fats and all that junk the processed bad meat in fast food restaurants is fried in!) and I believe decreased their intake of saturated fat. Most notably, though they’ve increased their intake of sugar, especially high fructose corn syrup. Incidentally, they’ve also upped their intake of low-fat dairy. All these things and yet obesity has been on the rise.

One thing I will say about meat fat, though, it’s not as good for you if it’s from grain-fed animals.

I also do disagree about the diet of hunter-gatherer ancestors. They weren’t going around harvesting lots of grains, but they were eating and valuing meat, fish, organ meats, and plants. I’m not sure how early the practice of cooking, drying or fermenting meats started, but that does help with maintaining it. And, I’m sure we’d both agree, they weren’t eating a whole lot of sugar.

About storing excess calories from meat fat as body fat, I’ve also seen evidence to the contrary, but am open to seeing a source for that. What I’ve seen suggests that we store carbohydrates as fat, but that we don’t actually store dietary saturated fat as fat in our bodies.

Have you read Gary Taubes’s book Good Calories, Bad Calories? Check it out; I’d be curious to see what you think after reading it. He kind of breaks down the history of how the “fat is bad” theory developed.

Debs
Food Is Love

Dave Says:

July 28th, 2008, 23:52 pm

Folks, what Leo’s done here is simply provide a list of the so-called “Superfoods,” which are foods with extraordinarily high nutritional content that provide a variety of health benifits — everything from reducing obesity to lowering the risk of just about every disease or ailment you can think of. These superfoods are at the cutting edge of nutritional science right now, and Leo’s obviously done his homework and then some. But here are a few he forgot to mention:

cinnamon
dark chocolate
kiwi
pomegranate juice
pumpkin
green tea
walnuts (just as important as almonds)
wheat germ (just as important as flaxseed)
sweet potatoes/yams
sunflower seeds

And as for fish, the superfoods are wild salmon and sardines. The superfood re: poultry is skinless turkey breast. The superfood of berries is the blueberry.

Maybe it’s just a coincidence that Leo listed almost nothing but superfoods … yeah right!!! Hahahaha. Great list, Leo. ;)

Leo Says:

July 29th, 2008, 0:04 am

@Dave: I’ve seen various lists of “superfoods” but it wasn’t my intention to copy them. I just use the foods I think are delicious and super nutritious. The others on your list are also healthy but not as fundamental in my opinion — and therefore aren’t building blocks for the purposes of this article. Cinnamon, for example, is healthy but would not make up a big part of any meal.

@Deb: I’m not sure if we’re going to be able to settle this, but I’d like to see sources that say that hunter-gatherers had access to a lot of meat on a regular basis. I think fish and small game (rabbits, rodents, etc) would be more regular, but even then I think it wouldn’t be every meal or even every day. I know that in many traditional cultures existing today, meat is a very, very small portion of their diet. Vegetables, grains, fruits, nuts and beans make up a much bigger part, and meat is more of a spice than anything else.

I agree with the problems of processed sugars and grains and hydrogenated oils, which is why they’re not on my list. But if you look at American meat consumption, it’s definitely not the same as it was 50 years ago. It’s much fattier, fried, processed, and more full of saturated fat. That corresponds with a rise in processed foods (also full of saturated fat) as well as a decrease in fruits, veggies, whole grains, and other healthy foods. All of these factors are important in explaining the resultant rise in obesity and related diseases.

Julia Says:

July 29th, 2008, 0:55 am

Zen Habits has become one of my favourite blogs. Just sitting down to read it gives me to most complete sense of calm — the act of focusing on all that is organised, healthy and peaceful provides a good dose of peace in itself! Thanks for the brilliant article. I’ll be adding many of your suggestions to my healthy eating regime.

My mum and I recently started eliminating dairy from our diets as much as possible for various health reasons based on a decent slab of research. We’ve challenged ourselves not to be overly-reliant on soy in this process also, so we’ve become quite resourceful at finding creative ways to get all the nutrients etc previously sourced from dairy.

We like to go with rice milk and oat milk, and each of these have varieties which are calcium-enriched. Any dark green veg we go crazy for, and we’re starting to explore quinoa as a good source of calcium too.

I substitute rice/oatmilk in all of my cooking, and Nuttelex (which is an Australian butter / margarine substitute, and also vegan) in place of butter in all my cooking. I’m a fussy cook, and I can’t taste the difference. I’ve heard that Earth Balance is the US equivalent?

Apart from that, I agree with Deb’s guidelines above — the fresher, the less modified, and less processed the food is, the better.

Thanks again!

Vered Says:

July 29th, 2008, 1:07 am

The wrap sandwich in the photo looks SO GOOD. :)

My grandparents are from Holland, where people eat high fat cheeses and butter in moderation, ride their bikes everywhere and are generally leaner and healthier than Americans are.

So I’m thinking that Deb might be making a good point here, although the key has to be moderation, and I still think that Michael Pollan’s “eat mostly plants” is the best way to go about eating.

Leo Says:

July 29th, 2008, 1:12 am

@Vered: As I said, I agree with Deb that whole dairy and meats can be a part of a healthy diet, in moderation … and the key to the healthy Dutch is also the exercise! :)

Christopher Says:

July 29th, 2008, 1:19 am

Great Post, I have been athletic for most of my life. And train martial arts.

One thing I would like to mention is the frequency in which you eat the foods play a major role in how they are handled in your body.

One of the best ways to strip fat from someone who is already taking measures to eat right is eating 5-6 meals a day. And the huge importance of eating a decent breakfast soon as you get up will jumpstart your entire day.
Conversely not eating in enough frequencies or especially missing breakfast is sure to have your waist line growing.
Breakfast is actually breaking your fast. Your muscles need protein constantly if they don’t get it readily they will start to eat at the most ready source. Which is your own muscles. The less frequent you eat, the slower your metabolism gets and the moment you place food in your mouth it start the process to store it as fat, rather than use it as energy.

So to sum it up, eat more frequently and less gorging one with the antiquated 3 meal a day routine.You will see a drastic difference in your waist line in a short amount of time. That coupled with routine workouts will get you in good shape. (Of course this means you would have to eat similar to what Leo states in this post.and not feast on Burger king) Leo your right on with the food choices! Perfect.

We blogged about how to eat on a budget for those financially challenged at times. http://yinvsyang.com/eat-healthy-on-a-budget/199/

Scott Says:

July 29th, 2008, 1:19 am

You left off Quinoa, which after hearing about forever, we finally tried. Fantastic! I’m now totally hooked. Not much taste of its own, other than slightly grassy, but absorbs whatever you throw at it (soy-garlic-ginger, curry, chicken drippings, etc.)

Leo Says:

July 29th, 2008, 1:24 am

@Scott: Unfortunately, I can’t find any quinoa here on Guam! I’d love to try it. However, it is included in the “whole grains” category, along with other great grains.

richard Says:

July 29th, 2008, 1:26 am

Consider that the diet you suggest is high in Arginine and low in Lysine, those who eat this might be more susceptible to viral infection.

Leo Says:

July 29th, 2008, 1:37 am

@richard: Interesting, but I’m not sure I agree that it would be low in Lysine, as good sources of Lysine include spinach, beans, soybeans, lentils and other vegetable sources on my list.

Ribeezie Says:

July 29th, 2008, 1:54 am

Well I’m far from eating healthy but I know I should be. Between work, school and everything in between I’ve at least managed a start. I’m exercising regularly and I’m eating more of what’s on this list with each day that goes by (so reading this post is actually a positive affirmation of the little progress I’m making. Thank you).

At first, I didn’t know where to start but let me say this…putting the pen-to-paper and creating a plan is the right way to go (even if it feels silly).

Krazd Says:

July 29th, 2008, 2:22 am

great detailed article, dugg!

Kaled Asmri Says:

July 29th, 2008, 4:00 am

thanks very much… that’s exactly what I was looking for.

