Some diets tease you with bits of cheese, chocolate, sugar; or meat—the very foods you’re trying to limit13
Foods That Love You Back
In the preceding chapters I have described how you can revamp your diet to tone down cravings, starting with a healthy breakfast to keep hunger at bay, using low-GI foods to hold your blood sugar steady as the day goes on, avoiding the low-calorie or high-fat diets that could destroy leptin’s ability to rein in your appetite, and breaking out of unhealthy craving cycles.
To see how these principles translate into actual meals, let’s take a look over the shoulders of Cynthia and Steven, whom we met in the first chapter. As you might remember, her goal was to tame the chocolate seduction that hit every evening and that, over time, had made her more and more shy of her bathroom scale. His goal was to cut his cholesterol, and that meant putting something on his plate that was healthier and lighter than the salmon, beef, poultry, cheese, and other fat-filled foods he had become accustomed to.
First we’ll look at the anticraving menu they chose, and then at the basic keys to planning your own.
For breakfast, they decided to make a pot of old-fashioned oatmeal. (If you do the same, let me encourage you not to follow the package instructions. Instead, see here.) Cynthia topped hers with strawberries, but cinnamon and raisins would have gone well, too. Steve ate his plain.
Because I encouraged them to have something high in plant protein as a starter (see chapter 6), they chose veggie sausages. Steven quite liked “Smart Links,” a vegan sausage made by LightLife Foods that, properly browned in a nonstick pan, has the taste of meaty sausage, with seven grams of protein per link, and none of the cholesterol or saturated fat of regular sausage (Health food stores and larger groceries stock innumerable other meatless sausages, bacon strips, and Canadian bacon, too.) For a high-protein starter they would also have done well with a serving of chickpeas, baked beans, tofu scrambler, or any of the others you’ll find in the recipe section. They had also sliced open a cantaloupe, but were already full when it came time to eat it.
Their breakfast gave them a good start on the day. It let them skip the cholesterol, fat, and animal protein that are the curses of typical breakfast fare. It filled them up with healthy fiber, had no sugar at all, and had plenty of good, complex carbs to keep blood sugar on an even keel for hours.
As the morning went along they felt energetic and healthy and did not find their attention wandering toward snack foods at all. So far, so good.
For lunch Cynthia had split pea soup with a large salad. Steven was on the road with a coworker, and they stopped into a fast-food taco shop where he got a couple of bean burritos, minus the cheese. Nothing fancy, but it was all zero-cholesterol, low in fat, low-GI, and tasty.
The foods they had chosen were quick, easy, and familiar. And there was no question that they did the job. The combination of a good breakfast and low-GI foods at lunch blocked hunger and cravings all afternoon.
They were at home again for dinner, and started with lentil soup that they got from a can for simplicity. Then they had a salad of fresh greens with balsamic vinaigrette and cooked up some angel-hair pasta with a spicy arabiata sauce made from tomatoes and pepperoncinos (Italian hot red chilis). They were also tempted by a recipe for pasta puttanesca, made of tomatoes, garlic, red peppers, olives, capers, and parsley (named for Italian ladies of the night, who supposedly needed to be able to make dinner very quickly between clients, and who also often threw in anchovies, but you wouldn’t, if you wanted it truly healthy and cholesterol-free). They also steamed, then lightly sautéed, some broccoli and asparagus on the side.
The dinner took all of about fifteen minutes to prepare and was absolutely delicious. It was hearty, and, if they happened to check the GI of lentils, pasta, or the other foods on their plates, they would have felt very proud of themselves.
Later on they went for a walk in the evening air. It wasn’t intended to get their pulses racing, it was just a way to be together. And it had the added benefit of breaking into Cynthia’s evening refrigerator-raiding time.
And that was their day. On other days, they had the kinds of foods you’ll see in the recipe section and chapter 15, and they made sure they were well-stocked with fresh fruit for snacks and desserts. “What we’re eating now appeals to me more than the heavy foods I used to eat,” Cynthia said. “It just ‘feels’ healthier. And it’s really helped us both. I’ve been steadily losing weight, and Steve’s doctor is thrilled with his cholesterol readings.”
This of course was very different from their previous routine, where dinner usually left them too tired to even think about an evening stroll, let alone any hope for losing weight or reducing Steve’s cholesterol. Their new menu was just what the doctor ordered.
Basic Food Groups
Planning healthy meals is easier than you might have imagined. Let me give you the basics.
