Carbohydrates, good or bad for dieting

Another distinction that some nutritional counselors make is between refined and unrefined carbohydrates. In dieting index weight loss, we prefer to classify carbohydrates as low-, medium-, or high-dieting. However, because you're bound to hear carbohydrates defined as refined and unrefined, this section discusses how the terminology relates to the dieting index.

Refined carbohydrates are more highly processed than unrefined carbohydrates. Processing includes such activities as cooking, milling, and separating the whole food into parts. Examples of refined carbohydrates are white bread, white rice, most packaged breakfast cereals, donuts, cakes, cookies, bagels, fruit and vegetable juices, fruit drinks, soda, and candy. The list goes on. Refined carbs are usually high-dieting, but some can be low, as in vegetable juice and some fruit juices.

Unrefined carbohydrates are those kept in their natural state. In general, the unrefined carbohydrates tend to contain more fiber. Examples of unrefined carbohydrates are whole vegetables and fruit, whole grains, dried peas and beans, and nuts and seeds. Some foods are processed more than others. For example, fruit juice is not processed as much as fruit drinks. Usually unrefined carbs are low-dieting, but not always, so be sure to check the dieting index listings before you eat them.

Pastas

Even though regular pasta is a highly refined, processed carbohydrate, its dieting value can be low, medium, or high, depending on how you cook it. If you cook spaghetti for only 5 to 6 minutes, its low-dieting. Other types of pasta may need slightly more or less cooking time. If you open a can of prepared spaghetti in sauce, those noodles will have a higher dieting index because they're mushy.

Cook pasta just until it softens and you'll be eating a healthier meal. The longer pasta is cooked the more available the starch in the pasta is for quick digestion—exactly what you don't want.

The Good and the Bad

Carbohydrates aren't good or bad; the difference is in how you eat them and how much of them you eat. This is one of the reasons why dieting index weight loss works so well. You don't need to give up your favorite treat food, whether it's white bread, bagels, or candy bars. But you do need to eat them in such a way that you don't cause a quick rise in your blood sugar levels, and you do need to watch portion sizes.

The dieting index gives you a way of managing your blood sugar and insulin levels, thus assuring that you aren't storing fat and also that you continue to lose weight.

One way to do this is to manage your dieting load by meal and by day. You'll be balancing the low-dieting foods with some high and some medium, and overall, you can keep your insulin levels low.

Now's the time to give up the notion of bad and good carbs and of fattening and nonfattening carbs. Instead, accept all carbs as okay, based on how you eat them.

The carbohydrate jewels

By upping your intake of low GI fruit and vegetables, you will not only be on your way to becoming leaner, but you will have a profound effect on your health. The amazing phytonutrients (plant nutrients) that you find in brightly coloured raw organic fruit and vegetables are clever little substances that can protect you from ill health in various ways, although many people's diets are sadly lacking in them.

Phytonutrients can help regulate the immune system, stabilize vitamins in body tissues and protect from serious illnesses, such as such as cancer. They do this by working as antioxidants alongside vitamins A, C, E and D, and the minerals, selenium and zinc. As a team, these powerful compounds have the ability to slow down the damaging oxidative process caused by those 'enemies of a healthy state', the free radicals. Antioxidants can also rid the body of these free radicals, which are the natural waste products of metabolism, which, if left unchecked, can lead to degenerative disease, by causing imbalances on a cellular level.

Take note that these free radicals are also found in overheated oils and fried foods, another good reason to kiss junk food good bye.

They aren't classed as essential nutrients, but without phytonutrients your sense of wellness would be severely compromised.

They work in the body at deep physiological and biochemical levels, and luckily enough are to be found in low-density/low GI fruit and vegetables. Eating these raw wherever possible is the key to maximizing their life- enhancing qualities. Cooking destroys many of the benefits that you will reap if you include a colourful array of energy-boosting raw fruit and vegetables in your daily diet.

Life is a balancing act

So now you have a better understanding of the impact that the wrong carbohydrates can have on your body, and have established that you need to incorporate more of the colourful and low GI fibrous fruit and vegetables in your diet. But man cannot live by carbohydrates alone. You will have to take a close look at the two other macronutrients that work hand-in-hand with carbohydrates to provide energy and nourish the body: protein and fats.

