Authors: David Zinczenko
The 8-Hour Diet (16 page)
And you’ve no doubt heard of the heart-health benefits of swallowing a baby aspirin every day. Well, berries present a much more pleasurable way of taking your medicine. Raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries are all packed with the salicylic acid, the same heart-disease fighter found in aspirin.
8-HOUR POWERS:
Fill your belly, fight cancer
SECRET WEAPONS:
Antioxidants, fiber, vitamin C
FIGHTS AGAINST:
Heart disease, cancer, obesity, scurvy (arrrrrh, matey!)
SIDEKICKS:
Watermelon, cantaloupe, avocado, tomato
IMPOSTERS:
Fruit juices, which concentrate sugar and strip out fiber; many of them have more calories than Coke.
Aside from the clock you’ll now be eating by, the most effective weight-loss tool in your home just might be the fruit bowl. If you keep it filled with crisp apples, ripening peaches and plums, citrus, and fuzzy kiwi fruit, you’ll have handy snacks that serve you nutritionally and stick with you to curb your appetite. If you can retrain your noshing instinct to end at the fruit bowl, you might quite literally never be hungry again.
Just like strawberries, apples—known as “nature’s toothbrush”—are rich in pectin fiber. A recent Penn State study demonstrated the fiber’s power as a weight-loss tool: People who ate an apple 15 minutes before lunch ended up consuming 187 fewer calories during the meal than those who didn’t snack beforehand. And all that apple chomping isn’t just a good workout for your jaw; it tricks your brain into thinking you’re eating more than you really are, say the researchers.
And consider the grapefruit. In a study of 100 obese people at the Scripps Clinic in California, those who ate half a grapefruit with each meal lost an average of 3.6 pounds over the course of 12 weeks. Many lost more than 10 pounds. The study’s control group, in contrast, lost a paltry half pound. But here’s something even better: Those who ate grapefruit also exhibited a decrease in insulin levels, indicating that their bodies had improved upon the ability to metabolize sugar. It could be the optimal fast-breaking fruit, especially because it will give you a massive dose of lycopene—the cancer-preventing antioxidant found most commonly in tomatoes.
And yes, tomatoes—just like their MVP salad companion, the avocado—are fruits, even though it’s hard to think of them that way. Summertime, when both of them are at their peak in flavor and nutritional impact, is the healthiest eating time of the year simply because these superstars are in midseason form. Toss them into everything you eat—they’re that good for you.
8-HOUR POWERS:
Neutralize free radicals, which are molecules that accelerate the aging process
SECRET WEAPONS:
Vitamins including A, C, and K; folate; minerals including calcium and magnesium; fiber; beta-carotene
FIGHTS AGAINST:
Cancer, heart disease, stroke, obesity, osteoporosis
SIDEKICKS:
Cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli; green, yellow, red, and orange vegetables such as asparagus, peppers, and yellow beans
IMPOSTERS:
None, as long as you don’t fry them or smother them in fatty cheeses
I like spinach in particular because it’s such an efficient vegetable: One serving supplies nearly a full day’s worth of vitamin A and half of your vitamin C. It’s also loaded with folate—a vitamin that protects against heart disease, stroke, and colon cancer.
To incorporate it into your 8-Hour food plan, you can take the fresh stuff and use it as lettuce on a sandwich, or try stir-frying it with a little chopped garlic and olive oil. You can always guarantee that you have spinach handy by stocking up on the frozen chopped variety. Packed right after picking, the frozen stuff is full of the essential nutrients. And frozen spinach conveniently boosts the nutritional value of eggs, soups, and sauces.
Another potent power vegetable is broccoli. It’s high in fiber and more densely packed with vitamins and minerals than almost any other food. For instance, it contains nearly 90 percent of the vitamin C of fresh orange juice and almost half as much calcium as milk. It is also a powerful defender against diseases like cancer because it increases the enzymes that help detoxify carcinogens. Tip: With broccoli, you can skip the stalks. The florets have three times as much beta-carotene as the stems, and they’re also a great source of other antioxidants. If you hate vegetables, you can learn to hide them but still reap the benefits. Try pureeing them and adding them to marinara sauce or chili. The more you chop and puree vegetables, the more invisible they become and the easier it is for your body to absorb them. With broccoli, sauté it in garlic and olive oil and douse it with hot sauce.
Moving on now to the leafy greens, each of which has a specific super-power you should take advantage of. It’s kind of like the
Avengers
on your plate: If you need help, they’ll be there (without the leotard).
THE BONE BUILDER: ARUGULA.
One cup has 10 percent of the bone-building mineral found in a glass of whole milk and 100 percent less saturated fat. There’s also some magnesium in every bite, for more protection against osteoporosis.
THE BREATH PROTECTOR: WATERCRESS.
It’s a pepper-flavored HEPA filter for your body. Watercress contains phytochemicals that may prevent cigarette smoke and other airborne pollutants from causing lung cancer.
