I received an email on Wednesday from a new reader, Christine from Canada, who had a few nutrition-related questions. Normally I try to reply personally to as many of these types of emails as possible, but I thought it would be better to just answer her questions here. Who knows, maybe some of you have similar questions.
Now, I’m not a dietician, so don’t expect dietician types of answers. I’m an Undieter, so in general I try to be less analytical and more commonsensical when it comes to looking at food and eating. That said, here are Christine from Canada’s questions and my answers.
CC: If I’m baking something (say banana bread), how big should the portions be? Like the size of a regular slice of bread?
DS: Well, first off, I’m looking at baked goods as an infrequent treat. Doesn’t matter if there are bananas in it, banana bread and most other baked goods are not something that you should be eating very often. Of course, a lot depends on what you’re putting in it, but bottom line is it should be looked at as a special treat. Given that, comparing the portion size to regular bread really doesn’t make sense. If you were going to have some chocolate or ice cream for a treat, you’d know that the smaller the portion size the better. Treat banana bread the same way you’d treat chocolate or ice cream.
CC: Do you consider a banana a starchy carb, or a fruit? Like if I was having 2-3 servings of starchy carbs and 2-3 servings of fruit per day, would I knock it down as fruit, or starch?
DS: Here’s where people who want an analytical, dietician type answer are going to be disappointed or upset. Bananas are fruit, and nobody ever got fat by eating too much fruit. I probably eat at least seven or so servings of fruit every day, and that includes at least one banana, sometimes two. People should eat a variety of fruits and veggies every day, and I say don’t bother worrying about whether they are starchy, fibrous, or whatever. Simply eat a variety, and eat lots of them.
CC: What about carrots? Considered just a regular veggie, or do they fit int with the corn/peas/potatoes as a starchy carb?
DS: Same answer as bananas. Nobody has gotten fat from eating too many carrots, peas or potatoes. I know lots of people think potatoes are evil, but they aren’t. How people prepare them might make them no better than junk food (french fries, potato chips, potato skins, etc.), but potatoes on their own are ok to eat. Again, nobody eats too many carrots or peas. Like fruit, don’t waste time worrying about whether a vegetable is starchy or fibrous. Just eat a wide variety of them, and eat more of them. And, if you can, buy locally grown veggies. I belong to a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm and get an assortment of locally grown, seasonal, organic veggies every week during the summer and early fall. They’re tastier and much fresher than the stuff in the big grocery store produce department, and it’s great to support the local farmer.
CC: Do you recommend adding healthy fats to every meal, or only 3-4 meals per day? (Not counting trace fats found in carbs and such.)
DS: In my opinion, dietary fat is probably one of the most misunderstood nutrition topics out there, and where most people go off the rails. The truth is, ever since we started demonizing fat, the obesity epidemic has exploded. Thirty years ago food manufacturers rushed to produce low-fat and fat-free versions of everything, and suddenly fat was the enemy. The problem is that all of these newly formulated “foods” tasted like crap once the fat was removed, so the manufacturers had to start adding all kinds of chemicals, additional processing, and engineered gems like high fructose corn syrup to make the food palatable and less craptastic.
The bottom line is your body needs fat to survive, and the right kinds of fat will actually make you healthier and more fit. Similar to the above answers, you should try to get your fat from a variety of sources, and spread throughout the day. I could go on for a while trying to cover the details, but here’s a great article on dietary fat by Mike Geary that does a wonderful job of laying it out for you. I pretty much concur with everything he says in the article (though I’ve never had raw milk and don’t know enough about it to take a side on that issue as I’ve already written.)
CC: What do you consider the “limits” of each food group, servings-wise? I know I probably eat WAY over the recommended servings for veggies…just curious.
DS: I don’t really have any sort of numerical limits that I place on food groups. Again, I think being over-analytical when it comes to food is counterproductive. When people just learn to eat right (fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, high quality protein, water, minimal processed crap), then you don’t need to stress over how many servings of food group A or B you should have, how many grams of starchy vs. fibrous carbs you ate, whether or not your protein intake is adequate, etc. You just eat. A few quotes from Michael Pollan, author of “The Ominvore’s Dilemma” and several other great books on food and eating, kind of sum up my perspective:
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
“Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.”
