 
Eating the Rainbow

Lifelong Nutritional Wellness – Without Lies, Hype, or Calculus

2nd Edition

Published by Dave Chong and Nicole A. Kerr at Smashwords

Copyright 2012 Dave Chong and Nicole A. Kerr

Kendall-Hunt Publishing Company previously published the first edition of this book.

Cornucopia illustration used with permission from Microsoft (in accordance with section 8.1 of the Microsoft Services Agreement).

DEDICATION

We sincerely dedicate this book to every single person who eats food.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Dave is a faculty member in health sciences, teaching courses in Wellness, Health Assessments, Anatomy & Physiology, Medical Terminology, Stress Management, and Research Methods. He holds a Ph.D. in Health Promotion & Education, a Master's in Exercise & Wellness, and certifications from the American College of Sports Medicine, the Wilderness Medicine Institute, and the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians.

Nicole is a nutrition and wellness consultant who believes in treating the whole person in order to make significant changes in one's health. Currently serving as the Director of Wellness and Patient Advocacy at Castle Medical Center, Nicole continues her passion for a healthier Hawaii. Previously, Nicole was the Health Promotion Nutrition Manager for the United States Air Force's Medical Headquarters in San Antonio, TX. She has worked in academia, non-profit, private, and government sectors, most notably at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, GA, where she was a health communications specialist with the Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity. Nicole has been featured on CNN, PBS, the Food Channel and other news shows for her expertise in these areas. A graduate of the University of Minnesota's School of Public Health, Nicole holds an MPH in Nutrition, a BA from Southern Methodist University in Public Relations and Business, and a Dietetics degree from Louisiana State University. She is a Registered Dietitian (RD) and a Veteran of the Armed Forces, having attended the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO. For more information on Nicole, check out her website at www.nicolekerr.com.

**Table of Contents**

Introduction to 2nd Edition

Chapter 1: Eating for Wellness

Chapter 2: The Psychology of Eating

Chapter 3: Eating without Math

Chapter 4: Visual Eating Strategies

Chapter 5: In Case You Need A Manhole Cover

Chapter 6: "Chemistry Degree" Food Labels

Chapter 7: Add-Ons & Extras

Chapter 8: Snacking Strategies & Situational Awareness

Chapter 9: Putting It All Together

Appendix A: Turning Science into Plain English

Appendix B: Eating Disorders and Disordered Eating

Appendix C: Food Journal

Appendix D: Glossary

Acknowledgements

**Introduction**

When we published the first edition of this book a few years ago, we were thrilled by the responses we received from our readers, many of whom had endured long, difficult journeys across a baffling dietary landscape. For them, it was deeply rewarding to finally learn nutrition fundamentals that were genuinely simple, safe, _and_ effective, which is also why we're so pleased to introduce this second edition of our book.

In this new edition, we've maintained the same basic principles we used in our earlier text, because they _work_. As a result, you'll be able to personally experience the same dietary successes as our other readers, simply by understanding and applying the following three, equally important, nutrition fundamentals:

* the _quantity_ of your intake (including foods & beverages)

* the _quality_ of your intake (as indicated by the natural colors present or absent in your dietary selections)

* the _reasons_ why you're eating in the first place (since genuine physical hunger is only one of the many reasons why people choose the quantities and qualities of what they consume).

In the meantime, we're delighted that the success and durability of our dietary principles have been confirmed, and we've written this second edition in order to answer the most common questions from our readers, in addition to including updates from the latest findings in nutrition science. We're also honored to enter the world of ebooks now, with this new edition being available in a variety of electronic formats.

In the meantime, we gratefully thank all of our readers for sharing their successes with us, and we wish you a lifetime of peace, contentment, and well-being.

Aloha, Dave & Nicole.

**CHAPTER 1**

EATING FOR WELLNESS

WHAT IS "HEALTH," ANYWAY?

We're not sure how many books start off with a quiz on the first page, but we're going to try it. Seriously, we'd like you to take a moment right now to think about everything the word "health" means to you (and, by the way, feel free to close your eyes and do this mentally, or just set down this book for a minute and actually write your thoughts out).

Of course, we realize this "quiz" might leave you wondering, "Why are they asking me to do this? I may not be able to write out a full-length, official definition of 'health,' but I'd know a healthy person if I saw one." And you know what? A lot of other people actually think the exact same thing.

In other words, when it comes to the casual, everyday use of language, most people don't give much thought to each of the specific words they use, because it would be mentally exhausting to stop and think about a definition for every single word. Plus, there's an unspoken assumption that often happens in communication, where each of us thinks our own word definitions are the same as everyone else's. That's a dangerous assumption, though, so we're going to briefly look at some common language and word habits before even beginning to talk about food.

Quick, true story: on a recent trip through a neighborhood bookstore, we couldn't help but notice how many books supposedly offering dietary advice for "health" improvement were actually offering dietary advice for _image_ enhancement, instead. Think about that. Many of those books' marketing angles weren't even all that far removed from the popular magazine headlines at your local newsstand, either, including urgent appeals for flat abs, sexy thighs, rapid weight changes, increased sex appeal, "secret tips," "miracle cures," and a variety of other attention-grabbers designed to appeal to the hottest _image_ of the moment, and yet all supposedly within the context of "health." Which leads us to our next question: what does image have to do with health, anyway?

HEALTH, FITNESS, AND WELLNESS

Without a doubt, there are three words you'll often see used interchangeably in the media, even though they don't actually mean the same thing. Those words are: health, fitness, and wellness.

We mention this because many people have chosen to "operationalize" (define and measure) the concepts of health, fitness, and wellness in a variety of overlapping ways, resulting in a tremendous amount of confusion among consumers. For example, a friend of ours was recently talking about a relative who became ill, and our friend was very surprised about this illness, because he described his family member as being the "perfect picture of good health."

That comment immediately sparked our curiosity, because it implied that health and outward physical appearance were identical (or at least very similar). So to get a little more info, we asked, "What do you mean, he's the 'perfect picture' of good health?" And our friend responded, "Well, you know....he's lean, athletic, muscular, and he does a lot of triathlons."

Okay, wait a second. Did you notice in that description how our friend chose to operationalize health? According to him (and a lot of other folks today), someone who's a competitive athlete with plenty of muscle mass and very little extra body fat is "healthy." And yet, you've got to stop and wonder: is that really true?

In other words, although there's certainly a wealth of scientific research that links physical fitness to a decreased risk of premature death and various diseases, should we _always_ assume that relationship is correct? For example, if a certain male athlete is preparing for a sports competition by using anabolic steroids to gain muscle mass and strength – even at the expense of damaging certain internal organs like his heart, liver, and kidneys – is that physically fit male also a healthy male? Likewise, if a female athlete is trying to improve her strength-to-weight ratio by adopting disordered eating practices (such as vomiting after meals, abusing laxatives, going through periods of self-starvation, etc.), is that physically fit female also a healthy female? From our perspective, the answer to each of these questions is a resounding "NO," which is why we'd now like to share the way we define health, fitness, and wellness.

OUR DEFINITIONS

The first distinction we would like to make is that "health" and "wellness" are _not_ performance based, while "fitness" _is_ performance based. As a result, fitness is often expressed in measures that indicate a person's ability to be _physically competitive_ , based on things like the maximum weight a person can lift, the fastest speed someone can run, the farthest distance an athlete can throw a ball, etc.

On the other hand, health and wellness are _not_ focused on performance-based characteristics. In fact, you already know this if you've gone to your doctor's office lately, because when was the last time your family physician timed you in the 40-yard dash or measured how far you could throw a javelin? Still, health does tend to focus on other physical characteristics (unless accompanied by a prefix that changes it into something clearly non-physical, like "mental health"), and common expressions of health, therefore, include things like:

* absence (or at least the controlled management) of disease;

* medically acceptable results for certain "biometric" measurements (such as blood pressure, urine composition, and the amounts of cholesterol and glucose in your blood); and

* ability to complete "activities of daily living" (including bathing, grocery shopping, going to work, etc.) without excessive physical strain.

From that definition of health, we then move on to wellness, which takes a gigantic step beyond health because it's _multidimensional_. That means that although wellness includes physical health as one of its components, it also contains several other features that aren't physical, including your status in emotional, social, intellectual, spiritual, occupational, and environmental aspects of living. As a result, common measures for wellness (also known as "well-being") include the various things we just discussed for health _plus_ : psychological assessments, career strength inventories, financial profiles, global "footprints," etc.

Throughout this book, we will be using the terms health and wellness almost interchangeably. That might sound contradictory to what we just wrote about defining individual words, but we use this approach on purpose because health and wellness have two very important things in common:

1. they're _not_ performance based; and

2. they're _not_ image based, either.

In other words, there isn't a single concept in this book that applies only to fashion models or competitive athletes, because even though our dietary principles work just as well for those people as anyone else, our foremost priority is wellness. That's why we've written this book for people who want practical nutrition information relevant to their own physical health, and yet who also realize that the relationship between people and food is much more complex than just a biological response to physical hunger. In fact, that's why this book includes entire chapters on topics like emotional eating and eating disorders, because those subjects represent a major shift from the purely physical perspective of _health_ into the multidimensional standpoint of _wellness_.

So now you know where we stand in our approach to nutrition, and you can rest assured that we won't make any claims in this book about washboard abs, buns of steel, or Barbie doll figures. In fact, even though modern society will tell you otherwise, your long-term well-being is infinitely more important than any of those short-term goals, and the information we're about to share in the upcoming pages clearly explains why. After all, we're hoping you'll join us for a _lifelong_ journey in nutritional wellness, so let's get started!

**CHAPTER 2**

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF EATING

FOOD IS EVERYWHERE!

You really have to try hard to find an occasion or a destination where food is not available. We celebrate everything, whether good times or bad, with food. One reason is that food is a cheap form of entertainment. We also use food to reward, bribe and show love. Think about how many times you have seen a parent bribe a child with some food in order to get them to settle down and "be nice."

Ever heard the saying "food is love?" For a lot of mothers a way to show their love is through their cooking (and the family asking for seconds!). Marketers also discovered long ago that to get people to show up for an event you simply offer free food. And it is hardly news that the most common shared commercial experience is eating at McDonald's. After all, those golden arches are the most recognized symbol in the world, even for people as young as two years old.

Here in America we are hard pressed to imagine a life without frozen foods, convenience foods, preservatives, microwaves, artificial sweeteners, boxed juices, bottled water, and new fat substitutes just to name a few. How many of you lived off of frozen pizza or frozen dinners, ramen noodles, and Mountain Dew in college (you may still be doing it)? Unfortunately, many of those conveniences have left a lot of us with no cooking skills. Nicole had a client, for example, who owned a blender but didn't know how to operate it to make fruit smoothies. No kidding. Bottom line: when it comes to our food, we want it to taste good, be low-cost, _and_ be convenient – or at least to require minimal preparation.

THE MAJOR INFLUENCES

There are many aspects of culture and society that impact our relationship with food, so what drives our preferences about food? We want to highlight seven of the most influential factors:

1. **Social Interactions** – _The quest for connection_

We can't think of one social function that doesn't have eating as a core activity. Depending on the social event, your food intake may increase (think Thanksgiving until Super Bowl Sunday, or a family dinner at an all-you-can-eat restaurant), or it may decrease (you meet friends for a vegan meal and you don't like tofu or vegetables). Whether it is going out for pizza and beer every Thursday night with your college friends, celebrating holidays, or attending the myriad of social functions (weddings, funerals, graduations, birthdays, anniversaries, baby showers, and every Hallmark "holiday") you can bet that food will be a common denominator. And a crucial point is how you relate to the people at these events. If you are anxious, bored, or find yourself lonely at an event, food will typically soothe that feeling. How many parties have you gone to where you found yourself circling the bar or buffet table three of four times because you felt anxious, out of place, or bored? And if you've ever tried to decline food at a social event, your hosts were probably shocked.

2. **Religion** – _Relating food to a higher power_

If you are a member of a particular religious organization, you may already understand the ways in which food is related to a religion's history, and how it is used or not used in ceremonies, rituals, and religious teachings. For example, several religions including Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism are known to have dietary rules defining when, how often, and what you can eat. If you grew up Jewish you are familiar with eating "kosher" foods, which includes eating meat only from "clean" animals that chew their cud and have cloven feet. For those of you who grew up Catholic, you know that during the Lenten season, you substitute fish for meat on Fridays. Several religions discourage the use of alcohol and caffeine-containing beverages, and during certain times of the year, many people fast (e.g., Muslims fast from dawn to sunset during the holy month of Ramadan.) How strictly you adhere to the dietary laws of your religion depends on your personal belief system.

3. **Culture** – _Group-based identities_

Food and culture are like a marriage – each helps define the other. The culture in which you grow up strongly shapes your food preferences, including when you eat. American culture is very diverse, but if you ask most people, they will likely tell you the "American diet" is fast food – hamburgers, french fries and a soft drink – supersized! The reality is that Americans love their meat and potatoes, and every region has its own specialties. For instance, Nicole grew up in Mississippi where people _really_ sweeten their ice tea, eat grits, and are justifiably famous for their fried food – fried catfish and hush puppies are just the beginning. Dave spent five and a half years in Puerto Rico as a kid, where he enjoyed eating empanadillas (stuffed turnovers), plantains, black beans, chicken, and a variety of tropical fruits, while not being quite adventurous enough to try some of the other local foods, such as stuffed beef tongue and breaded calf brains.

Another cultural factor is the "penny wise, pound foolish" approach we've unfortunately adopted for our modern value system, in which we spend tons of money on fancy cars, designer clothes, and modern houses, but then balk at paying premium prices for organic produce, free-range / organic / grass-fed meat, etc. And yet the cost of healthcare for lifestyle-based illnesses is so staggeringly high, that if we don't pay a little extra now for high-quality food, we'll pay a LOT more later for modern medical rescues.

4. **Family Traditions** – _You inherited more than your genes!_

Every family has its own special food traditions. A father and son go to the baseball game and eat hotdogs, peanuts, and popcorn. For the holidays, you bake Grandma's special sugar cookies. Friday night is always pizza night at the Kerr house (everyone knows to order 1 large pepperoni and 1 large veggie). And Thanksgiving dinner at 3:00 p.m. must include the green bean casserole with the fried onions.

What do these all have in common? Family connecting with food. Family food traditions are important as a way of maintaining human relationships. Most of us prefer the foods we grew up eating. Even though Nicole grew up in the South, her Mom is German, and cooked European-style dishes throughout Nicole's childhood. If you ask Nicole today what her favorite meal is she will tell you, "Pot roast, potato dumplings, sauerkraut, and red velvet cake for dessert – my birthday meal, growing up."

5. **Social Status** – _Economics makes a difference_

No doubt about it: incomes and prices affect our food choices. When food prices rise (or our income goes down), the food budget doesn't go as far as it used to, and many people have to respond by changing their consumption patterns – eating out less, buying what's on sale, and using coupons to save money. Of course, those with more money have more choices and tend to make greater investments in their health. On the other hand, those with lower incomes tend to have more nutritional deficiencies and higher rates of chronic diseases, such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, and cancer (with the two biggest risk factors for these diseases being poor eating habits and physical inactivity). This group also spends a higher percentage of their hard-earned dollars on food, even while buying cheaper items such as starches and cereal.

Trying to consistently eat healthy at a low cost is not an easy feat in today's marketplace, but it can be done. Since we all enjoy eating out at least occasionally, for instance, one tip on cutting costs is just to drink water at restaurants instead of soda. That's because sodas often cost more than a dollar each, and a family of four can therefore accumulate some financial savings just by skipping the sodas when eating out. Plus, water is a whole lot better for you than soda.

6. **The Culture of Dieting** – _Short-term goals lead to long-term letdowns_

Ever notice that the first three letters of the word "diet" spell DIE? According to the Calorie Control Council, 54% of U.S. adults were trying to lose weight in 2010, even while most studies show up to 95% of dieters regain the weight lost. In other words, diets don't work in the long run, because they're about restriction and deprivation, which we, as human beings, don't like. Many people even choose to go on diets that follow a specific (often rigid) food plan that conflicts with their personal food preferences. As a result, the category of "diet" products has skyrocketed over the years and the weight loss market is now a $61 billion dollar a year industry. The outcome of using these products is rarely permanent weight loss, yet the industry keeps thriving.

