Forget the Fad and Eat the Food
 

Introduction

 

Respect your body. Eat well. Dance forever.

—Eliza Gaynor Minden

 

Writing about the power of food to keep us healthy is something I’ve been dreaming about for decades. Some may call this procrastination, but I like to think of it as a really long research project, with myself as the guinea pig!

  So why should you be interested in what I have to say? I don’t have a formal education in health or nutrition, and I seldom set foot in a gym, but…wait…come back! What I do have is a lifetime of eating habits that I believe have made me unusually healthy and happy

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​Baby Steps

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Once you’ve decided that now is the time to start eating better, it’s okay to take baby steps to make this your new normal. It’s often easier to set achievable short-term goals rather than set yourself up for failure by demanding too much of yourself right out of the gate. If you haven’t eaten a vegetable in a while, vow to eat one every day, and keep adding fruits and vegetables until you reach the recommended five to nine servings a day. I know that sounds like an awful lot but remember, “eating better” just means doing better than you were before.

 

Research has shown if you could only change one thing about your nutrition, adding vegetables should be that one thing.

—Clyde Wilson

 

The best thing about this eating plan (if I say so myself!) is that you are going to be enriching what you’re eating rather than simply cutting things out. You decide what’s on the menu based on your personal preferences. Even though your focus will be on enjoying nutritious foods, you don’t have to give up the occasional treat that makes you really happy. But before you indulge, ask yourself this very important question: Is it splurge-worthy? You may find that as your tastes change, something you once thought you couldn’t live without really isn’t that worthy after all—and nothing tastes as good as feeling fabulous feels!

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You know, all that really matters is that the people you love are happy and healthy. Everything else is just sprinkles on the sundae.

—Paul Walker

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Dodgy Diets

 

Americans have more food to eat than any other people and more diets to keep them from eating it.

—Yogi Berra

 

The word “diet” can either mean what we eat on a daily basis or something we put ourselves on that restricts what we can eat—and makes us feel miserable and frustrated! The latter is not what we want to do. I’m sure we all know someone (or maybe you are that someone) who is always on a diet. What many of these people seem to have in common is a healthy dose of optimism and a boatload of determination; after all, fasting or undergoing a voluntary colon cleanse (the king of all enemas) is not for the fainthearted!

  So why are so many people who aren’t lacking in willpower struggling so hard to get to a healthy weight and stay there? It may be because all that amazing energy is being hijacked by the lure of cure-all fad diets.

 

Changing your eating means changing your life—forever. And that’s not easy in a world where temptations beckon at every turn and a multibillion-dollar diet industry can succeed only if you fail.

—Lawrence J. Cheskin

 

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Fads and Fantasies

Sadly, there are times when even the smartest people throw common sense out the window in their longing to be thin or cured of a disease. It often starts with the promise of a new diet, which may even include the magic words “doctor recommended.” Oh goodie, they think, this must mean a safe, well-researched eating plan. Well, not so fast. Here are a few of the diets doctors and other supposedly intelligent people have come up with.

 

The Master Cleanse/Lemonade Diet

Survive on a concoction of water, lemon juice, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper for days, and you will lose weight. You may also lose muscle mass and mess up your metabolism. The Master Cleanse diet has been around since the 1940s and reached its height of popularity when celebrities like Beyoncé and Demi Moore gave it a try. Unfortunately, not only will you be missing out on essential nutrients while on this liquid diet, but also, when you return to your usual eating habits, the weight you lost will probably come back. But hey, if you have a starring role in a movie coming up and need to lose weight at warp speed, give it a go!

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