National Nutrition Month kicked off in March, which reminds some people about New Years resolutions they promised to keep about eating healthier. Some people set a goal that is too high to realistically reach in the short-term, creating unrealistic expectations. But to get some small health benefits right now, we don't have to all the way towards the optimal ideal of completely healthy eating, not that we shouldn't strive for that ideal, because we should.
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Research from last July 2017 show that reducing meats and sugars in our diet, and increasing the consumption of vegetables, whole grains, nuts and legumes can potentially lower the risk of death and increase our lifespan. Improving the quality of diet through these foods reduces mortality from 8 to 17% in general, with a reduction of 7 to 15% from death as a result of cardiovascular diseases.
The longer we eat healthy, the better it is for us in the long run. And the longer we eat unhealthy, the worse it is for us in the long run. That's why it's important to eat healthy from young age because eating poorly has long-term effects we can't see yet, as they take time to manifest. Many diseases can be prevented before they occur. The general eating habits of a society are based on the eating habits of individuals. Adults need to take responsibility for the society we create in terms of diet and eating habits that we expose to the younger generations. What we do affects the next generations that get conditioned into living and eating the same way.
Changing a diet can be done slowly. Replacing one serving of meat alone with nuts and legumes can have a big impact on health. This can continue more and more. The research suggests our whole plates can be filled with half fruit and vegetables, and the other half with healthy proteins and fats coming from nut butters, legumes, and whole grains.
Fasting can also improve our health. Intermittent energy restriction diets like the "5:2 diet" of eating for five days and not eating for two, shows a better ability to metabolize and clear fat for weight loss compared to conventional calorie restriction diets.
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A recent study recruited overweight people to try to lose 5% of their weight. Some did daily calorie restrictions, and others did the "5:2 diet". Those on daily caloric restriction tried to eat 600 cal less each day, while those on the 5:2 diet ate only 600 cal on their two fasting days.
Those on the 5:2 diet cleared fat triglyceride levels more efficiently than those on a daily diet. There was also a greater decrease in systolic blood pressure which puts less pressure on arteries and reduces the incidence of heart attacks and strokes, 9% for the 5:2 dieters compared to 2% for the daily calorie restriction dieters. Not everyone liked the 5:2 diet, with many struggling to tolerate it.
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Eating food is an important part of our daily lives. When trying to make health improvements, it's often better to take small steps to change our conditioning and poor eating habits. Trying to go for the optimal ideal right away can backfire on us.
Many -- if not most -- people have an aversion to change. We often get attached to the food we eat, as many of us eat for the pleasure gratification that certain foods provide. Trying to change too quickly, or change too much at once, is often too much to ask of ourselves when we have such an aversion or attachment.
Changing ourselves for the better often takes a lot of work. Doing all that work can take a lot of time, energy and effort. It can be unrealistic to put that pressure on ourselves, unless we are able to handle it. Some people can handle making big changes at once and heading towards the optimal ideal that they recognize, while others need more time to cope with the changes they engage in in order to gradually work their way up to an ideal.
If you struggle to adopt diet changes, or keep up with your New Years resolutions, then maybe try to cut back on the degree of change you ask from yourself. Making smaller changes over time might mean you don't reach the goal right now, but you can cross the finish line at a later date.
References:
- Improving diet quality over time linked with reduced risk of premature death
- “Association of Changes in Diet Quality with Total and Cause-Specific Mortality,” Mercedes Sotos-Prieto, Shilpa N. Bhupathiraju, Josiemer Mattei, Teresa T. Fung, Yanping Li, An Pan, Walter C. Willett, Eric B. Rimm, and Frank B. Hu, NEJM, July 13, 2017, doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1613502
- Fasting diets reduce important risk factor for cardiovascular
- Rona Antoni et al, Intermittent v. continuous energy restriction: differential effects on postprandial glucose and lipid metabolism following matched weight loss in overweight/obese participants, British Journal of Nutrition (2018). DOI: 10.1017/S0007114517003890
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I've been batteling weight issues for years - went from 270 down to 150 stayed there for about 2 years and then over the next 5 I put on 50. Since April of last year I've been practicing intermittent fasting - only eating during a 7 hour window every day (2000 calories) and I've cut out dairy and all red meat - chicken 2 x a week and fish once the rest is all veggie and fruits. I'm back down to 170 and have never felt this healthy. I don't even need coffee anymore - a banana or Apple and I'm bouncing off the walls.
