Bendle  MNIMH,  Dip Phyt

Traditional Medical Herbalist, Sheffield

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General Dietary Guidelines

The average British diet is very poor, and adopting some or all of the recommendations here may bring long term health benefits.

The basic rules of a good diet are:

v Eat Wholefoods

v Eat organic foods

v Avoid sugar

v Avoid ‘E’ numbers, additives, preservatives, colourings

v Be aware of fat consumption

v Don’t eat meat every day

Eat Wholefoods

If we eat refined foods such as white flour and sugar, we are missing out on important vitamins, minerals and fibre. If, on the other hand, we eat wholefoods, we are getting our food with all the goodness still in it. Wholefoods include brown rice and other whole grains such as oats and barley, and a wide range of beans and pulses available in dried form – chick peas, lentils etc. (Many of these are now available precooked in tins). Food in this form retains its freshness longer than when it has been processed into other foods, and is also cheaper. Look up some interesting recipes to boost your interest in the range of wholefoods available.

Eat Organic

There are two important reasons for eating organic food:

1. To avoid eating poisonous pesticides, fertilizers, additives and possibly dangerous genetically modified food.

2. To get food that is actually worth eating. Over the last hundred years the nutritional value of food has fallen drastically. As the soil has become depleted by modern farming methods, crops are raised by adding fertilizers to the land. But because only a limited number of minerals are added the food we eat is devoid of many of the chemicals which we need in small amounts. In organic farming the soil is better cared for and foods so produced have higher nutritional value.

The cost issue: Organic foods cost more than their conventional counterparts. It is a sad paradox that we have to pay more for food that has had less done to it. It can be argued that in terms of nutritional content organic foods are less expensive, but that doesn’t make our wallets any less empty. Check around different suppliers – most big supermarkets now have organic lines of at least vegetables – and some are more reasonably priced than others.

Compare the taste of an organic carrot and a conventionally produced one.

Avoid Sugar

Sugar not only causes tooth decay – it also has many other detrimental effects on the body. Eating refined sugar suppresses the immune system, reduces the body’s ability to absorb calcium and magnesium, depletes the bones of minerals and adversely affects fat metabolism, leading to increased levels of fats in the bloodstream.

Sugary food satisfies our hunger without us having eaten anything of nutritional value.

Apart from the sugar that we add to our food, it is already included in our diet as an ingredient in many processed foods, from tinned vegetables to soft drinks (ingredients ending in –ose tend to be sugars such as sucrose, fructose, lactose etc).

Avoid refined sugar as much as possible. Satisfy craving for sweet foods by eating sweet vegetables (carrots, parsnips, cooked onions, sweet potatoes etc) and fruit.

Many artificial sweeteners are detrimental to health.

Honey is not a particularly healthy food – it is about 86% sugar. It contains some trace elements and may be better tolerated by your body than refined sugar, but save it for special occasions.

If you need to add a sweetener to your food use blackstrap molasses. This is a side product in sugar production that contains a concentrated form of all of the minerals from the sugar cane plant, making it one of the best and cheapest (about £1/jar organic) sources of mineral supplementation.

Avoid E numbers/additives etc.

Some additives in food are harmless but many others are poisons. Either buy a book to decode what your food contains or simply avoid all E- numbers.

Be aware of fat consumption.

Our diets are not necessarily too fatty, but we tend to eat the wrong sorts of fat. Margarine may be the worst sort of fat to consume, and that is as true of low fat and “healthy” spreads as any other. The problem with margarine comes from trying to make liquid fats solid – the hydrogenation process – which generates trans fatty acids which are alien to the human body. Butter may cause problems for people with a reaction to dairy produce, but is generally a healthier option than margarine. Buy organic butter and spread it thin! ... Having said that, if you want something oily on your bread then a more nutritious option is olive oil. Because of its positive effects on the heart and circulation, olive oil has received lots of favourable publicity in recent years as part of the “Mediterranean” diet. Buy good quality “extra virgin” cold pressed oil. Use olive oil in salad dressings and for cooking.

If you use other vegetable or seed oils use cold pressed unrefined brands which have a higher vitamin content. Refined vegetable oils can go rancid quickly and become unhealthy foods.

Fry as little food as possible – if you do fry food at high temperatures the best oil to use is clarified butter or ghee – available at Asian supermarkets.

Fat in meat need not be a problem as long as not much meat is eaten! (See below). Lard should be avoided.

Meat

If you eat meat everyday, then try to cut down. Eat less but better quality meat. Most of the animals farmed in this country are raised quickly and taste and quality are low. Animals are fed foods of dubious quality and origin and are routinely dosed with medicines such as antibiotics which we then eat in the meat. Try organic meat or well reared meat from known sources – talk to local or speciality butchers. Free range chicken and rabbit are healthy and relatively cheap meats. Organ meats such as liver can be a good source of nutrients for people who are run down.

Rather than just omitting meat from meals and just eating vegetables get a wholefood vegetarian cookbook and investigate some vegetarian alternatives.

Fish

Fresh fish can be a healthy addition to a diet – especially oily fish such as mackerel, sardines, salmon, trout and halibut. The oils in these fish can help reduce inflammation in arthritic disease and inhibit the formation of blood clots.

Non – animal sources of protein

An adequate amount of protein can be obtained from vegetarian sources if a balanced diet of wholefoods is eaten. Seeds and nuts, which are often neglected in a modern diet, are good sources of nutrition. Tofu and tempeh are two traditional foods which provide soya protein in a very digestible form. The value of processed TVP (textured vegetable protein) and quorn is more debateable.

Drinks

We tend not to drink enough water, but to drink too much tea, coffee and alcohol. The problems associated with alcohol are familiar, but we tend to take the intake of caffeine containing drugs for granted. At a time when many health problems are made worse by stress it seems crazy to drink tea and coffee which increase our stress response. Try replacing some tea or coffe with other herbal teas or decaffeinated beverages. Fizzy drinks and squashes tend to contain lots of sugar and additives. If you buy fruit juices check that they are what they seem to be – some cartons that look like fruit juice are just sugary water with a little fruit juice in them – read the ingredients!

Drink 1 ½ litres of water a day. If you dislike water on its own, add a little fresh lemon juice.

Salads

Expand the range of fresh vegetables in your diet by eating salad regularly – try adding herbs such as watercress, parsley, coriander, fennel, sorrel and rocket. Try bitter tasting lettuces and include chicory and endives. The varieties of ingredients that can be added are endless – here are some suggestions: fruit such as pears and apples; steamed broccoli or cauliflower, nuts and dried fruit; beetroot, finely chopped raw cabbage or carrots, fresh peas… The thing that makes salads interesting is the dressing – a basic recipe is 2/3 olive oil and 1/3 lemon juice or vinegar (cider or wine or balsamic are best). Try adding honey, mustard or crushed garlic as takes your fancy.

Making changes to your diet

1. Start with making healthy additions to your diet.

2. Make some substitutions of good foods for not so good, homemade soup instead of ready made, wholemeal bread instead of white, molasses instead of sugar, organic veg instead of regular…

3. Eliminate some unhealthy foods.

4. Keep a sense of humour! Once you start to look at food and ingredients on packets it can seem depressingly hard to find things that are worth eating – especially since a lot of what is sold as “healthy” is not what it claims to be. Find a wholefood shop and a recipe book that you like and have some days where you eat whatever you want!