7. **Psychological Stress** – _The adverse effects of cortisol on dietary health_

We all know that life is full of all kinds of stresses – big ones, little ones, and everyday in-between-sized ones (we have even heard of "STRESS" being aptly defined as **S** taying **T** ense **R** elentlessly **E** very **S** ingle **S** econd). The scary news is that stress has taken such a toll on us that almost 90 percent of all visits to primary health care providers are due to stress-related problems. And whether we're stressed due to the continuing demands of our everyday lives, or because we're actually in danger, our bodies still respond as if we literally need to fight for our lives (or immediately run away), in order to avoid life-threatening harm. The downside to this response is that if you stay in the "fight or flight" mode consistently, you'll literally exhaust yourself, and your health will invariably suffer.

From the nutrition perspective, stress causes the release of certain body chemicals, and one of those chemicals (cortisol, commonly known as "the stress hormone") is actually a powerful appetite trigger. Under normal circumstances, cortisol levels in the body are supposed to fluctuate up and down over time, as your body alternates between periods of stress and relaxation. But when you are chronically stressed and your cortisol output stays high, weight gain may occur. How? High cortisol levels can: create cravings for fatty, sugary, salty foods (i.e., "junk food"); adversely affect your blood sugar levels; and cause excess fat to be stored around your midsection (not good). It can also make you moody and tired.

A recent research study monitored a group of chronically stressed, obese, female volunteers who enrolled in "mindfulness" training to help them lower their stress levels. Unlike a comparison group of similar women who did not receive the mindfulness training, the study's participants experienced reductions in their waking cortisol levels and were able to keep their weight down. These results support the mind-body association between psychological stress and physical health, and should encourage all of us to improve our stress management skills, in order to enhance our health and quality of life.

PHYSICAL VERSUS EMOTIONAL EATING

Physical Eating

The lifestyle so many of us face today is two-dimensional: work (usually 8-10 hours a day, with 1-2 hour commutes) and food. You'd think surely sleep, love, and relationships would factor into our lives, too, but often at week's end, our desire for fulfillment is still not met. And when life is unfulfilling, food often takes center stage as the primary source of gratification.

Have you ever heard the phrase, "Do you 'eat to live' or 'live to eat'?" Most of us know that in order to survive, the body requires water (you can only survive three to four days without it) and food (you can survive at least three weeks without it). But for a lot of us, food is more than just fuel for our bodies; it has become a way of coping with our depleted or unsatisfied lives.

How do you know whether you're eating for physical or emotional reasons? First of all, we all get "hungry" (the state of discomfort or weakness caused by a lack of food), because it's a basic biological drive. And when you're hungry, your body sends you certain signals (e.g., your stomach growls, you get a headache, you become irritable, or – in extreme cases – you may faint). Over on the other end of the spectrum, by comparison, the key question is, "How do you know when you're full?" Fullness is simply a matter of consuming ample food or drink, and this may not be so easy to recognize for some of you.

Most of us can easily identify the sensation of extreme fullness that occurs when we are uncomfortably "stuffed" (think Thanksgiving dinner). Unfortunately, though, if we're not aware of our body's response to food _while_ we're eating, we'll probably feel that way a little too often. That's because we won't notice our body's natural "slow down" signals – often described as corresponding to being "80% satisfied" – until we've already overeaten. However, if we instead intentionally slow down the pace of our eating and eat with more awareness, we'll be better able to track our levels of fullness as we move toward feeling satisfied. The Okinawans, who have the longest life expectancy in the world, call this _hara hachibu_.

Regrettably, today's modern American society often promotes an over-consumption of food, while also conditioning us to disregard our natural internal cues (we're all born with an internal hunger regulator for the sake of energy management). Ideally, those internal cues would normally lead us to eat, fill up, and stop eating instinctively, thereby preventing us from voluntarily starving or gorging ourselves. However, studies show children as young as five years old will continue to eat past the point of fullness (thereby overriding their internal cues) just so they can have their desserts or treats. In other words, teaching children to clean their plates so they can have their sweets is NOT a healthy dietary strategy, particularly when they say they're already full.

Unfortunately, many people today have been routinely conditioned to eat on external cues like that. For example, children are required to eat their daily school lunches based on the cafeteria manager's schedule, rather than when they're hungry. Similarly, the standard business lunch hour for adults is from noon to 1 pm.

The overall point we're trying to make here is simply for you to reconnect with your natural internal cues, particularly because the sensations of your first twinge of fullness will help you to recognize when your body has already received an adequate amount of energy. You might have even heard the "20 minute rule" of waiting 20 minutes before you get second helpings? Well it's true! It takes that long for the stomach to tell the brain that it's full.

Emotional Eating

By now, you may certainly be wondering, "Where does appetite fit into all this?" In simple terms, your appetite is a _desire_ for food or drink that usually shows up as a craving, and when you satisfy your appetite you're typically a happy camper.

For instance, have you ever gone out to eat, and then to a movie? Once you get to the movie, you order popcorn. But are you really hungry? Probably not, especially if you just ate dinner. Most of us smell the popcorn, though, and want it. Or is it just a tradition to always order popcorn at the movies? Clearly this situation is not about being hungry (and don't even get us started on the smell of Cinnabons!).

Truthfully, almost all of us use food for emotional reasons at some point in our lives. Eating is very soothing. And distracting. And gratifying. Eating is also an important source of pleasure, but it should not be the centerpiece of your life's comfort (a classic example of which would be heading for the ice cream when you get bad news). When your appetite and hunger are driven by stress, depression, or other psychological issues, the natural hunger-eating interplay gets unraveled. So in that respect, _occasionally_ eating for emotional reasons is "normal." However, the challenge comes when you _continually_ use food to:  
* cope with feelings of anxiety, boredom, loneliness, etc;  
* reward yourself for a job well done, or comfort yourself for failing to get the job done  
* cope with stress.

In the above examples, food is being used in unhealthy ways, and its usage may even be part of a disordered eating pattern or an "eating disorder."

As you'll see later, in Appendix B, the two most recognized eating disorders are Anorexia Nervosa (starving yourself) and Bulimia Nervosa (binging; then purging). What you may not know is that _many_ individuals experience a disruptive relationship with food that impacts their self-esteem and their life choices. These behaviors include yo-yo dieting, weighing yourself repeatedly, overeating one night and then restricting food the next day, relentlessly "grazing" on snack foods throughout the day, thinking obsessively about calories, or frequently talking about weight. Conversely, imagine how you would spend all of that time if you weren't so worried about how you looked or how much you weighed. Interesting thought, huh?

With all food relationships, if you remain focused on the food and fat issues (which are really just the symptoms, rather than the underlying disorders), then the real issue of your emotions won't get addressed. On the other hand, eating disorder professionals working from the emotional perspective (including Nicole) encourage their clients to:  
* become aware of the emotions that drive the behaviors  
* explore the stories of the emotions  
* heal the emotions.

Once you attain these skills, there is no longer a need to silence your emotions with food, and the disordered behaviors can then be unlearned.

"GOOD" FOODS VERSUS "BAD" FOODS

Has anybody ever told you that "Eating a hot fudge sundae is really bad for you?" Neither Dave nor Nicole subscribe to the belief that a certain type of food is inherently either "good" or "bad"; it's just food. So when you instead define foods as being "good" or "bad," you set up a relationship that makes you feel good or bad about yourself based on what you ate. For example, if you think a cookie is "bad" and you eat several, then you may think you are a bad person for eating them. Listen to yourself talking about food and observe if you label foods as "good" or "bad." If you do, simply adjust your words in order to reframe your options (for example: "healthful" vs. "unhealthful" foods, "primary" vs. "secondary" foods, etc.). This simple re-wording helps take the shame and guilt away!

Knowing the Difference

So are you feeling an urge to eat? Try to figure out if it is your hunger, your appetite, or your emotions. In our society, food has forged a new relationship with most people; it's filling emotional needs instead of physical needs. Remember, our society prompts eating based on external cues, and that causes many of us to lose touch with our internal cues. Think about all the advertising on TV, billboards, media – everywhere we turn we are exposed to images of food, diets, and the "perfect" body. Learning to differentiate between external cues and internal cues is therefore crucial to your overall well-being. Clearly, if we do not address the underlying issues of _why_ people use food (emotional eating), then successful long-term weight control becomes very unlikely.

Children aren't immune to this effect, either. The marketing of "junk food" to kids has been implicated in the childhood obesity epidemic because advertisements for fast food, snacks, sugary cereals, and other similar products shapes the way children expect to be fed, and it also creates brand loyalty at an early age. Food and beverage companies spend over $2 billion each year to get your kids to pressure you to buy their unhealthful products. And it has been working.

This brings up the question: "What is 'normal' eating?" We like to call it "attuned" eating, and it's a resilient style that flows in complete harmony with your emotions, your schedule, your hunger, and your proximity to food. For example, attuned eating could be leaving some cookies on the plate because you know you can have some again tomorrow, or it could also mean eating more cookies now because they taste so wonderful when they come right out of the oven.

The bottom line is to eat when you are _physically_ hungry and stop when your body's needs have been satisfied. Make eating a pleasurable, guilt-free experience by listening to your body!

METAPHORS FOR EATING

By the way, did you know that foods are coded, that they can tell you about yourself? Honolulu-based psychologist, Anita Johnson, turned Nicole on to the concept of using food as a metaphor for feelings some years ago, and Nicole has been successfully using it with her emotional eating clients ever since.

To discover the deeper meanings of your relationship with food, we're going to explore the language of the metaphor. First, however, let us say that when you are _physically_ hungry for food, there's really NO metaphor, so please don't worry about looking for one. On the other hand, if you're hungry and deny yourself food, or if you're not hungry and you still crave food, then you can explore those connections with these metaphors. Taking time to consider the dialogue you're having with food will help to uncover the real issues underlying your cravings.

If you look at the following table, you will see a list of food cravings and a corresponding set of questions to think about.

To give you an example of how this process works, here is a recent conversation Nicole had with a client who was eating a pint of Häagen-Dazs Chocolate every night. She had quit spooning it into a bowl after a couple of nights and was using the pint container as her bowl – ensuring she would finish it all. First, Nicole asked her to describe the ice cream (i.e., pretend Nicole is from Mars and doesn't know what ice cream is). The client said it was "smooth, creamy, rich, velvety, decadent, sinful, intense, and yummy."

Okay, when you look at the table shown above, which food cravings match that client's descriptions? Sweetness and chocolate, right? From that point, Nicole began a dialogue using the questions that corresponded to her client's food cravings. The client immediately realized that her eating was stemming from the loneliness she was feeling in her marriage (not connecting with her spouse) and blaming herself for the disconnect (not being kind to herself). Clearly there was no romance in her life.

So how about you? If you find yourself craving a certain food (particularly when you're not physically hungry), see if you can figure out what's _really_ going on.

FOOD JOURNALING

The food journal included in Appendix C is a genuinely powerful tool for helping you notice your own mind-body food patterns, and our clients consistently identify it as being particularly helpful in learning about their relationships with food. Specifically, the food journal will help you to quickly and easily discover key trends about the quantity and quality of your food intake, and – even more importantly – understand some of the most influential _reasons_ for your food choices.

One especially important feature of the food journal is the "Hunger Scale," which is numbered from 0 to 10, with 0 being "starving" and 10 being "Thanksgiving full." The scale provides an assessment of your hunger levels before _and_ after you eat, and it has helped our clients to regain their ability to listen to their internal cues.

SUMMARY

Understanding our reasons for eating isn't rocket science. Instead, it's primarily just a combination of culture, economics, socialization, religion, and emotions. It's also important to remember that if you're struggling to re-develop clear signals for hunger and satiety (fullness), it will take some time. So, please be patient with yourself and practice, practice, practice.

Meanwhile, if you would like some additional information about disordered eating or eating disorders, please take a look at Appendix B. Now, on to math-avoidance class!

**CHAPTER 3**

EATING WITHOUT MATH

CALVIN WAS RIGHT!

In the legendary comic strip, Calvin and Hobbes, a mischievous young Calvin once said, "I used to hate writing assignments, but now I enjoy them. I realized that the purpose of writing is to inflate weak ideas, obscure poor reasoning, and inhibit clarity. With a little practice, writing can be an intimidating and impenetrable fog!"

All too often, unfortunately, the world of dietary recommendations also seems to be an intimidating and impenetrable fog, to the point that Calvin's quote about writing could have been about _food_ just as easily. After all, you've probably been hearing about nutrition since you were in grade school, and yet it still makes only about as much sense as this formula:

Seriously, if you've ever taken a nutrition class in school, you already know that it focuses very heavily on the scientific topics of chemistry and math. There's good reason for that, too, because nutrition _is_ a science. However, the downside is that dietary recommendations have traditionally been either too difficult to follow or too simple to actually work. In fact, one particularly sneaky feature is that the difficult plans often still _appear_ easy, because they simply advise eating certain percentages of nutrients in a way that seems almost effortless to figure out, right up until you actually try to use them. Let's take a look at that.

MATH FRENZY – PART I

For a long time, many of the most credible nutrition sources in this country have stated that your "macronutrient" intake (i.e., your consumption of carbohydrate, fat, & protein) should be based on a percentage of your total daily calories. In fact, you might have even seen the 2010 USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) Dietary Guidelines for adult macronutrient intake:

* carbohydrate: 45 – 65% of total calories

* fat: 20 – 35% of total calories

* protein: 10 – 35% of total calories.

These are actually excellent recommendations, and they're based on genuinely solid scientific data. They also don't look like they'd be very hard to use. But have you ever tried to work these numbers out, and then actually use them? To give you an idea of what that's like, let's go through an example here together (and remember, this is just a demonstration of what we don't want you to do!).

First of all, for these math-based methods, you'll need to determine your total calorie requirements per day (which really isn't all that hard to figure out, although it does vary by gender, age, and activity level; we'll talk more about that in Chapter 9). Then, after you've computed the estimate for your daily calorie needs, you'll need to multiply that by the recommended percentage range for each class of macronutrients, as shown in the beginning of this section.

For instance, let's say your daily calorie requirement turns out to be 2,300 calories. The recommended percentage of your calories coming from _carbohydrates_ would therefore be 45 – 65% of 2,300, which works out to be 1,035 – 1,495 calories (0.45 x 2,300 calories = **1,035** calories; 0.65 x 2,300 calories = **1,495** calories).

Next, since carbohydrates contain about 4 calories per gram (g), you'll need to divide your calorie range by 4, in order to find out how many _grams_ of carbohydrate you should be consuming daily. In this example, that comes out to a range of about 260 – 375 grams of carbohydrate per day (1,035 calories / 4 cal/g = **258.75** g; 1,495 calories / 4 cal/g = **373.75** g).

Of course, if you're not familiar with the metric system, you won't have any idea what a gram actually is. That means you certainly can't look at a plate of food and know how many grams of a particular nutrient are in it ("Hey, that's a pretty big scoop of mashed potatoes. I'll bet there must be 97 grams of carbohydrate in that thing!"). As a result, you'll need to either count all of the carbohydrate grams in every speck of food and beverage you consume each day – using information from charts, diagrams, and food labels – or you'll need to weigh your food on a scale. Plus, don't forget that you've only just computed your _carbohydrate_ values at this point, which means that you still need to compute, measure, and weigh your fat and protein. And we haven't even looked at the "micronutrients" (vitamins & minerals) yet! Geez, anyone up for some calculus?

Okay, okay...so maybe the math in this example isn't quite as intense as calculus, but how many of you actually have the time, energy, and desire to follow all of these procedures? Seriously, if you're already juggling work, school, family life, daily errands, and a bunch of other responsibilities, we doubt you'd really want to add some dietary math to that list.

MATH FRENZY – PART II

Considering the complexity of the math-based madness we just demonstrated, a number of reputable nutrition experts and agencies developed some other guidelines over the years that tried to simplify all of this number-crunching into easier systems. They did this by changing the focus from math calculations to simpler ideas, like the number and size of food servings you should eat per day. However, as you're about to see, you still almost needed an accountant and a measuring scale just to figure it all out.