There's some great info in your post - thanks for sharing. Glad I followed!! All the best!
Congrats. Go plants all the way and you will be the healthiest. Just research the nutrients needed from food to stay healthy. Everything that animals eat comes from plants, and we can do the same, going right to the healthiest source and not harming other innocent beings.
That's an incredible result! Very happy you could find your perfect diet.
As confirmed by @krnel, fruits and vegetables are the basis of the Mediterranean diet and are essential for it to be considered one of the most recommended dietary patterns in the world because of the multitude of benefits it provides and its function at the time to prevent the appearance of diseases.
As we see, we have plenty of reasons not to forget about these products in our daily menus. Another positive part, in addition, is that they have great culinary versatility: fruit, for example, we can consume it simply in nature, in fruit salads, on skewers, in juice, mixed with yogurt ... Also, vegetables, we can take them in salad (great option, especially for the hottest months), in the form of crudités, in cold soups, creams, smoothies ... Of course, always remember to opt for fruits and vegetables that are seasonal at any time.
Ok friend if you eat vegetables and fruits is very good for "Your palate" (and your pocket) will thank you! ... LOL ...
Yes, plants are the best for health, that's why that diet was favored in studies. A better study has come out for a population, related to Adventists and being vegetarian(better) and vegan (best) dieters. Check out the Adventist-2 study.
I've never heard of the 5:2 diet. I thought fasting was bad for you. Interesting.
I really need to cut diary out of my diet, I'm obviously slightly allergic to it and so is the majority of the population. When you consider that it's what cow babies are supposed to consume and we've only been eating it for a short period of time it can really give you some perspective. We haven't had time to evolve to a lot of the things that are going into our bodies.
Obviously exercise is equally as important as diet. If you cut calories but don't use your muscles your body thinks you're trying to hold out for a long winter. Muscles take more upkeep calories than fat so your body will burn off muscle instead of fat to "keep you alive," because you, "aren't using them to find food".
If milk or milk products affect you, it is not because milk is bad for you. The milk you use is bad for you.
Use milk that has not been homogenised. The process of homogenising milk breaks the molecules, which your body recognises and knows how to us, into something that cannot be identified or used and therefore is usually stored in your fat.
I buy farm milk, using some of it to make my own butter, feta, cream cheese and full cream yoghourt (with honey and sunflower seeds). Having my milk full cream, with a nice head of it at the top, has not caused me to put on even half a kilo.
I eat a lot of lentils, with uncooked slices of onion and black olives placed in it, with grape or apple vinegar and olive oil. However, I also love my thick steaks and lamb chops. As for rare roast beef, a delight, but not something I have often, as it is not convenient for a single person. No potatoes, just sweet potatoes.
One or two days a week, I only eat salad, but it has lots of extras, like big raisons, olives, celery (lowers blood pressure), a hard-boiled egg (eat one if you have had too much sugar, it helps level out your 'high') and anything else I think would make it 'interesting', so that it is not exactly the same each time. Boredom and predictability is the worst thing for me, when to do with eating food.
In fasting, first goes fat, then muscles, that's why you can't survive from fasting. We do need to eat :D
Dairy is messed up and was "justified" for survival, which isn't the case for most humans anymore. Using the breast milk of another animal, when we are past drinking the breast milk from our own mothers, is fucked up. It really is. It's warped.
Good diet is good, even taught in school as Food and Nutrition. From personal experience, due to constant changing of food and having no time for diet check, i ended up with external hermorrhoid which have been suffering with for quite some years. I notice whenever I take vegetable and legumes including fruits, i see no occurences but the moment i stop. Oh yea! the pain sometimes is unbearable. I have been managing it with good diet.
