Quality Part II--The Anti-Nutrients

The Slow Down Diet: Eating for Pleasure Energy and Weight Loss by Marc David

The Metabolic Power of Quality Part II

Eating quality food increases nutrient value and signals your brain to stop eating. Increasing quality decreases quantity. Eating good quality food also means decreasing the “anti-nutrients” in your diet: Poor quality fats, sugar, white flour, dairy and meats.

Poor quality fats are foods that contain hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils, margarine, and most fried foods. This includes most processed foods, such as crackers, cookies, frozen foods (have you read the ingredients on a loaf of bread lately?). Replace poor quality fat with high quality oils and foods. Use olive oil for cooking and butter for baking. Eat avocados, olives fresh fish, nuts and seeds, nut butters and organic milk, cheese and yogurt. Fat is an essential component of the cell wall of every cell in your body. Cell walls control the movement of biochemicals across their surfaces. If cell walls are bbuilt with poor quality fats, they become more rigid and less able to control chemical traffic. This may be associated with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
Poor quality sugar includes high fructose corn syrup, white sugar and all artificial sweeteners. They are everywhere: soft drinks, juice drinks, snack foods, even protein bars. Replace them with organic juices, teas, and water. Use organic jams, fresh fruit and quality sweeteners—raw honey, maple syrup and barley malt. Artificial sweeteners may signal the release of insulin, and without the presence of sugar, signals the body to store fat. Food science states that all sugars are the same from a metabolic perspective, but the distinctions between these different energy sources and how they are metabolized is just beginning to be understood, and they are not all created equal (especially high fructose corn syrup).
Poor quality white flour is another ubiquitous anti-nutrient. These processed carbs cause spikes in insulin levels, followed by a crash and cravings for more sugar and carbs. All diets that reduce carbohydrates have an important tenet at their core: processed/refined carbs are the problem. Don’t eliminate carbohydrates, replace them with high quality grains, fruits and vegetables.
Poor quality dairy means mass-produced hormone-laden milk, cheese and yogurt. Replace with organic products. Evidence is mounting that milk is overrated as a quality food. Lactose intolerance and allergies to milk are rising. Try a week of milk/dairy free eating and see how you feel. You might be surprised. Try rice milk, almond milk and soy cheese as dairy free alternatives (almond milk in your oatmeal is heavenly).
Poor quality meats include processed meats, frozen prepared foods and meat from animals raised on industrial farms. Repalce them with organic/free range/hormone free meats. Eggs, too. Replace some of the meat with vegetarian sources of protein such as tofu. Our overreliance on animal protein is polluting the environment and causing disease.

Make a list of all the reasons why you can’t incorporate quality foods into your life—“not enough time,” “too expensive,” “kids won’t go for it.” Go through the list item by item and decide either:

• it’s a stupid excuse, take it off the list.
• I can find a way to manage this one
• there’s wiggle room here, I can come up with a creative way to mange this some of the time
• I can’t get around this one right now.

You may find ways to increase the quality of your food more of the time if not all the time.

Murderous Tomatoes

The Metabolic Power of Quality, Part I
From The Slow Down Diet: Eating for Pleasure Energy and Weight Loss by Marc David

"Disregarding the Earth, its soil and the food web and not thoughtfully sharing with all our fellow eaters around the planet has pathological consequences, not the least of which is recorded in our food as energy and information and fed directly back to us."

Yes, what goes around, comes around.

"Consider, for example, the tomato.. If the soil it grows in is depleted, then the tomato has measurably low mineral content, less natural sugar and more acids, which means it will be tough, tasteless and nutritionally inferior. If it is sprayed with herbicides and pesticides, it will carry instructional messages to your body that are carcinogenic, mutagenic, and neurotoxic. If it is grown on an impersonal farm, the tomato will be lifeless and have no charm. If it is picked by an underpaid migrant worker who has no benefits and few worker's rights, then the tomato is hypocritical and lacks integrity. If it is chopped by a machine along with thousands of other tomatoes, delivered to a fast food joint, and slapped together with a bun and meat from a cow that suffered even worse trauma, then our tomato is now suicidal or even murderous, because it has lost its soul and has no reason to live."

