Eat more, weigh less: a diet that's easy to digest

If you're interested in losing weight, you're not alone. Tens of millions of Americans are dieting at any given time. That's not surprising, considering a report released by the US Surgeon General in December 2001 that announced that nearly 60 percent of American adults are overweight or obese. Before World War II, one in four Americans was overweight; today, that ratio has increased to one in two.

Of course, there's almost no end to the number of fad diets you can participate in--or weight-loss contraptions you can strap on. But the safest and most natural way to lose excess weight is simply to eat the right amounts of the right kinds of foods.

Before you start thinking about a diet, however, Suzanne Havala, RD, a registered dietitian and nutritional advisor for the Baltimore-based Vegetarian Resource Group, recommends that you keep a diary. "By writing down what you eat every day, you change your eating habits."

Havala believes that the secret to weight loss is consuming the right kinds of foods and substituting them for less healthy foods. She says the key to shedding pounds with ease is increasing the ratio of plant products to animal products.

But, "a calorie is a calorie," warns Lawrence J. Cheskin, MD, director of gastroenterology at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore. "Even if you're a vegetarian or a vegan, it doesn't guarantee you'll be successful at weight control." Cheskin, author of New Hope for People With Weight Problems, cautions that many staples of vegetarian meals, such as oils, nuts and seeds--though arguably better for you than animal products--are high in fat, carbohydrates or calories. Eating those foods, therefore, is counter-productive for anyone trying to lose weight.

Cheskin, founder and director of the Johns Hopkins University Weight Management Center, points out that a 1-inch cube of cheese contains about 100 calories. You might have a dozen of them before you feel full, but that's a 1,200-calorie meal. By comparison, Cheskin says, a 1,200-calorie salad without dressing would fill up someone with even the heartiest of appetites--and offer many more nutrients.

Havala agrees. "Pay special attention to green, leafy vegetables and salads," as well as vegetables with high water content such as cucumbers and tomatoes. She suggests using an olive-oil-based vinaigrette instead of a high-fat dressing.

Cheskin points out that foods with equal amounts of calories don't necessarily have the same amount of filling power, so you'll have more weight-loss success with foods low on the US Department of Agriculture's Food Guide Pyramid--filling foods that are nutrient-rich and calorie-poor. Meat alternatives, such as foods made from multipurpose soy or the European import Quorn, are healthy substitutes for vegetarian dieters because of their low fat content.

Havala also recommends replacing junk food and sweets with bulky, low-calorie fruits and vegetables. "You end up with a larger portion of fiber and water, which will fill you up before you get too many calories," she says.

Got Green Beans?

Janie Quinn, a Waverly, Pennsylvania, marketing executive and mother of three, once wore a size 16, but for the last eight years she has worn a size 6. She says she lost the weight by eating, not by dieting. Quinn is the author of Essential Eating, A Cookbook: Discover How To Eat, Not Diet, a weight-loss guide that teaches people to eat "real" foods that are easy to digest. Eating them will allow your body to support you, rather than force it to expend energy on digestion.

What can you eat? "Whole foods. The closer they're grown to where you live, the better," she says. Fresh and pesticide-free fruits and vegetables are key. As your body rids itself of toxins, you'll lose weight and feel better. Then you'll be able to gradually add foods back into your diet that aren't as easy to digest. How long it will take you to eat your way--health will vary--anywhere from one to three months. All bodies work differently, so you'll have to gauge your own progress.

Quinn admits she's not into exercise, so by eating only real foods, she says, "I can eat four times the amount of food today as I did when I was a size 16." Quinn says people don't gain weight because they eat too much. Rather, it's because many of the foods we eat are toxic--loaded with preservatives and contaminated by pesticides, which makes them harder to digest. One prop she brings to lectures is a fast-food cheeseburger she has kept for several years. She unwraps it and shows her audience that even though the cheeseburger is far from fresh, the bun, meat patty and toppings are filled with so many preservatives that the burger still looks just as it did when it came out from under the hot lamps.

"We have to educate the American public to be better consumers," Quinn says. Fifty years ago, if you walked into a grocery store, you'd have had just 100 different food items to choose from. Now, large supermarkets carry as many as 20,000 different food items on their shelves.