What Diet is Best For You?
This is a transcription of a short talk given: Today we are going to talk about diets and which diet is best for you.
I am going to start right out by saying that generally our position is that diets don't work and that there is no real diet that is the right one for you and so that is our talk for today.
Thank you for listening, and have a good day.
:) Actually, we do want to talk about it a little bit more than that!! There have been many diets out over the years from the vegetarian based, the Ornish type diets to the Dr.
Atkins diet and each of these and many diets out there have good benefits to them but, as to which one is really the right one for a given individual, it is hard to say.
There is controversy around each one of these diets more than there is agreement and there is enough information out there, I think, on the critiques and criticism of each and every one of these and the downsides and the upsides of each of these diets discussed in popular books and on the internet, so we will not repeat that information here.
So that all having been said, one does need to adapt a healthy diet for their life.
What is a person to do when they do not know all that much about eating and they would really like to do it right if somebody would only tell them what to eat.
In trying to help individuals like this, I guess we give in a little bit and doctors like myself and I, who think in the arena of what is called functional health care or functional medicine, would agree that probably the one diet, if you want to call it a diet, that we can feel comfortable putting out there for people to take a look at is the Mediterranean diet.
The Mediterranean diet goes something like this.
It is salads with a lot of salmon, a lot of fish, with a lot of vegetables, green vegetables and salads and salmon and fish and vegetables, and salad and salmon and more salmon and then some more salmon.
So, I think you get the idea.
This diet may also include such items as spinach, olives, extra-virgin first cold pressed olive oil, and sea salt and these types of preparations.
The research seems to bear out that people eating this type of diet do well with their health.
There seems to be a prevalence of thriving health in these areas where this type of diet is eaten and so if one wanted to give a model to somebody on how to eat, we might ask you to model after that.
Again, some people really need more guidance.
Some, likely based on personality types, will demand a more specific dietary guideline.
And so we don't encounter this that often, but if this is the case, I will give approval to the blood type diets and that is something that you can look in to.
One of the books is called "Eat Right For Your Blood Type" and it will help you decide whether you are more of a natural vegetarian or a carnivore or omnivore, according to your blood type and you can pick up the books on this and read about it on your own and if that is the course you would like to follow, the majority of colleagues that I have met in the functional medicine world seem to agree that this is pretty reliable information and this would be something that you could feel comfortable following.
In moving on from there, some of the other highlights that I would to emphasize is getting live food into your diet, especially of fruits and uncooked vegetables.
In the area of fruits, we want to call your attention to the glycemic index and ask you to pick fruits from the 50% down level in glycemic index.
Glycemic index has to do with the concentration or sugar load in that food and how rapidly the sugar is released into your system from the food and so items like berries, apples, pears, melons, grapes, citrus or a whole pomegranate, blueberries are often considered as more ideal fruits as per the glycemic index.
Vegetables and salads should be emphasized heavily.
Vegetables, uncooked, as many as possible and likely steamed for the others.
Fish can be a valuable part of your diet.
You might want to go on the internet and Google "fish and mercury levels" and get a listing of which fish are safest and we would like to encourage you to be attentive to this one specific piece of information on salmon.
You want to purchase the "wild" "Alaskan" or "Coho", these are code words that food authorities have only allowed to be used in the case of truly wild salmon which have a healthier physiology and healthier distribution of natural fats in their body that are good for you.
Another very important area of emphasis is grains.
We want to emphasize a very strong case for the elimination of wheat from most people's diet.
This is just a rapidly growing area of information.
There is specific laboratory testing which can be done to see if this is even more of a serious consideration for you than just a hypothetical consideration.
In general, the grains we would steer you toward, unless you are specifically sensitive to them, are buckwheat, flax, barley, oats, quinoa, and that would be about it.
We would like to encourage you in the area of nuts and seeds.
Walnuts and almonds are particularly beneficial with high levels of healthy fats and other protective nutrients.
Almonds, pecans, peanuts and sunflower seeds can also be considered and walnuts of course would be types of nut that are a good option.
In the area of meats, this an individual matter and probably needs to be worked out with a nutritional practitioner for the individual, but obviously you would want to avoid excessive beef intake, if not avoid beef altogether, and the other remaining choices are usually turkey, chicken, eggs, venison and duck, when prepared properly.
You can chose from those and depending on your particular body type, whether you are a high inflammatory type or a low inflammatory type, you may want to eliminate these meats altogether for a period of time of lesser or greater duration.
The other area of concern is oils.
The two to think most carefully about are olive oils, extra virgin, first cold pressed and extra virgin coconut oil can also be used as a wonderful cooking vehicle if you like the taste.
It is somewhat "coconutty" in taste of course, but not as much as you would think.
Regarding spices, you want to keep anti-inflammatory spices in the diet such as tumeric and ginger when appropriate and the use of sea salt and kelp powder could be very wonderful addition to your flavoring in your cooking.
Salad dressings might be the extra virgin first cold pressed olive oils primarily and we would encourage you to read labels very carefully.
Lastly, just a reminder, that white potatoes are extremely high on the glycemic index and is something that many of you may want to avoid.
All of this above having been stated, if you have been tested for food allergies or sensitivities, of course, that would prevail and you would need to eliminate those foods.
Of course, there are many other problems that we could get into and we could discuss diet for hours.
