Let Food Be Your Medicine
Dr. Michael Cutler | Jan 16, 2012 | Comments 6
To be truly healthy, you have to eat nutritious food. Choosing those foods can be pretty simple and straightforward. The reward: a lifetime of better health.
Foods For Healthy Heart And Brain
Picking foods that can lower your risk of heart disease and stroke requires a look at inflammation, an underlying cause of these chronic diseases. Foods (and anything else) that perpetuate inflammation increase your chances for chronic disease. Avoiding these and dining on less inflammatory comestibles can significantly improve your well-being.
Refined sugar is known to contribute to inflammation. It acts much like a drug in the body and is not a natural nutrient. As a matter of fact, many people get the same reaction I do to refined sugar when eaten on an empty stomach: It acts like a short-acting sleeping pill. Worse, refined sugar interferes with the proper release of the hormones insulin and glucagon. Diabetics know this well. Furthermore, refined sugar consumption can increase your systolic blood pressure, contributes to diabetes mellitus and metabolic syndrome, promotes atherosclerosis, and can be linked to peripheral vascular disease. Refined sugar is clearly an inflammatory food you need to eliminate or minimize.
Problematic Processes
Processed foods, like donuts, cookies and chips, containing hydrogenated oils and trans fats are also a problem. These fats become imbedded in body tissues and plug up the natural transport of nutrients across cell membranes. In general, fake foods that are loaded with chemical preservatives and have been extensively processed are low in micronutrients such as vitamins, minerals, omega-3 oils, fiber, antioxidants and phytonutrients. (Micronutrients are the food ingredients that are not only anti-inflammatory, but are used by the body to build healthy cell and tissue function.)
Natural Medicine
In contrast to these health robbers, fresh produce is Mother Nature’s medicine. If you do as Hippocrates suggested and make your food your medicine, then you must be able to discern nutritious food from junk food.
Generally speaking, your diet should focus on foods that provide the most micronutrients accompanied by the fewest calories. These foods give you the most nutrition per mouthful, and they help the body fight against disease.
In the accompanying chart, the foods that are most nutritious are near the top, while less helpful foods are lower down. (One calorie-rich exception: nuts, which lower your risk of heart disease but are high in calories.)
| NUTRIENT CONCENTRATION CHART | |
| Most micronutrients per Calories = 100 Least micronutrients per Calories = 0 | |
| 100 | Raw leafy green vegetables (darker greens have more nutrients) Spinach, kale, Swiss chard, parsley, dark leaf lettuces, collards |
| 95 | Solid green vegetables Artichokes, asparagus, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, sprouted grains, cabbage, celery, cucumber, peas, green beans, peppers, zucchini |
| 80 | Non-green, non-starchy vegetables Beets, mushrooms, onions, garlic, tomatoes, yellow/red peppers, water chestnuts, cauliflower |
| 60 | Beans and legumes Kidney beans, red beans, black beans, navy beans, lima beans, soybeans, black-eyed peas, lentils |
| 50 | Fresh fruits Fresh fruits of all types; dried fruits have a higher glycemic index. |
| 35 | Starchy vegetables White potatoes, red potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, pumpkin, turnips, corn, carrots, chestnuts |
| 30 | Whole grains Barley, buckwheat, millet, oats, brown rice, wild grain, quinoa, wheat |
| 25 | Raw nuts and seeds |
| 20 | Fish |
| 18 | Un-pasteurized fresh dairy, fermented cheeses |
| 15 | Eggs, fowl, wild meats |
| 10 | Fat-free dairy |
| 8 | Red meat, pork |
| 5 | Full-fat dairy (milk, cheeses) |
| 3 | Processed cheeses |
| 2 | Refined white flour foods |
| 1 | Refined oils |
| 0 | Refined sugars |
Protein Complications
To improve your diet, you should also cut back on animal protein. Consuming animal protein as more than 10 percent of your calories without eating fibrous vegetarian foods is associated with some serious health problems. Along these lines, a study in the Journal of Cardiology (in 1998) demonstrated the health differences between rural Chinese people and typical Americans. In the Asian study population, animal protein intake was very low at only 10 percent, a small fraction of the U.S. average; fat intake was less than half of that found in the United States; and fiber intake was three times higher than in the U.S. Consequently, the average cholesterol levels of Chinese compared to Americans were 127 mg/dL versus 203 mg/dL in the U.S.
