Idiotic diets

Prepare yourselves, Readers and Bellies, because today you get a heaping serving of long rant:

People love packaged, boxed-up diet plans. Putting together an eating regime that promises outlandish benefits and wrapping it up with a neat little bow drives a billion dollar industry and gives diet-fretters no end of ammunition to worry over. Personally, I prefer a very straight forward outlook on nutrition. Choose healthy foods from all four food groups that vary widely in taste, colour, and texture; eat primarily produce, round it out with sources of protein and carbs. Know your portions, have a vague idea about caloric and nutritional content, don't overeat, and have something sinful every now and then. With a little bit of food savviness, this approach will assure pretty much anyone a healthful and interesting diet.

Yes, certain factors need to be accounted for - your activity level, your age, individual food sensitivities, and, of course, health conditions. I've always been open to having a health practitioner put together a diet plan for me. Now that I have to take my thyroid and metabolic health into regular consideration, it seemed like as good a time as any to try it out. Here is what happened:

As part of my experiment with acupuncture and other more wholistic treatments to deal with my thyroid condition and overall health, I agreed with my acupuncturist's suggestion to consider dietary changes. My acupuncturist had me diarize my eating for one week and would provide me with a diet plan based on my eating habits. I'm up for trying just about anything, so I said that I was game provided that we weren't looking at cutting out entire food groups, such as dairy. I believe that we were given a variety of cutting and crushing teeth for a reason, and there is a purpose to having digestive juices specifically for the digestion of meat, fats, and animal proteins. In other words, I was not going to consider going vegetarian or vegan. My diet tends to be very healthy and produce-heavy anyway, so I was not expecting considerable changes.

As it would take far too long to show you my food diary for the entire week, I have provided one day's record - while I love trying new foods, I'm a very structured and predictable eater, so this day's record is very illustrative of my overall eating habits (and when I say one cup, I mean one measured cup. Yes, for the most part I do measure my food):

Breakfast: Kellogg's Raisin Bran (1 cup), Blueberries (1 cup), Milk 2% (1 cup)
Granulated White Sugar (3 teaspoons), Coffee (2 cups)

Lunch: Crunchy Peanut Butter (2 tablespoons), Strawberry Jam (1 tablespoon), 100 % Whole Wheat Bread (2 slices), Carrot Sticks, Raw (1 cup), Yellow Bell Pepper (1 whole pepper), Red Grapefruit(1)


Supper: Spaghetti (1 cup, cooked), One serving of home made spaghetti sauce which consists of: Basic Tomato Sauce (1 cup), Lean Ground Beef (1/4 cup), Red Onion (1/4 cup), Eggplant (1/4 cup), Shredded Carrots (1/4 cup), Olive Oil (1 tsp), and a bunch of dried herbs/spices.

Snacks: Miniature Candy Cane(1), Strawberry Jell-O(1/4 cup)

Water: about 7 cups

Total calories: approximately 1,726

My husband and I eat well balanced diets - although the leafy greens weren't too present in this particular day, we love to chow down on spinach salads chock full of veggies and nuts, small and lean portions of meat, whole grains, and the like. I have no food allergies and am mindful of my diet. Therefore, I was not anticipating huge changes.

The suggested diet modifications, therefore, came as something of a surprise. It wasn't precicely diet plan that was handed to me, but three different sets of diet guidelines. Italicized comments are mine.

The first was intended to improve my thyroid health:
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Thyroid diet information

Goitrogenic foods: block the intake of iodine, therefore if you have a diet high in goitrogenic foods, be cautious of your iodine intake levels.

AVOID: cabbage, kale broccoli, cauliflower, rutabage, turnips, mustard greens, spinach, brussel sprouts, peaches, pears, strawberries, millet, kohlrabi, watercress, radishes, pine nuts, canola, peanuts, cassava, and soybeans.

As an added note, I have also been instructed to avoid anything from the nightshade family, such as tomatos, peppers, eggplant, and zucchini - apparently they cause inflammation of the joints, and joint soreness is one of my hypothyroid symptoms.

