My New "No Regrets" Diet

Many people have asked me how my diet has changed since being diagnosed with colon cancer. I don't want to bore you with the details of what I used to eat, but I can tell you that my diet has changed a lot over this past year. Here are the highlights of what my new "no regrets" diet looks like these days:

1) My #1 goal every day is to eat a variety of whole foods that come from the Earth. Most days I do a pretty good job.
2) Which means that I rarely eat processed foods anymore -- the exceptions to this rule being that I still eat healthy breakfast cereals fairly often (like Total, Grape Nuts or Shredded Wheat) since there is no getting around the fact that they are convenient. And occasionally I still indulge in some processed snacks (like a handful of Goldfish crackers or a Zone bar) -- again, mostly because they are so darn convenient and yummy.
3) I also rarely eat meat, but have not given it up all together. I eat some sort of meat (e.g., turkey sandwich for lunch, chicken or salmon for dinner, etc) maybe 2-3 times a week in a "heavy" week and I treat the meat serving more as a side dish than the main entry. I also try to limit how much I eat of other animal products such as butter, eggs, dairy milk. So for example, instead of dairy milk I have switched to rice milk, almond milk and soy milk and I eat eggs about once a month rather than a few times a week like I used to.
4) I eat loads more veggies and fruits now than I used to.
5) I eat lots of whole grains, such as breads, wild rice, whole wheat pasta, steel-cut oatmeal, etc. that contain minimal ingredients and are completely unprocessed. So, for example, the very yummy bread that we eat daily contains a total of only six super-healthy, completely - pronounceable, from-the-Earth ingredients: freshly stone ground whole wheat berries, water, unbleached wheat flour, honey, yeast, sea salt, and nothing else!
6) I choose organic options whenever possible.
7) I rarely eat sugar anymore and when I do I try to eat only foods that are sweetened with cane sugar rather than refined sugar. This is probably the single biggest change in my diet, since I used to eat some form of sugar every day, at almost every meal. Now, instead of cookies or other sweets for dessert, I try to eat things like dried fruit, nuts, applesauce, etc.
8) And lastly, I never really worry about carbs versus fats versus proteins. I really don't. I think that Atkins (and South Beach and other such diets) are a complete crock. Humans have been eating carbohydrates and fats and protein for centuries; it's just that we have been eating these macro-nutrients in the form of real foods from the Earth, rather than processed foods from manufacturing plants. I figure that as long as I am doing the other six things on my list well, these macro-nutrients will work themselves out.

A friend recently forwarded me a New York Times article written by Michael Pollan (author of The Omnivore's Dilemma) called "Unhappy Meals" in which he describes my new diet perfectly. The article also paints a pretty vivid picture of why this is my diet.

I really, really urge you to read it. At first glance, it looks lengthy but it won't take you long (I read it in about an hour with numerous distractions from both boys) and, as far as I am concerned, it's probably the most important article you can read about food. And if, after you have read it, you want even more information, check out Michael Pollan's new book, In Defense of Food, which further elaborates on the details of the article.

Click here for the article. And for easier reading, click on the "Print" option just to the right of the article and it will open up a new window with the article in printable format.