While the food industry would like you to plan your meals from the Chocolate Group, the Cheese Group, the Chicken Nuggets Group, and the Sugar Cookies Group, the truth is there are four healthy food groups that you should use. The New Four Food Groups were developed in 1991 to replace the old 1950s “four food groups,” which included meat, dairy products, and grains, and relegated vegetables and fruits to a single group. The new groupings make for a diet that is richer in protective nutrients, like fiber and vitamins, while omitting cholesterol, animal fat, and other undesirables:
The Vegetable Group includes asparagus, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, spinach, sweet potatoes, and endless other varieties. They are loaded with vitamins and with surprising amounts of calcium, iron, and other minerals. Be generous with green, yellow, and orange vegetables—they are cancer fighters. And green leafy vegetables (other than spinach) are great sources of calcium. When it comes to potatoes, favor sweet potatoes and yams.
The Fruit Group includes apples, bananas, blueberries, cherries, grapefruit, oranges, peaches, pears, and other fruits that are the treats of the produce department. They are loaded with vitamins and, despite their sweet taste, have very little effect on your blood sugar, with a few exceptions (e.g., watermelon and pineapple).
The Legume (Bean) Group includes high-protein, high-fiber foods. Beans, lentils, and peas are also loaded with calcium, iron, soluble fiber, and even traces of “good fats”—that is, omega-3 fatty acids. This group also includes the endless array of soy products, from tofu, tempeh, and miso, to veggie burgers, meatless hot dogs, and deli slices that look just like turkey, chicken, bologna, pepperoni, and Canadian bacon.
The Whole Grain Group includes brown rice, oatmeal, barley, whole-grain bread or pasta, corn, quinoa, and all their relatives that are loaded with complex carbs, fiber, and protein. Among wheat products, pasta has a lower GI than typical breads. And when choosing breads, pumpernickel and rye have a lower GI than white or wheat.
For a craving-busting diet that is also optimally healthy, you’ll want to plan your meals using these four food groups, while omitting meats, dairy products, and eggs, and keeping added oils to a minimum. These foods are naturally low in fat and high in fiber, and most have low GI values.
On your plate they turn into a breakfast of old-fashioned oatmeal with cinnamon and raisins, a half cantaloupe, and whole-grain toast; a lunch of chunky vegetable chili, split pea or lentil soup, or a bean burrito with rice; and a dinner of pasta marinara, autumn stew, or veggie lasagne with plenty of fresh vegetables.
How many servings should you have from each group? Although I have provided some basic guidelines below, it’s really up to you. Many people, including those who fashioned the Food Guide Pyramid, look to traditional Asian cuisine as a model, which means that your plate should be especially generous with whole grains, with slightly less emphasis on fruits and vegetables, and smaller amounts of other foods. That is fine. However, you might just as well emphasize vegetables and fruits, and also include bean dishes (in modest amounts if you are not used to them, because they are likely to cause some gassiness, at least at first.) Whole grains can then be used to fill up the rest of your plate.
The New Four Food Groups
The numbers of servings listed are suggestions only.
• Vegetables: 4 or more servings per day. A serving is I cup raw or ½ cup cooked.
• Legumes (beans, peas, and lentils): 3 servings per day. A serving is ½ cup cooked beans, 4 ounces of tofu or tempeh, or 8 ounces of soy milk.
• Whole grains: 8 servings per day A serving is just ½ cup cooked grain, such as oatmeal or pasta, I ounce of dry cereal, or I slice of bread.
• Fruits: 3 or more servings per day. A serving is one small piece of fruit, ½ cup chopped fruit, or ½ cup cooked fruit or juice.
Add a daily multivitamin as a convenient source of vitamin B12 (unless you choose B12-fortified products, such as Kellogg’s Cornflakes, Product 19,Total Cereal, or fortified soy milks), and vitamin D if you rarely get exposure to sunlight.
As you’ve noticed, the recommended foods do not include meat, dairy products, eggs, or greasy fried foods. If you’re unsure about the health reasons for setting these foods aside, let’s encourage you to take another look at chapters 4 and 5.
Now, if you’re imagining that a transition to healthier eating might be a pretty serious challenge, relax—we’ll make it easy, and you’ll be glad you did it.
You should also add a daily multivitamin. Any brand is fine. It will provide you vitamin B12, which you need for healthy blood and healthy nerves, and which is not found in substantial amounts in foods that come from plant sources other than those, such as breakfast cereals or soy milk, that are vitamin-fortified. It also provides vitamin D, which normally comes from sunlight on your skin, but which many people miss because they are indoors most of the day. The Journal of the American Medical Association reported on June 16, 2002, that a daily multivitamin was a good idea for everyone, and I agree with this simple prescription. While meat-eaters might imagine they have complete nutrition without a multivitamin, they often run low in vitamin C, folic acid, beta-carotene, and other nutrients. Fortified foods can make up for all these problems, but a multivitamin is a simple way to be sure. Meat-eaters also generally run low in fiber, but multiple vitamins cannot make up for a fiber deficit (and, of course, a vitamin pill cannot remove the cholesterol, fat, or other undesirables found in animal products.)
