Food and Healing : nutrition

How to Get Fat - Not!

Annemarie Colbin — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 10:12:00 GMT

So many people are worried about their weight! It’s either the look, or the health, or the concern about what other people may say about them, or the bullies in school – all the messages from society are that being chubby, overweight, zaftig, or plump is not OK. At the same time, the common foods we find in cheap restaurants, fast food outlets, snack bars and the like all contribute to that extra weight.

Not everybody is overweight; some bodies have a fast metabolism that burns everything. But others are not so lucky, and need to be more attentive. Here are some of the foods or aspects of food that are likely to put weight on susceptible bodies:

Sweeteners: sugar (including “organic evaporated cane juice”), high fructose corn syrup, “natural sweeteners,” as well as artificial sweeteners (it’s not the calories, it’s what they do to the insulin system).
White flour, which is refined and stripped of its nutrients.
Milk, cheese, ice cream.

While each one of these may have an effect, it is the combination of the three that is the worst. The sweetener, the flour, and the high-protein cow’s milk products all together seem to produce the most noticeable weight – so, having a meal of pizza, ice cream, and soda is a superfast way to put on weight. Also, the consumption of soft drinks, both regular and diet, is part of this problem.

How to make changes?

Replace all soft drinks with a combination of bubbly water (seltzer or mineral water) and natural juices (apple, cranberry, orange, etc), in a 50-50 proportion, or just the bubbly water with lemon or lime slices.
Eat as many fresh vegetables and salads as possible.
Replace cow’s milk with coconut milk
Replace bread with rye crackers
Replace ice cream with frozen bananas, sherbet with frozen grapes.
Finally, whatever you eat, CHEW IT WELL. Chewing will perforce make you cut down on calories without counting them, as you will be satisfied sooner. It will also help with digestion, and more than anything, it will get you in touch with what you are really eating, so changes may come much more easily.

While getting rid of excess weight is a good thing, it should, however, not be an obsession. Sometimes the body wants to be at the weight it wants to be, and fighting with it is counterproductive. So chew, enjoy your meals, and live your life!

Annemarie Colbin, Ph.D.

ANNEMARIE COLBIN, Ph.D., CHES, is an award-winning leader in the field of natural health She founded Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts (TM) in New York City in 1977, and is adjunct professor of nutrition at the city’s Empire State College. She is the author of four books, including The Book of Whole Meals (Autumn Press, 1979; Ballantine Books, 1983), The Natural Gourmet (Ballantine Books, 1989, 1991), and Food and Healing (Ballantine Books, 1986, 1996). Her website is: www.foodandhealing.com

Recuperating from the Holidays

Annemarie Colbin — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 09:39:00 GMT

I certainly hope you had a grand time, and that the New Year is a good one for you. And does your New Year’s resolution include cleansing and detoxing your system? If so, here are some ideas, from the least complicated to the most committed.

1.   EAT LESS! If you just overdid it but don’t want to spend too much time worrying about what you should or should not eat, try just cutting down on what you normally eat. In every meal, pay close attention to how you feel, and as soon as your hunger is assuaged, STOP. This takes some attention, but only while you’re eating, not for planning or cooking, so you’re off the hook there.

2.   Go low-fat and vegan for a few days – no dairy, eggs, meats. LOTS of vegetables, soups, whole grain breads and brown rice. Chew well!

3.   Start each day with a detox drink. Examples: freshly made fruit or vegetable juice, with some garlic, ginger, and ground flax seed.

4.   Try a liver flush: Into the blender, while running, drop a garlic clove, stop when chopped. Add 2 tablespoons lemon juice, ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil, blend briefly, pour, drink up. Chase with a glass of water. Then for lunch have a big salad and nothing else, a light dinner. You can do this 3-4 days in a row.

