Welcome to my food blog!
I'm on a quest to my reduce my risk of heart disease to zero, by cutting my cholesterol in half. Specifically, I am trying to move my Low-Density Lipid (LDL, bad) cholesterol from 137 to under 70 mg/dL. This is an ambitious goal. Can I do it? Stay tuned to find out!
This blog will track my progress.
why eat 100% nutritious?
Reduce your personal risk of adult-onset diseases, including, but not limited to the following:
In addition, a 100% nutritious diet has been shown by credible scientific research to help with things like:
auto-immune problems (asthma, allergies, etc)
unpleasant bowl and stomach function
reaching one's ideal weight/mass
accelerated aging
Do you have a family history of
heart disease? I do. If so, your cholesterol is likely too high and is likely putting you at increased risk - even if your doctor says it's normal! Wait what? Does Joel think he knows better than my doctor?
Well, first of all, the accepted range for LDL is below 100. Most people are high by this standard. Doctors don't start recommending drugs until you reach 160, by which point your risk is already quite high. But here's the thing: some people will suffer heart attack, stroke, and cardiovascular disease (
CVD) - even with "normal" cholesterol.
Dr Greger says "in a population where it's normal to drop dead from a heart attack, normal cholesterol is not such a good thing."
The medical community has set standards based on what is typical, or common in our society. But heart disease is typical. Doctors won't start to intervene with statin drugs until the situation has already progressed to a serious problem. They withhold like this because those drugs have risks and side effects. If your cholesterol is dangerously high, or if you're having a heart attack here and now, you need professional medical intervention. But if you want to modify your lifestyle to
prevent the problem, then you need to be more aggressive than the standard guidelines.
The goal should be
zero risk of heart disease. That would correspond to
LDL < 70. If you can reach this level and still suffer a heart attack, you'll set a world record. For LDL < 70, our risk approaches zero. If you're below 100 mg/dL of LDL, you likely either have fortunate genetics, or are already eating very near 100% nutritious. In that case, keep it up.
If you do have LDL < 100 just because of good genetics, then you can afford to break some of my rules around coconut milk and chocolate, but you still should completely avoid all animal products, if you wish to beat cancer (see separate discussion on insulin-like growth factor, IGF-1, a hormone that promotes cancer, and is increased when we consume animal protein.)
other characteristics of the
nutrition-100 diet are:
- anti-inflammatory
- anti-oxidant
- anti-LDL
- low glycemic load
- low toxin exposure
- high density of micro-nutrients
- a balance of macro-nutrients
In time, I'll write up an explanation of the science behind each on of these characteristics, stay tuned
Here's my diet plan:
unlimited:
Vegetables: whole, fresh or frozen
- goal: at least 5 per day total.
- of those, at least 2 from leafy green family
- at least one additional cruciferous family
- at least one raw allium (onion) family
- tomatoes, one each raw and cooked (botanically a fruit, nutritionally, I group it with vegetables)
- carrots most days
- sweet potatoes are a great starchy vegetable
- a wide range of colors is a good way to ensure micro-nutrient variety
- organically grown is probably worth a price mark-up in many cases
- To get the best bio-availability of nutrients, it is best to include raw, cooked, and blended vegetables daily
Fruits: whole, fresh or frozen
at least one berry family daily
dark fruits like cherries and pomegranates have similar anti-oxidant content to berries, eat often. bonus: dark cherries make a great home-made chocolate milk shake!
Fruits are the basis of 100% nutritious deserts. Feel free to indulge whole-fruit deserts to make the program more enjoyable, just watch out for added sugar
Beans (beans, peas, legumes)
- watch out for added salt
- whole soy products, goal 2 daily (no more than 5 soy daily based on IGF-1 data) - including: tofu, tempeh, edamame, soy milk
- black beans and lentils are among the best choices, but they are all great
- raw beans can aggravate the stomach, always eat them cooked. this pertains to lectins, a subject for later
Nuts: Plain, raw, at least one per day of the following:
- walnuts
- almonds
- pistachios
- others as you please (including avocado)
Seeds:
Seeds have great fatty acid profiles, including ALA omega-3 fats. I get mine in smoothies along with fruit and vegetables.
Plain, raw, at least one per day of the following:
Mushrooms:
It only takes a small daily serving to get the immune-supportive benefits of the nutrients in mushrooms - this is good for me because I don't much care for the slimy things, and a small serving is enough for me. All edible mushrooms are helpful, even the common white and Portobello varieties. But there is a wide range of nutrition in mushrooms, try to get many varieties, especially exotic wild Asian varieties. Always cook mushrooms, never raw.
Grains:
The words "whole grains" should be taken literally - avoid floured products, even whole-grain flour. Instead, use whole intact grains. Good choices include
Grains have low micronutrient content relative to other whole plant foods, so grains should be limited. On the other hand, grains, especially oats, but the others as well, have been shown to reduce LDL cholesterol. For this reason, I believe they should be included daily. (related: see my coming post on how the paleo diet misses the point)
One or two grains per day is fine. Three is probably a good upper limit for a day. Grains are good, beans and vegetables are better.