The key to balancing blood-sugar levels, banishing insulin resistance and losing excess weight lies in successfully balancing these three macronutrients.

Becoming a GI Joe

All carbohydrates have a value on what is known as the `glycaemic index' (GI), which indicates how quickly that carbohydrate is metabolized by the body and converted into glucose. The lower a food's GI, the longer it takes to be converted. Foods with the highest GIs are the ones that will have the most profound and immediate effect on your blood-sugar levels. All the carbohydrates on a weight- loss and insulin-balancing regime should come from the lower ranges.

There are two indexes: the glucose standard, which rates glucose as having a GI of 100 and the white bread standard, which is based on white bread being equal to 100. Other carbohydrates are assigned comparative ratios based on these figures. It doesn't really matter which index you adhere to, for they both give a pretty good - and sometimes surprising - insight into the speed with which certain carbohydrates are assimilated into the bloodstream.

Below are a few GI values of common foods, based on the glucose standard. Of course you are not expected to remember each specific food's value, so to make things easier, opposite are two simple tables showing you how to classify fruit and vegetables into those with a low GI value (under 20), those with a medium value (20-60) and those with a high value (over 60).

Density values

Each carbohydrate can also be evaluated by its density value. This is the amount of usable carbohydrate in relation to fibre and water content - the more fibre and water a vegetable or fruit contains, the less usable carbohydrates it will have. The most dense carbohydrate foods are pulses, wholegrains and starchy vegetables, particularly when they are cooked and their fibre is broken down, these will raise your insulin levels, so always be aware of this. The table opposite contains a list of low-density carbohydrates that should form the basis of your carb intake on a low-carb diet.

Not only do many fruits feature highly on the GI scale, but a few should also carry a carbohydrate density warning sign. Bananas, dried fruit and concentrated fruit juices are all a bad idea if you are trying to balance your blood sugar levels. It is best to avoid these totally until your blood sugar and weight have normalized, and then carefully re-introduce them into your diet.

Focus on fibrous vegetables that can be eaten raw or steamed - the type that lose a lot of water whilst cooking. This will mean increasing your intake of leafy green vegetables, such as Swiss chard, green cabbage, kale, bok choy, rocket, spinach and endive.

Food Repair Guide: Baking Part 2

Swiss roll

If you are making a Swiss roll, then line the tin with greaseproof paper, but do ensure that you grease the paper well before pouring in the mixture. Try also to ensure that the oven shelf is level or all the mixture will run to one side. If it does, all is not lost, although it will be rather difficult to roll. When you turn the Swiss roll out, do so onto a tea cloth or piece of greaseproof paper that has been coated well with icing sugar. If not well sugared, the Swiss roll will stick to the cloth or paper and you will have a terrible time rolling it. If you have not greased the paper properly, you will also have a terrible time peeling it off, but patience will usually win the day. Do not worry if the roll is not entirely perfect. As long as you can keep about one third of it intact, that will do for theoutside and no one will see the inside. Dredge it thoroughly with sugar or icing sugar. Or, if it has really fallen apart, pre-slice it before serving so that no one can see.

Failed sponge cake

If, despite your best endeavours, your sponge cake, be it light or rich, is dry, crumbly, flat, lumpy or generally unappealing, do not throw it out. If you are desperate for a complete cake or dessert, cut the sponge into very thin layers, sprinkle each with a little liqueur if for a dessert, and layer very generously with filling so that the cake gets smothered. Then top or ice equally generously and no one will ever know. If you do not need the cake too urgently, keep it to make trifles, tipsy cakes or anything that needs a sponge base. Buried deep enough and soaked comprehensively enough, even the most revolting cake will become quite palatable. Alternatively, crumble it and use it as a topping. When toasted, the crumbs can be used as decoration for almost anything in need of disguise.

This does not apply only to plain sponges. Orange or lemon sponges would be a delicious base for any cream dessert, chocolate, coffee or even gingerbread can be used as a base for 'a trifle with a difference'. Indeed, coffee and chocolate cake could be sliced into fingers, thoroughly dried out in the oven and sandwiched together with some butter icing as biscuits. Any of the above could be used as the base for a baked pudding, but remember that the cake will be sweeter than bread or rice so reduce the amount of sugar.

