I’ve finished the last leg of my journey back to Long Island, and arrived safe and sound late last Friday. Last night, while checking the emails, I found a lot of letters about no fat and low fat and and low carb diets.
First of all, no fat diets are dangerous, and you really shouldn’t even attempt anything like that except under strict medical supervision. Even then, I’m hard pressed to think of why it would be necessary.
Fat is very important for the body to function optimally, but the question remains: how much fat is enough? For almost the last forty years, the medical community has been recommending a low amount.
The medical consensus on carbs was essentially the same. The long-held belief was that a diet that followed the high-carb, low-fat rule would be the best way to achieve weight loss. You can look around and see for yourself how unsuccessful that theory has been.
The most important word in any diet is BALANCE.
When we speak of balance, we are speaking of the balance of fat, protein, and carbohydrates.
A very important point that I have repeated time and time again is this: foods that are closest to their natural state are the most healthy for you. Baked apples are close to the natural state of fresh apples, while Apple Jacks cereal is not. Fresh grilled fish is close to its natural state, but frozen fish sticks covered in fatty breading are not.
If it comes in a package, it probably has ingredients in it that aren’t good for you. (Like trans fats and high fructose corn syrup – otherwise known as “the kiss of death”)
The majority of low-fat foods contain a high level of sugar. They are manufactured to be excessively sweet so that the consumer finds them tasty. No-fat foods are the same. They always contain either sugar, or a sugar substitute.
Unfortunately, low-carb foods are typically manufactured with a sugar substitute as well. I think they taste horrible, and I have to somehow convince myself that they are tasty in order in get them down. Why bother?
Generally, it’s healthy for you to eat almost any food that is not packaged with other ingredients. Plain frozen vegetables are just fine, but frozen vegetables covered in sauce are not a good option. The sauce contains ingredients that keep the sauce in a stable state, and those ingredients will cause weight gain. Typically, the sauce contains more calories than the vegetables.
Even though vegetarianism is considered to be a healthy way of life, there are many problems with that type of dietary restriction. Vegetarians often end up with a serious case of under-nourishment and are vulnerable to many other health risks — all stemming from the fact that they do not eat a balanced diet.
The best way to gain control of your diet is to start slowly, one meal at a time. My friend Nate has some words of wisdom on the subject: “Practice push ups instead of doing sit downs.” His message is that when you are full you should push up from the table, not sit down in order to eat more.
You should also start taking an ultra pure, enteric coated pharmaceutical grade fish oil. This will insure that you get your daily dose of of omega 3 essential fatty acids, which keep your system running at an optimum level.
Last week a friend of mine asked me to take a look at a website about bodybuilding. The bodybuilder who was responsible for the content of the site had written that he had cut back on his dose of fish oil because he believed that the fish oil was too fatty for his diet. Obviously, he has no idea at all why he was taking the fish oil to begin with. Perhaps all the muscle growth has adversely affected his brain power?
The truth is, because he is an athlete he needs MORE fish oil, not less. Athletes typically train for hours every day and should be increasing their dosage of fish oil, instead of being concerned about a few extra fat grams. What he doesn’t know is that ingesting the proper amount of fat would most likely make him look better and perhaps contribute to his winning a competition. I’m not betting that he’ll take this advice.
