Nutrition Analysis - by the numbers ...

On this blog, I have posted excepts from Nutrition and Medical Experts with references to published articles showing overwhelming data proving a Vegetarian or Asian nutrition strategy can both prevent and actually reverse many diseases, including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and some cancers, among others. These nutrition strategies show us what kinds of foods to eat. Now, let’s look in more detail at how much we should eat from each food category; Fat, Protein, and Carbohydrates?

After the jump, I’m including data by T Colin Campbell, PhD, and Dean Ornish MD that compare the Asian Diet as well as Dean Ornish’s Reversal Diet to the typical American Diet. These comparisons give us guidelines for analyzing, selecting and preparing healthy recipes.

These data provide a simple formula for a diet that has been shown to prevent and actually reverse obesity, diabetes, heart disease and some cancers and other chronic diseases;

• Reduce the amount of Fat in our almost vegan diets to under 20%, preferably closer to 10%.
• Control the amount of Protein to less than 20%, preferably closer to 10%.
• Make the bulk of our diets consist of Carbohydrates – (complex carbohydrates, not simple carbohydrates). When we include more complex carbohydrates in our diets, the dietary fiber will also increase, which is another benefit.

More...

Source: The China Study (T Colin Campbell, PhD)

Here are some nutrition comparisons between the Chinese compared to the typical American diets:

"The findings shown in (this table) are standardized for a body weight of 65 kg (143 pounds). This is the standard way that Chinese authorities record such information and allows us to easily compare different populations. (For an American adult male and 77 kg, calorie intake will be about 2,400 calories per day. For an average rural Chinese adult male of 77 kg, calorie intake will be about 3,000 calories per day)."

"In every category seen above, there are massive dietary differences between the Chinese and American experiences: much higher overall calorie intake, less fat, less protein, much less animal foods, more fiber and much more iron or consumed in China. These dietary differences are supremely important."

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Source: Dean Ornish’s Program for Reversing Heart Disease;

In his book, Dr Ornish makes these statistical comparisons between his Reversal Diet and the Typical American Diet –


Let’s look at how these percentages translate into grams per day for a 2,000 calorie per day diet. (There are 9 calories per grams of Fat, and there are 4 calories per gram of Carbohydrates or Protein.)



Here is another guide for watching daily consumption of fat; -- in Dean Ornish’s Program for Reversing Heart Disease are tables of ideal body weights for men and woman with different heights and activity levels. These data are based on insurance company statistics for the lowest mortality rates for ages between 25 – 59. He includes data for the maximum daily intake of fat and saturated fat for these different body weights. Here are representative samples (more data is available in Dr Ornish’s book) –




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These data provide a simple formula for preventing and reversing obesity, diabetes, heart disease, some cancers, and other chronic diseases;

• Reduce the amount of Fat in our almost vegan diets to under 20%, preferably closer to 10%.
• Control the amount of Protein to less than 20%, preferably closer to 10%.
• Make the bulk of our diets consist of Carbohydrates – (complex carbohydrates, not simple carbohydrates). When we include more complex carbohydrates in our diets, the dietary fiber will also increase, which is another benefit.