There are hundreds of different types of diets out there. Atkins, Keto, Vegetarian, Vegan, Mediterranean, Paleo to name a few. Most of the diets tout one specific way to eat: low-carb, low-fat, no meat, low-calorie, etc. It is no wonder why so many of us are confused about what is healthy to eat. You think your doctor knows best, but sometimes even health professionals are misinformed or providing outdated information. You also would be surprised that there is little taught in medical school related to nutrition. Only 29 percent of medical schools in the United States teach the recommended 25 hours of nutrition education over the four years of medical school. In pharmacy we had even less nutritional education. My husband and I figure we received about 1 hour or less of formal nutritional education in our 4 years of pharmacy school. How is it that people who are on the front lines of healthcare know so little about nutrition and how to teach it to our patients to keep them healthy? That is why I took the time to educate myself and I often turn to food writers to help figure it all out.
When I talk about food writers, I’m not talking about those who review restaurants or discuss food trends. What I’m referring to are health food writers. These are journalists, scientists, dietitians, and doctors who review the science behind food and our diets and put out information to help us figure out what is healthy and what is not. Food research is difficult. Most of the time you cannot conduct the research in a vacuum for a long period of time. People’s diets are complicated and ever-changing. What you eat and how you respond to the food you consume depends on your culture, gender, genetic makeup, socioeconomic status, and environmental factors. This is why there is not one consensus on how we should eat.
What to read
I have read dozens of books on diet and reviewed diet-related studies. To me there are three authors in particular that stick out. These authors have made significant contributions to the nutritional world. But what I really like is how they try to take an unbiased position and figure out what the science is saying. They are also able to write in such a way that makes it easy for most people to follow.
There are many good food writers out there, but here are my top three:
Gary Taubes
This is the father of modern-day food theory. His book, Good Calories, Bad Calories, rocked the medical and nutritional world. For so long we have thought obesity was due to fat and an excess of calories and in order to lose weight you had to burn more calories than you consumed. This is partly why fat has been considered bad, because it is more calorie dense. But Taubes set out to discover if the “fat is bad, carbohydrates are good” line of thought for the past 50 years is accurate. Over 7 years he did a thorough review of the literature (and I mean thorough – his reference section spans 112 pages of his book). He looked at history, observational studies, randomized trials, industry influence, health policy and just about anything else related to health and diet. What he found was that we have been demonizing fat for all the wrong reasons and despite telling people to stop eating fat, we keep getting fatter. Good Calories, Bad Calories is a must read for everyone, but if you are not a science geek like me, he did write a follow-up book called Why We Get Fat that breaks down the information so that it is easy to interpret.
Michael Pollan
Pollan’s motto of “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants” has stuck with me for a long time. In a confusing nutritional world, this adage makes figuring out what to eat much easier. In The Omnivore’s Dilemma, he breaks down why we jump from one food fad to another and tries to tackle how we move forwards. He is especially good at breaking down the food industry’s influence on what we eat and proposes ways that we can overcome this. His simple way of thinking about food in terms of feeding our souls is a message that can reach just about everyone. There is a PBS documentary based on his book, In Defense of Food, and I think this should be required viewing for everyone, including our school aged children. You can find it on Netflix or if you are a PBS member, you can view it here: https://www.pbs.org/video/in-defense-of-food-full-episode/
Dr. Mark Hyman
Dr. Hyman is a family physician who specializes in functional medicine, which is a systems-based approach to medicine that focuses on identifying and addressing the root cause of illness. And the ultimate root cause of illness is our poor Western diet. He does a great job of laying out how to treat and prevent obesity, heart disease, diabetes, dementia and may other chronic illnesses by changing your food choices.
Take home points
I know there are going to be a wide variety of opinions out there and some will not agree with the points that I list below. I hope it sparks a healthy debate. I do not take this subject lightly. I am a pharmacist and therefore I look at the science. In many ways this is all contradictory to my profession where so often people are looking for a magic pill to fix their health problems. But, in my opinion, as a society we need to focus more on preventive health, starting with what we put in our mouths.
I have definitely learned a lot over the years from books and my own literature reviews. It is easy to get caught in the weeds and try to avoid this oil or that vegetable, but for most people it is too confusing to demonize specific foods and not others. The following list is what I have gathered as common diet themes that can be applied to most everyone. **Disclaimer: this is not a prescription for everyone. Some people may have unique dietary needs and should check with their doctor first before making drastic diet changes.
- Eat whole foods.
- Avoid foods that are processed with chemicals added. If you can’t pronounce an ingredient, you shouldn’t eat it.
- Read food labels and ingredients so you know what you are putting in your body. Or better yet, purchase fruits, vegetables, unprocessed meat, and eggs; all things that don’t need a food label.
- Quality matters. Buy the best quality foods that you can afford. Eating a healthy diet is investing in yourself and your family. Food should be a priority in your budget.
- Eat organic. It doesn’t have to be certified organic if you know that the source is pesticide free. You could even grow it yourself.
- Eat more plants than meat.
- Eating fat is part of a healthy diet, but avoid all trans fat which are listed as hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated on food labels.
- Our bodies need fat, protein, and carbohydrates to survive. Unless you have a strict diet for weight loss or a health problem, any diet that tells you otherwise is likely not going to be healthy for you.
- Limit sugar, white flour, bread, pasta, potatoes, rice, high fructose corn syrup, soda, and high sugar fruits & juice.
- Eat the rainbow – greens, reds, yellows, oranges, purples.
- Eat local and seasonal. Grow your own produce or raise your own meat if possible.
- Reject convenience and cook at home.
- Eat less food. The bonus to adding healthy fat to your diet is that it keeps you fuller for longer.
- Leave room for occasional indulgences.
A note on the environment
I am a health advocate, but I am also an environmental advocate and sometimes these beliefs contradict one another. I know there will be some that disagree with eating meat due to the large production of greenhouse gases, specifically methane. I agree that this is a problem, but I still think meat is part of a healthy diet. Next week I will discuss how making food choices impacts the environment and how you can minimize those impacts.
Conclusions
I hope you can use my book recommendations above or seek out other sources to inform yourself about how to feed yourself and your family a healthy diet. Try not to lose yourself in the crazy food fads based on what you hear on the news. Some of this is just common sense like, don’t eat a whole carton of ice cream in one sitting (I admit I am guilty of this, who hasn’t?). Then, above all, enjoy the food that you do eat.
Thank you for reading!
Jennifer 🙒
