It's the time of year when everyone is thinking of, or has embarked upon, a regime to either restore the damage wrought over Christmas, or as part of a New Year's Resolution.
Good luck; a careful diet can work wonders but it's always good to be aware of the downsides. In the interests of good health, don't deprive yourself of necessary nutrients.
The Categories covered in this How to...include: Vegan, Vegetarian, Smoothies, No-Sugar, Low-Carb, Protein, No/Low-Fat, 'New" Mediterranean, 20-80, Exercise.
VEGAN FOOD
2018 is the year of the Vegan, apparently.
Where last year was the year of the vegetable, with vegetarian food becoming trendy and fashionable, chefs are now producing more and more vegan dishes. And more and vegan cookbooks are hitting the bookstores.
It's the natural extension of vegetarianism, brought about by:
- heightened awareness of the health benefits of high plant diets
- thrift
- concerns about animal welfare
Vegans avoid all animal protein entirely; that means no dairy or eggs.
Because vegan diets are so restricted (see Vegetarianism, below), 67goingon50 is not happy to recommend veganism as a full-time food option. However, substituting some meat meals with vegan meals is fine and, indeed, a healthy option.
Vegan food tends to be healthier than most because of low levels of saturated fat. It can shift pounds swiftly. But some ingredients and combinations take getting used to.
It's not easy to ensure a balanced vegan diet and new vegans should join a Vegan Society for advice and feedback.
The exotic and sometimes expensive ingredients which are necessary to balance nutritional needs for Vegans can affect taste and texture -- and not necessarily in a good way. Caution is recommended before stocking the cupboard with exotic or expensive ingredients.
Baked vegan products -- cakes, cookies, pies -- can be tasty but sometimes oddly unsatisfying. Plenty of internet sites offer vegan alternatives to conventional baking ingredients but whether the result suits your tastebuds is a personal thing. 67 prefers to develop healthier baking recipes.
Many of 67's vegetarian dishes turned out to be vegan, too, which is a bonus.
But where vegan dishes are concerned, the blog does favour dishes that use conventional non-animal products. 67 vegan dishes have successfully undergone taste tests with carnivores as well as vegetarians.
The Recipes pages has a section for vegetarian and vegan food.
67 would hesitate to recommend a Vegan diet for children.
VEGETARIANISM
67 is happy to recommend increasing vegetable and fruit intake but hesitates to recommend full-time vegetarianism.
- Animal protein provides all the essential amino acids needed by the body; most vegetarian foods contain some but not all essential amino acids. Vegetarian meals usually need to be balanced between vegetable based foods containing some essential amino acids with others containing different complementary amino acids. And it's easy to get it wrong.
- Vitamin B12 is vital for good health, preventing serious anaemia. It is found in its most accessible form in animal products. B12 also comes in vegetarian form but needs to be converted into the B12 needed by the body. Some people's bodies (including the Blogger's) lack the capacity to make this conversion.
Vegetarians and Vegans can avoid depriving the body of essential nutrients by combining:
- Legumes and grains eg hummous or other pulses with bread and rice (vegan)
- Dairy products and eggs with anything (vegetarian)
- Nuts & seeds with anything (vegan)
- tofu with anything (vegan)
SMOOTHIES
Replacing meals with a smoothie can lead to good weight loss but there is an art to healthy smoothies.
Too much fruit just adds more sugar which has the opposite effect to the one intended.
The ideal healthy smoothie has these elements:
- liquid: water, milk, veggie milks, fruit juice, coconut milk (but not for the cholesterol challenged)
- fruit: berries, whole apples & pears, bananas, melons
- vegetables: spinach, carrot, beetroot, tomatoes, avocados, kale
- protein: yoghurt, nut butters, tofu
Optional but tasty ingredients include:
- texture: nuts, oatmeal, granola
- flavour: cocoa, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, raw grated ginger
NO SUGAR DIETS
Recommended on doctor's advice only.
