Chapter 1 -- POWER OF 70%
Never eat more than you can lift.
Miss Piggy
Experts now agree that getting only 70% of your calories from your food stuffs and fluids is most helpful. I am joking. Of course, 100% of our calories, no matter how many we receive, will always come from our food. But experts can preach such double talk as to make my ‘70% of your calories from food’ statement sound reasonable – at first.
The recommendations for good eating habits in this book may not be as simple as the above ‘never eat more than you can lift’ quotation, nor as ‘piggy.’ However, simplicity is the goal -- and the final answer will be 70%.
Currently, there is a morass of ‘healthy eating’ books available (although most are for weight loss). Bookstores have whole sections devoted to literature of the genre. Most have some good advice and many are based on solid theories. Others are ill advised and even dangerous. But why are there SO many? There need not be. With only slight compromise, they could be consolidated to one general rule -- 70%.
For those seeking to lose weight, there are certainly extra efforts to be made and plans to follow. Not all have to do with food choices. But healthy eating IS healthy eating. This book is not about ‘dieting’ per se, but instead about nutritional decisions and good diet composition in general. Years of misleading and fraudulent information, have inspired many ‘not-so-common-sensible’ diets.
Common sense is the best distributed thing in the world,
for everyone thinks he is so well-endowed with it that
even those who are hardest to satisfy in all other matters
are not in the habit of desiring more of it than they already have.
Rene Descartes
(Discourse on Method)
Not-so-Common Sense Eating
Alas, most people do think they eat a balanced diet. Also, because food choices have strong emotional ties for us, we would rather rationalize our menus than change them. We are accustomed to what we know and what we have ‘always eaten.’ After all, it is hard to imagine that our mothers fed us less than the best of foods or that we have raised our children on less than nutritious diets. The thought of changing our eating habits can make us sick to our stomachs sooner than rotten food might. The smells, sights and even sounds of cooking done during our childhood create a POWERful stirring within us. How can anything that feels so wholesome (or home-some) not be good for us? These obstacles are monumental!
The bright side is that when you become aware of the strength of the “memories” it is easier to see them as just that -- memories. You can then appreciate the reminiscence while adjusting to healthier choices. Moderation helps. Knowing you do not have to totally give up any one thing keeps the craving monster in the cave.
Now, heaven protect us from all the detail-oriented nutritionists out there, but I plan to condense the information of all the healthy diet books down to one generalized key -- 70 %.
If you can remember ‘70%’, you have your food mantra for the rest of your life! ‘70% ooohmm,’ . . . ‘70% oohmm,’ . . . ‘70% ooohmm’ . . . Yes, I know, you get the idea. What then is the 70%? ...
[end of preview excerpt]