Over the past few years, these ideas and concepts have become integral to my own beliefs about food and health. One of the reasons I devoured this book is because it articulates so many ideas that I practice, or it helped me find ways to practice some of my ideas. But I'm sure many people can't expand their concept of quality food beyond the walls of a food science lab. A tomato that has become murderous because it has lost its soul..... this may sound totally absurd to you, but not to me. I would put this is the category of "conventional wisdom." You know it is true even though it has not been proven in a laboratory. I'm not saying science is bad. I'm just not always willing to wait for science to validate a concept before I accept it as truth.

If you believe in murderous tomatoes, then elevate the quality of your food. Quality means: Real. Fresh. Organic. Homemade. Locally produced. Filled with true flavor, not virtual ones that mask the absence of nutrients and vitality.

If you don't believe in murderous tomatoes, then stayed tuned for Part II on the metabolic power of quality.

GSIU Week #5

The theme of the week was finding the time to do things right. I cleaned out the frig, I cooked some good foods, I brought my lunch to work 4 out of 4 days. But when I was pressed for time, I fell back on some old habits. A bagel with dinner, cold cereal for breakfast.
The most significant accomplishment of the week was a visit to the orthopedist in the continuing saga of my right knee. The good news is that he doesn't think the problem is my knee. He thinks I have really tight hamstrings and that is causing the pain and stiffness when I run. The bad news is that he wants me to have some phsical therapy at a "magical" place where he sends world class ballerinas and dancers and they do not accept my insurance. So I need to talk to him about choosing between magic and $1000. In the meantime I am having an MRI on Wednesday to be sure it is not my knee.

I did Dab the Wussy on the arc trainer. I actually tried to see how high I could push my heart rate. Talk about anaerobic! And the Great Breakfast Experiment continues. I haven't eaten anything really weird for breakfast, but I did avoid cold cereal 6 out of 7 days. I read The Slow Down Diet this week and I have been trying to incorporate some of these principles into my daily life. One of the things he talks about is listening to your gut and being more aware of how you feel after meals. On Saturday I made a vegetable soup with shirataki noodles. These are noodles that are made from tofu and I never ate them before. After eating a bowl of this soup I felt really full-- almost uncomfortable. I didn't go to the gym because of this. So, I won't be eating anymore shiratake noodles.

My "week" begins on Sunday. There is no doubt that I will spend the rest of week #6 trying to recover from the Super Bowl Overconsumption Spectacle. It goes beyond food at the party, although that is the biggest piece. Time to accept the artic blast as nature's way of saying it's okay to shift into a lower gear, and focus on self instead of getting caught up in all the media hype about alot of things that really don't matter. At least until baseball season starts.

Breathe More, Burn More

The Slow Down Diet: Eating for Pleasure Energy and Weight Loss by Marc David

The Metabolic Power of Relaxation

Although stress is a normal part of living, the stress response is designed to function for a few minutes in life-threatening situations (e.g. running away from the saber-toothed tiger). When exposed to chronic stress such as trying to juggle a full-time job, family obligations and keeping a home in order, the prolonged physiologic stress response begins to wear us down. Stress causes a shift in the central nervous system to shut down the digestive system. You can eat the healthiest meal, but if you do it while answering the phone, reading emails and preparing for the big meeting, your digestive system is not prepared to metabolize it optimally. It has been shown that stress hormones block the assimilation of calcium and increase its secretion. Thus, stress has an effect on bone density.

The answer is vitamin T: Time. Relax. Increase the amount of time you spend at a meal. Try to allow yourself at least 30 minutes for lunch and dinner. If you cannot eat at your desk without “unplugging,” then find another place to eat your lunch. Make a conscious effort to become a slow-eater. To help you relax and become a slow-eater, practice conscious breathing. Metabolizing your food requires oxygen and conscious breath will increase your oxygen intake. You need to get your metabolic furnace turned up to burn your food. Before you begin eating, take 2 or 3 deep breaths. This will signal your body and your brain that it is time to shift into a relaxed state and allow your digestive system to come “online.” Breath is a vital part of our diet. Consciously consume oxygen at every meal. When you breathe more, you burn more.