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Eating Well: Getting Back to BasicsBy Kathy BilbeauMany of us grew up with the picture of the American family sitting down to three square meals a day, freshly prepared by the mother of the house. Some of us actually experienced this, while others had it only as an ideal picture of how life should be. Whether we were raised this way or not, rarely do you find such a household in America today. With both dad and mom working, and the fast pace of life these days, most of us eat on the run. And with such a big concern about having the perfect body, many of us skip meals, starve ourselves or work out until we drop.
The consequences were that I found myself feeling wired and then tired most of the time. I began to notice that my young son was constantly telling me he was hungry, and I was always in a rush throwing something his way to eat yet he wasn't getting satisfied. My husband started demonstrating that his body was not holding up. He seemed to be tired and nauseous much of the time, and his weight was steadily climbing. I made a decision one day to change our families eating habits. At first the project seemed too overwhelming, but quickly I found that it isn't that hard to eat a balanced diet. Doing this validated what I knew intuitively and what my common sense told me was the road to a more stable lifestyle. We have all heard all the talk about various diets. For myself, I was so tired of hearing about all the fad diets and health fads that I was just really turned off to any mention of the word "diet". But as I began researching diet information, reading up on the information presented by the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association, all my information that I'd intuitively known was right all along was validated. In fact, the dietary recommendations made by the American Heart Associatio n today and the American Diabetes Association are not dramatically different than they were twenty years ago. In short, mom was right when she tried to get us to eat three square meals a day and not forget our vegetables. When we eat unconsciously, because we are on the run or unhappy about life, we tend to eat foods that are high in fats, sugars, cholesterol and sodium, primarily because we eat heavily processed foods and run to sweets to "treat" ourselves because we aren't happy and we need to lift our spirits. The high consumption of these types of foods may predispose us to chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, obesity, hyperglycemia, hypertension and atherosclerosis.
The American Heart Association Dietary Guidelines suggest that a balanced diet should consist of:
One thing I learned is that carbohydrates are probably one of the most important things to balance in a diet. Dietary carbohydrates occur as either simple sugars (fruits and sugars) or complex carbohydrates. Complex carbohydrates are either digestible, otherwise known as starches (such as whole grain breads, rice, pastas and potatoes), or nondigestible, called fiber. You need both in your diet. The fiber primarily serves to keep the digestive tract healthy and can lower cholesterol levels. Carbohydrates are often mistakenly viewed as being high in calories. Actually, complex carbohydrates are relatively low in calories, and they are rich sources of important vitamins and minerals. Increasing carbohydrates is the best way to replace some of the fat you are cutting out of your diet. The thing that is important about carbohydrates is that they give the body energy. Sugars give the body a quick fix of energy and raise the body's blood sugar level fast. However, sugar has no nutritional value and just provides unnecessary calories. Complex carbohydrates are so important because they give the body fuel to burn for energy over a period of time. A diet high in complex carbohydrates helps train the body how to convert complex carbohydrates into the right kind of sugars to keep one's energy le vel even and the blood sugar level stable. They are also much lower in calories than sugar. I now make a meal plan for the week for my family. When I get to the store I take a moment and read the package labels to determine if something has hidden sugars, fat, cholesterol or sodium in it. I try to avoid processed food. Meals are planned which combine the food groups at each setting in a balanced way. I really don't have to do anything fancy. I don't claim to be an expert on the subject, far from it. But with the help of a few good cookbooks put out by the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association I am learning how to get on track to eat for health. Naturally, if you have a medical condition that requires a physicians care, such as Diabetes or High Blood Pressure, you should follow the advice of your doctor. I am only sharing my own experiences here in the hopes of dispelling any misconceptions that lead us to believe that we can't learn to eat properly for our well being. Copyright © 1996 Sterling Rose Press, Inc.
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I definitely have not been one to sit down to eat three meals a day. Like many, I have allowed the stress of daily life to send me off on a rollercoaster of fast foods, missed meals, a cup of coffee to make it through the day, and an attitude that I just don't have time to eat well.
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