posted April 08, 2006 03:51 PM            

1. Mixed soup (x3) - e.g. Cambell's Chunky Soup or
varieties with meat (for protein)
2. Fruits/vegatables (x3) - e.g. bananas, watermelon,
green beans, etc.
3. Rice/beans (x3) - e.g. wild rice, pinto beans (not
refried), etc.
4. Bread (x3) - e.g. wheat.
5. Water, Milk or Juice - e.g. Water, milk or
orange/grape juice.

Based upon my current weight and height, I need to
average around 1600 calories a day to maintain my
present weight of 119 lbs.

That constitutes 3 meals a day (I usually eat only two, plus snacking), with 530 calories or so being consumed per meal.

This nutrition regimen will reduce fats and bad
cholesterol by up to 50%. My current intake of fats
and cholesterol is 40+ grams of fat per day, and <20
mg of cholesterol. I need to cut these numbers, honestly, by half.

What nutrition regimens would you recommend that
approximate the above descriptions?

I want to be proactive about avoiding heart disease NOW, so that 20 years from now I can avoid being in the coronary care unit.

Paul

------------------
Few cats act their age, while
most just cough up furballs.

posted April 08, 2006 03:58 PM            

1) Potato chips is a food group and
2) Ice cream contains dairy.

Next, the B.S. about cholesterol is, well, B.S. The AMA keeps contradicting their own studies and generally they haven't a clue if cholesterol plays any role in heart disease or not. Don't loose any sleep over it.

Also... 115LBS????? Are you kidding? What is your height, under 5 foot I hope.

And finally, when are you going to learn that you need to be asking professionals about your health and not a bunch of programmers and geeks?

posted April 08, 2006 04:00 PM            

I thought some insight might be shed on this issue by posting here, considering that programmers are very high in IQ and know a lot about a range of subjects.

Paul

------------------
Few cats act their age, while
most just cough up furballs.

posted April 08, 2006 04:20 PM            

quote:

---

...considering that programmers are very high in IQ and know a lot about a range of subjects.

---

There's nothing wrong with getting someone else's point of view. But a lot of the programmers I've met aren't exactly the most active, health conscious people. Something about sitting down for hours at a time and straining your eyes on little tiny text while munching away on snacks...

Like my dad always used to say: Don't ask a mechanic for advice when you need a plumber.

Thanks,
Flick

posted April 08, 2006 05:01 PM            

Don't simply exclude fats. You need a certain level of fats in your diet, preferably monounsaturated fats like canola and olive oil. They're actually good for your heart, lowering your LDL (bad) cholesterol and raising your HDL (good) cholesterol. Limit your intake of saturated fats, and avoid any hydrogenated oil and trans fatty acids.

And, although it can be tough for people, you should limit your intake of sodium. Our body needs about 1,500 mg of sodium and the maximum sodium intake for anyone should be about 2,400 mgs. Unfortunately, the average person today takes in about 6,000 mg of sodium. Most of that is in the form of processed foods, such as lunch meats. When you buy food, don't just look at the calories and the fat grams; look at how much sodium they're putting in it. If it's more than 300-400 mgs per serving, then you need to be careful. If it's more than 600 mgs, put it back on the shelf. And make sure that you take a look at what a serving size is. Something that is listed as having 200 mg of sodium, but a serving size is small enough that you'd eat 3 or 4 servings, you're not doing yourself a favor.

In the end, a good diet is fairly simple: whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, raw nuts, fresh meats. Watch fat and sodium intake. The trouble for some folks is, the only way that you can truly eat healthy is to prepare and cook your food yourself. Frozen dinners, prepared foods, instant anything and most restaurant food is uniformly going to be bad for you. Even so-called "dietetic" meals (Weight Watchers, Lean Cuisine, etc.) tend to be nutritionally unbalanced. And while they may be low in fats, many of them are high in sodium content. Not to mention that, compared to something fresh that you make yourself, they taste like cardboard.

posted April 08, 2006 05:26 PM            

Over 25 = overweight, over 30 = obese, under 19 = anorexic. This
measurement is used in assessing diabetes sufferers weights.

