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Comprehensive Study Provides
Foundation For ‘New American Diet’
By Barbara Murphy
Contributing Writer
Diet books are a dime a dozen. We often read them, consider following the advice they offer, then toss them aside and go on gaining weight.
I promise you this will not happen with AARP New American Diet by John Whyte, M.D. One reason is that Dr. Whyte’s book is not just another book about some new “revolutionary” diet scheme that insists it can help you drop excess weight overnight.
Dr. Whyte’s book is based on a 25-year-long joint study by AARP and the National Cancer Institute (part of the National Institutes of Health [NIH]). The (on-going) study was launched to explore the effects of dietary and lifestyle choices on the incidence of cancer among Americans 50 and older.
The study is unique because it is so huge. More than a half-million people participated. Researchers collected a mass of data that allowed them to draw reliable conclusions about the links among nutrition, health and longevity.
In the preface to his book, Dr. Whyte said he was “excited” to use the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study as the basis for his book because “the study represents some of the best published data on how the food we eat affects our health.” He added that no other study has enrolled so many patients over a long period of time. “This research gives us the valuable information we need to lose weight, be healthy and live longer,” he said. (The book not only deals with cancer but also includes vital information about the link between diet and other diseases.)
Dr. Whyte is the chief medical expert at The Discovery Channel of which he is also Vice-President for Health and Medical Education. An internist who continues to see patients, he also regularly blogs for Discovery and also for The Huffington Post.
The information which Dr. Whyte is so eager to share with his readers includes much that we have heard before — and have ignored: we shorten our lives be eating too much red meat, too much processed food and too much food laced with fat and salt.
But Dr. Whyte tells us why these foods are so bad for us and why consumption of them is guaranteed to condemn us to an early death.
Instead of steaks, french fries and sugared sodas, we should instead choose whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans and fish like tuna, trout, salmon and mackerel. I already knew that, but what I didn’t know, as Dr. Whyte pointed out, is that we should also avoid “white” foods, such as white rice, white bread, white pasta and pastries made from white flower, plus anything that includes high-fructose syrup or partially hydrogenated oil in the ingredients’ list.
Dr. Whyte comes down especially hard on sugared sodas, convincing me that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was on the right path in his recent unsuccessful effort to ban the sale of supersized sodas.
“Sugary drinks,” Dr. Whyte said, “can increase your risk of heart disease by 20 percent.” When you’re thirsty, he said, drink water. In fact, he advised drinking six to eight glasses of water per day. “When your body is fully hydrated,” he said, “it seems to burn more calories as a result of a faster-functioning metabolism.”
With respect to sodas, Dr. Whyte said we should avoid diet soda as well as the sugared kind. Because of its chemical contents, he said, “diet soda, instead of squelching our appetite, may instead motivate us to eat.”
On the other hand, Dr. Whyte is very big on beans. He said: “Consumption of just one serving of beans per day can reduce your risk of a heart attack by nearly 40%. That might be worth some occasional gas.”
He’s also big on unsalted nuts (in moderation); low fat dairy products; dark chocolate; brown rice; nearly all fruits and vegetables whether they are fresh, frozen or canned; eggs; Greek yogurt; couscous; low-fat string cheese; and coffee.
Coffee!? Yes, Dr. Whyte advises drinking coffee, adding that caffeinated is preferable to de-caf. Coffee helps you lose weight because it’s an appetite depressant and therefore beneficial if you don’t fill it full of cream, sugar, or artificial creamers. On the other hand, he does not promote tea except for green tea, which, he says, can benefit men suffering from prostate cancer.
The book contains extensive lists of foods that do us good and foods that do us harm. It also contains a 30-day diet plan and scores of unusual recipes using healthy foods. There are recipes for, among other dishes, roasted kale, pan-seared scallops with citrus salsa, strawberry salad with sunflower seeds, and roasted baby carrots with rosemary.
Dr. Whyte writes in a style that is simple, witty and compelling — so compelling that after finishing the book I went out and bought three of his recommended foods — brown rice, raisins and sweet potatoes. They’re the first foods to be stocked in my new pantry — eventually to be filled I hope with good food instead of bad.
(AARP New American Diet: Lose Weight, Live Longer, by John Whyte, M.D., published by John Wiley & Sons Inc., Hoboken, NJ, 2013, 226 pages, $19.95.)
