If you’ve been Making Your Spring Menu and find yourself focusing more on the foods you “should” eat than the ones you really want on your plate, this piece will help you create Your Delicious Diet — one that pleases your palate and supports your health (and your waistline, too).
All around the world, there are people who enjoy fabulous food without worry or restrictive dieting. Two timeless examples are those who live in Blue Zones, who drink wine daily while lingering over long meals, and the French, who regularly enjoy butter, bread, cheese, cream, croissants, and chocolate. Both groups tend to experience fewer chronic health issues than Americans, despite eating in ways that defy typical diet rules.
So, what is their secret “recipe” for a delicious way of eating? It's about more than just food — how you eat matters too. To make a menu you truly love, the "diet" is simple ...
It starts with the quality of the ingredients. Our bodies weren't meant to digest chemicals, and even though chemical preservatives in food are deemed safe, they can lead to health issues.
As Jonathan Wright and Linda Larsen explain in their book Eating Clean for Dummies:
“Your body isn’t designed to process and incorporate preservatives, additives, stabilizers, and other artificial ingredients. Because many of these ingredients are fat-soluble, your body stores them in its fat instead of using them for energy or cell repair. Unfortunately, they don’t just sit benignly in your body’s fat. They can change cell structure and metabolize. Some even become carcinogens which can, over time, cause cancer.”
You may be a master at avoiding foods that contain MSG, GMOs, or high-fructose corn syrup, but almost every packaged product has something you might want to avoid — and it's easy to overlook them.
Even though the FDA allows preservatives in food products to prevent spoilage and extend shelf life, does that mean they are all good for us?
Cellulose, for example, is a wood byproduct that’s added to shredded cheese to prevent clumping. While cellulose is allowable, consuming a wood byproduct doesn’t sound appetizing — or nutritious.
Another example: citric acid is a preservative to ponder. When you see citric acid on a label, you may think it's lemon juice and that it's harmless.
But it's not lemon juice; it's manufactured citric acid [MCA], which is made from Aspergillus niger, a chemical derived from a strain of black mold. MCA is the most widely used preservative and is found in nearly every packaged and processed food. Look for it on labels, and you'll see it's almost everywhere — even in your canned tomatoes and minced garlic.
Some additives, MCA among them, have been designated GRAS (generally recognized as safe) by the FDA. MCA, however, is capable of producing toxins that affect human health. MCA’s safety has not been studied since it was granted GRAS status.
There's a spiderweb of information to navigate, with conflicting ideas regarding what is safe and what is not.
But rather than debate each additive’s merits, let’s look at our diet logically. Besides the fact that our bodies weren’t designed to digest chemicals, freshly grated cheese tastes better than pre-shredded, and — like cellulose — Aspergillus niger doesn’t sound appetizing either.
So instead of trying to determine which ones are okay or not, opt for as many fresh choices as possible — this can be simple to do.
For example, if you use commercially made salad dressing, your own delicious dressing can be simple to make instead. Like a lemon vinaigrette — it's just olive oil and fresh lemon juice. That's it — and it's so good!
Lemon dressing served on a pear salad.
Do you buy shredded cheese and pre-minced garlic? It only takes a minute or two to mince garlic and grate cheese.
Logically, it's best to avoid as many preservatives as possible. However, your diet doesn't have to be 100 percent pure; replacing a few processed products that you use frequently with something fresh can make a significant impact.
Not only will your meals be more wholesome, but they'll taste better too.
If most of the foods we consume contain preservatives, those chemicals add up quickly and can lead to long-term health and digestive issues.
Many meals out (especially at chain restaurants) use 100 percent commercially made ingredients that all contain preservatives — and likely include citric acid. So, when there is no label to read, still be on the lookout. After the COVID-19 pandemic had run its course, many people told me that, when they ate out for the first time in months, they felt a strange sensation in their tummy — a heaviness — and that the food was difficult to digest. My theory is that it was the MCA.
So, don't fear good butter, olive oil, cream, chocolate, and flour; instead, be wary of what's on labels and menus.
Part of a good diet is being in the right state when you eat — in a calm, relaxed state. Your nervous system has two primary modes that directly affect digestion: sympathetic and parasympathetic. The sympathetic state — your “fight or flight” mode — is great for handling emergencies, but not for eating. The parasympathetic state, known as “rest and digest,” is what your body needs to be in to break down food and absorb nutrients effectively.
That’s why it’s essential to take a moment to sit and relax before you eat. When you're relaxed, your body signals the release of digestive enzymes, helps food move smoothly through your system, and supports full nutrient absorption. Eating in a stressed state, on the other hand, can lead to bloating, poor absorption, and even halt digestion completely so even healthy calories are stored as fat.
