Yep, we’re still talking about my health, so you might find someone else to stand next to at the cocktail party for a while. Getting healthy is on my life list, so here’s Part I: Ow My Everything Hurts, and Part II: Acupuncture is Not Scary, Part III: Dentists Are Kind of Scary, and Part IV: I Should Get Off the Couch. Please join us for this installment of “Oh, My Aching Back,” where we give up doughnuts, french fries, and hope.
I was blessed with a mother who told me my body was gorgeous until I believed her, plus a nutzo metabolism that kept my weight in check until I was about 19. So when I say my diet was poor until I was 25, I mean potato chips for breakfast, Top Ramen for lunch, and a sensible shake (plus Bacon Cheddar Burger with fries) for dinner.
When my metabolism finally wised up and started storing fat when I used heavy cream on my cereal, I was at a loss. I had to re-learn how to cook, but I had no grasp of nutrition. My first bit of education came before I knew I had health issues, when I finally went on a diet.
Understanding Nutritional Value
I gained about 15 pounds in college, which was no big deal because I looked like a pre-pubescent boy before that, and it was nice to finally have boobs. After college, I gained another ten pounds, cringed when I saw my upper arms in a photo from a friend’s wedding, and decided it was time to apply the brakes.
I tell you all this because Weight Watchers Online was my first education in eating well. If you’re not familiar with the program, they assign a point value to every item of food based on a formula that involves fiber, nutritional value, and so on.
At the time I knew things like donuts were bad for me, but I had no concept of how bad. I mean, it’s not like they were dusted with rat poison. But a filling, healthy meal on Weight Watchers at the time was about five points. A Dunkin’ Donuts doughnut? Eight Points. Starbucks doughnut? Twelve. As I logged my food for the day, it was a passive nutritional education. I now have a basic understanding of what’s bad for me, and what’s reprehensible.
I still use Weight Watchers whenever I need to lose weight, which is often because I need to stay slim to avoid taxing my joints unnecessarily. Yet another reason to overhaul my diet.
Eating Well
After dieting, I had a basic idea of how food worked, but I didn’t apply that knowledge except when I was trying to lose weight. As I mentioned, when my health tanked, I realized how bad things were because I tried the Quantum Wellness cleanse and felt amazing. Because I found that diet too restrictive to maintain, I needed a simpler way to eat better.
Everything I know about how my body interacts with food is from Dr. Oz’s You on Diet, which has specific recommendations for how to adopt a healthier diet overall.
Key points that stuck with me:
-I try not to keep food in my house if I know it’s hurting my body. If I want some potato chips, I can put on my sneakers and walk to the damn store.
-I avoid foods with any of the following in the first five ingredients of the label: 1. simple sugars 2. syrups 3. white flours 4. saturated fats 5. trans fat. Friends, unless you’re shopping at a seriously hippie store, this pretty much eliminates packaged food, which I found shocking. I won’t buy anything at all with high fructose corn syrup or trans fats, but after about a year with brown rice pasta, I just found it too difficult to give up regular pasta. Still, I eat maybe a quarter of the packaged food I used to. I just do the best I can.
–Standardize one or more of my meals. I pick a healthy breakfast (smoothie) or lunch (salad, turkey sandwich) and eat the same thing every day. Bam! Half my day is healthy by default.
-Trans fats are terrible for you not only because they’re extremely caloric. Your system doesn’t actually register them as food. So no matter how much you eat, your body never releases the chemicals that tell you you’re full. Yikes.
-I keep water in front of me all day long, and have a small dishes of nuts around so I can eat a few about twenty minutes before a meal. It triggers your body to release satiety chemicals, and most nuts are crazy good for you.
If you want a starting point, here’s Dr. Oz’s Ultimate Diet, which closely mirrors the book’s tenets on healthful eating. (If weight is your main health challenge, you’ll find specific weight management tips here.)
Vitamins and Supplements
By the time I started acupuncture, I was already taking a enough supplements and vitamins to stock a co-op. I’d been reading Kris Carr’s Crazy Sexy Life site, and I adopted lots of her recommendations (which I can’t find anywhere now, grr). As symptoms pop up, my acupuncturist suggests foods and supplements that can help, and they do.
My general rule for supplements is that I want my body to recognize them as food. I try not to swallow anything synthetic that my immune system may try to attack, so I look for vitamins made of whole foods. They’re more expensive, but I think of it like filling prescriptions.