Like you said, good diet stops future health challenges.
Plant food is the healthiest. Learn about plants and nutrition and it might motivate you to eat properly and be the healthiest you can be :)
Okay, I will make more research about that. Thanks
the old cliche but true - We are what we eat. If you eat pizza you may eventually look like a pizza. Healthy choices is a good thing. I have chosen to fast on several occasions and it has multiple benefits. I know it helps to clean out the bad toxins in your body. Less is more and one should eat wisely. Thanks @krnel
Yeah, instead of using plants to clean out toxins from non-plant eating... just eat only plants... and be healthy for good ;)
Starting December of 2016, my reflux got so bad the back of my throat was constantly burned. I could go a week without using the bathroom... I was taking double doze of nexium and couldn't get any relief. I knew that nexium was bad for your heart. So I finally made a radical change.
I started forcing myself to drink at least 50oz of water a day. I was never thirsty so I wouldn't think to drink.
Then I started buying fruits and vegetables at the grocery store every week and making sure I was getting big daily doses of each. I immediately stopped taking nexium and it got worst for 3 days, then slowly got better. I've been without serious reflux or heartburn for one year. I'm a believer of the importance of the right diet for our age, our body and our lifestyle. I don't think there is a one diet fits all. A little bit of exercise, lots of water and plenty of fruits and vegetables were the magic that fixed me.
Great article. Thanks for sharing.
I'm glad you got better. Plants are the best for health. Water and exercise help too ;)
Now a days more and more people are suffering from diseases due to improper diet,
even my mom is suffering from sugar and gallbladder stone.
I request you all to care about your diet properly, otherwise, you are going to indulge in some serious diseases.
Plants are the best medicine :)
My new year resolution on diet was very simple plan : Eat more fruits and I am proud to say that I am doing it :P
Good job, keep it up and try eating more plants and cutting out non-plant ;)
I am really happy that i came across your account. Lot of interesting reading material here! Don't be surprised if you see my comments on some of the really old posts of yours because that's what I do. I have the habit of digging all the way back to the first post and start reading from there.
Low carb diet did miracles to my body. And you get used to it after few weaks so it's not a big deal long term if you can get into habbit and keep going. Set your target weight (a perfect one) and reach it, go 1kg / 2 pounds below and keep +-1kg around it. There's nothing better than getting slim and looking good again!
2 days of 600 calories per week. That would help me lose 2 pounds per week
Great overview, that's pretty much how my diet has evolved. Little by little. You can't just change your diet completely overnight, you've got to introduce and remove things bit by bit.
I do also do a variant of 5:2 and absolutely love it. I'm fasting now and have no desire to eat. Like everything else though you have to ease yourself into it. Trying to do a 24 or 36 hour fast when you've never fasted before would be extremely challenging. Starting out by just missing breakfast and then pushing lunch further and further back is the way to go.
I've been eating healthy for years and I still don't know what the best diet is.
It's complicated unfortunately, and there's definitely individual differences at play too. For instance many people in Africa and around the Mediterranean are lactose intolerant. That's because milk goes bad quickly in a hot climate. And so they eat cheeses and yogurt. But in colder climes, like Russia, where milk can stay milk for weeks, people are much less lactose intolerant, which not only means they can drink milk, but that they have been drinking milk for ages, otherwise they'd be just as lactose intolerant as their ancestors from Africa. So there goes the vegan argument that we didn't used to drink milk!
I try to follow the official recommendations from the nutrition expert establishment, but nutrition science is still in its nascent years, there's so many things we don't know yet. Michael Pollan is a good go-to option for easy generalizable food rules. His one-sentence mantra just says "eat [real] food, mostly plants, not too much"!
Wow...this knowledge has been well passed and its Helpful..thank you very much..I would cut the too much expectations on my diet..I would make it gradual
100% right, by eating healthy natural foods we can see lots of changes. April is also Active April month so remember to get active!