“I love the Go Green Get Lean Diet! Kate’s plan has it all; it’s super easy, it’s tasty, it’s fresh, it’s easy to follow, and best of all … it works. And I love that it can work wonders for the planet, too.”
—Summer Sanders, Olympic gold medalist, TV personality, and mom of two
6 ounces protein per day
Beans, legumes, and tofu: at least 1 cup per day (½ cup = 1 ounce protein)
Nuts, all-natural nut butters, and seeds: 1 to 2 ounces per day
Lentils—canned or dried (e.g., red, green, French)
Split peas and black-eyed peas—canned or dried
Beans—canned or dried (e.g., black, garbanzo, cannellini, navy, kidney, pinto, flageolet, lima, fava, soy or edamame, fat-free refried)
Tofu (calcium fortified) and tempeh
Greenest: Minimal packaging (i.e., dried or in bulk) and organic
All nuts, especially walnuts, almonds, pistachios, peanuts, cashews, pecans, and soy nuts. Enjoy them raw, naked, or roasted. (Minimally salted is okay if you don’t have elevated blood pressure.)
All-natural nut butters: 2 level tablespoons is slightly more than 1 ounce (enjoy peanut, cashew, almond, and hazelnut)
Pumpkin, sunflower, and flax seeds
Greenest: Minimal packaging, more local to you, sustainably harvested, fair trade, Rainforest Alliance Approved or organic
Highly processed soy or bean products (e.g., frozen veggie burgers, soy “nuggets,” soy cheese), because they are energy intense to produce Nuts coated in sugary, flavored, or salty crusts (can boost calories and sodium) Highly packaged nuts (e.g., single serving)
Nuts not harvested sustainably. Nuts grown outside of the United States that don’t have a Fair Trade, Organic, or Sustainably Harvested label.
The UN has spoken: Eating less meat may be one of the most effective ways to fight global warming.
How great, because going vegetarian (or at least flexitarian) is also one of the most effective ways to fight fat, heart disease, high blood pressure, and certain cancers. Remember, you don’t have to swear off meat or your faves forever (besides, who really can or wants to do that?), but you can eat them less often, and in more responsible portions. That’s the secret to not only getting the body you want, but also to immediately start taking a bite out of your carbon footprint. But if you’ve read this far, of course you already know all that. So I’ll just briefly explain why beans and legumes kick butt. And help make your butt look great, too.
Legumes qualify as a lean and green superfood on many levels. In fact, beans are part of the “beautylicious” diet I give clients (along with those omega-3 fats) because their high fiber helps keep you regular and fights the belly bloat that comes with constipation. Plus, beans fill you up on fewer calories. So my advice is relatively simple—let beans be your no-brainer and enjoy at least 1 cup a day.
Let’s start with the research, which is clear. Vegetarians and vegans are the leanest people around the globe. While obesity rates are skyrocketing in the general population (two out of three Americans are overweight; one in three is obese), the obesity rate among vegetarians is much lower, ranging from 0 to 6 percent. To boot, vegetarians boast an average body weight 3 to 20 percent lower than that of meat eaters.1 In fact, I had a client several years ago who dropped more than 150 pounds by switching from plates of chicken wings to plates of salad. He knew he liked VOLUME—he made that quite clear to me during his first visit—and was leery of me taking that volume away. So the trick was to give him volume while still managing calories. Produce was the secret. And it can be for you, too.
One particular research effort, the Oxford Vegetarian Study, compared 6,000 vegetarians to 5,000 nonvegetarians and found the vegetarians enjoyed healthier hearts as well as reduced risk of diabetes and a 28 percent lower death rate than the meat eaters. This study also found that the meat-eating men were twice as likely to be overweight and the meat-eating women 1.5 times as likely to be overweight than the vegetarians.2
Beans are also beneficial because they have a low glycemic index, which means they help keep your blood sugar stable longer. Why does that matter? When your blood sugar dips, it can trigger a hunger response. Eating more foods with a low glycemic index (and fewer with a higher glycemic index) can help keep your body’s blood sugar/insulin response more stable. Not only is this better for your pancreas (which has to pump out a lot of extra insulin every time you toss back a food or drink with a high-glycemic load), but it’s better for your backside, too. When you’re trying to slim down, who needs to be at the mercy of a surprise hunger attack?
| BEAN TYPE | CALORIES (1 CUP COOKED) | PROTEIN (GRAMS) | FIBER (GRAMS) | FOLATE (MICROGRAMS)* | GLYCEMIC INDEX |
| Chickpeas, canned |
269 | 15 | 8 | 282 | 42 |
| Kidney, canned |
225 | 15 | 13 | 229 | 52 |
| Lentils, dry |
231 | 18 | 10 | 358 | 25 |
| Pinto beans, canned |
235 | 11 | 11 | 294 | 39 |
*The US RDA for adults for folate is 400 micrograms per day
(more if you are pregnant or lactating).
