What Diets will keep you Healthy, Wealthy and Wise???

There are so many diets out there…my favorites are DASH, MIND, and of course PAM (not named after me).  All are plant based, anti-inflammatory and delicious!!!

The DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet has come in 1st for the 6th year in a row by the US News & World report annual diet rankings.  The MIND (Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay) diet was a close 2nd and the PAM (Pacific, Asian, Mediterranean)diet didn’t even place; although, worth talking about! I’ve included some internet links to prove I’m not leading you down a ‘fad-diet’ highway.

http://consumer.healthday.com/vitamins-and-nutrition-information-27/food-and-nutrition-news-316/dash-diet-ranks-as-best-overall-eating-plan-706620.html

http://www.heartmdinstitute.com/files/PAM%20diet%20PDF%202.pdf

DASH, MIND and PAM diets have common threads… eat whole grains, plenty of vegetables, and ‘good’ fats(you could stop here, but you may not be completely satisfied).  Add small amounts of fruit, dairy, lean meat, fish and chicken…that’s a wrap.  Buy food that has no label or less than 5 ingredients that you can easily pronounce.  As food writer, Michael Pollan so eloquently puts it; Eat Food, Not too much, Mostly plants.

I am also partial to The Pink Ribbon Diet, written and researched by Rhode Island based RDN, Mary Flynn.  Mary’s recommendations are anti-inflammatory and plant based with specifics on how to keep the insulin response down.  Insulin is a growth hormone and goes up when we eat highly processed ‘crapola’ and then continues to circulate in our systems growing our belly’s.  Measure your waist at the navel, if you’re a woman and the measurement is greater than 35″ or a man with a measurement greater than 40″, your risk for cancer, diabetes and other chronic illness goes up big time.

No pills, powders or potions can replace REAL food…PERIOD.  It is cheaper, not more expensive to eat real food as a strategy to stay healthy, wealthy and wise.

I created the following RED RICE with Shrimp, Bokchoy and Mango with whatever I had in my kitchen and it was delicious, (my taste testers were all ‘picky’ men and I got a big ‘thumbs up’)!   Additionally,  5 out of 6 food groups were included; now that was satisfying on all accounts.  The ingredients as listed in their specific food groups:

Whole Grain: Red Rice, 1 cup dry

Vegetable:  Bok choy, ~3 cups and leftover tomato sauce, 1/2-2/3cup

Fruit:  Mango, chopped

Animal Protein:  Shrimp, 10 medium

Fat:Coconut oil, 1T

Spices, dry red chili paste-1T, dry garlic mix-1T, a little salt

My advice is this,  look around your own kitchen laboratory and use what you have for whole grains, fruits, vegetables, animal protein and fats.  Dairy was missing in mine but you might add plain yogurt or hard cheese to your plate depending on your concoction.  By the way, get someone else to clean-up; after all you did your part.

Here’s how my antiinflammatory recipe unfolded:

I boiled a pot of salted water and put in a cup of rinsed red rice and cooked for 30 minutes, I then drained it and rinsed with cold water to stop the cooking and set aside.

I cooked the shrimp(10 medium shrimp) in 1T of HOT, melted coconut oil and sprinkled with ~1T of Wildtree Garlic Galore,  searing the shrimp briefly on each side and then taken out of pan.

I then put the rice back in the pan and added 1T of Dry Red Chili Paste, stir together and heat through, add ~ 1/2c leftover tomato sauce, cut up mango and chopped Bokchoy, (salt the bokchoy); let the bokchoy wilt a little and then add the shrimp back in to heat through, turn the heat off and enjoy!

It’s not just about weight loss, food is medicine and can help heal any imbalances.