Iain Johnstone

posted April 08, 2006 10:32 PM            

Russ

posted April 09, 2006 09:10 AM            

CONCERNED ABOUT TOO MANY CARBS IN YOUR DIET?
 
For those of you who watch what you eat, here's the final word
on nutrition and health. It's a relief to know the truth after
all those conflicting nutritional studies.
 
1.  The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart 
attacks than Americans.
 
2.  The Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart
attacks than Americans.
 
3.  The Chinese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer
heart attacks than Americans.
 
4.  The Italians drink a lot of red wine and suffer fewer 
heart attacks than Americans.
 
5.  The Germans drink a lot of beers and eat lots of sausages
and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
 
CONCLUSION
 
Eat and drink what you like.  
Speaking English is apparently what kills you.

------------------
C'ya
Don
don at DASoftVSS dot com
http://www.DASoftVSS.com

posted April 12, 2006 05:11 PM            

Mixed soup has way too much salt.

I eat:
50% green, leafy vegetables
30% lean meat and dairy
10% fruit
10% whole grains

Drink water when you're thirsty but don't worry about
drinking a certain amount each day. I also drink a lot
of coffee (black) and diet pop, though diet pop isn't really
the best thing for you.

I use Splenda for artificial sweetening. I know people are afraid
of artificial sweeteners but I'm much more afraid of being
overweight. There are a lot of 90 year old people who smoke and
drink and eat Splenda. There are not very many 250lb 90 year olds.
I only use a little Splenda anyway.

Don't worry about fat too much as long as long as it is not
Hydrogenated or Partially Hydrogenated and you eat it
in moderation.

Eat when you're hungry and stop when you're full.

Stay far away from processed foods like white sugar and white
flour. Candy, cakes, etc. should be a treat and not a staple food.

Stay away from sugared pop.

Do some weight-bearing exercise. Push-ups and sit-ups are great
if you don't have access to weights.

This low carb diet works for me. I'm a little over 6' and once weight 217lbs.
I worked out every day but couldn't get below 210. I started this
diet and went down to 185lbs. I'm almost 40, and I'm in the best shape
of my life. I've been maintaining this weight for about 2 years now.
I did eat with reckless abandon over the holidays and gained a few
pounds but once I went back on the low carb lifestyle, I lost
it again. It's easy because I'm never hungry; I can eat
just about as much as I want, just not all the fillers like sugar, flour, bread
and potatoes.

------------------
Let’s get one thing straight, the only reason you are conscious right
now is because Jack Bauer does not feel like carrying you.

posted April 12, 2006 05:18 PM            

I even see it in chips, crackers and other common snack foods.

What exactly is this and is it a Trans Fat or just a regular Saturated Fat?

Paul

posted April 12, 2006 05:51 PM            

Anything with hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oil will force your LDL (bad) cholesterol up, your HDL (good) cholesterol down and it provides no nutritional value whatsoever to your body. A number of European countries have already, or are in the process of, banning the use of trans-fats in foods.

Just say no.

posted April 12, 2006 06:26 PM            

Also, why do some people who eat unhealthy diets never get heart disease, and sometimes people eating very healthy diets nonetheless develop heart disease?

Is it a combination of diet and genetics?

Paul

posted April 12, 2006 10:01 PM            

First, let me get some credibility here, then make a disclaimer, then express my opinion.

I am 47 and have been overweight pretty much all my life. My dad's side of the family is very prone to Diabetes. In 1994, I was diagnosed with diabetes. At the time, I weighed about 130 kg (about 295 lb and I am 177 cm tall). I led a very sedentary lifestyle -- my thinking was that exercise doesn't really make you live longer, it just feels that way <g>.

When diagnosed with diabetes, I went through the brainwashing -- err, pardon me -- nutrition education. I was on 4 insulin injections a day, and had the whole food pyramid thing drummed into me. You know the one -- lots of complex carbs with fibre (like vegetables and grains), far less proteins and even less fats.

I followed the advice. Strictly. Under supervision. Really.

And I ended up in 2003 weighing nearly 160 kg (360 lb)!

So I took matters into my own hands, educated myself and did what I needed to do.

Today, I weigh in at around 105 kg (240 lb: yes, that is over 50 kg/110 lb lost). I take no insulin or any other diabetic medication. My blood pressure is 110/70 and my bloodwork is terrific.

