[graciegirl]

Here is an article that I found pretty much agreeable to my philosophy of a healthy diet and continued healthy lifestyle. I agree that extreme diets may not be easily sustainable and people lose their enthusiasm for them over time.

The 7 Habits of Highly Successful Eaters « Real Life Nutrition

I try to always prepare and serve our plates with the most part COLORFUL fruit and vegetables with small portions of meat or fish. (about four ounces before cooking for dinner, about two ounces or less for lunch.) I try to limit the fat in sauces. I try to avoid preserved lunch meats of any kind. I feel that we need some idodized salt to keep our thyroid functioning properly. High fat salty snacks aren't great for you either, we know that we can't just eat ONE potato chip.

I try to limit sweets to special times and not every day. I encourage a lot of water drinking. We drink milk and put it in our coffee...which I believe is good for you...Coffee and especially skim milk. There are very few fruits and vegetable that don't appear on our table on a regular basis and we know the difference between high starch vegetables and high fiber ones.

I am not concerned as much as some about food processing. The benefits of preservation in lack of spoilage are real. I try to prepare food "from scratch" as much as possible and am always a little sceptical about claims of produce being raised without insecticides etc. How can we really know? So I try not to worry about it. I favor fish and chicken over pork and beef as far as what I serve most. But I do prepare the red meats a couple of times a week. I don't worry about white flour but try to get whole grain bread most of the time. I also don't think that honey or maple syrup affect us any differently than brown or white sugar. Sugar is sugar. I think we don't need much in the way of carbohydrates in our diets.

I try to keep moving. I used to jog and now I walk. I used to play tennis and now I hope that the frequent golf kind of makes up for it a little. I clean my own house and pull weeds out of our beds and when it gets cooler I will mow the lawn again. I like to dance and I really need to start biking. But...I don't want to fall.

My Sweetie is always on the go and fixing things all around the house, planting stuff, dragging stuff around for me and he plays a lot of golf and walks with me. Our daughter walks in the house 30 minutes each morning. We are no longer in our fifties or sixties when we really moved a lot more.

We all blessedly at this point feel good and have good test results from our twice a year check ups.

I don't expect, or encourage or suggest anyone do anything like I do. This works for me and for us.

Most of us know what we are doing right or wrong.

[jimbo2012]

Originally Posted by graciegirl

I like to dance and I really need to start biking. But...I don't want to fall..

U need your exercise

How about one of these for U & sweetie



or for 1

[Villages PL]

Originally Posted by graciegirl

I try to always prepare and serve our plates with the most part COLORFUL fruit and vegetables with small portions of meat or fish. (about four ounces before cooking for dinner, about two ounces or less for lunch.) I try to limit the fat in sauces. I try to avoid preserved lunch meats of any kind. I feel that we need some idodized salt to keep our thyroid functioning properly. High fat salty snacks aren't great for you either, we know that we can't just eat ONE potato chip.

It's not my ideal diet but it sounds okay. About iodine: I used to think I needed iodized salt too. But then I found that onions are a good source of iodine. And other vegetables contain various amounts of iodine depending on the soil they are grown in. However, I have salt from the health-food store. It's unprocessed and has lots of natural minerals. I don't use very much though.

I try to limit sweets to special times and not every day. I encourage a lot of water drinking. We drink milk and put it in our coffee...which I believe is good for you...Coffee and especially skim milk. There are very few fruits and vegetable that don't appear on our table on a regular basis and we know the difference between high starch vegetables and high fiber ones.

Okay, except I don't understand why you think milk is good for you. If it's skim milk and just in your coffee, perhaps there's no harm done. I just hope you don't drink too much coffee. Coffee and milk add to the acid load on the body. If you eat eggs in the morning with buttered toast, and then coffee with milk, you have a meal that puts a very high acid load on the body.