“Treat treats as treats.”
“While it is true that many people simply can’t afford to pay more for food, either in money or time or both, many more of us can. After all, just in the last decade or two we’ve somehow found the time in the day to spend several hours on the internet and the money in the budget not only to pay for broadband service, but to cover a second phone bill and a new monthly bill for television, formerly free. For the majority of Americans, spending more for better food is less a matter of ability than priority.”
There you go Christine from Canada. I hope that helps. I answered your questions as best I could from my perspective as an Undieter. I know some people would have preferred that I spout off specifics like “you must eat X servings per day of this food group”, but that’s simply not how I roll. People get too caught up in the details when instead they’d be 1000% better off simply focusing on the basics.
I’d love to hear comments from you all below. Are you someone who needs to take the analytical approach, or do you prefer something simpler? What works best for you? Let me know.
~Dave
Dave Soucy is an entrepreneur, coach, trainer, motivator, husband, dad, and former fat guy. Learn more about him here.
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great post! kinda like…if you cant stop eating fast food on a daily basis…why are u asking about organic fruit? great info, thanks!
Thanks Mike.
great post! kinda like…if you cant stop eating fast food on a daily basis…why are u asking about organic fruit? great info, thanks!
Thanks Mike.
Hi Dave!! Just so you know, I guess I should have made it clearer that when I was talking about banana bread, I was referring to a “cleaned up” recipe. No sugar, added fat, etc. And that goes for all my other baked goods, too.
Hi Christine,
I kind of figured that as your email said you were eating pretty cleanly, but I still like to look at it as a treat…:)
Dave,
This is perhaps your best column yet. I could not agree with you more about most of these issues.
1. Dietary fat is certainly not unhealthy. Furthermore, there is little evidence that suggests that dietary cholesterol has anything to do with blood cholesterol. The vast majority of stored cholesterol is synthesized when the body senses abundance – which is easy to due when you eat too much or are flooded with simple carbohydrates.
2. I agree that nobody gets fat on fruits and veggies. The CSA approach (which my family also uses) takes it one step further – all the produce you eat is in season for your part of the country, helping to ensure optimal nutritional value. Plus, by definition, all produce has fiber.
3. Numerical limits are indeed counter to the way the brain perceives fullness. We are not computers, so our eating should not be run by spreadsheets.
Thanks again for your frequent words of wisdom and encouragement. You are helping me move from a slightly out-of-shape chubby guy to a moderately in-shape less chubby, more lean guy. It's a good journey.
Thanks JD. Great point on the cholesterol issue as well. The CSA thing is great, isn't it?
Genius Dave – absolutely spot on. I've never heard of anyone getting fat from eating a truck load of fruit.
The sooner people can realise this the better. Thanks for sharing this Q n A so others can find this post and benefit
Thanks for stopping by Daniel. People too often worry about the wrong stuff, but given the amount of misinformation there is out there, that isn't surprising. I'm guessing you run into that just as much in Australia as we do in the US.
On Feb 25, 2010, I stopped eating almost all processed foods. What I eat comes from the produce or the dairy aisles. Veggies, fruits (all kinds) including avocados and mangoes and bananas, yogurt, eggs (generally 2 a day), almost everything gets cooked in extra virgin olive oil, nuts, dark chocolate. Maybe 2 slices of bread a month. Weight started dropping off, painful areas got much better, slept like a baby. Along comes summer, stress in my job during summer–went out to eat, started having hot fudge sundaes (one-dip, but still) for dessert, more bread, even had some potato chips. Several days ago I realized how miserable I was feeling and saw that I'd put 2 pounds back on. I'm back to eating as I should and already beginning to feel better. It's amazing. The only rules I like to follow are to eat about every 3 hours and make sure no factory has gotten its metallic hands on it. Oh, and every few days splurge on extra calories (healthy ones). Just because.
Oh and btw – nice to see other fruit lovers here too, haha! Fruit rocks!
Hey Vicky Ann,
isn't it amazing how your body adapts to eating well? Of course, the flip side, as you discovered, is that it isn't real happy if you go back to eating poorly.
Congrats on your transformation. You've got the undieting thing down…:)