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Alarmed by the worsening trends, health experts have unleashed a flood of nutritional advice for consumers--much of it contradictory. One expert says red meat is bad. Another says bacon keeps you trim. Someone says skip the potatoes, and someone else says eat the skin. And let's face it, controversy sells. Diet books and magazine articles try to grab our attention by telling us everything we thought we knew was wrong. (It's not.)
Even the government-approved labels on our food can lead us astray. Serving sizes bear no relationship to the helpings we usually eat. Low-fat products are not necessarily low in calories. And now the Food and Drug Administration says we should be on the lookout for trans fat--a lesser-known type of fat that is every bit as bad for the heart as saturated fat--though we won't learn which products are the worst offenders until 2006. Meanwhile, the food pyramid, which serves as the basis for all meals prepared in the federal school-lunch program, is about to be changed. However, the next revision won't be out until 2005.
"People can feel like a ping-pong ball," says Dr. David Katz, head of the Yale School of Medicine Prevention Research Center and author of The Way to Eat (Sourcebooks; 2002). "They are being batted in one direction and then another." Not that we necessarily mind. Being perplexed can ease our conscience. As long as we can point to a general state of nutritional confusion, we don't have to take responsibility for our ever expanding waistlines.
The truth is that nutritionists have a fairly good idea about what constitutes a healthy diet as well as plenty of solid evidence to back that up. As a rule, they tell us, we should eat lots of fruits and vegetables, favor whole grains over highly processed cereals and make red meat an occasional treat rather than the daily centerpiece of our evening meal. And we shouldn't eat any more than our body needs.
The problem is that no matter how much we think we know about what goes into a healthy meal, we often misjudge the results. Some vegetable dishes, it turns out, are healthier than others, some grain products are less processed than others, some fish are safer than others. You may think you are eating right, but by making subtle changes in what you eat and how you eat it, you could start eating considerably healthier.
The rewards are worth the effort. Studies show that as much as 80% of heart disease and 90% of diabetes can be tied to unhealthy eating and lifestyle habits. Doctors have proved that a diet emphasizing fruits and vegetables as well as small amounts of nuts and dairy products can lower blood pressure and "bad" cholesterol as effectively as many medications. And evidence is growing that adding fiber to your diet and avoiding highly refined foods can help prevent or delay the onset of Type 2 diabetes.
You don't have to sacrifice flavor. You don't have to go hungry. "It doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing thing," says Dr. Donald Hensrud of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. "That attitude can actually make it harder." You do need to put in some effort--much of it in the kitchen--and accept that there really is no free lunch. But with a little planning and a better understanding of some of the basic food traps, we can all eat a whole lot better and smarter.
YOU NEED LESS FOOD THAN YOU THINK