More diet stuff

29 posts and more than a few comments related to the posts in just over a month. Someone (that'd be me!) needs to get a life!

In past posts I've talked about the whys of why Taka and I eat they way we do. I've mentioned a few of the benefits, but have only really talked about the weight loss and general feelings of health, etc.

Our diet has evolved from the early days of deciding to forgo meat and meat-derived items. The first of several changes was to stop all dairy products. Of all the things I occasionally miss, cheese and cooking with butter and cream would be way near the top of the list. There are free range items that are hormone and antibiotic free, but we have felt so much better since giving up dairy that we decided to just stay with it. Most of our diet decisions have been mine (I'd never force Taka to follow...as if I could force her to do anything she didn't want to do...), but Taka has joined the ride to her benefit. One thing she's noticed since our diet change is that her skin is better now than it's ever been.

You always hear about how much better vegetarians and people with macrobiotic lifestyles feel. There's a reason for this. They do! I wonder though, if it is largely from the huge amounts of chemicals that have been eliminated from our diet (I'm guessing that it's true of any vegetarian, macrobiotic, and/or organic lifestyle). While the Japanese diet has long been regarded as very healthy, I'm beginning to think that a large part of that is how fresh and relatively free of chemicals it is when compared to the modern Western diet. As the Japanese diet continues to westernize, I think they will find many of the same health issues here that have been plaguing the West for a while now.

I think that one of the biggest mistakes a person that wants to eat healthier can make is to start buying mass-produced items that sell themselves as "healthy" for whatever reason. "Low Fat" means little health-wise if it's because what would have created the higher fat levels has been replaced by four different chemicals with seven syllable names. There are more chemicals in the average American diet than there is actual food. It's fascinating in a horrifying way. I read somewhere that there are something like 1500-2000 man-made chemicals in an average weekly diet in the States. I thought that sounded really high until I discovered how many single ingredients are actually composed of multiple chemicals (often created from others still). Do I feel better because I don't eat meat or dairy, or is it the masses of chemicals I've eliminated from my diet? At this point I just don't care. I feel great.

When we went to Saipan I was fascinated by the supermarkets. Why I judge each country on their food shopping is a mystery that way pre-dates any dietary change on my part. They were so very American (yes, I realize Saipan is an American territory). The biggest shock, and I suspect it will be true when I next visit the States, was the sheer volume of pre-prepared foods. A quick label check on any of them, and I felt right at home (Japan). I really understood less than 20% of the ingredients...and I know my way around a label better than most.

I think a great first step for anyone that wants a healthier diet would be to just not eat or drink anything that has a label you can't fully understand. For most of you this will eliminate nearly everything you eat or drink on a daily basis. You might recognize the phrase "partially hydrolized vegetable oil", but if you can't explain how this oil comes to be hydrolized or how it could be partially hydrolized and why this is a good thing or a bad thing (Side note: bad thing), then you just can't have that product. Just learning what some of the label means will lead to a major shift in eating habits. I challenge any of you to fully explain the ingredients of a diet cola. Side Note: Aspartame is really, really dangerous on several levels.

I truly believe that the reason Taka and I feel so much better, have more energy, etc. is as much from our extremely dramatic decrease in consumption of artificial ingredients and chemicals as it is from the semi-macrobiotic lifestyle.

It's so easy to just blow this all off. There are studies about studies of studies for just about everything. You can make the point that paying attention to these things will just lead to your discovering that everything in the world is bad for you. True enough. I could do a whole other post on that alone (Hmmm). Still, I'm talking from personal experience here. More than a few of you are in for a big surprise if you haven't seen me in a few years. In two years I've gone from 189 lbs. (86 kg. My personal heaviest ever) to 65 kg. (143 lbs).

I don't actually eat as well as I should sometimes, and I kind of tend to just not be hungry when it's hot and humid (which covers a significant part of the year here)...no doubt that has a little to do with things. As strange as it sounds to talk about not eating well while keeping this kind of lifestyle sounds, those of you that do (or have) know what I mean. I expect my weight will rise a little if I ever get around to working out again...but this time you should actually be able to see the muscles (something that didn't happen the last time I was more or less in shape)!

Changing your diet wouldn't be easy for most of you. It involves food shopping pretty much every day. Way more time in the kitchen and way more discrimination when eating out. Going out with friends can be a real challenge for Taka and me. We still eat seafood, so as long as we're careful about butter and the like it's not too bad. In all, it's not as bad as it sounds...especially in Japan. Once you get used to the diet (it takes a while), there are a lot of things you can make and freeze. There are places that sell snacks and restaurants and bars that sell about anything you'd want...and they are not full of aging hippies (some of them aren't that old...just kidding)! Packing lunches is way more common here than elsewhere, but what a way to eat better!

Whether the benefits of changing your eating habits are from the elimination of meat and/or dairy and/or meat and dairy derived products or whether it's the fact that your diet will necessarily be much lower in man-made chemicals is almost a moot point. You will be healthier than you've ever been before. You'll feel it. This isn't from a study. I live it. Taka lives it. Several of my friends do too. It's the real deal.

Any radical diet change should be done carefully. Anyone with real plans to do so should be careful and consult someone that knows what they are doing (while a doctor is probably a good place to start, even a lot of doctors aren't too good about this kind of thing).

Time to shop for dinner.