Linda Says:

July 29th, 2008, 4:06 am

Firts time I’ve written in and want to say a big thanks to Leo for this site. You are now my first port of call every morning!

One problem with trying to eat healthy is lack of time. I am a vegetarian and when I’ve had a long day at work, I’m often too tired and hungry to start chopping up vegetables and cooking a meal from scratch, and instead grab something pre-packaged from the supermarket. However, I’ve found the answer in batch cooking.

One day each weekend, I choose a recipe that freezes well (curry, chilli, nut roast etc) but make four times the normal quantity. It takes very little extra effort to make four lots than one (just a much bigger cooking pot). I divide up the food into four meal portions and freeze them.

Now, four times a week I can take something healthy and home-cooked out of the freezer for dinner. I can now concentrate on making nice salads and rice or pasta to accompany the meal. On the other days, I make quick meals - pizzas, stir frys, omelettes etc. so we’re not eating freezer meals every day

I have 6-8 different types of meal in the freezer so there’s always a variety to choose from. Takes a few batch cooking sessions to build up the selection but after that it’s just once a week topping up the freezer. It’s been a big benefit in terms of eating better as well as saving in time and money.

Kevin Says:

July 29th, 2008, 4:40 am

Hi Leo,

I think you should read up a bit more about traditional diets… Just think: Inuit, Maori, Masai, Aboriginees.

Following, an excerpt from http://www.westonaprice.org/

All traditional - nonindustrialized - diets have the following characteristics:

1. No refined or denatured foods. (that one’s obvious)

2. All traditional cultures consume some sort of animal protein and fat in the form fish and other seafood; water and land fowl; land animals; eggs; milk and milk products; reptiles; and insects

3. Seeds, grains and nuts are soaked, sprouted, fermented or naturally leavened in order to neutralize naturally occuring antinutrients in these foods, such as phytic acid, enzyme inhibitors, tannins and complex carbohydrates

END EXCERPT.

About saturated fats and their role in obesity and coronary disease:

“During the period of rapid increase in heart disease (1920-1960), American consumption of animal fats declined but consumption of hydrogenated and industrially processed vegetable fats increased dramatically. (USDA-HNI)”

“The fatty acids found in artery clogs are mostly unsaturated (74%) of which 41% are polyunsaturated. (Lancet 1994 344:1195)”

I rest my case…

I somehow have the feeling that Debs has been influenced by the Weston A. Price Foundation as well. Good stuff.

It’s about time that people stopped trying to apply simple maths to their diets. It just doesn’t add up! (sorry for the pun).

Generally speaking I’d consider you to be eating healthily, were it not for the vegetarianism. Sorry, I just can’t agree with that from a health point-of-view. But if you don’t like meat, then why eat it…

And, by the way: Soy is poison. I don’t really want to get into a discussion, but:

“High levels of phytic acid in soy reduce assimilation of calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and zinc. Phytic acid in soy is not neutralized by ordinary preparation methods such as soaking, sprouting and long, slow cooking. High phytate diets have caused growth problems in children.
Trypsin inhibitors in soy interfere with protein digestion and may cause pancreatic disorders. In test animals soy containing trypsin inhibitors caused stunted growth.
Soy phytoestrogens disrupt endocrine function and have the potential to cause infertility and to promote breast cancer in adult women.
Soy phytoestrogens are potent antithyroid agents that cause hypothyroidism and may cause thyroid cancer. In infants, consumption of soy formula has been linked to autoimmune thyroid disease.
Vitamin B12 analogs in soy are not absorbed and actually increase the body’s requirement for B12.
Soy foods increase the body’s requirement for vitamin D.
Fragile proteins are denatured during high temperature processing to make soy protein isolate and textured vegetable protein.
Processing of soy protein results in the formation of toxic lysinoalanine and highly carcinogenic nitrosamines.
Free glutamic acid or MSG, a potent neurotoxin, is formed during soy food processing and additional amounts are added to many soy foods.
Soy foods contain high levels of aluminum which is toxic to the nervous system and the kidneys”

SpoonFed Says:

July 29th, 2008, 4:41 am

As an archaeologist, I just wanted to point out that some of my colleagues now call them ‘gatherer-hunters’ instead of ‘hunter-gatherers’ because it more accurately reflects the quite small proportion of the diet that came from meat.

Even in the later stages of European prehistory (my research focus), when populations were agricultural and bred their own food animals and hunted for pleasure, meat was a much smaller proportion of the diet than it is today. Vegetables and grains were far more central to nutrition.

Leo Says:

July 29th, 2008, 4:50 am

@Kevin: The Weston A. Price Foundation is a heavily pro-meat and dairy-industry group whose studies have not been peer-reviewed or accepted by the scientific community. In addition, they are sponsored by the meat and dairy industries, and I generally don’t put any store by their findings.

Their findings on soy, for example, have been largely debunked. I also asked in the article that we not rehash these soy myths again! :)

Regarding traditional diets, see a more authoritative source than me: Spoonfed, the commenter just below you. “Gatherer-hunters” had a relatively small proportion of their diets come from meat.

Leo Says:

July 29th, 2008, 5:04 am

I should also point to some studies regarding low-fat dairy:

AJCN: Lowers risk of hypertension

Another regarding hypertension

Reduces diabetes risk

Healthier hearts

Kevin Says:

July 29th, 2008, 5:22 am

Hi Leo,

I’d like you to cite your sources for the:
“The Weston A. Price Foundation is a heavily pro-meat and dairy-industry group whose studies have not been peer-reviewed or accepted by the scientific community. In addition, they are sponsored by the meat and dairy industries, and I generally don’t put any store by their findings.” remark please.
In their own words they are not sponsored by the meat and dairy industry.

As I said, I don’t want to start a soy discussion :)

Why don’t we just agree on: “Any diet is better than the average ‘American’ diet” shall we?

Personally I’m a great fan of the slow-carb, don’t-eat-anything-that-can-be-white (except dairy) diet.

On another note. One of the simplest rules to live by is: Don’t eat anything that doesn’t go off, but eat it before it does. :)

Peter Says:

July 29th, 2008, 6:15 am

no wonder you are trying to loose weight Leo.. remember

“Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, supper like a pauper”

Your supper (dinner) was to heavy… Pizza, tacos and stir fry will make you fat if you eat it in the evening, and it will also slow your metabolism, so if you want to keep the metabolism light and loose some kilos, eat a bigger breakfast and a much smaller dinner.

also Asparagus is a “Superfood”… http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=12

Leo Says:

July 29th, 2008, 6:15 am

@Kevin: Unfortunately, I can’t remember my sources so I’ll withdraw the part about funding. However, the part about the studies being non-peer-reviewed is certainly true — do a search on the soy claims, for instance, or their claims about saturated fat not being linked to heart disease. None of this research has been independently confirmed.

However, that aside, I will agree on our common ground … getting away from the “American” diet … whole foods, unprocessed and natural, are best.

On another note, I’d like to note some problems with the arguments that say that lots of meat is OK, because supposedly ancient humans ate lots of it … and also that people 100 years ago ate just as much meat:

1. Today’s meat is very different from that of ancient humans, or that of people living just 100 years ago … it has high levels of bacteria, parasites and toxins, is fattier than meat of yesteryear, and generally much less healthy.

2. People today live very different lives than ancient humans did … they did a lot more walking and running and other exercise, as part of their daily routines, while we are much more sedentary. If you’re going to go back to their diet, you’d better go back to their exercise level as well.

3. Ancient humans lived much shorter lives than we do, and didn’t have to worry so much about cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, hypertension and the like. What was important to survival then was reproduction, not a long, healthy life. Today, living to the age of reproduction is not a problem, but we have a new set of problems that requires a slightly different approach.