Every morning I take a:
Women’s One Multivitamin
B-Complex – to battle stress hormones and boost immune function
Grape seed extract – to build artery walls and help with bruising, which works
Algae – recommended by my acupuncturist to “build blood”
L-Lysine – to keep cold sores at bay, and it’s incredibly effective
Calcium – suck it, osteoperosis
Vitamin E – for the heart and skin
Glucosamine Chondroitin – to build cartilidge
I also take acupuncture herb capsules for chronic knee and ankle pain. I take three at a time, three times a day in conjunction with the Glucosamine for my joints.
The herbs and Glucosamine have really worked miracles for me when I take them correctly. You’re supposed to take Glucosamine three times a day with food, which seemed so arduous. Then a few weeks ago I was having trouble walking and worried I might need another knee surgery. So I set three alarms on my phone and put some pills in my purse so I always had them with me. Such an easy solution, I feel stupid for waiting so long to just do it, and after just a week of taking my supplements the way I’m supposed to, my joints are functional again.
Three or four mornings a week, I also make a smoothie and add Flax Seed Oil for heart and brain function, a little ground flax seed for the same thing, and sometimes a little Psyllium Husk for fiber.
If you’re wondering what you should be taking, Dr. Oz’s vitamins and supplements chart is a useful resource. It’s comprehensive, so don’t let it overwhelm you; put together a routine based on where your health needs boosting.
At first, I felt weird about taking so many “pills.” I’m the kind of person who resists taking a Tylenol when i have a headache. But I’ve come to think of vitamins as food in condensed form. I’d rather take a handful of condensed food than have kale at every meal.
I bruise less easily, get fewer cold sores, have more energy, don’t really have issues with eczema any more, and have had surprising healing in my joints.
Questions
That’s about it. I’ve also been drinking only decaf coffee and tea aside from green tea, and I’m considering cutting out wheat again to see if it would dramatically effect my energy, but I’m taking it slowly. I also bought Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals, which I’ve been avoiding reading because of the moral quandry I know will ensue.
In general, I’m trying to give my body better building materials, and if you’ve read this far, you probably are too. So here’s what I want to know from you:
– How have you come by the knowledge you have about food? Reading suggestions?
– Would you consider making a non-temporary change in how you eat? Have you already?
– Do you take supplements or do they freak you out? Do you believe they work?
Oof. This has been a long haul, no? Thanks for sticking with me.
Mighty Girl 
Due to family history of depression and ADHD, I take 1000 mg of vit. D and high quality fish oil capsules every day. I believe they definitely help my mood – especially during the winter months.
Vit. D is a great immunity booster too – my kids and I have had less illness the past two winters since we started taking it. I also take a B-complex, calcium, and vit. C.
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Both In Defense of Food and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and helped me change the way I think about food. In Defense of Food greatly reduced the amount of processed food we eat and the amount of meat in our diet. I highly recommend both.
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15 minutes in the sun before 11 am does more to combat osteoperosis due to Vitamin d you will absorb than any supplement.
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I’ve found your “Getting My Health in Order” series to be extremely interesting, and this section on eating and vitamins has been particularly useful for me. My joints (my knees specifically, too) have been remarkably painful in the last two years too. I’m going to explore supplements to address that. Thanks for the tip.
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Hi Maggie,
This has been a very informative, very funny series. Thanks for sharing so much personal detail. This is my new favorite cookbook, which may be in line with your food philosophies:
As for me, I have to make non-temporary changes to my diet pronto. I had a baby 17 months ago, am still nursing, started a crazy (but great) new job in October and it’s winter here in MTL. Sugar is my new best friend, and that’s got to change.
And I want to start swimming again. And running. But first, I need to find a sitter!
All the best to you and yours.
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This is so great of you to share, Maggie! So many people struggle with weight and/or health issues; if even one person who reads your blog is inspired to make changes toward better health, well, I’d say you deserve a big glass of champagne and a pat on the back!
As for your questions:
I haven’t really read much about food because I really really like food and am currently subscribing to the “ignorance is bliss” strategy.
That said, I do use common sense. We buy only organic milk, eggs and most produce and we seriously limit our intake of processed food. (Sorry, you’ll have to pry my Ben & Jerry’s from my cold, dead fingers). Otherwise, I eat (mostly) what I want but half of the portion I think I want. And I run 5 days a week.
I do take suppliments, which I learned about from my ND and my acupuncturist and I have seen a great improvement in, for one, the way my body processes (and used to CRAVE) sugars and carbs.
Again, thanks for having this conversation and good health to you!
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I am also not good with nutrition – I’ve always been chubby, though. Just never really learned how to eat. The mechanics of healthy eating are just so much to take in. That said, I’m trying to get healthy myself, so it’s a change I’m making. Slowly.
