McMinnville Seventh-day Adventist Church

N is for Nutrition

Winter, with all its imposing viruses waiting in ambush becomes a perfect time to consider our nutritional habits. We eat backwards—we do! Even those of us who claim a healthier vegetarian diet still injure our health with backward eating. It’s an American tradition! Proteins and carbohydrates have become our entrees, with vegetables and fruits as side dishes. That is, if we even eat vegetables and fruits. We are just too busy, and too hungry, to eat as originally planned by our Maker.

Our cultural “backward” diet is the number one contributor to obesity, heart disease, adult onset diabetes, cancer, constipation, and other unpleasant and deadly conditions. This isn’t just my opinion. The Oregonian recently touted the effects of our backward American eating plan. In a seminar entitled Fighting Fat After Thirty, I learned that a plant based diet is beginning to be recognized in the medical world as the healthiest, even for children. And the new movie, Forks Over Knives, isn’t shy about the plant-based claim, either. The human “Owner’s Manual” supports the theory when Daniel was directed away from the king’s delicacies to “pulse” (fruits and vegetables) and then blessed with ten times the wisdom for honoring his Maker’s recommendation. I am not saying you have to get rid of all your meat, but it is clear that we aren’t designed to consume protein and carbs as our entrees. However, it isn’t natural to compensate by eating high priced, specially altered foods that advertise lower carbs, either. The answer to most of the above health conditions, including obesity, is not complicated. We simply need to reverse our eating patterns—eat lots of fruits and vegetables, and then finish off the meal with a taste of protein and carbohydrates.*

In quantity, our bodies require significantly more fruits and vegetables than grains, breads, pastas, and proteins combined, and whole grains should outweigh refined. You can eat most all the simple fruits and vegetables you want at one sitting without putting on weight or damaging your organs—as long as you stick to the recommended lesser quantity of grains and protein. It’s also important to remember that missing just one component of a balanced meal will deceive your body into believing it’s in nutritionally lean times causing it to store more of that meal as fat—often the reason many can’t lose weight when they eat practically nothing. If you choose to be vegetarian, the same concepts apply but add consistent small amounts of nuts and legumes (beans). Conquering the science of poor health and obesity is really quite simple. It’s the practical application that’s difficult.

Some studies suggest that the stomach will produce cancer-fighting agencies, but only when empty. Resting your stomach between meals is also beneficial as a general rule. But if you are dieting and hunger gets the best of you, one small non-carbohydrate snack midway between meals may help you avoid overindulgence at your next meal. Keep in mind that the chocolate covered dieter’s snack bars may be low in calories and taste great, but let’s get real . . . they are almost all refined, full of sugar and carbs, and they replace the natural “pulse” from which we should be getting our calories and nutrition. Instead, try some fruit, vegetable sticks, or one piece of string cheese.

Check out www.mypyramid.gov/mypyramid/index.aspx. It’s both fun and informative. Enter the information they ask, putting your desired weight in the weight blank. My Pyramid will calculate how much of each food group you need daily to maintain that weight. Now divide your allotted amount from each food group into three meals, again being sure that you have at least one item from each category in each meal.** Should you desire to lose weight a little faster, drop just one grain and one protein from your daily ration.

It’s helpful to understand how much a serving consists of in each food group. We can make it difficult by trying to combine nutritional facts like carbohydrates versus protein, etc., or we can just keep it simple:

• one grain is equal to about one normal slice of bread – about that same quantity of rice or cereal,

• one protein is generally one ounce (about one inch square piece) whether cheese or other protein,

• one vegetable is ½ cup cooked and 1 cup raw,

• one fruit is about one whole piece (excepting, of course, large fruits such as melon),

• one fat is about 1 tsp of margarine, mayo, or two tablespoons of cream cheese or peanut butter, and

• one dairy serving is a cup of milk or non-fat yogurt.

These aren’t exact measures, but it’s a simple and fairly accurate way to estimate.

Dieter’s tip: avoid gravies and sauces, food combinations like lasagna and scalloped potatoes, and juices, all of which put more calories in our daily diet than we imagine.

Again, drastic changes set us up for failure. This month we may want to consider eating the same basic foods but eating them in a “forward” manner, having fun with My Pyramid.com, and drinking our water—all the best practices for good health.

Our topic next month: “E” is for Exercise. We will up the ante on activity, so keep walking - your muscles will appreciate the warning.

* If your physician has put you on a special diet, be sure to consult him or her before implementing modifications.

** Some people may need to eat fruits and veggies at different meals to avoid indigestion