Perhaps the most famous of these "simpler" methods was the Food Guide Pyramid, which was first published in 1992 by the USDA. It translated the government's advice about "food groups" into a more user-friendly, picture-based image, and you might recall that the original pyramid's daily recommendations included 6-11 servings of bread, cereal, rice & pasta; 2-3 servings of milk, yogurt, & cheese; etc. Unfortunately, there wasn't nearly enough attention given to defining the word "serving," which led to a lot of confusion, frustration, and even over-eating among the general public.

To its credit, the USDA then listened to public feedback and came up with a revised "MyPyramid" chart in 2005 which featured a number of important new characteristics, including an elimination of the dreaded "servings" terminology. However, they replaced the servings data with precise recommendations about exact food measurements (which have unfortunately remained in place even though the USDA has since switched from the "MyPyramid" system to a new "MyPlate" plan, which we'll talk about in Chapter 4). For example, according to the USDA's current website (www.ChooseMyPlate.gov), the following list represents the daily guidelines for a 40 year old, moderately active male who's 5'10" tall and weighs 170 pounds:  
* 10 ounces of grains (at least half of which should be whole grains)  
* 3.5 cups of vegetables  
* 2.5 cups of fruits  
* 3 cups of dairy  
* 7 ounces of protein  
* 8 teaspoons of oils.

The system also then recommends the following weekly guidelines for the same person:  
* 2.5 cups of dark green vegetables  
* 7 cups of red & orange vegetables  
* 2.5 cups of beans & peas  
* 7 cups of starchy vegetables  
* 5.5 cups of other vegetables.

Okay, now did you commit all of that to memory? Write it down on your refrigerator? Maybe tattoo it onto yourself somewhere? We certainly hope not! After all, aside from these overly long lists of recommendations, how many of you would actually be able to comply with all of those measurements without using kitchen utensils like measuring cups and spoons? We sure can't! In fact, this system gets even more awkward when a sample menu from the USDA's website describes a single roast beef sandwich as follows:  
* 1 small whole grain hoagie bun  
* 2 ounces lean roast beef  
* 1 slice part-skim mozzarella cheese  
* 2 slices tomato  
* 1/4 cup sautéed mushrooms (in 1 teaspoon oil)  
* 1 teaspoon mustard.

We don't know about you, but reading all of these mathematical lists makes us feel like we'd need to have a kitchen full of lab equipment just to make a sandwich!

"Now wait a second," say the math proponents. "We know a lot of folks aren't completely measurement savvy, so we've created some _other_ guidelines to help them make sense of the _first_ guidelines!" That's right, all you'll have to do now is remember that: a cup of potatoes is about the size of a tennis ball, 3 ounces of meat looks like a deck of playing cards, an ounce and a half of cheese is roughly the size of four stacked dice, and so on.

So, there you are trying to plan or eat dinner by comparing all of your food servings to a list of inanimate objects, and that's supposed to be practical? Sorry, that just doesn't work for us or our clients. Although the foundation for those guidelines is scientifically strong and genuinely legitimate, the takeaway message for consumers is still one that's not only impractical, but also mentally exhausting. As a result, many frustrated people turn in desperation to popular fad diets, which are usually just too _simple_ for your own good.

BEWARE OF CABBAGE SOUP

Without fail, we health professionals constantly decry the glut of short-term diets that are on the market. However, those diets continue to exist for two main reasons. First, we live in an "instant gratification" society where people expect to get _very_ quick results in a very short time frame, and they have little or no patience for results that don't happen right away. Honestly, we meet people all the time who expect to "instantly" lose all of the weight it took them 15 _years_ to gain!

Second, you've just seen some examples in this chapter of how confusing and mathematically intense the nutrition field has become over the years. Unfortunately, that brings us to the point where fad diets can actually seem quite appealing, even when they're completely absurd.

Think about it. How many diets have you seen that you _knew_ were too ridiculous to be true, but you tried them anyway, just because you were frustrated by all of the complex, scientific information recommended by reputable health agencies and/or you simply wanted speedy results? Consider that for a minute, and you'll probably remember at least several popular fad diets, including the legendary cabbage soup diet, the grapefruit diet, the "5-day miracle" diet, the anti-cellulite diet, and maybe even the "Hollywood" juice diet that promised you'd lose 10 pounds (of what, by the way?) in 2 days. You might also remember the countless times you've seen TV commercials encouraging you to drink a "delicious" shake for breakfast, another shake for lunch, and then "have a sensible dinner."

C'mon! Who are we kidding? There's nothing "sensible" about a single one of those plans, and yet they continue to attract thousands of consumers every year, because people want quick results _and_ they're exhausted from trying to separate fact from fiction in the world of nutrition.

THE GOOD NEWS!

As you've seen throughout this chapter, when it comes to nutrition, the hard part for most people is figuring out how to bridge the gap from legitimate scientific recommendations to practical, everyday strategies that are effective _and_ safe. In fact, it's entirely possible – and quite common, unfortunately – to study the science of nutrition until you thoroughly understand the roles and interactions of all of the nutrients, and yet still walk away without the ability to make all of that information _practical_.

As nutrition educators, we've personally learned over the years to lighten up on the amount of theory we teach, and instead to focus our strategies on practical, real world applications. In fact, this approach is what led us to the successful nutrition guidelines described in this book, which you'll learn all about in the upcoming chapters. In the meantime, you can now throw off the chains that are holding you down to your calculators, reference tables, and textbooks, because you're about to learn a _much_ easier way of eating for wellness than you've ever previously imagined!

**CHAPTER 4**

VISUAL EATING STRATEGIES

PIE CHARTS (EATING WITH VISUALS, PART I)

If you take a quick glance at Figures 4.1 and 4.2, you'll see an eating style that dominates the modern world today. Not only that, but once you realize that these two circles represent plates of food, you'll probably recognize an eating style that belongs to a _lot_ of people you know, and maybe even yourself.

In particular, you hopefully already noticed a huge color imbalance in these two circles, because the _very_ small green wedge (for veggies) has been dwarfed by the much larger areas for meat and processed grains/starch.

In other words, the whole point of these images is that on any given day – and at any given meal – people in westernized countries have developed a taste for the _least_ colorful plates of food imaginable. In fact, the most dominant colors of food on their plates are usually just dull shades of white, brown, and beige. Even on special occasions and at holiday meals like Thanksgiving, plates are typically piled high with white potatoes, brown stuffing, white rolls, white (or dark) meat, and brown gravy, while only a drop or two of bright red cranberry sauce and a few green vegetables cling timidly to the edge of the plate as outcasts. Plus, the green veggies are often even rendered a little _less_ green, by drowning them in a sauce of gray, cream soup and topping them with a handful of brown, fried onions! Think about that: our enormous, colorless plates are an immediate indication that we've become experts at consuming far too much energy (in the form of calories), while simultaneously ignoring many of our most vital nutrient needs.

EVERY NUTRIENT HAS A PURPOSE

Way back in grade school, you probably remember learning about the "four food groups" – or, depending on your age – maybe it was five food groups, instead. Then along came the ubiquitous food guide pyramid, which we discussed in the last chapter. Those systems definitely weren't perfect (let's face it, nothing is), but they did share two _very_ important messages:

1. your body has a need for _different_ essential nutrients, which come from a variety of _different_ foods; and

2. many of the most important _micro_ nutrients (vitamins and minerals) come from _plant_ -based foods. This certainly doesn't mean you need to become a vegetarian, but most people do need to _rearrange_ the "color wedges" on their plates, simply to balance out the nutrient profiles of their meals.

By the way, it's worth quickly mentioning here that many people often take offense when their own personal actions are suggested as being incompatible with long-term health and well-being. However, you really shouldn't be offended if the guidelines in this book differ from your own current approach to nutrition, because much of what people consider to be "normal" is simply based on an acquired perspective. Therefore, as we explore some viewpoints here that might be different from those you've already acquired on your own, please keep in mind that you could very well benefit from some pretty cool discoveries here, without even a hint of discomfort or offense.

WEALTH ISN'T ALWAYS A BLESSING

If you've ever traveled or lived internationally – particularly in areas that weren't as wealthy as the United States – you probably noticed that the dietary customs in other countries were often quite different from the habits in westernized nations, and for a variety of reasons. In particular, the major point we're making here is simply that food consumption habits aren't just a cultural phenomenon based on things like ethnicity or religion. Instead, much of what people eat is based upon what they can _afford_ , so if they can't buy something from a local vendor or import it from someplace else, then they'll either have to grow it or raise it if they want to eat it. As a result, a lot of countries serve plates of food with "color wedges" that are arranged very differently than the modern American versions shown at the beginning of this chapter, because it's simply less expensive to eat when your plates look more like this:

Now, don't panic here. We're not trying to suggest that you should adopt poverty as a dietary strategy. However, you should consider – very seriously – the manner in which you lay out the food on your plates. The reason is that even if you have all of the money in the world, it's extraordinarily difficult (and sometimes downright impossible) to buy your health back once you lose it. That's right, it's unquestionably easier and cheaper to _keep_ yourself healthy than it is to rescue yourself repeatedly from disease and sickness, and that's exactly the foundation upon which this book's philosophy is built.

Speaking of which, let's get back to the impact of wealth on nutrition, because personal riches have encouraged Americans to eat in a number of ways that are in complete opposition to positive health and well-being. Want a quick example? How about the real-life client who insisted to us that an entire 22-ounce porterhouse steak was perfectly okay to eat in one sitting, while also claiming that the two dinner rolls accompanying that steak were "bad," because they contained carbohydrates? That's a classic illustration of how Western wealth and nutritional confusion have combined to leave many Americans thinking that meat _has_ to be the mainstay of their meals.

If you really look carefully at the science of human nutrition and how nutrients actually interact with our bodies, you'll see that meat-heavy plans actually encourage an excessive consumption of protein and saturated fat (the latter of which is found mostly in animal products and plays a significant role in raising blood cholesterol levels). Those plans also result in people not getting enough whole-food, plant-based sources of vitamins, minerals, fiber, and other health-promoting ingredients.

By the way, please look back at the preceding sentence and notice the "whole-food" comment. That was written intentionally, because a common habit for many people today is to try to make up for all of their nutritionally unbalanced meals and snacks by relying on dietary supplements. It's even gotten to the point where folks gobble down handfuls of pills, spoonfuls of powder, and all sorts of other concoctions – to the tune of nearly $27 billion a year (in 2009) and counting! Sorry, but that's a prime example of having more money than understanding, and it's also why you're about to learn the importance of having _natural_ colors in your food.

TWO SCOOPS!

If you've ever been to Hawaii, you know from personal experience that it's hard to visit those beautiful islands without at least hearing about a type of meal known locally as the "plate lunch." Plate lunches are _very_ popular there. They're also not just for lunch, and they're a classic example of how modern eating habits have adversely affected human health. Let's take a quick look.

A typical plate lunch is almost always based on the same basic principles: put two hefty scoops of cooked white rice (the sticky type you get in cafeterias) onto a big plate, add a large scoop of macaroni salad ("salad" is really the wrong word here; it's frequently just an enormous glob of mayonnaise with some overcooked pasta added into it), sneak in a tiny – almost unnoticeable – side of coleslaw or cabbage, then top it all off with huge slabs of meat (deep fried, if it's chicken or fish) and liberal applications of brown gravy. Serve it at a low price, with a total weight of literally almost 5 pounds (not including the quart-sized soda that often goes with it), and there you go! No kidding.

When Dave first moved to Hawaii in 2002, he kept hearing all about these plate lunches from local residents, and – wanting to at least experience the local cuisine – he ordered a "mixed plate lunch" (barbecued beef, deep fried chicken, and deep fried fish, plus the 3 scoops of whiteness) from one of the most famous plate lunch vendors in the islands.

WOW. When Dave received the meal from the counter clerk, he actually almost dropped it, because he didn't expect it to weigh nearly as much as it did! Then, when he sat down and opened it, he couldn't believe how much food was in the box! Honestly, Dave hasn't ever been known to lack an appetite, but by the time he had eaten maybe a third of that meal, he was already _completely_ full. Seriously, it was some unbelievably HEAVY food. He also doesn't eat that type of food on a regular basis (if he did, he certainly wouldn't have any business co-writing this book!), so it turned out to be a bit of a shock to his system and quickly led him to develop a much closer relationship with his bathroom, at least in the short term.

Several months later, while teaching an introductory wellness course at a local community college, Dave and one of his dietitian coworkers bought some of those exact same plate lunches for the students to analyze, and the results were nutritionally shocking. Each of the mixed plate lunches contained approximately 2,700 calories, and provided several days' worth of various nutrients. Several _days'_ worth! Maybe even more amazing was listening to the local students as they described various friends and family members (and, sometimes, themselves) occasionally eating more than one plate lunch – remember, they're not just for lunch – in a single day! Whoa.

By the way, please note that this story definitely isn't meant to be disrespectful to anyone in Hawaii – or anyplace else, for that matter – because traditional diets throughout the Pacific Islands were dramatically healthier than the plate lunches created by modern society. In fact, almost every city in America offers outrageous meal selections, ranging from the table-sized platters served at buffets and "family-style" restaurants, to the massively sized "combo meals" available at ridiculously low prices from many fast food restaurants. All of which is just to say that Hawaii certainly isn't alone when it comes to dishing out enormous quantities of health-damaging foods disguised as "cheap eats."

Something about those plate lunches really caught our attention, though, because Hawaii seriously struggles with two issues commonly shared by U.S. residents on the mainland: obesity and diabetes. It also suffers from two of the same fundamental _causes_ of those conditions, including a sedentary (i.e., physically inactive) lifestyle and poor eating habits.

So we took another look at those plate lunches, and what continued to shock us – besides the outrageous calorie content – was the complete _imbalance of nutrients_. There was so much meat, starch, and fat, especially when compared to the puny excuse for vegetables (which was often just coleslaw, of all things), that it wasn't even visually appealing. Really, even if you could only see in black and white, a plate lunch would still look almost exactly the same as it does in color! That's frightening.

Meanwhile, the local college students were asking for practical coping strategies for dealing with these foods. After all, they loved their local cooking, but they didn't like the adverse health effects that went along with it, including substantial gains in body fat and a legitimate threat from chronic diseases that accompanied those gains. These were very valid concerns.

Admittedly, our first response to the students was to go the standard route and suggest that they just try sharing their plate lunches, with three people per plate, instead of one plate per person. As you might have guessed, though, they weren't completely receptive to that idea ("C'mon! THREE people per plate?! Are you kidding? How about TWO, instead?"). Okay, okay....cutting those meals in half would still reduce everyone's caloric intake, so that was at least a good start, but it still didn't address the nutrient imbalance of each meal.

As we talked more about it, though, we got to thinking about the way we'd seen people eat in certain other countries. In each of those places, meals were set up with vegetables and whole grains taking up most of the plates, and meat being served in _much_ smaller quantities (small enough to be considered a garnish, really). So, based on that idea, our next step was to draw picture-based comparisons of these meals on our classroom whiteboards, using the pie chart images shown earlier in this chapter.

We showed our students these diagrams and asked them, "What if you could still eat the exact same foods you're eating now, but in a different _pattern_? What if – besides sharing your meals – you just tweaked the _relative_ sizes of those color wedges a little, so you were adjusting each area's quantity in order to emphasize healthier foods over heavier foods?"

Well, wouldn't you know it? Our students were much more receptive to that idea than they were to the first one, and it turned out to be very successful! We also personally liked this idea, because Dave was born in Brazil and then lived in Puerto Rico before moving to the United States, and he'll be the first person to tell you that he wouldn't have wanted to give up his own favorite ethnic foods any more than our students in Hawaii wanted to give up theirs. After all, foods are an integral part of cultural and family experiences worldwide, and abandoning them is like turning your back on your own personal identity and ethnic heritage, which is totally unthinkable for most people.

Anyway, we suddenly realized that we had come up with an easy new system for teaching basic eating habits, and there were just a few more features we wanted to add to our program.

IMPORTANT!

