"If you’re conscientious about your food choices for a healthy lifestyle, you probably know all about eating whole foods, fresh fruits and veggies and so on. But there’s more to good nutrition for optimum health, and it has nothing to do with counting calories or avoiding fats. Many nutritionists discourage people from following fad diets — which could even mean the low-fat, low-cholesterol kind — in favor of an individualized approach based on nutrient-rich, minimally processed foods that address individual needs.
“I encourage people to experiment with different ways of eating to see what works for them. Some people feel drawn to eating one way that is what one might consider ‘healthy’ but think that they should do something else because of their blood type, etc.,” said Port Orchard nutritionist Deanna Minich, PhD, author of several books including “An A to Z Guide to Food Additives: Never Eat What You Can’t Pronounce.”
Instead of using a diet approach, Minich recommends “an experiential method in which you see how your body interacts with different combinations of nutrients, times of eating and amounts of food.”
“Making one’s connection more experiential with food means that you have to force yourself to be fully aware of how your body, emotions and mind are responding. With everyone being so individual in their genetic expression, I think that being flexible rather than rigidly tied to a diet is the way to ensure long-term, effective change that gets one in touch with their bodies more than a calorie count,” she said, adding that a nutrition expert can help guide a person through that process.
She said one mistake people commonly make is following numbers instead of their own bodies. “Numbers like calorie counting may be good for an initial transition into a new way of eating, but may not be practical for the long term,” she said.
Jennifer Adler, MS, CN, a certified nutritionist and owner of Passionate Nutrition, with offices on Bainbridge Island and in Seattle, agrees that calorie-counting is a common mistake.
“A lot of people get caught up in looking for things that are low-fat but a lot of low-fat foods have little nutrition and are more processed,” she said. “It’s more about food quality versus calories.”
As one example, she said many low-fat yogurts have additives like gums and thickeners that their whole versions don’t contain, which means whole-milk yogurt is more of a natural product as well as being more filling. “If we pay attention to our bodies, eating something that has more fat will make us feel more satisfied so we will not eat as much,” she said.
That doesn’t mean going overboard with fat, of course; it simply means doing some homework to understand what’s best for the body.
In addition to trying to eat foods that are as pure as possible, Adler looks at the “age” of a food. If something has been around for a hundred years or more (like eggs, for example), it’s more likely to be healthy than things created in the past six decades when highly processed foods became mainstream.
“Nutrient density is important. The deeper, darker the color of the food, the more nutrition it has,” she said. That means spinach is better than iceberg lettuce, egg yolk is better than the egg white, and so on.
Kale is another good substitution for lettuce, said Minich, who also recommends things like baking a sweet potato instead of a regular one. She said it’s important to make healthy eating easy and convenient. “Make fresh convenient in any way possible,” she said. “Buy pre-cut vegetables, even if they are not organic… Cut up vegetables or fruit and keep in easily accessible container in refrigerator.”
She also likes to “sneak in” veggies — like pulverizing them in a blender and adding to a healthy protein shake. “Bury vegetables in other dishes: spinach in brownies, if you really want to eat brownies; carrot puree in macaroni and cheese,” she said. Other veggie-packed suggestions include stir-fry dishes and the powdered form from a supplement store or a healthcare provider. Minich recommends the book “Green for Life” by Victoria Boutenko for more ideas.
Leah Werner, a registered dietician and clinical educator for Harrison Medical Center, said eating a rainbow of colors is good advice. And although she agrees that trying to avoid processed foods is key, she said if canned vegetables is your only choice, that’s better than no vegetables at all. “Sometimes frozen vegetables have more nutrients too (than fresh ones) because they are frozen when packed and don’t lose nutrients when being transported,” she said.
One area people can explore beyond the basics is phytochemicals, Werner said. Phytochemicals, also called phytonutrients, are compounds in plants that are separate from vitamins and minerals and help prevent diseases. Some of the most phytonitrient-rich foods are broccoli, berries, soy nuts, pears, turnips, celery, carrots, spinach, olives, tomatoes, lentils and cantaloupes, according to the Stanford Cancer Institute.
“One mistake people make is cutting out every food they enjoy and going out on an extreme,” Werner said. “That could lead to binging and cravings. So do everything in moderation.”
Minich has similar advice. She said people who do too much, too fast can’t sustain that approach in the long term. “Smaller steps for lasting effects is my preferred approach,” she said. “…Focus on the basics rather than making it complicated: Stick with produce of many colors, reduce processed foods and eat moderate portions.”
One very basic change Adler suggests is slowing down during a meal and really the food. “Often times you know this is good to do but have a hard time with it,” she said. “(Slowing down) helps metabolize food and absorb nutrition, and you could also realize you don’t like that food (like fast food) after all.”
She recommends preparing healthy meals in advance or making one-pot meals such as soups and crockpot dishes and taking advantage of the healthy “grab and go” options offered at grocery stores. “One thing I recommend do clients is to set themselves up for success,” she said."
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