Eating healthy is a bit complicated these days because of all the new foods we eat and ways we process our food. I think the simplest way to eat healthy without learning too much is to just think about eating real, simple food that people would have eaten 100 years ago. It's one principle that will result in you eating much healthier food. Some of the processed food we eat today is healthy but most of it is not. Most is either made for convenience or is being driven into our diet because someone is making a lot of money selling it to us.
I'm on a strict diet right now of nothing but meat, vegetables, fruit, yogurt and a bit of cheese, and the occasional bowl of brown rice. It's boring and repetitive, but it's really healthy.
Here's a few tips:
- Make sure you get enough protein everyday. Most of the functions in the body require protein to run properly. Humans can't generate protein, we need to get it from our diet. So you need to eat enough protein. If you insist on being vegetarian, you'll need to eat a lot of vegetable protein sources which will probably be your number one challenge. Soy is not the best primary source for lots of protein. They don't eat soy like we do in Asia, it's only eaten cultured and it's a side dish, not a main course so it's best to follow that and only eat soy in cultrured forms on the side. Beans, eggs and milk products, etc are good.
- Use olive oil if you're not cooking at very high temperatures. For high heat, use coconut oil or avocado oil. The rest of the oils are prone to going rancid because the way they are processed leaves them unstable. Most Americans eat mostly rancid oil which causes all kinds of health problems. The oils I listed above are expensive, but if you get 365 or Trader Joes brands, it's not bad. 365 makes an avocado oil. For coconut oil, get extra virgin. It's a delicious oil and smells amazing. Butter and ghee are also very stable, and non-hydrogenated saturated fat isn't actually bad for you as long as it's not your main cooking oil. We need some saturated fat in our diet. Removing all saturated fat isn't healthy. More important is to avoid rancid oil. Don't eat deep fried food. The oil they use is not stable at the temps they deep fry at, and so it is oxidized and rancid and you're soaking your food in it. Also store your cooking oil in the dark with the cap on, and buy small bottles of popular brands to make sure they stay fresh and don't sit at the store or in your kitchen for too long. Sunlight and air are what make oils go rancid.
- Eat lots of vegetables and fruit. Any way you want or can. If you can't get fresh stuff, get frozen. You can get packs of frozen vegetable mixes at Whole Foods and if you need a quick snack you can microwave one of these, add some kind of bottled sauce (with simple real ingredients) or olive oil, lemon, soy sauce, whatever. Avoid fruit products with lots of added sugar.
- Avoid empty carbs. Generally foods like rice, potatoes, bread, etc are not very nutrient dense. If you eat them in their whole grain state, it's better, but you're getting a lot of calories with less nutrients in these foods so try not eating too much. This is difficult as a vegetarian, I think most vegetarians wind up loading up on carbs which is much worse than eating meat. But some is ok for most people. Avoid things like white rice and white flour or any other processed grains all together. They're even less nutrient dense. If you eat potatoes, eat the skins.
- Since you're vegetarian, get some fish oil supplements. My nutritionist recommends NOW brand Super EPA because it's cheap and she knows it is pure. I take 5 of those per day w/food. It depends on where your ancestors lived, but most people lived near water until very recently and ate lots of fish. It takes several generations to adjust to different diets so our bodies are setup to be getting lots of fish oil. Even if you eat meat, you can't eat that much fish because of the Mercury content among other things. So fish oil is a good way to get those Omegas that our bodies are used to getting. Keep fish oil supplements in the freezer to keep them from going rancid.
Edited by rhythmdevils - 10/15/11 at 8:26pm
