Nutrition Niblets

From Page 100: Work On The Entire You

The following are small Nutrition Niblets options taken from Pz's "Get a Jump-Start on Aging," soon to be available in its entirety online.

Pz Diet Pointers:

• Develop a "Food Filosophy."

  There is no miracle diet, no quick fix and no special method of maintaining a healthy, happy weight. Food is fuel. Repeat that again. Food is fuel. Begin to think of food and diet in different terms. We need, what I call a new food filosophy—a new way of looking at food and thinking about diet. Diet should be considered a noun (nourishment), and not a verb. Diet in an on-going process, not a start-and-stop routine, like a merry-go-round. Eliminate the 3 words "on a diet" from your vocabulary, and get off that merry-go-round. We need to learn how to eat real food, the right real food, and the right amount of the right real food.

• Examine your Food Heritage.

  Look at your family background and learn the impact it had on your earliest notions about food. Look at your mom's family, look at your dad's family, look at the family of whoever raised you. See how customs, traditions, and habits of those people played such a role in the way you eat and the things you eat today.

• When you are full—STOP.

  Put on the brakes. Leave food on your plate if you must. (It's not a crime and you can't send it to the starving kids in Africa.) Steer clear of all-you-can-eat buffets where the gorge factor is in play. Buffets are usually stacked with lots of "camouflage food," with sauces and mayonnaise and hidden things loaded with calories. Spend your money on healthier portions, cooked to order. Be less frivolous and more discerning when it comes to your food choices.

• Pay close attention to the S and S in your food.

  Learn where the salt is, learn where the sugar is, and attack these two on all fronts. Salt and sugar, or S and S as I refer to them, are hidden culprits in nearly everything we put in our mouths. We can't and shouldn't eliminate all S and S from our diet, but we should work at keeping those two sneaky devils at a minimum.

• Become a smarter consumer when dining out.

  If you're going to eat out—and many of us do on a regular basis, then make it count. If you happen to splurge or celebrate a little more than usual, cut back on what you eat for the next few days. If you happen to go off the deep end and pig-out for a week, make the next two weeks leaner ones.