The New Healthy Diet

March 14, 2011 - PRLog -- Not too long ago, and still in many households, the typical American dinner consisted of three to five items and a drink. There may have been a salad to start out the meal. Then there was a meat dish, a vegetable, and a starch. You’d always find bread or rolls on the table, and margarine to go with it. Dessert was inevitable and always nice and rich.

If that sounds like a health problem waiting to happen, it probably was and still is where that is still in practice as a daily habit. The danger in eating this type of diet is not necessarily in the foods that are served or in the courses. It is in the way the food is prepared and the type that is served.

For example, if the salad contains lots of dark green leafy veggies eaten with healthy dressing the salad is healthy and full of nutrients. The meat dish could be wild caught salmon poached, or sautéed in olive oil and ginger instead of fried chicken. The vegetable might be fresh tomatoes with a bit of basil and balsamic vinegar or broccoli lightly steamed instead of cauliflower covered in processed cheese sauce. The starch, if necessary, can be a sweet potato or organic brown rice instead of the standard mashed potatoes with butter or white rice.

Dessert can be considered perfectly healthy if it consists of an addition to the meal that also contains nutrients, but is a bit sweet. Grapes are a wonderful end to a good meal. A piece of nice fruit or a sorbet would be preferred over a piece of cheesecake that contains the entire day’s fat content.

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It’s very different from the old pyramid that contained a foundation of carbohydrates as its base. In the new way of thinking, carbohydrates are limited to those that are consumed by eating fruits and veggies and very little grain starch. Sweets should be eaten rarely or not at all, salt can be added, but very little. The oils you eat should be healthy, not full of unhealthy fats.

The new dietary guidelines are a bit different than the pyramid we learned so many years ago. The new directives include four servings of fruit, five servings of vegetables, three cup measures of a low fat dairy product, and only 6 ounces total grain, but it should be whole grains. This is the amount of food that should be eaten every day for optimum health.

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