Disclaimer: do your own research and make your own decisions. This may NOT be right for you!

I read everything I could find. I went through Atkins and thought he had part of the picture. Then I found out about Glycemic Index (GI) and that completed the picture for me.

Here's how I understand it. Insulin is the hormone that allows sugars to cross over the cell membrane and be used for energy. If you don't have enough, or it is somehow flawed, you are diabetic -- the sugars accumulate in your blood while your cells slowly starve.

But insulin does something else, too: it causes excess sugars in your blood to be stored as fat.

This is important: it is the excess SUGARS (ie carbs) that are stored as fat, and this is done in the presence of insulin.

To avoid this, you need to ensure that the food you eat does not cause a spike in insulin production. Foods that cause a rapid rise in insulin levels have a high GI. Glucose has the maximum of 100, and pure water has 0, with everything else inside that range. If you eat low to medium GI foods at each meal (so that the combined GI is low to medium) then your body's ability to store fat is severely curtailed, so that even if you do eat a bit more than you absolutely need, most of the excess is not stored. That's not to say you can pig out, but it does mean you don't need to live your life counting calories or fat-grams or whatever.

As for eating fats, the actual evidence of their effect on things like cholesterol is flimsy. Recently, here in Australia, the National Heart Foundation said words to the effect of "we were wrong: go ahead and eat the egg yolk too -- it's good for you and does not raise cholesterol". My personal experience is that the level of cholesterol is largely genetic, and the environmental factors that influence it are far more likely to be related to simple starches (high GI foods) than fats. Consider this: what foods are high in fats and not also high in simple carbs? Pretty much nothing. If you eat a fast-food burger, the bun is not only white bread, it has added sugar. Fries? They're potato! Chocolate? Sugar. Think about it.

Calorie intake is important, but don't get too hung up on it. If you restrict your calorie intake too much, your metabolism slows down, and stores fat more aggressively. It is better to eat regularly throughout the day, and DON'T SKIP BREAKFAST whatever you do! I try to eat six small meals every day. It is also good to give yourself a regular "free" day, where you don't do any workouts and you eat freely. For me, that is Sunday. Nothing is off-limits on that day. The first few weeks, you go a bit nuts, but the novelty soon wears off, and knowing that you can have that chocolate "on Sunday" seems to make it easier to not have it the rest of the week. It is important to have more calories on these days, because you want to use it to kick-start your metabolism again.

Mike is spot on: hydrogenated oils are really bad karma. The evidence against them may not be concrete, but the anecdotal evidence is pretty overwhelming. I'll eat butter, but not margerine.

Finally (and sorry to contradict you, Iain), BMI is the biggest load of codswallop ever. It is a formulaic representation of the old height/weight charts which have been discredited for decades. You see, a given volume of muscle weighs about four times what the equivalent volume of fat weighs. So if you have a low percentage of body fat, you will way MORE than a person with exactly the same dimensions with a higher percentage of body fat. Elite athletes have TERRIBLE BMI scores -- they are HEAVY for their height because they are very lean.

And you want to be lean (and therefore heavy for your size) because that means that you need to burn more food just to live. As well as being stronger, both in terms of muscles but also in terms of calcium retention in bones, you will be able to eat more without putting on weight. So while aerobic exercise is good for you, losing fat really requires you to add muscle mass, and that needs strength training. Russ mentioned martial arts -- I would strongly recommend that, even if you are not particularly young. I started at 45, and am now a 1st Kye Brown Belt in the Kempo style. Find a good, family-friendly school. You will find that martial arts training is a really good mix of strength (resistance) and stamina (aerobic) work. Aikido is great -- that is next on my list after I achieve Black in Kempo.

To summarise (with all the disclaimers assumed):

- eat low and medium GI foods. If you eat anything with a high GI, include something low GI with it at the same meal.

- don't stress about fat intake (be sensible here).

- avoid hydrogenated oils

- get into a regular, weight-bearing exercise regime

- do NOT starve yourself

- try to eat more, smaller meals

- forget your weight -- instead, focus on your belt size, the only figure you really need to care about

- enjoy life - the point of looking after yourself is to enjoy yourself

Again, do your own research.

-- Jim
jimako.com