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Amaze your waist with this brand new diet
22nd February 2008
Did you see Horizon on BBC2 on Tuesday night?
It was called 'How to Live to 101'.
I have to admit, that's the kind of title that gets me watching programmes. Not just because I write this newsletter, but because it's very hard not to be curious to know what the 'secret' is.
Also, it allowed me to deter Lara from yet another cable TV property-based show.
(A winner on all counts, then.)
In the programme filmmakers travelled to Okinawa in Japan, Sardinia, and a town in California. All three towns have disproportionate numbers of centigenarians.
The question was why?
Was it diet? Genes? Environment? Culture?
The answer was.... ALL FOURIn Sardinia, genetic mutation had blessed families with long life. In California, the Seventh Day Adventists statistically live longer thanks to their religious, and the diet and exercise regime that went with it.
And in Okinawa their past suffering through famine and World War II had created amazing stress coping mechanisms in certain people, that allowed them to live longer.
But here's the interesting thing that I discovered, which you could actually try today...
In Okinawa, they have a culturally ingrained food habit that scientists say could contribute to their long life... and yours, if you give it a go!
The 80% rule of OkinawaThese islanders believe you should only eat until you are 80% full. It is common practise - and seen as right and polite - to push their plates away from them at the table, even when eating a delicious meal.
The rule is called 'hara hachi bu'. It works so well, because the stomach's stretch receptors take about 20 minutes to tell the body that how full it really. So by finishing your meal before you feel full, you allow that natural 20 minutes time gap to take place, after which you really will feel full.
Try it yourself this week and see what happens. It could be the diet secret you're looking for. But make sure you stick with it.
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Also be aware that the people of Okinawa eat plenty of fish and soy foods, with lots of vegetables. You'll need to think about what you eat, as well as how much.
Which neatly brings me to this amazing NEW diet I want to tell you about.
Except that I've sort of tricked you. Because it's not some newly invented food craze. It's an honest, common sense piece of advice from a fellow Good Lifer.
A reader's diet secret revealedI got this amazing email this week, which read:
I got fed up with finding my clothes uncomfortably tight so I decided I had to do something about it. And I have lost 2 stone so far which has stayed off. And I feel fitter than I have for years. I shall be 78 next week. Here is what I eat.
Breakfast is porridge with So Good.
Lunch is salad with Rye bread (which I love) and beetroot and sometimes sardines or mackerel.
Evening is some kind of fish (salmon, trout, haddock, hake) cooked in the oven. And I mix chopped up celery, onion, leeks and courgettes in a dish, cooked alongside the fish. Sometimes I cook chicken in which case I will have carrots and broccoli with it and sweet potatoes.
Between meals I eat any of these (fresh) - cherries, apricots, raspberries, blueberries or any fruit available. But not apples or oranges.
Plenty of cups of weak tea with goat's milk in during the day.
I haven't a clue what this diet would be called (does it have to have a name?) but I notice that there is little flour apart from in the rye bread and little dairy as I cook with olive oil.
But it works. I have just got back into a pair of trousers I had hidden away last year... and I hope to lose another stone during the spring. I do regular country dancing as energetically as I can and have got back to sleeping soundly.
Must be doing something right eh? Indeed! And thanks so much for your email.
So how does this work?What my reader is doing 'right' is that she's following many rules of the low GI diet. There are no refined carbohydrates like bread, white pasta and white rice. There's plenty of low fat meat like fish and chicken, too.
But more importantly, rather than panicking about strict rules, or worrying about food principles and faddish ideology, she's following a diet that she enjoys. And she's tweaked it to make it fit her mood and lifestyle.
This kind of personalised, adventurous approach to food is what it's all about. I'm so pleased to get this kind of email.
A few years ago, I lost a stone and a half doing a very similar thing. Most of this weight I've kept off, too, which is the most important thing.
The Collins version of this amazing dietIn my case, I dislike eating the same thing every morning, so I opted for either fruit with yoghurt, smoked mackerel with scrambled eggs, or grilled bacon and eggs.
My snack of choice was nuts, or celery and carrot dipped in humus.
My evening approach was very similar to my reader's. But having a larger appetite, and some huge food cravings, I'd also include some 'treats'. So I'd cook my leeks in cream with some cheese, or I'd knock up a robust vegetable and steak stew and chomp it down, guiltlessly.
During the day, my main drink was fresh apple juice, or a medley of fruits slammed through my juicing machine. At nights, I'd allow myself a big glass of red wine.
It really worked! And it hardly felt like dieting at all. Okay, I'm not a skinny man - far from it -, but I never wanted to be, and neither should you.
The secret is to feel healthy... and be happy with yourself.
Yours, as ever
Ray Collins
The Good Life Letter |
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