10 Rules for Healthier Eating

As I approach half a century old, I have been getting a lot of advice about how to eat healthy. Some of it is surprising, while a lot of it is common sense. I actually follow most of the rules set out below.

1. Soy is poison. I used to think that because liberals ate tofu and it was vegetarian that soy products must be healthy. After all, who would eat tofu if it wasn't good for you? It turns out that soy products cause the body to produce estrogen. It should be obvious that estrogen is not good for guys, but too much is not good for women either. You can read more about it in this article in Men's Health.

2. Refined Grains are bad. One of the first lessons my trainer taught me was to avoid refined grains. Refined grains are all around. They include white bread, white rice, most pasta and many cookies, cakes, breakfast cereals and crackers. The problem with refined grains is that the refining process eliminates the fiber and nutrients leaving starchy carbohydrates. Starchy carbohydrates are quickly processed into sugars causing blood sugar to spike and then crash. You can read about it here.

According to my trainer, starchy carbs have another more insidious effect. Going back to our hunter-gatherer days, consuming carbohydrates tells the body that food is scarce and that it should store fat, while eating protein tells the body that food is abundant and that it should burn fat. I haven't found documentation for this, but if it is true, it is a powerful reason to avoid refined grains.

Since I started avoiding refined grains, I have avoided the problem of getting sleepy immediately after lunch. It used to be very embarrassing for me to be sitting in court waiting for my case to be called and be dozing off. It just doesn't look very professional.

Related to avoiding refined grains is gluten. I didn't know what gluten was until a girl on the soccer team I coach indicated that she had coeliac disease and could not eat gluten.

Gluten (from Latin gluten "glue") is a protein composite that appears in foods processed from wheat and related species,including barley and rye. It gives elasticity to dough, helping it to rise and to keep its shape, and often giving the final product a chewy texture.

My wellness doctor has recommended avoiding foods containing gluten. There is a substantial overlap between refined grains and gluten. You can read more about a diet which excludes refined grains and gluten here.

Generally, brown rice, quinoa, oats, buckwheat, millet and sorghum are good, while barley, wheat and rye are not.

I have also been advised that sprouted grains are healthier for the body. One source of sprouted grains is Ezekiel bread. You can read more about it here.

3. Sodas and sweeteners are bad. I used to drink about ten diet cokes a day. I thought I was being healthy. It turns out that the healthiest thing is to drink an occasional Mexican Coke. Here's why. Regular soda contains little nutritional value and is high in calories leading to obesity. Most regular soda contains high fructose corn syrup as a sweetener. High fructose corn syrup has been found to have bad health consequences. You can read about it here. However, diet soda has been found to be bad for you as well as shown here. According to my trainer, the chemicals in artificial sweeteners used in diet soda are toxic. I have largely cut sodas out of my diet entirely. I will drink maybe one regular soda a month now. If I wanted to do even better, I would limit my soda intake to Mexican Coke, which is made with real sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup.

4. Green vegetables, beans and sweet potatoes are good; potatoes are bad. Green vegetables, beans and sweet potatoes are high in nutrients and relatively low on the glycemic index. However, potatoes are high on the glycemic index. That means that they turn to sugar in your body and cause you to gain weight. The glycemic index is generally a good guide to what to eat and what not to eat. Two different lists of glycemic indexes can be found here and here. On the glycemic index, 70 is high and 55 or less is low. Sucrose has a glycemic index of 65, while boiled potatoes have an index of 78. That means that potatoes have more sugar than sugar itself. Curiously, sweet potatoes are relatively high at 63. However, they are touted as a top ten food based on their cartenoids, which you can read about here.

5. Water is good. This year my doctor had me go through a two week cleanse. One part of it involved drinking ½ ounce of water for every pound weighed. For me, that meant drinking a gallon of water a day. I am still trying to do that and keep a one quart glass handy at home and at work. What I have found is that when I don’t drink enough water, my weight goes up. Here is an explanation why.

6. If you must drink, red wine and clear liquors are good, while beer and colored liquors are bad. I got this advice from my trainer. When I went to do the research to back this up, I kept running into articles that said alcohol is bad for you and got depressed. However, it does seem that red wine and clear liquors are less bad for you. The sugar in beer makes it more fattening. Clear liquors have the fewest calories. Red wine consumed in moderation is supposed to have some health benefits. Also, I think that beer and colored liquors have the same health problems as refined grains, but I can't find documentation on that. Finally, the color in colored liquors comes from impurities which make it more likely for you to get a hangover.

7. Coconut products are good. This is another tip that I got from my trainer. Apparently coconut is a wonder food with many health benefits.

Coconut is highly nutritious and rich in fiber, vitamins, and minerals. It is classified as a "functional food" because it provides many health benefits beyond its nutritional content. Coconut oil is of special interest because it possesses healing properties far beyond that of any other dietary oil and is extensively used in traditional medicine among Asian and Pacific populations. Pacific Islanders consider coconut oil to be the cure for all illness. The coconut palm is so highly valued by them as both a source of food and medicine that it is called "The Tree of Life." Only recently has modern medical science unlocked the secrets to coconut's amazing healing powers.

You can read more about it here. One thing that I have done is to substitute coconut oil for olive oil in cooking. Coconut oil has a higher burning point than olive oil, which makes it easier to use in addition to its health benefits.

8. Eggs are good. Health experts used to warn people away from eggs because of cholesterol. However, the thinking now seems to be that the health benefits from eggs outweigh the detriments. You can read about them here.

9. Blueberries are good. This is a health tip that I need to go back to. Blueberries, like coconuts, are a wonder food, rich in antioxidants and useful in reducing belly fat. You can read about them here.

10. Grass-fed meats are good. This year my daughter Stephanie read The Omnivore's Dilemma in school. She came home and told me that we should be eating grass-fed meat. I had heard the same thing from my trainer. Meat that has been fed beef instead of grain tends to have more vitamins according to this study. Cattle do not feed on grain in the wild. As a result, fattening them up on grain results in a fatter, less healthy product. Additionally, feedlot beef tends to be treated with antibiotics and hormones and other chemicals that are bad for you. You can read more here.

BONUS:

11. You don't have to buy expensive stuff from Whole Foods to eat healthy. Austin-based Whole Foods is supposedly the gold standard for organic and otherwise healthy foods. Unfortunately, they charge a premium for health. It is hard to walk out of Whole Foods without spending at least $100. Recently I have found that Sprouts and Sun Harvest carry many of the same foods but without the high price tag.

After I go running today, I am going to run over to Sun Harvest and pick up some grass-fed beef, green vegetables and blueberries.