The Top Ten Sensible Eating Guidance to Live Long, Healthy

Over the past year, I have been speaking and writing about “food as medicine”….what we put in our mouths affects our healthspan and lifespan.

The 2021 Dietary Guidance from the American Heart Association published last week as a Top Ten list, pretty much summarizes what I have been writing about.

You can listen to the audio/podcast hosted on Soundcloud by clicking the Play button below within the browser itself. You can click here to access directly from your email.

1. Adjust energy intake and expenditure to achieve and maintain a healthy body weight.

We should expend enough energy compared to the calories we consume. Does it mean we have to count every calorie eaten or used up? Not really, though if you are obsessive about measuring these parameters, there’s nothing wrong with that as well. The idea is to be physically active, to control the amount you eat and to balance the calorie intake and expenditure. Time-restricted eating or intermittent fasting may help.

2. Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables and choose a wide variety.

I started the sensible eating series with “An Apple a Day…”. Two-three portions of fruits and 2-3 servings of vegetables improve healthspan and lifespan. Variety is important and depending on the season, we can consume different fruits and vegetables. Most of these foods are rich in different types of polyphenols, which also reduce cardiovascular risk and improve cognition.

3. Choose foods made with whole grains rather than refined grains.

Observational studies have shown that whole grain (at least 51%) products lead to lower cardiovascular risk. I haven’t discussed this in detail as yet, but I will cover whole grains in the near to medium term future.

4. Choose healthy sources of protein, preferably plants (legumes and nuts), fish and seafood (if that works for you).

This makes sense. Peanuts reduce the risk of stroke. Nuts and legumes in general reduce cardiovascular risk, though studies have failed to show the efficacy of one individual nut over another. Those who are vegan or vegetarian will also need to add more pulses to their diet, a food class the Guidance doesn’t address. Omega-3 is supposed to lower cardiovascular risk and improve cognition and supplemental omega-3 works reasonably well for vegans and vegetarians, who would want to avoid fish and seafood.

5. Use liquid plant oils (olive, sunflower) instead of tropical oils (coconut, palm) and animal fats (butter, lard).

It is reasonably well established that saturated fats and transfats are more dangerous compared to monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat. I will spend more time on this in the future.

6. Choose minimally processed foods over ultra-processed foods.

I have written about the dangers of UPFs earlier. UPFs reduce healthspan and lifespan. It is best to avoid eating anything that comes out of a shiny packet and has preservatives and additives that you have never heard of.

7. Minimize intake of beverages and foods with added sugars.

This has more to do with the added sugar than the fizzy drinks themselves. Extra sugar in all forms, including the so-called healthy juices that come in tetrapacks, reduces our healthspan and lifespan. I will write about this in more detail in the coming weeks. Using artificial sweeteners also doesn’t really help, despite the huge industry that has grown around these products.

8. Choose and prepare foods with little or no salt.

In my article titled “A Teaspoon of Salt…or Two”, I addressed the issues with salt. Too much and too little…are both harmful. A balance helps and the best way is to use only as much salt as needed when cooking and to avoid extra table salt. Avoiding UPFs also reduces salt intake.

9. If you do not drink alcohol, do not start; if you choose to drink alcohol, limit intake.

There is no “safe limit” for alcohol. As I wrote about in “To Drink or Not to Drink….”, if you don’t drink alcohol, you don’t need to start for health benefits. If you do drink, then drinking in moderation helps.

10. Adhere to this Guidance regardless of where food is prepared or consumed.

This makes sense. Wherever you are, you can always follow these sensible eating points.

What the Guidance, as I mentioned earlier, doesn’t address are pulses, which are widely used in the Indian subcontinent as a daily food item. Hopefully, this will be sorted out in the future.

So, in brief, it is all about sensible eating, in moderation, as part of our atmasvasth goal to live long, healthy.

Footnotes:

1. Lichtenstein AH et al. Circulation. 2021 Dec 7;144(23):e472-e487.

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