EAT FRESH, WEIGH LESS
Part 3 of 10
By Deborah Kesten and Larry Scherwitz
Part of me wants to go back in time…creating a golden world of fresh food, gorgeous ingredients, wholesome food with flavor. Where people laugh and are really happy as they eat.
— Restaurant critic Patricia Wells,
“A Gourmet’s Recipe for Culinary Bliss”
Some say it’s “snack crack.” Or an “industrial artifact.” Corporations may call it a “commodity.” Our friend and colleague, naturopathic physician Bruce Milliman, describes it as “ersatz food,” meaning that it’s an inferior substitute imitating an original. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) likens it to “food porn,” while many others call it fast food. We call it “foodish food.”
What’s all the brouhaha about? A daily diet of denatured, processed, chemical-laden food. Perhaps a donut, breakfast bar, or sugary cereal for breakfast; Chicken McNuggets or a McDonald’s double-cheese burger with a Coke for lunch; and a pepperoni and sausage pizza, delivered from your nearby pizza parlor, for dinner. Add several soft drinks sipped throughout the day and some snacks of chips, cookies, or candy bars, and you have a profile of Fast Foodism, the eating style we’ve identified that’s typical for millions of Americans; indeed, for more and more people, worldwide.
Not surprisingly, the Fast Foodism eating style powerfully ups the odds of being overweight or obese. And if you’re a “fast fooder,” you’re also much more susceptible to a plethora of other life-threatening conditions—from heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure to depression, ongoing inflammation, certain cancers, and more. In other words, if your most-of-the-time way of eating is foodish food, it threatens more, much more, than your waistline. Here, we’ll tell you why—and what you can do about it.
Raising Cain
Scan the news on any given day and you’re likely to find headlines that herald Fast Foodism as a threat that’s bigger than global warming, terrorism, even today’s debt crisis. A sampling: “It’s a fat, fat, fat, fat world: America’s blueprint for poor eating is being spread around the planet”; “Junk-food makers face FTC (Federal Trade Commission) scrutiny: with childhood obesity rates rising, a group of food companies could be forced to disclose details on marketing to feds”; and “Sugar coated: We’re drowning in high fructose corn syrup: do the risks go beyond our waistline?”
Why is fast-food fare raising so much Cain? A closer look at what fast food manufacturers process out of food, and what they add, will give you a better understanding of why we say fast food isn’t really food in the traditional sense—it’s foodish food, ersatz sort-of-like-food food, but not real food—and why the modifications that make it, well, fast food, can contribute to your growing girth.
TAKE-AWAYs: The Start of Foodish Food
In the 1750s in England, the invention of machinery used in manufacturing changed the way we make food forever. It was the roller mill, especially—huge cylinders that could crush and separate the wheat kernel into its elements of flour, germ, and bran (please see “The Whole Grain Kernel” illustration for more about this)—that made the difference.
More than a century later, porcelain mills enabled manufacturers to make white flour—in lieu of whole-wheat flour—inexpensively; ergo, white flour became a popular, easily available staple for the masses. At the time, it was called “separated food” because the mill separated the bran, germ, and endosperm (flour) elements of the wheat kernel.
Today we call white flour “refined” or “processed.” This means that the health-enhancing “good” fats, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants (that protect body cells from the damaging effects of oxidation), and phytochemicals (naturally occurring substances in plant-based foods that have beneficial health effects) found in the germ, have been “refined” out; health-friendly bran, too, has been ousted. What’s left is the white flour, the endosperm part of the kernel, which consists mostly of refined carbohydrates and some protein along with an unbalanced ratio of macronutrients (fat, carbohydrates, protein) and micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, etc.).
Does it make a difference to you if the vitamin-rich germ and fiber-rich bran have been removed from the original kernel? Absolutely. Not only does this seemingly innocuous step create an imbalance of nutrients on which humankind had thrived for millennia, when these processed grains became the norm by the late 1800s, they led to an epidemic of malnourishment-like diseases such as beri beri and pellagra (caused by a deficiency of the B-vitamins, thiamine and niacin, respectively, in the diet).
