Reversing What the Diet Trends Got Wrong

A study reported in JAMA specifically compared the effects of a diet low in fat to a diet low in glycemic load. A diet low in glycemic load doesn't cut carbs down to nothing. It limits foods that have densely packed carbohydrates, foods like refined grains and potatoes. In other words, it cuts down on the starch.

The people on the low glycemic load diet lowered their triglycerides, blood pressure, and levels of C-reactive protein compared to the low-fat group.³ All of these are indicators of heart disease risk.

What's especially interesting to me about this is that eating low glycemic load foods is really simply your native diet. We evolved to eat like this. Whole, unprocessed foods. A good balance of meat, fish, vegetables, nuts and fruits.

In the recent low-carb trend, Americans got a little closer to the mark, but they still didn't hit it. Not all carbohydrates are equal. Vegetables are a great source of carbs. They're high in fiber, which slows the conversion of carbohydrates into glucose. That's important because it also slows your body's release of insulin. Fruits, nuts, and seeds are good as well. You can eat all these in their natural form and they are all good carbs.

Grains, potatoes, and corn can’t be eaten without processing or cooking and turn out to be problematic. They're higher in starch and create huge amounts of blood sugar eventually leading to insulin overproduction, which isn't good.

Lumping vegetables in with grains just because they’re both carbohydrates, ignores these critical differences and just doesn't make nutritional sense.

The Damage Done By Other Trends

We also narrow in on single foods, sometimes declaring the oddest things the path to true health. Take soy for example. Soy has been hailed as a preventer of heart disease and cancer, as a lowerer of cholesterol, and as an all around good thing to eat.

But it just ain't so.

Research links soy to decreased fertility, a higher risk of some cancers, and hormone imbalances. Still, the food industry grabbed hold of some promising study early on, some misleading tidbit of information, and created a booming market for soy. It's now in 70% of processed foods.⁴

Overcoming the Marketing of Obsession

The sudden changes in our food beliefs give food marketers a way to create endless variations on processed foods. Whatever the trend is, they can match it, whether it is low carb, low fat, or soy substitutes for real food.

It may be that Americans are so susceptible to food crazes because we don't have a stable culinary tradition to guide us. If you look at the French culture, they eat quite a number of high fat foods, but have lower heart disease rates than Americans. In a cross-cultural survey Americans were most likely to think about food in terms of health and least likely to think about it relating to pleasure.

Rebuilding Healthy Thinking about Food

Ask yourself, do you think more about good food to eat or more about what you are supposed to avoid? One perspective leads to fulfillment and satisfaction, making you likely to eat less. The other leads to guilt and regret and a propensity to eat more.

First, think about good food to eat:

• Eat more protein. Eggs from free range chickens and grass-fed beef or bison are my favorites.
• Eat more vegetables and fruits.
• Eat more nuts and seeds.
• Enjoy a bit of chocolate now and again. A glass of wine most days won't hurt either.

Next, how to eat:

• Don’t skip breakfast.
• Make dinner an event. Plan the meal. Invite the family. Set the mood. And enjoy each other's company as much as you enjoy the meal.
• Chew. Slow down and savor the meal.
• Pause. Set your fork down between bites.
• Pay attention. When you feel comfortable and not hungry, decide to be done.
• Think about your favorite foods. What are the things that make you really feel good when you're eating them? Don't deprive yourself of those foods. If they aren't healthy, just treat yourself occasionally.

Eating healthy is as simple as eating the foods you were built to eat. Having a healthy attitude toward food is as simple as enjoying the foods you eat, taking your time to taste them, and not worrying over the meal in front of you as you eat.

Intensity is the Key to Heart Healthy Exercise

Traditional "cardio" doesn’t save you from heart disease. Nature fashioned your heart to adapt to challenges. In doing so, your heart eliminates unused capacity. If you train your heart to adapt to longer intervals of "cardio," – like in a marathon, for example – you force your heart to sacrifice strength, power and reserve capacity.

And strength, power and reserve capacity are exactly what your heart needs most. These assets allow your heart to meet real world demands.

Conversely, high intensity exercise has been shown to help you live longer. A Harvard study compared vigorous and light exercise. Those who performed exercise that is more vigorous had a lower risk of death than those who performed less vigorous exercise.[1]

In your arms and legs, there’s only one way to build strength. And that’s to physically challenge their power. Your heart is the same. You need to challenge its power – not duration – to make it stronger.

We get a great source of data about heart health from the landmark Harvard Health Professionals Study of over 7,000 people. They found that the key to exercise is not length or endurance. It’s intensity. The more energy a person exerted, the lower their risk of heart disease.[2]

The best way to achieve high intensity workouts is to break the activity into short bursts. You can use any activity that will give your heart a bit of a challenge. My favorites are swimming, biking, running and elliptical machines.

I switch my patients among them to keep it fun and lower the chance of "overuse injuries." What you use will depend on your level of fitness. The most important strategy is to increase your challenge gradually over time.

 Protect Yourself from Heart Disease – In Just Minutes a Day

Over the past ten years, I developed a more effective heart-strengthening program. I call it PACE^® for Progressively Accelerating Cardiopulmonary Exertion. It consistently produces dramatic results in my patients.

PACE^® focuses on short bursts of exercise. I call them intervals. Break your exercise into short bouts then increase the intensity gradually as your conditioning improves. When you do this, it’s more enjoyable, more effective and safer than longer exercise at lower intensity.

Here’s a five-interval routine you can start right away:

Do the first interval at a low to moderate intensity. Then rest. But when you "rest," I don’t mean stop. Your rest interval should be a slow, easy pace – as if you’re walking.

On the second interval, boost the intensity. If you’re on a stationary bike, for example, you can turn up the resistance so it’s harder to pedal.

As the length of the interval goes down, the intensity should go up. By the time you do the thirty-second interval, you should give it everything you have.

If you haven’t exercised in a while, go slow at first. As you improve, give yourself an extra challenge each time you workout.