A Google search on the word “diet” will give you more than 600 million results. It’s not surprising so many of us are confused about what we should eat. From Atkins to The Zone, there are fad diets for any occasion, any socioeconomic group, any time of year, or any food preference.

Let’s look at a few: The Paleo Diet suggests we eat the foods available to our pre-agricultural ancestors: Meat, fish, fowl, vegetables, fruits, roots, tubers and nuts (not necessarily a great option for vegetarians). The Skinny Bitch Diet advocates a strict vegan diet that avoids alcohol, caffeine, chemical additives and refined sugar. Not a bad idea, but the Bitch’s attitude might not be the best for your self-esteem. According to her, we should “Stop eating crap and start looking fabulous!”

WebMD lists a dozen diets starting with the letter “M”.  My favorite of these was The Morning Banana Diet. It has taken Japan by storm ever since former opera singer Kumiko Mori announced she lost 15 pounds on the diet. The plan is simple: for breakfast have only bananas and room-temperature water. The rest of the day, eat whatever you like. Oh, except there are some restrictions: No dairy, no alcohol, no sugar, etc.

These diets are all fun and interesting, but they all seem to leave out one important aspect: Real Life!  This is where we can all use some help. And this is where Certified Health Coaches, Laura Savard and Morella Devost, come to the rescue. In their Eat Better-Live Better-Feel Better workshop, you’ll learn that what you really want to do is:

1. Throw out everything you thought you knew about nutrition and start anew
2. Learn the basics of real whole foods: what are they, how to shop for them and how to cook them so they taste good
3. Understand how all of your life influences your food choices
4. Get effective tools to make it all work for you in real time

You can have the body you want in 2012, but more importantly, you can learn how to make better health choices to last your lifetime. Sign up online.

image credits: engineerofknowledge.wordpress.com

The fat scare of the 1980′s lumped coconut oil into the same evil fat bin as saturated animal fats which were blamed for everything from acne to cholesterol to heart disease to obesity. But coconut oil got a bad rap. The old research on coconut oil focused on partially hydrogenated blends that contained trans fatty acid. Trans fatty acids are guilty as charged, but coconut oil – (unprocessed virgin coconut oil) is the Jillian Michaels of the tropical oils world.

According to Organic Facts.net, the health benefits of coconut oil include hair care, skin care, stress relief, maintaining cholesterol levels, weight loss, increased immunity, proper digestion and metabolism. Consuming unprocessed virgin coconut oil can bring relief from kidney problems, heart diseases, high blood pressure, diabetes, HIV and cancer. Coconut oil is good for dental care and even builds bone strength. Coconut oil has antimicrobial, antioxidant, antifungal, antibacterial, and soothing properties. It even tastes good. I use it for sautéing, baking, an on top of popcorn and toast instead of melted butter.

The benefits of coconut oil come from mostly from lauric acid, a medium-chain triglyceride. Medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) are easy to metabolize and can even help in taking off excessive weight. MCTs are converted to ketones rather than being stored in the body as fat. And ketones are your body’s alternative energy source.

According to the Whitaker Wellness Institute, “When glucose stores are exhausted, ketones are synthesized from fats and delivered to the cells, where they’re burned for energy. But because glucose is the preferred fuel, ketones are produced only as a backup—when you’re fasting, for example, or eating a very low-carbohydrate diet. (This is the principle behind the Atkins’ weight loss program.)”

Doctors at the institute are recommending ketone therapy for patients with Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, dementia, multiple sclerosis, ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), and other neurodegenerative disorders.

The next time you reach for oil or butter, try coconut oil. It might affect more than just the flavor of your food, it could have lasting health benefits that impact the rest of your life.

Chocolate Tootsie Rolls are comprised of sugar, corn syrup, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, condensed milk, artificial cocoa flavoring, whey, soy lecithin, orange extract, and natural and artificial flavors. But look at the bright side, Tootsie Rolls are Gluten-Free, Peanut-Free, Nut Product-Free, and they are Kosher since 1896!

Snickers ingredients are: milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, chocolate, skimmed milk, lactose, milkfat, soy lecithin, artificial flavor), peanuts, corn syrup, sugar, skimmed milk, butter, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, lactose (a milk product), salt, egg whites and artificial flavor.

Kit Kat. Give me a break…here’s the list: milk chocolate (sugar, modified milk ingredients, cocoa butter, unsweetened chocolate, lactose, soya lecithin, polyglycerol polyricinoleate, artificial flavor), wheat flour, sugar, hydrogenated soybean oil or modified palm oil, unsweetened chocolate, sodium bicarbonate, soya lecithin, yeast, artificial flavor.

“Modified” is believed by many consumers to be a euphemism for genetically engineered. Hydrogenated oil cannot be assimilated by the body and gets stuck in the arteries. According to Wiki Answers, “this Candy Bar is not good for human consumption.”

