Eat to Live: The Amazing Nutrient-Rich Program for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss (47 page)

We have a unique opportunity in human history: we have fresh produce being flown into our food stores from all over the planet. We can take advantage of this abundant variety of fresh vegetation to eat a diet with more phytochemical density and diversity than ever before. We have the opportunity to make decisions about what we eat that were not available to our prehistoric ancestors. Fortunately, we have knowledge that they lacked, and we can use this knowledge to live longer than ever before.

Butter is loaded with a dangerous amount of saturated fat; stick margarines have hydrogenated oils that contain trans fats, which raise LDL, the bad cholesterol. The more solid a margarine is at room temperature, the more trans fat it contains. Adjusting the type of fat consumed, researchers found that butter caused the highest cholesterol level and that varying amounts of margarines and oils had various harmful effects.
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The best answer is to use nothing, or buy whole grain bread that tastes good without adding a greasy topping. If you love the flavor of butter, sparingly use
a tub or liquid margarine that contains no hydrogenated oil. Lots of my patients like no-salt tomato sauce, a tomato-salsa blend, avocado, or stewed mushrooms on bread. Of course, the best way to get out of the habit of eating those greasy toppings is not to eat bread at all.

Soy products such as soy burgers, soy milk, and soy cheese are much more popular and available today than in the past. The FDA has approved soy-containing products as heart-healthy and allows health claims for soy protein.

Studies have shown soy’s beneficial effects on cholesterol and other cardiovascular risk factors. However, there is no reason not to expect the same results from beans of any type—it’s merely that more studies have been done on soy than on other beans.

There are also numerous studies indicating that soybeans are rich in various anti-cancer compounds, such as isoflavones. In spite of popular myths, the scientific literature is clear: the consumption of soybeans, or minimally processed soy products such as tofu and tempeh, is linked to the reduced risk of breast cancer.
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However, I do not recommend consuming large quantities of soy products in the hopes of reducing cancer risk. The soybean is not the only bean that contains isoflavones. Most beans are rich in these beneficial anti-cancer compounds, and many different flavonoids with anti-cancer effects are found in beans of all kinds. A healthy diet includes a variety of beans and does not rely on any one food for a disproportionate share of calories. I always recommend the consumption of a broad variety of phytochemical-rich foods to maximize one’s health, and beans are no exception

Tofu and frozen soybeans are good sources of omega-3 fat and calcium, but soy nuts, soy milk, and other processed soy products do not retain much of the beneficial compounds found in the natural bean. The more the food is processed, the more the beneficial compounds are destroyed. Most processed soy products can be tasty additions to a plant-based diet, but they are generally
high in salt and are not nutrient-dense foods, so you should use them sparingly.

In conclusion, the soybean is a superior food, containing the difficult-to-find omega-3 fats. Beans in general are superior foods that fight against cancer and heart disease, which is why you will benefit from including a variety of beans in your diet.

This book is designed for those who want to lose weight and for those who want to maintain excellent health and prevent disease. Any excess salt added to food, outside of what is contained in natural foods, is likely to increase your risk of developing disease. Salt consumption is linked to both stomach cancer and hypertension.
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For optimal health, I recommend that no salt at all be added to any food. The famous DASH study clearly indicates that Americans consume five to ten times as much sodium as they need and that high sodium levels over the years raise blood pressure.
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Just because you don’t have high blood pressure now doesn’t mean that you won’t. In fact, you probably will have high blood pressure if you keep eating lots of salt.

Salt also pulls out calcium and other trace minerals in the urine when the excess is excreted, which is a contributory cause of osteoporosis.
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If that is not enough, high sodium intake is predictive of increased death from heart attacks. In a large prospective trial published in the respected medical journal
Lancet,
there was a frighteningly high correlation between sodium intake and all-cause mortality in overweight men.
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The researchers concluded, “High sodium intake predicted mortality and risk of coronary heart disease, independent of other cardiovascular risk factors, including high blood pressure. These results provide direct evidence of the harmful effects of high salt intake in the adult population.”

This means that salt has significant harmful effects independent of its effects on blood pressure. For instance, it very likely increases the tendency of platelets to clot. I recommend that
people resist adding salt to foods and look for no-salt-added products. Since most salt comes from processed foods, bread, and canned goods, it shouldn’t be that hard to avoid added sodium.

That said, if you desire to salt your food, do so only after it is on the table and you are ready to eat it. It will taste saltier if the salt is right on the surface of the food. You can add lots of salt to vegetables or soups while they are cooking yet hardly taste it. Use herbs, spices, lemon juice, vinegar, or other no-salt seasonings to flavor food. Condiments such as ketchup, mustard, soy sauce, teriyaki sauce, and relish are very high in sodium, so if you can’t resist them, use low-sodium varieties sparingly.

Ideally, all your foods should have less than 1 mg of sodium per calorie. Natural foods contain about 0.5 mg of sodium per calorie. If a food has a serving size of 100 calories and contains 400 mg of sodium, it is a very high-salt food. If the serving has 100 calories and less than 100 mg of sodium, it is a food with hardly any added salt and is an appropriate food for your diet. Try to avoid products with more than 200 mg per 100 calories. Within these guidelines, you should be able to keep your average daily sodium intake around or below 1,000 mg.

If you don’t use salt, your taste buds adjust with time and your ability to taste salt improves. When you are using a lot of salt in your diet, it weakens your taste for salt and makes you feel that food tastes bland unless it is heavily seasoned or spiced. The DASH study observed the same phenomenon that I have noted for years—it takes some time for one’s salt-saturated taste buds to get used to a low sodium level. If you follow my nutritional recommendations strictly, without compromise, avoiding all processed foods or highly salted foods, your ability to detect and enjoy the subtle flavors in fruits and vegetables will improve as well.

