Calories

I'm not one for counting calories. If you are eating the right kinds of food (mostly raw fruits and vegetables, with a few beans and grains) you should be able to eat as much as your body wants of that wonderful food. But if you are obsessed with counting, here is the Optimum Diet as put forth by Andrew Weil, M.D. in his book Eating Well For Optimum Health:

 2,000-3,000 calories a day depending on gender, body size and activity level.

Carbohydrates:
Women 225-270 g, Men 288-345 g
- whole grains, beans, vegetables, nontropical fruits

Fat:
67 g
- oily fish, eggs, walnuts, hemp seeds, flax seeds

Protein:
50-100 g
- vegetable protein, beans

Vitamins and Minerals:
- a diet high in fresh foods (lots of fruits and vegetables) will provide most micronutrients your body needs but supplement with:
- 100 mg Vitamin C twice a day
- 400-800 IU Vitamin E (d-alpha-tocopherol)
- 200 mcg Selenium (yeast-bound form)
- 25,000 IU mixed carotenoids
- 400 mcg folic acid in a B-complex vitamin

Fiber:
- 400 g
- fruits (especially berries), vegetables (especially beans)

Protective Phytochemicals:
- eat a variety of fruits, vegetables, and mushrooms
- drink green tea

Water:
- 8 glasses of distilled water

Calcium

Here is your science lesson for the day.

Calcium builds bone until the age of 35 and then helps to prevent bone loss after that. To ensure that calcium is absorbed from the intestines there needs to be the right amount of calcium in diet and the right amount of vitamin D in body.

Vitamin D is actually a hormone produced by the skin when it is exposed to sunlight (15 minutes a day is enough). It must be activated by PTH (parathyroid hormone) turning it into calcitriol (Active D). Calcitriol increases the rate at which calcium is absorbed from food in the intestine.

Falling calcium levels in the blood cause an increase in PTH secretion which converts more vitamin D into calcitriol and increases the amount of calcium that is absorbed from food. If blood calcium levels go up PTH stops being secreted and the body stops making calcitriol so less calcium is absorbed. The key is to consume only moderate amounts of calcium rather than megadose. 600 mg of calcium a day is enough (7.5 oz can of salmon with bones). Megadosing calcium supplements will actually cause the body to absorb LESS calcium.

Calcium-rich foods:
salmon (with bones)
collards, bok choy, mustard greens, dandelion greens, kale
broccoli, brussels sprouts
figs, oranges
navy beans, pinto beans, kidney beans


Co-factor nutrients ensure the calcium-PTH-calcitriol regulatory mechanism is working properly.

Magnesium - essential for release of PTH - moves calcium from blood into bones
Copper - moves calcium from blood into bones
Manganese - moves calcium from blood into bones
Phosphorus - essential for laying down bone - EXCESS blocks secretion of PTH and blocks absorption of calcium and magnesium from intestines - keeps soft drinks bubbly (nothing worse for the bones of a teenage girl than Coke or Pepsi)
Vitamin A - enables calcitriol
EFAs - enable calcitriol

These co-factor nutrients are found in seafood (fish), beans (tofu), vegetables (spinach), whole grains (brown rice, oatmeal), nuts (almonds, brazil, walnuts), and seeds (sesame).

Afternoon Snack

The trouble with being hungry in the afternoon is that you tend to be out and about and can, potentially, grab the first thing you see (chocolate bar, donut). The best defense is a good offense. Have a plan and have something in your pocket (um, banana in your pocket... never mind!) or in a bag.

Ideas:

- a piece of fruit (grapefruit, apple, banana)
- nuts, seeds and dried fruit (almonds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, raisins, dates)
- hummus and pita
- cut fresh vegetables (if you need a dip, try salsa)
- hard boiled egg

Get "Moving"

Something simple to do each morning to get your body "moving" is to drink a glass of water.

- glass of distilled water
- squeeze of fresh lemon juice
- dash of cayenne pepper

Drinking this will wake you up and start peristalsis (the contraction and relaxation of the muscles in your digestive tract that pushes food along). It helps encourage you to go to the bathroom and rid your body of toxins that have built up since the last bathroom visit.

This can also count as one of your eight glasses of water each day.

Couldn't Have Said It Better

While surfing I came upon these two great 20 minute videos on food from the TED Talks series.
Mark Bittman's What's Wrong with What We Eat:



and Ann Cooper's School Lunches:



When you are done watching you can read Mark Bittman's New York Times article and soup recipes that started me surfing Creamy, Brothy, Earthy, Hearty.  Of course I would recommend that you don't do the dairy (substitute coconut milk), but the idea of creating fresh homemade soup just makes my mouth water.  Twelve recipes with simple alterations and simple ingredients.  Mark has four more recipes on his blog.  And here is his website link.

Here is Ann Cooper's website.

Protein Myth

When I speak of being Vegan or suggest to my clients that they adopt a Vegan diet I am always asked "what about protein".  I have begun to shorten my response to something like the following:

"Do you know how big a cow gets?  Now tell me what a cow eats to get that big."

OK so it is not very informative but it gives them something to ponder.  And, by the way the correct answer would be grass/plants, not the antibiotics and growth hormones most cows are injected with these days.

Check out this awesome Protein Myth video by Tim VanOrden of Running Raw.  He will set you straight.  Amino acids, Baby!  You don't need protein.  Just eat raw food.  Enzymes!