Food for Thought: You Are What You Eat

In another email subscription I received an interesting thought. Its one of those things we know subconsciously, but sometimes forget in daily life.

Long story short, Peggy McColl had spoken with Dr. Vartabedian. Very interesting. Hope you find it interesting too. I like Dr. Vartabedians kids chart- I think I am going to get that for my house. I know its for kids, but I can use it too ;) I'll paste his web page at the bottom of this.

Dr. Vartabedian said that we need to realize that nutrition is one of the MOST important, if not THE most important factor that affects our health, how we feel, and our longevity.

"Think of it, Peggy, while exercise moves the body, food not only fuels the body but actually makes the body."

Hmm, good point!

He went on, "We've all heard that we need to eat good food for high energy fuel - just as our cars need good gasoline. But a living organism is quite different from a car. Our food literally makes and remakes our bodies as we grow, metabolize, tear down, and ultimately rebuild our bodies on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly cycle. After several year's time, you will have replaced virtually every cell (or components which make up the cells) in your entire body! And what are those made up of? Everything you eat. So the adage is true: 'You are what you eat!' "

Wow!

"So if you improve your diet, you can literally improve your physical makeup - and therefore improve your health, how you feel, and increase longevity."

The Search for the Best Foods for the Human Body

"How did you first get into this field?" I asked.

Dr. Vartabedian explained, "When I was growing up, my grandmother Louise was a health nut. She read Prevention magazine, talked about foods that were poisons, such as sugar, and touted miracle foods, such as brewer's yeast and blackstrap molasses (which she added to her cereal every morning!). Everyone in our family thought she was a fanatic - except me, because Grandma Louise was the most positive, energetic person I knew, and I wanted to be just like her! Grandma loved life so much that she wanted to live forever (or at least to be 100!).

So I would constantly ask Grandma about different foods and whether they were good for you or bad for you. She would then explain to me the virtues and pitfalls of all the foods I asked about. I was so relentless with my questions that one day, frustrated, she gave up and said, 'Roy, if it's food, it's good - don't worry about it, just eat it!'

As I grew up, my interest in health and nutrition grew and eventually became my profession. The questions I had asked my grandmother were now being asked of me by my patients and clients. Life had come around full circle, and I could see that it was my destiny to help people answer this question once and for all: How do you figure out which foods are the best (and the worst) for peak performance and for preventing disease?

Creating the System to Identify the Best Foods

"I came up with a new twist on a concept called 'nutrient density.' Nutrient density is the critical analysis that determines the quality of any food. How does it work? Nutrient density is the amount of nutrition per calorie. The more nutrition in the fewer calories, the better a food really is.

Here are some examples: Orange juice has a lot of vitamin C, as well as some vitamin A, folic acid, thiamin, calcium, iron, magnesium, and potassium. It has only 80 calories per serving. A McDonald's Big Mac has some B vitamins, vitamin A, and protein - and 700 calories. See the difference? It's the ratio of calories to nutrients that's particularly important. At the end of the day, you want to have packed as much nutrition into your calories as possible.

My twist is this: Not only does the Big Mac have less nutrition per calorie, it also has unhealthful things in it such as cholesterol, saturated fat, and total fat, which over time have negative effects on the body. For that reason, the ideal system should measure how much good AND bad are in each food per calorie. Nutrient density measures only the good. Over a 10 year period of refinements and working with specialists, we created the best overall food rating system.

The food analysis tracks 18 positive factors, or essentials, like protein, fiber, vitamins and minerals and 8 negative factors, or excessives, like calories, cholesterol, and fat in any given food to yield one number that tells you how good or bad that food is. The higher that number, the better the food. Eat at least 100 of these Nutripoints from six food groups each day, and you will get all the nutrients you need while limiting the negatives automatically.

When I applied the analysis to a host of foods, there were some big surprises. Would you have guessed that a quarter of a cantaloupe scores 29 points, while an apple gets only 4.5? The simple explanation is that an apple is not packed with high nutrition; it's a good food, but the quarter of a cantaloupe has 50 times the vitamin A, 10 times the vitamin C, and more of virtually every other significant nutrient than the apple. Maybe the motto should be a cantaloupe a day!

Let's look at some other comparisons. Two cups of spinach rate 75 points, but an equal amount of iceberg lettuce scores only 18! Two slices of whole wheat bread outscore white bread by a 6 to 2.5 margin, and cooked broccoli chalks up 38.5 points compared to 8.5 in a baked potato.

Once you have been introduced to this concept, it becomes sort of a numbers game. The system even includes negative scores for those foods that contain more excessives than essentials - like that Big Mac, at -2.

Why is my system's twist on nutrient density so important? Because we will all eat a certain number of calories every day, and we need to pack in as much positive (the essentials) and the least negative (the excessives) per calorie as possible for optimal cell function and health.

Optimal function means peak performance. Peak performance of every cell means peak performance of your whole body. To operate at peak efficiency, your body needs the best nutrition at the cellular level. The best way to get this is through eating foods that are highly nutrient dense and have a low density of harmful components.

"So if you want to be successful in life and reach your goals, your body must be functioning at peak performance," I concluded.

"Exactly, you can only go so far in life without being in the best of health."

"So how does your point system work? Do you need to just eat all of the top rated foods?" I asked.

"The system is set up so the goal is to get at least 100 Nutripoints per day from six food groups, which provides all the nutritional requirements of the American Dietetic Association, American Cancer Society, and the American Heart Association at the same time. So it's a no brainer for people who don't have the time or inclination to figure it all out. People pick the highest rated foods that they like, and develop their own healthy eating plan."

Dr. Vartabedian went on to explain that a study of several hundred clients from the Cooper Clinic in Dallas, TX showed the following average results using his Nutripoints program in a two week total wellness program:

Weight lost: 8 lbs. or 4% decrease
Cholesterol: 14% decrease
Chol/HDL Ratio: 16% decrease
Glucose: 10% decrease
Triglycerides: 40% decrease
Treadmill Time: 19% increase
Blood Pressure: 6% decrease

"So the same diet that fuels the body for peak performance also helps the body function optimally for disease prevention. The study participants' fitness levels increased, and their risk factors for chronic diseases decreased significantly," he explained.

I want to recommend Dr. Vartabedian's book and program to you today. He is offering his Nutripoints Packages at a special price to my email members. Go to his website to get more information on this amazing program that will give you more energy, help you lose body fat, have increased mental clarity, and reach peak physical performance. All of this through knowing what the score is and choosing the best foods to eat that you love the most.

http://nutripoints.com/cgi-bin/imcart/display.cgi?item_id=k-placemat&cat=1&page=1&search=&since=&status=