Before introducing the next component of this visual eating system, we need to mention two very important points.

First of all, if your current lifestyle has in any way resulted in some sort of adverse health consequences, **then your lifestyle** _has_ **to change** if you want to improve your health. Seriously, we can't even remember the number of times we've heard our clients or students say, "I want to be in great health (or have a great body, or whatever else), but I'm just not willing to make any long-term changes to my personal behaviors."

Huh? Sorry, but if you want to _achieve_ a change, then you have to _make_ a change! Besides, the good news is that these changes _can_ happen one step at a time (in fact, that's usually the best way to go about it). For example, the students you just read about in the preceding story were willing to try a modified approach to their plate lunches simply because they realized we were willing to meet them half-way, which was very important to them. In fact, they initially only had to make two very minor changes: share their meals and change the relative sizes of their color wedges, even while still eating the _same_ foods. After a while, they could then choose to pursue further health improvements via other small changes if they wanted to, like eating "hapa" rice (half-white, half-brown) instead of just white rice, or eating grilled chicken instead of deep-fried chicken. The point here is that _everyone_ can make these step-by-step changes, including you! Just think about "tweaking" your food in _small_ stages, instead of trying to suddenly change everything all at once.

Secondly, your goals need to be line with _your_ personal genetic potential. That's because there are simply too many girls out there trying to become smaller than they'll ever realistically be able to be, and there are too many guys out there trying to become bigger than they'll ever realistically be able to be. That's downright tragic, too, because both of those scenarios are classic recipes for physical and psychological breakdown (including eating disorders), and it's all because the emphasis is on image, rather than health.

Personally, it took Dave many years – decades, actually – to completely accept his ectomorphic (small frame) build, and to finally realize that his genetics were simply set up for him to be built like a cross-country runner, rather than an NFL linebacker (the latter of which was undoubtedly his preference). Until he finally accepted that, though, he fell for every dietary gimmick and trick legally imaginable, as he tried in vain to make his body into something he simply could not realistically achieve.

Remember, this book's first chapter specifically took the time to explain that your health _really_ is more important than your image, and yet almost every time we turn around, we're told otherwise. In all sincerity, the fact that we allow those external pressures to override our internal awareness is a major reason for many of the adverse health conditions we face today.

Overall, after decades of experience with ourselves, our students, and our clients, we emphatically encourage you to _love_ your own genetic potential and _embrace_ it, because that will make everything else SO much easier! We can't even begin to tell you how important that is, and how dramatically it will affect your personal well-being.

A RAINBOWN OF COLOR (EATING WITH VISUALS, PART II)

Getting back to our earlier topic about color wedges, it's a common practice among dietitians to urge their clients and patients to eat _colorful_ whole foods, because vibrantly colored natural products like red tomatoes, purple plums, green cucumbers, and orange squash (among many other things) have what's known as a "high nutrient density."

A "high nutrient density" is actually nothing more than a high nutrient-to-calorie ratio, which happens when a particular food or meal contains a high level of essential nutrients (especially the micronutrients – the vitamins and minerals) in exchange for a lower level of calories. Classic examples of foods with a high nutrient density include many of your common vegetables and fruits.

On the other hand, a "low nutrient density" occurs when there's a low level of essential nutrients in exchange for a higher level of calories (a situation commonly known as "empty calories"), and classic examples here include candy, soft drinks, alcohol, and many other types of "junk foods."

To make a long story short, all of this simply means that if your meals focus on naturally colorful foods (sorry, the artificial colors in things like "Froot Loops" and "Frosted Lucky Charms" don't count!), then your nutrient profile will typically be much better than if your meals contain mostly non-colorful foods.

Even better for our students and clients (and you!), Nicole just so happens to love rainbows. In fact, her wedding vows were actually based on the image of a rainbow, so she's pretty familiar with those colors. As a result, when we first started talking about the pie chart system, she said, "You know, we need to emphasize that the veggie section doesn't have to be just green. It should really be _much_ more colorful, so our students are encouraged to put a whole rainbow of colors on their plates. That way, they'll get a variety of nutrients from a bunch of different sources."

AWESOME! We're not professional artists, but it didn't take a whole lot of work to update our previous pie chart drawing, in order to include a lot more colors from the rainbow (along with a slight adjustment to the balance of protein and starch):

A GOOD HOUSE HAS A STRONG FOUNDATION

Of course, we'll be the first to tell you that our rainbow pie chart won't single-handedly save you from all of the dietary evils in modern society. However, it does lay a very solid foundation on which to build a successful nutrition program. That's because you can use it to look at _any_ serving of food, in _any_ setting, _any_ location, and under _any_ circumstances, and immediately receive feedback on the healthfulness of your meals, simply from the colors and layout of the food! How simple is that? Every time you sit down to eat a meal (or even just to choose one from a menu), the rainbow pie chart immediately provides you a handy spot-check of your meal's nutritional status.

Notice one other thing. Many dietary recommendations tell you to eat _very_ specific foods, like the short-term diets we saw in Chapter 3 that mandated cabbage soup or grapefruit. In the rainbow plan, however, _you_ have the freedom to select the foods that go onto your plate, so you can still enjoy a variety of foods when you're eating. For example, one person might use the rainbow pie chart to select a mixed veggie salad with flank steak and rice pilaf, while another person might choose tomato ratatouille with tofu and quinoa. No more deprivation!

By the way, remember those students we told you about earlier? This system worked very well for them, and it was successful for our other clients, too. They improved their body composition and body size, successfully shared this program at home with their families, and experienced significant improvements in a variety of chronic health conditions, including obesity and diabetes.

We were also pleasantly surprised to see that three years after we wrote the first edition of this book, the USDA replaced its MyPyramid symbol with a new MyPlate emblem which bore a very strong resemblance to our rainbow pie chart. In particular, half of the MyPlate logo contains veggies and fruits (with a slightly larger amount of veggies than fruits, which helps to maximize nutrient density), while the other half contains grains and protein (with a slightly larger amount of grains than protein, whereas our rainbow pie chart has those two areas more equally divided). Overall, the MyPlate method is a tremendous improvement over the USDA's previous systems of pyramids and other approaches, and we're very happy to see that the federal government has made such a helpful change in their approach to nutrition education.

CAN YOU _DRINK_ THE RAINBOW?

The most common question we heard in response to our first edition of this book was, "Is it okay to _drink_ the rainbow, instead of _eating_ it?" That's an excellent question, especially considering the number of TV "infomercials" about juice machines these days. And, while we're certainly not against the consumption of liquefied veggies and fruits in realistic quantities, a key thing to keep in mind if you're considering that approach is its potential effect on your overall sugar intake.

Generally speaking, juice drinkers tend to consume more fruit juice than veggie juice, and fruit juice typically contains substantial amounts of sugar. And while that wouldn't really be a big deal if someone was just drinking maybe four to six ounces of juice per day, we instead often see people drinking much higher quantities of juice, to the point where it's actually quite common to see folks consuming 60 grams or more of sugar (which is equivalent to about a third of a cup of granulated sugar) in a single sitting, and that's just for regular juice. An even worse scenario occurs when folks buy commercially made smoothies, because the amount of sugar in a large fruit smoothie can easily be in the range of around 120 grams (about two thirds of a cup of granulated sugar). That's a _lot_ of sugar, and although real fruit juice does include some great nutrients along with the sugar, it's simply not in your favor to consume a staggering amount of sugar just to get a full day's supply of Vitamin C. At the same time, though, if the only way you're going to consume a rainbow is by drinking it, then just make sure to use more veggies than fruits, since that will help to minimize your sugar intake. Also, since juicing tends to remove the fiber from plant products, be certain to include other forms of fiber in your remaining food selections, too.

Speaking of fiber, we've got more great information to share with you about some of the other rainbow pie chart features from this chapter, including the strategies we've taught our students and clients about switching from "processed grains" to "whole grains," and from "meat" to "protein" (both of which we'll talk about more in Appendix A). Plus, we'll also be covering "mixed meals" (casseroles, lasagnas, pot pies, etc.) in Chapter 9, so let's keep moving!

**CHAPTER 5**

IN CASE YOU NEED A MANHOLE COVER...

THAT'S A _PLATE?!_

When Nicole got married several years ago, a particularly notable wedding gift was a gorgeous set of new dinnerware. What made such an impressive gift even more remarkable, though, was that the main plates were 17" in diameter! That's right. They actually measured SEVENTEEN INCHES across, and those weren't the serving platters!

To put that in perspective, consider for a moment that a 17" diameter happens to be the largest wheel size currently sold on two of the most popular cars in America today (the Honda Accord and the Toyota Camry), and those are _car wheels_ , not dinner plates. It also turns out that those 17" dinner plates were so large, they couldn't even fit inside Nicole's dishwasher at home!

Incredibly, those plates were actually 7" larger in diameter than "average" dinner plates, which helps to explain why large dishes – and, therefore, large portion sizes – are actually considered one of the leading culprits in America's ongoing battle with overeating. No kidding! The simple fact of the matter is that when you add inches to your plates, you also add inches to your _waistline_. Let's take a closer look at why that's true.

STOP "CLEANING" YOUR PLATE!

If there's one dietary strategy we wish we could ban overnight, it would be the relentless broadcasting of the age-old parental phrase, "Clean your plate!" Both of us clearly remember hearing it from our own parents, and we're guessing that you also probably heard it from yours (and, dare we say, maybe even passed it along to your kids?). We even see another version of this happening with _infants_ , whose parents insist on feeding them even after the kids have clearly indicated that they don't want any more food.

So here's the point: despite the legendary popularity of this "plate cleaning" expression (and its almost-inevitable accompaniments about children starving in China, India, or Africa), the usage of that phrase has done far more harm than good. That's because it has conditioned us since a very young age to eat _everything_ set before us, which sets up a troublesome pattern that many people struggle with for the rest of their lives.

In fact, you can see the broader effect of this plate-cleaning habit in a number of studies conducted by Dr. Brian Wansink at Cornell University, who often demonstrates that people eating from larger containers simply eat more food, including snacks, ice cream, buffet-style foods, etc. Perhaps even more remarkable is that people also tend to _make_ more food when preparing meals with ingredients that come in larger packages, which is a startling thought in a world where Costco, Sam's Club, and other similar stores allow families to buy just about everything in restaurant-supply quantities.

The overall effect here is that bigger packages prompt people to use more ingredients to make larger quantities of food, which is then served on enormous plates that encourage people to eat more at each sitting. These "environmental" nutrition factors are known as the "Ecology of Eating" in research studies, and this is actually good news for you. That's because there are a lot more ways for you to achieve dietary success than just a "self-control" approach to personal behaviors, and people tend to be tremendously relieved when they learn that great nutrition isn't just a matter of willpower.

RESTAURANT & HOME ECOLOGY

Restaurants are one of the most common settings in which our clients and students have successfully adopted "ecological/environmental" strategies for managing their food portions, and they've done it in a number of ways:  
* "splitting" a meal, so that a single entrée is shared among two or more people, rather than each person ordering a separate feast  
* ordering only appetizers or side dishes, rather than main courses  
* choosing the "mini" or "junior" sizes of meals  
* having a waiter package half of each person's entrée into a takeout container _before_ the food arrives at the table, so it's not sitting on a plate waiting to be "cleaned"  
* opting for smaller beverages (especially the sweeter ones)  
* avoiding buffets (particularly if you're the kind of person who feels the need to "eat your money's worth" at those places)  
* dining at restaurants known for having "small" (by American standards) portion sizes in the first place.

The above strategies have worked for hundreds of men, women, and families living in all sorts of places, and all they did was adjust their dining "environments" to be more in their favor. In fact, similar changes at home also work just as well:  
* if you buy in bulk, "portion out" smaller sizes from those big containers and then immediately store the leftovers. This will help you avoid making (and serving) too much food in the first place.  
* switch to smaller plates and serving containers. For plates, try to limit your maximum plate size to about 8" in diameter, which is about the size of a salad plate or a Frisbee. For bowls (which obviously tend to be deeper), limit your maximum bowl size to about the quantity of a half grapefruit, rather than eating out of mixing bowls, pots, and other similarly-sized objects that encourage you to eat too much food at each sitting.  
* be sure to clean up your kitchen quickly after you've served meals, so your leftovers and cooking containers are out of sight.

We do realize you might initially feel awkward with these ideas, because many people aren't particularly enthusiastic about making changes. You might also wonder why we're writing an entire chapter about portion sizes. Well, that's a good question, and our upcoming section on "fuel tanks" will explain exactly why this chapter's content is so important.

YOUR INCREDIBLE GROWING "FUEL TANK"

Imagine taking your car to be fueled at a gas station, where you "top off" the tank (i.e., you can't even add one more drop of gasoline from the pump). You then get back in your car and start up the engine, and just as you're pulling out of the parking lot, you notice that another gas station across the street is selling gas for _half_ the price of what you just paid! You certainly can't pass up a bargain like that, so you immediately drive over to the other station and proceed to buy more gas, simply because it's such an incredible deal!

But hey, wait a second. You can't do that, right? After all, you just filled up your entire tank a couple of minutes ago, which means that no matter how hard you squeeze the pump's handle at the second gas station, you'll only be able to add maybe a thimbleful of gas into your car now. So much for the idea of capitalizing on cheap fuel, huh?

Of course, at this point you might be thinking, "Hey, what a silly story. Who in the world would try to buy gas after filling up their tank right across the street?" Well, that's a great question, but now let's imagine a second scenario, where we switch our focus from buying gasoline (which is obviously the fuel for your car) to buying food (which is the fuel for your body).

In this second example, you've just finished having dinner at your favorite restaurant with some friends, and you're completely "full." In other words, your physical hunger has gone into hiding, and you're seriously thinking about loosening your waistband just to relieve some of the pressure from your recently expanded stomach!

After paying the dinner bill, you and your friends head outside to your cars, and someone suddenly notices a famous neighborhood bakery on the other side of the parking lot. In fact, your whole group can already smell a variety of mouth-watering aromas wafting through the night sky. In response, one of your friends shouts, "Hey, let's go get some dessert! They have the best triple-layer ice cream cake on the planet, and all of their other stuff is amazing, too!"

You can already see where we're going with this story, right? In this dessert scenario, you've just finished filling yourself up to the brim with dinner, and – just like in the car analogy – you have no need whatsoever for any more fuel. However, if you're like a lot of people in this situation, you simply decide to ignore your lack of physical hunger and instead follow your _appetite_ , and off you go to that famous bakery for some more "fuel!" Not only that, but you'll also probably consume a lot more fuel from that dessert than you'd otherwise think, because marketplace foods are usually way oversized (for example, cookies are often 700% larger than their recommended portion size).

Of course, the big difference between the car story and the food story is that a car's fuel storage (its gas tank) _won't_ grow any bigger just because you're pumping in more fuel. However, a _human's_ fuel storage (primarily in the form of "adipose tissue," known commonly as "fat") _will_ grow bigger. That's right; unlike your car, if you stop at that bakery to get more "fuel," your body _will_ accept the extra energy, and it will also then happily direct that energy straight into your personal storage tanks! And sure, that might be pretty handy from a survival point of view, but if you're not shipwrecked, stranded in the Sahara, or facing some other form of starvation somehow, you're probably not too keen about increasing your storage supplies.

All of this explains why we've focused this entire chapter on portion sizes, because many Westerners simply don't realize that the "fuel" on their plates is destined to become the fuel in their own bodies' storage depots. Therefore, unless you want to expand your body's fuel stores on purpose, an important dietary strategy is for you to remain diligently aware of your eating _environment_ , as shown earlier in this chapter. That's because the size of your containers and plates can mislead you into "cleaning" plates that are far more massive than they ever really should be, especially if you're eating for wellness.

**CHAPTER 6**

" **CHEMISTRY DEGREE" FOOD LABELS**

IT'S NOT A "FOOD LABEL," IT'S A...

We mentioned earlier that the field of nutrition is a science, and that's definitely true. In fact, if you look at the graduation requirements for nutrition degrees, you'll see a pretty hefty list of science courses, including chemistry, biology, physiology, metabolism, nutrition therapy, and other similar topics. That's a lot of science!

