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Show Fitness Tips By Dr. Dale Nelson Professor of Health, Physical Education and Recreation Utah State University The growing concern for avoiding chemical additives and lowering fat intake is leading more and more people to vegetarianism as an alternative eating lifestyle. life-style. I have advocated being predominantly a vegetarian, vege-tarian, but what about going all the way? Results of a recent study reported in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association Associa-tion showed that most vegetarians took in at least the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) of protein, fat. and carbohydrates. There was a trend among the meat eaters to take in substantially greater than the RDA of protein. Vegetarians also tended to be on the low side of the RDA for riboflavin (a vitamin) vita-min) and iron. Now you can see why we recommend a little meat-for quality protein-and it is the best source of iron. I hasten to remind you that all meats are relatively loaded with fat (calories). Measurements of body size in the same study showed that vegetarians tend to have much lower body fat content-and that's why we recommend mostly "fresh" fruits and vegetables. vegetab-les. Finally, none of the vegetarians showed evidence of nutritional deficiencies. A wide variety of fruits, vegetables vege-tables and whole grains will insure this. Eliminating Excess Body Fat Now, let's shift gears and examine the benefits, or lack .'ill ' of benefits in some cases when you go the vegetarian-activity vegetarian-activity route, lose some fat. but not as much as you really should. Some examples to empha- size a point: one may lower blood pressure to safe limits by losing 50 pounds, but show little or no change with a 10 pound loss. This often happens. Very modest changes in diet rarely show the full effects that could be achieved achiev-ed by more radical changes, not onlv in diet, but in other lifestyle areas as well.- such as increasing physical activ-ity. activ-ity. eliminating smoking and decreasing exposure to "stress." In Conclusion If a diabetic needs 80 units of insulin to control his -diabetes and you give him 5 units, you may conclude that insulin has no value in treating diabetes. Obviously, Obvious-ly, this is a poor conclusion. So it is with some dietary changes to lose weight or to lower cholesterol. - The whole point is that you have to use whatever is necessary to go "all the way," to get optimal changes. Too many people just lose a little weight and too many people just make modest changes in their diets, then give up because optimal benefits haven't occurred. Again, poor conclusions with inadequate data. Now, do what you need to do in making the necessary lifesyle changes to get optimal health results, and remember that the changes you should make are permanent. perma-nent. That's why they are called lifestyle. Good luck! |