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups: Milk Chocolate (Milk Chocolate contains Sugar, Cocoa butter, Chocolate, Nonfat Milk, Milk Fat, Lactose, and Soya Lecithin and PGPR (as Emulsifiers), Peanuts, Sugar, Dextrose, Salt, and TBHQ.

PGPR, or polyglycerol polyricinoleate, is a yellowish, viscous liquid composed of polyglycerol esters of polycondensed fatty acids from castor oil.  TBHQ, or tertiary butylhydroquinone, is an antioxidant that comes from petroleum and is related to butane

According to Natural News:

Consuming high doses (between 1 and 4 grams) of TBHQ can cause nausea, delirium, collapse, tinnitus (ringing in the ears), and vomiting. There are also suggestions that it may lead to hyperactivity in children as well as asthma, rhinitis and dermatitis. It may also further aggravate ADHD symptoms and cause restlessness. Long term, high doses of TBHQ in laboratory animals have shown a tendency for them to develop cancerous precursors in their stomachs, as well as cause DNA damage to them. It is also suggested that it may be responsible for affecting estrogen levels in women.

Now I’m terrified…

But don’t give up on the holiday. Just read your labels and don’t be tricked! Or choose some non-candy alternatives. Among my favorite are temporary tattoos, bubbles and sidewalk chalk.

Both local and vegetarian diets have proven health benefits and help to preserve the earth. Here are a few from the North American Vegetarian Society:

VEGETARIAN DIETS:

• Reduce the risk of major killers such as heart disease, stroke and cancer while cutting exposure to food-borne pathogens
• Provide a viable answer to feeding the world’s hungry through more efficient use of grains and other crops
• Save animals from suffering in factory-farm conditions and from the pain and terror of slaughter
• Conserve vital but limited freshwater, fertile topsoil and other precious resources
• Preserve irreplaceable ecosystems such as rainforests and other wildlife habitats
• Decrease greenhouse gases that are accelerating global warming
• Mitigate the ever-expanding environmental pollution of animal agriculture

Eating locally produced foods generates many of the same health and environmental benefits. Even eating locally grown, organically produced meat has some of the same benefits, though PETA might arm wrestle you on that one.

Even if you don’t agree about accelerated climate change or the sentience of quadrupeds, you must admit that localvores and vegetarians are healthier, happier and they seem to have more fun. Take a look at the following Greenhorns trailer about the new generations of farmers and you’ll see what I mean:

image credit: thegreendivas.com

PETA made the million dollar offer back in 2008 to the first lab to successfully develop a method to produce commercially viable quantities of in vitro (lab-grown) chicken meat. They took some heat for this, but backed up their million-dollar-non-meat with ethics:

“People are surprised to learn that PETA is interested in lab-grown meat, but we have overcome our own revulsion at flesh-eating to champion a breakthrough that will mean a far kinder world for animals. One million dollars is a lot of money, but it’s a small price to pay for something that has the potential to save about 1 million lives every hour.”

Environmental concerns over meat consumption are tough to argue. Meat is inefficient. The amount of water, grains, chemicals, fertilizers, man-power, land, everything it takes to turn grass into cows and cows into meat and meat onto the grill at your house represents a huge amount of energy. And a lot of waste. It takes 78 calories of fossil fuel to produce 1 calorie of beef protein. “Cultured meat” (man-made eat?) would greatly reduce this energy expenditure and environmental impact.

Health-wise, meat has its virtues. Essential amino acids, high amounts of protein, iron, phosphorous, Vitamins A, B and D are all readily available in meat. Meat also presents some risks – think Mad Cow, and Avian Flu. Lab meat contains all the right nutrients without the madness or the flu.

A slaughter-free, sustainable alternative to meat is very attractive. But would you eat it?

I’d love to hear from both vegetarians and meat-eaters—would you eat lab meat?

image credit: captainsvision.com

The reason for this is pretty cool: people who eat in restaurants usually have a well-defined goal of assuaging their hunger. This means they are more willing to invest the effort to meet their goal: they pay attention to food selection, they are nice to the waiter, they use their napkins, they pay the bill, etc. The big fork gives them a clear way to monitor progress toward that goal.

According to Health Day News: “The physiological feedback of feeling full, or the satiation signal, comes with a time lag. In its absence, diners focus on the visual cue of whether they are making any dent on the food on their plate to assess goal progress.” Smaller forks show smaller progress…it takes more bites to reach the goal of feeling full. Also, restaurant diners often do not allow for that time lag.

The research team put their conclusion to the test by varying the portions of food. They found that when served larger portions, diners with small forks ate significantly more than those with larger forks. In contrast, when customers were served smaller portions, the size of their fork did not affect the amount of food they ate. (www.emaxhealth.com quoting the Journal of Consumer Research)

This study was conducted in a restaurant setting, but the same principles may be a applied at home – provided we have the same goal of hunger satiation (sometimes we eat for different reasons at home).