Here’s some interesting research on the topic. In this interview with Oprah Winfrey, Deepak Chopra described the following research.
A study was done at Ohio State University where they were feeding rabbits diets that were extremely high in cholesterol, and they found, to their amazement, one group of rabbits that never got the high cholesterol levels. After a while, they found out that when the technician was feeding these rabbits, instead of just throwing the food at them, he would stroke them and pet them, cuddle them, and kiss them, and then feed them the same food. But now, because of that experience of happiness, they made chemicals inside their brain and their body that turned the cholesterol into a completely different metabolic pathway. So, it’s not just the food you eat but what your awareness, your consciousness, and your state of emotions are at the time you’re eating. What happens inside your body is influenced by your consciousness. One of the things I tell people is, if you’re not feeling good, skip the meal at that time till you feel good, till you can relax. Eating is a very enjoyable act, and when we eat, if you’re enjoying it, then we metabolize it correctly.
So again, take a moment to sit and relax before eating — a deep breath or two signals to your body that it's time to rest and digest. When you're relaxed, you'll not only enjoy your food more, your body will digest it better too!
Here’s a hint to help you slow down and relax: eat in courses. It's a practical and delightful “diet” tip.
Serve your salad or another light starter first — eat slowly and enjoy. Then serve the main dish. Just two courses will suffice for a fine meal, but a third is always welcome! A simple French cheese course — a slice of good cheese and bread — or ice cream or chocolate!
A simple concept for managing a healthy weight is to burn the calories you consume. Yet, American culture doesn’t set us up for success when it comes to portion sizes. In many restaurants, a starter, salad, or pasta main dish can be enough to feed three or four people. And a crêpe or brownie with ice cream can easily satisfy five! Even if you don't eat everything on your plate, it never feels good to be served so much food and then see it go to waste.
Beyond that, this style of serving and the large portion sizes suggest that we need more food than necessary, making it easy to lose sight of how much food we truly need to be happy and healthy.
To help you eat just the right amount, eat until you're about 80 percent full. Not completely full. Not uncomfortably full. Just enough. Eating slowly and in courses will also help you eat just the right amount.
Eating slowly and chewing well allows you to regulate how much food is enough. It takes approximately twenty minutes for your stomach to signal your brain that you are full, so take your time while eating.
Often, the problem is not the food but the quantity, and also when we eat it. A few chips before dinner with an apéritif is delightful, and a little nibble before a meal is also relaxing, and it stimulates the digestive system.
But chips as a mid-afternoon snack because you’re hungry, or two hours after dinner when you feel the need to nibble, doesn’t support a healthy diet.
Choosing ice cream or chocolate for dessert is a delightful way to end a meal. However, indulging just two hours after dinner makes it easy to overconsume. In addition, snacking disrupts the digestive system and the migrating motor function (MMC), which can lead to health issues and weight gain.
The MMC is one of the body’s natural processes that supports gut health, a digestive rhythm that helps move food and waste through the entire gastrointestinal tract. It acts like a cleansing wave between meals, sweeping leftover particles from the stomach and small intestine into the colon. But this important function only occurs during fasting periods. When we snack too frequently, we disrupt this cycle, leaving bits of undigested food that can start to ferment. Over time, this may lead to bacterial buildup in the small intestine and cause issues like bloating, gas, or IBS-like symptoms.
So, keep the chips on the menu — just serve them at the right time, and remember that it’s healthy to feel a little hungry.
If you're not pleased with what's on your plate, how you eat may be the missing piece to creating your delicious diet.
Over thirty years ago, I went to Paris and learned how to eat from the French, who continue to serve as models for me today. Many other cultures also recognize that the secret to a delicious and healthy diet is quality food combined with a good routine to enjoy it.
It's harder to maintain healthy eating habits in the U.S. because our food culture sets us up for failure, from the quality of food at restaurant chains to the commercially made products filling the shelves at the grocery store — along with the masterful marketing to sell them.
Add to that the confusion around what is “safe” to consume, and it’s a spiderweb. However, by simply focusing on finding fresh, quality ingredients and cooking, you can sit and savor more of what you like.
A delicious diet comes from a lifestyle centered around shopping, cooking, and eating — nothing complicated, just a few simple routines. You can read more about how it all comes together here, next week.
For now, revisit your menu and add back some chips and ice cream if you like. There’s room in a healthy diet if you skip a few bags of shredded cheese, jars of salad dressing, and some ketchup. And swap pre-minced garlic for fresh!
Following a regular mealtime routine promotes good health and enhances the enjoyment of food. So, once you have delicious food on the table (or a few chips), savor it.
See you next week!