To address the questions specifically:
I’ve read part of the You on a Diet book – I have a friend who is a NP that recommended it, so I picked it up. I just haven’t read it all yet. Bad Kara. My other knowledge comes from logging in my food intake daily and going “holy crap! Where did all that fat/sodium/calories come from?!” and reassessing whatever I ate that was REALLY bad for me.
Like I said, I’m in the process of making a permanent change in my eating habits. I tend to eat vegetarian at least one day a week by accident (though sometimes I can manage a meat-free day that also includes exactly zero vegetables). Trying to increase my fruits & veggies. I’m on week 6 without any soda in my system (which was the last holdout in the HFCS wars).
I take supplements, but will be checking the list to make sure I’m getting the proper amounts of things.
That got long, too. Whew.
Thanks for sharing your “get your health in check” journey, Maggie. It’s on my life list, too. I just need to restart it.
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We’ve made a lot of non-temporary changes in the way we eat, and they don’t seem weird to me anymore until I’m pressed for time and try to find a certain food at Target (none of the bread is okay with us–NONE). We don’t do any high fructose corn syrup or trans fats, just like you, and we also avoid non-organic soy and corn products because we’re not into GMOs. This means that there are very few quick options for dinner and that a lot of other things are limited. We cook at home a lot, and we accept that eating well is going to cost more than eating a conventional American diet. We feel better all around, and even on days when it is stressful getting meals on the table (as is the case often since we are new parents), I don’t regret our choices at all.
I know I could stand to consume less sugar (fair trade, organic sugar will still make you chubby–imagine that!) and less caffeine, but for now I am giving myself a little bit of grace as we adjust to life as parents and suffer through the bitter cold of a Kansas City winter. In the springtime, I’m sure sitting on the sofa with a homemade mocha won’t be the only thing that sounds absolutely divine to me. If nothing else, I’ll at least want to take a walk while holding my delicious drink.
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Weight Watchers was where I initially learned about nutrition, too, although the 40-plus extra pounds I’m currently toting about would suggest it didn’t sink in so well. (I’m currently doing WW again; maybe the 1,000th time’s the charm.) I’m supposed to take Vitamin D and a c’mon-get-happy supplement daily, but a combination of laziness and cheapness means I haven’t been taking them lately.
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I’m a big believer in listening to your body.
I don’t crave carbs the way some of my friends do, so I don’t succumb to the bread basket, just because because it’s there. And, I’ve been known to get oysters or pate instead of dessert because I don’t have much of a sweet tooth.
On the other hand, I need and crave animal protein in a big way (I’d say every 4th or 5th meal has a meat component), so I have to be mindful about EVERY other fat/protein I eat. And, I try my hardest to avoid CAFO meats, keeping it as local/sustainable as I can.
Good on you for working so hard to bring your life and health into balance, Maggeh. It’s not easy to do.
– Fatemeh
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This has been a great series, Maggie. Thanks so much for sharing!
I, too, first learned about nutrients and food by doing Weight Watchers. It totally changed the way I thought about how I ate – in a good, healthy, and life-changing way.
I recently read In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan and it gave me a lot to think about. Is it possible to stop thinking about food as nutrients? Do we want to? How much can we really trust the doctors/media/scientists/food industry for telling us what’s good and healthy? What really IS healthy, anyway? I feel like I need to go back and re-read this book a few more times to really GET what he’s talking about. Also, I’ve been avoiding reading Eating Animals for the same reasons as you.
I don’t currently take any supplements or vitamins, though I have in the past. Honestly, I never noticed any difference in energy, appetite, or overall health while I was taking them, and so many studies have come out about how vitamins aren’t really that effective anyway (but then again, do I really trust the scientists? Bwaahhh!). Maybe if I start working with a health professional who I really trust and respect, and they recommend a certain supplement, I’ll try taking them again.
Thanks again for the series. Stay in good health, ma’am!
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Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food changed my life – you can also check out his condensed version of the book called Food Rules.
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I try to walk the line between being sensible about what I’m eating and obsessing about it, because I know that thinking about these things too much is a trigger for my old eating disorder. It helps that I use a produce delivery service, which makes it almost impossible to not eat locally and organically. Really, trying to keep things local has forced a change in my eating habits more than anything else. And I’m a slow eater, which is my most useful thing for portion size.
I’ve always been really bad about taking supplements and drinking enough water, but my friend started healthmonth.com and I’ve found that making my goals into a game with a community has helped keep me accountable for doing them. (Although I skipped December and January because: holidays.) I definitely noticed a difference when I started slacking off on the supplements, so I’m going to start again next month.
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Awesome post. I have been on a similar path for the last 9 months. I have been reading a lot and checked out food documentaries on Netflix for info. The site that I get the most valuable info though is http://www.drmercola.com.