Failed fruit cakes

Failed fruit cakes are just as adaptable.

Rich fruit cakes often get old and dry out. Do not abandon them to the birds. Cut deep slits in the top of the cake and feed with a mixture of brandy and sherry, or, if you do not want to be too alcoholic, a fruit wine or good fruit cordial. The amount you give the cake will depend on how dry it is, but you can always cut it in half and test the middle.

The same principle can be applied to lighter fruit cakes although one needs to be more temperate. A large quantity of fruit will soak up the liquid and make the whole mixture moist but sponge will merely become soggy, so the greater the proportion of sponge to fruit the less liquid it should be given. It is usually better to ice the cake after it has been — to conceal the tell tale signs.

If a rich fruit cake really is dry beyond redemption, break it up in a bowl, add some suet and a goodly measure of liquor, leave it to soak for 24 hours, then squash it well into a bowl and steam it as a Christmas pudding. It will be a little crumbly and somewhat lighter than the standard, but many people prefer it that way!

Icings

The disaster-prone cook should steer clear of all but glace, butter and royalicing — fondants and their kind are for those with time and expertise to spare.

Glace icing

Glace icing is quick and simple but messy. It is not easy to get the proportion of icing sugar to liquid right to achieve `spreadability' without `runability'.

Always put whatever you are going to ice on a rack so that the extra can run off without getting stuck in a thick frill round the bottom of the cake. Arm yourself with a pot of boiling water and several metal spatulas or flat knives to smooth out the lumps. Inevitably, the wretched stuff will never quite cover the top of the cake in the first run, and when you add the next bit, the first will have dried and the whole thing will go lumpy. Only practice is going to perfect your technique, but smoothing with a spatula dipped in boiling water does help.

Always be ready to decorate or disguise the top with something other than icing — even if only gold and silver balls. Grated chocolate is a good alternative.

Marbling

Marbling the top, if it is reasonable, will distract the eye from any minor blemishes and is easy and impressive in itself. Run a little melted chocolate, or different coloured icing, in parallel lines across the top of the cake. Then, before it is dried, take a knife point and pull it across the cake top in straight lines at right angles to the first lines, thus pulling the lines into a feathered shape. Try it a couple of times on greaseproof paper before you launch into the cake.

If all fails and you make a complete mess of the icing, wait till it is dry, then scrape the whole lot off and start again.

Butter icing

Butter icing is the world's easiest, but it is very rich. Many people prefer to use shortening as the fat base, which keeps it much lighter. The only hazard with butter icing is to get enough flavour into it. Like brandy butter (which is, of course, only a butter icing) nothing is nastier than a butter icing that tastes like sweetened butter. Therefore, taste after you have followed the recipe. If you have used a particularly strongly flavoured butter, you will need more chocolate, lemon or whatever you are using. Never try to spread it straight out of the fridge.

Royal icing

Royal icing is also simple, using egg white rather than water or syrup to moisten the icing sugar. Add a little lemon juice to counteract the sweetness and do not forget a drop or two of glycerine to prevent it hardening totally. If you do have a cake with unglycerined icing, you would be better advised to saw your way through it with a bread knife rather than to try and cut it, when it will shatter and ricochet all over the drawing room and Great Aunt Ethel. Royal icing can always be broken off and replaced with a new batch. Use a small amount of icing to experiment with the colour.

Food still has it all!

We are often given warnings, especially by some companies that sell the 'milkshake' diets, that our food is toxic and poor in nutrient content. They imply that we will all be much better off drinking their shakes rather than eating what Mother Nature has to offer. Ha!

But then on the other hand, some food purists are forecasting that we are all going to develop all sorts of cancers and ambiguous genitalia because of all the chemicals in our foods. They stress that 'organic' is the only way to live. Well, that would be more than excellent, but organically grown produce is not always within reach of all of us, so what now?

Now we face reality. The truth is that not all chemicals and food additives are harmful. Some serve a very useful purpose. Another truth is that, although most producers use pesticides and chemicals in varying degrees, there are still more than sufficient levels of nutrients in fresh or frozen produce to justify their daily consumption! In fact, while the war between producers and food purists continues to rage, scientists have concluded that any potential risk from chemical residues is still outweighed by the benefit of the reduction in chronic diseases and nutrient deficiencies when adequate amounts of fruit and vegetables are consumed.

