Let's get at it.



If you look around your supermarket you will see a large assortment of foods. Your problem is to learn how to distinguish those foods that belong to the defeat diabetes naturally and the "world of longevity foods" and those that do not. Since you have never received any training on how to do this, you've got some learning to do.

This can be fun and like you'll be going back to school. You can learn new skills and get homework assignments for the store. You will learn what foods are composed of, and learn how this food composition should guide you when you go grocery shopping or when you go out to eat.

I urge you to become a "world expert" in longevity eating.

Some Basic Principles

What is longevity eating? In simplest terms it is eating foods that don't contain excessive amounts of these gremlins: fat, cholesterol, salt, and sugar. Learning longevity eating is learning how to tell the difference between foods that have too many of these gremlins and foods that do not.

Let's begin the learning process with an overall look at longevity foods and other foods. This will give you a general idea of what differences there are between them. Then we'll add more detail in order to increase your discrimination.

With a few exceptions, foods as grown are a part of longevity eating. Thus corn, peas, beans, grains, tomatoes, cucumbers, rice, broccoli, barley, carrots, and potatoes are excellent longevity foods. Fruits of all kinds (in limited amounts because of the fruit sugar content) are also longevity foods. Thus, practically the entire plant kingdom is at your disposal. You can find dietitian's tables with lists many of these acceptable foods. It is a long list, and because it is so long, it shows how important the plant kingdom is in your diet.

What about the animal kingdom? Most vegetables can be eaten in unlimited quantities in longevity eating, but the same is not true when we come to animal products. Because all animal products contain cholesterol, and because many animal products are high in fat, you must limit the animal products you eat in important ways.

First, it is a great idea to limit your total meat intake to 1/4 pound per day or less. (Lesser amounts won't harm you. I eat only an ounce of meat a day. By meat, I mean fish, fowl, and very lean red meat. The total of all these taken together must be kept to less than 1/4 pound per day. Keeping within this limit helps control both your fat and your cholesterol intake.

Second, you must avoid certain high-cholesterol foods altogether. These foods are egg yolks, shrimp, skin, and organ meats (liver, heart, brain, etc.). Egg whites are fine, and in fact there are many delicious omelette recipes, using only egg white.

Third, you must avoid certain high-fat animal products altogether. Among these are duck, goose, most lamb cuts, and all milk products except those made from skim milk.

Broadly speaking, then, longevity foods are made up of the plant kingdom and a restricted portion of the animal kingdom.

Of course, even an acceptable food can be rendered unacceptable by the addition of problem ingredients during commercial processing. Thus, whereas grains ground to make whole-wheat flours, breads, and cereals are fine, the addition of sugars, salts, and fats to the product will render it unacceptable. And tuna may be acceptable, but tuna canned in oil is unacceptable.

Part of longevity eating, therefore, involves distinguishing between commercial products that have been spoiled by added gremlins and those that have not. People familiar with the Longevity diet program discuss this matter in greater detail all the time.

Now that you have a general idea of foods to use and foods to avoid, let's add to your powers of discrimination by going through the major food groups and identifying specific foods to use and specific foods to avoid.

MEATS

Use: Lean beef, pork, veal, turkey, chicken, fish, clams, lobster. Trim all visible fat before cooking. Note that fish and fowl are considered meat. Limit total meat intake to 1/4 pound per day.

Avoid: Lamb, mutton, duck, goose, shrimp, crab, skin, organ meats (such as liver, heart, and kidney), and fatty meats (such as spareribs, hotdogs, sausages, fatty hamburger, bacon, and luncheon meats).

VEGETABLES, FRUITS, AND NUTS

Use: All vegetables, fruits, and juices. Limit fruits to 3 or 4 pieces a day, and limit fruit juices to 4 ounces a day.

Avoid: Nuts, avocados and olives (high fat contents). Also avoid packaged or canned vegetables, fruits, or juices containing sugar or salt.

BREADS, CEREALS, PASTAS, AND GRAINS

Use: Any bread made without sugar, shortening, or other sweetener or fat. (Salt in bread is often minimal. Use your taste buds as a guide. If it tastes salty, don't use it.) Unbleached whole wheat or whole grain flour preferred. Any hot cereal made without sugar, shortening, or other sweetener or fat, such as Roman Meal, Wheatena, Regular Cream of Wheat, Rolled Oats, or 4 Grain Cereal, or whole grains or whole grain mixes are preferred. Any cold cereal made without sugar, shortening, or other sweeteners or fat, such as shredded wheat (most other cold cereals are health disasters). Any whole grain pasta: spaghetti, macaroni, noodles (not egg noodles). Any whole grain, such as barley, corn, or rice (brown rice preferred).

Avoid: All breads or cereals made with shortening, oils, sugar, or other sweeteners. All commercial mixes containing any of these gremlins or containing whole egg or whole milk. All white-flour pasta flower pastas made with whole egg.

DAIRY PRODUCTS

Use: Skim milk, nonfat milk, cheeses made from 100 skim milk, buttermilk with fat content labeled 1 milk, low-fat milk, ordinary buttermilk, ordinary yogurt, ordinary cheeses, cheeses made from "part skim milk," and egg yolks.

FATS, OILS, BUTTERS, AND MARGARINES

Use: None of them.

Avoid: All of them, including margarines of all kinds (safflower margarines, unsaturated margarines, polyunsaturated margarines, and so on), butter, cooking oil, salad oil, olive oil, meat fat, meat drippings, lard and shortening.

DESSERTS, SNACKS, BEVERAGES, AND CONDIMENTS

Use: Fruit; crackers made without sugar, shortening, and so forth; acceptable breads; decaffeinated beverages; linden flower tea (one of the few harmless teas); spices of all kinds (not premixed spices, which are usually salty).

Avoid: All pies, cakes, pastries, and so on, and baking items containing shortening. All fried foods like potato chips and french fries. All sugared drinks and candy. All syrups and syrup-packed fruits. All ice cream, sherbets, and puddings. All forms of salt including salt substitutes.

And even though more than a quarter century has passed since Dr. Leonard first published these stunning findings and provided documented solutions, people still search for the latest diet craze to control Type 2 diabetes.

The basic dietary advice for getting the better of your diabetes stays the same. The authors' names, faces and book titles are the things that constantly change. So even the latest news from Staffan Lindeberg of Lund University, Sweden says, "If you want to prevent or treat diabetes type 2, it may be more efficient to avoid some of our modern foods than to count calories or carbohydrate."