I am not concerned as much as some about food processing. The benefits of preservation in lack of spoilage are real. I try to prepare food "from scratch" as much as possible and am always a little sceptical about claims of produce being raised without insecticides etc. How can we really know? So I try not to worry about it. I favor fish and chicken over pork and beef as far as what I serve most. But I do prepare the red meats a couple of times a week. I don't worry about white flour but try to get whole grain bread most of the time. I also don't think that honey or maple syrup affect us any differently than brown or white sugar. Sugar is sugar. I think we don't need much in the way of carbohydrates in our diets.

About insecticides: I don't worry about that either. Whatever amount it is, it's very minute and our liver takes care of filtering it out. About white flour: If whole grain is okay with you, why not get it all the time? About chicken and fish: Not bad if you stick to one serving about the size of the palm of your hand. About red meat: There were two articles in The Daily Sun about some research done at Harvard. The conclusion was that there's no safe amount of red meat. It was based an a very large long term study. About maple syrup and honey: Bravo! You got that exactly right. Sugar is sugar. And, yes, we "don't need much in the way of carbohydrates in our diets."

Most of us know what we are doing right or wrong.

I'm not so sure about that. I sometimes go to other websites where people ask questions about diet and nutrition. I am often amazed at how little people know about food. Most of what they do is based on habits passed down from their plarents. Or else they pick up bad habits from advertising or their friends, like juicing.

Most people are overweight and they say that about 80% of diets fail. If most people know what they're doing wrong, I don't think that would be the case.

[Figmo Bohica]

Remember the old saying: Wine, Women and Singing. Well, after years of research scientists have discovered that SINGING is the cause of old age. So I have quite singing.

[Villages PL]

Article in the Daily Sun: "Study red flags red meat consumption" by MCCLATCHY newspapers.

This study, by Harvard researchers, followed the health and eating habits of 110,000 adults for over 20 years.

One 3 oz. serving per day increased the risk of dying by 13% during the study.

Processed meat raised the risk by 20%. (i.e.,bacon, hot dogs, lunch meat etc.)

Any amount of red meat will increase your risk of mortality. That was the conclusion of this study by the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.

---------------------

Soy Study: In Hawaii, 17,000 men were followed for 30+ years.

Conclusion: Regular tofu consumption in midlife and beyond, caused accelerated brain aging/atrophy. The subjects were tested periodically and were 71 to 93 when the final test was given.

The above study was reported by Roy Walford, M.D., in his book, "Beyond The 120 Year Diet". Walford was considered to be an expert in the field of gerontology. He didn't mention who did the study but said he thought it was a well done study. I don't think he was biased because he also mentioned a lot of good things about soy.

[senior citizen]

Originally Posted by Figmo Bohica

Remember the old saying: Wine, Women and Singing. Well, after years of research scientists have discovered that SINGING is the cause of old age. So I have quite singing.

Very very very cute !! May you live to a ripe old age. God Bless.
To me, a sense of humor and a jolly personality will extend your life.

Often we get mixed messages from all these fitness guru's out there.
Bob Harper, known for his work on the Biggest Loser, used to exclaim how his switch to the vegan diet plus his love of animals, etc. was the way to go.

I recently read his newest book on my Kindle..........

I was suprised to read he's now advocating protein and things he had not allowed prior...........again, mixed messages........although he does mention free range chickens and such.........lots of fish, etc.

We watched that Tarpon Springs Florida young man lose all the weight, down from 480 or so, down to the high 200's........a few days ago.
Other than the first segment showing him with a nutritionist that Bob Harper had chosen........they never really showed exactly what he ate every day for the ONE YEAR.............other than showing the extreme exercise of pushing or pulling that "sled"; I worried he would get a heart attack. Terrible. He should have been allowed to lose some of the weight first before exercising like that....of course,he was young.

Then, to have all that skin cut off.......

Getting back to Bob Harper.........

The new kindle book.....was quite different than his viewpoints in the past. It was still heavy on healthy foods, but he added back the fish and meat..........so I guess his life of being a vegan is over???????

He had interesting segments on which foods aggravate inflammation in the body (arthritis, etc.)

However, if you go to his OLD fitness articles, he is totally vegan.