I also just found this blog and I think it’s going to become one of my new favs: http://www.wordofwisdomliving.com/
Keep up the great work :D.
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Rancho La Puerta in Tecate Mexico. Go there. It changed my life.
Thank you for sharing all of this. We only get this one body!
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In Defense of Food (combined with the documentary Supersize Me) helped make major changes in my diet. Fast food is very rare now, and I’d say I’m eating no-meat meals at least half the time (that’s partly an environmental/sustainability/moral thing, partly a healthy eating thing). Also, far less packaged food (funny how much of the grocery store that eliminates, eh?). And I’ve discovered there are vegetables beyond the carrot (i.e. kale, I love kale!) and grains like quinoa… how did I go so long not knowing about these things?
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I’m pretty obsessed with food, but more in a “it’s my favorite hobby” way than a crazy way. My mom taught me to be healthy – we were hippies and did yoga and ate bulgur wheat. I’ve always struggled with weight, though, partly just because of my metabolism/build and partly because I hate most types of exercise.
Like so many who’ve commented, I’ve been inspired by Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food. It’s really changed my life. However, I realized this Christmas that I’d gotten away from my Pollanish habits and needed to get back on track – hence a re-commitment to sustainable eating. I’ve lost 2.5 pounds already!
Finally, I eat no red meat or pork. Basically — no mammals. I do this mainly for reasons of sustainability, but also because it’s just a part of my life. I’ve been a “flexitarian” for 17 years, half my life, and I don’t even know about meat anymore. I couldn’t order a steak if I tried.
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Heather and I lost around 55 pounds between us last year and have kept it off (we’re starting another round this January) using the Line Diet (iPhone app is BangBang diet), eating a lot more stir fry and Thai, and ruthlessly controlling portion sizes. We got a CSA box, which challenged us to think more creatively about our meal planning (hate to throw out that $vegetable just because you didn’t use to eat it before). I started a situp/crunch program (200 situps, iPhone app) and lost that back pain that had been plaguing me for the last ten years; this year I’m going to do the 100 pushups app, I started it late last year but wrenched something in my left shoulder, so I took some time off to heal.
One of the things that turned us around was a visit from my brother’s Thai friend, who made us Tom Yum Gai, which is what Thais eat when they’re feeling ill (like Americans do with chicken noodle) and after that we always had what we needed to make it in the house. So we kept making it. And branched out into curries. And bought a wok and started stir-frying everything. We still have a pork chop now and then, and still eat out in restaurants more than we should, but we learned how to be full on meals smaller than what we were used to. For so long we just bought a package of chicken breasts and I ate two and H ate one. We learned that we didn’t have to eat that way, froze more food, ate more veggies, and generally felt a lot better.
Not a huge believer in supplements, though I did throw some into the smoothies I was making every weekday morning, nothing fancy just ginko biloba and something to promote liver health. Hard to say it made any difference, frankly. Was more just to be on the safe side.
Also recommend “Food Rules” by Michael Pollan, it’s a concise primer on what counts as food and what does not, which boils down to “eat food, not too much, mostly plants”. Pretty enlightening, especially to a kid whose mom couldn’t really cook and who survived for years on Chunky Soup and Mountain Dew.
Keep it up!
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Maggie, I’ve loved this series! Thank you so much for sharing your journey with us.
I’m a vegetarian and am very aware of food – The Ethics of What we Eat is also a good one. The thing I need to pick up is exercise . . . I’ve worked out hard every day this year so far! Yippee!
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I have found this all really interesting!
(And now I sound like a spam comment.)
But, really, I have. I’ve made a similar journey since early 2010, and now I’m dragging my family (kicking and screaming for the most part) with me this year. But I’ve been able to improve my life in so many ways, and more than anything, I want to teach my three year old boy that he has the power to not end up like ALL of his grandparents, who suffer from Type II diabetes, high-blood pressure, athritis, and all of the other shit that you get when you treat your body that way.
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Read Eating Animals. It sucks, but you have to just do it – it’s the one thing that has made the biggest impact on my decision to eat in a way that will support my body and my health, rather than damage it.
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Thank you for this series – it’s been really great. In Defense of Food is a life-changing book, but I wish it was something I read years ago before I met my husband, when I would have overhauled my life on my own without worrying about what he’d eat. Has your family been a part of this journey in any way?
