Most nutrition experts and medical practitioners agree with the old saying, “You are what you eat.”
The American Medical Association, the American Heart Association, the National Institutes of Health and the American Cancer Society rate diet as a leading health concern in the United States — not because we don’t have enough to eat, but because we consume too much of the wrong kind of food.
“Obesity is a major health risk factor in the United States today, and it’s getting worse,” says registered dietitian Marlene Swanson, a nutrition spokesperson for the American Heart Association. “Today, one in three Americans is overweight. That’s up from one in four a decade ago.”
Overweight is a leading risk factor in diabetes, cardiovascular disease and high blood pressure. Excess weight can exacerbate joint pain associated with osteoarthritis. But diet is not just about weight. The foods you eat can contribute to or reduce the risk of many kinds of cancer and other life-threatening illnesses.
The good news is that turning a new nutritional leaf and embarking on a healthier eating plan at any stage of life can make a marked difference and sometimes even reverse the ravages of a lifetime of less than exemplary eating habits. When combined with a lifestyle that includes regular exercise and elimination of such risk factors as smoking, an eating program that focuses on fruits, legumes, vegetables and whole grains can reverse the progression of heart disease and possibly even prevent it, according to Dr. Dean Ornish, author of “Dr. Dean Ornish’s Program for Reversing Heart Disease.”
“A plant-based diet is linked not only with lower rates of heart disease and stroke, but also with significantly lower rates of the most common cancers, including breast, prostate, colon, lung and ovarian cancers. Low-fat vegetarian diets may reduce the incidence of osteoporosis, adult-onset diabetes, hypertension, obesity and many other illnesses,” says Ornish, whose wellness program has been embraced by leading health care institutions across the nation.
Although there’s no doubt that healthier eating can contribute to better quality of life, changing lifelong eating habits may not be easy. For one thing, nutritional information can sometimes be confusing. Who knows, for example, what “less than 20 or 30 percent of fat” looks like on your plate, as recommended by the U.S. Department of Agriculture?
The American Heart Association recently published new dietary guidelines that focus on overall eating patterns rather than percentages and other equivalents. The goal of the guidelines — which are in line with USDA recommendations and are based on an analysis of hundreds of scientific studies — is to help Americans achieve and maintain appropriate body weight, desirable cholesterol and blood pressure levels.
“The new guidelines emphasize the positive message of what people should eat, for example, more plant-based foods and fish twice a week,” says Ronald M. Krauss, author of the new guidelines and a senior scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at U.C. Berkeley.
The guidelines emphasize eating a balanced diet from all the major food groups. The food group pyramid of daily food choices approved by the American Medical Association and the USDA calls for 8 to 11 servings of grains (including bread, cereal, rice and pasta); three to six servings of vegetables; two to four servings of fruit; two to three servings of meat, poultry, fish, beans, eggs and nuts; two to three servings of milk, yogurt and cheese; and sparing use of fats, oils and sugars.
What do these recommendations look like on your plate? From the grain group, one slice of bread or one half-cup of cereal is one serving; a large bagel equals three servings. One half-cup of vegetables (about the size of a tennis ball) is one serving. Three ounces of fish, meat or poultry (about the size of a deck of cards) is one serving.
“A large salad may have four or five servings of vegetables,” Swanson says. “A small six-ounce filet mignon or breast of chicken fulfills the daily requirement for meat and poultry. A typical pasta dinner is probably three servings, and if you have a piece of bread, that’s another serving from the grain group.”
Linda Ferber, a registered dietitian working with the California Nutrition Network and Project Lean, advises making dietary changes “one step at a time” and, she says, “it doesn’t have to be difficult.”
“Throw some sliced bananas or berries on your cereal in the morning; drink a six-ounce glass of pure fruit juice. Take a banana to work for a snack, or add fresh, frozen or canned vegetables to canned soups or prepared pasta sauces.”
Along with many other nutritionists and scientists, Ferber is a great believer in the health benefits of foods from the plant kingdom.
“Fruits, vegetables and legumes are our phyto-friends. They’re filled with hundreds of phytochemicals that can help ward off disease. Some people are taking these phytochemicals in the form of nutritional supplements, but there’s no proof that supplements are absorbed and used by the body in the same way as food,” Ferber says.
She advises sticking close to the produce section of the grocery store and shopping “for color.” Tropical fruits such as mangos, papayas and kiwis contain beneficial natural phtyochemicals. Carrots, yams, orange winter squashes and other yellow fruits and veggies are good sources of natural carotenoids, which are thought to have some cancer prevention benefits.
Tomatoes contain lycopene, a phytochemical that recently has been identified as a protector against prostate cancer, according to Ferber. So load up your salads and sandwiches with sliced tomatoes, eat one half-cup of salsa with your chips and pour on the tomato-based pasta sauce (as long as it isn’t high in fat).
Hints that help make everyday cooking healthier include using cooking sprays instead of oils, egg whites instead of whole eggs, applesauce or other fruit purees instead of oil or solid fats, buttermilk or condensed skim milk instead of cream or half-and-half, and choosing low-fat or nonfat yogurt, sour cream and cream cheese instead of their full-fat counterparts.
For more helpful dietary information and recipes, log on to the California Dietetic Association Web site at www.ca5aday.com or the American Heart Association at www.americanheart.org or call AHA at toll free (800) 242-8721.