Wonder why he now is on the meat bandwagon?
Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 2012
THE LAST DIET BOOK YOU’LL EVER NEED

With so much conflicting weight-loss advice out there to confuse your efforts, it’s no wonder you haven’t been successful losing weight and keeping it off. But with Bob Harper, superstar trainer and co-host of NBC’s hit show The Biggest Loser as your personal authority and coach, you can and will finally shed the pounds—whether you want to lose two or two hundred!

Distilling Bob’s vast knowledge of nutrition, weight-loss strategy, and human nature down to twenty simple, nonnegotiable principles, The Skinny Rules will help you step away from a reliance on processed foods and the need for so much sweet and salt and step into a newly thin lifestyle. And Bob’s methods couldn’t be more straightforward.

Taking the guesswork out of implementing the Skinny Rules, Bob offers a month’s worth of menu plans and more than 90 delicious, rule-abiding recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks to keep you cooking and eating skinny for life. You’ll be happily astounded to see the variety and volume of the tasty food on your plate! He also includes terrific tips for what to stock in your fridge and what to prepare every weekend in order to set yourself up for success during your too-busy-to-cook weekdays.

A virtual GPS to your weight-loss goals, The Skinny Rules takes the mystery out of the process, offering the fastest route to your skinny destination.

LOSING WEIGHT IS NOW AS SIMPLE AS 1-2-3 . . . AND 3-15-18-20 TOO!

Rule #3: Eat protein at every meal, making some kind of fish your go-to protein as often as you can. Take your weight and divide it by two—that’s more or less how much protein you should be eating in grams every day.

Rule #15: Eat at least ten meals a week at home (and cook them yourself). Restaurant portions are usually 40 to 50 percent bigger than what you’d serve at home—the more you eat out, the more you overeat. Set yourself up for success by preparing my turkey meatballs, hummus, and roasted vegetables on the weekend so that you will have go-to staples and no excuses!

Rule #18: Go to bed slightly hungry. Denied fuel for more than five hours, your body will start burning its own fat and sugar. Make a point not to eat after dinner and you’ll be burning fat while you’re sleeping.

Rule #20: Enjoy a splurge meal once a week. Unlike episodic bingeing, splurge meals are an ingredient in your diet. When you plan something, you are in control.

[graciegirl]

Originally Posted by Villages PL

Article in the Daily Sun: "Study red flags red meat consumption" by MCCLATCHY newspapers.

This study, by Harvard researchers, followed the health and eating habits of 110,000 adults for over 20 years.

One 3 oz. serving per day increased the risk of dying by 13% during the study.

Processed meat raised the risk by 20%. (i.e.,bacon, hot dogs, lunch meat etc.)

Any amount of red meat will increase your risk of mortality. That was the conclusion of this study by the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.

---------------------

Soy Study: In Hawaii, 17,000 men were followed for 30+ years.

Conclusion: Regular tofu consumption in midlife and beyond, caused accelerated brain aging/atrophy. The subjects were tested periodically and were 71 to 93 when the final test was given.

The above study was reported by Roy Walford, M.D., in his book, "Beyond The 120 Year Diet". Walford was considered to be an expert in the field of gerontology. He didn't mention who did the study but said he thought it was a well done study. I don't think he was biased because he also mentioned a lot of good things about soy.

Here is a pretty good summary of the study recently published by Harvard School of Public Health. It shows further findings of less frequent red meat eating than a serving every day.

Red meat raises red flags | Harvard Gazette

Maybe our burgers will switch to ground chicken.

[jimbo2012]

Originally Posted by graciegirl

Maybe our burgers will switch to ground chicken.

Try a little harder to be healthier at least make them turkey not chicken.

[Villages PL]

Originally Posted by senior citizen

Often we get mixed messages from all these fitness guru's out there.
Bob Harper, known for his work on the Biggest Loser, used to exclaim how his switch to the vegan diet plus his love of animals, etc. was the way to go.

Mixed messages means that you need some experience so as to read between the lines.

I recently read his newest book on my Kindle..........

I was suprised to read he's now advocating protein and things he had not allowed prior...........again, mixed messages........although he does mention free range chickens and such.........lots of fish, etc.