Peter Says:

July 29th, 2008, 6:19 am

also Pasta in the evening is a huge mistake.. carbs shouldn’t be eaten after 6pm… unless you want to wake up fat the next morning

Leo Says:

July 29th, 2008, 6:19 am

@Peter: I gained weight on a much different diet. I’ve lost a lot of weight using this diet. Although you might think the dinners sound heavy, I don’t use a lot of fat on them and don’t eat a lot … I focus on eating more earlier in the day so I’m not so hungry at night.

Also, I’m not sure what the relevance of asparagus being a “superfood” is … the article isn’t about superfoods, but about the building blocks of a healthy diet. That said, I love asparagus! Include it in the “greens” building block I mentioned.

Leo Says:

July 29th, 2008, 6:20 am

@Peter: carbs are fine in the evening if they’re whole grain and you don’t overeat. They won’t make you fat if they are whole grains and part of a healthy diet that includes the other healthy foods I’ve mentioned.

Pete Says:

July 29th, 2008, 7:28 am

There is a great post about how to eat healthy on a low budget as well, cause sometimes, healthy food prices can be way out of hand.

http://yinvsyang.com/eat-healthy-on-a-budget/199/

Lisa | Holistic Treatment for Depression Says:

July 29th, 2008, 8:01 am

I’m so glad that lots of people are aware of the benefits of a traditional diet! I know that personally I’ve become happier when I stopped eating low-fat, processed foods and introduced saturated fats from clean, naturally raised animals. My kids are never sick, in fact they’ve never been on antibiotics. So, I’m a big believer in food nutrients like vitamins A and D and especially B12 found in foods like butter, whole milk, and grass-fed beef. Yummmm.
Lisa
http://www.Holistic-Treatment-for-Depression.com

mandiann Says:

July 29th, 2008, 8:21 am

I love how your “Super Healthy” meal plan is mostly vegan! I can’t agree more that a diet void of animal products and packed with veggies and whole grains is the healthiest one. I have felt amazing ever since I started eating that way.

However, I do feel the plan includes a little too much soy (for my tastes at least). I have recently been frightened with the studies about soy mimicking estrogen. If I do eat soy I try to eat the purest form of it (edamame, some tofu) and I stay far, far away from GMO soy. I also try to stick to a mostly raw diet so that phases out soy as well. But hey, to each their own!

Oh, and I will be making your veggie soup recipe this weekend.

Thanks Leo!

Lisa | Holistic Treatment for Depression Says:

July 29th, 2008, 8:21 am

I should add that the milk and dairy are all RAW from grass-fed cows from local farms. Support local farmers!

mandiann Says:

July 29th, 2008, 8:24 am

P.S. I <3 carbs

Decla Says:

July 29th, 2008, 8:30 am

Leo I love your meal plans. I eat rather similarly to you as that kind of food is what I enjoy.

I’m really disappointed though that people are trying to tell you you’re wrong when it is evident that you are healthy and happy. To be honest had you written that you ate all that and then a huge cream cake every saturday then I wouldn’t have been any less impressed.

The thing is people still don’t know what is healthy in our diet and what is right for one person isn’t right for another. Lots of members of my family are intolerant to meat so even if I liked it it would probably not benefit my health to eat it. Some other people do very well on a high meat diet.

Plus (sorry to get into this but) the majority of animal feed is based on soya so meat eaters would be getting the “poison” too if all that stuff were true.

Matt Says:

July 29th, 2008, 8:31 am

I find it somewhat amazing that the question of what to eat has become so complicated. With abundance and choice comes a sense of paralysis I guess.

Read Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food. It’s an easy book and clearly illustrates the pitfalls of scientifically reducing whole foods to their constituent nutrient parts—i.e., foods are complex and culture transmits the best solutions humanity has come up with to prepare, preserve, digest, and serve food.

Pollan says even though it’s not sexy:

“Eat food (i.e., “real food”). Not too much. Mostly plants.”

Dominic Says:

July 29th, 2008, 8:46 am

Good article. I know of a website that is great to help people with nutrition.

MyPyramidTracker.gov helps to keep track of the different foods you take in every day. It breaks down all the foods into calories and so forth, while comparing it to what the recommended intakes are for you.

Just something to keep in mind when working on your nutrition.

mjw Says:

July 29th, 2008, 8:51 am

A useful companion post might be pointers to foods that seem super-healthy, but aren’t. I’m no expert, but I imagine that most breakfast cereals, low-fat frozen dinners and desserts, pasta, giant dressing-drenched salads, baked-not-fried chips and crackers, energy bars, etc. might fall on such a list… most of those don’t sound very healthy to me, of course, especially not after reading this post, but for present purposes I’ll pretend that the average Zen Habits reader knows less than I do about nutrition.

Tom Stine | Spiritual Life Coach Says:

July 29th, 2008, 9:29 am

Hey Leo…. Excellent summary of good diet choices. Since you are a veggie, let me toss in meat choice that you may not know about: buffalo. If you buy free range, grass fed buffalo, the quality of the meat is outstanding. It has omega 3 fats, low stearic acid and other less beneficial saturated fats, it is lean, and the taste is outstanding. I get locally raised ground buffalo for about 2x the price of hamburger. My kid loves it. From all the available evidence, it is as good or better a choice than poultry, and avoids heavy metals that are so common in fish these days.

Dot H. Says:

July 29th, 2008, 9:46 am

Thansk for another good post. It looks like you have a lot of nutritionally-aware readers. I hope readers should be aware that beans are not a complete protein, and have to be combined with another food, such as rice, in order to obtain the protein we need.

Unfortunately, not much of your suggestions apply to me, since as a type 2 diabetic I can only eat 25 g. of carbs per meal (1/2 pita without the hummus or a taco without the beans, for example). Also, soy is not a food everyone can eat. As it becomes more popular, the problems people can have with it will become more publicized.

It’s great to watch you continue on your self-improvement path every month!

skyz Says:

July 29th, 2008, 10:00 am

80 % fruits and vegetables

20 % soy olive oil nuts beans ezekiel bread maple syrup

cases of evian with some herbal drops added

sounds boring but i actually glow

no necessity for cosmetics

DR Says:

July 29th, 2008, 10:38 am

I am amazed at how emotionally invested people have become when it comes to discussing diet, obesity, health through nutrition, etc…

First off, when compared to the modern American (see affluence) Diet, Leo’s plan is a 1000% improvement.

If we are going to nitpick over the details:

1. I prefer 2% milk over low-fat because the vitamins we need from milk are fat soluble. No fat, poor absorption.

So why not whole milk then?

It makes me gag. A little compromise is not the end of the world.

2. Why are grains (whole, processed, whatever) such a large part of this and most diets. They are calorie and carb dense. Not good considering that most people looking to improve their diets are doing so to lose weight.
There is nothing in grains (vitamins, minerals, fibre,etc…) that you can’t find, in higher quantities, in fruits and vegetables.

Info here - http://healthhabits.wordpress.com/2008/06/04/5-steps-to-a-healthy-fat-melting-meal-plan/#comment-176

But like I said above, the meal plan is pretty darn good.

It may not be perfect for me or you, but it obviously works for Leo.

md Says:

July 29th, 2008, 10:41 am

You should not naively eat beans or nuts, etc., as a vegetarian and think that you are eating a good diet, full of protein. These foods are incomplete proteins and need to be mixed and matched with other vegetarian proteins in order to get the 9 essential amino acids that are complete protein. Vegetarians have to be VERY careful about this, and have to do a lot of planning if they want a healthy, protein-filled diet. If you are one of the vegetarians that looks like you are starved, with very low muscle-mass, like I used to be, then you need to strive harder to intake complete protein. Search the web for vegetarian combinations that are complete protein.

SpaceAgeSage Says:

July 29th, 2008, 10:54 am

I have found sprouted grain breads, pasta, and cereal both filling and energizing, even in just small amounts, and it never leaves me with a weighted-down feeling.

