Rehab Diets

Rehabing Your Diet - for health and performance.       March 10, 2012

First Things First:   See a medical doctor.   Get blood tests to provide a picture of future health. One's current feelings or the 'self image' can be tricked.
  Second, do your most to avoid drugs, of any type.   Express your preference for preventive and non-pharmaceutical options; and do not wait until drugs are needed before correcting the lifestyle.

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Topics    
   
Blood Test   -   are a forecast of your health: get, know, and understand them.

Diets That Fail   -   are the most common, because they are convenient instead of effective.

Diet Essentials   -   to get a healthy, active life, you must eat the correct nutrients for your level of activities, and little more.

Sports Diets   -   are for building better bodies, not just for eating more.

Blood Tests - the preview of your future For those over 50, or not at their ideal body weight, a yearly checkup indicates current and future health.   Some typical blood tests related to diet and exercise:
Glucose - if elevated, means fat gain, skin defects, etc; and predicts serious diabetes risk.
A1c - indicates occasional high glucose levels that may not show in the glucose test.

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Diet Essentials -    the two critical objectives in nutrition:
  1. Getting the required nutrients, so that important tissue can be maintained.
  2. Avoiding the unneeded materials, so excess weight, and diabetes related diseases, will not appear too soon in life.
Required Nutrients - there are several methods of defining the ingredients of proper diets:
    Traditional diets - that evolved through thousands of years of hard times.
      Pros: proven and economic..
      Cons: tuned to pre-industrial caloric output levels, takes more time and effort than fast foods, and, the foods not accurately replicated in the modern food supplies: critical food types can be substituted with cheaper 'equivalents' that do not work.
    Governments and institutions - provide guides, recommendations, and food pyramids.
      Pros: not limited to the food industry; access to the latest technology, and highly financed by tax dollars.
      Cons: the information is mostly controlled by the medical and agricultural industry, eg, biggest bribe wins; and not completely dedicated to the consumers' welfare, as witnessed by periodic reversals of postions every decade or so.

    Diet programs and books - .
      Pros: Some programs evolve successful approaches, particularly South Beach.
      Cons: An endless generation of alluring titles and grand claims confuse decision making, and degrade the science.



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Diet Failures     are the   Norm.   The major influences on most people is the marketing of high profit foods and idle entertainment, the big businesses. The results: poor quality nutrician and sedentary lifestyles.

Characteristics of the Fail Prone dieters and diets:   Diet ingredients not actually beneficial, just convenient.

  Cheat on the diet and exercise, or invent reasons to deviate.

  Schedule of meals and activity is out of sync with the objectives.

 Expected results are not meet, because they are Unrealistic.

  Big supply of starches in their kitchen, like cereals, pastas and breads.

  And justify the starches by: only for emergencies, low cost, for rewards for the kids.

  Diet by 'quantity reduction.

  Healthier foods are ignored, or dismissed.

  Use stimulants to get started, especially in the morning.

  Late, large meals.

  No breakfast, no essential nutrients for breakfast.

  Token amounts of water, and use flavored drinks instead, diet or sweetened.

  Believe that 'Non Fat' labels will avoid body fat.

  Believe they can count calories.




Dieting Successes have occurred when people:
    realize the state of their health,
    have purpose to improve it, and,
    accept enough of the biology to make better decisions.

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Sports Diets    

The object is to gain strength and stamina, and to raise or lower or control the weight. More food must be obviously consumed, and getting that right takes extra skills, just like the actual sports.
In general, the same rules for safe metabolism apply:

    Avoid excessive carbs, referring to short carbohydrates, which induce the gain of more fat than muscle. Exercise is not a free pass for junk food: the diet should contain more of the safer foods, and less or none, of the detrimental foods.

    Each food intake must include the essentials, otherwise only a limited amount of energy will be produced, and the remainder will be stored as fat.

    Added nutrition intake must be distributed throughout the day, by safe snacks or small meals. Over size meals cause more weight gain because less of the valuable nutrients will utilized, and more of easy calories absorbed and stored as fat. The limitation is particularly true for the proteins, which can only be absorbed and used in limited amounts.

A typical small meal plan can be:

  Soon after the awakening, take in 20 oz water.
  A few minutes later: fruit, like a grapefruit, banana, an apple, followed one or more not overcooked cooked eggs.
  Lunch would be normal sized, not a stuffing.
  Dinner would be smaller.
  A final mini-meal would some fruit and protein.
  Water ends the day.

An increase in calories is done by more mini-meals, aka, safe snacks, other meals, etc; and then secondarily by increasing the carbohydrate value.

The carbohydrate portion should be higher at mid day, and less in the late day. Soluble fiber should be more after noon, to optimize nutrient absorption in the night.

The carbohydrates can be increased by adding:
  Whole oats, rolled or rolled and threaded, raw, soaked in orange juice overnight, or lightly cooked.,
  Whole grain bread, without added sugar,
  Fruit and nuts,

The calorie value can be decreased by reducing the short carbohydrates in the above and increasing the soluble carbohydrates as found in vegetables like: carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, etc.
  Whole oats, rolled or rolled and threaded, soaked in orange juice overnight, or lightly cooked.,
  Whole grain bread, without added sugar,
  Fruit and nuts,


Protein Shake

The safe 'smoothie' does not have added sugars, and has quality protein that contains the amino acids needed for humans, called Essential Amino Acids.
Amino Acids: are molecules that contain a Nitrogen. There are about 22 known amino acids in biology. For humans, aout 10 are called essential because a shortage of any one of them stops some biological process or another. Most foods contail all of them, except when processed. The measure of quantity, correct proportion, and digestability is called the protein quality, Some foods have 'high quality protein,' such as eggs and meats; while .
Cheaper protein has more of the non-essential amino acids Glutamate and Aspartate; and is low in the essential amino acids Tryptophan, Methionine, Cysteine, and Lysine.
Usually 'Protein Isolate' that are over 90% protein are acceptable; and made from Soybean or Whey.
A minimal protein drink contains water, orange juice, and the 'protein isolate.'
Mixing: protein does not mix easily, like sugar does. Add the powder to cold water and shake or blend.
More components can be added: plain yogurt, bananas, fruit. High calorie 'smoothies' can include cooked brown rice or rolled oats.

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