THE ANTIAGING AGENT: BOK CHOY.
Think of it as a cabbage-flavored multivitamin. A bowl of bok choy has 23 percent of your daily requirement
of vitamin A and a third of your vitamin C, along with three tongue-twisting, cancer-fighting, age-reducing phytochemicals: flavonoids, isothiocyanates, and dithiolethione.
THE SIGHT SHARPENER: SPINACH.
Spinach is a top source of lutein and zeaxanthin, two powerful antioxidants that protect your vision from the ravages of old age. A Tufts University study found that frequent spinach eaters had a 43 percent lower risk of age-related macular degeneration.
THE CANCER KILLER: ROMAINE.
This celery-flavored green is one of the best vegetable sources of beta-carotene—712 micrograms per cup. A University of Illinois study showed that high levels of beta-carotene inhibited the growth of prostate cancer cells by 50 percent.
THE HEART HEALER: ENDIVE.
It’s slightly bitter and a little crisp, and it offers twice the fiber of iceberg lettuce. A cup of endive also provides almost 20 percent of your daily requirement of folate. People who don’t consume enough of this essential B vitamin may have a 50 percent greater risk of developing heart disease.
THE BRAIN BOOSTER: MUSTARD GREENS.
These spicy, crunchy greens are packed with the amino acid tyrosine. In a recent US military study, researchers found that eating a tyrosine-rich meal an hour before taking a test helped soldiers significantly improve both their memories and their concentration. So if at first you don’t succeed, tyrosine, tyrosine again.
Finding the snappiest fruits and vegetables
AVOCADOS.
Feel for firm flesh. Toss back avocados with sunken, mushy spots. They should not rattle when shaken; that’s a sign the pit has pulled away from the dried-out flesh.
BERRIES.
Before you buy raspberries or strawberries, flip the carton over. You’re looking for nature’s expiration date: juice stains.
CANTALOUPE.
Don’t knock on a melon to check its ripeness; slap it instead. You’re listening for a hollow ring, not a dull thud or an inhuman scream.
CORN ON THE COB.
The sweetest ears are slightly immature, with kernels that don’t go all the way to the end of the cob. Toss ’em, husks and all, onto a medium-hot grill. Cook for 10 minutes, then peel back all but the last layer of husk. Grill 5 more minutes for that just-smoked flavor.
KALE.
The smaller the leaves, the more tender the kale. Avoid wilted foliage with discolored spots. You want moist leaves with a dark blue-green color.
PEACHES.
Look for well-colored fruit with no green spots. The flesh should yield slightly when lightly pressed and should have a fragrant aroma. (Fragrant like a peach, not fragrant like your cousin Freddy.)
TOMATOES.
Look for tomatoes that are firm and heavy for their size. They should have a sweet tomato aroma. If you generally don’t like tomatoes, try the yellow kind; they tend to have a sweeter, less acidic flavor than red varieties.
WATERMELON.
Forget color, shape, or size: Watermelons are best judged by weight. The heavier a melon is, the more water it contains, and water is what helps give a melon its flavor.
8-HOUR POWERS:
Prevent your body from storing fat
SECRET WEAPONS:
Fiber, protein, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, pyridoxine, vitamin E, magnesium, zinc, potassium, iron, calcium
FIGHTS AGAINST:
Obesity, cancer, high blood pressure, heart disease
SIDEKICKS:
Brown rice, whole-wheat pretzels, whole-wheat pastas
IMPOSTERS:
Processed bakery products like white bread, bagels, and doughnuts; breads labeled wheat instead of whole wheat
There’s only so long a person can survive on an all-protein diet or an all-salad diet or an all-anything diet. You will crave carbohydrates because your body needs carbohydrates. The key is to eat the ones that have been the least processed—carbs that still have all their heart-healthy, belly-busting fiber intact.
Grains such as wheat, corn, oats, barley, and rye are seeds that come from grasses, and they’re broken into three parts—the germ, the bran, and the endosperm. Think of a kernel of corn. The biggest part of the kernel—the part that blows up when you make popcorn—is the endo-sperm. Nutritionally it’s pretty much a big dud. It contains starch, a little protein, and some B vitamins.
The germ is the smallest part of the grain; in the corn kernel, it’s that little white seedlike thing. But while it’s small, it packs the most nutritional power. It contains protein, oils, and the B vitamins thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, and pyridoxine. It also has vitamin E and the minerals magnesium, zinc, potassium, and iron.
The bran is the third part of the grain and the part where all the fiber is stored. It’s a coating around the endosperm that contains B vitamins, zinc, calcium, potassium, magnesium, and other minerals.
So what’s the point of this little botany lesson? Well, get this: When food manufacturers process and refine grains, guess which two parts get tossed out? Yup, the bran, where all the fiber and minerals are, and the germ, where all the protein and vitamins are. And what they keep—the nutritionally bankrupt endosperm (that is, starch)—is made into pasta, bagels, white bread, white rice, and just about every other wheat product and baked good you’ll find.