The End of Dieting: How to Live for Life (22 page)

Beans, hemp seeds, Mediterranean pine nuts, sunflower seeds, and soybeans (including tempeh, tofu, and bean pasta) can be used to enhance the protein content of a diet for athletes and people with higher protein needs without going crazy with animal products. Even professional athletes can get sufficient protein when eating a properly designed vegan diet, once they know how to utilize those high-protein plant foods.

The only nutrients lacking in a vegan diet are vitamin B
₁₂
and the long-chain omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA. One should also consider supplementation with iodine and vitamin D, depending on one’s exposure to sunshine and consumption of seaweed for iodine. The amount of zinc might be somewhat suboptimal with a vegan diet because of zinc binding by phytates in plants, but otherwise, animal products don’t provide anything that you can’t get in a safer package—from consuming plant foods. So eat less animal products—consider
hardly eating them at all—for the best health and then supplement wisely and conservatively to make up for any insufficiencies.

Beware of Salmon

Most fish today is raised in fish farms, and they could be the most polluted foods we eat. Consider salmon, once thought to be a healthy food choice because of its omega-3 fatty acid content. But the vast majority of salmon sold in grocery stores and restaurants today is commercial farmed-raised salmon, which has been found to contain levels of toxins roughly ten times worse than the levels found in most commercial beef.
⁴⁶
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s guidelines for exposure to the toxic chemical compound dioxin, even one meal of salmon a month can pose unacceptable cancer risks. Researchers analyzed seven hundred farmed and wild salmon samples from eight major regions around the world sold in North America and Europe and found dangerous levels of PCBs, dioxins, and the insecticides dieldrin and toxaphene in the farmed salmon.

The difference between the concentrations of contaminants found in farmed and wild salmon is most likely a result of the fishes’ diets. Wild salmon eat a large variety of aquatic organisms such as krill, zooplankton, and small fish; but farmed salmon primarily consume a formulated high-fat feed of other fish ground into fishmeal mixed with fish oil. This encourages rapid growth. As far back as 2003, the National Academy of Sciences noted problems with this fishmeal diet and called for the reduction of dioxin exposure in farmed fish.

Researchers have also documented high levels of marine pollution coming from salmon farms due to the release of large quantities of waste, antibiotics, and other chemicals generated during salmon farming. Everyone assumes that eating salmon is healthy, and that’s why it has become so popular. But the reality is that farm-raised salmon is
one of the most cancer-promoting foods we can eat. If you eat even a little fish, you should choose wild-caught fish from cleaner parts of the ocean or from safe fish farms known to have high-quality standards in the industry.

A Nutritarian Lifestyle Followed for Life

With the right food as the catalyst, your body will heal itself. Health, longevity, and weight loss are all products of healthy foods such as greens and other colorful vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts, and seeds. Vegetables and other nutrient-rich produce will fill you up, crowd out unhealthy food choices, encourage good bowel function, flood the body with needed antioxidants and immune-supporting phytochemicals, fuel the growth of beneficial flora in your stomach and bowels, and create a favorable hormonal balance that reduces fat storage and prevents cancer.

In fact, I encourage you to eat a larger volume of high-nutrient plants, including big salads and lots of tomato, onion, raw and cooked greens, and cooked mushrooms. Eat large portions of healthy food, prepared deliciously, which effectively blunts your appetite for more concentrated calories and unhealthful food choices. Not only will you look and feel great, but you can prevent heart disease, cancer, and other deadly maladies. The focus is on eating more of the right foods—foods that can save your life.

Over the past twenty years, I have counseled thousands of people in my medical practice, over the Internet, and at speaking events and weeklong “Getaways” or “Immersions.” Most of these folks come to me unhappy, sick, and overweight, having tried every dietary craze without success. Most have said to me, “I just can’t lose weight no matter what I do.” My nutritarian approach to eating has helped so many of these people lose their excess weight and keep it off permanently. They
were able to live up to their full health potential, all while learning to prefer this way of eating over their old diets. Thousands of individuals are now living examples of the success of this approach; they would never even consider eating any other way—ever. They finally have reached the End of Dieting.