Avoiding foods for fear of consuming artificial chemicals will definitely result in a high-protein diet, as well as a diet high in fatly, sugary foods. The inevitable conclusion of such a diet is obesity and the resultant long-term diseases related to it, as well as malnutrition. Besides, sugar, starch and meat products are not free from added chemicals. So there, Eat your fresh produce!

Salads: sink or swim

Salads don't guarantee leanness. You can and probably often do, go right over the top with what goes into your salads. Again, establish beforehand what your intention is when you want to eat a salad: is it to be a meal on its own, an addition to the main course or a starter?

Most salad ingredients offer abundant nutrition and very few kilojoules. A large, 100 g pack of lettuce leaves contains a humble 67 kilojoules. Other green vegetables such as baby marrow, green pepper, cucumber and broccoli contain (on average) around 100 kilojoules per 100 g. Thus, enjoying a medium-sized salad bowl filled with a salad made of these ingredients, dressed with an oil-free dressing, will provide you with no more than about 140 kilojoules. This is a real bargain in the healthy slimming stakes. But go one further and dress the salad with two tablespoons of a simple, basic vinaigrette (oil and vinegar) dressing. Instantly you have 'bulked out' your salad with an additional 840 kilojoules - kilojoules you cannot taste as you would taste say a slice of rye bread or a baked potato (that you could enjoy with your salad), and kilojoules that cannot make you feel any fuller.

The plot thickens more when you take the sink-or-swim decision to add delicacies to your salad: cheese, meat, eggs, oily fish and olives. When you want to add any or all of these delicacies, go light on the dressing. Use an oil-free dressing. Furthermore, regard this kind of all-in-one salad as a meal rather than an addition to your meal. In that way you will balance the scales and not experience that sinking feeling when you weigh yourself the following day and find that you have consumed far-far more fat kilojoules than you were aware of. Even a simple, mixed vegetable salad, if dressed heavily with an oily or creamy dressing, will cause your kilojoule intake to soar and your once-crisp, fresh salads to be drowned in fat limp and unappetising.

The bottom line is this: if you choose to have something light such as a salad, keep it light.

Desserts: the big guilt trip

Desserts tend to evoke more feelings of guilt than any other item on the menu. And we know the reason why: most desserts are laden with fat and/or sugar and dessert is not really necessary to satisfy the appetite. It is the proverbial 'cherry on the cake'. Many of us have the mindset that we are only entitled to dessert if we have been 'good'. And very few of us ever feel that we have been 'good', because we feel that being overweight is already a symptom of being 'bad'. So we don't really feel entitled to it, but we have it anyway; it's irresistible; we are addicted to sugar. Then we feel bad about having had it and the guilt trip sets in, a guilt trip that can only be alleviated by some chocolate. By then we feel we are in so deep already that we might as well go all the way - another example of the vicious obesity cycle in full motion!

Follow a few simple rules about dessert and banish the guilt.

• Regard dessert is part of the menu, not 'over and above' it. Then, plan your menu accordingly, bearing in mind that the sugar and fat content of the dessert must make up part of the total intake of fats and carbos of the meal. In this way you will create the correct balance.

• Trade in sugar for fruit. Many fruits offer an abundance of natural sweetness, reducing the need for extra sugar in the recipe.
• If your recipe requires sugar, go for fructose. It is a natural fruit sugar with a very slow GI, thus keeping your blood sugar levels more even and thus preventing a further sweet craving later on.
• Trade in cream for yoghurt. Even Greek yoghurt contains much less fat (and therefore kilojoules) than cream. It also tastes cool and refreshing on the palate, ideal after any meal.
• Trade in ice cream for frozen yoghurt or sorbet. The fat content and therefore the kilojoule content is much less.
• Bear balance in mind. A heavy meal warrants a very light dessert - such as sorbet or fruit salad with yoghurt - and a light meal might justify the enjoyment of a small portion of richness - such as cheesecake or chocolate mousse.
• Don't have an all-or-nothing approach. It leads to a feeling of being deprived and that leads to bingeing. Have some - but just a little - and enjoy it without any guilt. Remember, guilt trips could cause hunger pains!