Mixed messages, yes, but it shouldn't be that difficult to figure out. There are two possible explanations: 1) When some people try to live the vegan lifestyle, they may become addicted to "high carbs" and meat is often the solution to breaking that addiction. 2) Some people find that they can't sustain a vegan lifestyle because they don't particularly like fruits and non-starchy vegetables. So the solution, for them, is to go back to eating animal protein. (Item 1 & 2 above are closely related....they often become addicted to high carbs because they don't like fruit and vegetables.)

Also, if you want to write a book and have it be a big seller, it had better not be about Veganism. A 2011 Vegetarian Resource Group National Poll stated that only 3% of Americans say they are Vegans.

[jimbo2012]

Originally Posted by Villages PL

There are probably not more than 100,000 - 200,000 vegans in all of the U.S. population.

Way more than that

So how many vegetarians and vegans are there in the U.S.?

The Huffington Post article reported on information supplied by the Vegetarian Resource Group the following statistics:

Vegetarians — 16 million, 5% of the population
Vegans — 8 million (of the above group), 2.5 percent of the population
The vegan population in the U.S. has doubled since 2009.

The This means that 7.5 million people in the U.S. now eat diets that do not include any animal products. The study also revealed that 33% of Americans are eating vegan/vegetarian meals more often, though they are not vegan or vegetarian. That is over 100 million people, or one third of the country consciously choosing more plant-based foods!

[graciegirl]

Originally Posted by jimbo2012

Way more than that

So how many vegetarians and vegans are there in the U.S.?

The Huffington Post article reported on information supplied by the Vegetarian Resource Group the following statistics:

Vegetarians — 16 million, 5% of the population
Vegans — 8 million (of the above group), 2.5 percent of the population
The vegan population in the U.S. has doubled since 2009.

The This means that 7.5 million people in the U.S. now eat diets that do not include any animal products. The study also revealed that 33% of Americans are eating vegan/vegetarian meals more often, though they are not vegan or vegetarian. That is over 100 million people, or one third of the country consciously choosing more plant-based foods!

I really appreciate your unflagging enthusiasm with what is best for us and I mean that. I firmly think that eating vegetables is yummy and good for you but..........

too much of the same song kinda makes me remember why I didn't want to join the church that said only their bunch would get in the pearly gates on judgement day.

Be a good example is the best policy. You can catch more flies with...

if you wanna catch flies.

Plus the article quoted above. No one has ever asked me what I ate...so they missed me for sure in those statistics. Helene and Sweetie didn't get asked either...I will check with the grandkids.

[jimbo2012]

Originally Posted by Villages PL

Soy Study: In Hawaii, 17,000 men were followed for 30+ years.

Conclusion: Regular tofu consumption in midlife and beyond, caused accelerated brain aging/atrophy. The subjects were tested periodically and were 71 to 93 when the final test was given.

The above study was reported by Roy Walford, M.D., in his book, "Beyond The 120 Year Diet". Walford was considered to be an expert in the field of gerontology. He didn't mention who did the study but said he thought it was a well done study. I don't think he was biased because he also mentioned a lot of good things about soy.

That study is pretty old and no one else followed up with similar studies, so I take it with a grain of sea salt

Dr Esselstyn says here

Soy products – What about soy products?

Soy products are 40% fat and most of them are highly processed. An excess of soy protein may stimulate insulin growth factor, which is a tumor promoter.

Eat soy products cautiously.

So it's ok, but not everyday and just read the label.

[senior citizen]

Originally Posted by graciegirl

I really appreciate your unflagging enthusiasm with what is best for us and I mean that. I firmly think that eating vegetables is yummy and good for you but..........

too much of the same song kinda makes me remember why I didn't want to join the church that said only their bunch would get in the pearly gates on judgement day.

Be a good example is the best policy. You can catch more flies with...

if you wanna catch flies.

Ditto, Gracie. Preaching is a turnoff. I always tell my hubby that we all can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

I love veggies and always have; plus beans, lentils, fruits, etc.

Do NOT like whole grain or whole wheat pasta....at all , period.

Love oatmeal made from scratch.