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Every month, I set aside one week wherein I eat no gluten, no nightshade vegetables, and no dairy foods (I’ll have a splash of milk in my single cup of coffee, but that’s it). Also, several times a year I’ll take a three to four week respite from refined sugar (I’ll eat fruit, but that’s it for sweets). Just a couple of mindful weeks of eating like that will do wonders for my body–I stop getting headaches, my digestion improves, and I have loads more energy. Why don’t I eat like that all the time? Because I love pasta, tomatoes, peppers, cheese, and sweets, and I now know how to eat those things in moderation (rather than polishing off a third of a baguette with a big chunk of Manchego cheese for lunch…or just as a snack). Life without cheese is sad, but life with too much cheese just hurts.
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Maggie-
I have similar joint problems and I am about 10 year older than you. In addition to seeing a naturopath my primary care Doc recently suggested cold laser treatments for my joints. I CHANGED MY LIFE!. I highly recommend you check it out. Here is the info from my doc’s website I am sure you can find it in the Bay Area. http://www.dsfamilypractice.com/laser.php
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I’ve long been interested in how food fuels the body but I can’t point to any particular source of knowledge other than I read articles and studies when the spirit moves me (I keep meaning to read Pollan’s books). I’m very physically active and need to feel good to be so, so I’m careful not to eat much processed food at all. I don’t crave sweets and I’m not so obsessed with any particular food that I have feel like I have to deprive myself of it. (However, when I was younger I loved bananas so much I didn’t eat them very often because I always wanted to eat more than one once I got started.)
I do take supplements, some of which vary depending on the time of month. Critical for me: zinc (for immune system and to keep hormonal acne in check); magnesium (for many things, including eliminating migraine auras, as a muscle relaxant, to help my body absorb calcium, and cutting out sugar cravings) and fish oil. I take my vitamin D straight from the sun. I absolutely believe these have worked for me, especially the magnesium.
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This is a great set of posts. For the last few years I have been reading a lot of books by Dr. Hyman (Ultrametabolism and a recent one on your brain which was great). The gist of the books: you might be seeing 5 doctors for 5 different things which might all come back to the same issue (some imbalance or missing nutrient) and that food is our biggest drug, the best way to heal and stay healthy.
I wish reading those books translated into automatic healthy eating – but it is a process, isn’t it?
I went one step further than you – I did the acupuncturist when I knew no matter what drugs or how many – there are two weeks a year where my allergies are miserable. And she got my body out of it’s panic and able to cope with olive tree pollen (ironic considering olives are my fave food) in 3 sessions. WOOT!
Then, on a whim, I saw the chiro in her office. They also call her an intuitive healer. I had been on antibiotics for 7+ years for acne. And 3 years ago it had stopped working. Having gone through every imaginable topical and internal treatment and being allergic to half the antibiotics out there, I just wanted off.
The short end to this story – she tests for more than you doctor will and found an undiagnosed thyroid issue. Her ranges of normal are smaller, too. So when your doc says you labs are normal – she is not always on the same page.
I am not really going for adjustments. But she has cleansed me of yeast – which was the probably cause of the breakouts, alerted me that I am gluten intolerant (and mal-nourished because of it), gotten me off the antibiotics, and possibly helped me avoid illness down the road.
The tests were not prohibitively expensive. And it gave a fuller view of my health than a regular doctor. I know that my proteins are low and why (which even the lab commented on and my gp ignored). I know I need to avoid gluten for the rest of my life. But I also feel better than I have in a long time.
This uptight eastbay capitalist is becoming a hippie and taking charge of my own health. I knew there was something that modern medicine was missing or ignoring, and I went out to find it.
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The thing that I’ve found the most refreshing and surprising about these posts is your level-headed, slow-going, goal-oriented and non-evangelical outlook. Maybe it didn’t seem that way to you in real time, but it reads like that here.
I’ve been a vegetarian for 16 years, and that gave me a jump start on learning about lots of different foods (to supplement the Cheetos). I’m really grateful for that.
That said, I’ve started to eat fish, and I feel awful about it. The fish and chips I had at St. Patrick’s Day makes me culpable for the collapse of fish populations worldwide. http://tinyurl.com/4jdnusb
I have found Michael Pollan’s straightforward “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” mantra helpful, too.
And finally, I have cut out wheat for a while, and it’s shocking how much more energy I have.
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I think the very best book on the livestock industry and how we should eat (and I’ve read most of them) is “Righteous Porkchop” by Nicolette Hahn Niman (she’s Bill Niman of Niman Ranch’s wife, and she’s not only a vegetarian but an incredibly intelligent woman and a wonderful writer). Forget Safran-Foer and Eric Schlosser, and even Pollan (although I love him too); this is the book for anyone who cares about producing and eating meat in a responsible way.
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You probably should have mentioned it’s very easy for you to eat this way if you live in a place like SF and you have the money to spend on healthy food and supplements.