Making the most of meat

Meat only poses two possible threats, namely its visible fat and the fact that too much of any good thing is .... well, not much good. Eating too much meat means you are eating too much saturated fat, absorbing too many unwanted fat kilojoules and pushing your protein intake through the roof.

Enjoyed in moderation though, lean red meat (with all visible fat removed) is quite a bright star in the nutrient skies. It is rich in potassium, B vitamins, zinc and iron and an excellent source of protein. Served in small, lean portions with the addition of dietary fibre, red meat will enhance your health rather than harm it.

Fibre, as found in grains, dried beans and vegetables, helps to fight heart disease, digestive disorders and certain types of cancer. These foods, when served with meat, will assist your body in coping with the hidden fats in the meat. Fibre-rich foods will also help you feel satisfied faster and for longer - an excellent way in which to help you control your meat intake and so too, those unwanted fat kilojoules.

You can make some clever cuts in your meat consumption, and I am not referring to cutting it out. I mean buying and eating cuts that contain less of the hidden fats (often called the marble fat) and cholesterol-causing saturated fat. Be 'pound' wise and buy clever cuts. Those are the hind-quarter cuts such as fillet, rump, topside and leg of lamb. They contain the least hidden fats. However, even after the visible fat has been removed, you'd be surprised to know how much fat is hidden in what you deem 'pure' meat.

The cooking method also dictates how much fat you will eventually consume. Red meat actually loses weight during cooking or grilling on a rack, and depending on the period of time for which the meat is exposed to the heat, between 7 and 23% of the fat could drip away. That is provided of course you don't consume the pan drippings! With stews and casseroles, in which the fat becomes part of the sauce, no dripping away of fat takes place and it seeps into the cooking liquids. Those you end up eating by way of the gravy or a sauce. And needless to say, frying meat in fat or oil obviously adds even more fat (and unwanted) kilojoules to your unsuspecting body - rather a stupid thing to do if you want to be lean and healthy. So consider your cut and its cooking method with great care if you care about your weight.

Best of all course, is to go wild. it you enjoy red meat, 'have venison often. A very large serving of grilled game steak (300 g) will only add a humble 9,6 g of fat to your intake, whereas a similar serving of grilled beef steak (rump, fat removed) could add as much as 30 g of fat.

Similarly, if you enjoy poultry, be game for game. Ostrich, pheasant and quail are ultra-lean and 300 g of roast game will only provide you with about 10,5 g of fat. On the other hand, if you roasted (with the skin intact) and consumed its domesticated counterpart the chicken, the exact same size of serving will happily lay in the region of 39 g of fat on your body.

Be cautioned, though; game and venison tend to be dry - as a result of their low fat content - so don't defeat the whole object by adding buffer, oil, bacon, lard or cream to the dish. Use wine, fruit and stocks instead to moisten the meat. As for a sauce or gravy, the stock of game or venison is delightfully robust in flavour. Reduce your cooking liquid by boiling it rapidly with garlic, aromatic peppercorns and herbs until richly brown and thickened to your liking. A wiser, leaner and more nourishing bet than a creamy sauce, for sure.

Don't inhibit your^- nutrients

There is no point in trying to follow a healthy diet if you are not aware of the fact that the absorption of certain nutrients can be inhibited. In other words, their assimilation and uptake by the body can be hindered by some or other bad food combination with nutrient inhibitors.

The nutrients most at risk are calcium and iron. Thus, try not to consume calcium-rich foods with alcohol, high-fibre cereals or red meats - they restrict the absorption of calcium. This means for example, that it is not wise to combine cheese and wine or cereal and milk. Serve wine with low-fat meat, chicken, fish, fruit and vegetable snacks and your cereal with fruit juice instead of milk. Vitamin D, however, aids the absorption of calcium. As sunlight is an excellent way to improve your vitamin D levels, serve lean, fruity milkshakes around your pool instead of fruit juices. That way your body will benefit fully from your clever combinations.

The absorption of iron is hampered by the simultaneous intake of tea, red wine and high-fibre cereals, so don't serve, say, iron-rich liver with whole wheat bread or brown rice, Rather serve it with potatoes or white rice. On the other hand, foods rich in vitamin C assist in the absorption of non-heam iron (iron derived from vegetables), so combine those foods for optimum nutrition. For instance, a salad made from iron-rich spinach, vitamin C-rich tomatoes and sweet peppers would be an excellent choice for super-A nutrient absorption without any threat of inhibitors.