Iris M. Gross Says:

July 29th, 2008, 11:10 am

As a recently-diagnosed Type 2 diabetic, I want to thank Leo for his advice and sample menu. This is exactly the kind of eating plan I need to be on. I was told by both my doctor and my dietitian not to shy away from carbohydrates and to make sure a large amount of fiber is in the mix.

Lately, I’ve even started taking a couple of apples with me to the movie theater to eat instead of popcorn. I’ve discovered light vanilla soy milk (looks horrible but tastes OK) and eat my Wheat Chex with it; I’ve learned to make a black bean and corn salad with avocado and a lemon-olive oil dressing that’s very tasty, too. I’m already eating most of the food on your Superfoods list, and I’m not going to spend extra money trying the more exotic stuff other people are suggesting. I’m going to stick with the common food that I love, like broccoli and spinach and canned salmon and I love berries, too, Leo! I have to say, though, I’m starting to dread the winter when all the delicious summer fruits, berries and tomatoes are gone!

I am going to try your idea of mapping out my meals, though. While I’m in the beginning stages of dealing with this disease, I’m still working out what to eat and when. I am SO not a breakfast person!! I’m more of a morning brunch person. I’m going to have to figure that out since thing in the morning I have to take my Metformin/Actos pill with FOOD!

Anyway, I’m using your plan as a starting point and will tweak from there. Thanks for mapping it all out. Others may be ungrateful, but I’m not!

I have Zen Fever! Says:

July 29th, 2008, 11:14 am

Great Post Leo. What about hot dogs? Should I eat a Soy dog instead? Should I give up hotdogs?

Dutch Says:

July 29th, 2008, 11:26 am

Debs,

With all due respect, it sounds as if you are following some weak and sporadic “facts” about saturated fat and dairy. The information that you are sharing along with similar information from supportors of the Atkin’s Diet is very dangerous if embraced by the masses (already has been in America and we see the results). We agree that hydrogenated oils, sugar and processed foods are a big problem but to suggest that there is no difference between unrefined and refined flours borders on silly.

Leo is right on point; if you consume meat and other saturated fats it should be done in moderation with the predominant meal components being made up of vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, some healthy fats and lots of clean water.

Flippy Says:

July 29th, 2008, 11:42 am

Two things I disagree with.

1) Soy protein. Many very recent studies have shown that unfermented soy is dangerous to health due to phytins, which can attack the thyroid and pancreas just to name some of the destructive influences. Google it for yourself. Fermented soy products such as miso and natto are very healthful - I say have some read meat from time to time. I still cant figure out if tofu is fermented or unfermented. However, many soy products such as soy burgers contain raw unfermented soy. The compounds in soy mimic estrogen.

2) Canola oil. I would stay far, far away from canola oil - some studies suggest that canola oil can cause a host of health problems. Stick with olive oil, flaxseed oil, almond oil, coconut oil, or other exotic oils.

A couple of other recommendations. Stay far away from processed food. Limit canned food. Fasting is a very spiritual way to re-balance the diet. Quality red wine has life extending enzymes. Exotic fresh herbs such as dandelion greens, which are now available at most Whole Foods, exotic root vegetables such as Gobo and Daikon, Exotic gourds such as Bitter Melon, can all do wonders for the health and diet.

Eric Says:

July 29th, 2008, 11:49 am

The Inuit traditionally ate practically nothing but caribou, seal, whale and fish. In fact, they derived as much as 75 % of their calories from fat. Greens are hard to come by in the Arctic Circle. Yet they were perfectly healthy until the white man started doling out corn meal and other unhealthy foods. The myth of saturated fats and proteins being unhealthy is just that - a myth. The rate of heart disease and cancer has risen since the inception of the food pyramid and low-fat diet.

http://discovermagazine.com/2004/oct/inuit-paradox/

Flippy Says:

July 29th, 2008, 11:51 am

Incidentally, the Weston Price Foundation, which is in Reston Virginia, where I am from ( tho presently living in Japan - if you really want to get healthy, come here, the Japanese will teach you about how to eat ) is NOT about meat and dairy industry. The Weston Price foundation advocates raw milk as an incredible supplement to good health. Before I came to Japan, I drank raw milk all the time. If you want to be healthy, raw milk is amazing.

Leanne Says:

July 29th, 2008, 11:57 am

Leo

Hi, this will be my first time commenting on your site.

I’ve recently been advised by my doctor to lose weight for health reasons (I put on a lot of weight following a difficult pregnancy). Unfortunately, my doctor refused to give any advice on how to lose weight, just that I should try a lot of different things and see what works for me.

I won’t get into the whole debate about what is correct and what isn’t but I have to say that your plan above certainly sounds healthy to me, and I would be willing to bet it’s a damn sight healthier than my current diet (I use the excuse of being too busy to eat junk food). Also the ingredients used in the plan are certainly things I would be happy to eat on a regular basis and it doesn’t sound overly time consuming to prepare any of the meals. I completely agree that no diet can be effective without exercise, although I have to take things slowly in this area to begin with.

Thank you very much for this advice. It has definitely come at the right time for me.

Flippy Says:

July 29th, 2008, 11:59 am

Debs, I want whatever you’re eating …

Samira al Thores Says:

July 29th, 2008, 12:06 pm

@Dave/Leo Re: cinnamon. If your meals are a bit boring to your tastebuds, a sprinkle of cinnamon (nutmeg, cardamom, etc) can perk the meal right up. It works in stirfry especially well. Caribbean “jerk” is spicy (peppery) but you don’t need to go that far.

chris Says:

July 29th, 2008, 12:15 pm

I just got back from my trip to the Philippines and I ate constantly while I was there. The best part of all the eating is that the food that I ate were mostly fresh. The servings were also in reasonable portions. Needless to say, while Filipinos eat more often than Americans, Filipinos are in general leaner because while they constantly eat, there diet is healthier.

3drage Says:

July 29th, 2008, 12:16 pm

I would love to follow this plan, and sadly I loved spinach. But as a coumadin patient, I find it difficult to eat veggies without messing up my INR. I’ve begun to slowly sneak greens into my diet and allow my medication to be adjusted to compensate, but it’s a tough task for us Vitamin K challenged.

Mojowrkn Says:

July 29th, 2008, 12:22 pm

After working with a nutritionist and dropping 17 lbs so far I found the following things to be bad for ((me))

-Soy
-Gluten
-Sugar
-Any processed food

Read labels and if your really serious work with a certified nutritionist.

Best-John

Austin Hike and Bike Says:

July 29th, 2008, 12:43 pm

It is amazing the difference you physically feel when you eat healthy. Although it is hard sometimes I strongly suggest it. Great post!

Austin Hike and Bike

Julie in Houston Says:

July 29th, 2008, 12:49 pm

Great and easy to follow advice. I’m currently dieting, but I’m trying to focus on eating more healthy foods instead of just starving myself like I’ve done in the past.

My new fave quick and easy breakfast/snack/dessert:

1 C. of Low Fat Vanilla Yogurt (I can buy the cheap stuff at Wal-Mart that has probiotics-70 cals per serving)

Then I add 2-3 strawberries cut up.

Small handful of Special K cereal

1 tsp. of Honey to sweeten

*So delicious and you can substitute your fave berries or even add bananas. Yummy and filling.

http://www.peglegstarfish.com

Samira al Thores Says:

July 29th, 2008, 12:53 pm

@Mojowrkn: You hit on the most important issue: everyone is different and their nutritional needs are different. One should find the nutritional plan (food choices) and activity level that work for them to achieve and maintain a healthy lifestyle. It’s nice to gather information and support from others, but it comes down to your specific health needs. Great job, everyone!