Deep dark green veggies like spinach, kale, escarole, etc. in soups which are home made during the winter time...........

We eat very little red meat at all..........however, yesterday we did enjoy some kabobs which had small chunks of filet mignon, big mushrooms caps, red and green pepper squares. I marinated them in Italian dressing before he put them on the grill........then gave him some Greek Seasoning to sprinkle over.......mint, oregano, garlic, sea salt etc. Delish.

Everyone needs some hemme iron every now and then...........

SOY IS NOT GOOD FOR EVERYONE. IT ACTUALLY CAN BE DETRIMENTAL TO ONE'S HEALTH.

Olive oil is considered healthy as part of the Meditteranean Diet Plan.
My ancestors used it "forever" and all lived long long healthy lives.

I know how to cook well balanced meals without using processed foods or going through the drive up window.

However, it's the preaching and lack of consideration for other's viewpoints or life experience............no one particular person do I have in mind. It's all a blur after awhile............

I will also restate that mostly all of the ones we've known who died young were excruciatingly skinny......to the point of extreme.......
Who knows why? Maybe it was just their time. Maybe they didn't eat but drank themselves to death........or maybe they were secret smokers.
It shows up as wrinkles.

A well balanced diet of all the food groups, used in moderation with a "happy heart" and consideration towards others to just let everyone "live and let live" to me would be ideal.

I do realize that when some people find a new "life path" they get all excited and want to share and change everyone around them........however, it's better not to be so stringent about it all.

In our local morning paper today, our town is giving out FREE summer breakfasts and lunches to children 18 years old and under until school starts again..........we were just saying, "Can't the 18 year olds make themselves a peanut butter sandwich?".........go figure.

I always made our two children three meals a day with snacks inbetween.
They always were thin and healthy and still are..........everything in moderation. I had friends who "rationed" the food and their kids are fat today. Again, go figure. Not all, but it seems that some young moms don't know how to cook anymore..........

Our entire country has turned towards socialism. I've changed the topic.

[Villages PL]

Originally Posted by jimbo2012

That study is pretty old and no one else followed up with similar studies, so I take it with a grain of sea salt

Dr Esselstyn says here

Soy products – What about soy products?

Soy products are 40% fat and most of them are highly processed. An excess of soy protein may stimulate insulin growth factor, which is a tumor promoter.

Eat soy products cautiously.

So it's ok, but not everyday and just read the label.

As I recall, I didn't use a lot. Perhaps one cup of soymilk per day when I was eating cereal. But I no longer eat boxed cereals so I don't need soymilk. I cook steel-cut oats in water.

Sometimes I would buy roasted (unsalted) soy nuts and/or soybeans at the health food store. I didn't eat a lot of either one. I would occasionally use the soy beans in soups but soy beans don't taste that great so I don't miss them. The roasted soy nuts came in handy as part of a snack. But I don't miss them either.

What I noticed after several years of using these soy products was difficulty in retrieving words and names. I found it embarrassing the number of times I had stop and ask someone to help me find a word or name. Now that I have stopped using soy, that problem has been greatly reduced. Sure, if it's a name or word that I don't use very often, it can still happen. But it's not anything like it was before.

After that experience, I'm not likely to go back to it.

Thanks for the link. I made a note of Esselstyn's book title and will put it on my list of books to eventually read.

[Villages PL]

Originally Posted by jimbo2012

Way more than that

So how many vegetarians and vegans are there in the U.S.?

The Huffington Post article reported on information supplied by the Vegetarian Resource Group the following statistics:

Vegetarians — 16 million, 5% of the population
Vegans — 8 million (of the above group), 2.5 percent of the population
The vegan population in the U.S. has doubled since 2009.

The This means that 7.5 million people in the U.S. now eat diets that do not include any animal products. The study also revealed that 33% of Americans are eating vegan/vegetarian meals more often, though they are not vegan or vegetarian. That is over 100 million people, or one third of the country consciously choosing more plant-based foods!

As soon as I posted I figured I might be wrong so I did a search and came up with 3% of the U.S. population. I went back to make the change (edited my post) but apparently I wasn't fast enough.