FOOD

VEG, THE KING OF YOUR FOOD CASTLE

There’s no such thing as too much veg in your diet, especially if you’re talking about vegetables grown above ground. Regardless of what else you’re eating, your plate should be about half-full of them.

The Food Standards Agency’s “eatwell plate”, which has replaced the traditional food pyramid as the government-endorsed illustration of what to eat, suggests that roughly a third of your diet should come from fruit and veg. But it also suggests that another third should be made up of “bread, rice, potatoes and other starchy foods.”

This is not the way to a hard, lean body, because the fundamental problem with starchy carbohydrates is they cause sudden and prolonged rises in blood sugar, which is known to provoke biochemical imbalances that predispose you to weight gain, type-2 diabetes and other nasty health problems. Besides, there’s nothing in starchy carbs that you can’t get elsewhere. Carbohydrate is a prime energy source that you should eat – but in the form of more nutritious carbs with slower sugar release, which is the type you get from pretty much every vegetable apart from the potato.

You’d have to eat half a kilo of asparagus to ingest the same amount of carbs as you get in a single wholemeal pitta bread. If you want to get lean to show off your abs, keep that in mind.

It’s also an oversimplification to put fruit and vegetables together, as the FSA plate does. Yes, they’re both good for you, but they’re radically different nutritionally. If you’re getting your five a day from fruit, your blood sugar levels are going to be going crazy throughout the day thanks to the high fructose content.

In brief:  Make vegetables the foundation of your diet, along with a maximum of two pieces of fruit a day. Vary them as much as you can.

DON’T BE AFRAID OF FAT

Although eating some fat is essential for a healthy diet, it’s all too easy to make a mental connection between eating fat and getting fat, so many people end up simply skipping it. But that usually means eating something that’s worse for you.

One possible reason the government cautions against fat is that it’s more calorific, per gram, than carbohydrate or protein. However, if you’re worried about your weight, it’s a good idea to eat foods that are satisfying because you’ll eat less of them, which is usually the case with fat. If you replace fat with carbs, meanwhile, you’ll experience spikes in insulin, which encourages fat storage.

For years we were advised not to eat saturated fat, which was demonised as a cause of unhealthy levels of cholesterol. But this thinking has changed recently. Three major reviews of the subject in the past three years have found no evidence of any link between saturated fats and heart disease. Hydrogenated and trans fats are a different story – research into these sounds alarm bells. But for naturally occurring fats, such as those in red meat, avocado and nuts, all the studies suggest there is no cause to avoid them.

After all, humans have evolved to eat saturated fats, so it seems strange that only in the last 50 years have they become bad for us. It is grain, a recent addition to our diets in evolutionary terms,  that may not be so easily processed by our bodies.

In brief: Avoid hydrogenated fats, especially trans fats. Don’t worry too much about the rest, though.

EAT PROTEIN WITH EVERYTHING

If you’re eating to build muscle, you’ll probably raise eyebrows at home or in the office with the amount of protein you consume. Someone may even tell you confidently that it can be bad for your health. Here’s the truth: the only studies that have ever suggested that protein can cause kidney problems were done on people who already had kidney problems. The studies showing that it’s harmful to anyone else simply don’t exist. Protein is one of the most important components of the diet and when you eat a high-protein diet, you’re generally less hungry, eat less and lose weight as a result.

So what’s the right amount? Estimates range from one to four grams per kilo of bodyweight, per day, but most nutritionists agree that two grams is the minimum. As for how much you can digest at one sitting, a 2009 Canadian study found that roughly 20 grams was the limit for increasing the body’s protein synthesis (raising the amount you can use) so there’s no point having more than that – though the study focused specifically on egg proteins, so others might behave differently.

So what does all this information boil down to when you’re making your dinner? In simple terms, stick to a two-to-one ratio of vegetables to protein in every meal, by sight.

In brief: It’s almost impossible to eat too much protein, although you could easily not be getting enough. Eat it with every meal.