However, most _consumers_ don't have that type of training, which makes it harder for them to understand all of the nutrition vocabulary being used today. For instance, very few people know the difference between a "Daily Reference Value," "Reference Daily Intake," "Recommended Daily Allowance," and "Recommended Dietary Allowance," particularly since those terms sound almost identical. However, those phrases are actually the foundation for the food labels you see when grocery shopping, which means they affect you (at least indirectly) almost every time you buy food.

Speaking of food labels – which are officially called "Nutrition Facts labels" by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) – consumers are often told they should carefully read the numbers on those labels for an overview of each food's nutrient profile. That's a pretty good effort by the FDA to help people choose healthier foods, but it also fails to recognize that many Americans – particularly those whose math and reading skills are less developed than government scientists! – have a hard time understanding the current food labels. Plus, all of that focus on numbers takes people right back into the world of excessive math again, as folks try to count each individual gram of fat, calculate exact percentages of calories, and so on.

Therefore, instead of analyzing all of the _numbers_ on those labels, we prefer an alternative strategy that's much easier. Simply put, we want you to prioritize the _ingredient_ list instead of the Nutrition Facts label, since this approach will make your food shopping much easier.

"PROCESSED" FOODS

Most consumers have been hearing for years that it's a good idea to avoid "processed foods," and we generally agree. Simply put, when a food is "processed," it's been modified in a way that takes it away from its original condition in nature. This isn't always a big deal, though, because you could easily argue that converting grain into flour is a form of processing, and that would be totally true. However, foods that are " _highly_ processed" (like many pre-packaged meals and snacks with long shelf-lives, for instance) are often loaded with artificial flavors, colors, preservatives, and other ingredients that are synthesized (man-made) from chemicals.

The reason these foods deserve your careful attention is because their artificial ingredients typically make your foods' nutrition profiles _worse_ for your health by including more unhealthy fats, more sugar (and other sweeteners), and less fiber. They also frequently include ingredients made from non-edible sources, like crude oil and natural gas! No kidding! Then, the manufacturers will often add in a bunch of vitamins and/or minerals to make up for the low quality of their other ingredients, but that's like a home builder offering to paint your house for free because it doesn't come with any insulation, heating, cooling, plumbing, or electricity. Hardly a fair trade-off!

PERIODIC TABLE OF...INGREDIENTS?

Jerry Seinfeld used to have a popular routine in which he said you almost needed a Periodic Table of the Elements to understand and pronounce the names of taxi drivers (in particular, he described one driver's last name as "the symbol for boron"). That was a pretty funny story for a comedy show, but it's a little scary when you notice the same type of situation happening quite frequently on your foods' ingredient lists these days.

In other words, a handy way to check for highly-processed foods is to compare the lists of _ingredients_ on your food labels. That's because as foods get more and more processed, their ingredient lists become increasingly complicated. In particular, if you see a list of ingredients that looks like you'd need a chemistry degree and a Periodic Table of the Elements to understand it, you're probably looking at a highly processed food, and your best option would be to find something far more understandable!

Also, remember that manufacturers of highly processed foods will often try to trick you by adding a lot of vitamins and/or minerals back into their products in an attempt to market their foods as "healthy." However, they're doing this because their products would otherwise have a horribly low "nutrient density" (i.e., it's basically junk food). So don't let them fool you!

Meanwhile, we understand that it's almost impossible in today's modern world to completely avoid processed foods. Therefore, we want to remind you that your goal when choosing pre-packaged foods is simply to find the products that are as minimally processed as possible. In fact, we're going to help you recognize this situation by listing six common types of pre-packaged foods in the following table (including potato chips, baked snacks, macaroni and cheese, frozen food, peanut butter, and a "sports drink"). This will give you some quick examples to look at before your next trip to the grocery store.

Specifically, we've included two real-life options for each food listed in Table 6.1, including one option for "less processed" foods and one option for "highly processed" foods. Remember, your goal in this table (and when shopping) is to identify the least processed foods you can buy, and you can do that by simply choosing the products with the simplest and most understandable ingredients. Let's take a look at the table now, and remember to steer away from anything that requires a chemistry degree to be readable!

Table 6.1: Processed Foods

SIDE NOTE ABOUT ORGANIC FOODS

One thing you might have noticed in the above table is that many of the ingredients in the "less processed" foods column were organic. The definition of "organic" (according to the Organic Trade Association) is actually four paragraphs long, so we're not going to repeat it here. However, the overall intent of organic food production is simply to ensure that "methods are used to minimize pollution from air, soil and water" (<http://www.ota.com/definition/nosb.html>), and that matches up perfectly with our focus of staying away from highly processed foods.

Not all that long ago, of course, organic foods were commonly thought of as "hippie foods," but they've since become totally mainstream, with even Wal-mart "going green." No surprise about that, though, because if you really think about it, growing foods organically really just means going back to farming the way we did before the days of chemicals: no growth hormones for the livestock, and no potentially harmful pesticides, fertilizers, insecticides, or fungicides for the crops.

Perhaps the only downside of organic farming is that it currently costs more, with organic fruits, vegetables, and dairy products costing anywhere from 10-30% more than their non-organic counterparts (meat prices may be even higher). However, if you can afford it, eating organically grown foods is better for you _and_ our planet. So just look for the USDA Organic label to ensure that your products meet government and industry standards for organic foods, and then enjoy your even more-healthful foods!

RAINBOWS VS. LABELS

Throughout this book, we focus repeatedly on _naturally_ colorful foods. After all, when you're eating fresh produce (tomatoes, cucumbers, oranges, grapes, etc.), it's pretty obvious that those foods don't need a food label, because the ingredient for a fresh tomato is simply, "tomato." In fact, that's the basic rationale for our entire _Eating the Rainbow_ approach, because those naturally colorful foods will keep you away from artificial ingredients, ensure that you get lots of vitamins and minerals, help you to avoid eating too many calories, _and_ balance your overall nutrient profile. And the next time someone offers you a meal made from "artificial flavor" and "Yellow 5," you'll automatically know that's _not_ the type of colorful food we're talking about!

**CHAPTER 7**

ADD-ONS & EXTRAS

TOAST, EGGS, & COFFEE

Several years ago, one of Dave's clients began keeping a food journal as part of a "baseline assessment" for her dietary intake. Like most folks, though, she didn't realize how easy it would be to overlook certain eating habits that many of us have in common. So, when she presented Dave with her first day's journal entries, her breakfast for that day was simply listed as "toast (2), eggs (2), & coffee (1)." Here's the conversation that followed:

Dave: "So you had two pieces of toast, two eggs, and one cup of coffee for breakfast? Is that right?"

Client: "Yep, that's right."

Dave: "Anything else?"

Client: "Nope."

Dave: "Okay, can tell me more about the toast?"

Client: "The toast? Um...sure, it was wheat."

Dave: "Dry?"

Client: "Dry? You mean without any butter?"

Dave: "Right."

Client: "Are you kidding? Who eats dry toast? Of course I had butter."

Dave: "Do you remember how much butter you had?"

Client: "Geez...I don't know. Probably about one pat per slice?"

Dave: "Okay. So two pats of butter total?"

Client: "Um...yeah, that sounds about right."

Dave: "How about the eggs? How'd you cook them?"

Client: "Scrambled."

Dave: "Anything else in the pan besides the eggs?"

Client: "Huh? You mean something like butter again? Um, yeah, sure...I put some butter in the pan while I was heating it up."

Dave: "Any idea how much butter?"

Client: "Oh, I don't know. Another pat, I guess."

Dave: "Any cheese or anything like that?"

Client: "Nah. Nothing like that."

Dave: "Okay. How about your coffee? Do you normally drink it black?"

Client: "Are you serious? Come on...that's disgusting! I can't stand it like that. I add cream and sugar."

Dave: "How much of each?"

Client: "Hmmm...I guess maybe a teaspoon or so of cream and maybe a couple of teaspoons of sugar."

Dave: "Alright...I've updated your food journal now. Tell me what you think."

Client: "Ohhhhh, I get it. You're telling me that all of that other stuff counts, too, right? The butter, the cream, the sugar...if I ate it, it all counts?"

Dave: "Exactly."

Client: "Wow. I hadn't thought of that."

To tell you the truth, we'd be surprised if she _had_ thought of that, because most people don't. In fact, if you're like a lot of folks, _you_ probably aren't conscious of those extra things, because most of us can't even imagine eating our meals without them. Dressing on salads. Butter and sour cream on baked potatoes. Condiments on sandwiches. Sauces, gravies, and oils on our meats and veggies. How could we give them up, right?

Actually, you don't have to give them up. You just have to realize how _much_ you're using them, especially since they can add up pretty quickly. After all, it's not too hard to add butter to your veggies, alfredo sauce to your pasta, _and_ a ladle full of gravy over your meat. In fact, it's almost shockingly easy to transform an otherwise healthy meal into a plate loaded with fat, sugar, and salt (probably the three most common dietary excesses in America), just by adding those "little extras" into your foods while you eat _and_ cook.

Of course, a classic example here is salad, which can either be a nutritional star or a nightmare. For instance, some folks will take a trip through the local salad bar and come out with a plate full of colorful, fresh vegetables. Others will come out with mostly non-colorful scoops of mayonnaise-based potato salad or macaroni salad, along with a small handful of veggies coated in some sort of cream-based dressing (along with croutons, bacon bits, chow mein noodles, cheese, and some sort of mysterious Jello concoction).

CAN YOU STILL SEE YOUR FOOD?

So what's the answer to this situation? Well, for starters, you should definitely be able to _see_ most of your food. Seriously, how can you spot the rainbow of color in your veggies if they're all swimming in an ocean of ranch dressing? How can you recognize the produce in your sandwich if it's drenched in pesto mayonnaise? And how can you see the fresh mushrooms and green beans in your dinner if they're all deep-fried in batter?

Please keep in mind that we don't expect anyone to give up those extras entirely, but we do want you to let the underlying foods show through. In fact, one great way to do that when you're dishing out your food – or ordering it at a restaurant – is to have all of those extras served "on the side," so you can use them sparingly. That way _you_ control how much of them you're using, rather than having someone else make that decision for you.

Also, remember that the "normal" trends in America today aren't really all that normal. For instance, in the same way that people have become accustomed to incredibly large portions of food, they've also gotten used to _very_ large amounts of condiments, sauces, and toppers. Honestly, it's one thing to have some grated cheese on top of your baked potato, and it's a totally different thing to have that potato drowning in an entire bowl of cheese sauce. Throughout our culture, it really seems we've forgotten that add-ons and extras were intended to be used as flavor _accents_ to each food (rather than replacing the original flavor completely), and that habit has finally caught up with us.

LIQUID ENERGY

By the way, keep an eye on your beverage consumption, too, since that's another "extra" we often consume in overly large amounts. For example, we once had a client who insisted that his only nutritional flaw was to join some friends every night at a local pub for chicken wings and beer. It wasn't until we found out later that he was drinking at least a half dozen beers per night (not to mention eating a dozen chicken wings with buffalo sauce and bleu cheese dressing), that we fully understood why he was such a big guy. Those liquid calories alone were incredibly high for a nightly "snack" (not to mention the other stuff he was eating), and it's therefore no wonder that Americans are currently estimated to consume about a fifth of their calories just from their beverages! Wow.

BITE-SIZED ENERGY

Another way to get nutritionally blindsided happens at grocery stores offering free product "samples" for taste-testing. You know the scenario: you walk hungrily into a place that's offering food samples at every aisle, and by the time you walk out, you're almost full! On a recent Mother's Day, for example, Nicole counted 14 different sample stations at a local grocery store in her neighborhood. Fourteen!

At this point, you might be thinking, "So what? I had a couple of samples. Big deal." That's a pretty common response, too, since many people don't think that "samples" count as part of their dietary intake. However, that's only until you stop to realize that just a few easily-forgotten samples per day could actually increase your body weight by 10 pounds per year. Remember, most people don't go out and suddenly lose their dietary health all in one meal; it's the _gradual_ habits over the years that typically make or break us.

SPICE UP YOUR LIFE

"Wait a second," you say. "You've just had me cut back on salad dressing, gravy, condiments, drinks, and samples! After all of that, what are you gonna give me in return?"

Great question! And, aside from your long term health and well-being, another gift we're going to share with you is the gift of spice. That's right, _Eating the Rainbow_ actually becomes an incredibly flavorful adventure when you learn to feature spices and herbs in your food, because they're a fantastic substitute for many of the other add-ons and extras that folks so often rely on.

Of course, we're not just talking about salt and pepper here. Go check out the spice rack in your local grocery store, and start adding some "new" ingredients to your routine. Cinnamon, sage, cloves, basil, curry, oregano, cumin, cilantro, ginger...all of these (and other) flavor-enhancers offer some spectacular benefits for your meals, including:

* more flavorful food (because they affect your taste buds _and_ your sense of smell)

* increased visual appeal (which can be incredibly appetizing)

* possibly even improved health (for example, ginger is commonly used to help with digestion, nausea, and motion sickness).

Perhaps the greatest benefit of all, though, is that spices and herbs are one of the few "freebies" in the world of nutrition. That's because they don't contain the calories, fat, and sugar found in so many other dietary extras, and that's definitely a blessing for your health.

"ARE YOU KIDDING? WHO EATS DRY TOAST?"

This brings us back to our main point in this chapter, which is simply that everything (other than your spice intake) counts. Drinks, condiments, oils, dressings...they all count as part of your dietary intake, even if it seems like they don't. That's why we encourage you to take a lesson from chefs in fancy restaurants, who use add-ons and extras for artistic appeal and "finishing touches," rather than to overpower a meal with flavor.

In summary, it undoubtedly pays to use a light touch here, and remember that you definitely want to _see_ your dietary rainbows!

**CHAPTER 8**

SNACKING STRATEGIES & SITUATIONAL AWARENESS

"LAST COOKIE ENJOYMENT"

Comedian Rick Reynolds used to tell a story about eating directly from a bag full of cookies. In particular, he described a certain moment when he reached into the bag for another cookie...and the bag was empty! That's right, thanks to absent-mindedly snacking straight from the bag, Rick hadn't realized that he'd already eaten the last cookie, and he therefore felt unfairly deprived of his "last cookie enjoyment."

Eventually, though, after getting over his initial disappointment, Rick claimed that his experience led him to a new philosophy of eating every cookie as if it was the last cookie. That's a great idea, too, because – unlike Rick's excellent new philosophy – most people eat _absent_ -mindedly almost all of the time.

For instance, how many of you go to a movie theatre and finish your bucket of popcorn or other goodies before the movie even starts? This certainly doesn't just apply to junk food, either, because absent-minded eating happens with all sorts of foods (and drinks!), and in all kinds of situations. In fact, there's really almost no place where folks don't eat absent-mindlessly, because today's fast-paced, multi-tasked lifestyles have led us into a habit that's now even common enough to have its own nickname: "mindless eating."

ZEN TRAINING NOT REQUIRED

The opposite of "mindless eating" is "mindful eating," a phrase that sometimes scares people because of its Zen-like sound. Don't worry, though, we're not going to ask you to shave your head, sit cross-legged, or chant while you're eating (besides, it'd be hard to talk with your mouth full). Instead, we're just going to focus on whether or not you're _paying attention_ to your food, your surroundings, and yourself while you eat. And that's actually easier than you might think.

First of all, the number one concept in mindful eating is simply to eat when you're not being distracted by something else. For example, some of the mindless situations common today include being preoccupied by a movie, video, or TV show; overloading your brain with several consecutive hours of homework or job duties; surfing aimlessly through dozens of websites because you're bored out of your mind; attending a sports event for your favorite team; playing cards or some other recreational game (especially if it lasts a while); and lots of other similar scenarios.

In these types of situations, proponents of mindful eating will often encourage you to simply not eat anything while doing those other activities, and instead to set aside certain times devoted exclusively to eating. That's actually pretty good advice from a mindfulness standpoint, but the odds of it realistically happening in today's society are tremendously low (honestly, what are the chances of you not eating anything while at a multi-hour sports event?). For that reason, we recommend two alternative strategies for all of those times when you're likely to be distracted from what you're eating.

