Today, Americans enjoy a greater abundance and variety of food than ever before, more than most other people on earth. Nevertheless, many of our health and nutritional problems arise from unbalanced diets and overeating. We ingest too many calories and too much fat, cholesterol, sugar, and salt and not nearly enough fiber and other protective nutrients. At the same time, our lives have become increasingly sedentary; we drive rather than walk, watch television instead of playing tennis or gardening, park ourselves in front of the computer for hours at a time. This pattern predisposes us to heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetesconditions that together account for nearly half the deaths in this country each year. Scientists may disagree on some of the particulars, but nearly everyone agrees that we could prevent or delay many of these illnesses if we ate more wisely and led more physically active lives.
But what, exactly, does eating wisely entail? As our markets are deluged with thousands of new products every year, we are equally deluged with claims of the miraculous health benefits these products are said to offer. At the same time, we hear conflicting, often sensationalized reports about the supposed dangers of one familiar food after another. How we long for some unimpeachable (but, we would hope, not unduly strict) authority to tell us once and for all what we should and should not eat, and in what quantity and combination!
To begin with, we should remember that the basis of wise eating is not nutrients but foods, eaten in a healthful pattern. The diet of much of the worldΓÇÖs population is severely limited by poverty and the unavailability of ingredients; many must struggle simply to stay alive. In the United States, our principal concern should be to construct diets that avoid nutritional excesses and restore balance to our nutritional lives. To live in good health, we need proteins, fats, and carbohydrates, as well as more than forty vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and fatty acids. But ingesting too many vitamins and minerals can cause ill effects as surely as does consuming excessive quantities of fat, cholesterol, salt, and sugar.
The secret of a long and healthy life, an aged (and healthy) friend used to assure us, is to choose oneΓÇÖs parents well. Good health depends, to a great extent, on genetic endowmentand plain good fortune. But if fortune, as Louis Pasteur reminded us, favors only the prepared mind, it seems likely that it may favor the well-kept body too. We are stuck with our genes, for better or for worse, but we can demonstrably and sometimes dramatically affect our health and well-being by our personal choices about exercise and diet.
The United States government issues official dietary guidelines (occasionally revised as new research becomes available) based on nutritional research. These describe an overall pattern of balanced diet and activity for good health. We are urged to eat a variety of foods; to balance the food we eat with physical activity in order to maintain or improve our weight; to choose a diet with plenty of grain products, vegetables, and fruits; to limit consumption of fats, sugars, and salts; and to drink alcoholic beverages in moderation, if at all. These dietary guidelines can be put into practice by following a Food Guide Pyramid that illustrates the relative importance of various food groups to the overall diet. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has established five food groups as good sources of important nutrients and has calculated the number and size of servings from each group that its advisers believe must be eaten daily to meet general guidelines for good health, as well as Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) established for specific nutrients. Food plants clearly constitute the foundation of healthful diets, so many servings of grains, vegetables, and fruits should be chosen daily. The dairy and meat groups are also important, but a relatively smaller number of servings is needed every day. At the pyramidΓÇÖs tip are fats and sweets, to be eaten less frequently.
Depending on specific caloric needs, the pyramid recommends a certain number of servings daily of grains, vegetables, fruits, and meat and dairy products. If these recommendations seem unreasonablewho eats 6 to 11 servings of grain a day?itΓÇÖs only because the USDA doesnΓÇÖt use the term serving the way most of us do. According to the agency, a serving of meat or fish weighs 2 to 3 ounces (which could mean one-quarter of a filleted trout or half a fast-food burger); a 1-inch cube of cheese counts as a serving of dairy; a single serving of cold breakfast cereal (a grain) measures 1 ounce. A 6-ounce muffin from the corner deli counts as 6 grain servings, enough for one dayand a 21-ounce restaurant dinner steak adds up to as much meat as most people should probably eat in a week.
It should be noted, however, that not all nutritionists accept the Food Guide Pyramid as gospel. Some critics of the USDA maintain that the recommended servings of meat and dairy products are too high, perhaps because of intense lobbying by the concerned industries. Proponents of the ΓÇ£Mediterranean dietΓÇ¥based originally on traditional consumption patterns in Greece and southern Italy (where heart disease and related ailments are comparatively rare)argue for a greater amount of fat, in the form of olive oil, cheese, and yogurt, than the USDA would like and a smaller intake of red meat. To show other healthful ways of eating, Oldways Preservation & Exchange Trust, a nonprofit educational organization based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has developed alternative pyramids, including Asian, Latin American, and vegetarian.
But most of us donΓÇÖt eat according to charts and pyramids and government regulations. We donΓÇÖt want to take all the fun out of eating, and indeed we shouldnΓÇÖt. WhatΓÇÖs important is to develop sensible eating habits overall, skewing our diets in the right direction but not panicking over an occasional digression. If a bacon cheeseburger or a wedge of devilΓÇÖs food cake brings us pleasure, we should by all means enjoy itonce in a while. But we should also remember, whether weΓÇÖre eating burgers or barley, that bigger is not necessarily better when it comes to foodthat we can usually satisfy cravings with smaller portions than we might be used to, thereby economizing on both cost and calories. If we eat foods that are chosen according to sensible guidelines, handled and cooked properly, and consumed in sensible amounts, all of our nutritional requirements will be met. Most of the portions given in this book are sensiblelarge enough, but not excessive.
On the other hand, nutritious food does not depend on quantifiable factors alone. What some scientists are only just now beginning to acknowledge is that itΓÇÖs not only what we eat that affects our health, but also how we eatthe mood or spirit, the beauty of the table, however simple, and the company with whom we enjoy the food. When the very long-lived, those who reach 90 or 100 in sprightly good health, are interviewed about the ΓÇ£secretsΓÇ¥ of their longevity, they often cite (as one recent study put it) ΓÇ£a sense of humor and an active life.ΓÇ¥ To quote our good friend and food writer Patricia Wells, ΓÇ£Several times every day, food offers each of us the promise of short-term happiness. As a source of satisfaction, joy, discovery, and renewal, few daily rituals have such extraordinary potential as the act of preparing and sharing a good meal.ΓÇ¥ This is not to say that we should disregard the counsel of nutritionists and doctorsjust that good eating depends as much on factors that cannot be measured in a laboratory.