Spices
Eating nutritious does not have to taste bland or boring! Getting away from salt is difficult, but some of the most potent flavors come in 100% nutritious packages.
learn to cook with:
ginger
turmeric
garlic (especially raw)
chives and green onions
hot peppers
basil
mustard seeds
cilantro seeds
cardamom
tamarind
cilantro leaves
cloves
etc.
Beverages
water: distilled, filtered or purified. soda water for a treat
tea: green, oolong, white teas are rich in anti-oxidants. other "not tea" options include hibiscus "tea"
red wine: if you must drink alcohol, get the anti-oxidants from red wine and limit to 2 glasses per day. There is no valid nutritional need to drink, but, if you must (as I do) this is a good choice
on special occasions, some fruit juice can be used, such as:
pomegranate lime aid: soda water, pomegranate juice, freshly squeezed lime juice
cherry cream soda: dark cherry juice, soy cream, soda water
minimize
Red wine
commercial Chocolates. Make your own unlimited - what we really want to minimize is the saturated fat from cocoa butter, and the added sugar. Make a delicious chocolate milk shake from plain cocoa powder, frozen dark cherries, nut-based milk with vanilla, and whole nuts such as cashews. Put it all in a blender. simple, and 100% nutritious when made this way.
Coconut milk (unless you have LDL < 100)
Added salt - ideally, only one meal per day will have added salt, and that will be sparingly
Cooking oils - try to keep these below 2 teaspoons daily. If you must, best choices are EVOO and high-oleic sunflower and safflower oils. The general rule on oils is, eat the whole thing. Not walnut oil, but walnuts. Not avocado oil, but avocados, etc. No coconut oil
Minimize foods browned by heating (limit exposure to acrylamide). Lightly golden brown nuts are okay (raw is better). Strictly avoid darkly browned or black char.
Added sugar - date sugar is made from whole dates and is a great alternative
Fruit juice - pomegranate is the preferred fruit juice on the 100 plan because of the extraordinary nutrient content of the whole pomegranate, and because they are difficult to eat whole. Use pomegranate juice sparingly to add flavor, keep below 2 tablespoons in a day. lemon and lime juice as seasoning are fine.
Isolated soy protein (increases IGF-1, a risk factor for cancer). beware of faux-meat products, many contain isolated soy protein.
Protein powder: it is a myth that we need extra protein. the 100% nutritious diet will supply plenty of protein without any special additions.
white potatoes: have high glycemic load and poor nutrient content. some potatoes are okay, but not too many
Rice: because it is grown in standing water, rice has a high concentration of arsenic. Routinely avoid rice, some on special occasions is likely low risk. Generally go for other grains
zero tolerance: (100% out of bounds)
anything and everything from the animal kingdom
coconut oil (unless you have LDL < 100)
deep-fried foods
hydrogenated oils and trans fats
blackened charred foods
heavily salted foods
artificial colors and dyes
high-glycemic load pastries and deserts (deserts can be easily made from whole fruit instead.)
frosting on deserts and commercially prepared pastries should be assumed to have hydrogenated oils unless otherwise known
the keepin it one hundred checklist:
Here's a check list I made: try to get all this good stuff every day!
It shows minimize coconut oil, that should say avoid. It says avoid wheat and gluten, which are fine for most people (unless you have a specific sensitivity.) I'll update those lines soon.
food Journal (a work in progress)
The "incredibowl" from Happy and Hale in Greenville SC.
quinoa, beets, extra edamame, tahini dressing sauce. Pureed whole sesame seeds, not added oil, minimal salt. 100%
another from Happy and Hale. This one has falafel, butternut squash hummus, and kale on a bed of black lentils. delicious, but too salty.
95% nutritious, I'm knocking it 5 points for the salt.
The whole purchase from Happy and Hale. Bright pink is dragon fruit
tempeh marinated in laughing seed ginger sauce. steamed broccoli, siracha sauce, sesame seeds.
99%, some added salt
cashew rolls from Laughing Seed. White stuff is cheese, I passed on that part.
black bean burger from Laughing Seed, Asheville NC. 99% (some added salt)
vegetable spring rolls and vegetable smoothie from Laughing Seed. 100%
homemade G-BOMBS hot plate
G-BOMBS is trademark of Dr Fuhrman = Greens, Beans, Onions, Mushrooms, Berries, Seeds - the top immune-supportive foods. 100%
chick-pea masala on a bed of oats, topped with cilantro and raw onions. home-made. 100%
A week's lunches. black-bean enchiladas with cucumber salsa. zero added salt or oil. 100%
Enchiladas in the stages of preparation
100%
lentil breakfast bowl:
lentils boiled with tomatoes, onions, garlic, bay leaf
roasted purple potatoes (yes, in this case the color does indicate higher nutrient density!)
pistachios
fresh chives
faro
100%
baby kale salad, ginger miso dressing, pink grapefruit, pistachios, raw onions, garden tomatoes
corn on the cob with lime juice, Mrs Dash seasoning, freshly ground black pepper
side of peas and greens with home-made pepper vinegar
fruit smoothie with flax seeds, mango, banana, ginger
100%
more coming soon...