PLAN OUT THE GOOD STUFF

Our first strategy is to "pre-portion" your foods, rather than eating directly from whatever type of package the food originally came in (remember, you're trying to avoid the "last cookie" syndrome). In other words, if you're about to sit down to a favorite TV show, exciting movie, great sports event, or anything else that will distract you from what you're eating, set out your own personal portion of food ahead of time (and we're not talking about gigantic, group-sized bowls or platters). This will help ensure that you don't mindlessly gobble down an entire package or tray of something. Similarly, if you're attending a public event somewhere, just choose the smaller sizes of snacks and meals offered by food vendors. In addition to saving you money, we can assure you that you really don't need an entire tub of nachos and a half-gallon of beer to enjoy the game!

Our second strategy is to set out foods that are _healthful_ in the first place. For example, if you set out a plate full of grapes, cherries, and berries for your snack, that's a whole lot different than setting out a stack of cookies, chicken wings, and deep-fried cheese sticks. Or, at the very least, implement a "90/10" strategy, where 90% of the food you set out is healthful and only 10% is the heavy stuff.

Once you're using these strategies, even if you then get distracted by a game or TV show, you'll already have made two nutritionally smart moves. First, you'll have limited your food _quantity_ by pre-portioning everything ahead of time. Second, you'll have ensured your food _quality_ by pre-selecting at least 90% healthful foods for your dining. That's smart eating!

SMART EATING IS PRECEDED BY SMART SHOPPING

There's an old saying that says if you're hungry when you go food shopping, you'll likely make a lot of "impulse" buys (i.e., your hunger will prompt you to buy lots of junk food). We agree with that saying, and we also like another one that says, "What you stock is what you eat." Let's explain what that means.

We've all had moments where we walked into a kitchen, opened the refrigerator or cupboards, and thought, "hmmm...what's available to eat _right now_?" And you certainly know as well as we do that if your fridge and cupboards are loaded with nothing but ice cream, candy, cookies, chips, and soda, then that's what you're going to eat. On the other hand, if your house is stocked with fresh fruits & veggies, whole grain crackers, string cheese, individually-sized yogurt containers, and single-serving packages of nuts, then you'll be eating those things, instead.

That leads us to one of the most common things we hear from our clients, which is that they have "nothing to eat" or "nothing good to eat" in their homes. Such a comment always prompts us to ask, "Who's _buying_ your food in the first place?" In other words, if your pantry is filled with junk food, someone in your house probably put it there. And if your fridge hasn't seen any fresh fruit lately, then someone in your house can probably go get some.

Research studies indicate that grocery shoppers usually buy what _they_ like to eat. That means if your spouse (or parent, roommate, etc.) does the grocery shopping and he/she doesn't like veggies, then you're probably not going to get any veggies unless you specifically ask for them. So, whether you just voice your preferences ahead of time, or actually go along to the store, be sure to get personally involved in the shopping experience if you want to have healthier choices in your home.

Overall, the goal here is really quite simple. Since "what you stock is what you eat," be sure to keep your house continuously stocked with healthful, naturally colorful foods, so you have access to the best possible options when you're hungry.

READY-TO-EAT PRODUCE

Several of our clients have told us, "Hey, I would love to have all of those fruits & veggies in my house, but I just don't have the time to prepare them all. Plus, even when I do have the time, I honestly don't enjoy doing the whole process, you know? I mean, you've gotta slice the cucumbers, wash the berries, peel the carrots, and do all of that other stuff. That's just too much work!"

Okay, fair enough, we won't claim that food preparation is everyone's favorite activity. The good news, though, is that most grocery stores now sell a variety of pre-cut fruits and veggies. You'll pay a little extra for the convenience, of course, but for those of you who don't have the time or desire to personally prepare those foods, this can be a terrific option. Plus, even if your budget is limited, keep in mind that there are also lots of pre-cut options in frozen and canned produce, too. Just be sure to avoid any "chemistry degree food labels" when buying pre-packaged products, and stay away from unnecessary additives like sugar, salt, colors, etc.

Meanwhile, if you do enjoy the "food prep" duties but don't have lots of spare time, one of the most common strategies used by our clients is to have a "house and home" day. That's when they cook an entire week's worth of meals in one day (it's actually easier than it sounds), while also doing all of their other household errands at the same time. For instance, they'll typically do all of their laundry, house-cleaning, bill paying, and food preparation in just one day, which leaves their remaining six days of the week totally errand-free! _That's_ smart planning.

PLAN TO SUCCEED

Speaking of planning, that's actually been the main theme throughout this entire chapter:

* plan to _buy_ healthful foods

* plan to _eat_ healthful foods

* plan to eat realistic _portions_

* plan to eat when you're _not_ being distracted by other things

* plan to _not_ overeat when you are being distracted by other things.

In all truthfulness, we can assure you that if you consistently plan to succeed, you _will_ experience success. Not only that, but you'll never again have to miss out on your "last cookie enjoyment!"

**CHAPTER 9**

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

KEEPING IT ALL PRACTICAL

We set out from the very beginning to write a _practical_ guide to eating for wellness. That's why this final chapter summarizes all of the main points we've discussed during the previous pages, to help you synthesize the entire book in one convenient place.

THEME 1: REMEMBER THE RAINBOW!

As we mentioned earlier, our rainbow image allows you to quickly determine almost any meal's nutritional status, because it reminds you to:

* include _naturally_ colorful foods as more than half of your food intake

* prioritize _plant_ foods over animal foods in order to obtain a "high nutrient density" and a low intake of saturated fats

* be able to _see_ your nutritional rainbows (by reducing your usage of add-ons and extras)

* minimize the _size_ of your dishware and serving containers (remember: larger dishware leads to larger portions, which leads to larger waistlines; so keep a safe distance from the big plates and bowls we talked about earlier, or else you'll likely end up "cleaning" your plates long after your physical hunger has ended).

THEME 2: EATING FOR WELLNESS

Here's a quick reminder of what eating for wellness is all about:

1. _Wellness vs. Image_ – our entire dietary approach is based upon personal health and well-being. And yes, we do recognize the common connection that exists between image and self-esteem, but we'd also like to emphasize that image and wellness are two entirely different things. In other words, contrary to the famous words of "Fernando Lamas" (the _Saturday Night Live_ character played by Billy Crystal), it's actually far better for you to _feel_ good than to look good. So when it comes right down to it, what are you eating for? Your wellness, or your image? If you want to successfully make gradual lifestyle changes that are completely in line with your genetic potential, eating for wellness is the only way to go.

2. _Physical vs. Emotional Hunger_ – quite frankly, people eat for all sorts of reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with physical hunger. Awareness of this is a major factor in your personal dietary journey, particularly so you can realize if you're using food as a substitute for other needs in your life. Long story short: Is your hunger _physical_ , or is it something else?

3. _Chemistry Degree Food Labels_ – as you saw in Chapter 6, _naturally_ colorful, _minimally_ processed foods are your best choice for lifelong dietary wellness. Simply put, there really isn't any good reason to have a steady stream of additives, preservatives, artificial colors, artificial flavors, or other unnatural ingredients in your food, especially when you're eating for wellness.

4. _Liquid & Bite-Sized Energy_ – remember that your beverages, snacks, and samples all count as part of your dietary intake. As a result, be sure to stay away from things like 32-ounce sodas, personal beer pitchers, and other similarly sized drinks, while also being aware of your miniature munchies throughout each day.

5. _Mindful Eating & Mindful Shopping_ – dietary "mindfulness" is all about planning your nutritional success and paying attention to your dietary habits. That means you want to:  
* avoid situations that distract you while you eat  
* take some time to pre-portion individual servings of at least 90%-healthful foods when distractions are inevitable  
* keep your house continually stocked with healthful foods, rather than junk foods (by the way, here's a quick shopping tip: you'll usually find those naturally colorful, minimally processed foods located on the _perimeter_ of big grocery stores – away from the center aisles – or you can opt to "buy local" by purchasing these foods at your neighborhood farmers' markets).

"MIXED MEALS"

The general guidelines we just reviewed will guide you through almost all of the dietary situations you'll typically encounter. There are a few other situations, though, where a _two_ -step _Eating the Rainbow_ approach will be your best strategy.

Mixed Meals

The term "mixed meal" refers to a situation in which many different types of foods are all combined together into one main entrée (resulting in things like casseroles, pizzas, pot pies, quiches, lasagnas, burritos, and frozen "TV dinners"). In those cases, you'll actually apply the rainbow methodology _twice_ , as shown below:

1. When _choosing_ a mixed meal from a menu – or when buying the ingredients to make a mixed meal at home – make your selections based on the rainbow strategy of using _naturally colorful_ foods for at least half of the ingredients. For example, if given a choice between a veggie lasagna or a meat lasagna, the veggie version is obviously a closer match to the rainbow than the meat version. Likewise, if you have a choice between a colorful, mostly veggie pot pie or a non-colorful, mostly meat pot pie, then the colorful one is the better option.

2. After you've chosen or prepared your meal, it's time to serve it, and that means you're ready to arrange the color wedges on your dinnerware again. This time, though, because mixed meals tend to be "heavy" (high calorie) foods, and because they usually come in large, vertically-stacked portions that _combine the starch and protein together_ , the rainbow pie chart for your mixed meal's serving plate will look like this:

In other words, the _first_ rainbow step helps you to choose or prepare a mixed meal in which at least half of the ingredients are naturally colorful foods. Then during the _second_ rainbow step, when you serve (or eat) that meal, you'll also want to set up your dinnerware so that your casserole or other similar food takes up the areas where protein and starch used to be listed separately. So, as with the original rainbow pie chart, the rest of your plate will now contain even more naturally colorful produce (i.e., you're including additional veggies and/or fruits that weren't already in the mixed meal to begin with). Remember, you're looking for a "high nutrient density" in your meals, which is why we're prioritizing healthier foods over heavier foods at each step.

You also might have noticed that some "TV dinners" already come prepackaged in this revised rainbow layout, with a heavy mixed meal entrée taking up about half of the container, and the other half being occupied by mixed vegetables and some sort of fruit-based dessert. In that case, all of your work has already been done for you (i.e., the entire two-step rainbow approach for mixed meals has already been taken care of). Just be sure to watch out for any chemistry degree food labels when buying those prepackaged meals.

Meanwhile, this two-step rainbow approach also works for other types of "mixed" foods, including sandwiches, pizza, and other similar products. In each of these situations, just use the rainbow theme in the first step to choose whichever mixed meal contains the most naturally colorful ingredients. Then use the rainbow theme again (in the second step) to serve your entrée on a dish where a little over half of the space is devoted to even more naturally colorful foods.

Just like our students in Hawaii who wanted to keep enjoying their local plate lunches, you'll soon see that you're still eating the same foods as you did before, but just in a different pattern. Believe us, it really is easy to eat for wellness when you're using the _Eating the Rainbow_ approach!

WHAT ABOUT CALORIES?

As we mentioned earlier, calories are a unit of measurement that tell you how much "fuel" energy you're consuming in your food. We all burn a certain amount of caloric fuel every day just to stay alive, which means that we also need to eat a certain amount of calories each day, in order to refuel ourselves. The catch is that most people in Westernized countries simply consume too much of that caloric fuel, which greatly contributes to our modern troubles of obesity and diabetes (along with a lot of other chronic diseases). That's why so many dietary recommendations over the years have advocated calorie-counting as their main strategy.

However, as you've undoubtedly noticed throughout this book, we've repeatedly urged an approach to nutrition that isn't geared towards math. That's because those types of strategies are too labor-intensive and unsuccessful in the long run. In the _Eating the Rainbow_ approach, your calorie intake is instead successfully managed by emphasizing naturally colorful foods, eating realistic portion sizes, minimizing add-ons and extras, and distinguishing physical hunger from emotional hunger. Remember, this is a non-math approach!

For those of you who are numerically curious, though, we encourage you to do an online search for a "basal metabolic rate calculator" or "resting metabolic rate calculator." These calculators are found on websites where you enter your gender, age, weight, height (and sometimes your daily activity level), and then allow the site's computer to calculate an estimate of your total calorie needs per day. Aside from being entertaining, the knowledge of your daily calorie requirements will also help you to understand many of the popular news stories about high-calorie foods.

For instance, if your estimated daily energy requirement is a total of 2,000 calories, and you find out that a local restaurant's "potato skins" appetizer has 2,300 calories, you'll know right away that just one dish of that appetizer will exceed all of your fuel requirements for an entire day! Wow! As you saw in Chapter 5, dietary habits like that will increase the size of your personal "fuel tank" very easily. Same thing goes for the 1,600-calorie cheesecake slices, 900-calorie milkshakes, and 600-calorie coffee drinks that are so common these days (none of which, you'll notice, even remotely resemble the foods you've seen in the _Eating the Rainbow_ approach).

As far as your body's _minimum_ amount of fuel needed daily, the ballpark numbers tend to be around 1,200 calories a day for women and 1,500 calories a day for men, with lower values only being used when under a doctor's supervision. Otherwise, the body enters a "starvation" mode and begins to break down muscle tissue for fuel, along with triggering several other serious health considerations. In fact, that's one of the reasons for our final recommendation, which is a one-on-one consultation with a Registered Dietitian.

ASK YOUR DIETITIAN

We realize that a single dietary plan can't possibly be a perfect match for every person on earth, because we are all incredibly diverse and complex people with different genetic backgrounds and different metabolic rates. That's why nutrition books always include some sort of statement telling readers to seek a physician's advice before making any personal behavior changes. We agree with that, and we're also going to go even one step further, by telling you to meet with a _Registered Dietitian_ (RD), too.

The reason we're such strong advocates of having you personally meet with an RD is that it's obviously impossible for us to know every reader's dietary needs in advance. For instance, you might be diabetic, pregnant, and/or injured. Your age, sex, daily activity level, cultural background, and personal food preferences will also factor into your dietary recommendations. In fact, you might even be allergic to certain foods. Therefore, since we can't possibly sculpt our general recommendations into individualized programs appropriate for each of those countless situations, we're instead going to help you connect with an RD who can meet with you personally.

And what will happen when you meet your RD? A typical first session involves a face-to-face meeting, where a detailed personal history will be taken. This includes a discussion about your lifestyle, job, general health, past medical history, cooking skills, weight history, and activity levels. If appropriate, you may be weighed (and/or given an analysis of your body composition) and your RD will also review any recent blood test results that you may have received from your doctor. Overall, the discussion will focus on _your_ personal health concerns, appropriate food-related behavior patterns, and any dietary modifications that might benefit you.

RD's go through extensive scientific training, including at least a Bachelor's degree focusing on the chemical relationship between nutrients and the human body. They're also required to go through a residency that includes clinical, foodservice, and community nutrition rotations. All of this training is important, because RD's and other nutrition professionals are practicing an evolving field, and as new discoveries are made, they pass that information along to you to improve your health and quality of life.

To locate an RD in your area, simply go online to http://www.eatright.org and click on "Find a Registered Dietitian." When all is said and done, the combination of your dietitian's personalized advice and our broader dietary recommendations in this book will soon have you on your way to an _entire lifetime_ of eating for wellness. And that's the _Eating the Rainbow_ approach!

**APPENDIX A**

TURNING SCIENCE INTO PLAIN ENGLISH

If you were to become a Registered Dietitian (RD), you'd almost need to become a chemist, including mandatory training in "organic chemistry, biochemistry, physiology, genetics, microbiology, pharmacology, statistics, nutrient metabolism and nutrition across the lifespan." No wonder there are so many nutrition recommendations that sound like textbooks!

Of course, we've intentionally avoided that kind of approach in this book, but we'd still like to share a _basic_ overview of nutrition science for anyone who's interested. We won't go into mind-numbing detail, but by the time you finish reading this section, you will have at least a decent understanding of nutrition science, and you'll also be able to understand what dietitians are talking about when you meet with one of them.

NUTRIENTS

According to the American Heritage Dictionary (2008), a nutrient is defined as, "a source of nourishment, especially a nourishing ingredient in a food." And for our purposes here, we'll simply be focusing on the "essential" nutrients shown in the following diagram.