Eric Wilson Says:

July 29th, 2008, 13:33 pm

Leo,

Nice post. Two things to add. It is extremely important to distinguish between fermented soy and other soy. The former is healthy, the latter is unhealthy. Also, while you have some good fatty acids in there (avocadoes), you avoid that topic entirely. There are good fats and bad fats, the good being in things like grass-fed beef, game meat, olive oil and fish, and the bad fats being in corn-fed beef. High fructose corn syrup is also a topic worth mentioning. Cheers!

Tim Visher Says:

July 29th, 2008, 13:58 pm

Great post Leo. I definitely do not agree with some of your assertions but that seems to be being covered by everyone else in a much more intelligent way than I could possibly accomplish.

I didn’t see anyone recommend it directly so I’d love to commend Michael Pollan’s book, In Defense of Food. I recently went on a little personal campaign to understand dietary science and while I’m not done yet, this book was one of the best I’ve come across. What I like so much about it is that it covers what could possibly be the route cause of most of our diets’ problems which is the dietary philosophy of Nutritionism (which unfortunately everyone from Organic Nuts to South Beachers to Atkins to Processed Food Gurus all seem to subscribe to).

Nutritionism essentially boils down to a position that scientists understand food and health better than us and can understand diets well enough to break them apart into different nutrients and food groups and serving sizes etc. etc. and tell us how to eat the ‘perfect diet’. What this ignores is that in historically healthy cultures (from the Eskimos to the Mediteranians), diets have varied by *impossibly large margins to be able to extract a ‘perfect’ diet. You have Eskimos living mostly on meat and whale blubber with very little vegetation of any kind and you have other cultures that lived mostly on vegetables, and they were all very healthy. The one thing that all healthy cultures seem to have in common is that they do not eat processed foods, and they eat locally.

The primary assertion that he makes is that we have traded cultural wisdom (traditionally passed down by the mother) for scientific knowledge based in a confused community that approaches a topic as hopelessly complex as diet in a reductionist way. Other cultures aren’t worried about how many calories they’re eating or what kinds of fat they’re taking in or whether or not their getting the proper vitamin balance for the day; they’re just eating what their moms and grandmoms and great-grandmoms have eaten and cooked for generations and they’re healthy and living a high-quality life.

Anyway, I’m out of time, but for anyone who thinks these ideas are interesting, read Pollan’s book! It’ll be well worth your time.

Tim Visher Says:

July 29th, 2008, 14:00 pm

Ayaahh… Forgot to subscribe to the e-mail notifications… Bugger. :)

Janet Meiners Says:

July 29th, 2008, 14:18 pm

Leo,
This is just what has been on my mind recently so thanks for another insightful post. I just got married and my husband has dropped 5 lbs. because he eats processed foods less often & more fruits/veggies.

Before our marriage, I stayed with my aunt who is really into grains (see http://www.grainmix.com). There was nothing to eat except healthy foods so I popped a whole grain pancake from the freezer into the microwave for breakfast. One filled me up for hours. She’s perfected a recipe that’s light and yummy.

She also taught me to soak grains.
Flax seed - she gave us 5 lbs of them and a grinder for our wedding present! I have a 2-serving blender which I put a 1/4 cup or so of water in and a few tablespoons of fax seed. Then add frozen fruit and plain yogurt for a breakfast smoothie.

Barley - she’s way into drinking barley water. I have a small thermos I add about a tablespoon of raw barely and then cover with some boiling water overnight. I seal it and eat the cooked barley for breakfast or sprinkle it on salads. I like making small quantities and adding it to my diet because I waste it if I cook a lot.

I’ve always liked eating healthy but I can tell a bigger difference the older I get (I’m soooooooo old).

Janet

Adam Says:

July 29th, 2008, 14:27 pm

A little meat is good for you and shouldn’t necessarily be excluded from a “Super Healthy Diet”.

This article should be re-named “Super Healthy Vegan Diet” or some fish and chicken breast should be added to the mix in the mix.

EscapeVelocity Says:

July 29th, 2008, 14:31 pm

I’d just like to point out that being able to worry about which foods to eat is something for which we should all be thankful.

Leo Says:

July 29th, 2008, 14:42 pm

Thanks for the comments everyone! It seems I’ve stirred up quite a discussion. I won’t be able to answer everything, but a couple things:

@md, who wrote: “You should not naively eat beans or nuts, etc., as a vegetarian and think that you are eating a good diet, full of protein.”

Don’t worry, I don’t. Vegetarians are usually well aware of this. But it’s also a myth that you need to eat complete proteins at every meal or combine foods so that you’re getting all the amino acids in every meal … all you need to do is eat a varied, well-balance diet full of whole grains, beans, nuts, veggies and the like and you’ll get all the amino acids you need.

@I have Zen fever: Lol. Hot dogs are one of the worst foods. Processed, full of fat, full of preservatives and nitrates. Ugh!

@Flippy, who wrote: “1) Soy protein. Many very recent studies have shown that unfermented soy is dangerous to health due to phytins, which can attack the thyroid and pancreas just to name some of the destructive influences.”

Yes, I specifically asked that we not bring up these soy myths again! :) I’ve discussed this myth before, but essentially there has been a lot of misinformation passed out on the Internet on this. Much of the info comes from the previously mentioned Weston A. Price Foundation, which has a very bad understanding of science. They have not been independently verified. They’re often based on a misunderstanding — confusion between harmful 4,16-hydroxyestradiol and healthy 2-hydroxyestradiol (we have two different types of oestrogen receptors). Soy isoflavones tend to increase the latter and so cannot be regarded as unhealthy in this aspect — in fact they are now considered to be very healthy. Tofu is fermented soy and is also considered very healthy.

@Eric, who wrote: “The Inuit traditionally ate practically nothing but caribou, seal, whale and fish. In fact, they derived as much as 75 % of their calories from fat. Greens are hard to come by in the Arctic Circle. Yet they were perfectly healthy until the white man started doling out corn meal and other unhealthy foods. The myth of saturated fats and proteins being unhealthy is just that - a myth. The rate of heart disease and cancer has risen since the inception of the food pyramid and low-fat diet.”

The Inuit also got a lot more exercise than any of us do (hours a day) and lived in the frozen tundra. I wouldn’t imitate their diet unless you imitate their other conditions as well. The Inuit diet was a fad diet in the 1960s that didn’t work.

The rate of heart disease and cancer has risen since the inception of the food pyramid — as well as the rise of fast food, processed food of all kinds, and a general increase in saturated fat, trans fats, hydrogenated oils, processed meat, and mass-produced meat. While I do not think that meat is evil or inherently unhealthy, I also don’t think that telling people that saturated fat is healthy is a good idea — keep it in moderation.

Adam Snider Says:

July 29th, 2008, 14:59 pm

Looks like a good list here, Leo. Thanks for the tips.

For those who find it hard to give up red meat, I’d suggest trying bison or elk instead of beef. Both are very lean red meats, that have more of the good stuff (iron, protein, etc.) and less of the bad (fats, calories, etc.) than beef.

I actually read somewhere that elk is even more lean than most white meat, so that’s something to consider. Of course, I read this on a website owned by an elk farmer, so I’m very skeptical of that particular piece of information, as a result.

Leo Says:

July 29th, 2008, 15:04 pm

@Adam, who wrote: “A little meat is good for you and shouldn’t necessarily be excluded from a “Super Healthy Diet”.”

Meat is included in one of the building blocks, lean protein. I’m not advocating a vegetarian diet here, but only pointing out what I like … as I said in the article, you should choose healthy foods that you like.

Dagny Says:

July 29th, 2008, 15:19 pm

Thank you, Dave, for mentioning walnuts. I really cannot stand the taste of almonds and tend to snack on walnuts. I also like to use a little walnut oil, along with vinegar, as a salad dressing.

One of my fave snacks/light meals is steamed artichoke with hummus as the dip.

