Western diet killing us? I'm reading a very good, sensible book about

[alfredo]

our diet. It is "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan. He has two mantras "eat food, not too much, mostly vegetables", and second, "avoid foods with health claims." His definition of food is food that your ancestors (grandmother) would recognize. This means you should eat whole foods and avoid the packaged, refined, and industrialized foods. Avoid food like substances you find in the center aisles at the supermarket. You will be surprised at the percentage of the American diet consist of corn or corn derivatives. High fructose corn syrup is not your friend.

Here he is on NPR
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17725932

[graywarrior]

1. I swear the reason I am sick right now is because I strayed from

my macrobiotic diet--even though I was not very tight with it. Been having lots of packaged food since I started working and it's killing me.

[shain from kane]

2. My dad would always ask us why we were constantly popping corn, especially after it got so simple

to make with the microwave oven. He said, "You know, the farmer feeds corn to pigs to fatten them."

[lizerdbits]

3. I'm glad he's making money off

what has been common sense for years. Not to say I'm perfect about it, if we have birthday cake at work I'm in line for a piece.

[alfredo]

10. A piece of chocolate

cake isn't the problem, it is the two cans of soda, and highly refined foods that make us overfed and under nourished.

[emilyg]

4. Thanks.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

5. Yep

I've been eating a diet that was designed for me. Few carbs, few fruits (because of glycemic issues), but lots of veggies, seeds, nuts, meats, and dairy (LOVE plain unsweetened yogurt). Stuff I eat is very much what Grandma would recognize, and I've lost around 25 pounds so far. Funny thing is, I don't have cravings like I used to when I ate stuff with sugar and corn syrup.

[truedelphi]

9. I've been finding that something inside sunflower seeds - raw and organic ones anyway, really turns

Off the appetite cravings.

I also really like pumpkin seeds.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

11. They are indeed yummy

didn't know about the sunflower seeds, but I've been eating them. That may be the reason I'm not craving things! Thanks for the information!

[truedelphi]

14. Many times, I have tried to improve my diet.

If I include the seeds, I do great.

Otherwise I fail.

[Mabus]

13. My husband has been eating similarly and he's lost some weight too

He's also noticed that his craving for sweets is now almost non-existent.

We moved recently and we made a commitment to eat better. For one thing, I've been cooking from scratch more. We've also been eating mostly organic fruits and vegetables. I make an oil-free dressing with lime juice, Bratt's liquid aminos, garlic, peppers and other stuff. The biggest change we've made is substituting potato chips for peanuts and an evening of television watching with longer walks with the dogs. I think we're all healthier for it.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

15. Not sure I understand one part

You're now eating potato chips instead of peanuts? That sounds a bit strange.

My doctor told me to use either olive oil or butter, believe it or not. I take 3 large fish oil tablest every morning as well (help with cholesterol).

[Mabus]

22. No, I meant were eating peanuts instead of potato chips

I was posting while I was waiting on hold for the muzak to end and for a human to finally pick up and worded it poorly. I think I typed that part about the same time I had to hit some number to indicate I wanted to keep holding.

Just night we were going through the kitchen making a shopping list when my husband opened up a cabinet and found a bag of chips. He looked at me and I shrugged my shoulders. After we thought about it we realized we had purchased it on the road out here. We just never got around to opening it. Instead we have been eating peanuts and other nuts. We buy only non-salted peanuts.

I've been using a lot of olive oil or butter for my cooking. When I have to I'll use vegetable oil. btw, I hit the thrift stores soon after we arrived and picked up some nice cast iron skillets. I love those things and they last a lifetime.

[alfredo]

20. Nuts will cut your craving for sweets. Sometimes hunger is actually thirst.

[Mabus]

23. We drink plenty of fluids

He's got an old milk jug full of purified water that he carries around the house with him. We both drink vegetable and fruit juices too. My favorite is Odwalla's green micro-nutrient stuff. I admit that I still drink at least one Dr. Pepper a day but that's down from four or five 24 oz. bottles a day.

Interesting to know that hunger can sometimes be disguised as thirst. I've never really thought about it before.

[alfredo]

26. No, thirst can be confused with hunger. You think you are hungry but you

are actually thirsty.

[Mabus]

31. So much for my multi-tasking skills yesterday

I meant to say that it was interesting that hunger could be disguised as thirst.

[alfredo]

32. No you think you are hungry, but actually you are dehydrated.

[DesertFlower]

6. i agree with the author.

my grandmother cooked fresh vegetables every day.

[Warpy]

7. It's actually pretty good advice

as the star of "Supersize Me" found out when he went into liver failure after living on fast food for a month.

Learning to cook and like unprocessed foods will be a double advantage in the not too distant future because the less processed a food is, the cheaper it is. People who can turn beans, root veggies and grains into a nutritious stew that will sustain them for days will be way ahead of the non cooks in terms of both health and finances.

Processed foods are not only high in noxious things like trans fats and HCFS, they're also very high in salt. The salt is what allows them to retain flavor through processing and weeks or months of sitting on shelves. Eating a diet of processed foods will eventually lead to high blood pressure and all its complications just from the salt, alone. Add all the other crap and you're a ticking time bomb after a few years.

The changeover from flavor enhanced, salty processed foods to whole foods can be a rough one, though.

[izquierdista]

8. Best nutrition advice

Walk through an Italian street market and eat what looks good.

[alfredo]

12. Your great grand mother would recognize the food.

Another point he makes is that industrial farming practices are robbing our foods of their nutritional values. You have to eat more to get the same value. The factory farmed animals are less nutritious because they are overfed and undernourished.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

16. You know this if you've ever had a garden

you've planted yourself, used compost, etc. etc. One leaf of lettuce straight from the garden can satisfy a hunger.

