Eating: Food

What does it mean to "Eat Right?" There is so much conflicting advice. Whole grains are good but carbs are bad. Alchohol provides empty calories, and a lowered risk of heart disease. Traditional advice tells us not to snack between meals, but my own mother suggests that grazing throughout the day is actually healthier. Even the food pyramid is confusing, with it's 18-26 servings per day.

The best, simplest and most convincing guidelines I've ever heard for how to eat come from Michael Pollen.

Eat Food.
Not Too Much.
Mostly Plants.

This is the framework I'm going to use for building my own "Eat Right" routine.

Today I'm just going to write about the first step: Eat Food.

At first this seems obvious. I mean, we have to eat, right? But I think the most important part of this advice is it's implied corollary: Don't Eat Anything That Isn't Food.

Just thinking about this reminds me of a story my friend Rose told me once, of going into a giant new grocery store. Everything was brand new and shiny. The ceilings soared overhead, the bright lights made metal shelves gleam. Aisle upon aisle stretched out amazingly on either side of her, each on filled with meat, dairy, fruit, vegetable and grain products. And then, arching over one small aisle at the very back she found a pretty sign that boasted, "Nutritional Foods."

"If these foods were nutritional," she asked me, "what were all the others?"

There are a lot of things on a standard grocery shelf that I don't really consider to be food. Most belong to the family of white powders: Sugar, Salt, Flour.

Of course, not all sugars are bad. The sugar in apples is good. The sugar in carrots is great.
And not all flours are bad. The results of simply milling whole wheat, rye or spelt are probably fine. It's the high levels of processing that transform these ingredients of food origin into something our bodies don't really recognize as nutrients.

With grains, as I understand it, extreme processing means removing the germ, which is the part with all the nutrients, and preserving only the starch, which is the part with all the calories. The way they make factory sugar is similar. They remove everything but the calories. They even remove the color, using bleach in many cases. Bleach! That is definitely not a food.

And salt of course, is not really a food in any form. But I do think it's okay in small amounts. The problem of course, shows up when we are eating processed foods where salt is a major ingredient, instead of a light seasoning.

I think it makes sense, when choosing to "Eat Food," to steer away from the white powders, and anything else that is highly processed in a manner which robs it of it's naturally occurring nutrients. White rice might not be a powder, but I'm not going to eat it either.

And then there's the tricky question of alcohol. I'm not much for beer or mixed drinks, but I do love a glass of wine with supper...or lunch...or just by itself. And, there is a growing body of scientific proof that regularly drinking a moderate amount can bring significant health benefits. The benefits, in many cases, have been shown to be as dramatic as the benefits of exercising three times a week. (Of course this is true only in studies designed to measure risk of stroke and heart disease. It does not come up in studies designed to measure weight loss or muscle gain.)

None of these studies have determined, or even suggested, the reason behind drinker's health gains. Scientists investigating the "French Paradox" have identified particular components...I think they're called flavenols?...that might be influential. But these are found only in wine, and the health improving effects have been shown to occur equally for beer or vodka drinkers. So, that doesn't really explain it.

I have my own theory. I think the problems that alcohol affects...heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure...are strongly related to stress. I think a person who drinks in the evenings, spend a few more hours feeling relaxed than a typical teetotaler does. I believe these few hours of relaxation provide enough of a recess from our modern state of chronic stress to have an impact. This explains while similar studies measuring sleep have shown similar benefits for patients who sleep an extra hour or so each night. We are less stressed when we are sleeping.

So, based on the idea that empty calories, like those in white sugar, white flour and alcohol, are bad, I'm not going to include wine in my plan for eating right. And since I'm exercising daily, doing yoga and getting enough sleep, I'm going to assume I'm getting enough stress relief.

And when this study is over, and I've learned something about how to be healthy and happy, I'm going to have a big glass of red wine to celebrate. And maybe some cake.