The Happy Rock Says:

July 29th, 2008, 15:20 pm

I think point three is were a lot of SAD dieters will fail, because they do not have the palette or mouth feel for healthier foods. I think a bigger issue to tackle is how to change one’s food preferences

Greg Eden Says:

July 29th, 2008, 15:38 pm

Food is such a tricky subject :) It’s like some insanely difficult calculus - there are so many variables:

1. Constitution (genetics)
2. Age
3. Sex
4. Location
5. Season
6. Condition

All these things have a large effect on what your optimal foods are at any one time. You have to find what is right for you and be willing to change it as you travel through life. Our change averse minds don’t like this!

I’ve been exploring wholefoods for the last 5 years now and believe Leo’s post is a fantastic baseline starting point for anyone looking for practical wholefood cooking. There’s a whole ton of impractical diet advice out there so it’s great to see something relatively high profile keeping it simple.

Planning is a really important tool to eating well. So is learning how to cook and be confident handling ingredients (join a class! now!). Another is eating consciously - actually tasting and considering the food as you chew it. What it is, where it’s come from, what effect it’s likely to have on you. Often this mean slowing down the rate at which you eat. Personally that’s made a huge difference to my health. It allows your own intuition to have a larger role.

On the soy front no one has mentioned Tempeh yet! Tempeh is a fermented soya bean product. Forms quite a dense solid matt. Very different to Tofu. Tastes a bit like bacon when lightly fried if you are very imaginative. Nice occasional protein source.

mtts Says:

July 29th, 2008, 15:53 pm

All well and good, of course, and, though I’m not a dietician by any means, there’s little in Leo’s suggestions to find fault with, here’s something to, pardon the pun, chew on:

One of the healthiest peoples (as a group, of course. standard statisctical disclaimers apply) are the inhabitants of Gascony in South Western France. Their diet? Lots of wine (not all French people drink like crazy, that is a myth, but these people certainly do), relatively few vegetables, potatoes baked in saturated fat rich duck grease and generous helpings of fatty duck meat. Once they’re done imbibing all that, they help themselves to a generous portion of Armagnac (a more rustic - and tastier, imo - version of Cognac, if you will).

What we can learn from this is not that we should all start eating duck meat and drinking insane amounts of alcohol, but rather that when it comes to dietary science, we really don’t know enough yet to be making the kind of statements dieticians are fond of making (”saturated fat is bad for you”, “ease up on the carbs”, that sort of thing).

Greg Eden Says:

July 29th, 2008, 16:08 pm

@ Happy Rock

That’s a great point about changing food preferences. Food is so emotive and people get very attached to their favourite foods. The ‘how’ is not that difficult once you get over the hump of the ‘why’.

Sadly it took the early death of a friend from pancreatic cancer to wake me up to my unconscious eating and lifestyle. It’s a gift I’m very grateful for.

sheps25655 Says:

July 29th, 2008, 16:21 pm

This is a total rip-off of the abs diet, with a few small changes. Nice try tho.

deepali Says:

July 29th, 2008, 16:21 pm

@ Debs - I’m skeptical about your evidence regarding saturated fats, but I am definitely intrigued and am going to look into this further. And I definitely agree about HFCS.

But regarding the two studies you cited - nothing conclusive there, and nothing that reverses the evidence showing linkages between saturated fat consumption and adverse cardiovascular effects. The first study looked at <100 70-yr old men. Hardly generalizable.
The second is much better, but used FFQs only twice in the study period. I’m concerned about recall bias and lack of validation.

As for the hunter/forager diet question - meat and dairy are considered “fringe” foods in most traditional diets - ie, consider them flavorings, not main course. Even back before the ag revolution, people did not eat a lot of meat or dairy (and dairy was mostly limited to childrens’ consumption if not solely flavoring). We still see this today in most cultures, except those that have adapted differently (ie, the Inuit - again generalizability issues). I highly recommend Sid Mintz’s work on this topic.

The bulk of the pre-industrial revolution diet has always been plants, either foraged or farmed. The rise of chronic disease in populations (ie, the epidemiologic transition) is closely paralleled to the nutrition transition (ie, the shift to eating more meat and fat).

And just one more thing before I hijack this all together - going back to “traditional” diets would also mean going back to “traditional” lifestyles. IE, if you’re going subsist on seal oil and whale blubber, you should also be going on 4-day reindeer hunts and limiting food intake to 1-2 times a day!

Leo - very sensible post. Thanks!

Jeff Says:

July 29th, 2008, 17:10 pm

@Debs
I think that the increase in obesity is more related to the increase of sedentary leisure activities and jobs.

Ian Says:

July 29th, 2008, 17:29 pm

Hi Leo,

I recently decided to only eat meat once a week (rather than at least once a day), so your suggestions above will be very useful.

My motive for this change is to do my bit to tackle Climate Change, which is HUGELY influenced by eating meat, and the food crisis.

Many thanks,
Ian

p.s. I am loving the ZenToDone book - I am onto Habit2 and have already seen good improvements to my life.

Leo Says:

July 29th, 2008, 17:40 pm

@sheps, who wrote: “This is a total rip-off of the abs diet, with a few small changes. Nice try tho.”

There is obviously a lot of overlap between what I’ve written and many diets and healthy-eating guides, simply because these healthy building blocks are so foundational to a good diet. The Abs Diet may be one, although I’ve read that diet and there are a lot of things I disagree with.

I’m not claiming anything original here, but just trying to promote info that will help people get healtheir.

@Happy Rock: You’re spot on about changing food preferences. My experience has been that it’s easier making small changes, and gradually change your food habits, as it doesn’t seem as difficult if you don’t try to change everything at once. Here’s an article I wrote on this:

http://zenhabits.net/2008/02/a-12-step-program-to-eating-healthier-than-ever-before/

Ian Says:

July 29th, 2008, 18:30 pm

I forgot to say two things:

1) I’ve read a lot about Gatherer-Hunters, and they didn’t eat much meat at all. It was only around 4000 BCE that people started keeping livestock, as they could turn inedible food (e.g. grass) into edible food (i.e. meat). The meat most of us eat nowadays is nothing like the quality they ate back then and we eat far too much of it.

2) I find your writing style easy to read and you make it really tempting to follow your advice. I love the way you summarise things that would take me a long time to research myself. It’s no wonder that you are a very successful blogger.

Peace out!

kalikale Says:

July 29th, 2008, 23:55 pm

thank you for your post, good suggestions!
I’ve been working with natural foods and special diets for over 20 years and have seen many fads come and go; your diet suggestions are solid and will stand the test of time.
I have one point to make - tofu is NOT a fermented soy product, neither is soy milk. Raw soy beans are soaked overnight for both of these products, then ground up in water. The fiber is strained out and the liquid boiled. The end product is soymilk (most commercial soymilk has added sweeteners and thickening agents). If tofu is made from the soymilk a separating agent is added (commonly nigiri) and the curd is then strained from the whey. Thus “bean curd”
Miso, Shoyu, and Tamari are fermented soy products. Tempeh is infused with a mold that predigests the soy in a similar healthful fashion

Kris Says:

July 30th, 2008, 4:46 am

Hi there,

I’ve read your blog for about a year and I love it! This post is great as usual. Just posting to say that despite the pluralisation of tomato and potato (tomatoes, potatoes), the plural of avocado is actually avocados, or to be 100% correct, avocadi.

Thanks again for your brilliant blog, please continue posting :-)

Jean Says:

July 30th, 2008, 10:14 am

Leo, GREAT and wonderful topic! Your food plan (adding quinoa and minus the Clif Bars) is virtually a play-by-play my very own daily menu. Given that I’m older than dirt, healthy beyond belief, fit and fabulous, I can only agree with all the good suggestions you’ve offered in today’s post. :-)

And this - is surely my favorite “Leo-ism” of the day:

“. . . They are like a dessert to me, eaten cold and slowly and with my eyes closed.”

