Thisentryis part 5 of 7 in the series SERIES - The 5 Rules of Eating Healthy

Last Monday, I started talking about the five rules I use for eating healthy food. I use these relatively simple rules because It’s just too difficult to keep up with all the guidelines, recommendations and plans for eating the perfectly balanced diet. You can drive yourself crazy and still not be 100% perfect. Today we look at rule #5, which I like to call the “Am I hungry rule?”. This particular rule is all mine although it’s based on a whole wide range of information that I picked up while I was researching good health and eating habits.

By the way, you may have noted that I’m not exactly following a sequential order in discussing these rules; I started with rule #2, followed by #4, then 3 and now I’m jumping to rule #5. That’s for two reasons, one because I want to emphasize that none of these rules is more important than the other. Also, I picked each rule because it was appropriate to the day I was writing it. Today is Friday, the perfect day to talk about eating when you’re not hungry.

What Is The Am I Hungry Rule?

One of my biggest problems in controlling my eating was eating for reasons other than hunger. I would eat when I was stressed as a way of calming down. If I had a bad day at work I would think of that whole tub of ice cream as a justified way of rewarding myself and cheering myself up. Of course, the realization of how much I ate would just make me more depressed but that’s a whole other story. I would also eat as an excuse to avoid doing other things. For example, if there was something I really needed to do but didn’t want to start, I would go to the kitchen and look for things to eat. The act of eating took time as did the eating itself and by the time I was done it was too late to start the thing I needed doing. So yay for me, I avoided something unpleasant. Finally, I would find myself eating for social reasons. For example, friends wanted to go out and eat so I would go with them and order food even if I wasn’t hungry.

These days, I have the “am I hungry” rule. Basically, if I’m thinking about eating or if I find myself about to grab something to eat I pause and ask myself if I’m really hungry. I take a minute or two to think about what I’m doing and why. Quite frequently I find that I’m not really hungry and that I’m about to eat for the wrong reasons. In that case I put the food down and go on with my daily business. If I really am hungry then I eat and I don’t feel guilty about it.

One other aspect of the “am I hungry” rule is stopping eating when you’re no longer hungry. Again, I used to eat way past the point at which I was full. I would feel stuffed and bloated but I still kept eating. These days I eat slower and I stop eating when I’m no longer hungry.

Advanced Applications

Are you at a restaurant? Is it the kind of place that serves huge portions? Why not ask for a to go box before you even start eating. Put half the food away and then start eating. It will stop you from cleaning your plate and eating too much.

Is your restaurant the kind with a bottomless dish of chips? Just say no and have them take it away. No one can refuse chips or those bowls of bread for long. No matter how strong your will power is you’ll eventually find yourself munching away without really thinking about it.

Make food a little less convenient. We all have those open bags of chips or bowls of cookies sitting around the house. Why not prevent the temptation to mindlessly eat and put them out of sight. Trust me, you’ll find them when you’re hungry.

Why not write down what you feel when you eat? Keeping a food journal doesn’t have to be just about calories, it can also be about feelings and mindsets. That will help you identify the reasons why you eat when you’re not hungry and possibly avoid them in the future.

Clarifications to the Am I Hungry Rule

There are really no clarifications to this one. It’s pretty simple to understand.

Why Use the Am I Hungry Rule?

Because mindless eating adds a lot of pointless calories to our diets.  The typical mindless snack like chips, cookies and bread is full of calories and very unhealthy.  I suppose if your mindless snacks is carrot sticks it wouldn’t be so bad.

But I Like Eating!

Well, so do I.  In fact, I love eating, but I love other things more.  I love my wife and I want to spend many happy and healthy years with her.  I love hiking and I want to climb to the top of Half Dome next year.  I love scuba diving and I want to see the great barrier reef in Australia.  There are many things I love and I’m willing to sacrifice a little mindless eating if it means I get to do those things.

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It wasn’t my meals that killed my diet, it was the silly stuff I ate when I wasn’t hungry.  It was the chocolate bar I had when I wanted to avoid work.  Learn from my mistake and stop mindless eating.  Eat when you’re hungry and stop eating when you’re full.


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Thisentryis part 4 of 7 in the series SERIES - The 5 Rules of Eating Healthy

Last Monday, I started talking about the five rules I use for eating healthy food. I use these relatively simple rules because It’s just too difficult to keep up with all the guidelines, recommendations and plans for eating the perfectly balanced diet. You can drive yourself crazy and still not be 100% perfect.