Today, the idea that consuming too much denatured fast food can lead to malnourishment may seem incredulous. After all, if you’re overweight or obese—as more than two-thirds of Americans are—how, at the same time, could you also be undernourished and poorly fed? What’s been taken out of processed foods gives us some clues, while the following four fast-food add-ins give you more than clues, they provide answers—to why eating too much foodish food can cause you to pack on pounds.
ADD-INs: Four Weight Boosters in Fast Food
From fried fish, fries, and chicken to hamburgers and pizza, much of the “food” served in fast-food restaurants such as McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken is familiar to most of us. What may be less well known is that most of the food is highly processed, often prepared in bulk at industrialized central locations, and then shipped to each restaurant. It is during the processing that a seemingly simple item, say white flour–based burger buns, becomes high-calorie, high-fat, sugar-laden foodish food. And not only is lots of fat and sugar added, but the type of fat that’s often used—partially hydrogenated oil—is so toxic to your health and waistline that some places, including New York City, have banned its use in restaurants. And then there are all those highly processed sweeteners used by fast-food manufacturers that wreak havoc with your weight.
Researcher Robert Lustig, professor of pediatrics at UCSF (University of California, San Francisco) Children’s Hospital, describes the fast-food “fat-track problem” this way: “Our current Western food environment has become highly ‘insulinogenic,’ as demonstrated by its increased energy density (caloric intake), high fat content, high glycemic index, increased fructose composition, [and] decreased fiber . . . .” After conducting a large-scale review (called a meta-analysis) of obesity research, Lustig concluded that too much processed fructose (a type of sugar) and not enough fiber “appear to be cornerstones of the obesity epidemic through their effects on insulin.”1
To give you a sense of the problematic ingredients added to fast food that are posing serious health problems for you, here’s a closer look at four “silent killers” that warrant your attention and concern: white flour, high fructose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated oil, and too many calories.
Enriched bleached flour. Denatured white flour (see the “Take Aways” section in this post for more about this) together with no fiber to slow down the absorption of food creates a formula for making and retaining fat. In other words, when you consume lots of white-flour products, you increase your chances of gaining weight because these foods are absorbed quickly by your body. Why? When you consume processed foods that are quickly absorbed by the body, levels of glucose (sugar) and insulin (a hormone or “chemical messenger”) rise, along with the amount of circulating fat.
High fructose corn syrup. Call it sugar, sucrose, fructose, maple syrup, molasses, dextrose, turbinado, amazake, sorbitol, carob powder, or high fructose corn syrup—it’s sugar. And this carbohydrate is added to many fast foods—abundantly. But the sugar that needs to really raise your pack-on-the-pounds alarm is the type of sweetener used in many fast foods (such as hamburger buns): high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Why can HFCS, especially, raise the notches on your belt? When you consume the fructose (a form of sugar that comes from fruit) in the super-processed HFCS, your brain doesn’t recognize that it’s a food, or that it has calories (energy)—although it is, indeed, calorie-dense. Instead, your brain thinks you’re starving; to compensate, it signals you to keep eating. In other words, HFCS ignites your hunger signals, and though you’re consuming lots of calories, you’re still hungry. In response, you eat more . . . and gain more weight.2
Partially hydrogenated oil. Unlike naturally occurring polyunsaturated, monounsaturated, and saturated fats in food, partially hydrogenated oil is artificially created. To do this, food manufacturers pump hydrogen atoms into liquid oils (making them “partially hydrogenated”) in order to thicken them, enhance flavor, and increase the shelf life of foods that contain them.
So what’s the problem? Why have New York and other cities banned food prepared with partially hydrogenated oils in their restaurants? The partial hydrogenation process creates trans fatty acids, commonly called trans fat. Unlike naturally occurring polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats, artificially made trans fats pose serious health risks—not only increased odds of obesity, but also of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, some cancers, and more. The siren has been sounded against trans fats—loudly—by health professionals nationwide, in Canada, and throughout Europe. The consensus: trans fat isn’t safe.