:-)
with appreciation from another very berry aficionado,
jean patricia

Dan Says:

July 30th, 2008, 16:17 pm

What an excellent post Leo! I too am not vegetarian, but find that when I’m pressed for time I usually reach for the greens and some bbq’d chicken breasts. Friends of ours have an organic hobby farm and have just gotten us on that wagon- I can honestly tell the difference!

While my weeks are usually pretty hectic I find using a ‘prep’ day (usually Sunday) helps to keep you on track throughout the week

Thanks for sharing.

Makico Says:

July 30th, 2008, 17:00 pm

I like this post, and your whole blog and I’d like you to know that you changed my life, not in some enormous way, but simply in helping me grow up and be more mature, accept responsibility, simplify… For me it was like serendipity of finding what I needed in exactly the right moment, that somebody was breaking the path in the snow for me in the direction I wanted to go.

I also want to ask sth off topic, because English isn’t my native tongue and I don’t really understand all this super+noun /adverb/adjective thing. Is it like some fourth degree of comparison? like, fast, faster, the fastest, super fast? It’s just that I’m seeing it awfully lot in blogs and I’m not sure if it would be correct if I used it in communication…

Joe White Says:

July 30th, 2008, 17:33 pm

I love that meal plan, it’s great. Very handy to have many different potential choices. I seem to remember that Tim Ferris had something similar on his 4 Hour Work Week blog.

By having just a few choices per meal, the total combinations are many.

Many people also find that recording what they eat helps. If you record it then you commit to eating as you planned, rather than justifying any junk or breaking the rules.

Joe
http://www.QuitSmokingWithJoe.com

Heather Says:

July 30th, 2008, 20:26 pm

When my husband was in grad school (1991), he came up with the Yummy Principle. That’s ‘cus he was doing a PHd in philosophy and they are into principles. I believe it entailed that the food had to be cheap (we were poor) and that it had to be healthy (of course) and that it had to taste good (well it should).

I was bored out of my mind working for a bank and so undertook ethnic cooking. He brought me cookbooks from the something Hospitality division of the library.

Try South Indian. Try Mexican. Try Greek. Try Chinese and Japanese and Thai and Persian. They invented the yummy principle.

Oh, and by the way, we eat very well still even though my business has taken off by leaps and bounds. The mostly vegetarian, spiced foods just make your body feel good. Nothing like the malaise of a meat and potatoes. It’s great.

Jason Says:

July 30th, 2008, 23:01 pm

Leo, you never cease to amaze me with you wonderful posts. You have been a great inspiration to me as I set out on my journey to change my life.

Thank you,
Jason

MsGuinevere Says:

July 31st, 2008, 15:36 pm

I love this list. It’s how I eat now and I feel fantastic (so much better than before) I think that a lot of healthier foods are an “aquired taste” - especially if you grew up eating less health-fully. But it definately can be aquired! And then it’s hard to go back to junk.
I also love to make up a couple of salads for the week (bean, quinoa, bulger, pasta, potato, etc.) and have them ready to put into a smaller container for lunches at work. So much variety of yummy foods! Aren’t we lucky!

Julia Says:

July 31st, 2008, 15:41 pm

Great blog, and post.

I would suggest as related reading a recent report from the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production:

http://www.ncifap.org/_images/PCIFAPFin.pdf

Especially appropriate are the sections on public health, environmental risks, and animal health & well-being.

Many people are complete unaware of what goes on in factory farming, both in terms of the unspeakable cruelty and the threats to public health. [my words]

This important report was produced through collaboration between Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Next, and if you are thoroughly disgusted, visit:

http://www.gentleworld.org/philosophers.html

Then, eat a salad, with some walnuts, avocado, all that great healthy stuff.

I would rather die than eat meat, eat an egg, or anything derived from an animal. Milk is a non-issue for me, as the dairy industry is among the most cruel of all. (That Hallmark plant? Those was used-up dairy cows). My decisions are a direct result of becoming aware of the cruelty of factory farming.

ShoeLaLa Says:

July 31st, 2008, 18:43 pm

no WAY!!! as soon as i saw the sandwich picture, i knew exactly what it was. the vegan BLT (lettuce tomato & toasted coconut) wrap from Aux Vivre restaurant in Montreal. YUM! i ate that sandwich a few years ago and have been dreaming about it ever since. seriously. SO GOOD.

Tippy Says:

July 31st, 2008, 21:05 pm

I avoid canola oil because it’s controversial. Maybe it’s indeed okay, but it’s easy enough to avoid, so I do.

Summy Says:

August 1st, 2008, 1:32 am

You can use the “Best” Diet as a transition to the Leo’s health meals.

Miss Gisele B | myBeautyMatch.com Says:

August 1st, 2008, 5:17 am

Leo,
Once again an excellent post. I’m a regular reader of your blog and I haven’t found a simple post in your blog to disagree with you. Although I’m a non-vegetarian, I appreciate your recommendation about healthy diet.

Debs - Food Is Love Says:

August 1st, 2008, 19:37 pm

Hey,

Just catching up with this. Good discussion. About the Inuit and exercise, check out this post on Whole Health Source. Lots of interesting information, and a suggestion that the Inuit didn’t actually get much exercise in winter.

There are some good articles on the “paleo” diet and archeology here: http://www.thepaleodiet.com/published_research/

About whether we evolved to eat meat, there’s an interesting parallel in the archaeological record between when we started being agrarian, and when we suddenly lost stature pretty significantly and showed less than ideal dental health.

Anyway, do what feels right to you and gather what information you can to make your own decisions. Being informed and making thoughtful choices is a great thing.

All I’m saying is, don’t discount the idea that saturated fat may be good for you and grains may be detrimental simply because it’s not the most commonly repeated belief. There are countless stories of people getting healthier, stronger, lighter and leaner eating a high-saturated-fat, high-vegetable, high-meat and low-grain diet. Check out some of them on Mark’s Daily Apple here: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/

Thanks again for the good discussion!

Debs
Food Is Love

Debs - Food Is Love Says:

August 2nd, 2008, 1:14 am

One other find on the question of how much meat hunter-gatherers ate: Whole Health Source just put up a post about this very topic:
http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2008/08/composition-of-hunter-gatherer-diet.html

which cited this paper:
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/71/3/682?ijkey=KPJ8NPKvC6lVQ

Debs
Food Is Love

mrpinto Says:

August 2nd, 2008, 22:46 pm

Well, it looks like diet is a hot topic. I’ve dabbled a bit myself, both reading stuff and the oh-so-important do-it-and-see-what-happens empirical side. A few things I’ve noticed on the way:

First, diet is a hugely emotional issue. A biologist notes that we eat for two reasons: 1) energy and 2) raw materials. The missing third is of course entertainment. Eating is cultural, we do it with friends, we eat certain things on certain days or certain occasions or at certain times of the day. If all we had is 1 and 2, the discussion would be as objective as comparing two different running shoes to see which was more comfortable. Throw cultural identity into the mix and folks get awful defensive.

Second, and related, a lot of us tend to make our comments out of fear. Fear that ours is the wrong path, and/or fear that the right path is something that will be unwelcome, whether unpleasant, unaffordable, too time consuming or whatever. I recall myself thinking that vegetarians were crazy PETA folk, or that they were scrawny, or that getting protein would be too hard, or any number of other things. It took me a long time to realize that nothing was wrong with the vegetarians at all. It was ME that had a problem: I was emotionally attached to my way of doing things and my brain decided that the path of least resistance was to mentally marginalize the vegetarians themselves rather than look seriously at the options available to me. It’s a hard thing to release that fear and actually look at the essence of a choice, whether dietary or otherwise. Anytime I find myself quickly dismissing something, I struggle to remind myself to check for my own fears first.

Third, humans can eat a lot of things. We’re pretty adaptable like that. We’ve all sorts of teeth, for tearing, chewing, crushing and the like. We can handle different sugars. We handle cooked food. We can eat twinkies and live. Compared to a panda eating nothing but bamboo we have a universe of possibilities. That’s probably why there are more of us than there are pandas. More importantly, it probably means that there are many diets that can be more than healthy enough.