Ensure that your digestion is functioning properly and regularily. Eat foods that have been lightly steamed, cooked, or stirfried. Drink 1.5 - 2 litres of water per day. Exercise a minimum of 1/2 hour every second day. Adhere to a dtrict daily schedule, this will hlep maintain mental and physical health as well as digestive health. Sleep 7 - 8 hours every night.
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First up, it is true that there are goitrogenic foods, and that cooking these foods lessens the goitrogenic effects. However, the degree of effect varies widely from person to person and I have never experienced adverse effects from eating any of these foods. Furhermore, there are very few people, thyroid condition or no, who will experience problems with these foods provided that they eat them in moderation.

Funny, really, how frequently moderation comes into play when talking about nutrition. There are so many compounds in so many foods that are absolutely necessary for existence but when eaten in immoderate quantities can become toxic. But nowhere in the information page I was provided is the idea of moderate consumption even approached.

Things get really funny once we start to look at the next portion of this three-part diet plan. This one is supposed to be for general wellness. It should be noted that it is based on Traditional Chinese Medicine theory, which actually does impact the effectiveness or reasonableness of the diet for a pretty significant portion of the population:

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Cooking Do's:

-Steam foods: Less nutrients are lost when steaming foods
-Boiling foods: lightly boil, too much will leach vitamins and nutrients out of food
-Baking and/or roasting foods: better than frying
The above statements are all true and can be chalked up to common sense in nutritional approaches. I've followed these sorts of cooking practices for years.

-Juicing

-Eating fresh organic whole foods

-Decrease salad intake and limit cold raw vegetables But I am encouraged to juice? Juicing fruits and veg is eating cold, raw vegetables and fruits except you've removed all the fibre and significant amounts of nutrition carried in things like skin, pith, and fibre. This is an interesting contradiction.

-Soups and stews: a quick easy way to make a healthy meal in a crock pot. But according to their own guidelines, foods should not be boiled or steamed for too long, which is exactly the cooking method that crock pots/slow cookers use. Again, another interesting contradiction.


What to avoid:
-Refined foods: sugars, white pastas and breads, etc

-Fried foods, saturated fats, trans fats

-Goitrogenic foods (peanuts, turnips, cabbage) Again, most people need to eat these foods in very large quantities to notice any effect, barring allergies. Nowhere is eating them in moderation indicated, and I'd be missing out on a wide range of very healthy foods if this was to be followed.

-Decrease your gluten intake. Unless you have gluten allergies or celiac disease - and believe me, you'd know if this was the case - there is no reason to limit gluten. It is a useful diet tool for some people because it does make people cut back on their simple carb and refined bread or bread-like product consumption. But I don't overeat on bread, so it is pointless.

-margarine, sugar, artificial sweetners

-shellfish, and ground dwelling fish There is the issue with heavy metal content in some fish, but again - barring allergies there is no reason to avoid these foods.

-Pork (no reason provided), organ meats (some of the healthiest cuts of meat available, considered to be the best part of the animal until recently, when people stopped eating them and decided they taste gross), fake meats, deli meats


Examples of good choices:

-Turkey, chicken (both with skin removed), organic grain fed meats. Fish such as sole, halibut, pollock, mackarel. Eggs may be eaten but limited to 1 per week (and whites only)! Many, many studies have proven that egg yolks to not raise "bad cholesterol", and should be eaten in moderation. The current thought is that if you eat eggs daily, you should stick to one a day. It is next to impossible to completely avoid eggs in your diet unless you never eat any kind of baking again, because the eggs are an important part of what makes baked goods rise.