Today we look at rule #3, which I like to call, the 1/2, 1/4, 1/4 rule.  This particular rule was inspired by a podcast I downloaded off of iTunes a while back.  I believe it was Fitnessrocks but I might be mistaken.  Either way, my thanks to the authors for a brilliant idea.

By the way, you may have noted that I’m not exactly following a sequential order in discussing these rules; I started with rule #2, followed by #4 and now I’m jumping to rule #3. That’s for two reasons, one because I want to emphasize that none of these rules is more important than the other. Also, I picked each rule because it was appropriate to the day I was writing it. Today is Wednesday and I am working from home while trying to get over a cold.  So when I prepare my meal today, this rule will come in handy.

What Is The 1/2, 1/4, 1/4 Rule?

One of the first things I did when I started eating healthy was attempt to eat a balanced diet.  You know the one I’m referring to.  It’s where you eat 5 servings of vegetables and fruits, 3 servings of grain, 2 of dairy and 1 of meat.  Wait, is that right?  I think it might actually be 4 servings of vegetables and 4 servings of grain.  No wait, that sounds wrong too.

As you can see, my memory isn’t the best and I was never able to remember just how much of anything I should be eating.  Even worse, I could never figure out what a “serving” was.  Was a serving one vegetable like a tomato?  What about spinach?  How much spinach is a serving?  And what is a serving of dairy products?  Is it one slice of cheese or one cup of milk or…

Yah, it didn’t go well.  So that’s when I heard of the 1/2, 1/4, 1/4 rule.  It’s pretty simple.  When you put food on your plate, it should go in the following proportions:

  • 1/2 should be fiber rich, water rich vegetables.  These are things like leafy greens such as spinach or green onions but they can also be things like tomatoes, carrot, cucumbers and other water rich plants.  These are NOT fried vegetables like tempura or very starchy vegetables like potatoes.
  • 1/4 is starchy, more energy rich plants like potatoes, squashes, grains or legumes.
  • 1/4 is protein like lean meat, tofu or dairy products.

That’s it.  Make your food in those proportions and you’ll usually have a relatively balanced meal.

Advanced Applications

This rule also applies to meals that aren’t served on a plate.  For example, when you’re making a sandwich, if the bread is half your meal, you aren’t following the 1/2, 1/4, 1/4 rule.

Sauces, especially creamy ones, will break the rule.  You can fill half your plate with fiber and water rich vegetables but if you cover them in creamy ranch you may as well not eat them.  The whole point of the rule is to make sure a good portion of your food is energy poor material like vegetables.

Clarifications to the 1/2, 1/4, 1/4 Rule

Can you balance your food intake this way over a whole day?  Sure.  For example, for lunch your food is all water rich, fiber rich vegetables while for dinner you eat more protein.  It’s not as healthy, mainly because it’s harder to keep track of, but it’s certainly possible.

Why Use the 1/2, 1/4, 1/4 Rule Rule?

Because it’s a quick and easy way to get a balanced meal.

But I Don’t Like Vegetables!

That’s probably because you were raised on the classic American diet where vegetables mean some steamed broccoli that you were forced to eat as a child or a green salad made up of nothing but lettuce.  Vegetables can actually be extremely tasty.  Try a steamed zucchini as an add on to your dinner, or how about a finely chopped salad of onions, bell peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers?  There are a ton of healthy and tasty vegetable recipes out there.  Why not give them a try?

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I have no desire to spend my meal times figuring out how much I need to eat of every specific food group.  It’s frustrating, overly complex and almost impossible to follow.  I would much rather follow something simple like this 1/2, 1/4, 1/4 rule.  It’s easy, quick and over time, leads to a very balanced diet.


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Thisentryis part 3 of 7 in the series SERIES - The 5 Rules of Eating Healthy

Last Monday, I started talking about the five rules I use for eating healthy food. I use these relatively simple rules because It’s just too difficult to keep up with all the guidelines, recommendations and plans for eating the perfectly balanced diet. You can drive yourself crazy and still not be 100% perfect.

Today we look at rule #4, which I like to call, the 20 minute rule which is based in large part on my own experience.

