I just finished reading a great book that finally makes sense of all of the conflicting nutrition info that’s out there.  It’s called “In Defense of Food – An Eater’s Manifesto” by Michael Pollan.  You need to read this.  No seriously – you need to read this.  Period.  It’s that good.

This book is written for the layperson so there’s no technical jargon or scientific mumbo-jumbo.  In plain and simple English, Michael Pollan explains how we have gone from talking about about “food” to being overly concerned about “nutrition.”  He shows how science has attempted to divide whole foods into their separate nutritional parts in an attempt to make them “more nutritious” and as a result, have ended up making them less healthy.

So forget about dieting and read this book instead.  You’ll learn how to eat, and the weight will come off naturally.  Here’s some of what’s included in the book…

In the first section, “The Age of Nutritionism,” the author traces the early history of “food science” and explains how we’ve come to where we are today.  You’ll learn that once the powerful special interest groups like the American Dairy Association and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, to name a few, flexed their political and financial muscle, it became political suicide for any Food and Drug Administration (FDA) official to recommend eating less red meat or drinking less dairy.
However, if you broke the foods down into their nutritional components, you could get away with saying “eat less saturated fats.”  After all, there is no “Saturated Fat Association” in Washington.  Unfortunately, once you started speaking in terms of nutritional components, no one really knew what kinds of foods you were talking about – one of the main reasons we Americans like to think we’re eating right, yet somehow we keep getting fatter.

The second section deals with “The Western Diet and the Diseases of Civilization.”  You’ll read about how most of the health issues that Americans deal with are directly related to the foods we eat – and the foods we eat, of course, have become big business with hundreds of millions of dollars spend on marketing campaigns and advertising.

Some of the topics in the “Industrialization of Eating” chapter include:

• How we’ve gone from whole foods to refined foods;
• From complex foods to simple ones;
• How we’ve given up quality for quantity;
• How our diet has gone from mostly plants and leaves to mostly seeds;
• And how our society has changed from Food Culture to Food Science.

The last section is the real “meat” of the book (sorry).  Here, the author sums up everything you need to know about health and nutrition in 7 short words:  Eat Food.  Mostly Plants.  Not Too Much.

Isn’t that elegant?  Follow these short instructions and you’ll never go wrong.  Eat Food.  Mostly Plants.  Not Too Much.

The rest of the book simply fills out the details on how to do this:

1. Eat Food. Real food – not the artificial, fake stuff that masquerades as food in the supermarket.  Things that will help you identify real food include:
   • Don’t eat anything your Great Grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.
   • Don’t eat anything that won’t rot or spoil.  If it’s got that much chemical preservative in it, you don’t want it in your body.
   • Avoid food products containing ingredients that are unfamiliar, unpronounceable, more than 5 in number, or that include high-fructose corn syrup.
   • Avoid food products that make health claims.
   • Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle where most of the refined and artificial foods are.
   • Get out of the supermarket whenever possible and visit your local Farmer’s Market.
2. Mostly Plants. Ways to help you do this include:
   • Eat mostly plants, especially leaves.  The leaves tend to have a lot more vitamins and minerals than the other parts of the plant.
   • The quality of the plants is directly correlated to the quality of the soil it grows in.
   • Eat wild foods when you can.  Expand the variety of what you eat as much as possible.
3. Not Too Much.
   • Pay more, eat less.  Focus more on good, high quality foods instead of mass quantities of the cheap stuff.
   • Eat full meals instead of snacking all day long, and do all your eating at the table, not in your car or at your desk.
   • Eat slowly, and try not to eat alone.  Make a eating a social event where food is a secondary consideration, not the main event.

If you really want to improve your overall health and lose weight (or stop gaining) at the same time, all without having to worry about carbs, fats, and proteins, then get this book.  Buy from Amazon using the link at the right (I think I get a whole 50 cents if you use my affiliate link), buy it from your local Barnes and Noble, or go check it out at your local library.  However you get it, get it.  It’s that important.

Hiram
The Balanced Health Guy
Certified Fitness Nutrition Coach (NESTA)

Technorati Tags: Michael Pollan, nutrition, diet, whole food, carbs, fats, protein, nutritionism, plants, eating, health, weight, weight loss

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The Study.

From October 2004 to December 2007, a total of 811 overweight adults in Baton Rouge and Boston participated in a study designed to evaluate the effectiveness of diets consisting of varying amounts of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats.  In other words, they were trying to determine whether people on high protein/low carb diets (like the Atkins Diet) lost any more or less weight than people on high carb/low protein diets (like the Mediterranean Diet).

Most of the studies that had been done in the past were either, (1) relatively short term in duration (1 year or less), or (2) underrepresented a specific population group (usually men), or (3) were funded by a company with a direct financial stake in the outcome.  These are usually the reasons that the conclusions of past studies tend to contradict each other.  This new study attempts to address the shortcomings of past research.