The scientists found the death rate to be 16.7-fold greater for U.S. men and 5.6-fold greater for U.S. women compared to their Chinese counterparts. The rate of heart attacks was similarly skewed: Heart attacks were fewer when people ate less animal protein and dined on more green vegetables. In my next column, I’ll take a closer look at the health value of minimizing meat in your diet.
Until then, may your new year 2012 be one of positive outcomes for you and yours!
Michael Cutler, M.D.
Easy Health Options
Filed Under: Alternative Medicine • Diabetes and Metabolic • Diabetes Concerns • Easy Health Digest™ • Heart Concerns • Nutrition
The list of what we should be eating is correct except for one comment.
Low Fat Milk. Either eat dairy WHOLE or Don’t eat at all. You are PROCESSING food and paying around with it’s balance and integration. The body can process fat from dairy and in fact it is good training for the body. Low fat this, and low fat that, is pandering to the big food companies. It like the story that eggs and avocados are full of cholesterol. The body MAKES cholesterol from all sorts of junk foods not from full cream milk or eggs or avocados. DON’T PLAY AROUND WITH FOOD. EAT IT IN IT’S NATURAL STATE OR NOT AT ALL.Our DNA has adjusted to natural foods and does not know what to do with food that is not whole. Potatoes are not a very healthy food.
I tend to agree with your line of reasoning for taking whole milk (preferably unpasteurized) but why is the potato not a healthy food as it is whole & unprocessed especially if it is grown organically and cooked with the skin.
i am 87. I walk daily for one hour,briskly. 20 months back I had a massive heart attack. I regularly consume twice a day, Non-fat milk to which I add two table spoons of Wheat germ. Eat a lot of CARROT,RADISH,KNOLKOL,TOMATO,SPINACH, BARLEY,WHEAT-BRAN,OATS ETC. These constitute my main food. No junk food, Very little oil.I enjoy.
I feel energetic always, am active , have strength and stamina throughout the day.
Right on Roger. I have noticed that Dr. Michael Cutler always was trying to promote a vegetarian diet and downgrade animal proteins and fats. As far as we know that our ancient ancestors mainly relied on the fresh killed meats and organ meats. They did not have any grain and other agriculture food products. They were very strong and healthy. There were NOT any modern diseases then like heart disease, cancers, diabetes and so on. We still have 99.97% of the same DNA.
I would put grass-fed meats and cage-free organic eggs and chickens, wild caught oily fishes on the highest row of the above chart. Then I would start to list whole fat dairy products from the grass-fed cows. Next we should list nuts, organic vegetables and fruits in moderation as eating too much fiber would upset normal digesting system. Read books that were written by Konstantin Monastirsky. Despite what mainstream media says about the benefits of fibers, it is not really true and overly emphasized.
Michael.
I agree with Dr. Cutler’s comments on sugar and processed foods. I strongly disagree with his comments regarding protein and especially fat. I find that some fat with your food has holding power. From personal experience of “dieting” I have found that the low-fat high carb leaves me hungry and unable to lose the necessary weight. What works best for me is eating as natural as possible with including animal protein, butter, olive oil, coconut oil along with supplemental krill oil and whole fat organic or rbst free hormone dairy products works best for me. I don’t eat large portions of meat and try to eat more dried beans than before. The dried beans are a new re-introduction into my diet but the other items work because I have cut out wheat and eat small amounts of other grains. We must all remember that food is very important. I believe it is everything when it comes to health. I believe in eating to live but prefer a modified version of the Paleo diet because for me it works. Thank you for listening
It is strange that we are not taking any lessons from nature. In nature no organism goes around looking for proteins or vitamins specifically as all these essential components are ‘naturally’ there in natural foods – fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts etc. If only we could include all of these in our diet in a ‘balanced’ way, without being obsessed by proteins and seeking protein rich foods like meat and eggs which the body doesn’t need anyway (because we can absorb around 0.8 – 1 gram of protein per kilo body weight and out of the 20 amino acids 10 are non essential i.e. the body is able to ‘create’ these), it should end the dispute about diet.