CHAPTER SIX

The Plan

T
he goal is to structure a balanced life for yourself that combines work, eating, shopping, food preparation, gardening, family time, exercise, social pleasures, and entertainment—a life that is enjoyable, varied, keeps you feeling well and emotionally satisfied but also protects you, your family, and our world. This is all about how to live for life—a good life! It just takes a little more effort for some to get there, but it is worth the trip.

Rather than focusing on all the foods you
can’t
eat, enjoy all the foods that you
can
eat in unlimited quantities. Be determined to get though the threshold of unhealthy food cravings. Once the cravings for unhealthy foods decrease and your taste buds change, the natural desire for nutrient-rich foods will take precedence. You’ll no longer feel deprived, and eating will become more enjoyable and pleasurable than ever before.

Don’t let one little slipup derail you on your quest for good health. Get right back on the program with the next meal (not the next day).

Six Basic Guidelines for the Nutritarian Diet Style

Everybody can do this, and here’s the plan. But remember: These are just general guidelines; you don’t have to follow them precisely. For example, you can go above or below the general serving recommendations depending on your height and degree of physical activity or exercise. A world-class athlete may need triple the calories of a sedentary office worker.

To call yourself a nutritarian, follow these six basic guidelines:

1. Eat a large salad every day as your main dish
.

This salad should include lettuce, tomatoes, shredded onion, and at least one shredded raw cruciferous vegetable, such as chopped kale, red cabbage, nappa cabbage, arugula, watercress, or baby bok choy.

Use a variety of greens, including romaine, mixed greens, mesclun mix, arugula, baby spinach, Boston lettuce, and watercress. For added
veggies, choose from red and green bell peppers, cucumbers, carrots, bean sprouts, shredded red or green cabbage, chopped white and red onions, lightly sautéed mushrooms, lightly steamed and sliced zucchini, raw and lightly steamed beets and carrots, snow peas, broccoli, cauliflower, and radishes. I often add some frozen peas and beans to my salads too.

Add a healthy dressing (one that is nut and seed based), such as my tomato sauce–based
Russian Fig Dressing
, which blends almonds and sunflower seeds with a dark vinegar and a fig or a few currants or raisins.

I usually make a huge salad, share it with family members, and have enough left over for later in the day or the next day.

Remember, for superior health, the green salad is the main dish, not the side dish.

2. Eat at least a half cup, but preferably closer to 1 cup, of beans a day
.

This means eating a bean burger, a bean loaf, or a veggie-bean soup or putting beans on your salad or in a stew or chili in the evening. In our household, we almost always make a giant pot of veggie bean soup once a week. After eating the soup that day, I portion it into eight containers and refrigerate or freeze it so I can take it to work with me or use it when I need it. Quick tip: Use some of the soup you made as a unique salad dressing base by adding some flavored vinegar and nuts. Blend in a high-powered blender until smooth.

3. Eat one large (double-size) serving of lightly steamed green vegetables a day
.

This means a bowl of asparagus, chopped kale with a delicious mushroom/onion sauce, green beans, steamed zucchini, bok choy, artichokes,
cabbage, or collard greens. Don’t overcook greens; thirteen minutes of steaming is plenty. The longer you cook them, the more micronutrients you burn off, which wastes the effects of phytochemicals. Green vegetables need to be fully chewed (to the consistency of nearly liquid in your mouth) for you to fully benefit from their anticancer phytonutrients.

4. Eat at least 1 ounce of nuts and seeds per day if you’re female and at least 1.5 ounces of nuts and seeds per day if you’re male
.

Remember, don’t use nuts and seeds as snacks. They are the healthiest way to take in fat with meals and demonstrate a powerful effect on extending the human lifespan. The fat from nuts and seeds, when eaten with vegetables, increases the phytochemical absorption from those veggies. That’s why I typically recommend that nuts and seeds be part of your salad dressing, too. Also, at least half of this intake should be from walnuts, hemp seeds, chia seeds, flaxseeds, and sesame seeds because they have unique protective properties, such as lignans and omega-3 fatty acids.