By all means reduce intake of unrefined and refined sugars but substitute natural sugars found in fresh fruit. Learn to bake with less guilt and always, always, serve small portions.
Giving up sugar entirely can cause physical and emotional strain.
LOW CARB DIETS
Carbs are not the enemy but we probably eat too many, especially if we are reducing animal protein.
Carbs turn into blood sugar which provides energy for day-to-day activities. Too much blood sugar turns to fat; cutting carbs reduces sugars in the blood and causes fat reserves to burn off.
But carbs are an essential food group; that's why giving them up is so difficult. Carb deprivation can lead to headaches, weakness, nausea, dizziness and irritability.
To maintain good health, reduce carbs to 50-150gms per day but do not remove them from your diet. If you really can't go without mash, be clever about combining potatoes with sweet potatoes, carrots or other root veg.
PROTEIN
The body needs protein but we don't need as much as we think we do.
That said, too little protein -- animal or vegetable -- leads to tiredness and lethargy. At worst, the body starts consuming its own muscle.
Protein is not a food group to give up but smaller portions go a long way to achieving a good balance.
FAT
Fat is essential for the proper functioning of brain cells; giving up fat is not recommended.
Focus on good fats: olive oil, avocado, oily fish, (unsalted) nuts and seeds and dairy products, preferably fermented, such as yoghurt and ricotta.
Butter is borderline -- it's a natural product and considered more healthy than liquid oils converted to solid form, such as margarine. Recent research into butter is still inconclusive.
THE 'NEW' MEDITERRANEAN DIET
The Mediterranean Diet is said to help reduce dementia. Here's 67's recommended take on the 'new, revolutionary' Mediterranean Diet (which is not that different from Healthy Eating.)
- Plant-based foods play a primary role: veg, fruit, whole grains, legumes, pulses, nuts, vegetable oils
- Carbs (conventional plus vegetable and pulses, beans & whole grains) limited to 50-120gm per day; a day or two per week without any carbs at all won't do any damage
- 5 portions of fresh veg daily
- 2-3 portions fresh fruit, most with lower-sugar content, daily(see Healthy Eating above for sugar content of fruits)
- Replace butter where possible with olive or veg oils
- Replace salt with herbs and spices
- When using soy sauce use 25% reduced-salt brands like Amoy or Pearl River Bridge
- Fish twice a week, especially for oldies
- Poultry once a week
- Best quality affordable red meat once a week, fortnight or month, depending on mental & physical requirements
- All other meals vegetarian or vegan
- Small quantities of dairy products, preferably fermented to help digestion (eg fat-free or low-fat but sugar-free yoghurt or ricotta)
- Handful of salted nuts 2-3 times a week
- Read labels to check that low-fat foods do not have added sugar
- Some people complain that the Mediterranean Diet if very expensive; to reduce cost increase the number of plant based meals
67goingon50 adds:
Baked goods once or twice a month but adapted to low sugar diets (How to Bake with Less Guilt ) and fewer, or no, carbs that day or for a couple of days to compensate.
THE 80-20 DIET
Many people who successfully maintain a healthy weight or lose weight without sacrificing nutrition practice a form of the 80-20 diet. This consists of 5 days of disciplined, healthy eating (low-carb, sugar & fat with plenty of vegetables and some protein) and 2 days of eating whatever you like.
67 prefers a 5 +1+1 regime with one day of fasting a week and a day of indulgence but the blogger does not keep normal working hours.
The advantage of these regimes is that there is no feeling of deprivation while still building in a sense of disciplined eating. The blog believes that's why they work so well.
Because after all, food is a pleasure as well as a necessity. And a life including culinary pleasure is a life of colour and good cheer.
REMEMBER:
NO DIET IS EFFECTIVE WITHOUT EXERCISE!
Move, move, move.
Cost-free effective exercise:
- walking to and from the tube station
- at your desk or on the couch, get up every hour & move at least 5 mins
- don't work? Walk in or near a park at least half an hour every day or equivalent
- get a pedometer
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