There are two conditions necessary for a nutrient to be classified as "essential." The first is that your body _needs_ it to operate properly. The second is that the nutrient _has_ to be part of your regular dietary intake, because your body either doesn't have the ability to make it in large enough quantities, or your body can't make it at all.

We've chosen to focus on these essential nutrients because they're the ones you _need_ to get. Conversely, we don't focus on non-essential nutrients (like alcohol), because even though they might be common, they're simply not required by your body. We also divide our discussion of these essential nutrients into three sub-categories, which include:

* _macronutrients_ – nutrients with calories, and needed in relatively large amounts;

* _micronutrients_ – nutrients without calories, and needed in relatively small amounts;

* _water_ – a nutrient without calories, and needed in relatively large amounts.

Macronutrients

As we mentioned in the preceding section, macronutrients are essential nutrients _with_ calories and needed in relatively _large_ amounts. The three main types of macronutrients are carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins.

Carbohydrates

If you look at the word "carbohydrate," you'll notice that the tail end of it is something you've probably seen before ("hydrate"). That's a term that refers to the presence of water, and it's used here because carbohydrates are formed by connecting water to a chemical element known as carbon (which is where the "carbo" comes from). The resulting product is then used as a primary source of _energy_ in your body (in fact, in some cases – such as your red blood cells – it's the _only_ source of energy).

There are two main types of carbohydrates – "simple" carbohydrates and "complex" carbohydrates – and they get their names from the way they're put together. Simple carbohydrates (also known as "sugars") are relatively small structures, with only a limited number of carbon atoms in each one. Complex carbohydrates (including "starch," "glycogen," and "cellulose") are much bigger, with some containing literally hundreds of carbon atoms.

Every time you eat carbohydrates, they're "digested," which means your body breaks them down into smaller pieces which can be absorbed from your digestive system into your bloodstream. The most numerous of those smaller pieces is a simple carbohydrate known as _glucose_ , and it's joined by a few other simple carbohydrates, too (such as _lactose_ , which you've probably heard about if you're "lactose intolerant," meaning that you have a hard time digesting "milk sugar").

Once glucose is absorbed into your bloodstream, it's called "blood glucose" or "blood sugar," and those interchangeable terms are often seen in news stories about diabetes. Diabetes (officially called "diabetes mellitus") is a condition where a person's blood sugar levels remain too high, which can lead to serious damage throughout the body. That's why routine health screenings often include blood glucose tests, because health professionals can use that information to help diagnose diabetes.

From a practical standpoint, the topic of blood sugar is actually why most dietary strategies encourage your carbohydrate intake to be primarily in the form of _complex_ carbohydrates (found in foods like grains, beans, and veggies), along with only a minimal intake of _simple_ carbohydrates (which are common in soda, juice, candy, desserts, and fruit). That's because it takes your body longer to absorb glucose from complex carbohydrates than from simple carbohydrates, which helps to keep your blood sugar levels more stable. In fact, this is the foundation for the "Glycemic Index," which is a system that numerically ranks the speed at which carbohydrate-based foods get digested into blood sugar.

Blood sugar is also the main reason why our "rainbow pie charts" in Chapter 4 progressed from _processed_ grains/starch to _whole_ grains/starch, because that change was designed to help you consume "better" carbohydrates (i.e., complex "carbs" that take longer to break down into glucose). Those higher-quality carbohydrates also promote a greater intake of fiber (listed as "cellulose" earlier in this section), which is a type of complex carbohydrate that the human body can't digest. Since fiber doesn't get broken down when passing through your body, its presence: helps to regulate bowel movements, affects the absorption of other nutrients, and even lengthens the amount of time you feel "full" after meals.

Lipids

The prefix "lip-" refers to "fat," which explains why the lipid category of nutrients is the one that includes fats (along with oils, cholesterol, and some other things). Of course, "fat" isn't a very popular word with most people these days, but you literally couldn't live without lipids, because they're used to store energy, insulate your body, build cell walls, protect nerve cells, make certain hormones, and carry out all sorts of other vitally important functions. For the sake of keeping things practical here, we'll narrow our focus in this section to just a couple of specific lipids (cholesterol and saturated fats).

The first lipid we'd like to talk about is cholesterol. Cholesterol is a type of lipid that has some very important jobs in your body, including the formation of vitamin D (which is essential for bone health) and the production of steroid hormones (including testosterone, estrogens, cortisol, etc.).

Unfortunately, many people think of cholesterol in exclusively "bad" terms, because their doctors only seem to be concerned when patients have "high cholesterol." However, what those doctors are really saying is that once your body has all the cholesterol it _needs_ , the extra cholesterol tends to build up inside your blood vessels, which can then prevent blood from flowing normally throughout your body.

To use an analogy here, consider the way automobile traffic slows down (and sometimes even stops) when roadway construction causes streets to become narrower by "closing" certain traffic lanes. Now imagine that exact same type of effect happening inside your blood vessels (i.e., they get narrower when a buildup of cholesterol "shuts down certain traffic lanes" for your blood), and you'll probably understand why doctors worry about cholesterol buildups! Just remember, though, you do _NOT_ want to eliminate cholesterol from your body. Your body absolutely needs cholesterol, as long as the amounts are within certain limits.

The next lipid topic we want to address is the subject of "saturated" and "unsaturated" fats. Saturated fats get just about as much coverage in the health news as cholesterol, because they're linked to elevated blood cholesterol levels, along with an increased risk of other health issues like heart disease and stroke. That's one reason why dietitians recommend eating lots of veggies and other plant products, because saturated fats are found almost exclusively in _animal_ products (like meat, cheese, etc.). As a result, when you're eating more plant products than animal products, you're generally consuming less saturated fat, and that's a good thing!

Meanwhile, you've probably already recognized the word "saturated" as meaning "full" (like when a heavy rainfall saturates someone's yard to the point where the ground can't absorb any more water). That's actually the meaning of "saturated" here, too, because saturated fats are just fats that are completely "filled up" with a chemical element called hydrogen. That also explains why "unsaturated fats" are fats that _aren't_ filled up with hydrogen, which leads us to the related topic of "hydrogenation" (a word you'll often see listed in the ingredient lists of processed food products).

Hydrogenation is a chemical process where hydrogen is _added_ to a previously unsaturated fat, and manufacturers do this in order to affect the consistency and shelf-life of their foods. The downside is that hydrogenation also leads to another type of fat known as "trans-fats" (or "trans-fatty acids"), which are considered to be even worse for your health than fats which were saturated in the first place! Once again, that's why our dietary recommendations focus on _minimally_ -processed, _plant_ -based foods.

Proteins

Protein is the last macronutrient in our list, and it's absolutely essential for building certain body structures, fighting off infections, and balancing your body's internal chemistry. Looking at it from a practical nutrition standpoint, the main concern with protein is simply how much of it you should eat. That's because too little protein prevents your body from building and repairing itself, while too much protein can be associated with dehydration, a loss of calcium from your body, and sometimes even kidney problems.

Most scientific studies recommend a protein intake that's lower than the amount provided by meat-based diets (and also _much_ lower than what's commonly eaten by athletes wanting to build muscle mass). The good news about our _Eating the Rainbow_ approach is that it allows people who need more _food_ (for maintaining higher body weights) to get more protein as they eat additional meals, while also ensuring that their other nutrient needs are still met. At the same time, people who don't need as much food will still get _enough_ protein on the Rainbow plan, while also fulfilling their other nutrient needs, too.

Meanwhile, you don't necessarily have to eat animal products to get your protein, because you can also get it from plenty of vegetable-based options, including beans, nuts, lentils, tofu, tempeh, textured vegetable protein (TVP), etc. That's why our "rainbow pie charts" in Chapter 4 evolved from "meat" to "protein," so you'd have the freedom to choose whichever foods work best for you.

Micronutrients

At the beginning of this chapter, we mentioned that micronutrients are essential nutrients that do _not_ contain calories and are needed in relatively _small_ amounts. The two main types of micronutrients are vitamins and minerals.

Vitamins and minerals are both absolutely crucial to your health and well-being, since they play key roles in metabolism (the sum of all your body's chemical reactions) and growth, along with several other functions. That's why our _Eating the Rainbow_ plan is based on _naturally_ colorful foods (remember, they're the ones that have a "high nutrient density," which means you'll get lots of vitamins and minerals in exchange for fewer calories). We also emphasize the consumption of _all_ colors from the rainbow (not just the green), in order to incorporate the fundamental dietary strategies of _balance_ (not too much of one thing or too little of another), _moderation_ (staying within realistic limits), and _variety_ (eating an extensive assortment of foods).

Overall, our _Eating the Rainbow_ approach makes it easy for you to eat from a variety of food sources, which means you can choose from lots of different vegetable and animal products. That's also an important key to getting your full share of vitamins and minerals without having to rely on pills, powders, potions, or other pre-packaged options. In fact, notice that we consistently advocate _whole food_ sources (for instance, eating an orange instead of taking a vitamin C pill), and that we also don't sell or endorse dietary supplements. That's because we believe in the power of real _food_ , and any decisions beyond that are best left to you and your Registered Dietitian.

Water

Water is unquestionably one of the most important requirements for life on earth, and it makes up over half of our bodies (the exact percentages are different for males and females, and also from one person to another). Water has _no_ calories, is needed in fairly _large_ quantities, and is used to transport nutrients and other things throughout your body, while also hosting many of your body's other functions.

Years ago, one of the most common dietary recommendations for water was for each person to drink at least eight cups (at 8 ounces each) of water per day. However, that led to plenty of debate, because lots of folks wondered how that requirement could be true for different people with very different body sizes and lifestyles. For instance, would an active, 95-pound girl who's 4 feet, 10 inches tall, need the same amount of water as a sedentary, 225-pound guy who's 6 feet, 5 inches tall? To counteract that uncertainty, the current recommendations for water consumption are now based on body weight, with a minimum daily intake of half your body weight in ounces (e.g., a 150 pound person would drink at least 75 ounces per day), increasing to 2/3 of your body weight if you're very active. Unfortunately, that puts us right back into math territory again, so another way to gauge your proper consumption is to simply drink enough water to make your urine:

* _consistently_ pale yellow or clear in color (rather than being darkly colored)

* _weakly_ scented (rather than having a strong odor)

* resulting in _frequent_ trips to the bathroom (rather than not going very often).

Even if you're taking dietary supplements (which will typically darken your urine and/or turn it neon yellow), the above strategy for lightly colored, weakly scented urine remains the same. This approach will help you to remain properly hydrated – regardless of your body size, activity level, or other personal characteristics – and it will combat the fatigue and headaches that accompany dehydration (and which might be mistakenly attributed to hunger).

**APPENDIX B**

Eating Disorders & Disordered Eating

Disordered eating occurs along a wide spectrum. Cases range from emotional eating and the excessive use of dieting and exercise, to more complex psychological struggles such as anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating. You might think eating disorders are just about food, appearance, weight, and image, but those are all really just the symptoms. In truth, the underlying psychological struggles and emerging symptoms are complex and often difficult to overcome without professional support. Eating disorders affect both males (10%) and females (90%), cut across all ethnic and socioeconomic groups, and can have life-threatening consequences.

There are several common characteristics that eating disorders share, aside from an unhealthy relationship with food. These include such things as personality characteristics (e.g., perfectionism, obsessiveness), a history of abuse, repeated dieting, family relationship issues, performance pressures with athletics, and emotional difficulties (identifying, expressing, and managing emotions).

The American Psychiatric Association currently classifies three types of eating disorders in their Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV): Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, and "Eating Disorders Not Otherwise Specified" (EDNOS, which includes the newly named Binge Eating Disorder, or "BED"). What causes these disorders? There is no one thing that causes a person to develop an eating disorder; however, some researchers suggest that individuals are predisposed genetically to have certain personality traits (such as anxiety or perfectionism) that put them at higher risk.

In many cases individuals with eating disorders also struggle with other symptoms such as depression, substance abuse or addiction, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, the common thread with all eating disorders is the person's inherent low self-esteem. Overall, researchers have found that the following factors contribute to eating disorders:

1. _social or cultural pressures_ (i.e. the western cultural norms that glorify thinness and determine the height and weight of the "perfect body")

2. _psychological traits_ (i.e. perfectionism, anxiety, low self-esteem, difficulty coping with emotions, or the impact of abuse)

3. _interpersonal challenges_ (i.e. difficulty with conflict in relationships, fear of abandonment, inability to set boundaries in relationships, excessive people pleasing)

4. _biological features_ (i.e. biochemical imbalances which are genetic).

Researchers have also found that individuals who are at a higher risk for developing eating disorders tend to come from households where the:  
* child is highly successful in all activities  
* child has high self-expectations  
* parents set high expectations for the child  
* family often exerts tight control on the child  
* family experiences difficulties with conflict and emotional expression.

Prevalence

Anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and BED are on the rise worldwide. The frequency of anorexia is estimated to be as high as 3.7% in U.S. females, making it the 3rd most common chronic illness among adolescent girls. Bulimia might be even more common, with recent studies suggesting that up to 7% of U.S. females have had bulimia at some time in their lives, and with 5% of the entire U.S. population estimated to have bulimia at any given time. Current findings also give similar recognition to BED, which is thought to affect up to 4% of the general population. _1_

Anorexia Nervosa

Anorexia Nervosa is basically self-imposed starvation. It is characterized by an intentional loss of a substantial amount of one's body weight (loss of 15% of normal body weight) through severe dieting and/or purging (we'll give you more details about purging in the upcoming section on Bulimia Nervosa).

Anorexics most often tend to be perfectionists and overachievers who appear to be in control. They have an intense fear of being fat, and their preoccupation with food and weight usually masks other psychological issues.

How do you know if you have Anorexia Nervosa?

According to the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) _2_ , in order to be clinically diagnosed as having anorexia nervosa, an individual must meet the following criteria:

A. Refusal to maintain body weight at or above a minimally normal weight for age and height (for example, weight loss leading to maintenance of body weight less than 85% of that expected; or failure to make expected weight gain during period of growth, leading to body weight less than 85% of that expected).

B. Intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat, even though underweight.

C. Disturbance in the way in which one's body weight or shape is experienced, undue influence of body weight or shape on self-evaluation, or denial of the seriousness of the current low body weight.

D. Amenorrhea (for example, the absence of at least three consecutive menstrual cycles) in postmenarcheal females (girls whose menstrual cycles have already started). A woman is considered to have amenorrhea if her periods occur only following the administration of hormones (for example, estrogen).

Furthermore, the DSM-IV specifies two subtypes of anorexia:

* Restricting Type: During the current episode of anorexia nervosa, the person has not regularly engaged in binge eating or purging behavior (e.g., self-induced vomiting, or the misuse of laxatives, diuretics, or enemas.

* Binge-Eating Type / Purging Type: During the current episode of anorexia nervosa, the person has regularly engaged in binge-eating OR purging behavior (e.g., self-induced vomiting, over-exercise, or the misuse of laxatives, diuretics, or enemas).

_Warning signs of Anorexia Nervosa_ (include but are not limited to the following) _3_ :  
* Dresses in layers to hide weight loss  
* Is preoccupied with weight, food, calories, recipes, fat grams, and dieting  
* Refuses to eat certain foods, progressing to restrictions against whole categories of food (e.g., no fat, etc.)  
* Claims to feel "fat" or overweight despite weight loss  
* Complains of abdominal pain, cold hands and feet, and lethargy  
* Denies feelings of hunger  
* Exhibits peculiar behaviors and develops food rituals (e.g., eating foods in certain orders, excessive chewing, rearranging food on a plate)  
* Obsessively cooks for others without eating  
* Consistently makes excuses to avoid mealtimes or situations involving food  
* Maintains an excessive, rigid exercise regimen – despite weather, fatigue, illness, or injury; feels the need to "burn off " calories taken in  
* Becomes depressed, irritable, and withdrawn  
* Exhibits perfectionism  
* Has an intense fear of weight gain or being "fat," even though underweight  
* Has a distorted body image of self and others  
* Loses menstrual cycles  
* Frequently weighs self  
* Visits websites that promote unhealthy ways to lose weight  
* Has a strong need for control and shows inflexible thinking  
* Has serious physical complications, including abnormal hair distribution, anemia, bone loss, muscle weakness, chronic constipation, malnutrition, kidney damage, and increased risk for heart failure.

