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If I Can't Eat That, What Can I Eat? Read this first...

You have diabetes, or maybe other problems like high blood pressure. You are obese (body mass index over 35), or you just want to lose weight and feel better. What can you do?

The answer here is all about diet, because diet can make a big difference. Your diet is what you eat.

So, what should you eat? I have tried to make my advice here simple and easy to understand for the average American style eater. There is no calorie counting. There is no carb counting. There are no percentages of fat or carbohydrates to balance.

 Let me start with what foods you should not eat: let’s make it simple - to succeed in this diet, you should not eat the following foods. Period.

  1.  No bread or bread products white, multigrain or whole wheat 
  2.  No crackers or chips
  3.  No cereal 
  4.  No cookies 
  5.  No cakes 
  6.  No sugary soft drinks 
  7.  No beer 
 There will always be times when you slip or compromise. The next meal is always the best time to start following the plan again.

 The next obvious question after reviewing that list is, “If I can’t eat all that, what can I eat?”

 I will admit, having tried to avoid bread and cereal myself, it does take some thought and creativity to find substitutes that you like and that are relatively healthy and not high carb. It can be done; you just have to think about it a bit.

 What can you eat? You may be surprised. When we stress low carbs, there is less stress on other parts of the diet. So here’s a list; you can eat as much as you want of these products:

  1. Water, tea, coffee, diet soft drinks, seltzer 
  2. Any fresh or frozen fruit 
  3. Any fresh or frozen vegetables 
  4. Eggs 
  5. Milk or yogurt 
  6. Cheese 
  7. Lean meat, including beef, pork, chicken 
  8. Fish, seafood 
  9. Beans 
 Here is a list of foods that ar OK, but are relatively high in carbs. They may be eaten in moderation, amounts should be limited:

  1. Fruit juices 
  2. Potatoes, white or sweet or yams 
  3. Corn 
  4. Pasta, Rice 
  5. Cooked oatmeal 
  6. Dark Chocolate (my go-to desert is a single piece of dark chocolate)
  7. Nuts 
 There are 3 principles at work here:
1. Eat real food; avoid processed food. Taken from In Defense of Food, An Eater’s Manifesto, Michael Pollen, 2008.
2. Maximize nutrients in each food chosen; almost all fruits and vegetables are valuable and ok to eat. Advice taken from Eat to Live, by nutritarian Joel Fuhrman, MD, 1978.
3. Minimize carbohydrates, especially from processed foods. Taken from Why We Get Fat, Gary Taubes, 2012.

 You can try to get started based on this simple plan, or read on...

 Jef Sneider, MD, FACP

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