Fad Diets
The fad diet battles continue. Each week it seems, a new
diet plan, book, or program is touted as the best way to lose weight. Weight
loss diets come and weight loss diets go, but one that seems to have eternal
life is the low carbohydrate, high protein diet promoted most notably by Dr.
Robert Atkins in his popular book, Dr. Atkins' New Diet
Revolution. Several studies have made direct comparisons between the
Atkins' diet and various other diet programs such as Weight Watchers; the high
carbohydrate, low fat vegetarian diet promoted by Dr. Dean Ornish; and the South
Beach diet.
As predicted, the Atkins' diet is as effective as and
possibly even more effective than some of these other programs for promoting
rapid weight loss. There is no doubt, and research proves, that following the
Atkins diet will result in weight loss, but at what cost to your health?
At this point, you probably expect me to begin talking
about how all of the early weight loss that occurs with the Atkins' diet is
water weight, that the diet is high in cholesterol and saturated fat, and that
the weight loss isn't permanent. While these things generally are true, this
isn't the main reason why I believe this diet is a bad choice for most people,
and in particular, for people who are concerned about cancer. There are
two questions I urge anyone who wants to reach a healthy body weight to ask.
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"Is weight loss my only goal?"
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"Do I want to both lose weight and enhance my health?"
If your answer is "yes" to question 1., then the Atkins'
diet is indeed a good choice. It is effective for weight loss and studies show
that even after a year of follow up, people who stick with the low carbohydrate
eating plan prescribed by Atkins generally keep weight off as well as people
following other types of diets. However, if your answer is "no" to question 1.
and "yes" to question 2., the Atkins diet is not for you.
You may wonder how it is that a diet that helps you
reach a healthy body weight is a bad choice. The answer lies not in what is in
the diet, but rather what is not in the diet.
Diet, Nutrition and Cancer
Risk
When researchers first began to take a serious look at
the connection between what we eat and cancer risk more than 3 decades ago, they
often focused on what is in the diet that may be
promoting the development of cancer. There was a lot of effort focused on
finding the culprit in the diet, be it sugar, fat, meat, or something else, that
led to higher cancer risk.
While some of these early studies did yield answers
about how a diet with excessive amounts of meat, sugar, and fat can promote
cancer, they also pointed the way to a deeper understanding of the connection
between diet and cancer. Health experts began to see that what is missing from
the diet is as important or even more important than what is in the diet, in
terms of cancer risk. So instead of thinking about what foods or types of diet
increase cancer risk, health experts began to think about what foods and types
of diet can help prevent cancer.
What research is telling us is nothing short of
miraculous. There are many, many foods, that when added to the diet, actively
protect our bodies against the cellular damage that eventually may lead to
cancer, heart disease, stroke, and many other chronic diseases. These foods,
when eaten in abundance, form patterns of eating that actively protect us
against cancer. Even more
exciting is research showing that even after a cancer diagnosis, what you eat
can make a difference in your long term health. It is never too
late.
No Self Blame
At this point, I do want to stress that you should not
focus on the "what ifs" and "If I only I hads". For some people with cancer,
learning about the many ways in which good nutrition can help prevent cancer
leads to stress and anxiety over what he or she did or didn't do that may have
"caused" cancer. It is important to remember that for any one person, we can
never know what led to their cancer. Nobody asks for cancer and nobody deserves
cancer! No matter what they did or did not do with their health and lifestyle
habits.
We only can say that when we consider large groups of
people, those who are in the group that eats a better diet will be less likely
to be diagnosed with cancer, but the risk still is not zero. Even among people
who do everything "right", such as eat a good diet, avoid smoking and excessive
alcohol use, exercise regularly, manage stress, limit sun exposure, and all of
the other things we know promote good health, some still will be diagnosed with
cancer. As well, even for people who don't do everything "right", such as using
tobacco, not exercising, and eating a poor diet, some will never get cancer. It
is important to remember this and to let go of self blame.
