Authors: Travis Stork
The Doctor's Diet: Dr. Travis Stork's STAT Program to Help You Lose Weight & Restore Your Health (32 page)
BROCCOLI TO THE RESCUE
Many studies have found evidence to suggest that eating broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables lowers the risk of several types of cancer, including cancer of the bladder, breast, colon, liver, lung, and stomach. Brightly colored red, orange, and yellow vegetables also contain compounds that are believed to fight cancer, heart disease, and some kinds of eye diseases.
VEGGIES, VEGGIES EVERYWHERE
Eating a plate of vegetables or a bowl of salad are just two ways to get the vegetables you need. But there are some other convenient ways to include veggies in your diet that may sound more appealing, if you’re like me and don’t love plain veggies:
Slurp up veggie soup.
It’s amazingly easy to make vegetable soup from “scratch.” Follow my Anytime Vegetable Soup recipe (see
page 257
), or go free-form: sauté some minced onion and garlic in a little olive oil, pour in a can or carton of low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth, toss in whatever fresh or frozen chopped vegetables you have lying around (carrots, celery, broccoli, spinach, zucchini, green beans, cabbage—you name it), and simmer until the vegetables are cooked to your liking—anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes, depending on what kind of vegetables you’re using. During the last couple of minutes, add whatever mix-ins you like, such as fresh herbs, spices, a small dollop of Dijon mustard, any kind of cooked legumes (black beans, chickpeas, lentils), or tomato sauce. Serve with a sprinkle of freshly grated Parmesan cheese.
Not only is soup a delicious way to add vegetables to your diet, but it can actually help with weight loss, according to researchers at Penn State University. Several studies from there found that when participants ate low-calorie soup
before
having a lunch entrée, they
reduced their total calorie intake at lunch (soup + entrée) by 20 percent, compared to when they did not eat soup.
Veg out your smoothie.
Add greens such as spinach or kale to your favorite smoothie recipe. Greens add a tangy taste that is surprisingly good, but it may take some getting used to, so start with a small amount and work up from there.
Vegi-fy your omelets.
On mornings when you choose to have eggs for breakfast, vegetables can turn ordinary scrambled eggs into a delicious omelet. Sauté chopped tomatoes, spinach, onions, peppers, mushrooms, or other finely chopped vegetables in a squirt of cooking spray for about a minute before adding whisked egg or egg whites; then cook as usual. This is one of my favorite ways to load up on veggies.
Veg out with juice.
Although I’m not a huge fan of fruit juice, because it raises blood sugar quickly and has little to no fiber, I’m fine with 100 percent vegetable juices such as tomato juice and veggie juices made at home with juicers. You should still eat whole vegetables, but it’s OK to replace one or two servings a day with veggie juice. Choose low-sodium versions, because there’s quite a bit of salt in the full-sodium kinds.
Make fresh veggie salsa your go-to sauce.
Most grocery stores sell fresh salsa, which is a delicious mix of tomatoes, onions, garlic, lime juice, and cilantro. Spoon it right from the container onto baked or grilled poultry or fish, scoop it onto salads, stir it into soups, and use it as a dip for cut-up vegetables. If you want to make your own fresh salsa, check out my Anytime Salsa recipe on
page 258
.
Q: IS IT OK FOR ME TO PUT SALT ON MY VEGGIES?
A:
There’s been a lot of controversy lately about whether salt is safe for health. For a long time we thought high intakes of salt caused health problems, but recently opinions are starting to change, and the research is all over the place. I think this is a topic we’re going to be hearing a lot about in the next few years.
Until the evidence is clearer, my suggestion is that unless your doctor has told you to avoid salt and sodium, it’s probably OK to use small amounts of it. But in general, I recommend that you limit salt use. We tend to get so much of it anyway in our American diet, and my gut feeling is that going light on salt is a better idea than having a lot of it.
| IN A 2013 STUDY OF 71,000 SWEDISH ADULTS, PEOPLE WHO ATE AT LEAST THREE SERVINGS OF VEGETABLES DAILY LIVED 32 MONTHS LONGER THAN THOSE WHO NEVER ATE VEGETABLES. |
I don’t want to go overboard here, but the fact is that vegetables are just about the healthiest foods out there. They may not be your favorite food—I admit, they’re not always my first choice—but when you think about how packed they are with all kinds of nutrients and disease-fighting compounds, you have to love them. And when you look at the studies that associate vegetable eating with long-term weight loss and longer life, you can’t argue with the fact that they belong on your plate.
If, like me, you don’t have a natural love for veggies, use the ideas in this Food Prescription to sneak them into your meals. As long as they’re somewhere—blended into a smoothie, tucked into an omelet, chopped into a salsa—you’ll get all of their amazing health benefits and weight-loss boost.
And now, in the next Food Prescription, get ready for some great news about another occupant of your grocery store’s produce aisle.
START EATING FRUIT AGAIN
As you know, I feel pretty strongly that we should be cutting added sugar—sweeteners added to processed foods, beverages, baked goods, breakfast cereals, and other everyday staples—out of our diets as much as possible. All that added sugar is a huge contributing factor to weight gain and disease risk. But when I suggest staying away from sugar, I’m talking about the sweeteners added to foods, not the natural sugars in whole, healthy foods such as fruits.
