A healthy way of eating

BAILA LAZARUS EDITOR

Simple sugars or complex carbohydrates. Essential fatty acids or trans-fatty acids. Udo's oil or flax seed oil. Staying healthy, keeping fit and eating well seems to be getting more complicated by the day. To help sort through some of the numerous options offered to consumers today, the Bulletin spoke to certified personal trainer and registered nutritionist Aura Ziv.

Ziv is one of those unusual and, from some perspectives, quite lucky, people who has known exactly what she wanted to do since she was 10. And she's doing it.

Interested in health and diet from that young age, she has defined her path in life by this goal.

Originally from South Africa, Ziv came to Vancouver three years ago. She now runs her own health consulting company, True Health, and counsels both individuals and corporate groups on how to improve their well-being.

"Good health comes from lifestyle choices and changes," Ziv said. "People often eat what they've been taught, without thinking about what's good for them."

Stress level and nutritional habits are the two main points Ziv underscores when it comes to dealing with health. When someone is stressed, they're eating on the run and not making their body a priority.

"It's a vicious cycle," said Ziv. "The more you take care of your body, the more you can handle stress, but the more stressed you are, the more you are unable to take care of yourself."

Today, the more convenient foods tend to be ones that aren't as healthy and that's contributing to the difficulty in maintaining a balanced diet. One of the things people talk about and often focus on most is reducing fat in their diet. While that's important, what's key is to note the different types of fat.

"Up until about half a century ago, before the processing of food, our diet consisted of about 40 per cent fat," said Ziv. "And that's good fat – from nuts, seeds, fish. The amount and quality of fat was much better."

Now we have a lot of saturated fat, she explained, which comes from meat and dairy. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as long as it's consumed in limited amounts and as long as it's balanced with better fat.

The right kind of fat is essential fatty acids (EFAs), found in foods like salmon, nuts (but not peanuts and pistachios) and seeds such as sunflower seeds. These help reduce LDL (commonly referred to as "bad" cholesterol) and increase HDL (what Ziv cutely refers to as "happy" density lipids), which helps the body decrease fat percentage.

But, because EFAs are heat and light sensitive, it can't be used in processing, so, with more consumption of processed, rather than natural, foods, we are not getting as much EFA as we used to or as we should, said Ziv.

Hydrogenated shortening, which is found in dozens, if not hundreds of supermarket products, such as margarine and breakfast cereals, and trans-fatty acids, found in many junk foods, are other fats that Ziv suggests we avoid because they are indigestible.

"Food has enzymes and your body has enzymes and they come together like a lock and key. And that's how you digest [food]," explained Ziv. The body doesn't recognize hydrogenated shortening as digestible enzymes, she said. "Any foreign substance that goes into the body is dealt with by the immune system, which comes and breaks it down. So, constantly there's an overtaxing of the immune system because it's working when it really shouldn't need too." An overworked immune system, said Ziv, leads to things like allergies and tiredness, although she added that hydrogenated oil is just one of several products added to processed foods that tax the immune system in this way.

The biggest factor that tends to affect what people choose to eat is their motivation, said Ziv. "If someone leaves the office and goes downtown, if they're feeling really motivated, they'll find something [to eat] that's healthy. It's out there."

One example Ziv offers is Steamworks or Steamrollers, chains that offer steamed wraps, vegetables, etc.; or Jugo Juice, which offers nutritional shakes. If you have to sneak into a fast food outlet, select one that offers salad. Although Ziv is quick to add, "I wouldn't recommend it every day."

One eating habit that more people and food outlets seem to be trying, and which Ziv swears by, are shakes or smoothies that combine the nutrients and good fatty acids that you would need to start your day instead of a greasy fried egg, sugar-added fruit yogurt or refined breakfast cereal. A typical shake would have plain (unflavored) soy milk, fresh juice, banana or other fruit and perhaps organic, plain yogurt. Add in something like Udo's oil for your essential fatty acids and perhaps some flax seed for fibre and you're good to go. Max's restaurant, on 8th Avenue near Cambie, has started offering such shakes and it's an easy way to grab a healthy snack that you can take on the road with you and will fill you up.

"This is an incredible benefit," said Ziv. "Shakes are a great way to get nutrition because they're absorbed easily and you can get a very good balance of nutrients."

If you haven't tried one, there a few things to ask for: Are they using a whey-based protein or a soy protein? If you have trouble absorbing diary-based products, ask for soy, as whey is derived from dairy. Ask if they offer some sort of essential fatty acid additive, such as Udo's oil. Many won't have this yet, but it's a good habit to get into. And if you make morning smoothies at home, you can buy EFA oil in health food stores such as Capers.

Here are some healthy lifestyle choices Ziv recommends:

• Drink at least eight glasses of water each day.

• Eat smaller meals, such as five per day, rather than three. This will help curb your hunger more.

• Add protein to every meal. This prevents you from feeling hungry and can greatly reduce caloric intake by helping keep blood sugar levels more balanced.

• Include fibre in your diet from fruits, vegetables and grains to provide roughage for your digestive system to naturally cleanse itself. Fibre reduces the risk of colon cancer. Fruits and vegetables also contain natural digestive enzymes to help break down the nutrients your body needs. Choose whole grains, such as wild rice, over white or brown rice, as they contain more fibre.

• Select complex proteins, found in chicken, fish, eggs, cheese, seeds, nuts, legumes and soybeans. They help stabilize blood sugar levels, curb junk food cravings, boost the immune system and help build and maintain lean body tissue.

• Avoid carbohydrates that occur from processed foods that contain a lot of sugar. These are convenient to eat but contain little or no nutrient value. They break down in the blood stream quickly causing insulin spiking and spurring on more hunger.

• Choose complex carbohydrates, which will provide a better, sustained energy source and which are higher in their nutrient value. These help reduce cholesterol, fight heart disease, diminish risk of cancer and help keep you fit. Some examples are bananas and whole grains (oats, brown rice).

• Aim for about one cup of green, leafy vegetables (spinach, kale, broccoli) per day. These are high in cancer-preventing anti-oxidants.

• Try and get a good night's sleep. Losing sleep causes the body to produce cortisol, a stress hormone that helps you wake up in the morning. This causes future sleep to be unrestful, depletes the muscles and leads to fat storage around the stomach area. Appetite can increase due to irregular hormonal fluctuations, and tiredness can result in an increase in eating in order to gain more energy.

• Opt for organic foods that won't have steroids, antibiotics or hormones. Growth hormones that might be present in a non-organic piece of meat, for example, can actually cause you to gain more weight than you would eating a similar-sized piece of organic meat. Select organic eggs over omega-3 eggs because the benefit of omega-3 in those eggs is minimal.

• Grill or bake foods rather than frying them.

Ziv can be contacted at [email protected], 604-562-2872.

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