| Health & Fitness Corner: Eating a Balanced Diet--What Should Swimmers Eat? part 1 |
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| Written by Raul Reis |
| Wednesday, 22 July 2009 08:39 |
 With so much conflicting information out there about diet and nutrition, and about how a healthy (or unhealthy) diet affects our overall health, you'd be completely forgiven for being very confused on the subject of food and health. I think the two most common questions all of us have are: 1. How does what we eat influence our overall health and fitness? 2. And what does a healthy, balanced diet consist of? I just finished reading an amazing book on the topic of healthy eating that I recommend to everyone: "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto", by Michael Pollan. A Berkeley-based science journalist who has written other award-winning best sellers, Pollan tries in his latest book to answer those two basic questions by investigating the food and "nutrition" industries. What's really fascinating about his book is the simplicity and clarity of his ideas, and his commonsensical approach to food. Pollan investigates the emergence of the modern food industry (it's staggering to find out how many processed food products we eat on a daily basis); how the food industry lobby has worked hard to de-regulate dietary restrictions (the corn industry and its widespread high fructose corn syrup are big villains here); and how most of what we eat would not be recognized as "real food" by our grandparents or great-grandparents. At the same time, Pollan looks at how the nutrition/health industries have taken all the fun out of eating by breaking up food into its basic nutrients, concentrating on the individual components of food (fat, carbs, vitamins, proteins) and forgetting about the importance of how those nutrients interact, or the whole fun, social, aspects of eating good food. To get us thinking in a completely way about what/how we eat, Pollan comes up with a simple, helpful motto: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." He does a great job of explaining each part of that motto, and gives out some great suggestions or "rules" on how to re-educate ourselves about food, and how to eat healthier on a day-to-day basis. Next week, I will continue on the topic with a Part 2 that will focus more specifically on healthy eating for swimmers. In the meantime, eat some great food! |