Foodist Read online

  Of course, no discussion of dairy is complete without also mentioning saturated fat. Health-conscious people are often terrified by cheese and butter, because they’re worried about all the saturated fat and cholesterol. Though we’ve already discussed how saturated fat is not reliably linked to cardiovascular disease (for the record, neither is dietary cholesterol), studies that have specifically looked at dairy have also not identified a positive association.13 To the contrary, a few studies have shown that cheese (particularly hard cheeses) may actually be beneficial in fighting heart disease. Cheese is the primary source of vitamin K2 (also called menaquinone, or MK-8) in the human diet.14 Studies have repeatedly shown that individuals who consume the most menaquinone have a decreased risk of cardiovascular disease.15 Interestingly, vitamin K2 has also been associated with decreased risk of cancer16 and metabolic syndrome.17 Although there clearly needs to be more research done on this topic, it seems that the theory that cheese promotes heart disease has been thoroughly debunked.*

  Sliced Bread Was Never a Great Invention

  Food marketers have been at it for nearly a century. They’re saving us time, making it ever easier for us to consume their products, and all they ask in return is to charge us a little extra for the “convenience.” Aren’t they sweet?

  When pressed, most of us will acknowledge that the top priority of food marketers is not to make our lives easier or our food tastier, but to get us to eat (and spend) more. What’s truly remarkable is that, despite knowing this, we still parrot and defend their ideas as ardently as if we’d thought of them ourselves.

  Do you really believe Krispy Kreme makes the best doughnuts, Ben & Jerry’s makes the best ice cream, or life is impossibly difficult without presliced bread? My guess is you probably do, or at least did at some point. But the reality is that none of these things are true, and that we think they are is just a sign of brilliant marketing.

  Food isn’t like other products. There are people who buy every single gadget that Apple creates, and if Apple started making twice as many products per year those people would still buy them all. But humans can only eat so much food, which makes it difficult for food companies to expand their market and be competitive.

  Enter “added value.”

  Sliced bread, instant oatmeal, and single-serving Go-gurt are all examples of foods designed to be easier to eat. And companies correctly assume that we are happy to pay more for the free time these conveniences allot us. But does this freedom really make our lives better?

  I would never argue that time doesn’t have value. Though I think there is a strong case for slowing down and taking time to eat mindfully, I certainly see the appeal of fast and portable food. Having built, launched, and promoted my own website while simultaneously finishing my Ph.D., I certainly know what it means to be busy. But convenience is not the only thing you get when marketers sell you on their products. You also eat more, and you eat worse.

  Because sliced bread is easier to eat, people tend to eat more of it, along with whatever they choose to put on top. Additionally, since real bread quickly becomes stale when cut into smaller pieces, food companies have had to find new (non-ecofriendly) packaging and add preservatives, dough conditioners, and other chemicals to keep breads soft. The ingredient list on a loaf of Wonder Bread is truly remarkable:

  Wheat Flour, Water, High Fructose Corn Syrup or Sugar, Yeast, Contains 2% or Less of: Ferrous Sulfate (Iron), B Vitamins (Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate (B-1), Riboflavin (B-2), Folic Acid), Barley Malt, Soybean Oil, Salt, Calcium Carbonate (Ingredient in Excess of Amount Present in Regular Enriched White Bread), Wheat Gluten, Dough Conditioners (Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, Mono and Diglycerides, Calcium Dioxide, Datem and/or Azodicarbonamide), Vitamin D-3, Calcium Sulfate, Vinegar, Yeast Nutrients (Monocalcium Phosphate, Dicalcium Phosphate, Ammonium Sulfate, Ammonium Phosphate and/or Ammonium Chloride), Cornstarch, Wheat Starch, Soy Flour, Whey, Calcium Propionate (to Retain Freshness), Soy Lecithin.

