1. Collard, mustard, & turnip greens 1000
2. Kale 1000
3. Watercress 1000
4. Bok choy 824
5. Spinach 739
6. Brussels sprouts 672
7. Swiss chard 670
8. Arugula 559
9. Radish 554
10. Cabbage 481
11. Bean sprouts 444
12. Red peppers 420
13. Romaine lettuce 389
14. Broccoli 376
15. Carrot juice 344
16. Tomatoes & tomato products 190-300
17. Cauliflower 295
18. Strawberries 212
19. Pomegranate juice 193
20. Blackberries 178
21. Plums 157
22. Raspberries 145
23. Blueberries 130
24. Papaya 118
25. Brazil nuts 116
26. Oranges 109
27. Tofu 86
28. Beans (all varieties) 55-70
29. Seeds: flaxseed, sunflower, sesame 45
30. Walnuts 29

This is one of the most important resources in planning a healthy weight loss diet approach.

“Simple eating need not be monotonous. Every meal of every day can vary if you like, but don’t be afraid of sameness. If you find a good thing you like, stick to it. Variety is not necessarily the spice of life, or of cooking. Appetite is. If you have excessive variety you eat too much. You flit from one thing to another and go back to the first, starting all over again and eating more than you need. All goes slopping down in quick time, with little chewing. In cooking as in eating, give your attention to fewer items and learn to appreciate them.”

“Simple foods (fruits, nuts, vegetables), simply grown (organically), simply prepared (with little peeling or cutting up), simply cooked (lightly braised, blanched, steamed or baked), simply garnished (with chopped up tender greens and no sauces or gravies), simply served (from stove to table in saucepan, with one wooden bowl for each person for the whole meal), or, better still, eaten raw: What could be simpler, unless you eat standing, and pick from the trees?”

Here’s a sample (p. 10):

“The food I prepare and serve is meant to build healthy bodies, not to cater to corrupted taste buds that urge one to eat unhealthy things long after the claims of hunger have been satisfied. Enough is as good as a feast: better, in fact, because if you don’t overeat, you don’t get sick or fat.

The more appetizing foods are made, the more is eaten and the worse for the health of the body. If you wish to grow thinner, diminish your dinner, someone has said. If you eat twice as much popcorn when it is heavily buttered and salted, why butter and salt it? Eat a moderate amount of plain popcorn and then stop. If you are not hungry enough to eat unsalted popcorn, or bread without loads of butter and jam, or salad without a spicy dressing or sauce, why eat at all? Why not wait until you are hungry, without craving extra stimulants? If salt and seasoning makes you eat more of a food – leave off the salt and seasoning and eat less of a food. Its as simple as that.”

Simple but profound words of wisdom. Helen Nearing lived to be 91 (she died in an auto accident). Her husband Scott Nearing lived to be 100 years old. They both lived full, vibrant and healthy lives.

The quick summary: “Dieters ate different amounts of protein, fat, and carbohydrate — but, after 2 years, most were still obese.”

Here’s some more detail: “While weight-loss diets claim unique nutrient compositions that guarantee unusually rapid and effortless success, comparative studies — usually with small populations and short follow-ups — have yielded widely disparate results. Now, a large long-term multisite study suggests that all these diets result in similar outcomes.

Researchers randomized 811 overweight adults (81% white; 62% female; 69% college graduates; mean body-mass index, 33 kg/m2) to four restricted-calorie eating plans:

* High fat, high protein
* High fat, average protein
* Low fat, high protein
* Low fat, average protein

Carbohydrate intake ranged from 35% (in the first plan) to 65% (in the fourth) of total calories. All meals were prepared at home, and participants ate from a single menu with each dish’s components adjusted to reflect each diet’s emphasis; all participants were offered weight-loss counseling.

Changes in weight and waist circumference at 6, 12, 18, and 24 months were indistinguishable among groups: At 2 years, only about 15% of each group had lost at least 10% of body weight. Attendance at group counseling sessions strongly predicted successful weight loss. At 2 years, hunger and diet-satisfaction scores were all similar. Food diaries and urinary nitrogen analyses indicated that the actual nutrients consumed might have been more similar among groups than had been planned.”

I think that this situation is to be expected. Deprivation, as a general rule, is extremely hard to maintain over the long haul. It’s better to gradually change by learning how to eat plant-based, whole foods. Bottom line: its not the macro-nutrient balance that counts. It’s the micro-nutrients (and of course physical activity) that ultimately determine health and fitness.

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