Published: March 01, 2008 09:56 pm         

Don’t eat too much, and mostly plants

Grocery cart reveals

There is another interesting book on eating called “In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto” by Michael Pollan. A few years ago, Pollan wrote “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” about the ways that food is grown or produced in America. “In Defense…” is a follow up on the healthiest way for Americans to eat.

You don’t have to wait long as Pollan reveals in the first line of the book’s introduction: “Eat Food, Not Too Much, Mostly Plants.” You might think that the message is too simple minded, a mere repetition of many other books — but you would be wrong. “In Defense…” is not a diet book but an overview of all the cautions we have heard over the years on how to eat.

Just as the book “Good Calories, Bad Calories” by Gary Taubes, Pollan takes the science of Nutrition to task for adopting a number of shaky hypotheses , such as “Fats cause Heart Disease” and “High Carb Diet is Best.”

As Pollan points out, there are two problems with human nutrition science: First, nutritionists tend to study nutrients within foods, as opposed the entire food itself (such as beta carotene that are in carrots); Second, even in careful studies, the human participants consistently underestimate the amount of different foods they eat.

Pollan feels that many of the favored nutrition recommendations, based on weak data are closer to beliefs than based on real science. So he calls the subject nutritionism, a subject based more on hunches than anything else. This shifting of nutrition recommendations has allowed the multi-billion dollar food industry to make large amounts of money introducing new foods to sell to a health conscious public. Pollan’s main recommendations are in “Eat Food, Not Too Much, Mostly Plants.”

“Eat Food” means eat natural foods, like fruits and vegetables as opposed to food products in cardboard boxes that have many chemical additives.

The more fruits and vegetables in your grocery cart, the more you are moving in this direction. Try to have half of the foods you buy be fruits and vegetables; put them on one side of your grocery cart and make sure the other side with packaged foods is no bigger in volume.

“Not Too Much” means to eat slowly so that the 20-minute delay between eating and feeling stuffed can be effective. Many Americans eat on the run or too fast, so they overeat (in less than 20 minutes) and only minutes after the last morsel, they get the packed feeling. Eat slowly and enjoy your food rather then act as if you haven’t had any food in days.

“Mostly Plants” means the bulk of your food should be plants — fruits and vegetables. Pollan mentions that those who eat a pound or more of fruits and vegetables each day have half the cancer rate of those who seldom eat vegetables. I have learned to substitute fruits (oranges, apples) and vegetables (celery) in place of deserts for a late night snack. Another benefit of fruits and vegetables is that the added fiber helps keep you regular.

To keep my weight nearly unchanged, I have gradually substituted different foods as time goes on. In the past year, I have dropped fig bar cookies, substituting ginger snaps. Now I am eating fewer ginger snaps, so a one pound bag lasts several weeks. I used to take small plastic bottles of fruit juice to work so I would intake more fluids. Now I am using small packets of sugar free powder with drinking fountain water instead. I now take a can of soup for lunch rather than a peanut butter sandwich (my favorite lunch item for decades). I hope to make more substitutions in the future so I can continue to fit into my pants.

Predawn sky sights

This week the best sights are in the predawn morning hours (like 6 a.m.). Tomorrow morning, the crescent moon appears near the bright planet Jupiter in the southeastern sky. On Wednesday, the crescent moon will be close to the planet Mercury and brilliant Venus very low in the east-southeast. You may have to wait till 6:15 a.m. to let Venus clear the trees. Then binoculars will be helpful in spotting the planet Mercury, then to the right and above Venus.

Today, we have our March program, “The Ancients and the Sky” opening at the Frostburg State Planetarium with free public presentations at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. Our programs always have an informal tour of the current evening sky. After our 45-minute program, we go to the Compton Exploratorium to see our extraordinary collection of game animals from five different continents. These preserved animals are the donation to FSU of Dr. Joseph Cavallaro, a West Virginia physician who hunted for five decades.

Readers are invited to comment or send questions to Bob Doyle at rdoyle@frostburg.edu .