Fourth, we live long lives now, way beyond the duration for which our bodies (and our diets) were designed. I’m a pretty big fan of the ur-diet stuf and I do like to eat things that my ancient ancestors would recognize, but I don’t think that’s the whole answer here. Others have mentioned this already within this thread, but it’s important to remember that the gatherer-hunters (I like that reversal) and the pre-westernized Inuits weren’t living to 80. Cancer and heart disease just weren’t concerns. Pollen seems right to have faith in culturally tested and approved diets, but they were testing and approving methods for solving a different problem than ours. They were trying to survive long enough to have kids and guide those kids to maturity in a world where food was much less accessible than it is now, either in quantity or variety. We are trying to live triple their lifetimes without exercising (well, certainly not as much), without spending as much time cooking, and without becoming fat despite living in an industrialized world where even the poor can afford thousands of calories a day. I’ve heard that it’s only within this decade that the world now counts more people who are obese than malnourished.

As for me, I’ve done SAD, I’ve done vegetarian + fish (pescetarian if you’re hip to the lingo), and I’ve done raw vegan. I’m not dead yet. As I recall, I ran my first half marathon under SAD, but set my PR as a vegetarian. I was definitely a vegetarian for my first marathon. I’m raw vegan now and I’m still a healthy weight, still a multi-sport athlete, and still able to (actually, better able to) do what I love, which is program. Maybe some day they’ll determine that my fruits veggies and nuts are bad for me too, but I doubt it.

Besides, even when they do, I’ll rely on my old friend Mark Twain to back me up: “be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.”

Codytalks Says:

August 2nd, 2008, 23:29 pm

I am planning my menu starting tomorrow right now… Thanks Leo!!!!

J Says:

August 3rd, 2008, 12:34 pm

One of the added benefits to obsessing what to eat and preparing the meals in a more labor intensive way than just microwaving or heating up, is it brings people in the household together instead of segregated between computers, televisions, and mobile phones. It’s a great way to go back to the basics and discuss things that matter like food!

techontrack Says:

August 4th, 2008, 12:37 pm

As always, another wonderful post. I was very interested in seeing what the dish was that was pictured for this article? It was mentioned before that this looked delicious and I agree! Can we get the recipe for that beautiful dish? Kudos to Leo and all the commenters!

Kittekaat Says:

August 4th, 2008, 14:54 pm

Leo, Thanks for the lovely post. For me the easiest form of diet modification starts at the store. If you *only* buy good, wholesome foods to begin with and avoid bringing the things that are detrimental into your house to to begin with, you are less likely to consume them in a fit of weakness later. Leaving the cookies, Doritos, and potato chips at the store will do wonders towards forcing you to eat healthy.

I also have eliminated High Fructose Corn Syrup from my diet and since that time, 5 years ago, my perpetual weight gain stopped and my weight stabilized. Previously, it seemed no matter how much I exercised, the results were negligible. After cutting out the HFCS, it was a simple matter to exercise the extra weight away. Avoiding HFCS is not an easy task, it requires reading the labels on everything before putting it in my shopping cart, and it turns up in a lot of unexpected places, like breads and salad dressings. I do believe that if Americans took this one simple step, no matter what else they eat, will dramatically improve their absorption of nutrients and cut down on the excess (and utterly empty) calories.

Marc Says:

August 18th, 2008, 22:18 pm

Nice to see lots of you switching to eating fresh foods, not processed. Somehow here in North America, since the 1950’s, we’ve switched to eating out of cans, bags, boxes and trays - we seem to have lost the ability to cook from scratch. My wife and I have been trying to avoid the middle isles of the grocery store and just shopping on the perimeter (produce, meat, dairy) and it works quite well. We still have a few convenience foods that we buy, but are trying to cut down on them to the point of hopefully eliminating them completely from our diet. And it’s surprising how little extra time it takes to cook from scratch and I actually find it a great way to relax from a busy day at work! :)

For the ultimate in fresh food, for those of you blessed with a house and yard, consider growing your own veggies and fruit. It’s amazing how fresher a tomato tastes or an apple or lettuce or beans, etc. After all it can be picked at the peak of ripeness (since you can prepare it and eat it right away) and hasn’t had to travel halfway across a continent or overseas to get to your grocery store. There are too many yards I see everyday with huge swatches of lawn (that take a lot of time and money to maintain) that could easily grow enough food for several families!

John Bradford Says:

September 8th, 2008, 3:04 am

I know English grammar is boring, but please say “eat healthily” - please don’t say “eat healthy” aarrhh

mrpinto Says:

September 8th, 2008, 3:24 am

@John Bradford, think of it as shorthand for “eat healthy foods.”

Paul Says:

September 17th, 2008, 17:55 pm

A LOT of misinformation here.
1.) It is IMPOSSIBLE to get calcium from dairy products, the cow got it and bound a protein to it, rendering it useless for us. In fact, dairy can acidify your body and draw calcium OUT of your bones. Talk to any biology student about sulfurous animal protein.
2.) Grains are, in general, toxic to the body. Raw grains tend to be poisonous, are rendered less toxic by cooking, and elevate INSULIN which is the culprit in overweight and ill health. Coating ones intestines with gluten is of no benefit.
3.) Fat is good, fat doesn’t make you fat, eating lean can deprive the body of needed structural components -FAT.
4.) Canola oil is TOXIC and should never be consumed in any shape or form.

bingo Says:

September 30th, 2008, 16:41 pm

I m 28 yrs old and weigh about 45 kg, skinny. Dont eat vegitables. Mostly eat red meat, chicken, rice, pluse and some times fruit. Kindly advice me what kind of food will help me gain some weight. Thx

Curious Says:

February 6th, 2009, 12:31 pm

Hi Leo,

I agree with you about keeping things simple. I am an avid reader of your blog. My goal is also keep myself and my family from getting sick by including only high nutrient foods in our diet. If you are interested in how much the foods we eat affect your health, check out some books by Dr. Joel Fuhrman - He is the real deal when it comes to nutrition and reversing many diseases. Here is a link to his site https://www.drfuhrman.com/disease/default.aspx

HealthyEatingGirl Says:

February 11th, 2009, 15:23 pm

Wow, there are a lot of good recommendations here, and great discussion.

I totally agree with Deb’s concerns. I also think that people are not getting enough of some very important nutrients. Granted, we don’t need a lot of animal protein, we do need a small amount.

But one other thing that I’m VERY concerned about is that many people are still recommending soy. The WHO issued a health warning about our over-consumption of soy, and other products that mimic female estrogen in the body - yet people are still recommending it. I see a few doctors here and there who step up to the plate and tell of the dangers, but the myth is still so widepsread.

PLEASE - Do not eat soy. It messes with your throid, increases your risk of cancer, makes boys more feminine - I even saw one doctor recently who feels that it has led to increased homosexuality in boys.

Don’t take my word for it - do some research. You’ll find that soy is not the health miracle it’s cracked up to be.

Nothing hyped ever is.

Paul Says:

June 17th, 2009, 21:41 pm

There’s a bridge that needs to be crossed from knowledge to action. I have planed to lose weight two months ago, but I failed, because I really can’t bear the meal without meat.

Carole Says:

June 17th, 2009, 23:23 pm

You don’t have to totally give up meat to be eating a healthy diet. As a human being, you need some meat - about 6 oz. a day. It just needs to be orgainic meat. You can find out more at HighEnergyEating.com.

Curious Says:

June 22nd, 2009, 11:24 am

Paul, you probably don’t eat meat for every meal of your day. Carole is right that you don’t need to give it up completely and stay healthy. Did you try having a big green salad for dinner topped with fresh veggies, nut/seeds, avocado, beans? You can even throw in some animal as a condiment :) Eggs work well…

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