The Transition to Healthy Eating
While the idea of breaking away from meats, cheese, and fatty foods changes the eating habits that are routine in North America and much of the rest of the world (let’s face it, you are breaking the principal food addictions and unhealthy habits of our culture), we have found that it is certainly the healthiest diet and probably the easiest to follow over the long run.
In 2000, my colleagues and I published in the Amencan Journal of Cardiology the greatest cholesterol-lowering of any diet trial ever reported in women under fifty, using this sort of diet for just five weeks.1 Other studies by our research team, and others, have found this eating pattern to help people lose weight and to improve diabetes, hypertension, arthritis, digestive problems, and many other conditions.
Diets based on “moderation”—including small amounts of meat or cheese, as in the diets that are commonly used in attempts to control cholesterol, diabetes, blood pressure—include so many rules (no more than six ounces of meat per day, only one egg yolk per week, no more than 30 percent of calories from fat, 7 percent from saturated fat, etc., etc.) that they soon become tedious.
More importantly, they tease you with the very foods you’re trying to limit, leading to the “appetizer effect.” That is, let’s say you have a little bit of cheese, on the theory that moderation in all things must be good. But that first bite triggers an opiate release, and soon you find yourself swept far beyond “moderation,” to right back where you started. This, of course, is exactly what many diets do: they prescribe just a few ounces of meat each day, an ounce or two of cheese, just a bite of chocolate, and no more than a tiny bit of sugar. Pretty soon you’ll feel you’re not on a diet, but on some sort of continuous tease.
Some diets tease you with bits of cheese, chocolate, sugar; or meat—the very foods you’re trying to limit
Just as quitting smoking is easier than trying to limit yourself to one or two cigarettes per day, it is easier to simply skip cheese, meat, and other less-than-healthy foods than to continually tease yourself with them day after day. Yvonne, one of our research volunteers, said, “I find it easier to have none of the foods to which I’m addicted, rather than a little of them. For me, there’s no such thing as two or three Twizzlers or jelly beans.”
Another reason why it is easier to make major diet changes—even for a short period of time—than to tinker with minor adjustments is that cravings feed off each other. As fatty foods drive hormones out of control they accentuate cravings for chocolate or sugar. In turn, sugary foods cause your blood sugar to rise and fall abruptly, sparking other cravings. One food problem leads to another.
The principal challenge with any major diet change is that seductive foods are everywhere nowadays. At first you might feel like a person who is trying to quit smoking while surrounded by people constantly offering you cigarettes. But it soon becomes second nature, as we have seen over and over again in our studies. And the diet has rubbed off on our staff as well. In our Washington, D.C., office, most of our twenty or so staffers have seen the value of a low-fat, vegan diet, and they follow it themselves. And it shows. I recently escorted a group of visitors around our office, and they couldn’t help but comment on how extraordinarily healthy and slim everyone was.
Cravings feed off each other As fatty foods drive hormones out of control, they accentuate cravings for chocolate or sugar In turn, sugary foods cause your blood sugar to rise and fall abruptly, sparking other cravings. One food problem leads to another.
Let Your Tastes Change
Your taste buds have a memory of about three weeks, and you can exploit this fact as you change your diet. Did you ever switch from whole milk to skim? As I mentioned in chapter 5, at first the lower-fat versions seem watery and don’t taste right. But, three weeks later what happens? Skim tastes totally normal. And if you were to try whole milk again it would seem too thick and fatty. In just a few weeks your preferences have turned completely around. This is not to suggest that skim milk is health food. Far from it—there are many health concerns about dairy products, as we saw in chapter 4. But this common example illustrates how easy it is to learn new tastes.
Now, when you lighten your entire diet you have the same whole-milk-to-skim experience, but to a much more profound degree. In research studies in which we have used very low-fat and vegetarian foods, at first some volunteers balk a bit. But within a week or two the lighter foods taste perfectly fine—often better than the heavier foods they have replaced. And then if our volunteers happen to taste their old unhealthy foods again, they find their desire for them is largely gone.