What’s more, 1 cup of beans helps you meet a good chunk of both your fiber and your folate needs for the day. That’s great news for women thinking of getting pregnant or anyone who’s struggled with constipation or is trying to keep their homocysteine levels in check. Homocysteine is an amino acid associated with inflammation (high levels are associated with an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, and peripheral vascular disease). Folate is one of the key nutrients that helps convert homocysteine into (benign) methionine.
Looking for some easy ways to get lean with beans? Even if you’re not a cook, beans are simple to include in your menu. Consider the following:
Nosh on hummus. for a hummus recipe that offers a high-protein, low-calorie snack that’s perfect with warmed whole wheat pitas or veggies.
Head south of the border for breakfast. Serve one scrambled egg with ½ cup black beans, a few tablespoons of salsa, and ⅛ of an avocado for a satisfying breakfast in 2 minutes flat.
Savor soup more often. Make your own concoction by adding some pureed beans or lentils to your favorite soup; it will give it a creamy texture and rich taste without the fat.
Supplement your sides. Mix lentils or chickpeas into side dishes such as rice or couscous to provide a hefty dose of protein and fiber.
Because there is no fiber in animal foods, as you begin to shift to a plant-based diet, you may find that your GI tract needs a few days to adjust. If so, that’s perfectly normal; you can gradually increase your intake of beans and legumes each day until you meet your Prescription goals. Most people find that when they’re eating the right amount of plant food, they’re able to toss out their fiber powders and potions.
The new green cuisine is rich in legumes for a reason; plant protein requires about 1⁄10 the fossil fuel to produce, emitting about 1⁄10 the carbon into the atmosphere.3 In fact, they’re so inherently green, here’s my advice: When shopping, don’t worry about finding the absolute greenest beans and legumes available. Focus your efforts where you’ll reap much bigger carbon and calorie savings—in eating at a friendlier spot on the food chain, and fewer processed foods.
As you saw in Chapter 4, plant proteins are a much cheaper (and greener) source of protein when compared to meat, so whatever kind you choose is good. Soy, for example, is about 200 times more energy efficient to produce than beef. In fact, if just 20 percent of households in the United States and Canada swapped 4 ounces of soy for 4 ounces of beef each week, the water savings over a year would be enough to provide 10 gallons of drinking water to every single person in the world.4
So consider beans a no-brainer and move on. Spend your time and energy focusing on other areas of your diet where organic choices can have a bigger impact. Some other pluses of beans? They have a super-long storage life, whether canned or dried, so they’re easy to always have on hand. Their meaty texture can be as hearty as beef, whether in soups, stews, burritos, or chili.
The single largest barrier to eating beans that I have seen in 10 years of working with companies and clients is this: Most Americans just don’t really know what to do with them because they haven’t been part of our meat-’n-potatoes heritage.
One of the biggest mistakes that I commonly see people make is to avoid eating nuts because they have mistakenly lumped them into the “fattening foods” category. In fact, the opposite is true.
Nuts are one of my best secret weapons as a dietitian; they’re a food where indulgence and health deliciously overlap. They are nutrient powerhouses that are portable and last a relatively long time. High in protein, monounsaturated fats, fiber, potassium, vitamin E, and many trace minerals, they provide a winning combo of heart-healthy fats and proteins that can help curb cravings and keep blood sugar and energy levels stable for hours.
When it comes to losing weight with nuts and seeds, the key word here is modest portions. Nuts contain a surprising amount of fat, so they rank somewhat high on the calorie scale (1 ounce of almonds, about 23 nuts, weighs in at 160 calories). Stick to one serving a day. A good rule of thumb is to think “airplane portions”; those little bags contain about 1 ounce.
Several studies have found that when nuts are regularly included in an eating plan, people are more satisfied and are able to stick with a healthier eating style longer.5 The tastier the food, the easier it is to include it long term in an eating plan.
In terms of the other benefits nuts provide, several of the largest cohort studies, including the Physicians’ Health Study, the Iowa Women’s Heath Study, and the Nurses’ Health Study, have shown that eating nuts several times a week significantly cuts the risk of heart disease and diabetes.6 Other studies have shown that a daily dose of nuts significantly lowers “bad” LDL cholesterol. For all of my clients with high cholesterol I recommend including 1 ounce of nuts a day as part of a cardio-protective diet.
While all nuts can be part of a healthy diet, there are a few that stand out as superstars. Walnuts, for example, are the richest source of heart-healthy omega-3 essential fatty acids, which, as I’ve said before, have been found to protect the heart, promote better cognitive function, and provide anti-inflammatory benefits. Walnuts are loaded with powerful polyphenols and antioxidants that help fight disease, including the antioxidant compound known as ellagic acid, which research suggests helps fight cancer and support the immune system. And a study in the April 2004 issue of Circulation found that when walnuts were substituted for about one-third of the calories supplied by olives and other monounsaturated fats, total cholesterol and LDL (bad) cholesterol were reduced, and the elasticity of the arteries increased by 64 percent.7
Almonds are another nutrient powerhouse. They’re rich in magnesium, potassium, manganese, copper, vitamin E, selenium, and calcium. In fact, ¼ cup of almonds has almost as much calcium as ¼ cup of milk. Plus, almonds are one of the best nuts for maintaining healthy cholesterol levels, as 70 percent of the fat they contain is the healthy monounsaturated kind.
