What Is the Healthiest Diet?
By Sarah Luber, DO
Tower Health Reading Hospital
Many “diets” have been developed in attempts to help persons lose weight, reduce risk factors for chronic disease, and to improve overall health. Plans such as South Beach Diet, Atkins Diet, and Paleo Diet are widely utilized and have shown short term successes, primarily in weight loss. However, most of these plans inappropriately emphasize a heavy animal protein focus, demonize carbohydrates, and actually contribute to the growing rates of chronic disease in the United States including heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes. Years of research including retrospective and interventional studies, has concluded that a minimally processed, plant-based diet is the healthiest diet with ability to dramatically reduce the risk of all chronic disease.
- The New Four Food Groups: Create a Power Plate
The USDA revised its recommendations with the new Food Guide Pyramid to de-emphasize animal protein and reduce risk for serious health problems. The Physician Committee for Responsible medicine has developed a new “Power Plate” that embodies years of nutrition research, emphasizing four main plant-based food groups: Fruit, Legumes, Whole Grains, and Vegetables.
i. Fruit: Work your way up to eating 3 or more servings of fruit a day. Choose whole fruit over fruit juices to ramp up beneficial fiber content.
ii. Legumes: The goal is to eat 2 or more servings a day of legumes (beans, peas, lentils, etc.). Legumes are also great sources of fiber but also packed with healthy protein, iron, calcium, zinc, and B-vitamins.
iii. Whole grains: Seek out 5 or more servings a day of complex carbohydrates including bread, rice, pasta. Grains are also a great source of protein, fiber, and micronutrients to keep the body running smoothly.
iv. Vegetables: Look for a rainbow of colors among your 4 or more servings of vegetables a day to diversify the nutrient content in foods. As another great source of fiber, vegetables also provide a wide range of nutrients from vitamin C, beta-carotene, riboflavin, iron, calcium, and more.
Tip: Rather than focusing on removing items from one’s diet or depriving oneself of loved foods, start by adding healthier items. As you start feeling the benefits of these foods, healthier items will start to push out the less healthy.
- The Protein Myth
In the short term, very high protein diets have shown success in losing weight, however this comes at a high cost. More is not better. Excess protein has been linked to kidney disease, osteoporosis, kidney stones, and some cancers. A plant-based diet can provide all of the essential amino acids needed to build muscle and body proteins and it is not as complicated to meet your daily protein needs as it may seem. The USDA recommends 0.8 g of protein for two pounds of body weight for adults, which is approximately 47 g for an average 130 lb. female and 62 g for the average 170 lb. male each day. However, the average American consumes approximately 100 to 200 g per day of protein with most of that protein from animal products, which come wrapped up with unhealthy saturated fat, dietary cholesterol, and pro-inflammatory agents. Plant protein is complete; just by eating a variety of plant sources and enough calories, we can easily meet and exceed our daily protein needs regardless of exercise level. Take a look at athletes such as Rich Roll, who is a plant-based ultra-endurance competitor and regarded by some as one of the fittest men in the world.
Tip: Focus on eating a variety of plants (eat the rainbow with a variety of colors on your plate) rather than specifically increasing protein intake.
- Fiber, Fiber, Get Your Fiber
While most of us are oversaturated in protein, many of us are quite deficient in fiber and in many ways should be considered a true epidemic. Fiber is an unsung hero with super powers capable of reducing food cravings, aiding in weight loss, lowering cholesterol, reducing risk of developing cancer, diabetes, and arthritis risk, and keeping our gut microbiome happy and healthy. Fiber helps us feel fuller longer and prevent absorption of toxins during digestion.
Tip: Focus on getting at least 25 g of fiber a day. Start slow and ramp up over weeks to avoid abdominal bloating and cramping, particularly if your gut is unfamiliar with regular fiber. Check out this quick fiber check list to see how well you are doing with daily fiber intake (link to fiber check list document).
- Take the #TowerGimmeFive Challenge
To get you kickstarted in the world of plant-based eating, we are challenging you to commit to eating five servings of fruits and vegetables each day for five days. After completing the challenge, post a boomerang video to Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, include #TowerGimmeFive in your post, and challenge five of your friends to do the same! For every video posted with #TowerGimmeFive, Tower Health will donate a dollar to a local food bank, up to $30,000!
Prizes will also be awarded to randomly selected participants in the form of grocery store gift cards. Five $500 gift cards, 10 $250 gift cards, and 50 $100 gift cards will be distributed to winners, who can choose among GIANT Food Stores, Redner’s Market, Weis Markets, Aldi, Wegman’s, or Trader Joe’s for their prize. Each person is only eligible for one prize, but everyone is free to complete the challenge multiple times. Making a new social media post for each successful five days increases both the amount of money donated to food banks and an individual’s chances of winning a prize.
Tip: Go to https://www.towerhealth.org/serving-communities/gimme-five/ to find out more about the challenge!
About Tower Health
With 11,000 team members, Tower Health consists of Reading Hospital in West Reading; Brandywine Hospital in Coatesville; Chestnut Hill Hospital in Philadelphia; Jennersville Hospital in West Grove; Phoenixville Hospital in Phoenixville; and Pottstown Hospital in Pottstown. It also includes Reading Hospital Rehabilitation at Wyomissing; Reading Hospital School of Health Sciences in West Reading; and a connected network of 2,000 physicians, specialists and providers across 65 convenient locations. For more information, visit www.towerhealth.org.
About Sarah Luber, D.O.
Sarah Luber, D.O. is a passionate physician who serves Tower Health patients, employees, and the community at large with boundless energy and a big heart. After completing her three-year medical residency at Reading Hospital in June 2015 and serving as chief medical resident and a junior faculty member the following year, Dr. Luber was hired as medical director of Reading Hospital’s Employee Wellness Program and as an Internal Medicine faculty member in July 2016. As Tower Health Wellness Medical Director, Dr. Luber studies key factors in employee health and implements popular, creative programs that achieve quantifiable improvement in the health and well-being of Reading Health employees.