How Fresh is Fresh? (Vital vitamins)

Almost every day, we're bombarded by television and radio programmes, books, newspapers and magazine articles, all telling us that the way to good health is a low-fat, high-fibre diet loaded with fresh vegetables and fruit. So we scour the supermarket shelves for the cream of the crop and (hopefully) plan our family menus around the suggested mix of 12% protein, 30% fat with the 58% balance made up of complex carbohydrates in the form of breads and other grains, pulses, fruits and vegetables. Many of us have taken things one step further, reducing animal protein, lowering fats and upping the quota of fresh produce. In theory at least, we're doing all the right things.

There's just one potential fly in the ointment. Optimum nutrition relies on optimum foods - in many instances, ones that are as close to their natural state as possible and that are on our forks almost as soon as they're out of the ground. In this respect we are in the hands of our suppliers and we owe it to ourselves to shop wisely, to make informed choices on available options (wilted 'fresh' carrots - or would frozen or canned be better?) and to prepare and cook fresh foods as carefully and conservatively as we can.

But before we begin to look at the passage of produce from farmer to family, let's consider the foods in which freshness is a real priority:

Vital vitamins

First on the list has to be the fruit and vegetable group. Although this group is one of our most important sources of vitamins (notably A and C) and minerals, we know there is a deterioration in the nutrient content of the produce that starts as soon as it's harvested and which can be accelerated by poor storage, inadequate transportation and excessive exposure to climatic extremes. Whilst few would suggest that a four-day-old carrot isn't worth eating, none would argue with the fact that a four-minute old carrot has more to offer!

Remembering that one of the most critical factors affecting vitamin loss is the storage of vegetables and fruits after harvesting. Asparagus can lose up to 50% of its vitamin C after one week of storage at 0 °C and a staggering 91% if stored at 21 ^°C. Potatoes, too, are vulnerable: stored at room temperature they lose about 15% of their vitamin C content each month. And apples, when stored under domestic conditions, are reduced to about one-third of their vitamin C value after only 2-3months.

Even worse, green cabbage loses almost all of its vitamin C after just a few days. Orange juice, as long as it is stored in sealed containers, retains almost all of its vitamin C, but once thecontainer is opened, between 30-50% will be lostin one week.

However, since munching away in a farmer's field isn't a practical option for most of us, we need to know how to make the best and freshest choices from available produce. Let's consider a quick comparison between the food values of vitamins A and C, plus the iron and calcium content, of 8 popular fruits and vegetables in their fresh state and when they are cooked.

The most interesting fact to emerge is that in almost every case, the fresh foodstuff offers higher values (in the few cases where cooked values appear to be higher, it's primarily because the raw food has become more compact as part of the cooking process).

Apart from fruits and vegetables, however, there are other foodstuffs in which freshness is unquestionably a desirable factor. Top of the list are the protein foods - meat, chicken, fish and eggs. Freshness here doesn't relate so much to the nutrient value of the foodstuff as to its safety. (For example, egg consumption in the UK recently took a terrific tumble when the then Minister of Health, Edwina Currie,linked them to possible salmonella risk.)

Then there are the foods presented to us as fresh yet which have undergone some form of processing, preserving or packaging treatment. These include fresh fruit juices, fresh milk and herbs and spices, which have been subjected to vacuum packaging, pasteurisation or irradiation, among other processes.

Finally, there are frozen foods. Not technically fresh, for many of us some frozen products have become more a question of necessity than convenience. Really fresh fish is difficult to obtain inland, while fresh peas, for example, have a limited season and an even more limited availability countrywide, yet offer excellent sources of fibre, minerals including iron (commonly inadequate in women), and vitamins. In the absence of fresh, the frozen variety, which retain most of these benefits, are the closest to the real thing that we may be able to get.

Having established that fresh is undeniably best, and extending that principle to the point of saying freshest is best, let's now look at the methods whereby fruit and vegetable produce makes its way from the farm to your shopping basket, for this is where we need to know who, among all our suppliers, is going to give us the freshest of choices.

Cancer – Can Your Diet Make the Difference?