If you don’t feel full, it is very important to learn your visual cues which trigger over eating (I am reminded of the ‘Clean Plate Club’ of my youth). But even more important than fork size or visual cues is mindful eating. Understand the reason why you eat what you eat. Understand your hunger cues and know how much food it takes to fill you up. It’s probably less than you think…

And it will make all the difference.

Image credit: seasweetie.wordpress.com

If Michelle Obama can eat a burger and fries and keep her spectacular focus and figure, so can I! The lesson in this politicized mid-day meal is that ‘perfect is the enemy of good.’ Sticking to a healthy diet over the long haul is good for your health and wellness and your emotional well being; obsessing over your weight or your diet plan every waking moment can be counter productive.

The strictest regimes are often those most prone to failure. Allowing yourself a treat now and then without judgement will help ensure greater long-term success in your wellness plan. Two shining examples come to mind: My favorite nutritional counselor has eaten Al’s Fries and yet she has the most beautiful skin; My favorite yoga teacher has been known to drink beer during the Super Bowl and yet has a near-monastic dedication to the practice of yoga.

It’s all about mindfulness – this is perhaps the greatest mission of All Wellness. Encouraging clients and patients to exercise and eat mindfully engenders life-long health and self-respect. This is the ingredient that is lacking from the Standard American Diet and from the standard American fitness plan.

According to Let’s Move, “We are now eating 31 percent more calories than we were forty years ago–including 56 percent more fats and oils and 14 percent more sugars and sweeteners. The average American now eats fifteen more pounds of sugar a year than in 1970.” Mindful eating would not produce this result.

Similarly, many fitness regimes focus on resulting outward appearances rather than happiness and well being. How many fitness junkies do you know who are in great shape but hate their lives? Mindful exercise produces a different result.

Food for thought…

image credit: gawker.com

It looks remarkably like the vegan power plate brought to us in 2009 by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Hmm…maybe the country is starting to catch on?

This is the Vegan Power Plate, brought to you by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

“MyPlate” is more accessible and reflects a better balance of nutrition, but nutritionists, health experts, and foodies are not completely thrilled with it. Here are a few sticky bits on MyPlate:

• It breaks the food groups up into four main food groups: Grains, Fruits, Vegetables, Proteins (and Dairy in a cup on the side). Protein is not a food, it is a nutrient.
• Many Americans equate the Proteins part of the plate with Meat. This is a boon for the meat industry. But meat is not the only, nor the best source of protein for the body. Grains are good sources of protein. One cup of cooked quinoa, for example, contains 18 grams of protein.
• Dairy is not a necessary aspect of a healthy diet. According to Plants & Animals Denver, a vegan advocacy group: “Anyone with half a brain knows you don’t need dairy and it’s inclusion on any food pyramid/graph is purely economic/political”.
• According to nutritionist and author Marion Nestle, “People who consume the most dairy have the most osteoporosis.” (Quoted on NPR’s Here & Now, June 7, 2011). This view is held by many, many health advocates and nutritional counselors.
• MyPlate recommends that half of each meal consist of fruits and vegetables, and yet less than 1% of annual federal subsidies support the fruit and vegetable industries. Most subsidies (sometimes in excess of 63%) go to the dairy industry.

USDA 1943 Food Guidelines: Butter!

You can see that the new food guide MyPlate is still politically charged, it has been since the 1940′s when the government listed butter as its own group. The 1992 food pyramid did not stress meat and dairy enough to suit those industries and for this reason was pulled. The 2005 food pyramid included a category for “Discretionary” calories which included candy and alcohol. Many claimed that the USDA “was and is unduly influenced by political pressure exerted by lobbyists for food production associations” such as diary and meat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MyPyramid) .

Here are some good things on MyPlate:

• The top recommendation in the new dietary guidelines: enjoy our food, but eat less.
• A plate just makes more sense than a pyramid – it’s easier to visualize appropriate  portions on a plate than it is on a pyramid.
• Half of the plate is comprised of fruits and vegetables!

Some believe that MyPlate and the new dietary guidelines still pander to the big food lobbies. For example, the new guidelines recommend we reduce our sodium intake from bread and soup, but fail to mention reducing sodium-laden salty snacks and highly processed foods. But MyPlate is easier to use and understand. If you want to cut calories, just use a smaller plate.

Take a look at your dinner plate tonight (or at lunch). Let us know what it looks like. Send pictures!

image credit: www.choosemyplate.gov, www.hsph.harvard.edu, www.nal.usda.gov

At the last meeting of the Group Cleanse at All Wellness we were excited and giddy. It was bitter sweet, like graduation. Some in the group look forward to returning to old eating patterns: dinner with family, pizza, eggs for breakfast… For others there is no turning back. The Cleanse created new sensitivity. Our bodies had built up a numbness to all the bad food we’ve eaten over the years. Now that we are clean, we are much more sensitive to what causes problems and to what makes us feel good.