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http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mindless-Eating-Brian-Wansink/dp/184850117X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1294875605&sr=8-3 Amazing book for changing the way you think about dieting and losing weight, and with full scientific proof too. Definitely life changing for me – I’ve changed the shape of the glasses I buy and the location of chocolate biscuits in my cupboard. Well worth a read.
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Gluten wrecks me. I fall asleep about fifteen minutes after having any. It feels like I’ve been sand-bagged.
I started reading about nutrition ten years ago and I’ve discovered that I get eczema from potatoes, eggplant, tomatoes, and green peppers. I also avoid fermented things and mold, so no malt, vinegar, or mushrooms.
I gave up white sugar for a while but it’s too hard when I am very good about the no gluten, half the vegetables eaten in America, and oh, yes, I’m lactose intolerant.
It’s a total beotch but I’ve managed to stick to the diet pretty well, off and on for about four years.
Where it really got insane was when I developed congestive heart failure, which requires you to (if you want to live longer) reduce your sodium intake to a half teaspoon or less a day. That’s total sodium, 24 hours, and many foods have sodium in them already, so it’s not like you have a half teaspoon to sprinkle with.
You would be shocked to know how much sodium is in your bread (even gf), soy milk, salad dressing, all packaged foods, etc..
There are a few Amy’s Low Sodium entrees I can eat and that is it for the packaged goods.
I eat a lot of rice. I am using http://www.heartofcooking.com to plan my meals and it’s awesome.
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Thank you for sharing your journey! Recently (maybe 1.5 years ago?) I started eating paleo/primal–veggies, meats, eggs, fruit, some nuts. All the meat I eat is humanely raised (my grocery bills are INSANE), eggs are pastured, and when I have dairy it’s grass-fed, sometimes raw. I think that eating meat can be a sustainable diet-IF you don’t eat CAFO meat, IF you buy from local farmers with good practices. I’ve not read “In Defense of Food,” but in “Omnivore’s Dilemma” Pollan explores vegetarianism and comes to a conclusion I support that there can be sustainable carnivory.
Anyway. The paleo diet has done wonders for me. I do not crave carbs/sugar any. more. (And I will eat birthday cake and pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving and so forth, I’m not a zealot!) I dumped the residual post-partum tummy in about nine seconds. I am not hungry/crashing at 4pm. My thyroid condition is improved. Check out Gary Taubes “Why We Get Fat” for a great analysis of the errors of a high-carb, low-fat nutritional approach…
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Yes, Michael Pollan, all of his books. But also Mark Bittman: http://markbittman.com/. He endorses “less-meat-arianism” and blows the whistle on the “standard American diet.” (His recipes that he publishes through the Minimalist podcast have changed how we eat for good!)
Supplements: I’ve been taking Vitamin D as soon as the sun went away last October in Seattle, and haven’t had a cold or been sick since — although my husband has tried to share one with me at least twice. (Knocking on wood!)
Thanks for this series — very informative and fun to read!
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Thank you for the link to the great Dr. Oz list of supplements. I totally believe in supplements but didn’t really have a great comprehensive list of what I should be taking!
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I am saying this because I care about you and your interest in things like turkey sandwiches: DO NOT READ EATING ANIMALS. I read a *review* of it that made me want to cry and go back to being a vegetarian. Even if *you* stop eating animals, this book is going to make you very, very, sad that *anyone* is eating animals that are processed in the way it describes. Which in a way is good, bringing awareness to the horrors of the meat industry. Except that there isn’t a way to stop these practices the moment you find out about them, so you will lie awake at night wanting a steak and hurting for the cows who are being processed into steak all at the same time.
In the end this book is just going to hurt your feelings.
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It has been a long haul, but thank you so much for putting it out there.
I want, desperately, to get my health on track but am wary of Doctors (you said that your family has problems being diagnosed, and it just hit the nail on the head. It’s amazing how sick a person can get of hearing, “nothing’s wrong!”). On top of that, I lack health insurance currently so until then, I’ll do what I can.
In the end, though, thank you so much for sharing it all.
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A few years ago my doctor had told me while I wasn’t over weight exactly it would be wise to loss some weight before I hit the big 5-0 since it is harder to lose once you hit middle age.
Around that time we saw a TV show on TCL (I think) I have no memory of his name or the name of the show but his weight lose premise really stuck with me and made sense.
Basically it’s this
1. Eat when you’re hungry (not STARVING)
2. Eat what you want
3. Stop when you’re full
4. Get some sort of exersise 15 minutes a day
Of course the tricky bit is the “stop when you’re full.” Basically I began to eat very slowly (new for me) and after a few bites would stop and ask myself “are you full?” If I wasn’t sure I would stop anyway–telling myself if I was hungry 5 minutes from now I could eat again.
