A Few Suggestions on Starting Fresh with Your Diet

photo by rysac1

Many of us would like to eat better, lose weight and feel more balanced when it comes to the food we consume. It is well known that food is a habit. Sometimes, it seems impossible to completely change our old habits. Instead, we can make a small change each week or month (or whatever time period seems reasonable to you). Here are a few suggestions that may be helpful to you along the way. Even if you take one or two, it may bring you closer to a balance:

• Start with a food diary. Write down everything that you eat for a couple of weeks. It will only make a difference if you write down everything. Remember, this is for yourself and you need to be real in order to make a change. Next, evaluate what you eat based on the suggestions I have below.


• Introduce a rainbow in your diet. Nature designed fruits and vegetables in different colors to let us know that there is an abundance of vitamins and minerals that we can gain from eating a multi-colored diet. For me, it is hard to remember what the effect of each fruit and vegetable is in terms of the nutritional support. For example, tomatoes and red grapefruit are full of lycopene which is known for being an antioxidant and anticarcinogenic. Broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower have isothiocyanates, which inhibit cancer growth. Instead of remembering all this, I like the idea of including as many colors as possible in a day or even a meal to ensure that my family gets the best nutritional support. This can be a perfect game for children: they can learn colors and have more fun eating fruit and vegetables.


• Try a new fruit or vegetable each week. Eating healthy can be quite entertaining not only for children, but also for adults. One of my friends decided that each week she will try a new vegetable or fruit to make sure she introduces new nutrients into her body.


• Six tastes. According to Ayurveda, a 5,000 year old healing system from India, you can get the most nutritional benefit and satisfaction out of your meal, if there are six tastes that are present in your food. These tastes are sweet (less refined sugar and more complex carbohydrates like whole wheat pasta, brown rice, quinoa, nuts and whole wheat breads); sour (sour fruits and vegetables, yogurt, cheese, pickles, vinegar, alcohol); salty (table salt, seafood, sauces, meat); bitter (e.g., green and yellow vegetables, green leafy vegetables); pungent (e.g., hot peppers, ginger, salsa, radishes, mustard, cloves, thyme, basil); and astringent (e.g., beans, legumes, lentils, pomegranates, cranberries, tea, dark greens). Each taste has a health function. Sweet taste builds tissues; sour promotes appetite and digestions; salty is mildly laxative and also promotes digestion; bitter is anti-inflammatory and detoxifying, pungent stimulates digestions, clears congestions, detoxifies; astringent is healing and provides lots of fiber. The typical American diet stops at the first three tastes - sweet, salty and sour (e.g., burger, salty fries and a pickle). As a result, many of us experience cravings. For example, if you are craving too much dark chocolate, you may not be getting enough bitter taste (e.g., green leafy vegetables). So, pay attention to your cravings and see if you can reduce them by introducing all six tastes. In old Indian households, the plate was divided into six portions to ensure that each taste was represented in the diet. It may seem like it would take a lot of preparation to introduce all the tastes, but you really don’t need to add a lot. For e.g., adding a leaf of basil and tomato to your sandwich can help with the pungent and sour tastes. If you cannot have all six tastes at each meal, try having them during the day.


• Lunch should be the biggest meal of the day. This is another Ayurvedic piece of wisdom, which is very different from how the Western world operates, i.e., typically dinner is the largest meal. Around noon, when the sun is at its peak, our ‘digestive fire’ is the fastest. During that time we can metabolize and extract the most nourishment out of our meal. Try an experiment, have a bigger lunch and you may notice that you don’t want as much for dinner (e.g., a cup of soup may satisfy you in the evening).


• Start using an appetite gauge with 1=starving and 10=stuffed before you decide whether or not it is time to eat. You should eat at 2=quite hungry and stop eating at 7=content. Overstuffing your stomach is similar to overstuffing your washer. When you put too much clothes, it is hard to wash it well. In a similar way, if you put too much food, it is hard to digest it well.


• When you go out to eat, go ethnic. Not all, but most ethnic restaurants will have much richer foods (e.g., more vegetables) than the typical American cuisine.


• As much as possible, eliminate FLUNC: Frozen, Leftovers, Unnatural, Nuked and Canned foods. The main purpose of food is to provide us with energy and information. How do you think the energy and information of apple that just came off the tree compares to an apple that has been processed, micro waved or canned? Of course, we cannot always eat fruit and vegetables from our garden. However, the closer you get to the source (e.g., apple tree), the more nutrients you will get from the food you are putting in yourself. When you have a choice to eat fresh or canned green beans, maybe you can lean towards using the fresher ingredient. If you do go with canned, try to use the organic version to reduce the number of preservatives and high amounts of sodium that are often present in many canned items. Leftovers of the food you prepared should be just fine for 2-3 days. The longer they are stored/frozen, the less nutrients they will have for you.


• Read labels. Ideally, you want to buy as much organic food as possible. However, I realize it is expensive; that’s why I suggest as much as possible (stores like Trader Joes and even Wal-Mart carry some organic items at a reasonable cost). If you buy non-organic items, pay attention to labels. If there is an ingredient that you cannot pronounce, most likely it is not natural and can be quite harmful for you (e.g., carcinogenic).
  

The list above is not to overwhelm you but provide you with guidance. Even one or two suggestions can bring you closer to feeling healthier. Please share what has worked for you when you have tried a food-related change.