Personally, I find the vegan aspect of the cleanse very appealing. But after 21 days of sugar-free, dairy-free and gluten-free living, I wanted to experiment. I went to Burlington to Healthy Living for breakfast. I had an almond scone. It was still warm! Its bouquet was breathtaking. It was moist and flaky and had a sweet glaze drizzled along the top of its delightful, cratered, nutty crust. It could distinguish each of its heavenly flavors: wheat, sugar, butter, almond, butter, salt, butter, and maybe a hint of lemon. I was transported, like a starving castaway, to the middle of a fantasy about the most magnificent bakery in France or somewhere succulent and sexy where food is exulted to the height of passion. It was absolutely exquisite.

Until I swallowed. It felt like my teeth, mouth, throat and gut were covered with WD40. That little slice of heaven felt like a lard ball in my stomach. I felt my whole body slow down and congeal. It was comical. Was it worth it? Would I do it again? Maybe. My love affair with the senses of smell and taste might be a little stronger than my disdain for lard balls. But next time, I will be prepared.

My indulgences will be peppered with the knowledge of the effects of culinary bliss. I will indulge much less often. But I probably will indulge. One of the wonderful aspects of the Clean Program is its flexibility. One of the tenets of the Clean Program is letting go of toxic emotions, like guilt. If you fall off the wagon, just turn around and get back on – with new knowledge.

By cleansing, I learned one of the wonderful aspects of the human body: resiliency. I have been a coffee addict for years. Today it tastes like gasoline, though its aroma still sends me. Recovering from caffeine addiction gave me a most memorable two-day headache, but I recovered. Sugar holds no attraction for me, cheese even less. My body bounced back from the depths of mindless satiation to feel the best I can remember feeling.

I’m sure I will drink champagne at my mom’s house closing and I know there is a picnic in my future that involves chips and salsa, but I will not go in for the total retox. I will never return to my former unconscious relationship with food. The group cleanse just made me feel to good to go back to another way. I encourage you to try it. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Comment to this post with your questions or contact Laura at All Wellness to learn more about how you can feel and look better. Everyone should feel this good.

Clean food resources:

Clean Program
Clean Program Support Community
Gluten-Free Girl
Living Tree Community Foods
Mark Bittman, Part-Time Vegan – A Gluten-Free Guide
Bob’s Red Mill

image credit: goodlifeeats.com

Here are a few poignant quotes from the group:

- I got rid of acid reflux and irritable bowel syndrome. Gluten was the culprit. I’m staying on the Elimination Diet forever.

- I was tired of feeling crappy. Now I am paying attention to what I’m putting in my body and I feel lighter. I’m going to stay gluten- and dairy-free. It makes me feel calm. My stomach feels calm.

- I’m having great sex.

- I m totally empowered. I don’t have to eat things just because I want to or because I feel like it. It is so awesome. You can not have things and feel fine.

- I can stay awake longer at night.

- I realized I was an emotional eater. I realized how I see food in my life. Now I am free of those emotions. I am much more conscious of what I eat and how I act.

- I have an outrageous sense of smell.

- Just because I am not eating a cheeseburger and fries does not mean my lunch is not good.

- I have had no cravings at all. I’m feeling full. I decreased my lunch portions and I have a lot more energy.

Next week marks the end of the 21-day cleanse. Because of the wonderful health benefits we have all experienced, many of us are considering making significant long-term changes to our diet.

Each of us is eating more mindfully. Going forward, if we do decide to reintroduce the less-healthy foods of the Standard American Diet (SAD), which feels totally counter intuitive, we will do so consciously. Each of us is equipped with the knowledge of food’s effects on our bodies. Now we know that we can use the Clean Program as a tool.

Laura Savard reminded us “If you start feeling rotten again, you know how to fix it real quick.” If we have to attend a wedding reception and eat cake and champagne, we know that with time and mindful eating, we can regain the vibrant health we have achieved during this cleanse.

NPR and the Wall Street Journal tell me that the clean food revolution is not limited to a group of incredibly healthy, vibrant women in Vermont. Novak Djokovic, the Serbian tennis start who is taking the French Open by storm, is rockin’ the Casbah with his Gluten-free diet. An article in today’s New York Times highlights the new flavors of gluten-free foods.

Troops in the Clean Revolution include Robert Thurman, Donna Karan, Gwyneth Paltrow. Demi Moore, David Wolfe, Mariska Hargitay and Billy Zane. Mark Bittman is a part-time vegan.

You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it’s evolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world…

image credits: icebergtoarugula.com, martinstyles.com