Eating 3 to 4 ounces of nuts and seeds a day isn’t too much if you’re active and slim. There’s no problem with eating even more than 4 ounces of nuts and seeds per day if you’re an avid exerciser or athlete who needs the calories. I have worked with professional football players and Olympic skiers who follow this diet style; obviously, they need lots more seeds and nuts, and other food too.

Eat nuts and seeds raw, or just lightly toasted, because the roasting process alters their beneficial fats. Commercially packaged nuts and seeds are also frequently cooked in oil and are heavily salted. If you want to add some flavor, lightly toast seeds and nuts in a toaster oven on one low toasting cycle. This doesn’t deplete their beneficial properties. Don’t toast to the point of dark browning, however, as this can cause carcinogenic compounds called acrylamides to be formed. You can also bake them in a 250°F oven for about fifteen minutes, or until very lightly browned.

5. Eat mushrooms and onions every day
.

Both mushrooms and onions have powerful anticancer benefits. Mushrooms are better eaten cooked because some mushrooms contain a mild carcinogen called agaritine. It is gassed off during cooking. Only the
Agaricus
genus of mushrooms—which includes the common white, brown, button, cremini, and portobello mushrooms—contains agaritine. Shiitake, chanterelle, enoki, morel, oyster, and straw mushrooms belong to different genera that don’t contain agaritine. But they should also be cooked to reduce the risk of any potential contamination with microbes. It’s still not entirely clear whether agaritine is a health risk, but play it safe and cook most of your mushrooms with your other vegetables, or water-sauté them in a wok or other pan. Keep a container of cooked mushrooms in your fridge to add to salads and vegetable dishes regularly.

6. Eat three fresh fruits a day
.

Fresh fruits aren’t just nutritious and delicious, they also protect against disease. The phytochemicals in fruits have anticancer effects, and berries have even been shown to protect the brain from dementia in later life. Try to eat one serving of berries or pomegranate a day as part of your total fruit intake. When eaten with a meal, vegetables dilute and slow your body’s absorption of glucose and fructose, so it’s best to eat fruit as part of your vegetable-based meal, either mixed in with your salad or as a dessert. If you’re physically active, you can certainly eat more than three fruits a day, but it’s still best to avoid fruit juice and too much dried fruit, such as dates, raisins, figs, and prunes, because they are calorically dense and could elevate your blood sugar if you eat them in large amounts. When making a recipe or dessert that contains dried fruit for flavor and sweetness, limit the amount to 2 tablespoons per serving. That means one Medjool date or two Deglet Noor dates per dessert serving; otherwise, you could be consuming too much simple sugar.

That’s it. Six simple guidelines to follow. That’s not so difficult to do, is it? Can you imagine what would happen if everyone in the United States followed these guidelines?

• We would stop the healthcare crisis in its tracks and save billions of dollars on medical expenses.
  
• We would save millions of lives from premature death.
  
• We would reduce rates of heart disease, stroke, dementia, and cancer by more than 80 percent.
  
• We would have less crime, and a more successful, intelligent, and productive workforce.
  
• We would have many fewer people in nursing homes, fewer stroke victims, and fewer elderly people suffering from dementia and unable to enjoy life.
  

N UTRITARIAN D AILY C HECKLIST
(Make copies of this chart and check off each point each day.)
	Eat a large salad as the main dish for at least one meal.
	Eat at least a half cup, but preferably closer to 1 cup, of beans.
	Eat one large (double-size) serving of steamed green vegetables.
	Eat at least 1 ounce of nuts and seeds if you’re female and at least 1.5 ounces of nuts and seeds if you’re male. Half of them should be walnuts, hemp seeds, chia seeds, flaxseeds, or sesame seeds.
	Eat some cooked mushrooms and raw and cooked onions.
	Eat at least three fresh fruits.