In the next chapter we’ll use an easy, three-week time frame so you can do this yourself. There is no long-term commitment. You just follow, for three weeks, a diet that is as close to an optimal regimen as humanly possible, letting old, unhealthy habits drift away. After three weeks, if you like how you feel, you can stick with it.
The diet change can work wonders. Lisa, for example, was hooked on sugar. She was a telephone operator and got virtually no physical exercise. Her appetite was under control during the day, but every evening after work, cookies, cake, and candy bars all called out insistently. She was in her late thirties at the time and was at the point of deciding that food addiction was basically unconquerable. She also smoked about a half pack per day and was reluctant to stop for fear it would aggravate her weight problem, which had gradually increased over the years. Her self-esteem had taken a terrible beating—she no longer wanted to look at herself in the mirror—and it was just a matter of time before her physical health would start deteriorating, too.
Lisa and a friend saw a newspaper advertisement about one of our research studies. Lisa was excluded from the study itself because of her smoking. But we gave her some basic diet information, focusing especially on breakfast and lunch to make sure that she was adequately nourished, with a steady blood sugar that would help defeat evening cravings. She had not been very big on beans or vegetables, so she planned out some simple choices that she could picture herself eating: baked beans, lentil soup, black beans with rice and salsa, along with spinach salads, steamed broccoli with lemon, and asparagus.
Because she was obviously on a daily craving cycle, I suggested she might try to disrupt her normal schedule. She decided to exercise during the morning and switch to the evening shift at work for a month or so. She also made quite a study of vegetarian cookbooks, picking out simple recipes that met our guidelines. She checked out the local health food stores and filled her cupboards. She was determined to start each day with a really healthy breakfast and to stick to the good food groups we recommend.
Her initial burst of motivation lasted a couple of weeks, and by then she had lost a few pounds, and that motivated her to want to continue. Eventually she got back on the day shift, but she made it a point to not get started on the “sugar trip,” as she put it. Over the next year or so she lost about sixty pounds and simply does not look like the same person.
Her friend, Elena, had an equally powerful experience. After we accepted her into the study, but before the study began, her father died of complications of diabetes. The experience bowled her over in many ways, one of which related to her own sense of risk. Her father’s two sisters also had the disease and had had many problems as a result. One was on dialysis, due to kidney failure. She did not want to follow in their footsteps. Elena felt that life had just grabbed her by the scruff of the neck and given her a good shake.
She basically threw herself into the study. She had been a fairly enthusiastic meat eater up until that point, but she aimed to try something very different. She carefully planned out her menu for the week ahead, bought the foods she’d need, and did not stray from the diet. She lost weight steadily, about a pound per week or slightly more.
And what meant more to her than anything was the fact that her morning blood-sugar level, which we checked periodically, gradually descended from a borderline value of 120 mg/dl (over 125 is considered diabetic) to a totally healthy 82. She felt that she took control of her diet, her weight, her health, and her future.
What was most remarkable was that both Lisa and Elena had lost all desire to return to unhealthy foods. They felt in charge. For once in their lives, foods did not control them, and even the seductions at convenience stores and supermarkets held no sway. The foods that appealed most to them were those that kept them fit and healthy.
We have seen this phenomenon very frequently, but, each time, it is wonderful to see people gain a whole new level of strength and vitality. While the process of change does require an initial willingness to step into new and slightly unfamiliar waters, a new way of eating will repay your effort many times over.
Complete Nutrition
When you’re changing your diet, especially when you’re setting aside meat and dairy products, you’re likely to wonder where you’ll get your protein, calcium, iron, and so forth. It is actually quite easy. Let’s take a quick look at nutrition in plant-based diets:
Protein
Protein is used for building and repairing body tissues. If you could look at a molecule of protein under a powerful microscope, you would see that it is like a string of beads, with each bead being one of twenty or so different amino acids that combine in various sequences, depending on whether the protein will become part of your skin, your hair, a hormone molecule, or something else.
There is plenty of protein—and all the essential amino acids you’ll need—in beans, grains, vegetables, and fruits. In the past, some writers had mistakenly suggested that vegetarians needed to carefully combine various foods in order to get adequate protein. Beans and grains, for example, were a good combination. However, we have since learned that the normal combinations of plant foods that make up the diet easily provide more than enough protein. There is no need to intentionally choose special combinations of foods.2
However, if you’re looking for extra protein for some reason, you’ll find plenty in the bean group and especially in the products made from soy (e.g., tofu) or wheat (e.g., seitan) derivatives (for descriptions, see here).