Firstly, can it really be said with confidence that if you eat much less, or much more, of a particular foodstuff - or combination of foodstuffs - you will become immune or less at risk to this or that cancer? To begin with, it has been proved beyond doubt that cancer can be prevented in experimental animals through dietary changes. In particular, reduced energy (kilojoule) and fat intakes and increased consumption of fibre- rich foods and certain vitamins have been found to inhibit the development of cancer. The question is, can these findings be appliedto human beings?

Here there are two very important questions: Firstly, to what extent is there a link between human diet and cancer, and secondly, how drastic are the changes we have to make to our eating patterns in order to bring about a significant drop in cancer development?

The first question is possibly easier to answer than the second. Researchers are now convinced that, in dietary terms, humans share the same cancer risks as animals. Simply put, these are:

• eating too much food in general and too much fat in particular
• not eating enough of the fibre contained in grains, legumes (beans, peas, lentils), fruit and vegetables
• low intakes of certain vitamins

The fat, vitamin and fibre factors

A high fat intake leads to a high concentration of faecal bile acids which can, under certain circumstances, act as carcinogens (cancer- producing substances). A low fibre intake results in a high faecal pH value, which favours the development of carcinogens; it also causes waste to take longer to move through the bowel, allowing time for cancer-causing substances to develop and take effect. On the other hand, a low intake of certain vitamins has a negative effect on the mechanisms which combat damaging reactions in the body's cells.

High fat diets - especially those high in saturated fats - have been linked to cancers of the breast, prostate and colon-rectum and low fibre diets to the latter in particular. A diet low in vitamin C is associated with gastric cancer, while one that is deficient in vitamin A seems to create favourable conditions for prostate cancer; a lack of vitamin D is linked to cancer of the colon. The mechanisms involved in all these processes are far from clear and much research still has to be done. (See also The Cabbage Patch Diet on page 187.)

The challenge to change

Authorities on cancer such as the US National Cancer Institute, the 1988 US Surgeon-General's Report and the 1989 Report of the UK COMA (Committee on Medical Aspects of Food Policy) have laid down guidelines for dietary changes which they regard as vital in the fight against cancer. Firstly, they maintain that fat should supply only 25-30% - instead of the present 40⁰/a - of our total food intake. In effect, this reduction by a third or so would bring our fat consumption to the level of the poorest people in the big cities in the 1920s! No fall in fat intake has occurred recently in Western populations.

For a marked fall, there would have to be a big increase in the intake of carbohydrate, or starchy, foods. But as mentioned above, our bread consumption is low - 120-150g or 3 to 4 slices daily - and possibly decreasing. Why has it fallen? Firstly, there has been a marked increase in the consumption of more 'palatable' foods such as dairy produce, meat, fish and eggs and secondly, the modern era's obsession with slimness has led to the (erroneous) belief that bread is specially fattening. It is invariably one of the first foods to be restricted or cut out totally in any attempts at weight loss.

In practical terms, to reduce our fat intake to the recommended levels, the average person would have to eat a good 50% less of all visible fat - butter, margarine, spreads and obvious fat on meat - than at present. The realization that changes in this area must be large, not trivial, has been underlined by recent studies which show that in the case of breast cancer, only a very low fat intake which supplies as little as 25% of energy (50-60g fat daily), is likely to give protection.

What about fibre? The experts recommend that it be increased from the present 10-15g to 25-30g or more daily, through a higher consumption of fibre-containing foods, cereal products (wholewheat bread, brown rice and unrefined breakfast cereals), legumes, vegetables and fruit. This means adopting a diet similar to that of strict vegetarians. In the USA, surveys show that only half of the population eat one serving of fruit and one serving of 'garden' vegetables on any one day - yet four or five helpings arerecommended. The fact of the matter is that in most countries, there have been no significant increases in the amounts of plant foods eaten daily.

The picture is much the same when it comes to intakes of vitamins and mineral salts. Admittedly, pill manufacturers are doing a roaring trade, but as any doctor will tell you, that is not the way to get your vitamins. Nature has provided us with an abundance of fruit and vegetables which, apart from being excellent sources of vitamins and fibre, are a good deal lighter on the pocket than the packaged variety. In addition, some vegetables have been found to be particularly effective in fighting diet-related cancers because of their high concentrations of certain vitamins.