By the way, you may have noted that I’m not exactly following a sequential order in discussing these rules; I started with rule #2 and now I’m jumping to rule #4. That’s for two reasons, one because I want to emphasize that none of these rules is more important than the other. Also, I picked each rule because it was appropriate to the day I was writing it. Today is memorial day in the US, a day when many of us BBQ and eat enormous quantities of food. So I thought that taking a moment to appreciate that food would be good.

What Is The 20 Minute Rule?

When I was growing up, I always ate my food as fast as I could. I did because I always had other things I wanted to do and so eating fast saved time. I also did it because I liked eating and eating fast allowed me to eat more. Finally, I did it because my dad did it and I looked up to him and wanted to be like him. That habit stayed with me into adulthood. I would eat fast enough to finish my food before everyone at the table had even been served. In fact, my friends still repeat a rather amusing story where the waitress for our table almost brought me out an unintended second helping because I had finished my food and had the dishes removed before she had brought everyone’s food out.

Then came my little health meltdown. A lot of research later, I found out that eating fast is one of the worst mistakes you can make. It’s right up there with not getting enough sleep or not eating a healthy breakfast. So now I follow a different rule. I try to eat a bit of food and make it last at least 20 minutes. If it didn’t last 20 minutes then I make myself wait until the whole 20 minutes are up before I even think about taking seconds. I also eat slower, trying to savor the sensation and the flavors a bit more.

Advanced Applications

Do you typically wolf down your sandwich in less than 4 bites? Do you ever find yourself eating without chewing? Yep, that was me a few years ago, and while I still occasionally backslide, I am actively trying to avoid those habits. Take small bites of your food and chew them thoroughly. Savor the sensation of eating by eating 1 sandwich over 20 minutes instead of 2 sandwiches over 10 minutes.

How many of you use chopsticks? If you’re a fast eater like I used to be, you probably don’t. Chopsticks are not the most efficient way of eating, especially if you’re not used to them. Which is a perfect reason to use them. Next time you’re at an Asian restaurant, use the chop sticks. They’ll slow you down and make you focus on your food. I know that this has been an effective way for me to eat less.

Do you go to a buffet and fill up a huge plate? Yep, that’s exactly what I used to do because I wanted to get back to table and eat up all that food without any interruptions. Well, start thinking smaller. Take a small plate, fill it up just a little and then go back to your table. Eat that food, take a small break and then see if you’re still hungry enough to go back. That break between small plates is a great way to slow down. By the way, that’s a great tip for those of you BBQing today. Don’t fill up your plate with those three hamburgers, two hot dogs and a pile of chips. Take ONE of those things, have a seat, eat it slowly and then see if you’re still hungry enough to another run at the BBQ.

Bring a friend and talk during the meal. Talking forces us to stop eating (unless you like to talk with your mouth full which is just wrong!) So bring someone with you to meals and carry on a conversation while you eat. You’ll find yourself taking a much longer time to eat and eating far less.

Clarifications to the 20 Minute Rule

Is it always 20 minutes? What if I’m eating a steak vs. a small amount of peanuts? Should both last 20 minutes? No, of course not. The amount you eat will determine the time it takes. However, 20 minutes is a good basic guideline because that’s how long it takes for your brain to notice that you’re eating and full. So waiting 20 minutes between portions is a good way for you to ask your brain “hey, have you caught up yet? Are we still hungry and should get a bit more or are we full and done?” If you want to make it 60 minutes, go for it.

Why Use the 20 Minute Rule?

Because eating too fast leads to eating too much. The two are very closely linked.

But I Don’t Have Time To Eat Slow!

Yes you do. You’ll be spending the same amount of time you are now, you just won’t eat as much. Trust me, I looked at my eating habits and I still spend the same amount of time that I did when I ate faster, I just eat less. And hey, if you’re a real efficiency devotee, maybe you can do some work between those small portions. It’s a better use of your time than scarfing down more food as fast as you can manage it.

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I love food and yet I would eat it so fat that I never really savored or enjoyed it. Stop rushing yourself and enjoy your mealtimes. You’ll end up spending just as much time but you’ll eat less and yet enjoy the food more.


