I knew nothing about greens and beans, nuts and fruit and seeds, until I found Dr. Joel Fuhrman's book - unread - in the Library: Eat To Live. He has several other excellent books.
I ran out of ancient history documentaries, so I tried Nutrition as an Amazon Prime option (no cost). That revealed two major speakers/writers on the topic.
Rip Esselstyn Engine #2 - The Engine 2 Diet: The Texas Firefighter's 28-Day Save-Your-Life Plan that Lowers Cholesterol and Burns Away the Pounds. He was an athlete and showed his buddies how to have much better meals.
Dr. Michael Greger - website - https://nutritionfacts.org/ - packed with brief descriptions and videos on all the issues, easy to read, impossible to read it all. Also, two cheerful books -
- How Not To Die
- How Not To Age
Rip Esselstyn goes to people's homes and goes through their groceries, pointing out how gross their selections are, making a meal out of delicious and nutritious foods.
My point is that any two of these authors will serve as great introductions in replacing the junk food we eat on a regular basis. Self-education is the best route, because we can feel the difference and weigh less in a week or less.
Some of it is obvious -
Drop:
- All milk products, including cheese, cottage cheese, yogurt, milk, and - sob - ice cream.
- High salt items, easily spotted on food labels - pizzas, packaged frozen meals, most loaves of bread, chips, popcorn, high-salt beans, sausage, dried meat.
- Sugar based food - ice cream and milk, all juices (just sugar water with a pill), frozen desserts (so obvious), candy, chocolates, many prepared foods.
- In short, Schwan's Frozen Foods, mostly sugar-salt-fat.
That does not mean dropping everything at once. For example, it takes time to eject favorites from our normal eating habits. Chopped greens are loaded with nutrition, including calcium and protein! I thought greens were just for poor people, because leafy greens are very inexpensive and tasteless. Last night my supper consisted of two pears and spinach leaves - nutrition and fiber galore. Now I can see why so many professional athletes come from poverty - they could not afford sugar-salt-fat frozen meals and treats.
Replace Sugar-Salt-Fat Opiates With:
Leafy Greens - I had to shock my body into eating greens by making a stew for lunch. The two quart pan gets half full with chopped frozen greens - spinach (my favorite), turnip greens, collards, and kale. Here is the kale list, as Greger says - "Kale beats them all." Now I mix chopped kale with one of the other three greens or maybe two. So kale is the champion and also hard to find at the biggest Walmart in Arkansas.
Kale is a popular vegetable and a member of the cabbage family.
It is a cruciferous vegetable and is closely related to cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, collard greens, and Brussels sprouts.
There are many different types of kale. The leaves can be green or purple, and have either a smooth or curly shape.
The most common type of kale is called curly kale or Scots kale, which has green and curly leaves with a hard, fibrous stem.
A single cup, or 21 grams (g), of raw kale contains (
- Calories: 7
- Carbs: 1 g
- Fiber: 1 g
- Vitamin K: 68% of the Daily Value (DV)
- Vitamin C: 22% of the DV
- Manganese: 8% of the DV
- Vitamin A: 6% of the DV
- Riboflavin: 5% of the DV
- Calcium: 4% of the DV
Each serving also contains a small amount of folate, vitamin B6, potassium, magnesium, and iron.
Adding more kale to your diet is a great way to boost your intake of these key vitamins and minerals, along with other important nutrients. Kale is low in calories and contains several important nutrients, including vitamin K, vitamin C, and manganese."
Four or more fruits a day - delicious and fibery. Natural sugar is slowed down by fiber, because the Creator fashioned fruits to taste great while slowing down the digestion process. We love candy and ice cream because they provide an instant lift when we feel hungry, depressed, or too hurried to get a real meal. Fiber lets the bacteria break down and re-shape the ingredients in food. Fiber also turns off the instant eating cycle where an empty stomach releases sugar and fat effortlessly.
Nuts - walnuts and almonds reduce high cholesterol levels. Which one tastes better - a statin pill (which interferes with digestion) or nuts. I eat one or two handfuls of walnuts each day and my cholesterol went down to normal. I refused statins because I know their history. We can get sugar-salty nuts, which cost more, but ordinary nuts will provide a delicious alternative to iatrogenic disorders (meaning - caused by a doctor). I use iatrogenic with each new doctor, which is not unlike flashing my NRA card when a policeman stops me. I use stickers on the car and the house.
Vegetables - know your medicines! My parents tried hard to make us eat the vegetables they grew on the farm, growing up. They said, "At least try one portion!" Dad would encourage us by saying, "You know what you kids are? Spoiled. SPOILED ROTTEN!" We hung our heads and waited for dessert, which my parents loved and my father manufactured at Melo Cream Donuts. I like frozen vegetables but canned will do. Note that "seasoned" frozen vegetables cost a lot more because they have added salt and some seasoning to the package, jacking up price.
The Lord of Creation fashioned all kinds of vegetables to enjoy, a giant medicine cabinet filled with a wide variety of cures, starting with the dangers of being overweight. For that we need to educate ourselves on a regular basis. The ingredients found on vitamin pill containers are much better in the food. If you doubt the value of a vegetable, Google "the nutritional value of..." and insert the vegetable or fruit or nut. Healthline offers 10 science-based benefits from Cicero Peas (chick was his name in Latin) or chickpeas.
"A 1-cup (164-gram) serving of cooked chickpeas offers (
- Calories: 269
- Protein: 14.5 grams
- Fat: 4 grams
- Carbs: 45 grams
- Fiber: 12.5 grams
- Manganese: 74% of the Daily Value (DV)
- Folate (vitamin B9): 71% of the DV
- Copper: 64% of the DV
- Iron: 26% of the DV
- Zinc: 23% of the DV
- Phosphorus: 22% of the DV
- Magnesium: 19% of the DV
- Thiamine: 16% of the DV
- Vitamin B6: 13% of the DV
- Selenium: 11% of the DV
- Potassium: 10% of the DV
As you can see, this legume is a particularly good source of the mineral manganese and the B vitamin folate."
Seeds - I began to see the value of seeds as I did nutritional searches on them. I started with ground flax seeds, very inexpensive but also anti-cancer and a lot of nutrition. Sesame seeds cost a bit more. I have added anise seeds to lunch because they have a unique flavor at a very low cost.
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| Rip Esselstyn saved on buying KALE shirts rather than YALE. |
