Food Programming versus Dieting

I am often amazed at how little understanding people have of the roles played by all three food groups—carbohydrates, proteins, and fats—in the maintenance of physical health. Popular diet books only add to this confusion. Some diet authors advocate an almost total avoidance of carbohydrates and a large intake of protein. Some give readers the idea that all fats are bad. Others downplay the importance of choosing unsaturated fats such as olive oil and soy butter, over saturated fats such as dairy butter and cheese, by including recipes with heavy, creamy sauces in their food plans. You could probably lose weight on any of these diets, since most people eat so inconsistently that almost any routine food program will have a positive effect on the body’s metabolic processes. But no one can stay on an extreme or unbalanced food program for long and expect to remain healthy.
The key to maintaining weight loss, eliminating health risks, increasing energy levels, maintaining performance, improving your moods, and increasing your longevity is to follow a food program that can become a lifestyle. This type of food program must have several basic characteristics:

• It must be intelligently balanced among carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, based on the evidence presented by nutritional science.
• It must adequately satisfy your body’s daily caloric requirements.
• If you need to lose weight initially, it should never put your daily caloric intake so low that you will feel undue hunger, physical or emotional stress, or loss of energy.
• It should provide you with three balanced meals and at least two snacks per day to keep your energy levels consistent.
• It should have a certain amount of flexibility built into it to allow for your individual nutritional needs, since we are all a bit different from one another. For example, a man or woman who is very athletic will require more protein than your average person.

Generally, I have found that the percentages that work best for most people are 55 percent low-glycemic carbohydrates, 20 percent lean protein, and 25 percent acceptable fat. Allowing for individual differences, Dr. E. C. Henley, Ph.D., R.D., executive vice president and director of nutritional sciences for Physicians Pharmaceuticals, the experienced nutrition researcher and counselor who has designed the food program in this chapter, has built a bit of flexibility into that range. I guarantee that every reader who follows this food program will experience, in as few as thirty days, significant fat loss, an increase in lean muscle, lowered cholesterol, decreased
health risks, and a marked increase in energy levels. But I also encourage you to listen to your body and observe its performance levels. For example, you might find that as you increase your level of exercise, you may need a somewhat higher percentage of lean protein. Or you may discover that you are an individual who is at his or her most energetic when you stick with 55 percent acceptable carbohydrates— or maybe even a bit more.
Let’s take a look at the three food groups and the role each nutrient plays in the body.