Eat to Live: The Amazing Nutrient-Rich Program for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss (32 page)

These foods are to be eaten in unlimited quantities, but think big. Since they have a negative caloric effect, the more you eat, the more you lose. Raw foods also have a faster transit time through the digestive tract and result in a lower glucose response and encourage more weight loss than their cooked counterparts.
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The object is to eat as many raw vegetables as possible, with a goal of
one pound (sixteen ounces) daily. Meeting this one pound goal is not that hard to do. A small head of romaine lettuce is 6 to 8 ounces, a medium tomato or bell pepper weighs about 4 to 6 ounces, Include raw vegetables such as snow peas, red bell peppers, carrots, raw peas, tomatoes, cucumbers, and sprouts. The entire pound is less than 100 calories of food, and when you chew very well and spread this out between meals, you may find it easy to consume this amount each day.

Eat as many steamed or cooked green vegetables as you can. Cooked non-green nutrient-dense vegetables such as eggplant, mushrooms, peppers, onions, tomatoes, carrots, and cauliflower are unlimited as well. My saying, “The more you eat, the more weight you will lose,” also applies here. Again, the goal is one pound per day. If you can’t eat this much, don’t force yourself, but the idea is to completely rethink what your idea of a portion is; make it huge. One of the keys to your success is to eat a decent portion of food; so when you eat these greens, try to eat a much larger portion than you might have in the past. A serving of 1½ cups of cooked kale weighs 7 ounces, 2 cups of cooked broccoli or Brussels sprouts weighs 11 ounces, and 2 cups of cauliflower weighs 9 ounces.

Go for variety in your cooked vegetables by using string beans, broccoli, artichokes, asparagus, zucchini, kale, collards, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, bok choy, okra, Swiss chard, turnip greens, escarole, beet greens, spinach, dandelion greens, broccoli raab, cauliflower, peppers, mushrooms, onions, and tomatoes.

Beans or legumes are among the world’s most perfect foods. They stabilize blood sugar, blunt the desire for sweets, and prevent mid-afternoon cravings. Even a small portion can help you feel full, but in the Six-Week Plan I encourage you to eat at least one full cup daily.

Beans contain both insoluble and soluble fiber and are very high in resistant starch. While the benefits of fiber are well-known, resistant starch is proving to be another highly desirable dietary component. Although it is technically a starch, it acts more like fiber during digestion. Typically, starches found in carbohydrate-rich foods are broken down into glucose during digestion, and the body uses that glucose as energy. Much like fiber, resistant starch “resists” digestion and passes through the small intestine without being digested. Because of this, some researchers classify resistant starch as a third type of fiber.

Beans are the best food source of resistant starch. Overall, the starch in beans is about evenly divided between slowly digested starch and resistant starch, although the amount of resistant starch can vary depending on the type of bean and the preparation method. This means that a significant amount of the carbohydrate calories listed for the beans is not absorbed.

Resistant starch offers many additional unique health benefits. It:

• Aids weight loss and digestive health
  

• Helps prevent constipation
  

• Helps to maintain lower blood sugar levels
  

• Reduces the risk of developing diabetes and heart disease
  

• Reduces the risk of colon cancer
  

Legume or bean intake is an important variable in the promotion of long life. An important longitudinal study showed that a higher legume intake is the most protective dietary factor affecting survival among the elderly, regardless of their ethnicity. The study found that legumes were associated with long-lived people
in various food cultures, including the Japanese (soy, tofu, natto), the Swedes (brown beans, peas), and Mediterranean peoples (lentils, chickpeas, white beans).
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Beans and greens are the foods most closely linked in the scientific literature with protection against cancer, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and dementia.

Consider beans your preferred high-carbohydrate food. They can be flavored and spiced in interesting ways, and you can eat an unlimited quantity of them. Eat some beans with every lunch. Among your choices are chickpeas, black-eyed peas, black beans, cowpeas, split peas, lima beans, pinto beans, lentils, red kidney beans, soybeans, cannellini beans, pigeon peas, and white beans.

Eat at least four fresh fruits per day, but no fruit juice. Shred or cut up apples and oranges and add them to your salad for flavor; they will help you feel full. Clementines are a nice addition to a green salad. Pineapple is good with vegetables and can be cooked with tomatoes and vegetables for a Hawaiian-flavored vegetable dish. On the Six-Week Plan, no fruit juice is permitted, except for small quantities for salad dressings and cooking. Juicing fruits allows you to quickly consume three times the calories without the fiber to regulate absorption. The nutrient-per-calorie ratio is much higher for the whole food. Frozen fruit is permissible, but avoid canned fruit because it is not as nutritious. If you need to use canned fruit as a condiment (mandarin oranges, pineapple), make sure it is unsweetened.

Dried fruits should be used only in very small amounts for sweetening. Exotic fruits are interesting to try and will add variety and interest to your diet. Some of my personal favorites are blood oranges, persimmons, and cherimoyas. Eat a variety of fruits; try to include many of the following: apples, apricots, bananas, blackberries, blueberries, clementines, grapes, kiwifruit, kumquats, mangoes, melons, nectarines, oranges, papayas, peaches, pears, persimmons, pineapples, plums, raspberries, starfruit, strawberries, and tangerines.