Bulimia Nervosa

Bulimia Nervosa is the repeated cycle of binging and purging. Binging involves the rapid ingesting of large amounts of food (a binge may range from anywhere from 1,000 to 30,000 calories). The person suffering with bulimia nervosa then attempts to get rid of the food by some form of purging. This may include self-induced vomiting, excessive use of laxatives or diuretics, or obsessive exercising.

Individuals with bulimia nervosa may appear normal to slightly overweight, so – unlike anorexia nervosa – the illness may not be outwardly obvious. This type of eating disorder is thought to be two to three times more prevalent than anorexia nervosa, and the binge/purge cycle is typically an outlet for difficult feelings such as depression, loneliness, anxiety, boredom, frustration, or sadness.

How do you know if you have Bulimia Nervosa?

Criteria for a clinical diagnosis of bulimia nervosa, according to the DSM-IV, are as follows:

A. Recurrent episodes of binge eating. An episode of binge eating is characterized by both of the following:  
* Eating, in a discrete period of time (for example, within any two-hour period), an amount of food that is definitely larger than most people would eat during a similar period of time and under similar circumstances.  
* Feeling a lack of control over eating during the episode (for example, a feeling that one cannot stop eating, or control what or how much one is eating).

B. Recurrent inappropriate compensatory behavior in order to prevent weight gain, such as: self-induced vomiting; misuse of laxatives, diuretics, enemas, or other medications; fasting; or excessive exercise.

C. The binge eating and other compensatory behaviors both occur, on average, at least twice a week for three months.

D. Self-evaluation is unduly influenced by body shape and weight.

E. The disturbance does not occur exclusively during episodes of anorexia nervosa.

Purging Type: During the current episode of bulimia nervosa, the person has regularly engaged in self-induced vomiting or the misuse of laxatives, diuretics, or enemas.

Nonpurging Type: During the current episode of bulimia nervosa, the person has used other inappropriate compensatory behaviors, such as fasting or excessive exercise, but has not regularly engaged in self-induced vomiting or the misuse of laxatives, diuretics, or enemas.

_Warnings signs of Bulimia Nervosa_ (include but are not limited to the following) _4_ :  
* Evidence of binge eating, including disappearance of large amounts of food in short periods of time, or lots of empty wrappers and containers indicating consumption of large amounts of food  
* Evidence of purging behaviors, including frequent trips to the bathroom after meals, signs and/or smells of vomiting, presence of wrappers or packages of laxatives or diuretics  
* Fear of not being able to control eating voluntarily  
* Frequent weight fluctuations in either direction of about 10 pounds  
* Skipping meals or taking very small portions of food at regular meals  
* Stealing or hoarding food  
* Drinking excessive amounts of water; Using excessive amounts of mouthwash, mints, or gum  
* Being outwardly cheerful, but often depressed, lonely, ashamed; recurrent mood swings  
* Maintaining excessive, rigid exercise regimen – despite weather, fatigue, illness, or injury; feeling the need to "burn off " calories  
* Having light-headedness and dizziness or fainting  
* Creating lifestyle schedules or rituals to make time for binge-and-purge sessions  
* Withdrawing from usual friends and activities  
* Feeling dissatisfied with body weight and shape  
* Having substance abuse or other abusive behaviors  
* Having serious physical complications from chronic vomiting, including scars on the back of the hands and knuckles from self-induced vomiting, stained teeth and erosion of dental enamel, swollen glands, irritation to the esophagus, gastric/bowel problems, bloating, peptic ulcers, electrolyte imbalances, irregular heartbeats, and increased risk for heart failure.

Binge Eating Disorder (BED)

Binge Eating Disorder (BED) – more commonly known as compulsive overeating – is a type of "Eating Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified." Individuals diagnosed with BED may experience a range of food behaviors such as regularly consuming a large amount of food in one sitting (less than 2 hours), or "grazing" constantly even when they are not hungry or have become physically uncomfortable from consuming so much food. Unlike individuals with bulimia nervosa, binge eaters do not purge after over-eating, nor do they routinely exercise excessively in an attempt to burn off the calories. They may, however, try to restrict their food intake between binges.

Binge eaters typically become overweight or obese, and tend to have a more difficult time losing and maintaining a healthy weight. As with bulimia nervosa, reasons for binge eating usually include a way to avoid dealing with emotions, feeling an internal void, and/or using BED as a coping mechanism for everyday life.

Since BED is not an official eating disorder diagnosis, more research is still needed. Therefore the DSM-IV has established the following research criteria:

DSM-IV Research Criteria for Binge Eating Disorder Diagnostic Criteria:

A. Recurrent episodes of binge eating. An episode of binge eating is characterized by both of the following:  
* Eating, in a discrete period of time (for example, within any two-hour period), an amount of food that is definitely larger than most people would eat during a similar period of time and under similar circumstances.  
* Feeling a lack of control over eating during the episode (for example, a feeling that one cannot stop eating, or control what or how much one is eating).

B. The binge eating episodes are associated with three (or more) of the following:  
* eating much more rapidly than normal  
* eating until feeling uncomfortably full  
* eating large amounts of food when not feeling physically hungry  
* eating alone because of being embarrassed by how much one is eating  
* feeling disgusted with oneself, depressed, or very guilty after overeating.

C. Marked distress regarding binge eating is present.

D. Binge eating occurs, on average, at least two days a week for six months. Note: The method of determining frequency differs from that used for bulimia nervosa, and future research should address whether the preferred method for setting a frequency threshold is by counting the number of days on which binges occur or by counting the number of episodes of binge eating.

E. The binge eating is not associated with the regular use of inappropriate compensatory behavior (for example, purging, fasting, excessive exercise), and does not occur exclusively during the course of anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa.

_Warnings Signs of Binge Eating Disorder_ (include but are not limited to the following) _5,6_ :  
* Ingesting an excessive amount of food, even when not hungry  
* Periods of uncontrolled, impulsive, and continuous eating until feeling uncomfortably full or physically sick  
* Hiding and hoarding food  
* Hiding eating habits due to shame and embarrassment  
* Feeling disgusted with eating habits, weight, body, or appearance  
* Feeling overwhelmed, ashamed, or guilty during or after a binge  
* Hiding body with baggy clothes  
* Creating lifestyle schedules or rituals to make time for binge sessions  
* "Grazing" or consistently eating for as long as food is available  
* Not purging  
* Engages in sporadic fasting or repetitive dieting  
* Having serious physical complications, including those associated with obesity (e.g., high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, stroke, Type 2 Diabetes, and gallbladder disease).

Males and Eating Disorders

Eating disorders do not discriminate on the basis of gender. Since 1 out of 10 males are diagnosed with an eating disorder, that means hundreds of thousands of men and boys are affected. Gay men, in particular, have the highest prevalence. An estimated one-fourth of anorexia diagnoses in children are in males, and preliminary BED research suggests an equal prevalence among males and females. Clearly, men can and do develop eating disorders, although their numbers for certain disorders are far less than females. _7_

Especially prone among males are those athletes whose sports necessitate weight restrictions (e.g., wrestling). Unfortunately, there is little solid data available on the prevalence of eating disorders in males. Males with an eating disorder are typically under-diagnosed for a number of reasons, including the fact that females are more likely to seek out help than males, and also because healthcare professionals typically view eating disorders as more of a female illness.

It is important to note that differences in symptoms do exist between males and females. Females are more likely to focus on dieting and weight loss, while males are more likely to focus on gaining muscle mass. Although issues such as altering diet (to increase muscle mass), over-exercising, and misusing steroids are not yet criteria for eating disorders, a growing body of research indicates that these factors may be associated with male eating disorders. _8_

A disorder that affects both men and women equally, Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD), is a preoccupation with an imagined defect in appearance, or an excessive concern for a slight physical defect that many people would not notice. Affecting an estimated 1-2% of the general population, BDD usually starts in adolescence when appearance becomes an issue. BDD may co-occur with an eating disorder if the imagined defect is linked to a weight-related site such as one's waist, hips, or thighs. Those suffering with this disorder usually have increased anxiety as a result of believing that everyone around them is judging their appearance and seeing their flaws. Unfortunately BDD is linked to an unusually high suicide rate among all mental illnesses.

Muscle dysmorphia, a subtype of BDD, affects men who think they are too small and do not have enough muscle mass. Also known as "reverse anorexia" or "bigorexia," many of these men spend excessive hours at the gym (looking at themselves in the mirror), may take steroids and other drugs, and suffer from depression and low self-esteem. Unfortunately, many of these men often suffer for years before seeking professional help. When they do decide to seek help they often complain of other symptoms such as depression, social anxiety, or OCD, but do not express the real concern over their body image. Although it is difficult to convince sufferers that they have a distorted view of their body image, therapy and medications have shown to be beneficial.

Getting Help

If you or someone you know has an eating disorder, please know that it is _not_ a sign of weakness, lack of willpower, or some other sort of "character flaw." Individuals who struggle with food and body image concerns – or more complex long-term disorders – need specialized support in order to heal. Also, some people may not fulfill the official DSM-IV criteria for an eating disorder, even though they still have an unhealthy relationship with food, their body, and their weight. As a result, they will be suffering the consequences associated with "disordered eating" (e.g., distress in their relationships, work, etc; depression, anxiety, excessive exercise, and so on). This, too, can have long-term consequences and may require treatment/intervention. Early intervention may also prevent progression of the condition to a full-blown clinical eating disorder, so seek help as soon as possible.

There are many different approaches to treating eating disorders. For some, meeting with a therapist, dietitian, and medical doctor will provide them with adequate support to heal their relationship with their self and body. For others, intensive group therapy or residential treatment may be required for around-the-clock support. While in treatment, individuals learn about the following: maintaining a normal weight, "normal" eating, eliminating food fears, improving relationships, using better problem-solving skills, being involved in outside activities, etc.

It is important to know that with adequate support and guidance, individuals can overcome disordered eating and eating disorders. If you suspect someone might have an eating disorder, please do not ignore it. Express your concern in a loving and supportive way. The best way to be a role model for your friends and loved ones is to:

1. speak to the person in private and tell them specifically what has made you concerned

2. tell them how you feel

3. encourage them to seek professional help

4. listen and be supportive.

Do _not_ diagnose, treat or try to fix them. Eating disorders require professional help to be treated successfully, so please help connect your loved ones to a hospital, treatment center, or eating disorder professional in your community.

Resources

The websites below are great resources to walk you through the entire spectrum of eating disorders.

National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD)

http://www.anad.org

This organization seeks to alleviate the problems of eating disorders by educating the public and healthcare professionals, encouraging research, and sharing resources on all aspects of these disorders. Includes information on finding support groups, referrals, treatment centers, advocacy, and background on eating disorders.

National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA)

http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org

This organization is the largest non-profit organization in the United States dedicated to supporting those affected by eating disorders, and being a catalyst for prevention, cures, and access to quality care. NEDA develops prevention programs for a wide range of audiences, publishes and distributes educational materials, and operates a toll-free eating disorders Information and Referral Helpline which links callers to vital information and treatment. A searchable database of treatment providers throughout the U.S. and Canada is also available on the website.

Something Fishy

http://www.something-fishy.org

This website gives detailed information on most aspects of eating disorders: defining them, preventing them, finding treatments, and paying for recovery. Useful links to related articles and stories are provided.

References

The numerical citations within Appendix B refer to the following sources:

1, 7, & 8. Adapted from National Eating Disorders Association (retrieved June 1, 2008) http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/uploads/file/toolkits/NEDA-TKP-A02-CommonMyths.pdf

2. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition, Washington D.C.: American Psychiatric Association, 1994.

3, 4, & 6. Adapted from National Eating Disorders Association (retrieved June 1, 2008) http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/uploads/file/toolkits/NEDA-TKP-A03-SignsSymptomsBehaviors.pdf

5. Adapted from http://www.eatingdisorderexpert.co.uk/DiagnosingBingeEatingDisorder.html (retrieved June 7, 2008)

**APPENDIX C**

FOOD JOURNAL

**APPENDIX D**
GLOSSARY

Anabolic Steroids – hormones (chemical messengers) that _build up_ body tissue; often used illegally by athletes to increase muscle mass, despite an increased risk for certain health hazards.

Calorie – a measure of energy; used in nutrition to describe the amount of fuel being taken in or burned off by a person.

Carbohydrate – a macronutrient used as a primary source of energy in the body.

Health – an expression of physical characteristics that are _not_ performance based.

Ecology of Eating – a phrase describing the environmental factors which influence eating habits.

Essential Nutrient – a nutrient which must be consumed as part of one's regular dietary intake, in order for the human body to function properly.

Fiber – a type of plant-based carbohydrate that can _not_ be digested by the human body. Fiber affects bowel movements, nutrient absorption, and feelings of fullness.

Fitness – an expression of physical characteristics that _are_ performance based.

Functional Foods – processed or unprocessed foods which may potentially improve health and/or prevent disease for reasons _beyond_ their essential nutrients. For example, vegetables and fruits are natural sources of "phytochemicals," which are substances that appear to promote health even though they're not classified as essential nutrients. This means that many plant-based foods are essentially "unprocessed functional foods."

Gram – a metric measurement that indicates an object's mass (physical quantity of matter). For example, a medium-sized paper clip is approximately one gram.

Lipid – a macronutrient used to store energy, insulate the body, build cell walls, protect nerve cells, make certain hormones, and carry out numerous other vitally important functions in the human body.

Macronutrient – a type of essential nutrient that contains calories and is needed in relatively large amounts.

Micronutrient – a type of essential nutrient that does not contain calories and is needed in relatively small amounts.

Metaphor – a word or phrase used to describe something other than its normal definition.

Mineral – one of the two main types of micronutrients; minerals have a simpler chemical structure than vitamins.

Nutrient Density – the ratio of nutrients to calories found in a food.

Protein – a macronutrient used to build certain body structures, fight infections, and balance internal body chemistry.

Vitamin – one of the two main types of micronutrients; vitamins have a more complex chemical structure than minerals.

Wellness (Well-Being) – a multidimensional model of optimal human existence that includes physical, intellectual, emotional, social, spiritual, environmental, and occupational components.

Yo-Yo Dieting – a pattern in which a person goes through repeated cycles of alternating short-term dieting with "regular" eating habits.

**ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS**

Dave's Acknowledgements

I'm sincerely grateful to all of the following people, whose positive impact on this book has been invaluable:  
* the nutrition professionals who reviewed our manuscripts, including: Jennifer J. Albert-Chong, BS, RD, CD; Grant Itomitsu, RD; and Jean Hankin, PhD, RD  
* the innumerable students, clients, coworkers, and professors with whom I've worked over the years  
* the folks at Bent Tree Press (our original publisher)  
* my coauthor, Nicole Kerr  
* my wife & friends  
* my parents.

Most importantly, however, I thank God for showing me the truth of the following words, spoken by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in his farewell address on January 17, 1961. Eisenhower might not have known it, but his message applies to government, nutrition, and just about every other aspect of life imaginable:

" _As we peer into society's future, we – you and I, and our government – must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering – for our own ease and convenience – the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without asking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage."_

Aloha

Nicole's Acknowledgements

I was always told, "Health is the greatest Wealth!" After a nearly fatal auto accident during my sophomore year at the US Air Force Academy, that simple statement became Truth for me. It has since been my passion to empower people with tools that enable them to create a healthy body and mind so they can live their life to the fullest.

Producing a book is a team effort and I thank all those who contributed to this process. Specifically I want to say "Mahalo" (Hawaiian word for thank you) to my husband, Paul Deering; colleagues, friends, and therapists, Susan Cadley and Paula Scanaloni; my 'ohana (family) especially my mother, Erika, who introduced me to the world of food; and to all those I have taught or counseled over the years who ended up teaching me.

One of nature's most beautiful creations is the rainbow and Hawai'i is bountiful with them. Every rainbow is created by millions of raindrops, with the position of each drop causing light to reflect at different angles in order to create the spectacular colors detected by our eyes. Every time you see a rainbow, think not only of food but also of our world and how we are all connected. Aloha!

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