  In contrast, the bread I buy at Acme, my local bakery, is made of flour, water, yeast, and salt. Special loaves may contain olives or herbs, but you get the general idea. I have to cut it myself, and it doesn’t last long if I leave it on the counter (it freezes absolutely beautifully), but the bread at Acme is also some of the best-tasting bread I’ve had in my life. Are you shocked that my Acme loaf costs around $2, while Wonder Bread costs close to $4?

  I don’t eat much bread, because it is not particularly healthy. But I enjoy burgers, pizza, sandwiches, naan, and other traditional foods way too much to cut it out completely. Reasonable quantities of bread can easily be incorporated into a healthy diet, particularly if you exercise regularly. But bread is not health food, and eating as little as you’re comfortable with is generally a good idea.

  We do not need unhealthy foods to be more convenient or less expensive. And if you’re going to put health aside and eat them anyway, they should also taste absolutely amazing, not just good or even pretty good. Does presliced bread really make the cut? I don’t think so.

  Sliced bread was never a great invention—it was great marketing. “The greatest thing since sliced bread” was derived from an ad campaign claiming its invention was “the greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped.” The phrase may be perfect for describing brilliant marketing (“The greatest added-value campaign since sliced bread”), but do we really need to continue propagating the message that low-quality convenience food is the best invention of the past one hundred years?

  If we want a true benchmark for greatness, maybe we should change it to “The greatest thing since the Internet.”

  WHAT TO AVOID

  I don’t like to demonize any food, but I understand that it can be helpful to know exactly which foods are problematic. Keep in mind this doesn’t mean you can never eat these, just that they are not ideal for optimal health and weight loss. The following are the first things you should consider cutting back on if you’re having trouble meeting your healthstyle goals.

  Sugar is public enemy number one when it comes to weight loss, health, and longevity. Where there is sugar there is obesity, diabetes, heart disease, tooth decay, and cancer. Records have shown that isolated societies that have not been exposed to large quantities of sugar and flour tend to be free from these ailments, despite the fact that the people live to impressive ages. Moreover, these “diseases of civilization” were virtually nonexistent before the widespread availability of refined sugar beginning in the eighteenth century.

  One of the biggest problems of modern society is the obscenely common use of sugar in nondessert foods. Although it’s fairly obvious to most people that a glazed doughnut isn’t the healthiest choice (10 grams of sugar), a Thai chicken salad from California Pizza Kitchen contains over four times as much sugar (45 grams). Sure, there are additional benefits from eating salad vegetables, but would you have guessed you were eating the equivalent of four doughnuts worth of sweetness by ordering a salad?* Or would you have felt virtuous for ordering a salad and maybe have allowed yourself to sample something from the dessert menu after such a healthy dinner? We’ll discuss how to avoid these pitfalls in later chapters, but keep in mind that avoiding sugar doesn’t end when you pass up the dessert cart.

  What about other sweeteners? Sometimes people ask about more natural or “less processed” sweeteners like honey, agave, and molasses. Other folks want to know about calorie-free sweeteners like stevia and sucralose (Splenda). My answer, to many people’s surprise, is to pick whichever one tastes best with what you’re eating (even if it’s plain old cane sugar) and don’t worry about it. The thing about sugar is that no matter what form it comes in, it’s still sugar and is not good for you. Moreover, foods that require sweetening (e.g., pastries) usually have enough other unhealthy ingredients that swapping out the sugar isn’t going to make a huge difference. Maybe molasses has a little more vitamin D or agave ranks a little lower on the glycemic index (because it has more fructose, similar to high-fruc
tose corn syrup), but that doesn’t change the fact that these are still highly concentrated sources of sweetness and should not be eaten in large quantities.

