The Real Nutritional PyramidSo what makes a good diet?Is it a bagel and creamcheese? Creamcheese -- that's dairy. And grains -- you're supposed to have lots of grains, right? How about a fruit smoothie? Plenty of good fruit!! Fruit is diet food, no? 
OK, listen. I know a lady who is trying to lose weight. And she was telling me what she ate for breakfast. Chicken nuggets from the drive-through. Why? Because it was chicken -- and chicken is healthy. She knew that. And she needed to lose weight. So, can YOU lose weight with bagel, creamcheese, fruit smoothies, and chicken nuggets? The answer to that is a big fat... No. Sorry. Can't be done. Not enough nutritionWhy not? Because it is too many calories and not enough nutrition. Too much carbs. Too much fructose. Not enough protein in the diet. Not enough fiber. And the chicken nuggets? Deep fried. Oh, it will keep you alive. But you'll get fatter. And you'll get sick -- high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, and eventually heart disease or strokes and maybe cancer. Yikes!!! The myth of the "good diet"I talk to a lot of people about what they eat. They're "doing fine." They're "watching their diet." But for some reason they just can't lose weight. What's for breakfast? Breakfast for them is cereal, toast, juice. Add it up. It's almost all bad carbohydrates. Their poor pancreas (the pancreas makes insulin) is crying for help. They just never learned how to
eat to lose weight.
A slow deathI had a man in the hospital the other day. He was 100 pounds overweight. He had abdominal pain. I asked if he possibly ate something bad. "Oh, no," he said. "I just went to the diner…" He listed what he ate. Orange juice. Hash browns. Toast. Just carbohydrate and oil. I talked to him about the metabolic syndrome. That's where being overweight causes high cholesterol, diabetes and high blood pressure. He thought about it for a while, talked it over with his wife, and he decided to reform. He proudly announced that starting tomorrow he was going to have cream of wheat for breakfast. Well, cream of wheat, in case you don't know, is pure carbohydrate. That is the last thing you need when you are 100 pounds overweight. You will never get a healthy body fat percentage if you eat like that. The weight gain pyramidHave you ever really looked at the US Government Food Guide Pyramid? It's the one with the bread, cereal, rice and pasta on the bottom (6-11 servings.) Then fruit (2-4 servings) and veggies. Then meat and milk. Then fats and oils. OK. Now, why is that pyramid made the way it is? Is it because you need 11 servings of grains per day!!! No. It is because the United States has 62 million acres of wheat. That's a lot of wheat. The US Food Guide Pyramid is not a nutritional document. It is a political document. In other words, it answers the question, "How are we going to sell all this wheat?" But that doesn't help you, because you need to lose weight. By the way, do you know how they fatten cattle? Look on the label. It says "grain fed beef." You can build a lean bodyDo you want to build a lean body? Then you have to eat lean body food!! That is how you can have
successful weight loss.
Some starchy vegetables, too. And fruit, but not too much. Good healthy oils. And take your vitamins. French fries and ketchupSo, you can have some starchy vegetables. That's potatoes, rice, and yams. Those are fine too. But you need some real vegetables. Green and red and purple vegetables. The kind they ate back on the farm years ago when nearly everyone was lean. They are the healthy carbs, what they call a high complex carbohydrate diet. Are French fries vegetables? The answer to that is… No. French fries are not vegetables. And ketchup is not a vegetable either. Bread is OK too. But not too much. And a bagel for breakfast? Or a sweet roll and coffee? That's not breakfast!! A sweet roll can hardly even be considered food!! Is this going to be a bit of adjustment for you? It sure is. So what should you do? The new weight loss pyramid to the rescue!!!What is a good diet? A good diet is based on foods that you can eat nearly unlimited amounts of. These are lean protein and non-starchy vegetables. The lean protein--that's chicken breast, tuna, turkey, lean pork, carefully selected beef, cold-water fish and egg whites. The vegetables are colored--green, red, purple, yellow. They are full of nutrients, they provide fiber, and you can eat them in unlimited quantities. Lettuce? That's green water. Have all you want.
The power of proteinA healthy diet has these, especially the protein, at every meal. That means every time you eat something you have some good protein with it. And some veggies. You eat some junk food. You're human -- it happens. But then you eat some chicken breast too. Even if you're not hungry, you still eat the chicken breast. Why? Because chicken breast has protein, and protein gives you strength, it gives you energy--real energy, not that fake sugar high. And it gives your body what it needs to digest the junk food. Otherwise the junk food just drains you of nutrition, until you are a blubbery mess. Lean protein and veggies. Then starches and whole grains. Some fruit, but not too much. This is the new weight loss nutritional pyramid.
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