Too many calories. Denatured white flour, high fructose corn syrup, and trans fats are key players when it comes to putting on pounds, but the major player, unequivocally, is the number of sugar and fat calories in the supersized portions offered in our nation’s 300,000-plus fast-food restaurants. The arithmetic is easy: large portions of food products that are high in calories equal large waistlines. Indeed, due to supersizing and the added sugar and fat, fast-food aficionados consume about 200 calories more each day than they did a decade ago. This may not seem like much, but it could mean a gain of five pounds each year; kids can put on six pounds a year from fast food.
The bottom line: a diet of mostly foodish food plays havoc with your health and weight. Rejecting the fast-food (translation: food that makes you fat) track of denatured, fried, and sugar-, fat-, and calorie-laden foodish food, and choosing, instead, to eat differently most of the time—meaning, not as a rigid diet you go on, then off—(please see “Lose Weight Without Dieting” for more about this) may seem daunting at first. But it’s really kinda easy—if you know what to eat to be a successful loser. Here’s your primer for eating smart…and not dieting…for life.
Fast Foodism Fix
There are two simple secrets of food that provide the antidote to Fast Foodism and its unwelcome relatives: overeating, overweight, obesity, and related chronic conditions. The Fast Foodism fixes are time- and science-tested guidelines that have nourished humankind for millennia, and they’re how people who are naturally thin eat today: 1) consume fresh whole food; 2) eat inversely. Here’s what we mean.
Consume fresh whole food. What exactly are “fresh whole foods”? Our Declaration gives you a good idea.
Declaration of Fresh Whole Food
Fresh whole food is real.
Fresh whole food is natural.
Fresh whole food is nourishing.
Fresh whole food is healthful.
Fresh whole food’s original integrity is intact.
Fresh whole food offers balanced nutrients in the ratio nature intended.
- Plant-based
Here’s a primer on plant-based, fresh whole foods, along with studies that link them to weight loss:
(Note. The following foods and food groups are meant as a general guideline only. Avoid any food or food group to which you have a sensitivity, full-blown allergy, or philosophy that doesn’t support consuming a particular food or foods.)
Fruit. An apple a day may do more than keep the doctor away; it may keep you slim. When researchers from the State University of Rio De Janeiro in Brazil put two groups of women on a comparable-calorie diet, those who snacked on an apple lost more weight than those who munched on oatmeal cookies. Why might this be? With an 85 percent water content and lots of soluble fiber, apples are filling; they also keep blood sugar levels even, which cuts cravings and signals to your brain that you’re full. And because apples are a fresh, whole food, they supply the nutrients you need in the ratio intended by nature.
Vegetables. Studies have linked abundant mixed salads with weight loss. By “abundant,” we’re referring to more than the typical iceberg lettuce and tomato duo that often passes for a salad. Rather, we’re talking about a resplendent mix that might include lettuces, spinach, and arugula tossed with cherry tomatoes, chopped mushrooms, sliced cucumber, chopped red and green peppers, sliced avocado, beans, lean chicken or baked tofu, a sprinkling of chopped walnuts, grated cheese, and perhaps some raisins.
When researchers at Penn State University studied women who consumed a satisfying salad prior to eating pasta for lunch, they discovered that they ate less pasta than those who hadn’t had salad. And there are other weight-loss benefits to both fruits and vegetables: they are the only source of vitamin C. A Purdue University study suggests that vitamin C may be a significant weight-loss aid, helping you to burn fat during physical activity. In fact, this study suggests that vitamin C is a key determinant of weight loss.
