Eat to Live: The Amazing Nutrient-Rich Program for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss (18 page)

Converting food fat into body fat is easy; the process doesn’t even modify the molecules. Research scientists can actually take fat biopsies off your hips or waist and tell you where it came from—pig fat, dairy fat, chicken fat, or olive oil. The fat is still the same as it was on your plate, but now it is under your skin. The saying “from your lips to your hips” is literally true. Fat is also an appetite stimulant—the more you eat, the more you want.

Appetite is not controlled by the weight of the food but by fiber, nutrient density, and caloric density. It is even useful to approximate the amount of calories per volume. Since the stomach can hold about one liter of food, let’s look at how many calories are in a whole stomachful of a particular food.

It’s pretty clear which foods will let you feel full with the least amount of calories—fruits and vegetables. Green vegetables, fresh fruits, and legumes again take the gold, silver, and bronze medals. Nothing else in the field is even close.

Green vegetables are so incredibly low in calories and rich in nutrients and fiber that the more of them you eat, the more weight you will lose. One of my secrets to nutritional excellence and superior health is the one pound–one pound rule. That is, try to eat at least one pound of raw vegetables a day and one pound of cooked/steamed or frozen green or nongreen nutrient-rich vegetables a day as well. One pound raw and one pound cooked—keep this goal in mind as you design and eat every meal. This may be too ambitious a goal for some of us to reach, but by working toward it, you will ensure the dietary balance and results you want. The more vegetables you eat, the more weight you will lose. The high volume of greens not only will be your secret to a thin waistline but will simultaneously protect you against life-threatening illnesses.

CALORIC RATIOS OF COMMON FOODS

The nutrient-density scores below are based on identified phytochemicals, antioxidant activity, and total vitamin and mineral content.

One of the most fascinating areas of research in recent years has been related to the therapeutic value of cruciferous vegetables, which include vegetables in the cabbage family and others such as kale, collards, watercress, arugula, cauliflower, and bok choy. Cruciferous vegetables have the most powerful anti-cancer effects of all foods. Most of the phytonutrients function as antioxidants in your body, meaning they neutralize free radicals, rendering them harmless and reducing cancer risk. The phytonutrients in cruciferious vegetables also activate your body’s own antioxidant control system. These unique compounds cycle through the body for three to five days after consumption, offering protection and fueling numerous bodily systems, enabling them to function more effectively.

Vegetables have powerful levels of carotenoids and other nutrients that prevent age-related diseases. For example, the leading cause of age-related blindness in America is macular degeneration. Low carotenoid levels in the macula are now considered a risk factor for macular degeneration.
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If you eat greens at least five times per week, your risk drops by more than 86 percent. Lutein and zeaxanthin are carotenoids with powerful disease-prevention properties. Researchers have found that those with the highest blood levels of lutein had the healthiest blood vessels, with little or no atherosclerosis.
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LUTEIN AND/OR ZEAXANTHIN IN FOODS
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(in micrograms)

William Harris, M.D., performed an analysis of major food groups titled “Less Grains, More Greens,”
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though he didn’t assign phytochemical activity. Dr. Harris explains in detail why ranking and analyzing foods by nutrient:weight ratios, the nutritional establishment’s usual method, is ill-advised and misleading.
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People do not eat until a certain weight of food is consumed but rather until they are calorically and nutritively fulfilled. He compares an analysis of spinach with that of spinach with water added (spinach soup) and shows how the weight (added water) does not change the nutrients received. If we analyze the nutrients by weight, we incorrectly think that spinach with water added is much less nutritious.

Furthermore, Harris explains why the food industry, especially the producers of animal products, is opposed to nutrient: calorie analysis. It is because nutrient-per-weight sorting hides how deficient animal foods are in nutrients, especially the crucial anti-cancer nutrients. As Dr. Harris states, nutrient-per-weight sorting is “a great way to keep excess calories, cholesterol and saturated fat in the diet, which is a splendid way to grow an arteriosclerotic, obese, cancer-ridden nation, which is what we have.”

• Causes weight loss that is permanent
  

• Promotes longevity
  

• Derails hunger and food cravings
  

• Increases immune function and disease resistance
  

• Has therapeutic effects to reverse disease
  

• Protects against heart disease, stroke, and dementia
  

• Fuels cellular repair mechanisms protecting against cancer
  

It is true that most of us eat too much fat, but scientific research is revealing that too little fat can be a problem, too. We have learned that not merely are we consuming too much fat but, more important, we are consuming the wrong fats. Americans consume too much of some bad fats and not enough of other fats that we need to maximize health.

Essential fatty acids (EFAs) are polyunsaturated dietary fats that the body cannot manufacture, so they are required for health. EFAs are important for the structure and function of cell membranes and serve as precursors to hormones, which play an important role in our health. These fats are essential not only in growth and development but also in the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases.
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The two primary essential fatty acids are linoleic acid, an omega-6 fat, and alpha-linolenic acid, an omega-3 fat. The body can make other fatty acids, called nonessential fats, from these two basic fats. Linoleic acid’s first double bond is at the location of its sixth carbon, so it is called an omega-6 fatty acid, and alpha-linolenic acid’s first double bond is on its third carbon, so it is called an omega-3 fatty acid.

Optimal health depends on the proper balance of fatty acids in the diet. The modern diet that most of us eat supplies an excessive amount of omega-6 fat but often too little omega-3 fat. This relative deficiency of omega-3 fat has potentially serious implications. Also, the consumption of too much omega-6 fat leads to high levels of arachidonic acid. Higher levels of arachidonic acid can promote inflammation.

OMEGA-6 FAT	OMEGA-3 FAT
Linoleic acid	Alpha-linolenic acid
GLA (gamma linolenic acid)	EPA (eicospentaenoic acid)
AA (arachidonic acid)	DHA (docosahexaenoic acid)
pro-inflammatory prostaglandins and leukotrienes	anti-inflammatory prostaglandins and leukotrienes