Pistachios in their shells are another personal fave I suggest to clients. Thought to be one of the oldest cultivated nuts on earth (they are mentioned in the Bible, along with almonds), “pistachio” is the Italian version of the word pistah, which is Persian for nut. (Pistachios were imported from Italy as snacks after World War II.)8 Pistachios pack some of the highest fiber of any nut (1 ounce provides 12 percent of your Daily Value), provide a hefty dose of lutein and beta-carotene, and are one of the richest nut sources of phytosterols, compounds that have been shown to help lower the absorption of cholesterol from other foods.9 They can be roasted in their shells, and I love that; it means that they take a bit more time to eat, making that 1 ounce go a lot further (about 50 whole pistachios). They, too, have a super-healthy fat profile and are an excellent source of copper, manganese, and phosphorus.
All-natural nut butters are another winner in this category because they’re not only delicious, but they go a long way toward helping you feel full and satisfied. Two level tablespoons is just over 1 ounce of protein. Plus, by sticking to all-natural, you avoid any trans fats, added sugars, and other unnecessary ingredients. On the other hand, avoid low-fat peanut butter; it often contains more sugar than regular peanut butter, so the calories are about the same, which means no weight-loss benefit (and you’ve swapped heart-healthy fats for sugar!).
Fortunately, all-natural peanut butter is super-easy to find these days. Almond butter is also a great swap (but it can be more expensive), and nowadays wonderful all-natural cashew and hazelnut butters are also becoming easier to find. But don’t forget, portions matter! Two tablespoons of peanut or cashew butter weigh in at about 190 calories, and 2 tablespoons of almond butter at 200 calories. So don’t use any more than this, tops. A little dab’ll do ya.
The nuts at your supermarket may literally be grown all over the world. Cashews from Mozambique or Nigeria, almonds from California, pine nuts from Italy, and Brazil nuts from South America are more common than ever. Because some nuts are grown in tropical regions or developing areas of the world, they share many of the same sustainability issues as foods such as coffee, tea, and chocolate. So it’s important that if you do buy nuts from another country, you buy sustainably harvested nuts if you want them to be green. We’ll delve into more detail about sustainable splurges in Chapter 14. But in the meantime, when it comes to nuts, here are a few general rules of thumb to use.
Nuts are one of the few foods where it’s easy to find a delicious and easy way to include them at virtually any meal or snack. Here are some examples of five different ways you could meet your daily 1-ounce requirement.
1. S. Berkow and N. Barnard, “Vegetarian Diets and Weight Status,” Nutr Reviews (2006) 64(4):175–88.
2. P. N. Appleby et al., “Hypertension and Blood Pressure among Meat Eaters, Fish Eaters, Vegetarians, and Vegans in EPIC-Oxford,” Public Health Nutr (2002) 5:645–54.
3. David Pimentel and Marcia Pimentel, “Sustainability of Meat-Based and Plant-Based Diets and the Environment,” Am J Clin Nutr (2003) 78(3):661S–62S.
4. The Green Book, p. 71.
5. J. Sabate, “Nut Consumption and Body Weight,” Am J Clin Nutr (2003) 78(3):647S–50; K. McManus, L. Antinoro, F. Sacks, “A Randomised Controlled Trial of a Moderate-Fat, Low-Energy Diet with a Low-Fat, Low-Energy Diet for Weight Loss in Overweight Adults,” Int J Obes 25(5):1503–11.
6. F. B. Hu et al., “Frequent Nut Consumption and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease in Women: Prospective Cohort Study,” BMJ (1998) 317:1341–45; J. L. Ellsworth, “Frequent Nut Intake and Risk of Death from Coronary Heart Disease and All Causes in Postmenopausal Women: The Iowa Women’s Health Study,” Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis (2001) 11(6):372—7; and Jiang et al., “Nut and Peanut Butter Consumption and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes in Women,” JAMA (2002) 288:2554–60.
7. D. Zambon et al., “Substituting Walnuts for Monounsaturated Fat Improves the Serum Lipid Profile of Hypercholesterolemic Men and Women,” Circulation (2004) 109(13):1609–14.
8. http://www.nutnutrition.com/allaboutnuts/pistachio.htm.
9. R. E. Ostlund et al., “Effects of Trace Components of Dietary Fat on Cholesterol Metabolism: Phytosterols, Oxysterols, and Squalene,” Nutr Rev (2002) 60(11):349–59.