Whole grains. Since whole grains were first cultivated more than ten thousand years ago, they’ve been a boon to health. Recent research from Harvard University, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, reveals that they also prevent weight gain. In a twelve-year study conducted with more than 12,000 nurses ages thirty-eight to sixty-three, researchers found that those who ate the most whole-grain foods (such as oatmeal, popcorn, wheat germ, and multigrain breakfast cereal) weighed less than those who ate the least. The difference was quite significant: women in the high whole-grain group had a 49 percent lower risk of gaining weight.
Legumes. It’s a fact. Including dried legumes such as pinto, navy, and lima beans in your diet (not green beans or soybeans) can help you lose weight. When Maurice Bennink, professor of nutrition at Michigan State University, reviewed a plethora of studies on beans published over a twenty-five-year period, he discovered compelling evidence that beans work their weight-loss wonders in three ways:
- Satiety—beans are rich in fiber, so you feel full.
- Sustained energy—beans have a very low glycemic index and thus glucose is released slowly into the bloodstream, so your blood sugar remains stable.
- Reduced odds of eating calorie-dense fast foods—consuming low-glycemic-index foods tends to lead to subsequent choices of low-glycemic-index foods.
Nuts and seeds. Although they look like nuts, taste like nuts, and crunch like nuts, technically peanuts are legumes. But because most of us relate to them as nuts, we’re telling you about the weight-management potential of fresh, raw, unroasted peanuts here in the “nuts and seeds” category. We wouldn’t call any kind of high-fat nut a weight-loss food, but you may find it useful to know that large-population studies have linked their consumption to lower weight than for non-nut consumers.
To test these results, Richard Mattes and his team in the Department of Foods and Nutrition at Purdue University studied three groups, each of which consumed 500 calories of peanuts daily for eight weeks. People in group one, who ate the peanuts without any dietary directions at all, gained an average of just 2.2 pounds; those in the second group, who added the peanuts to their usual diets, gained only one pound; and those in the third group, who were asked to follow a low-fat diet and substitute 500 calories of peanuts for 500 calories from other foods, maintained their weight.
The mechanism by which peanuts minimize weight gain or help us maintain weight isn’t completely clear. What is theorized, though, is that peanuts may work by being super filling.
- Animal-based
Where do fish, poultry, meat, and dairy fit into the whole-food picture? Technically, because they’re not plant based, fish, poultry, meat, and dairy products aren’t whole foods. Still—if you do eat animal-based food, which most of us do—it’s useful also to think of these foods in terms of “fresh” and “whole.” Here are some tips to get you started, plus some studies that link some of these foods to weight loss:
Choose fresh animal-based food instead of highly processed “products” such as salami, bacon, chicken “nuggets,” fried fish, etc.;
Avoid meat filled with hormones, antibiotics, etc.;
Find out if grass-fed beef, or free-range poultry and eggs that are hormone- and antibiotic-free, are available;
Select fresh water, and/or wild fish because fresh, wild fish is optimal for your health. Avoid farm-raised fish, if possible;
Go for dairy that is free of bovine growth hormone (BGH).
Yogurt and weight. At least one dairy food has been linked with lower weight: low-fat yogurt. When researchers at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, put people on a twelve-week weight-loss program, those who consumed three servings of yogurt daily lost twice as much weight at those who didn’t eat yogurt. The study’s lead researcher, Michael B. Zemel, speculates that the metabolic reason for this is that the calcium in yogurt combined with the bio-active compounds in yogurt speeds up the fat-burning process, at the same time decreasing the production of fat.
Fish and weight. Fish is high in protein and low in fat. And researchers at Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet found that when people ate fish for lunch, they consumed 11 percent less for dinner than those fed a beef-based lunch containing the same number of calories. It may be that fish protein is especially filling, or, suggests lead researcher Saeedah Borzoei, it could be the rich flavor of fish that satisfies. Interestingly, steamed white fish (such as halibut) ranks number one as the most filling out of thirty-eight foods in the Australian Satiety Index.