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Thisentryis part 1 of 7 in the series SERIES - The 5 Rules of Eating Healthy

When I first started turning my life around, I read quite a bit about eating healthy. I looked through magazines, books, blogs and any other source of information I could find. While there was a lot of good advice out there, I felt a little overwhelmed. There was so much information out there, so many tips, so many things to do and so many things not to do. I felt like I needed to analyze every single bite I ate down to the smallest component, total up everything hour by hour and then make careful adjustments meal by meal.

Did I have enough protein today? Better increase that measure of Tofu for dinner by 5grams! Did I have enough vitamin D? How about carbs? Did I eat enough or too many? Wait, I just ate an orange. Oh no, now my vitamin intake is all out of whack! It just felt like there was no way to achieve that perfect diet and if my diet wasn’t perfect then I was in danger of backsliding.

Well, after a year of driving myself a little crazy, I started relaxing. I started trusting my own judgment when it came to food. I started understanding that I don’t need to have the perfect balance of protein, fat and carbs every single day, things will balance out over a few days or a week and that’s just fine. Rather than diving into the minutiae of my diet, I started looking at the overall picture. Over the next two or three years, I developed a few basic rules by which I eat. I find these easy to follow and easy to remember.

Before I list my rules of eating, I would like to give credit where credit is due. One, some or all of these rules were inspired by YOU: The Owner’s Manual: An Insider’s Guide to the Body that Will Make You Healthier and Younger, by Michael Pollan’s books, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals and In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto. Some were also inspired by Mark Sisson and his wonderful blog at Mark’s Daily Apple and by Monte Ladner’s podcast, Fitness Rocks. As you can see, I still love reading about fitness and health and I want to thank all these people who give of their time and knowledge to help me educate myself.  And now, without further ado, the five quick and easy rules for eating healthy in no particular order.

Please note that over the next week I plan to review each of these in more detail, so I hope you don’t mind the quick treatment they each get in this post.  I want to provide people with a quick summary of the rules in general before moving on to detailed discussions.

1.  Eat a variety of foods

Most foods are not balanced nutritionally and there are very few if any “super” foods that contain everything you need to consume in the proper amounts.  So rather than worry about which amino acid you’re missing out on today, just eat a variety of foods from a variety of cuisines.  Don’t restrict your diet too much or stick to only one type of food.

2.  If they wouldn’t recognize it in the 19th century, you probably shouldn’t be eating it today

This is a paraphrasing of Pollan’s rule “if your grandmother wouldn’t recognize it, you shouldn’t be eating it.”  Well, my grandmother is still alive thankfully and she’d recognize quite a bit of crappy food.  So I modified this a bit.  Essentially, this is a rule meant to protect you from all the overly processed junk available today.  If you showed what you’re about to eat to someone from a hundred years ago, would they recognize it as food or what they wonder what they hell you were thinking about for putting this crap in your mouth?  This also applies to heavily processed versions of old fashioned food.  For example, pasta is fine, highly processed pasta that went through three factories and two refining processes before ending up on your plate is not.

3.  The 1/2, 1/4, 1/4 rule of balanced meals

I’m really sick of trying to measure serving sizes.  What the heck is the right serving size for meats?  Is a tomato one vegetable serving?  What about a large tomato?  How can a cup of milk be the same serving size of dairy as a slice of cheese?!?  Rather than worry about all this, I just balance my plate.  1/2 leafy or crunchy vegetables like spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, peppers and so on.  1/4 starchy vegetables like potatoes, squashes, beans and others.   Then finish it off with 1/4 protein like meat, tofu, dairy or legumes.  Will this always be the perfect balanced meal?  Not always, but things will balance out over time and at least you won’t drive yourself crazy doing portion control.

4.  Eat slowly and enjoy your food.

When you eat fast you eat too much.  Eat slow, savor your meal, enjoy the flavors and the food.  This was one of the hardest rules for me and one I still struggle with.  If you’ve seen me eat, you know I eat fast, but believe me, I eat a lot slower than I used to.

5.  Eat when you’re hungry, stop when you’re not

The three meals a day plan is for people who’s bodies operate on some abnormal mechanical clock.  Stop listening to how society tells you to eat and start listening to your body.  If you’re hungry, eat.  When you’re not hungry stop eating.  If that means eating at 2pm instead of lunch time, that’s fine.  If it means not finishing your restaurant portion, that’s fine too.

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That’s it, 5 easy rules to live by that don’t require much in the way of scientific analysis.  On Wednesday, we start talking about the first one and what exactly it means.