  Sugar Content of Some Common Food Products

  Item Grams of Sugar

  Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut 10

  Luna Bar, berry almond 11

  Froot Loops breakfast cereal, ¾ cup 12

  Ben & Jerry’s vanilla ice cream, cup 16

  Starbucks Caffè Latte, 16 ounces 17

  Godiva truffles, 2 pieces 17

  Subway 6-inch sweet onion teriyaki chicken sandwich 17

  Mrs. Fields chocolate chip cookie 19

  Tropicana 100% orange juice, 8 ounces 25

  Yoplait original yogurt, 6 ounces 27

  Craisins dried cranberries, 1/3 cup 29

  Vitaminwater, 20 ounces 33

  Oscar Mayer Lunchables, crackers, turkey, and American cheese 36

  Coca-Cola Classic, 12 ounces 39

  Sprinkles Cupcake, red velvet 45

  California Pizza Kitchen Thai chicken salad 45

  Jamba Juice, blackberry bliss, 16 ounces 49

  Odwalla SuperFood, 15 ounces (450 ml) 50

  Starbucks Caffè Vanilla Frappuccino, 16 ounces 58

  But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t eat them at all. There’s room for small amounts of sugar in a healthy diet, and it doesn’t much matter where it comes from. Don’t forget to keep everything you eat in perspective. You could get hit by a bus tomorrow. Then how virtuous would you feel for ruining your grandmother’s famous apple pie recipe by swapping out sugar for Splenda? We all know pie isn’t the healthiest thing in the world, but some experiences have more value than nutrition alone. As long as you don’t choose experiences over health every single day, those occasional indulgences are not going to kill you.

  Artificial sweeteners have other problems as well. Despite their lack of calories, evidence shows that people who use noncaloric sweeteners do not weigh any less than people who don’t use them. People tend to think they are being virtuous if they choose lower-calorie foods over higher-calorie foods, but without an obvious benefit, what is the point exactly?

  Lack of effectiveness is not my only issue with artificial sweeteners. Some studies have suggested that consuming calorie-free sweeteners enhances a person’s appetite and cravings for sweet foods, and this has been proposed as one of the reasons they are not effective at helping people lose weight.

  The safety of several of the most popular sugar substitutes has been questioned as well. Though I’ve never found any of the arguments about the dangers of saccharin (Sweet’N Low) or aspartame (Equal) particularly convincing,* they are relatively recent additions to the human diet, and the long-term consequences for you as an individual remain unknown. So if you really want to cut back on sugar enough to suffer through the taste of these nouveau chemicals, keep in mind that you are essentially volunteering yourself for a long-term human health experiment that may or may not work out in your favor.

  In my opinion still the strongest reason to avoid artificial sweeteners is taste. To me there is something innately unsatisfying about the taste of no-calorie sweeteners, and bad-tasting desserts are a paradox of the worst kind. But the assault on your taste buds doesn’t stop there. Artificial sweeteners keep your palate accustomed to overly sweet foods (most are hundreds of times sweeter than table sugar), making it more difficult to reacclimate to the taste of real food. So not only do artificial sweeteners ruin your dessert experience; they also ruin your healthy eating experience. Awesome deal, right?

  I make one notable exception with these recommendations. Diabetics have a medical condition that prevents them from eating sweet foods that impact blood sugar. This includes cane sugar, honey, agave, molasses, and most other forms of natural sweeteners. The only exception is the stevia plant, which is a natural* calorie-free sweetener that has been used therapeutically for hundreds of years. Stevia has been shown in some cases to reduce hyperglycemia and hypertension in patients with preexisting conditions and is probably the best option for those who cannot tolerate any kind of caloric sweetener. Because the benefits do not exist for nondiabetic patients and, like other calorie-free sweeteners, stevia is still hundreds of times sweeter than sucrose, I do not recommend it except in these specific clinical conditions.

  Flour is another food that’s high on the not-so-good-for-you list. The refinement process kills most of the nutrients and makes your body digest it so rapidly that it can really mess with your metabolism. Most flour is fortified to add back the lost nutrients, but you’re still better off skipping it or at least minimizing how much you eat. Because your body digests it so rapidly, flour is one of those foods that is very important to keep in small portions. The less you eat at one time and the slower you eat it, the better.