This taught me a couple of things: to pay attention to when I was hungry (not just what time it was) and to notice when I was full and to STOP eating. You would also think the “eat what you want” might be a problem…what if what I wanted was chocolate and fried chicken? Funny about that once I had permission to actually eat anything I wanted I found that there are only so many meals of chocolate and fried chicken I wanted. It also funnily enough meant I became more interested in the food I was eating.
This also meant that I ended up eating way less desserts (my Achilles heel) because I was already full by the time dessert showed up.
The exersise was also easy enough because we lived close enough for me to walk to work.
It did take about 8 months but I did lose 30 pounds.
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I also recommend In Defense of Food and also Pollan’s new book Food Rules which has a bunch of those common sense rules about food that you were mentioning.
Also every once in awhile I do like to “kickstart” with a little cleanse/detox and one that I really like that doesn’t feel too limiting or extreme is the Fast Track Detox Diet. Seven days of “prep” diet to prepare your body, one day of fasting with the special juice to detox, and then three days to slowly introduce foods back into your diet. Only ten days and done every year or so and it really does make my body feel flushed out.
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awesome series maggie! thanks for all the info.
I was also of the vitamins creep me out group until I fessed up to my doctor about being equally scared of the flu vaccine and she recommended some food based vitamins which have kept me cold and flu free for 2 years. woot! Next she advised me to cut out all caffeine to combat my migranes. also worked. On my own we’ve cut out all packaged food. I agree pasta was the hardest but I found a super simple homemade pasta recipe which ultimately tastes miles better than anything store bought.
Thanks again for all the inspiration!
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Like you, we don’t buy anything with high fructose corn syrup or trans fat. In addition, we don’t buy any product with palm oil (really bad for your health and bad for the environment, see:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/11/borneo/klum-photography )
Our family has also been eating a lot less meat meat – more legumes and beans for protein.
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Excellent health series! I have just finished a two week vegan/no alcohol diet as a detox/reset button for my body. I too am working harder to treat my body better. I am lucky to be able to afford the time and food it takes to lead this life, and I try not to forget my good fortune.
As a health care professional, I do have to point out that while glucosamine is beneficial in the maintenance of healthy cartilage, it does not help to grow cartilage. Just a small discrepancy, but wanted to make sure that people are well informed. Additionally, glucosamine is NO WHERE near vegetarian/vegan friendly. Most bottles indicate that there are animal products in the glucosamine, but some do not. Just an FYI.
Keep up the excellent mentorship and inspiration!!
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Thanks for sharing your health journey. I am also deathly afraid of the dentist and once I have the baby I’m carrying now I will keep your words “you don’t need to feel anything” in my head and just bite the bullet. So to speak. As for eating healthily, at times I try, I know more than I let on and I find it so hard as I’m very lazy when it comes to preparing food and will go for quickness and convenience most times… I really love the Dr Andrew Weil books as he combines his medical training with a more holistic view. I’m pretty skeptical when it comes to “alternative” as I don’t want advice at the expense of science. So I appreciate his balance as I also don’t fully trust the band-aid approach of western medicine. I try and buy healthy organic versions of the foods we eat a lot of (milk, eggs, meat, rice, bread). Also I had just seen a recommendation for Tracy Anderson’s post baby dvd and then you mentioned it – I’m hoping this will be a good way to get back into shape after the baby comes. I used a workout dvd after my first baby which was a very easy way to get regular exercise in to my week with a baby in the mix. Enjoying this series.
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I forgot to mention that I’m glad someone besides me does the ‘standard meal’ thing. I eat Fage 2% Greek yogurt with homemade granold every day. I add fresh or dried berries, as well.
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Last year, I made what I hope were not temporary changes in how I ate. I was running every other day and doing yoga, breakfasting on smoothies that came to include spinach and hemp protein and flax, and eating so, so well for months. I set up a system to make it easy, too–smoothies for breakfast, homemade bean and bacon soup for lunch, then something for dinner that wouldn’t irritate my stomach. (I’d had a stomach bug and just wanted my stomach to NOT HURT ever again.)
I looked and felt better than I have in years. I have no idea how much weight I lost, but nothing fit and people gaped, so… It didn’t really matter, though. I just felt freakieng awesome.
Late in the summer, I slipped into the old comfort foods when work and school got stressful and I got sick, and I’m back to feeling about how I felt when I changed everything. I know exactly how to feel better again, so now it’s just on me to do it.
