Go Vegan 2000!

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New Year’s Diet Resolutions:

Beating the Odds

By Neal D. Barnard, M.D.

 

Thinking about your New Year’s resolutions? You’re in good company.

 

We humans have been vowing to change this or that about ourselves every new year

as far back as four millennia ago. In ancient Babylonia, for instance, where

the holiday was tied to spring planting and priests prayed to the agriculture

god for bountiful crops, folks often promised to be better about returning farm

tools.

 

Although these days we’re more likely to think about cutting back on dessert

than returning our neighbor’s sickle, the challenges of turning over a new leaf

haven’t changed: How do we keep our New Year’s promises?

 

As a psychiatrist and clinical researcher, I’ve learned much from my patients

about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to changing habits—especially

dietary habits, the changing of which is, of course, always a popular a New

Year’s resolution. Although many folks have trouble sticking with their promises

to lose weight and eat more healthfully, it needn’t be that way. Here are a few

tips to remember if those are your goals:

 

Forget about eating less, just eat differently.

 

Whether you’re looking to shed some extra weight or simply maintain your health,

we can take a lesson from many other countries. In Asia, traditional diets

aren’t based on chicken, burgers, or even fish. Rice and vegetables are the

dietary staples, and the healthiest of all diets, hands down, is the vegetarian

one. Studies show a plant diet not only reduces one’s risk of cancer, heart

disease, hypertension, diabetes, and other major diseases, but it’s also good

for keeping the weight off. In fact, vegetarians are, on average, a good 10

percent leaner than omnivores.

 

The great thing about eating vegetarian is that typically you can lose weight

without actually cutting back on how much you eat. If you simply replace animal

products such as chicken, beef, milk, and pork (even the lower-fat selections)

with beans, vegetables, pasta, and rice, you’ll burn calories faster and reduce

your fat intake.

 

Don’t underestimate yourself.

 

On matters of diet, there’s a lot of less-than-helpful advice out there. One

common misconception is that people lack the willpower to make big changes. In

fact, research shows otherwise.

 

Four years ago, two colleagues and I reviewed many of the research studies in

which heart patients were asked to switch to low-fat foods. Our findings clearly

showed that participants in studies with stricter requirements (such as less

fat) did better than those in studies with more modest goals.

 

Focus on the short term.

 

If making a lifetime commitment to a new way of eating sounds tough, focus

instead on adopting this plan for just a few weeks. Once you start enjoying

payoffs such as more energy, weight loss, lower cholesterol levels, reduced

blood pressure, and better digestion, you’ll be more motivated to stick with

your new food choices. (Support from family and friends and regular exercise

will help even more.)

 

While it’s true “healthy” diets often get a bad rap as being untasty, the bad

rap really belongs to what’s known as the typical “heart patient” diet. That’s

where your doctor tells you to take the skin off your chicken and broil it. No

wonder heart patients grumble when they hear what’s for dinner!

 

We’re not talking about bland broiled chicken or fish, night after night. We’re

talking about an exciting new way of eating, in which you’ll discover hundreds

of new recipes that are easy to fix, quite delicious, and often cheaper than

meat.

 

From grilled portobello burgers to eggplant curry, from black bean tamales to

Thai noodle soup, there’s a tasty new world out there. Trust me. Once you forgo

animal fat and cholesterol, you’ll lose your taste for it. And once you start

reaping the rewards of your new diet, you’ll wonder why you waited until this

New Year’s to make your resolution.

 

 

 

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