[alfredo]

18. I used to do square foot gardening. Now I am in a townhouse so all

I can do is container gardening. I do have a compost heap. I grow lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, and herbs.

[izquierdista]

17. Grandma liked fiber, too.

Two things you notice if you eat wild foods as opposed to the domesticated, farmed varieties is that wild foods have more flavor and more fiber. This time of year, it is easy to find wild scallions growing in meadows and wild asparagus along irrigation canals. Both pack a lot more flavor and fiber than the varieties that are cultivated for mass consumption. My favorite is to drive along the California coast and stop to pick some wild finocchi.

[Warpy]

25. Great grandma hated fibre

I had a turn of the century cookbook that cautioned people to boil all vegetables at a full boil for at least an hour to break down all that nasty fibre and make it digestible. Back then, they thought cellulose plugged you up and constipated you. Couldn't have been all that boiled beef and mash, had to be the veggies.

Food fads are weird. These days, we barely introduce our veggies to the fire so that they retain their bright colors and a certain amount of crunch.

I envy your wildcrafting. Around here, it would have to be peyote cactus and ephedra.

[izquierdista]

27. You must have prickly pears around then

The fruits make excellent sauce and jam and the leaves are great for nopales. How about roasted agave stalks? Yum!

[alfredo]

28. I used to eat prickly pear fruit when I was in Eritrea. I have some

in my yard here in Kentucky but the fruit is very small.

[Warpy]

39. It's not the farming, it's the processing

The main nutrient that has decreased due to factory farming methods is the protein content of various grains. We still have higher protein grain than Europe does without factory farming, though, so it's not a huge loss.

Processing removes vitamins, minerals, and other micronutrients at every step of the process. The original flavor of the food is enhanced by the addition of a large amount of sodium, in the forms of salt and MSG. That partially compensates for the loss of flavor during processing.

[Dogmudgeon]

19. We have lost body-consciousness

Eating right and exercising enough are very difficult for "Westerners" (actually, in most modern cultures) because we have trained ourselves to be unaware of our bodies. Well, at least in part, and we need to address that aspect of our lives.

This isn't a purely psychological kind of sensitivity -- it's a consciousness of our entire physical state. I'm not sure whether it is trained, programmed, drugged, or stressed out of us, but it is very common, even in children. Obesity is obviously one of its side effects; if you can't properly sense how your body is enjoying or not enjoying food, and if it feels something is "missing", you will feel driven to eat.

A number of scientists have begun working in this area. There was a popular book out a few years ago, written by a physician, about the digestive system as a part of the human mind. There was a lot of metaphor to the assertion, but the book (I forget the title and author, alas) made a very good case for this kind of "consciousness". (Unfortunately, the word "consciousness" has picked up a lot of baggage in the past 30 years.)

It's something to consider, and making an effort to restore. Mindfulness exercises while eating work for some people. Slowing down your eating can also help. But these are just random ideas on my part; I've only recently started to work on regaining my body sense, and it has been driven by a long period of illness.

Any ideas?

--p!

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

21. breath work can help with this

I've done breathing practices for years and have found when one gets into a particular type of breath it is very easy to be aware of what your body is telling you.

[Dogmudgeon]

24. That's an excellent point

Breathing is connected to the brain at many points, especially the brainstem and limbic system. There is a new gadget out that helps people with high blood pressure reduce it by breath control. We need to put more scientific attention on breathing, too.

My own "technique" is more like mindfulness practice. Since I am a supertaster (it's not that special, 25% of the population are supertasters) there are tricks I've learned to augment my natural enjoyment of food so I eat less and don't feel constantly deprived. And since I take narcotic drugs for severe pain control, I have an incentive to preserve my ability to feel. But it's not really technique, it's a change in my orientation. And it doesn't happen overnight.

Physical exercise, though, is essential. It reduces the insensibility, and proper breathing is mandatory during exercise.

Thanks for the suggestion!

--p!

[bagrman]

29. Eat like a cave man.

[alfredo]

30. Not quite that rustic. Let's say eat in a way that is appropriate for

your location and history.

[bagrman]

33. The concept is to eat only when you are hungry, Usually winds up being 5 small meals a day.

[alfredo]

34. I learned to eat that way when I was an amateur cyclist. People would

say I was eating all the time.

[bagrman]

35. Yep a granola bar here, piece of jerky there, and a glass of water now and then.

[alfredo]

36. I try to eat things like fruit or something light. I'm addicted to red lentil

soup.

Red Lentil Soup

1 large onion, finely chopped 

1 3/4 cups (350 g) split red lentils

7 1/2 cups (1 3/4 liters) meat or chicken stock or water

Salt and pepper 

1 teaspoon cumin

juice of 1/2 to 1 lemon

Extra virgin olive oil to drizzle, to taste.

In a saucepan put the onion, lentils, liquid, a little salt and pepper, and simmer 1/2 hour, or until the lentils have disintegrated. Add water if soup needs thinning. Stir in cumin and lemon juice and adjust seasoning. Be generous with the lemon juice. Let people help themselves to a trickle of olive oil. I put crushed red peppers in the soup at the beginning.
You can also put it in the blender to give it a smooth texture.

[bagrman]

37. thanks

[alfredo]

38. Try that recipe. It's quite satisfying and lentils are easily digested.

I highly recommend this book.

http://www.amazon.com/Classic-Vegetarian-Cooking-Middle-Africa/dp/1566563984

I have studied foods from around the world. I would say that Chinese cooking is what taught me the most about organizing my kitchen, time management, and presentation.
Indian cooking taught me about the passion in spicing. Mediterranean taught me the joy of simple foods. But Chinese cooking is the foundation because of how they treat their vegetables, and how they understand that food must be appealing to all senses.