By Heather Cabot, The Well Mom
Eat small meals. Finish your vegetables. Go easy on starches and sweets. It’s the regimen our grandmothers espoused back before the dawn of quick, cheap, convenience food.
Turns out, dear Grandma was on to something, according to Dr. Barry Sears, founder and bestselling author of The Zone diet. He says we should heed her advice if we want to intervene in the country’s obesity epidemic.
“Grandma was really on the cutting edge,” explained Sears to a group of parenting and food bloggers in New York City. He was in town in July to promote his new book TOXIC FAT: When Good Fat Turns Bad, which suggests that a fatty acid in our bodies called “arachiodonic acid” is messing with our hormones, causing the inflammation of fat cells and making it harder for Americans predisposed to weight gain to keep the pounds off and to fight off disease.
“Our diet has become far more inflammatory. Now we’re seeing adult onset Diabetes in kids. Cancer used to be a disease of the very old. Now we are seeing it among the young,” said Sears to the group at a lunch hosted by Role Mommy.
He blames the cheap refined carbohydrates and vegetable oils flooding supermarkets since the 1970′s. Speaking to a roomful of moms, he pointed to products found in the inner aisles of the average grocery store loaded with sugar and vegetable oils containing Omega 6 fatty acids. If you want to tackle weight loss, consumers must get rid of the Omega 6 fatty acids in your kitchen, he argued, namely corn, sunflower and other vegetable oils containing polyunsaturated fats and replace them with monosaturated fats like olive oil, nuts and avocado.
“Food is our most powerful drug. Weight, health, longevity, daily performance are all controlled by hormones and the food we eat,” he said.
But for a generation (or two) raised on Big Macs, Domino’s and Wonder Bread, changing habits is not so easy. Indeed, the group discussion covered how to heed Grandma’s advice while still appealing to children and husbands.
“It’s easier to change religion that to change diet,” Sears conceded. His company is pushing a new line of chemically engineered foods that mimic some of the dishes Americans love by swapping in protein for refined carbs. The idea is that the protein will provide satiety to last until the next meal or snack.
Dr. Sears at lunch organized by Beth Feldman of Role Mommy
Keeping up energy throughout the day is a major concern of most moms, including the women who attended the briefing. Sears suggested a few tips to help with weight management and keeping up mental acuity throughout our busy days. Yes, it does sound a lot like what our grandmothers told our parents. But if you’ve committed to cooking more at home and cutting out packaged foods, here are some steps from Sears to consider:
- Eat 3 small meals a day and 2 snacks
- Never wait more than 5 hours between meals
- Finish your vegetables (Sears recommends 5-10 servings per day of fruits and vegetables)
- Ditch vegetable oils and swap with monosaturated fats (olive oil, avocado, slivered almonds, etc.)
- Take an Omega 3 fatty acid supplement (Remember Grandma’s teaspoon of cod liver oil?)
- Shop the perimeter of the supermarket
- Balance protein to carbohydrate every meal (1 gram of fat: 2 grams of protein: 3 grams of carbohydrates)
Of course, The Well Mom recommends you always consult with your own physician before undertaking any new dietary changes.
What do you think?
Do you remember what your grandmother used to say about food? Share with us?