Yes, I’m telling you to eat fruit.
I know I’m going to get some flack for this. Most of the diets being promoted these days tell you to stay away from most fruit because of the sugar it contains. They say you can’t lose weight or break your sugar addiction if you keep eating fruit.
I heartily disagree with this line of thinking. Unless you have poorly controlled diabetes and your doctor tells you not to, there’s simply no reason to stop eating fruit.
Listen, I’m all about healthy weight loss and breaking sugar addictions. But I simply don’t believe that cutting out an entire group of very healthful foods—fruit—is a good idea. In fact, I think it’s a terrible idea.
As I’ve said before, the reason that two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese is not that we are eating too much fruit. It’s because we’re eating too much of everything else.
Obesity researchers back this up. They have found no link between fruit consumption and health problems. In fact, long-term studies looking at the eating habits of large numbers of people find that eating fruit is associated with lower body weight and a decreased risk of heart disease and other weight-related health problems.
The nutritional benefits of fruit make it an excellent part of a healthy diet. That’s why The Doctor’s Diet includes fruit every day.
I’m not telling you to go out and gorge on fruit—absolutely not. You can’t eat it in unlimited quantities, or you won’t lose any weight at all. But by including it in your meals in an intelligent, balanced way, you can get a windfall of nutrients without any downside at all. And most fruit tastes great to boot.
So, come on, let’s head out to the farmer’s market or grocery store. It’s time to start eating fruit again.
CHOOSE YOUR FRUIT
During the 14-day STAT Plan, I include two servings of fruit per day: one at breakfast, and one as a snack. During this part of the plan, when we’re working hard to optimize weight loss and fat burning, I suggest that you limit yourself to apples, berries, and grapefruit because, compared with other fruits, they’re a bit higher in fiber, lower in sugar, and better at burning fat. During the 14-day RESTORE Plan and the lifetime MAINTAIN Plan, you can widen your selection and choose any kind of fruit.
Fruit contains a cornucopia of nutritional benefits. Here are some of them:
Fruits are high in dietary fiber (soluble and insoluble). Since I’ve already explained this and I don’t want to get into too-much-information territory here, suffice it to say that processed foods are digested quickly, but fruit and other high-fiber food stays in the digestive tract long enough to allow satiety hormones time to send your brain plenty of “I’m full” signals.
The fiber in fruit doesn’t just keep hunger pangs at bay: studies show it helps lower the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. And it helps keep your bowels functioning normally. Unfortunately, fruit juice has most of the fiber removed (more on this later), which is why I always suggest eating whole fruit or blending whole fruit into a smoothie.
Fruit contains a natural sugar known as fructose. Although it is a kind of sugar, the fructose in whole fruit does not raise your blood sugar
the way added sugar in processed foods does.
The sugar in fruit is far different from processed cane sugar, corn syrup, and other sweeteners added to soda, cookies, cakes, and just about every other processed food out there.
When you eat candy, for example, you experience a rapid blood sugar response as glucose is dumped into your bloodstream right away. But when you eat a piece of fruit, the fructose within it takes awhile to have an effect on blood sugar because it’s hidden away within the fruit’s dietary fiber—basically a fibrous net of cell walls.
Because your body has to work hard to break down the dietary fiber in fruit, eating it slows down digestion, giving you a feeling of fullness that you are less likely to get from low-fiber foods. It also allows blood sugar to rise gradually rather than rapidly, as it does when you eat candy or other food with lots of added sugar.
You may think of bacteria and other microbes as being “bad.” Some are—for example, E. coli can be toxic and can make you very sick. But our intestines are full of “good” bacteria and other microorganisms that assist in digestion, boost our immune systems, keep us regular, and do lots of other good things. Eating fruit helps keep your intestinal flora healthy.
The huge range of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants in fruit help lower the risk of a variety of diseases, including cancer and heart disease. The potassium in certain fruits (including cantaloupe, papaya, bananas, oranges, and berries) can help lower blood pressure and contribute to bone and kidney health. The vitamin C in many fruits helps the immune system fight disease and heal wounds. Other nutrients in fruit benefit your body pretty much from head to toe, contributing to everything from brain fitness to the healthy appearance of your skin, hair, and nails.
| IN THE SAME 2013 STUDY OF 71,000 SWEDISH ADULTS CITED EARLIER, PEOPLE WHO ATE AT LEAST ONE SERVING OF FRUIT DAILY LIVED 19 MONTHS LONGER THAN THOSE WHO NEVER ATE FRUIT. |
YOUR FRUIT-LICIOUS LIST
There’s more to fruit than apples, oranges, and bananas. The best way to get a wide range of nutrients is to eat a wide range of fruits. When you’re at the grocery store or farmer’s market, consider popping lots of different fruits into your basket, including:
apricots
blackberries
blueberries
cantaloupe melon
cherries
gooseberries
grapefruit
grapes
honeydew melon
kiwi fruit
mangoes
nectarines
papaya
peaches