The Harvard study was performed over a more than 2 year time span at the Harvard School of Public Health/Brigham and Woman’s Hospital in Boston and at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center of the Louisiana State University System in Baton Rouge.  The group of adults were between 30 and 70 years of age and had a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 20 to 40.  Approximately 40% of the study group were men.

The subjects were divided into 4 groups and each given a diet with different levels of carbohydrates, protein, and fats.  The diets ranged from low fat/low protein, to high fat/high protein.  Besides the composition of the diet, each diet represented a decrease of about 750 calories from the average daily intake of the participants.  During the study, the participants also had a weekly goal of 90 minutes of moderate exercise and they attended group counseling sessions.

The Results.

After about 6 months, it was found that the participants assigned to each group had lost an average of about 13 pounds (6 kg), which represented approximately 7% of their initial body weight.  However, after about a year, it was found that they had regained some of the weight.  By the end of 2 years, the weight loss had stabilized and remained similar across all of the diets.  Among the 80% of participants who completed the study, the average weight loss, regardless of the type of diet, was about 9 pounds (4 kg).  It was also found that all of the diets improved health risk factors and insulin levels equally.

Conclusions.

So what can we conclude from this study?  Despite all of the scientific jargon, what can we take away from this and use in our daily lives?  Here are a couple of conclusions that I have come up with based on what I read in the study as well as my own experience (note:  these are my conclusions – not necessarily those listed in the study):

1. One of the conclusions noted in the study is that “Reduced-calorie diets result in clinically meaningful weight loss regardless of which macronutrients they emphasize.” Amen to that.  The key to weight loss is to reduce the total number of calories you consume. Let me say that again.  If you want to lose weight, eat less. This study shows that it really doesn’t matter what you eat, just that you eat less of it.
2. Weight loss begins at the kitchen or restaurant table. I see people headed to the gym in order to “lose weight” all the time.  Sorry, but you don’t lose weight at the gym.  You can lift weights or ride the exercise bike all day long — and exercise is definitely an important part of any health plan — but you’ll never lose any weight unless you learn how to limit your serving sizes and push yourself away from the kitchen or restaurant table while there’s still food on your plate.  Weight loss happens at the table, not at the gym.
3. The body can adapt to just about any kind of diet. This study proves that it really doesn’t matter what kind of food you eat.  Whether you eat mostly salads or Twinkies, organic health foods or junk, if you reduce the number of total calories you normally consume, you will lose weight.
4. The study included having the participates attend regular counseling and group sessions.  They found that there was a direct correlation between attendance and weight loss.  What does this prove?  It proves that your chances of losing weight go way up if you have a friend or support group to help keep you on track.
5. Exercise is a critical part of any weight loss program. Why?  I think it’s because when you’re exercising, you’re not snacking or being tempted to snack.  It really doesn’t seem to matter what kind of exercise you do.  Whether it’s a hard-core cardio routine or a leisurely walk around the block, the point is to get up off the couch, get away from that bag of potato chips that’s been calling your name, and get out and do something that gets you physically active.
6. Ya gotta want to. The study found that the people that lost the most weight were the most motivated.  Big surprise, right?  But it still brings up a valid point.  To fix any problem, you first have to admit it exits – and then commit to doing something about it.
7. Permanent weight loss is a long term process. Sorry, but there is no “overnight” solution.  There is no “lose weight fast” answer.  PERMANENT weight loss is a 1-2 year process.  In other words, “dieting” or making the right choices about what and how much you eat, should be a permanent part of your lifestyle, not an event that you undertake once or twice a year.
8. If they can do it, you can do it. Of the 811 people that participated in the study, 80% of them completed the study.  That’s about 650 people.  80% is a fantastic success rate and it shows that if they can do it, you can do it.  All it takes is reducing your total daily calories by around 750 calories.  That’s cutting out 1 bag of potato chips (150 cal), a soft drink (155 cal), 1 donut (200 cal), and a bowl of chocolate ice cream (225 cal) from your diet.  Besides cutting down on snacks, you can find lots of areas where you can painlessly reduce calories such as getting a smaller portion size, leaving off the gravy, choosing baked instead of fried foods, and so on.  Remember, if they can do it, you can.

So there it is.  Nothing really earth shattering or surprising.  If you want to lose weight, forget the fad diets.  All you have to do is simply consume fewer calories.

You can read the full details of the study here:  “Comparison of Weight-Loss Diets with Different Compositions of Fat, Protein, and Carbohydrates”

Hiram
The Balanced Health Guy

Technorati Tags: diet, health, atkins, Mediterranean, weight loss, harvard, overweight, obese, BMI, exercise, carbohydrates, fats, protein, cardio

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