Balance Diet, Balanced Life

The essential key to any diet is equivalent to the secret of a happy life; balance.  While there is less of an existential approach to figuring out how best to feed your body, the underlying principles are the same.  Every meal and snack should consist of some combination of Protein, Carbohydrates/Starch, Fruit, Vegetables, Dairy and Fat; focusing more of those groups that your own body and lifestyle require.  For example, if you wish to build muscle you should lean more heavily on protein, while cardio junkies need a lot of starch and fruit to power their activity, and if your particular sport is channel-surfing you should focus on a modest intake of each.    

This knowledge comes from my training as a cellular biologist and personal experience as someone who has lost 125 pounds, maintaining that loss for four years.  At 23 years old, I was 5’3 and 250 pounds, an inactive carb-o-holic with Type II diabetes and ate Chipotle burritos as a snack.   Then, at 130 pounds, I excessively exercised and starved my body of the nutrients it needed to sustain the activity, suffering severe physical and mental repercussions along the way; having your hair fall out is a serious wake-up call.  Now, at 27 years old and 125 pounds, I live by way of common sense, striking the balance of the foods I choose to fuel my body and maintain a healthy lifestyle.  All diets out there, however, seem to focus heavily on one component or the other and suggest certain foods should be avoided all together; but this is only true if you have specific dietary restrictions that affect your overall health, such as Crohn’s disease.  Here are some tips I found helpful while determining how best to eat a balanced life.

Do Not Trust Carb-Haters

The simple solution to carbohydrate intake is portion control.  Starch or Carbohydrates are long chains of simple sugars which serve as the primary source of fuel for the brain.  In fact, a common technology used to identify tumors in the body, known as PET scans, cannot be used to locate brain tumors since the method identifies cells that absorb increased amounts of sugar; the entire brain lights up!  Without adequate sugar supplies the brain becomes lethargic, diminishing cognitive function and severely impairing the sleep cycle.  Besides, it makes you downright miserable. Have you ever tried to function when you can’t think or sleep and you feel like you have no energy?  Even if you had the energy you would likely use it to snap at someone for a piece of chocolate.  Trust me, it is far more beneficial to have your cake and eat it too, just make it a small piece of cake.

The main sources of starch are wheat (flour), corn, potatoes, rice and beans.  Each have a unique portfolio of a fat : carbohydrate : protein ratio, but there is a general guide for all carbs.  For example, the typical nutrition facts for pasta are:

Serving Size	2 oz
Total Calories	200
Fat	1 g
Cholesterol	0 mg
Sodium	0 mg
Carbohydrate	42 g
Protein	7 g

There is certainly nothing wrong with these numbers, but notice that one serving is 2 oz and that is far less than your brain would like to ingest, especially when it’s covered in a buttery alfredo sauce.  Though these numbers may vary from multi-grain, whole wheat and homemade pastas, the fluctuations are modest and make no difference to your body on a grand scale.  Pasta is also an ample source of iron, folate and the essential B vitamins thiamin, riboflavin and niacin, which are critical for sustaining metabolism and energy levels.  Potatoes show a similar trend, but they have more starch, less protein and no fat.  The story gets a bit more complicated when choosing breads as they fluctuate drastically depending on brand and the underlying starch source.  Let the nutrition facts guide, along with your common sense, to make the right choices for your unique needs. 

The real nature of the carb-beast lies in portioning and our tendency to ‘double-up’ at meal times; pancakes with hashbrowns, italian bread with pasta, potatoes with corn-on-the-cob are all examples of classic carbohydrate redundancies.  If you enjoy these combinations simply be conscious of the gastronomical duplication and cut back the portion sizes of each to ingest one total serving per meal.

Fat means Friend

Fat was the most difficult food group for me to allow back into my life.  Superficially I thought, “I just got rid of all that fat, why would I purposefully put more into my body?”  The cold-hard fact is that fat is essential to every organ and system in the human body, from normal nerve conduction within the brain and body to heart and liver function.  On the cellular level, every single cell is surrounded by a dual layer of phospholipids, composed mostly of fatty acid chains derived from the fat in our diet.  Without this vital structure, cells could not maintain the chemical and electrical gradients that drive all higher bodily operations, such as the synthesis of DNA, maintaining a steady heart beat and the ability of the brain to tell the hand to change the TV channel.

In short, fat is your friend.  Focus on eating nutritionally valuable forms of fat like olive oil, fatty fish such as salmon, seeds and nuts.  The fat used to deep fry french fries does not count and should be eaten only on rare occasions, sorry.  

Do the Math

I have great news, if you can add from 1,500 to 3,000 you can reach whatever weight-oriented goal you have set!  Whether you want to lose, maintain or gain weight, all you need to do is check your daily caloric intake against your daily caloric expenditure.  Want to lose weight?  Be sure to take in 500 calories less than you burn every day on average; the opposite is true for gaining weight.  It gets better, it turns out that what you choose to eat doesn’t matter so long as the numbers add up.  This is a scientific fact, and one nutrition professor went to an extreme to illustrate the point by developing a “TwinkieDiet.”  Though he ate nothing but Twinkies and other similarly unhealthy snacking items, he still lost weight by creating a 500 calorie deficit in his daily eating regimen. 

This initially may sound like a good idea, but can you imagine what you would feel like eating nothing but Twinkies?  The true benefit to practicing a balanced diet and promoting a healthy lifestyle is that it actually creates a notable shift in how you think and feel, from lethargy and aggravation to an energetic and more optimistic demeanor.  If you don’t believe me, prove me wrong.  

Other critical factors to consider: Never eat freely from a box or bag and use extreme caution when dining out.  We have all found our way to the bottom of a bag of chips far too quickly, and that pasta dish you ordered is not the issue; it is the excess pasta, fat and salt that you did not realize came with the order. 

Nothing in excess is healthy; this is true in all areas of life, but thankfully balancing your diet is easier.  Moderate your intake of any particular energy source and hold yourself accountable.  It helps to keep a daily eating log to track of your typical eating patterns.  Once these habits are identified, you can create a plan to bring your diet into balance.  Your body will naturally call you into such a balance if you learn to listen.  Have you ever felt like you simply wanted a salad? Probably not, but it’s a feeling or thought you get when you look over the menu.   Your brain says ‘that sounds yummy!’ but your body states ‘if you order that I’m going to make you regret it’, you may even hear some rumblings.  Additionally, it’s ok to give into cravings as they are the natural expression of the body’s needs.  Your body does not need an entire pizza, however, just a slice to satiate the craving.

Enjoy!