From bioactive compounds in yogurt to fiber in whole grains and apples, what fresh foods have in common is that their components add up to more than the sum of their parts. In other words, while scientists have isolated particular nutrients that are either health-enhancing or health-robbing, the key to optimal nourishment and attaining and maintaining weight loss is not to pursue “parts” of foods by consuming denatured, processed food, or turning mostly to synthetic supplements for health and well-being. Rather, nature is the best nutritionist possible. To reap the rewards—both weight- and health-wise—decide to make fresh food your most-of-the-time way of eating. It’s the secret to ensuring you’ll obtain nutrients in the ratio nature intended.
Eat Inversely
Harriet Washington writes in the Harvard Health Letter: “Regardless of whether [nutrition researchers] have studied the Mediterranean, China, or other parts of the world, [they] recommend that meat should be used as a seasoning and not as the centerpiece of the meal.” Such a way of eating is the inverse of the standard American diet (SAD), which often builds meals around meat, poultry, and cheese-and-sausage-based pizza, with few servings of fresh vegetables, fruits, and whole grains.
With SAD as a starting point, we use the term inverse eating to describe a predominantly fresh, whole, plant-based diet supplemented with small servings of fresh, lean meat, poultry, fish, or dairy foods. Eating this way may not only help balance your weight, but it also has the power to prevent, and sometimes reverse, a plethora of other ailments, from heart disease to diabetes, and more. In other words, you receive many benefits when you inversely consume food that’s as close to its natural state as possible, because fresh, whole, lean foods have the whole package of nutrients needed for optimal health and well-being.
Eat Fresh, Weigh Less
It really is possible to eat fresh and weigh less? Doesn’t such a suggestion go against everything we’ve ever learned about weight loss? Actually, what “eat fresh, weigh less” really means is that if you eat more of certain types of food, you are likely to weigh less. What are those “certain types” of food? All the fresh foods in the “Fast Foodism Fix” section, above.
Here’s how “getting fresh” translates into a simple successful loser guideline:
Step #3. Choose fresh whole food in its natural state as often as possible. And eat inversely: lots of whole plant-based foods with lesser amounts of fresh animal-based foods.
As you practice the “Fast Foodism fix” and the other steps in our 10-step weight loss series, you may find it useful to know that the antidotes to the Fast Foodism overeating style we’ve discussed in this post work like a team member with the other overeating styles we’re telling you about in our SUCCESSFUL LOSER SERIES; in other words, implement the solution for one and you strengthen your success with the others. Another benefit: Replace a diet of foodish food with fresh, whole foods, and not only are you likely to lose weight and keep it off without dieting, in the process, you may find true nourishment.
References:
1. Robert H. Lustig, “Childhood Obesity: Behavioral Aberration or Biochemical Drive? Reinterpreting the First Law of Thermodynamics,” Nature Clinical Practice Endocrinology & Metabolism 8 (2006): 447–58.
2. Michael F. Roizen and Mehmet C. Oz, “Food Fight: The Ghrelin versus Leptin Grudge Match,” You: On a Diet (New York: Free Press, 2006).
Related:
Visit our free Whole Person Nutrition Program for more about what and how to eat to be a successful loser. It’s filled with practical guidelines, menu plans, recipes, and more.
Read:
“Step #1: Lose Weight Without Dieting”
“Step #2: Overcoming Emotional Eating”
“Get Fresh” in Make Weight Loss Last
“Access Your Appetite” in Make Weight Loss Last
“Jettison Judgment” in Make Weight Loss Last
Next post:
Think outside the diet to make weight loss last with Step #4 of our BE A SUCCESSFUL LOSER series, “The Weight Loss Power of Mindfulness,” posted on our NewView blog.
You’ll get plenty of clarity about what’s true and useful—or not—by keeping up with nutritionist Deborah Kesten, MPH, and research scientist Larry Scherwitz, PhD, the writers of this post, by following them on Twitter, liking them on Facebook, or sending us an email.
What are your thoughts about “Eat Fresh, Weigh Less?” Tell us about them in the Comments section below.