  Processed meats also appear to be pretty darn bad for you. Though the mechanism that makes them more likely to be associated with cancer and heart disease still isn’t exactly clear, it probably has something to do with the smoking and curing processes. Although all cured and processed meats seem to contain some level of carcinogenic compounds* (few processed foods do not), there seem to be higher levels in processed meats that were cured using industrial methods18 compared to those cured by more traditional methods in Spain and Portugal.19 Personally, I find traditionally smoked and cured meats like Italian prosciutto and Spanish jamón ibérico to be exceedingly delicious, and I make room for them in my healthstyle on occasion. I just keep in mind that large quantities could potentially be dangerous, so I keep my portions moderate.

  EAT FOOD (AKA THE LARGE PRINT)

  I got a little technical in the last few sections in order to satisfy the more skeptical among you, but rest assured that you don’t need to know a single detail about saturated fats or insulin metabolism to make perfectly healthy food decisions. The gist of what I just explained is beautifully summarized by Michael Pollan in his book In Defense of Food: “Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much.”20

  We could fight all day (and people do) about what molecular components constitute an “ideal diet,” but we already know enough about the foods that promote health and the foodlike products that don’t. The overwhelming trend in everything we know about healthy eating is that real foods, the kind that come from the land, air, and sea, are usually good for you. You may need to moderate your portions of some to get maximal satiety with minimal calories, but for the most part as long as you’re choosing something one of your pre-twentieth-century ancestors would recognize as food, you’re probably on the right track. On the other hand, almost all processed foods, even those labeled “healthy” because some magic nutrients have been added, are more likely to not live up to their claims and may even cause problems down the road.

  Believe it or not, all of this is awesome news. Real food is actually much simpler to deal with than all the fancy scientific food invented in the laboratories of food companies. It’s fairly easy to recognize, since it hardly ever has a label extolling its health benefits. The ingredients are easier to pronounce. It tastes way better and varies from season to season, so you never get bored. There are also plenty of real-food options, so if some childhood trauma is preventing you from ever eating beets again, there are plenty of other healthy, delicious foods to fill in the blanks. Choosing real food allows you to eat the things you love, and you always have the option of adding or subtracting based on your circumstances and even your mood. No arbitrary lists or meal plans for you. You also have the freedom to tinker with your healthstyle, finding the ideal fit for your preferences and metabolism. Some people thrive with more protein, others with more starch. As long as the source is an unprocessed food, you have nothing else to worry about.

  A FOODIST’S PLATE

  I’ve now mentioned portions a few times, and it’s something we’ll talk about in more detail later, but it can be helpful to have a visual image of what an ideal foodist’s plate looks like for making the best food decisions. I was actually pleasantly su
rprised when the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)* came out with its most recent dietary recommendations, which get rid of the antiquated food pyramid and introduce the much simpler MyPlate. But although the new plate structure is helpful, there are still enough flaws in its design to warrant a do-over.

  My problems with MyPlate? First, Americans are so confused about the status of fat that I think it needs to be addressed, but you really have to dig through the MyPlate literature to find its out-of-date recommendations. On my Foodist Plate I specify that vegetables should be cooked or prepared with natural, minimally processed fats and oils.

  Also, I don’t think fruit belongs on a dinner plate. I put it on the side to indicate that it should be used for snacks or dessert. The MyPlate proportion of grains is much larger than necessary, and I think beans or lentils are a preferable form of starch. Additionally, “protein” is very vague, so I went ahead and specified the option of wild fish or pastured meats (eggs are a good choice too). I consider dairy optional (sorry U.S. Dairy Council) if you’re eating plenty of vegetables, meats, and legumes. If you want to throw some milk, cheese, or butter in there, I have no problem with that, but I don’t think it needs its own special section any more than things like nuts and seeds do.

  Last, water is what you should be drinking most of the time. Tea and coffee are also perfectly healthy, and wine appears to have some unique health benefits, including reduced risk of heart disease and preserving cognitive function. I’d add that your plate should be about 10 inches in diameter or less. At any given meal there can be deviations from this example, but this is a great place to start if you’re revamping your healthstyle.