Eating – Topics

Changing ingrained habits is one of the most difficult things to do. And the changes probably feel most overwhelming in the eating arena. But relax. We don’t expect you to institute them all at once. Just doing one new thing at a time—switching from 2 percent milk to skim, substituting a salmon steak for a sirloin, or changing the brand of cereal you eat every morning—will eventually add up to big benefits. Within a few weeks that initial change that felt so strange will feel as familiar as your own bed To help you get into the new habits we’ve recommended in a relatively painless manner, we’ve developed a three-month, week-by-week Plan starting on page 206 that introduces a few manageable changes at a time. By the end of 12 weeks you’ll find thePlan has become a regular part of your life. >...

the typical American eats out four times a week. Think that sounds too high? If you include everything from the muffin and coffee you grab on your way to work to the lunch you eat in the company cafeteria to stops at drive-through Joints, you can see how quickly it adds up. The problem with eating out is that, with the ironic exception of fast-food restaurants, there’s rarely any nutritional information available on menus. And most restaurant food isn’t as healthful as what you’d prepare at home. Nutnition researchers at the University of Memphis found that women who ate out 6 to 13 times a week consumed about 300 more calories, 19 more grams of fat, and 400 more milligrams of sodium than women who ate out five times a week on verage. Another survey found that those who dined out ate up to 25 percent fewer fruits and vegetables than those who ate at home, That doesn’t have to happen to you. The eating strategy translates easily enough to dining out. But you’ll need to...

By now the “French Paradox” is old news. The phrase refers to the fact that despite eating lots of saturated fat and cholesterol (read: cheese, butter, and cream), the French have a relatively low incidence of heart disease. A major reason, researchers suspect, is the generous amount of wine that the French drink. Although the very existence of the paradox itself is currently under question—some researchers believe the French underreport heart disease—the evidence in support of wine and other forms of alcohol is not. Dozens of studies on white wine, red wine, beer, and hard liquor attest to the heart-protective effects of alcohol. (That’s right, it’s not just wine that’s good for you.) In fact, 60 to 80 percent of the population could benefit from moderate drinking, said Harvard researcher Eric Rimm, Ph.D, during a briefing sponsored by the National Beer Wholesalers Association in 2002. Ina study of more than 80,000 American women, those who drank moderately had only half the...

The diet described thus far in this chapter will help you lower your LDL. But certain foods can also make the LDL you do have less dangerous. As we talked about in Chapter 1, LDL is a bigger threat when it becomes oxidized. This happens because of exposure to free radicals, highly reactive molecules that are byproducts of bodily functions involving oxygen (which is just about all of them). When LDL is oxidized it becomes stickier and therefore more likely to form plaque. If LDL can be prevented from oxidizing, your arteries are less likely to become clogged. How do you prevent LDL from becoming oxidized? With antioxidants—which many of nature’s best-tasting foods happen to include. That’s one of the reasons youre going to eat less meat on the  Plan: so that you can make more room for fruits and vegetables. Antioxidants in a Cup Fruits and veggies aren’t the only way to get your antioxidants. Tea, whether black or green, caffemated or decaffeinated (herbal teas...

We are not going to tell you to avoid red (or white) meat entire on the Plan. But we are going ti help you find healthier alternatives to hamburgers For, as the Center for Science in the Public Interest (( mPL) notes: “Ground beef adds more fat—and more artery-clogging saturated fat-—to the average American’s diet than any other single food. Plus. vou can’t trim away fat irom ground meat like you can with steak or pork.” And don’t think you’re safe if you stick with “lean” or even “extra lean” ground meat. The USDA allows ground beef that is up to 22.5 percent fat to be called “lean,” even though most other foods labeled “lean” must contain no more than 10 percent fat. One 4-ounce serving of lean ground beef still contains 16 grams of fat , 7 of them saturated. Chose Your Cuts Carefully Beef and pork per se are not bad. Today’s pork, for instance, is much leaner than il used to be, containing on average 31 percent less fat. 14 percent lewer calones. and 10)...

Think fast: How many servings of vegetables have you had today? One? None? How about fruit? If you’re like many Americans, you miss plenty of opportunities for getting them—like ordering a veggie topping for your pizza or adding raisins to your oatmeal. On the Plan you’ll become a fruit-and-veggie opportunist. Not only are these foods loaded with cholesterol-lowering soluble fiber, they also contain other artery friendly compounds, such as cholesterol-reducing sterols and antioxidants. You’ll aim for nine servings a day; most Americans get fewer than four. Best for Cholesterol All fruits and vegetables have health benefits to offer. But some are especially good for your arteries. Among the best: Avocados. Although this is one of the few fruits high in fat, it’s mainly monounsaturated fat. Several studies find that eating one avocado a day can lower your LDL as much 17 percent while raising your HDL. Try them in salads and sandwiches or mashed with a bit of lemon...

One of the most striking differences between the caveman’s diet and our own is the amount of fiber our ancestors ate: about 100 grams a day, the amount some people in rural areas of the developing world still get. The average American, on the other hand, consumes only about 15 grams of fiber per day, well below the recommended 25 grams. The cavemen didn’t know it, but all of that fiber had countless health benefits, from lowering cholesterol to helping control (or maybe prevent) diabetes. There are two types of fiber. Insoluble fiber, such as wheat bran, helps prevent constipation and may protect against colon cancer. It also fills your stomach, helping to quench hunger without calories. Soluble fiber, found in foods such as fruits, oats, barley, and peas, has more to do with lowering cholesterol, Soluble fiber forms a kind of gel in your intestines that helps reduce your body’s absorption of the fat you eat. And if that fat never makes it into your bloodstream, it...

While you’re cutting back on “bad” fats, you’ll want to add more of the “good” fats. And so the Plan will steer you toward fish (nch in omega-3 fatty acids). olive oil, and sterol-based margarine—the kinds of fat that actually help to improve your cholesterol levels. Fall in Love with Olive Oil Talk about a great job, Chris Ortiz Temnitzer, president of Oliveoil.com, spends most of the year in Europe, touring the olive groves in the countrysides of France, Italy, Spain, and Greece in search of the ideal olive oils for import to the United States. He conducts about 200 tastings a year, swirling the fragrant oil in a small, blue glass, sniffing, swallowing, and rating. You can bet his cholesterol levels are low, The generous amount of olive oil consumed by people who live in Mediterranean countries forms the core of the so-called Mediterranean diet, one high in vegetables, fruits, and grains, but also fat—about 40 percent of total calories. People who follow this diet have...

Cutting down on “bad” fats and reducing your overall consumption of fat isn’t something that’s going to happen overnight. But the 12-week Plan starting on page 206 will help you get there. In addition to making the obvious move of switching to low- and nonfat versions of staples such as milk, mayonnaise, sour cream, and ice cream (doing so can save you anywhere from 1 to 22 grams of fat per serving), try to: Eat naked chicken. Pee! the skin off chicken (either before or after cooking) and cut the visible fat (before cooking) from all meat. If you pop the chicken or meat in the freezer first for about 20 minutes, the fat hardens and is much easier to trim, Bake your fries. Instead of dunking potatoes in boiling oil or buying frozen fried potatoes chock full of saturated fats, make your own fries the healthy way. Preheat the oven to 425°F. Slice (you don’t even need to peel) potatoes into sticks about a half-inch thick, coat a cooking sheet with cooking spray, put the potatoes on...