The bewildering topic of a healthy diet

The field of nutrition is so bewildering today. Not only are we confused, but many don't have a clue as to how to get started in improving the nutrition in their family.

What baffles people the most is the contradictory nature of "Healthy Diets." You have the Atkins Diet, which promotes lots of meat, fat and vegetables, and the vegan diet that shuns anything "with a face on it," focusing on grains, vegetables, fruits and processed fake animal products. The Raw Food/Fruitarian approach embraces eating right off the plant, and cooking nothing, whereas a Macrobiotic diet warns against eating anything raw.

The Paleo and Gluten-Free diets advise against eating grain, whereas the South Beach, Zone and Mediterranean accept grains, as long as they are the "right kind" of grains. Juice only or liquid diets are just that, whereas most believe you need good dense foods to be healthy and have a strong digestive stimulus. And, what about the Cookie Diet, Blood Type Diet and the Zone diets? Well, they're in a class of their own!

So what do we do with all this confusing information? Where do we get started, and how do we implement these diets into real life, busy lifestyles? To address just those three questions would take a book, but I'll try to give some guidelines in a few words.

I like to use time as a measurement. Not time in a kitchen because that is so different today than hundreds of years ago when kitchen time occupied most of the day. But time in centuries. From archeological studies, we have concluded that ancient man was stronger, endured longer and wasn't encompassed with the variety of illnesses that we have today. We have the advantage of understanding hygiene and contamination and having rescue measures not known even a hundred years ago, that prolongs our life when certain diseases would have meant a quicker demise. So with this in mind, what did they do that was right? Knowing this helps us make intelligent decisions with our foods.

First of all, they didn't chemically preserve foods, they didn't create "super foods" in a laboratory, they didn't have chemical colorants and flavor enhancers, and they didn't have quick, microwaveable foods. What they did have, they took from the ground. In the scriptures and from archeological studies we have learned that they ate dates, olives and olive oil, beans, wheat, rye, corn, barley, lentils, onions, salt, cucumbers, fish, fowl, beef, goat, lamb, venison, etc. They survived.

They cooked things lightly, cultured them, dried them or consumed them raw. All of these approaches maintained the nutritional value of the foods. They ate less, because there was more nutritional density. They didn't have to put their taste buds on hyper mode. What they ate was simple; for survival, not for entertainment.

In the interest of space, we will cover the rest of this topic in a class tonight on implementing good food in the kitchen. "Kitchen Transitions" at 7 p.m. today, Oct. 24 in Coeur d'Alene. Fee: $10. RSVP: (208) 765-1994.

Holly Carling is a Doctor of Oriental Medicine, Licensed Acupuncturist, Doctor of Naturopathy, Clinical Nutritionist and Master Herbologist with more than 32 years of experience. Carling is currently accepting new patients and offers natural health-care services and whole food nutritional supplements in her Coeur d'Alene clinic. Visit Carling's website at www.vitalhealthandfitness.com to learn more about Carling, view a list of upcoming health classes and read other informative articles. Carling can be reached at (208) 765-1994 and would be happy to answer any questions regarding this topic.