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After a long and incredibly fun honeymoon in the Caribbean, my wife and I returned home last night, exhausted but very satisfied.  Today, I climbed on the scale for my Monday morning weigh in and was pleasantly surprised to see that I had gained no weight over this trip.  This surprised me since I had no time for workouts and my diet was not as controlled as it usually is.  However, in retrospect, I realized that being healthy on vacation turned out to be pretty easy.

Physical Activity

In terms of workout, a vacation may not have scheduled trips to the gym, but it’s actually very active.  Sure, I wasn’t in the gym every day for an hour, but I was constantly moving.  I was swimming in the ocean, wading in the pool, diving on a reef or walking through interesting neighborhoods.  Rather than hardcore exercise once a day and then remain relatively sedentary the rest of the day, I was moderately active the entire day.  There’s an important lesson there about how healthy an active lifestyle can be.  It’s also comforting to know that an active day can replace a daily workout, at least in the short term.  This will allow me to enjoy my vacations a lot more.

Food

This is the pitfall of vacations.  You are constantly surrounded by food and most of it is unhealthy.  Get to the airport and your breakfast choices are Starbucks or some greasy bacon omelet.  Get on the plane and they toss salty peanuts and cookies at you to keep you pacified.  Get to the hotel and there’s Pina Coladas to drink plus overprice room service.  Go out to eat and the tourist restaurants will provide you with an incredibly large portion size in an attempt to make you forget about the incredibly large bill.  In other words, you are constantly surrounded by food, most of it bad.

This is really the essence of unhealthy vacations.  It’s not the lack of physical activity, it’s the tendency to binge.  To say “hey, I’m on vacation so why not have that extra steak plus the cheesecake and the milk shake!”  Well, the immediate answer is because you want o enjoy your vacation and not spend it feeling bloated.  The long term answer is because you want to be healthy and not spend your post vacation time regretting those extra milk shakes.  And the real answer is because vacation is not about food, it’s about enjoying yourself, and you could do that a lot better if you weren’t overweight and out of shape.

A Whole New Life

During this honeymoon, my wife and I got our scuba certification.  We had the most incredible time diving on the coral reefs of the Grand Cayman and playing with the stingrays.  Having spoken with the dive instructor, he relayed quite a few stories about overweight and out of shape people who simply couldn’t dive.  That really made me realize how much more I’ve been enjoying my life in the past few years.
I’ve been able to climb peaks that I could never imagine climbing a few years ago, and the views have been spectacular.  I’ve been able to bike down roads I might never have seen if I had not lost weight.  I have hiked trails that I could never attempt if I was still out of shape.  I’ve danced with my wife, and while the exercise didn’t cure me of my two left feet it has certainly allowed me to stay on that dance floor for more than one song before I’m out of breath.  I’ve now dived on reefs and swam with sting rays, two experiences I will never in my life forget.  These are all things i could not have done if I was still out of shape and to me, these are what vacations are all about.

Culinary Experiences

By the way, I’m not saying you should stick to lettuce and tofu on your vacations, my wife and I certainly didn’t.  We sampled the local cuisine and we enjoyed a few desserts we wouldn’t normally order.  All I’m saying is that making a vacation healthy means not eating that extra food you really didn’t need in the first place.  I mean, are those airplane peanuts part of your unforgettable vacation experience?  Get rid of the useless junk and save room for the really important things.

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Next time you’re on vacation, ask yourself “do I want to spend my time binging on food or do I want to spend it having an experience I will never forget?”  Believe me, you can get that extra milk shake anywhere, but you can’t really say the same about diving with the stingrays.


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There’s a new poll out from the Center for Science in the Public Interest. The poll asked 500 people about the calorie contents of their food. Care to guess the result? If you guessed that most people don’t know what’s in their food, you’d be right. You can find the article on the CSPI site here.

Don’t Eat What You Don’t Know

I don’t go to restaurants unless I know what I’m eating.  For local restaurants, that means asking them what they put in their food and how they prepare it.  For chain restaurants, it means not eating there unless they publish their nutritional content on their premises.  On premises means right there where you eat the food, not on the website.  Website nutritional info is great mostly for regretting what you just ate and doesn’t really help you make an informed decision when you order.

Let Your Voice Be Heard

If there’s a restaurant that does not publish nutriotional information then tell them you won’t be eating there anymore and then tell them why.  Enough of these opinions will make a difference.

