Handbook for successful ageing - 1. - 1.3

1. Have a healthy diet!
  

"A human being is what he eats."
- Paracelsus -

"Let your food be medicine and your medicine be food."
- Hippocrates -

"Three tenths are healed by medicine; seven tenths are healed by healthy nurtition."
- Worldly wisdom from China-

Not only because of the aspect of loosing weight (see below 2.), but also because of other reasons the kind of food we eat matters.
   

1.1 Glycaemic index
  

Nutritional components are absorbed by the blood at different speeds. The longer this process takes, the longer they will keep you full. If they are absorbed quickly, they will saturate you quickly/ within a short time. Thus the level of energy and concentration will increase quickly. The rapid absorption by the blood raises the blood sugar level and that raises the production of insulin. Insulin decomposes the "fast" carbohydrates, which were assimilated with the food, quickly. However, this means that it also creates hunger again. On the other hand, energy, which we do not use immediately, is saved as fat.
  

The speed, with which food passes over into blood, is called glycaemia index (GI). The GI for grape sugar amounts to 100. Therefore you should eat mainly food with a low GI, such as wholemeal bread and rolls instead of white bread and rolls. If you have eaten only white bread and rolls so far, take some time for this dietary change, so that your bowel gets used to it. You find further information on www.glycemicindex.com.
 

The more food is processed (like for example cans, fast food, cantine food) and the sweeter it tastes, the higher their GI is. In general it is the other way around with food that is difficult to chew. This food has a lower GI than the one which is easily to chew. Cooked potatoes have a GI of 70, mashed potatoes, in comparison, even have one of 85.
   

Wholegrain products contain essential vitamins, mineral salts, trace elements and fibres. In addition they also reduce the particularly unhealthy visceral fat (see below, 2.1.3, key word "visceral fat).

1.2 Nutritional panel
  

You can learn from a nutrition panel at www.nutritiondata.com, how many calories, how much animal fat and how much vegetable fat (saturated and unsaturated fatty acids, respectively), how much protein, which minerals and which vitamins a food product contains.
  

1.3 Frequency of eating
  

Take into consideration that breakfast is the most important meal of the day (There is a German saying that says: "Eat in the morning like an emperor, at lunch like a king, and in the evening like a beggar."/ "Iss am Morgen wie ein Kaiser, am Mittag wie ein König und am Abend wie ein Bettelmann"). Never let your children, in particular, go to school without having had breakfast, and pay attention that they have enough mineral water (see below, at the end of 1.6) to drink during school.
  

For breakfast you should prefer, besides wholemeal bread and wholemeal rolls with margarine and poultry cold cuts, a preferably sugar-free muesli with low-fat milk or yoghurt with fresh fruits as well as pumpkin or sunflower seeds, and, if necessary, sweeten it with sweetener and stevia (see below 2.2.2.11). Add oatflakes, since they contain lots of protein and since you particularly need protein after the whole body exercise (see below, 3), as musles are made of water and protein and as the latter saturates faster and longer than carbonhydrates.

Reduce your lunch and dinner. Instead you should eat between the main meals each a slice of whole meal bread, some whole meal rusks or biscuits, fruit, some not-sulphurated dried apricots (250 kcal),some dried banana slices (291 kcal) due to their high content of potassium, halved dried cherry-tomatoes or cranberries; both are especially healthy because of their numerous ingredients, single unpeeled almonds (18.7% protein and 54.1% fat) ) - find further information at 1.4.4 -, cranberries (287 kcal), or a tea spoon of sunflower seeds (22.5% protein and 49% fat), pumpkin seeds (24.4% protein and 45.6% fat) or unsalted peanuts (25.6% protein and 49.4% fat) in order to keep fit throughout the day and to prevent an "overloading" of the digestive tract. In doing so, you avoid too high ups and downs of your blood sugar level. This is very important when you want to lose weight. Take into consideration that the sulphurisation of apricots can harm the content of vital substances, especially the vitamin B complex. Unsulphurated apricots are available in health food shops.
 

However, you should avoid a proper snack in the afternoon. It is said that someone, who has a snack in between, is even hungrier in the evening instead of less hungry.
 

Take into consideration when choosing your dinner that protein keeps you awake, simple carbohydrates, however, raise and lower the insulin level quickly and make you soon hungry again. Therefore, you should eat meals with complex carbohydrates (see below 1.4.4). Never go to bed with a full stomach. At night digestion is slowed. Therefore the meal can perhaps be like a heavy stone in your stomach and disturb the sleep and, in addition, is said to lead to an increase in weight.
   

"Light dinner - long life".
- Worldly wisdom from Scotland -
  

On the other hand, you shouldn’t go to bed so hungry that it could make falling asleep difficult. Instead of eating sweets, you should drink a few sips of red wine, which calms you down before you go to bed and satiates at the same time. A cup of low-fat milk with honey has the same effect because of the tryptophan, which both milk and honey contain.

If you are hungry when you wake up at night, do not eat sweets, since they make you even more awake.
 

Everyone who wants to lose weight during night without straving, should, according to the German authors Pape, Schwarz and others ("Schlank im Schlaf: Die revolutionäre Formel: So nutzen Sie Ihre Bio-Uhr zum Abnehmen"), (publishing house Gräfe & Unzer, 2007) eat for breakfast only carbohydrates, mixed food for lunch and for dinner - which must not be after 8 pm - food containing exclisively protein. Furthermore,these people should do sports in the evening, go to bed as early as possible and avoid any snacks. The growth hormone, whose release is increased by doing sports, then decomposes fat reserves during night. However, I cannot judge if this proves right.

Forewards

Back to contents