Clearly, excessive consumption of caffeinated beverages is dangerous. Caffeine addicts are at higher risk of cardiac arrhythmias
that could precipitate sudden death.
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Coffee raises blood pressure, as well as cholesterol and homocysteine, two risk factors for heart disease.
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One cup of coffee per day is not likely to cause a significant risk, but drinking more than one cup can interfere with your health and even your weight-loss goals.

Besides the increased risk of heart disease, there are two other problems with caffeine. First, it is a stimulant that allows you to get by with less sleep and reduces the depth of sleep. Such sleep deprivation results in higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol and interferes with glucose metabolism, leading to insulin resistance.
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This insulin resistance, and the subsequent higher baseline glucose level, further promotes heart disease and other problems. Put bluntly, caffeine consumption promotes inadequate sleep, and less sleep promotes disease and premature aging. Adequate sleep is also necessary to prevent overeating. There is no substitute for adequate sleep.

The second issue with caffeine is that eating more frequently and eating more food suppresses caffeine-withdrawal headaches and other withdrawal symptoms. When you are finally finished digesting a meal, the body more effectively cleans house. At this time caffeine addicts experience a drive to eat more to suppress caffeine-withdrawal symptoms. Thus they are prodded to eat more food than they would if they were not addicted to caffeine.

You will never be in touch with your body’s true hunger signals while you are addicted to stimulants. For some people giving up coffee is more difficult than following the dietary restrictions I recommend. I suggest that you carefully adhere to my recommendations without caffeinated beverages for the first six weeks. After that time, when the addiction to caffeine is no longer present, you can decide if you really can’t give up that one cup of coffee. Keep in mind that it takes four to five days for the caffeine-withdrawal headaches to resolve once you stop drinking coffee. If the symptoms are too severe, try reducing your coffee intake slowly, by about half a cup every three days.

If a little coffee would make it possible for you to remain true to my dietary recommendations, I would not have a strong
objection. Losing weight is a more important goal for your overall health. It is just that higher amounts of caffeine do not make it easier to control your appetite and food cravings; they make it harder. It would be much better if you gave this plan a true test. See how well you feel and how much weight you can lose in six weeks. Maybe by then you will have lost your craving for mind-altering substances.

Moderate drinking has been associated with a lower incidence of coronary heart disease in more than forty prospective studies. This applies only to moderate drinking—defined as one drink or less per day for women and two drinks or less for men. More than this is associated with increased fat around the waist and other potential problems.
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Alcohol consumption also leads to mild withdrawal sensations the next day that are commonly mistaken for hunger. One glass of wine per day is likely insignificant, but I advise against higher levels of alcohol consumption.

Alcohol’s anti-clotting properties grant some protective effect against heart attacks, but this protective effect is valuable only in a person or population consuming a heart disease–promoting diet. It is much wiser to avoid the detrimental effects of alcohol completely and protect yourself from heart disease with nutritional excellence. For example, even moderate alcohol consumption is linked to higher rates of breast cancer and to the occurrence of atrial fibrillation.
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Avoid alcohol and eat healthfully if possible, but if that one drink a day will make you stay with this plan much more successfully, then have it.

I have thousands of patients eating vegetarian or near-vegetarian diets and over the past fifteen years have noted a very small percentage
of the total who initially report that they feel better with significant animal products in their diet and worse on a vegetarian diet. Almost all these complaints resolve with time on the new diet. I believe the main reasons for this are as follows.

A diet heavily burdened with animal products places a toxic stress on the detoxification systems of the body. As with stopping caffeine, cigarettes, and heroin, many observe withdrawal symptoms for a short period, usually including fatigue, weakness, headaches, or loose stools. In 95 percent of these cases, these symptoms resolve within two weeks.

It is more common that the temporary adjustment period lasts less than a week, during which you might feel fatigue, have headaches or gas, or experience other mild symptoms as your body withdraws from your prior toxic habits. Don’t buy the fallacy that you “need more protein.” The menus in this book offer sufficient protein—and protein deficiency does not cause fatigue. Even my vegan menus supply about 50 grams of protein per 1,000 calories, a whopping amount. Stopping dangerous but stimulating foods causes temporary fatigue.

Increased gas and loose stools are also occasionally observed when switching to a diet containing so much fiber and different fibers that the digestive tract has never encountered before. Over many years, the body has adjusted its secretions and peristaltic waves (digestive-related bowel contractions) to a low-fiber diet. These symptoms also improve with time. Chewing extra well, sometimes even blending salads, helps in this period of transition. Some people must avoid beans initially, and then use them only in small amounts, adding more to the diet gradually over a period of weeks to train the digestive tract to handle and digest these new fibers.

Certain people have increased fat requirements, and the type of vegetarian diet they may have been on in the past was not rich enough in certain essential fats for them. This can occur in those eating a plant-based diet that includes lots of low-fat wheat and grain products. Frequently, adding ground flaxseeds or flaxseed oil to the diet to supply additional omega-3 fats is helpful. Some,
especially thin individuals, require more calories and more fat to sustain their weight. This is usually “fixed” by including raw nuts, raw nut butters, avocados, and other healthy foods that are nutrient-rich and also high in fat and calories. Even these naturally thin individuals will significantly improve their health and lower their risk of degenerative diseases if they reduce their dependency on animal foods and consume more plant-derived fats, such as nuts, instead.