Time for Greens and Beans - Or Pills and Chills?

I combine food shopping with looking up nutrition for various items. Fuhrman convinced me that our choices by default are the worst ones, encouraged by more of the same at restaurants. 

The basic American diet is sugar, white flour and rice, and fat. The Basic Four have something in common - they add fat almost directly.

Sugar and its relatives (corn syrup, maple syrup, fructose, maltose, dextrose) go almost directly into the blood stream. That gives an instant lift that does not last long, except for creating more craving. The beauty of the sweets industry is the addictive quality and the increased need for more sweets, often disguised as sugar-coated sugar.

A diabetes expert said most of her patients come into the office with double-digit A1Cs (blood sugar tests). That is the equivalent of going 60 mph in a school zone. Crashes will happen.

So - we give up the sugar family of fine desserts, gourmet candies, and soft drinks (and bottled coffee) with real or fake sugar. What threat looms next?  - White flour and rice.

White flour and white rice take a little longer to convert to fat, but they are little better than another form of sugar. No longer adding sugar to the cinnamon toast is a step, but not far from "I will make it cinnamon sugar today only." I speak from experience. 

The Solution - The Fat Group!

The beauty of vegetable and animal fat is its ability to go straight from the stomach to the belly. No, it really works well. If the body does not need those fat calories, the butter, margarine, shortening, and olive oil go right to the safe harbor around the waist.

Milk, cream, butter, eggs, fish, and meat are highly promoted, but they are seldom described as being fat bombs. 

The nutrition and protein we need can be inexpensively obtained from greens, beans, fruit, and nuts. But wait there's more.

The Yo-Yo Diet: 

Half Our Gross National Product

Economists seldom admit that the Yo-Yo Diet provides 50% of all spending in the USA. First the victim builds up weight to a certain level. The doctor shakes his head and hands over a sure-fire plan to lose enormous amounts of weight. Once achieved, the achiever goes back to the old habits, but with much smaller portions. In Arkansas, that means eating fewer biscuits-and-gravy daily, with smaller amounts of sweetened tea consumed all day long. 

Fuhrman: Greens, Beans, Fruit, Nuts 

First of all, the greedy stomach can be satisfied with an enormous bowl (or two) of greens. A quart of salad dressing is not needed. Various beneficial foods can be added, such as cooked mushrooms, nuts, milled flaxseed, and blueberries.

A stomach full of greens does not lure us into more food, because it is very satisfying and does not stuff us. Those extras added above reduce blood pressure and blood sugar in various ways. Nuts have oil, and walnuts replace bad cholesterol with good cholesterol. (Avoid salt, of course, a key factor in blood sugar.)

I used to think, "Four fruits a day? How?" After a lunch of greens, an apple or orange is the best dessert ever. The typical day includes apples or oranges or both, plus prunes and blueberries.

Supper is sometimes conventional but with portions smaller by 50%. A bean supper is a can of beans, which supplies protein and satisfies hunger. Almonds are a great addition - so are mushrooms. I sprinkle flaxseed with one or both meals. I also add frozen onions/green pepper, or frozen vegetables, or another plant from the freezer - peas, corn, etc.

Results - I lost 16 pounds and blood pressure lowered to normal without a prescription (3 cuffs a day, just to be sure). I am eager to get the next 90 day A1C test. That will show my average blood sugar down to the last Girl Scout cookie.

 Here is the dependable, always new, always better book on dieting.