-Dairy: avoid dairy completely. Use goat or sheep cheeses for alternatives if needed, as well as eat only yogurt with organic active cultures. WHY? If the individual has no dairy allergies or intolerances, why avoid it? It is one of the best sources of bioavailable calcium, and is loaded with the sort of fats and proteins we need to thrive! This is why I mentioned that this diet is not beneficial to a pretty big chunk of our population - lactose intolerance and dairy allergies are common among Indians and Asians, but not nearly as prevalent among those of northern European stock! Being caucasian, I am much more susceptable to certain ailments - thyroid conditions, for one - but lactose intolerance or dairy allergies is not one of them! Yes, there are caucasians with these ailments, but they are simply not as common among that particular ethnic background. Eliminating an entire food group with important and beneficial effects for no good reason is damned silly.

-Vegetables and fruits: Spinach and all greens (According to the first diet, I am not supposed to eat spinach and certain greens), pungents, beets, beans, squash, sprouts (no brussel sprouts, though), celery, cucumber, all berries (but I can't eat strawberries any more), apples, pineaples, grapes, avocado, plum, bananas.

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The third diet plan is intended to support the liver, which is apparently where a number of my problems (including a weird sciatica like thing that pops up whenever I have to sit for long periods, such as in class or at work) are originating. Keep in mind that whenever I'm pointing out something I cannot eat, it is something that appears in one of the two other diets posted above as something I should avoid.

-Foods that support the liver: broccoli (can't eat that), broccoli sprouts (can't eat those), other sprouts (can't eat those), kale (can't eat that), dandelion, salad greens (with a few exceptions), beets, red peppers (can't eat that - nightshade), carrots, onions, garlic, soy (can't eat that), spirulina, whole grains (except if they contain gluten), flaxseet oil, fish oil (but not from ground dwelling fish), olive oil, apples, other juicy fruits (except for pears, peaches, and strawberries), lemon juice, grapefruit juice, tumeric powder.

-Foods that remove liver stagnation - onions, leeks, garlic, mustard, greens (can't eat several varieities), tumeric, basil, bay, cardamom, cumin, fennel, dill, ginger, black pepper, horse radish, rosemary, cabbage (can't eat that), broccoli (can't eat that), cauliflower (can't eat that), brussel sprouts (can't eat that), beets, strawberry (can't eat that), peach (can't eat that), cherry, raw vegetables and fruit (but I'm not supposed to eat raw/uncooked vegetables), apple cider vinegar with honey.

-Sour foods that improve th liver: apple cider vinegar, lemon, lime, and grapefruit

-Bitter foods that cleanse the liver: rye, romaine lettuce, asparague, amaranth, quinoa, citrus peel

-Foods that cool liver heat (although apparently the other problems I have, especially with my thyroid, are because I do not have enough heat in my body, so I cannot see why this would be considered beneficial for my condition): mung beans, mung bean sprouts, celery, seaweeds, kelp, lettuce, cucumber, tofu (can't eat that - soy), watercress, millet, plum, chlorella, spirulina, daikon radish, rhubarb

-Foods that build liver yin and blood (again, according to my acupuncturist - who issued this died - my problems stem from an over abundance of yin and an absence of yang. How is this then supposed to be beneficial?) - mung beans, mung sprouts, cucumber, tofu (can't eat that - soy), millet, flaxseed oil, spirulina, chorella, dark grapes, raspberries, blackberries

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Now taking into consideration the raft of contradictions and downright silliness expressed in the above diets, how the hell am I supposed to take that seriously? Why on earth would I attempt to follow such a self-refuting, limiting diet like that? I am very consciencious of what goes on my plate and into my mouth, and aside from the odd day of indulgence, am a very balanced and healthy eater. After living extremely well for many, many years on a very good and very balanced diet, is my thyroid going to suddenly quit on it's own and kill a whole system of metabolism in the space of a month or two just because I eat strawberries, tomatos, and canola in moderation?

Forgive me, fellow Bellies, if I roll my eyes and chuck this diet over my shoulder. While I am looking into vitamin and mineral supplementation that will help me meet my new increased supplementation needs due to being hypothyroid, I will not go off the deep end and toss myself into such an idiotic eating plan.