You can reach us for more information by referring to our contact box below.
Thank you.
I am going to start right out by saying that generally our position is that diets don't work and that there is no real diet that is the right one for you and so that is our talk for today.
Thank you for listening, and have a good day.
:) Actually, we do want to talk about it a little bit more than that!! There have been many diets out over the years from the vegetarian based, the Ornish type diets to the Dr.
Atkins diet and each of these and many diets out there have good benefits to them but, as to which one is really the right one for a given individual, it is hard to say.
There is controversy around each one of these diets more than there is agreement and there is enough information out there, I think, on the critiques and criticism of each and every one of these and the downsides and the upsides of each of these diets discussed in popular books and on the internet, so we will not repeat that information here.
So that all having been said, one does need to adapt a healthy diet for their life.
What is a person to do when they do not know all that much about eating and they would really like to do it right if somebody would only tell them what to eat.
In trying to help individuals like this, I guess we give in a little bit and doctors like myself and I, who think in the arena of what is called functional health care or functional medicine, would agree that probably the one diet, if you want to call it a diet, that we can feel comfortable putting out there for people to take a look at is the Mediterranean diet.
The Mediterranean diet goes something like this.
It is salads with a lot of salmon, a lot of fish, with a lot of vegetables, green vegetables and salads and salmon and fish and vegetables, and salad and salmon and more salmon and then some more salmon.
So, I think you get the idea.
This diet may also include such items as spinach, olives, extra-virgin first cold pressed olive oil, and sea salt and these types of preparations.
The research seems to bear out that people eating this type of diet do well with their health.
There seems to be a prevalence of thriving health in these areas where this type of diet is eaten and so if one wanted to give a model to somebody on how to eat, we might ask you to model after that.
Again, some people really need more guidance.
Some, likely based on personality types, will demand a more specific dietary guideline.
And so we don't encounter this that often, but if this is the case, I will give approval to the blood type diets and that is something that you can look in to.
One of the books is called "Eat Right For Your Blood Type" and it will help you decide whether you are more of a natural vegetarian or a carnivore or omnivore, according to your blood type and you can pick up the books on this and read about it on your own and if that is the course you would like to follow, the majority of colleagues that I have met in the functional medicine world seem to agree that this is pretty reliable information and this would be something that you could feel comfortable following.
In moving on from there, some of the other highlights that I would to emphasize is getting live food into your diet, especially of fruits and uncooked vegetables.
In the area of fruits, we want to call your attention to the glycemic index and ask you to pick fruits from the 50% down level in glycemic index.
Glycemic index has to do with the concentration or sugar load in that food and how rapidly the sugar is released into your system from the food and so items like berries, apples, pears, melons, grapes, citrus or a whole pomegranate, blueberries are often considered as more ideal fruits as per the glycemic index.
Vegetables and salads should be emphasized heavily.
Vegetables, uncooked, as many as possible and likely steamed for the others.
Fish can be a valuable part of your diet.
You might want to go on the internet and Google "fish and mercury levels" and get a listing of which fish are safest and we would like to encourage you to be attentive to this one specific piece of information on salmon.
You want to purchase the "wild" "Alaskan" or "Coho", these are code words that food authorities have only allowed to be used in the case of truly wild salmon which have a healthier physiology and healthier distribution of natural fats in their body that are good for you.
Another very important area of emphasis is grains.
We want to emphasize a very strong case for the elimination of wheat from most people's diet.
This is just a rapidly growing area of information.
There is specific laboratory testing which can be done to see if this is even more of a serious consideration for you than just a hypothetical consideration.
In general, the grains we would steer you toward, unless you are specifically sensitive to them, are buckwheat, flax, barley, oats, quinoa, and that would be about it.
We would like to encourage you in the area of nuts and seeds.
Walnuts and almonds are particularly beneficial with high levels of healthy fats and other protective nutrients.
Almonds, pecans, peanuts and sunflower seeds can also be considered and walnuts of course would be types of nut that are a good option.
In the area of meats, this an individual matter and probably needs to be worked out with a nutritional practitioner for the individual, but obviously you would want to avoid excessive beef intake, if not avoid beef altogether, and the other remaining choices are usually turkey, chicken, eggs, venison and duck, when prepared properly.
You can chose from those and depending on your particular body type, whether you are a high inflammatory type or a low inflammatory type, you may want to eliminate these meats altogether for a period of time of lesser or greater duration.
The other area of concern is oils.
The two to think most carefully about are olive oils, extra virgin, first cold pressed and extra virgin coconut oil can also be used as a wonderful cooking vehicle if you like the taste.
It is somewhat "coconutty" in taste of course, but not as much as you would think.
Regarding spices, you want to keep anti-inflammatory spices in the diet such as tumeric and ginger when appropriate and the use of sea salt and kelp powder could be very wonderful addition to your flavoring in your cooking.
Salad dressings might be the extra virgin first cold pressed olive oils primarily and we would encourage you to read labels very carefully.
Lastly, just a reminder, that white potatoes are extremely high on the glycemic index and is something that many of you may want to avoid.
All of this above having been stated, if you have been tested for food allergies or sensitivities, of course, that would prevail and you would need to eliminate those foods.
Of course, there are many other problems that we could get into and we could discuss diet for hours.
You can reach us for more information by referring to our contact box below.
Thank you.
