Content area
Full Text
Tired of being told what not to eat? Here's a sampling of the many choices you can feel good about including as part of a balanced diet.
HARDLY A DAY GOES BY, it seems, without the news media reporting some food that's been found to be bad for you. One day it's processed meats; the next, it's baked goods made with trans-fatty acids. Faced with this litany of "don'ts," you can start to wonder whether any food is OK to eat.
In fact, scientists know of a whole cornucopia of healthy foods you can choose from. Not only are there plenty of food choices that are OK-many foods can actually give your body a boost. Your daily diet can supply everything from essential nutrients to compounds that have been positively associated with preventing diseases and minimizing the toll of aging. These are foods you can enthusiastically say "yes!" to as part of a well-rounded diet. Many of them have been covered in depth in previous issues of this newsletter.
But we're not talking about so-called "superfoods." Foods aren't magic pills; eating spinach won't cure what ails you any more than it will make you as strong as Popeye.
And even healthful foods like those mentioned in this Special Supplement are good for you only in the overall context of a balanced diet. Gorging on any one type of food, no matter how "healthy," won't give you the nutrients you need-regardless of what some fad diets would have you believe. Nor will simply adding healthful foods "fix" your diet: "Sprinkling nuts on top of a hot-fudge sundae, although nuts are 'good for you,' does not negate the saturated fat and calories in the sundae," cautions Alice H. Lichtenstein, DSc, Stanley N. Gershoff Professor of Nutrition in Tufts' Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy.
Keep in mind, too, that even good food choices have calories. Robin B. Kanarek, PhD, a professor of nutrition and behavior at the Friedman School, cites the example of a friend who wanted to lose weight, and couldn't understand why it wasn't happening-she was eating only fruit. "The answer to why she wasn't losing weight was quite simple: Fruit has calories, and seven cantaloupes, six apples, six oranges, etc., had as...