Word: dieting
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Wouldn't it be great if there were a vitamin or a drug or a fad diet that would protect you? Unfortunately, undoing the damage from a lifetime of bad habits means learning--and sticking with--a whole new set of behaviors. After all, anybody can lose 10 or 20 lbs., and many of us have--over and over again. It's only by maintaining that weight loss, however, that you derive real, lasting benefits...
...sure where to start? Surprisingly, it doesn't really matter, since one positive change usually leads to another. Becoming more active physically, for example, inspires many people to eat a healthier diet. Make enough changes, and eventually you'll discover you've adopted a new way of life. It won't make you invincible or doctors unnecessary, and you can't wait forever. But you'll never know just how much damage you can undo...
...seems as if every six months there's a new crop of diet books peddling a new weight-loss gimmick. The latest are the so-called Pleistocene diets that exhort us to eat as a caveman (or woman) did in order to live a long and healthy life. The idea is that humans didn't evolve on French fries and ice cream. Instead, survival during our formative years was fueled by eating more meat, which allowed our early ancestors' brains to get bigger than those of other primates. So forget the pasta, and load up on roast beef, these books...
...laugh when one Pleistocene diet book declared that we shouldn't eat beans because they have to be cooked before they can be digested. Humans may have been using fire for some 1.6 million years! Other books ban carrots and potatoes because they're "too domesticated"--as if early humans never ate roots or tubers...
...just about ready to give up on all the paleonutritional advice books when I came across an advance copy of Elizabeth Somer's The Origin Diet (Holt; $23), due in bookstores this month. A registered dietitian, Somer has done an admirable job of taking what's known about paleonutrition and adapting it to fit our modern lifestyles. Unlike many ancient-diet gurus, for example, she says it doesn't make sense for us to eat more than 20% of our calories in the form of protein since few of us will ever be as fit as our ancient forebears were...