Most of what I know about food and nutrition I learned from the interwebs, experimenting, and books already mentioned here. My parents did well enough–I can’t eat dinner without a vegetable–but I was in my 20s before I ate fish that wasn’t breaded, frozen, heated, and dipped in something.
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Thanks for sharing your journey, not only has it been interesting but also inspirational – and useful! My nutrition knowledge has come mostly from my mom, who has gotten a lot of things right (eat whole foods, local/organic when possible, avoid processed and junk foods, avoid caffeine, exercise regularly) and has gotten some things wrong (portion size, too much protein, an occasional fad-ish diet like the blood type one.) It gave me a good start, and a healthy attitude about food in general, but with some misinformation. As a result I’m healthy but overweight, and for years I didn’t really didn’t know what to do – I was eating healthfully, what was the problem?
I’ve started exercising, which makes a huge difference. Without any substantial diet change I’ve lost about 15 lb in 6 months, slow but steady. That’s encouraging, but then I started thinking more about food, and about food culture, and about how much emphasis there is on meats and proteins and whatnot. And I started thinking back to our forefathers, who would not have had the abundance of choices that we have today. They would have eaten a lot more staples (dried grains, beans, preserved vegetables, etc) and a small amount of meat to supplement that. That makes a lot more sense to me.
Coincidentally, I heard a piece on NPR (I think?) with the author of The China Study, a book about nutrition based on extensive, well-conducted, well-cited research. His argument is that the research supports a plant-based diet as a way to improve health. He started out in animal nutrition and food science, and is not out to promote vegetarianism on any kind of ethical or economic grounds. His argument is purely health and nutrition based, and it’s very convincing. I don’t expect to go 100% vegetarian, but I am thinking more about how I can reduce the amount of animal products in my family’s diets, and save such things as occasional fare rather than a regular feature. It’s pretty readable, if you’re interested.
That said, I’m not a fan of supplements. Since they’re totally unregulated, I’m a little skeptical of what’s in them, and I’m not convinced that taking a pill can replace eating the real thing. I do take a multivitamin, but that’s about it.
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Food, Inc and In Defense of Food were game changers for us. We immediately switched to an organic diet and pantry. Packaged/processed foods are less than 1% of our house now.
I found Perricone’s book/diet fairly compelling for awhile. It’s very mediterranean in nature, but the information about IN WHAT ORDER to eat certain things was interesting. His contention is many ailments stem from inflammation – and he’s not entirely wrong. The diet was easy to follow and tasty — though I shied way from his expensive skin care line.
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Are we checking this off your list? Will there be a party? What will it entail? Will we all put down our laptops and do a Tracy Anderson dance routine while we take our supplements? I’m very excited and I think I speak for all of us when I say the internet needs details immediately.
Also, I think you convinced one of my editors to do acupuncture. Or I did, hard to say. Regardless, I think you’ve done good.
But really, here is what I do about the meat thing: I only eat free-range meet from farms I trust. It’s more expensive, but ethically I feel a lot better about it. Turns out I don’t have a problem with eating chickens that lived a happy chicken-y life, but I really do have a problem with eating factory farmed anything. That feels a little like mainlining misery into my body, and while that’s not a scientific description, science seems to back up the fact the free-range animals are way better for us. So it’s more expensive, and I eat less meat. And that’s probably ok too.
But really, I’m waiting for details on the check-off party. Perhaps we will all do synchronized swimming? Excellent. I’ll wear a costume swimsuit.
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Have you watched Food Matters? My brother sent me a link (it’s on Netflix) when he saw my post on supplements.
I’ve just started supplementing again (I take Rainbow Light’s Complete because they give a kick of energy. I need energy.)
I’m considering upping my D3 consumption. I miss the sun.
I also take Biotin supplements when I want to grow my hair. They totally work.
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Glucosamine chondroitin is amazing. I mangled my right leg skiing when I was 31 and almost 30 years later, I was hobbling with arthritis in my right knee. Only one dose a day and I can garden on my knees again. I just got back from cross-country skiing tonight after playing with a one-year-old all day. I figure I can up the dose to the recommended 3 a day if needed. It doesn’t seem to work for everyone, but if you have joint problems, you need to see if it will work for you.
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I take a multi-vitamin and glucosamine; I should probably add calcium just because. And I know enough neurologists who take fish oil to do the same…..as for food rules, I’m the kid of granola parents, so my nutritional knowledge comes from the folks, supplemented by Michael Pollan’s works, especially In Defense of Food. I eat half portions of what I want and always eat 5-7 servings of veggies/fruits every day. Finally, I cook. So there is very little packaged food in our world.
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