The 5 commandments of a healthy diet or how to avoid the midlife spread

It is an open secret that as we age we become more prone to storing fat and gaining weight than when we were in our 20's.
This may be partly due to a lower Resting Metabolic Rate (the number of calories our body needs to maintain itself at rest) as well as a decreased level of physical activity as a result of a more sedentary lifestyle.

The midlife spread is therefore considered by most baby boomers almost as unavoidable as far-sightedness . This is a wrong belief. There are very simple rules that if adhered to consistently can keep you as svelte as in your 20's.

Healthful eating habits are thus especially important for middle aged individuals. So much has been written on the subject that any attempt at exhaustively describing the ideal diet would be redundant and probably futile. So my ambition here will be to simply list what my experience has taught me are the 5 most important principles that should be observed in order to achieve both
optimal health and a slender body.Why 5? because the human brain can easily memorize lists of 5 items but no more. You will thus be able to remember this list when needed.


EAT AS LITTLE PROCESSED FOOD AS POSSIBLE
The most basic principle that should underlie any healthful eating habit is to avoid processed food as much as possible. I was having a look yesterday at some basic canned food I bought recently like canned  beans without seasoning and canned tomatoes. Even those seemingly innocuous items contain way too much salt to be considered healthy. You can imagine then how unhealthy highly processed food like frozen pizzas or Hot Pockets can be.
So stay away as much as possible from anything that has been altered by man from the original harvested crop.
Conversely most frozen vegetables are a good example of convenient yet unadulterated foodstuff that can be consumed without restriction.


EAT OUT AS RARELY AS POSSIBLE/AVOID HOME DELIVERY LIKE THE PLAGUE (I know this is hard to do during COVID times)
I know that this one is not going to make me particularly popular in a country like the US. But if you are a frequent reader of this blog, you know that I am not in the business of sugarcoating inconvenient realities.
The rule here should be: don't eat out or get home delivery more than a couple of times a week. Most restaurant could not care less about your health, all that matters to them is to get you to come back with yummy, unhealthy food. This is even more relevant for pizza/fast food home delivery. There are a few exceptions to this rule, like truly vegetarian restaurants but too few of them are accessible to most Americans to change this equation. My advice is very straightforward: eat home as often as possible just like my traditional French family has done for centuries.


NEVER EAT (OR DRINK) BETWEEN MEALS
This may be the most important of all nutrition rules, the one my own mother had instilled into my mind year in, and year out. Snacking between meals sets in motion physiological processes that in the long run can play a role in the onset of type 2 diabetes, obesity and other metabolic disorders.
This in no way means that you should starve yourself on a daily basis. The jury is still out on whether you should eat 3, 4 or 5 times a day. I have experimented with all options and have settled for 4 times a day. The 4th meal is directly linked to my exercise regimen. Since I usually work out around 8pm there is too much time between lunch and exercise. So I always eat about 400 calories around 5:30pm, which is about two and a half hours before working out. I then have dinner within 30 minutes of the end of my workout.
More and this in a subsequent post.


ABSOLUTELY NO DRINK BESIDES WATER, TEA OR COFFEE
And this does mean absolutely no fruit juice, even unsweetened. A glass of fruit juice contains as many calories as a glass of regular coke (150 Kcal). The like of Tropicana would like to have you believe that because it is natural juice (nothing added) it's got to be good for you. This is simply wrong. Eating an orange or grapefruit and drinking a glass of fruit juice is completely different from a nutritional perspective.  
Calories that are absorbed in a liquid form are not "registered" by our brain the same way solid food is. They are simply "overlooked" and thus do not cause any feeling of satiety.
This is one of the reason why drinking sodas (and fruit juice for that matter) is so incredibly closely correlated with the risk of developing obesity and diabetes.
My belief is that not a single type of food is harmful if consumed with moderation. But I will make an adamant exception for soft drinks: never drink them. Period. Soft drinks should contribute 0 calorie to your diet.

If you absolutely can't stand staying off them, only drink diet versions but even this is no ideal solution for two reasons:

• most carbonated soft drinks, even diet ones, are harmful to your teeth because they are acidic

• Consuming soft drinks maintains an unhealthy addiction to anything that tastes sweet, which means that you are much more likely to keep a sweet tooth for other unhealthy foods.

Now the real bad news about beverages: 
Alcoholic beverages unless drunk with extreme moderation are even worse for your waistline than soft drinks. Not only are they as energetic as soft drinks (a glass of wine has about 125 cal), but they are also more addictive. I am not talking about full-blown alcoholism which is off subject here. I am alluding to the majority of people who drink alcohol with moderation, i.e. about a beer or two or a glass of wine or two per day. Even though this alcohol consumption is not unhealthy per se, it insidiously adds about 250 calories a day to your diet. These "invisible" calories often correspond to the difference between maintaining a stable weight throughout life and imperceptibly putting on a couple of pounds a year from one's 30's. So the choice is pretty much yours: do you really want to stay slender in your 40's, 50's and beyond? Then consuming alcohol on a regular basis will make this goal that much more difficult to reach. As for myself, I love red wine: I drink one glass of expensive Bordeaux about a couple of times a year.


SMALL PORTIONS
No piece of advice about nutrition could be more important than minding portions. One of the main reasons why America has become one of the fattest nation in the world is because the average portion of food has consistently crept up in the last 30 years. And this is because giant food companies have long noticed that this strategy invariably boosted their profits in the long run (and your waistline in the process).
The first time I ordered a meal in a US restaurant over 20 years ago, I could not believe how huge my "small" drink was. Anybody else in the world would have called it a large drink. Still things have gotten a lot worse since. A "triple whopper" at Burger King today is 1140 fatty calories, which is more than 50% of most people's daily calories allowance.
Nothing could be more disastrous than this creep.
Still , as I mentioned before, I can't think of any food, including a hamburger, that may be so detrimental to your health that it should never be eaten (short of an improperly prepared fugu fish).The message here should be crystal clear: it is not about what you eat, it is about how much of it.
One simple but really important trick to close the subject: do yourself a favor for Christmas: throw away all your plates and replace them with smaller 10" models. More on this on this wonderful website: small plate movement.