This might lead you to say "why bother?" I think it's
worth the bother because even though eating healthfully cannot prevent cancer or
any other disease with certainty, which is impossible at any rate, a good diet,
along with other healthy lifestyle choices can help you lower risk as much as
possible. I believe it is worthwhile to "stack the odds" in your favor. And
remember, even after a diagnosis of cancer, a healthy diet can help you stay
healthy.
The Power of
Plants
So to get back to our discussion, we need to ask, what
are these miraculous, super foods? They are plants.
Keeping in mind that when it comes to cancer, what is
missing from your diet is as important as what's in your diet, the answer lies
in eating more plants. Plants, meaning vegetables, fruit, whole grains, and
legumes, contain thousands of nutrients that help protect your body, right down
to the cellular level. These nutrients protect us from the every day damage and
wear and tear that comes from just plain living. Hundreds of studies support
that eating a more "plant-based" diet will improve health. And getting these
healthful nutrients from dietary supplements does not have the same benefit. It
is the action of all of these thousands of nutrients that are found in endless
combinations in plants that provide protection against cancer and other chronic
diseases.
More Plants = Better Weight
Management
The other benefit of a plant-based diet is that eating
more plants can be a great way to reach and maintain a healthy body weight.
Plant foods are less calorie dense than many other foods. For example, picture a
large fast food burger, which contains about 600 to 800 calories. Now picture
600 to 800 calories worth of fresh fruit, steamed vegetables, or a whole grain
cereal such as oatmeal. Immediately, you can see that for the same number of
calories, plant foods provide a much bigger volume. You can eat more plant foods
and still consume fewer calories.
This is important because one of the ways that your body
regulates appetite is to determine the volume of food you've eaten. The larger
the volume you eat, regardless of calories, the more full you will feel. So if
you eat the same volume of plant food, you will be taking in fewer calories than
if you were eating a burger and this can help with weight loss and weight
maintenance.
More Plants = Better
Health
We know that we need to eat more plants for better
health and this is why a high protein, low carbohydrate diet is not a good
choice, especially for someone concerned about cancer. Plant foods contain
plenty of carbohydrate, so if you follow a low carbohydrate diet, you will not
be able to eat enough plants for good health.
But you don't have to take my word for it. A recent,
large scale study of over 22,000 European adults looked at the relationship
between protein and carbohydrate in the diet and risk of death from chronic
diseases such as cancer and heart disease (European
Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2007) 61, 575–581). If you do believe what
I've said, what the researchers found won't come as a surprise to you. In that
large group of people, those who had the most protein and the least carbohydrate
in their diet had the highest risk of death (mortality) from both cancer and
heart disease. In the words of the study authors, "Prolonged consumption of
diets low in carbohydrates and high in protein is associated with an increase in
total mortality."
More
Information
You may wonder if following a plant-based diet means
you'll never eat meat again. A plant-based diet does not have to be a vegetarian
diet, although that is a great choice if you want to eliminate meat altogether.
However, you do not have
to go completely meatless to get the benefits of eating more
plants. Instead, you need to shift the proportions of the food you
put on your plate, not on serving sizes or number of servings. About
three-fourths of a healthy plate will be covered by minimally processed plant
food, including fresh fruit, whole grains, and a wide variety of colorful
vegetables. The remaining one-quarter of your plate should contain lean protein,
such as legumes (beans), fish, or chicken. Every meal and snack should follow
the three-fourths/one-fourth principle. Your snacks may not contain the fish or
chicken, but they should be made up of at least three-fourths vegetables, fruit,
and/or whole grains.
For more information and ideas on how to incorporate
more plants into your healthy eating plan, be sure to see our information on
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Healing
Nutrition for Optimal Health
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Nutrition
and Cancer Prevention
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Nutrition
and Cancer Recurrence
Also check out my video Healthy
Eating for the Long Haul and our collection of recipes
for a healthy plant based diet.
Nutritionist Suzanne
Posted
May 19 2007, 06:30 PM
by
SuzanneDixon