5.   Do a one-day vegetable juice fast – try carrot, celery and apple, or carrot, celery, beet, parsley, in the juice machine, and one snack of freshly squeezed orange juice. Then only soups (no flour or cream) and salads with lemon juice and olive oil the next day. Back to normal eating the third day.

Eating with consciousness – that is, chewing well and paying close attention to how your food makes you feel – is a good idea, as it will prevent “eater’s regret” next time you have a fine event where the food is truly tempting. If you just eat some of it, savoring it slowly and stopping when you had enough, you are less likely to overdo it.

Annemarie Colbin, Ph.D.

Holiday Eating: three helpful tips

Annemarie Colbin — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 12:29:00 GMT

The holidays are coming, and we’re all looking forward to stuffing ourselves with all the special and delicious dishes that mark the season.
But what to do with the aftermath of bloat and guilt? Here are some thoughts.

To prevent overeating and stomach aches, the best technique is a very simple one: CHEW EVERY BITE 25 TIMES OR MORE. Yes, I know, sounds onerous, but believe me, if you do this you can eat anything you want and not get bloated or stuffed. Chewing initiates the digestion of carbohydrates through the action of the salivary amylase enzyme, and this is an essential first step in good digestion. Chewing also gives notice to the body that food is coming down, so the stomach, liver, gallbladder, pancreas, etc., all get ready, and bloating is avoided. Then, as sufficient notice is received, the appestat signals that enough food has come in, and the message to your brain is that you can stop eating now – so you will not tend to overeat.
If you have eaten too much rich and fatty food, get some lemon – hot water with lemon is my favourite after-dinner drink, and you can also try seltzer with lemon or peppermint tea. That helps cut the grease, and according to Chinese medicine the sour taste stimulates the liver.
Finally, two words about guilt: Forget it. It’s a useless emotion around eating. Either enjoy the food you’re eating to the fullest, or don’t eat it. And if you’ve eaten something you think is no good for you, hold off with the guilt. Instead, pay careful attention to the results of your gastronomic adventures – see how you feel, act, sleep, if you get pimples or hives, and how your stomach reacts. In other words, whatever you eat, consider it RESEARCH! That is how you get to be an expert on the effects of food on your own health.

Have a wonderful 2007 holiday with your friends and family!

Annemarie Colbin, Ph.D.

Protein Breakfasts for the Health Conscious

Annemarie Colbin — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 09:54:00 GMT

Let’s start by eliminating dry cereal with milk, a really wimpy breakfast that doesn’t carry you for more than a couple of hours. Here are some easy ideas:

For cold weather:

Oatmeal with one fried egg on top, with a light sprinkle of good sea salt.
Oatmeal with a handful of almonds and hazelnuts, a little salt or soy sauce.
Left-over dinner, such as cooked fish, chicken or steak, quickly sautéed in a little butter with left-over vegetables, rye crackers
For the vegetarians or the adventurous: cooked beans or chili, reheated, in a whole wheat wrap with some cucumbers and tomatoes
Obviously, eggs any style, with rye crackers, maybe some nitrite-free sausage or bacon.
Miso soup with brown rice eel-avocado sushi and pickles
Canned salmon and egg omelet with sauerkraut

For warm weather:

Smoked salmon or whitefish on wholegrain toast, with butter or cream cheese, onion slices, pickles (a real New York weekend breakfast)
One poached egg atop one slice of toasted sprouted wholegrain bread, which has been sprinkled with about a tablespoon of really good extra virgin olive oil, plus a little good sea salt and freshly ground pepper on top.
Rye crackers with almond butter
A bowful of soaked and roasted nuts, including almonds, pecans, walnuts, cashews, sunflower seeds. Add some soaked raisins for a sweet touch.
Kippers, with chopped raw tomatoes, onions, and cucumbers
Canned tuna fish with 3 tablespoons chopped celery, same of onions, 1 tablespoon good quality mayonnaise, sea salt to taste, on rye crisps

I trust you’ll find something to eat here!

Annemarie Colbin, Ph.D.