These two food categories are grouped together because either can be the culprit for those who have difficulty losing weight. While wholesome high-carbohydrate foods are a valuable addi
tion to a disease-prevention diet, they are more calorically dense than the nonstarchy vegetables. Therefore, cooked high-starch vegetables and whole grains should be limited to one serving daily on the Six-Week Plan. Diabetics, those who want to lose weight more rapidly, and those who have difficulty losing weight no matter what they do may want to restrict these foods altogether, at least until they have arrived at their target weight. Eating lots of greens makes it difficult to overconsume high-starch vegetables. You just won’t have room for that much. Examples of starchy vegetables include corn, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, butternut squash, acorn squash, winter squash, chestnuts, parsnips, rutabagas, turnips, water chestnuts, yams, and pumpkins. Grains include barley, buckwheat (kasha), millet, oats, quinoa, brown rice, and wild rice. On some days, you may choose to have a cup of oatmeal or other whole grain at breakfast. On other days, save your serving of starch for dinner.

One final note: soaking whole grains, such as brown rice, buckwheat, and quinoa, for a day before cooking them increases their nutritional value.
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Certain phytonutrients and vitamins are activated as the grain starts to germinate. These include powerful chemopreventive phenols that inhibit the growth of abnormal cells.
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A twenty-four-hour soak induces the early stage of germination, but you will not see the sprouts. Soaking a day ahead also shortens cooking time.

Nuts and seeds contain 150 to 200 calories per ounce. Eating a small amount—one ounce or less—each day, however, adds valuable nutrients and healthy unprocessed fats. Nuts and seeds are ideal in salad dressings, particularly when blended with fruits and spices or vegetable juice (tomato, celery, carrot). Always eat nuts and seeds raw because the roasting process alters their beneficial fats. Commercially packaged nuts and seeds are often cooked in hydrogenated oils, adding trans fats and sodium to
your diet, so these are absolutely off the list. If you find that you tire of eating nuts and seeds raw, try lightly toasting them at home—this process does not deplete their beneficial properties and adds some variety for pleasure. Among the raw nuts and seeds you can add to your diet are almonds, cashews, walnuts, black walnuts, pecans, filberts, hickory nuts, macadamias, pignolis, pistachios, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds, chia seeds, and flaxseeds.

Use all spices and herbs, except for salt. When using condiments, a little mustard is okay, but pickled foods contain too much salt and should be avoided. If you love to use ketchup or tomato sauce, you may find a lower-calorie, unsweetened ketchup at the health-food store and a tomato sauce made with no oil. Better yet, make your own tomato sauce with onion and garlic but no oil or salt.

1. Remember, the salad is the main dish: eat it first at lunch and dinner.

You have the tendency to eat more of whatever you eat first because you are the hungriest. Raw foods have high transit times; they fill you up and encourage weight loss. You can’t overeat on them. Successful, long-term weight control and health, as you know by now, are linked to your consumption of raw greens. They are the healthiest food in the world. Many of my patients with obesity or diabetes eat lettuce with every meal, including breakfast. They might have iceberg lettuce with their fruit breakfast, a mixed baby greens salad at lunch, and a romaine-based salad at dinner. You can eat more than a pound if you like, but don’t fret if you are too full and can’t eat the whole pound. It is merely a goal; just relax and enjoy eating.

2. Eat as much fruit as you want but at least four fresh fruits daily.

Eat as many fruits as you would like with your meals. Four fruits are about 250 calories, but here it is okay to splurge, even during the Six-Week Plan, particularly if you have a sweet tooth. Finish lunch or dinner with watermelon, a whole cantaloupe, or a box of blueberries or strawberries. The best dessert is fresh fruit or blended frozen fruit. Eating lots of fresh fruit is satisfying and filling and helps win you over to the Eat to Live way.

3. Variety is the spice of life, particularly when it comes to greens.

Variety is not merely the spice of life, it makes a valuable contribution to your health. The nice thing is that you never have to be concerned about overeating raw vegetables, salads, or cooked greens. There are a variety of foods that you can use to make vegetable salads, including the following: lettuce (including romaine, bib, Boston, red leaf, green ice, iceberg, arugula, radicchio, endive, frisée), watercress, celery, spinach, cucumbers, tomatoes, mushrooms, broccoli, cauliflower, peppers, onions, radishes, kohlrabi, snow peas, carrots, beets, cabbage, and all kinds of sprouts.

Even more vegetables can be eaten cooked. They include broccoli, kale, string beans, artichokes, Brussels sprouts, bok choy, spinach, Swiss chard, cabbage, asparagus, okra, zucchini, and collard, mustard, and turnip greens. These vegetables can be flavored in various ways. Greens are always great with mushrooms, onions, garlic, and stewed tomatoes. If you don’t have time to cook, just defrost a box of frozen green vegetables. Throw a box of frozen artichoke hearts, asparagus, or peas on your salad. This is less than 150 calories of food. Cooked greens are very low in calories but give you the nutritional power of ten pounds of other foods. Frozen greens such as broccoli and peas are nutritious and convenient—they are
flash-cooked and frozen soon after being picked and are just as nutritious as fresh.