Make Your Vote Count

I’m not a fan of big government.  I don’t think government should tell us what to do or how to behave.  I do however believe that governments have a role to play in making sure we have enough information to make an informed decision.  So I support government efforts to force restaurants to display nutritional information.  Let you congress man or woman know that you’d appreciate this sort of information and that your health is more important than lobbyist dollars.

Read Those Labels

Once you have the information, don’t forget to use it.  Information is useless if it’s not used.  Read it and then base your food decision on it.  If enough of us make healthy food choices, maybe restaurants will offer more healthy options.

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I know people who will spend hours researching the best shampoo for their pet or the best school for their kids.  Why not spend a little of that time researching what you’re eating?  The results may surprise you.


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I gave a presentation at work yesterday about fitness and health. One of the hot topics seemed to be what is and what isn’t a vegetable. There were people asking if squashes were a vegetable and what about sweet potatoes? Are tomatoes a vegetable? What about pumpkins?

The purpose of a vegetable serving

The problem is that a vegetable serving has two purposes, while people mostly just consider one. A vegetable serving provides you with a lot of nutrients and it also fills you up without providing you with a lot of calories. Vegetables do this by being high in water and fiber, which means they are low on calorie density. In other words, lb for lb, a vegetable serving provides a low number of calories when compared with other foods. Most people ignore this second aspect of vegetable servings while only focusing on the nutrition.

Now before we talk about what IS a vegetable serving, let’s first of all talk about what ISN’T a vegetable serving.

NOT a vegetable serving

Fruit - Yes, I know they say five servings of vegetables or fruits, but they don’t mean JUST fruit. Most people completely ignore vegetables and eat only fruit. Well, as healthy as they are, many fruit still contain a high amount of sugar. Which means they supply your body with a lot of nutrients, but with a high quantity of calories.

Dried Fruit - Even worse than fruit, dried fruit is fruit with all the water squeezed out. That means the sugar load is even higher.

Potatoes (and other high start plants) - Most roots and even most squashes are very starchy. That means they contain a lot of calories and relatively few nutrients. They’re not bad for you and I’m not saying you shouldn’t eat them, but they shouldn’t count as your vegetable serving because they are high in calories.

Juices - No matter what that V8 commercial tells you, juices don’t count as vegetable servings. They typically contain a low amount of water, a high amount of sodium and much of the fiber content is gone.

Grains and beans - Yes, I know they’re plants, but that doesn’t make them a vegetable serving. Guess what, chocolate is a plant too but that doesn’t mean you should eat five servings of it a day. Grains and beans have a very high number of calories in them. Grains, especially in refined form, are something you should try to avoid, not include in your diet.

So what is a vegetable?

First, the following is not a scientific definition of a vegetable. In fact, I don’t believe one exists, although if you know of one, please let me know. We do have a scientific definition of fruit and it actually encompasses many of the things we consider to be vegetables. So if you’re a science major, you’re going to cringe at all the generalizations I make. However, I don’t expect anyone to rush to Wikipedia every time you want to eat something. that means we need to come up with a definition that is more practical. By the way, not all vegetables will fill all of these requirements. That’s fine, these are just guidelines, not absolute rules.

Lots of water content - A good vegetable serving should contain a lot of water. that doesn’t necessarily mean that if you squeeze it, water comes out. However, things have a lot of juice are usually good.

Not too sweet - Unless that juice is really sweet. This is why most fruit, while healthy, aren’t going to count as part of your vegetable serving. Remember, sweet = sugar and sugar = calories.

Leaves are good - Leafy vegetables are great. Spinach, cabbage, lettuce, green onions and a whole other variety of leaves. These are typically very low in calories and very high in nutrients.

Roots are not so good - Many plants store a lot of their energy in their roots. That’s why roots are in many cases very starchy and filled with calories. Potatoes are a great example. Yes, there are exceptions, but most roots are too energy dense to be a really good vegetable serving.

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As you can see, these guidelines aren’t exact. That’s fine. You’re not going to be 100% accurate all of the time, and just making an effort to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables is going to have a positive impact, even if you don’t always pick the right vegetable. Just remember, try to stick with plants that give the most nutrition for the least amount of calories. If you follow that basic rule, you can’t really go wrong.


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