Focus on the Positives

This article was first published as an op-ed in The Jerusalem Post, Wednesday, 13 Nov. 2024: https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-828831

Rachel is 47 years old.  She came into The Wellness Clinic for a consultation to consider working with us.  Rachel’s concerns included her increasing weight (about 2 kilo per year), blood pressure, and sugar levels. As someone who had never had health issues, these issues had Rachel worried.

Her doctor was quite adamant that if she wasn’t able to control her risk factors through lifestyle changes, he was going to have to start her on medications. The medications would regulate Rachel’s high blood sugar and her high blood pressure. As a precaution, the doctor also would give her a statin drug against high cholesterol.

Rachel was clearly frustrated.  “What am I doing wrong?” she asked.  “I don’t smoke, I cut down on red meat, I limited my consumption of junk food, and I cut my deserts down.”   She insisted that she really considers herself a healthy eater. She even takes extra vitamins and supplements.

Negatives and positives

Yes, Rachel has refrained from certain foods considered poor choices for healthy living. However, she wasn’t focused on the positive habits and behaviors necessary to achieve good health.  It isn’t just a matter of abstaining from junk food, cigarettes, and excessive consumption of meat and dairy. It is also essential to be proactive and take positive actions to improve health and prevent or cure adult diseases.

One of the reasons that typical diets fail is their emphasis on the “don’ts.”  The advice is to eat less, don’t eat certain foods, or even eliminate entire food groups. These diets can be quite restrictive. Eventually the deprivation and frustration sets in, leaving the dieter with an unsustainable program. Sustainability is the number one factor as to whether any food regimen will work for you or not.  When we turn things around and emphasize what we need to do instead of what not to do, the results can be quite amazing!

There is no question that refraining from poor health behaviors is essential to better your health, but at best, it is half the equation.  In order for our bodies to maintain health over a lifetime, they need to be fed the proper fuel and nutrients.  Let’s presume that we take some minimal steps on the “don’t” list, like cutting back on ultra-processed junk foods, animal proteins and making sugar sweetened beverages rare treats.  So now, what can I do to enhance my health and well-being?

Making it practical

After we know what foods to avoid, here’s are food we can eat that can help us take positive steps to enhance and improve our health and well-being:

• Beans (2-3 daily servings)
• Berries (at least one serving a day – frozen berries are fine)
• Fruits (3 servings a day)
• Vegetables (5-6 servings daily). Include at least 2 servings of cruciferous.
• Ground flaxseeds (one tablespoon daily)
• Nuts (unsalted and unroasted) and seeds in limited amounts
• Spices – Use a lot. Especially turmeric, curry, cumin and black pepper.
• Whole and intact grains – brown rice, oats, quinoa, and barley are best
• Water – Make water your beverage of choice and aim for about 8 glasses per day.

The more you stick with whole foods, you increase your chances of staying more plant-based.  A reminder: Diet products are NOT whole foods.  Many of them have artificial sweeteners and can cause a host of health issues – even weight gain!

Aside from food changes

There are other very positive behaviors we can incorporate to bring about better health and quality of life.  Can you start exercising?  Even a daily 30-minute walk brings great benefit.  If you have a fitness tracker you can try to monitor your daily steps.  7500 is the minimum, closer to 10,000 is best.  Add some resistance training a couple times a week and the advantage is even more.  Can you incorporate better sleep habits?  7 hours of sleep is a minimum—8 is usually better.

One last positive behavior to incorporate: good social integration. This has been shown to prolong life.  So, get together with family and friends as much as possible.

When you are concentrating on eating all the right foods and eating them in abundance, there isn’t much room to consume the poor choices.  This is called crowding out and I am a big fan of it.  The good foods we listed are full of fiber and contain a lot of water.  They will always keep you feeling full and satiated.  Ask any whole-food, plant-based eater—they are rarely hungry.  This is opposed to the traditional diets where weighing, measuring, and calorie counting, are the norm and may result in obsessive behaviors.

Remember Rachel?  She began to focus on positive actions and she ended up with an overall positive result. Her pre-diabetes went away, her blood pressure became normal, she dropped weight and avoided all of those medications she didn’t want to take.  In the end of the day, your health, well-being and longevity will all end up in a better place, and all without being preoccupied about what not to do.  Focusing on the positive aspects in eating, exercise, sleep and social behaviors will  “add hours to your days, days to your years and years to your lives.”