Foundation For ‘New American Diet’
By Barbara Murphy
Contributing Writer
Diet books are a dime a dozen. We often read them, consider following the advice they offer, then toss them aside and go on gaining weight.
I promise you this will not happen with AARP New American Diet by John Whyte, M.D. One reason is that Dr. Whyte’s book is not just another book about some new “revolutionary” diet scheme that insists it can help you drop excess weight overnight.
Dr. Whyte’s book is based on a 25-year-long joint study by AARP and the National Cancer Institute (part of the National Institutes of Health [NIH]). The (on-going) study was launched to explore the effects of dietary and lifestyle choices on the incidence of cancer among Americans 50 and older.
The study is unique because it is so huge. More than a half-million people participated. Researchers collected a mass of data that allowed them to draw reliable conclusions about the links among nutrition, health and longevity.
In the preface to his book, Dr. Whyte said he was “excited” to use the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study as the basis for his book because “the study represents some of the best published data on how the food we eat affects our health.” He added that no other study has enrolled so many patients over a long period of time. “This research gives us the valuable information we need to lose weight, be healthy and live longer,” he said. (The book not only deals with cancer but also includes vital information about the link between diet and other diseases.)
Dr. Whyte is the chief medical expert at The Discovery Channel of which he is also Vice-President for Health and Medical Education. An internist who continues to see patients, he also regularly blogs for Discovery and also for The Huffington Post.
The information which Dr. Whyte is so eager to share with his readers includes much that we have heard before — and have ignored: we shorten our lives be eating too much red meat, too much processed food and too much food laced with fat and salt.
But Dr. Whyte tells us why these foods are so bad for us and why consumption of them is guaranteed to condemn us to an early death.
Instead of steaks, french fries and sugared sodas, we should instead choose whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans and fish like tuna, trout, salmon and mackerel. I already knew that, but what I didn’t know, as Dr. Whyte pointed out, is that we should also avoid “white” foods, such as white rice, white bread, white pasta and pastries made from white flower, plus anything that includes high-fructose syrup or partially hydrogenated oil in the ingredients’ list.
Dr. Whyte comes down especially hard on sugared sodas, convincing me that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was on the right path in his recent unsuccessful effort to ban the sale of supersized sodas.
“Sugary drinks,” Dr. Whyte said, “can increase your risk of heart disease by 20 percent.” When you’re thirsty, he said, drink water. In fact, he advised drinking six to eight glasses of water per day. “When your body is fully hydrated,” he said, “it seems to burn more calories as a result of a faster-functioning metabolism.”
With respect to sodas, Dr. Whyte said we should avoid diet soda as well as the sugared kind. Because of its chemical contents, he said, “diet soda, instead of squelching our appetite, may instead motivate us to eat.”
On the other hand, Dr. Whyte is very big on beans. He said: “Consumption of just one serving of beans per day can reduce your risk of a heart attack by nearly 40%. That might be worth some occasional gas.”
He’s also big on unsalted nuts (in moderation); low fat dairy products; dark chocolate; brown rice; nearly all fruits and vegetables whether they are fresh, frozen or canned; eggs; Greek yogurt; couscous; low-fat string cheese; and coffee.
Coffee!? Yes, Dr. Whyte advises drinking coffee, adding that caffeinated is preferable to de-caf. Coffee helps you lose weight because it’s an appetite depressant and therefore beneficial if you don’t fill it full of cream, sugar, or artificial creamers. On the other hand, he does not promote tea except for green tea, which, he says, can benefit men suffering from prostate cancer.
The book contains extensive lists of foods that do us good and foods that do us harm. It also contains a 30-day diet plan and scores of unusual recipes using healthy foods. There are recipes for, among other dishes, roasted kale, pan-seared scallops with citrus salsa, strawberry salad with sunflower seeds, and roasted baby carrots with rosemary.
Dr. Whyte writes in a style that is simple, witty and compelling — so compelling that after finishing the book I went out and bought three of his recommended foods — brown rice, raisins and sweet potatoes. They’re the first foods to be stocked in my new pantry — eventually to be filled I hope with good food instead of bad.
(AARP New American Diet: Lose Weight, Live Longer, by John Whyte, M.D., published by John Wiley & Sons Inc., Hoboken, NJ, 2013, 226 pages, $19.95.)