There is no reason to consume animal protein, and you’re better off without it. As we’ve seen, diets rich in animal protein lead to significant losses of calcium through the kidneys, which is believed to be why osteoporosis is much more common in countries where meat is a dietary staple.3 Animal protein also contributes to kidney problems, including stones.
Calcium
Green, leafy vegetables and beans are rich in calcium, without the disadvantages of dairy products. While there is somewhat less calcium in broccoli than in milk, the absorption fraction—the percentage that your body can actually use—is higher from broccoli and nearly all other greens than from milk. If you’re looking for extra calcium for whatever reason, you’ll find more than you need in fortified juices and soy milks.
The key in maintaining calcium balance, however, is not only to have an adequate intake, but to minimize calcium losses. That means avoiding animal protein, limiting sodium (salt) in your diet, and getting adequate exercise and sunlight for vitamin D.
Iron
Traces of iron are an essential part of the hemoglobin your red blood cells use to carry oxygen. There is plenty of healthful iron in the bean group and in green leafy vegetables—the same foods that give you calcium. When people adopt balanced plant-based diets, they easily get plenty of iron from these healthy sources. Vitamin C-rich foods, such as fruits and vegetables, increase iron absorption.
In the not-so-distant past, many people imagined they needed to eat meat to get adequate iron. It has since become clear not only that other foods can easily provide iron without meat’s fat and cholesterol, but also that meat tends to tip iron balance into overload. Like other metals, iron has dangers when you overdo it, as many people unknowingly do. Iron encourages the production of unstable molecules in your body called free radicals, and these maladjusted molecules can damage your body tissues—leading to signs of aging—and contribute to heart disease.
Young women might occasionally run low in iron as a result of menstrual blood losses. However, before they rush to increase their iron intake they should first have their iron level checked by a doctor. Second, they should avoid dairy products, which inhibit normal iron absorption; and, third, they should make sure their diet includes plenty of green vegetables and beans. It is uncommon for anyone—even a young woman—to actually need an iron supplement, and it is never necessary to use meat for this purpose.
Zinc
Your immune system and your ability to heal wounds depend on traces of zinc, as do a great many biochemical reactions in your body. But as is the case with iron, overdoing it is risky, interfering with immune function and causing other problems. Healthy sources include legumes, nuts, and fortified breakfast cereals (e.g., Bran Flakes, granola, Grape-Nuts, Special K).
Fat
Your body needs some fat in the diet, although the amount you actually need is minuscule—just 3-4 percent of your calories. Most people in Western countries get ten times that amount. There are just two fats your body actually needs—alpha-linolenic acid and linoleic acid. While there is not a great deal of fat in beans, vegetables, and fruits, the traces of fat they do contain are relatively rich in alpha-linolenic acid. Nuts, seeds, olives, avocadoes, and soy products provide more fat. If for any reason you are looking for an especially rich source of these fats, flax oil is more than 50 percent alpha-linolenic acid. But go easy—there is no reason to have more than one tablespoon per day (and most people do not need to supplement at all.) These botanical sources provide healthy fats without the contaminants found in fish oils or other animal products. Linoleic acid is found in a great many foods, and you will not run low on it.
The bottom line is that you’ll get all the fat you need from a diet of vegetables, fruits, beans, and whole grains, along with occasional nuts or other fattier plant foods.
Vitamin B12
You need tiny traces of vitamin B12 for healthy blood and healthy nerve function. However, this vitamin is not made by animals or plants, but by bacteria and other single-celled organisms. Animal products contain B12 made by the bacteria in animals’ intestinal tracts, so traces of it end up in meat and other animal products. However, along with it come cholesterol, fat, and animal proteins. As noted above, healthier sources include fortified cereals, such as Kellogg’s Corn Flakes, Product 19, or Total, fortified soy milk, and, of course, all common multiple vitamins.
Vitamin D
Vitamin D is actually a hormone that is normally produced by sunlight on your skin. It helps you absorb calcium, among other functions. There is no need for dietary supplementation if you get regular sun exposure. If you do not, a multiple vitamin containing 400 IU of vitamin D is a good idea.
As you can see, getting good and complete nutrition is easy. So long as you’re building your diet from healthful vegetables, fruits, beans, and whole grains, and adding any common source of vitamin B12, such as a multivitamin, you’ve got it licked.
These guidelines provide optimal nutrition at all stages of life: childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, including pregnancy, nursing, and older age. For additional information on common nutrition questions you may wish to consult my previous books, as well as PCRM’s Web site, www.pcrm.org.
And now that you know how to choose a craving-busting menu, let me take you one step further. The next chapter presents a three-week program that puts the entire program to work and makes it practically foolproof.