Our experts gave only a moderate priority rating to avoiding snacks and eating three square meals a day. It seems the nutrition masters are trying to tell us something: What you eat is much more important than how or when you eat.
Men’s Health went to over 300 experts and asked them what makes for a healthy diet. Here are the actions they recommend. The higher the number, the greater its importance.
Score
Action
High Priority
79
Control calories to control weight
76
Reduce all dietary fats
71
Increase physical activity
71
Enjoy your food
70
Eat a balanced diet
69
Get the RDAs of vitamins and minerals
65
Reduce saturated fats
65
Limit [...]
Many nutrition hazards you read or hear about on the 11 o’clock news aren’t worth paying attention to, according to our experts. For example, avoiding trans-fatty acids (found in stick margarine) and tropical oils drew only moderate priority ratings from the nutrition authorities, despite their getting big play in the news, Again, it’s much [...]
Fish is lower in saturated fat than meat, and the oil in fish—especially cold-water varieties such as salmon and mackerel—helps your cardiovascular system by keeping blood from clotting and preventing hardening of the arteries, IF you do eat meat, the experts recommend limiting portions to three of four ounces choosing lean cuts such as flank [...]
Insoluble of soluble? It doesn’t matter how you get your fiber. What’s important is that you do get it. “People eat so little fiber, we’ll take anything,” says Dr.Blackburn. “Whatever you can find –some peas in your stew—put them in!”
A high-fiber diet fills you up without filling you out, keeps you regular, helps lower your [...]
While many people are worried about pesticides on fruit and vegetables, the experts rated it 34 out of 44 on their list of priorities.
More than three-quarters of the nutritionists thought it wise to avoid raw foods, particularly eggs, meat and seafood. Raw eggs and chicken can harbor salmonella bacteria, a common cause of food poisoning. [...]
The nation’s top nutritionists plainly don’t support prohibition. But they’re staunch believers in moderation when it comes to alcohol. “There’s no evidence, unless you are driving, that drinking alcohol in limited quantities is bad for you,” says Judith S. Stern, Sc.D., a registered dietitian and professor of nutrition at the University of California, Davis. Alcohol [...]
Cutting cholesterol scored surprisingly low. Only 14 percent of the experts rated it Extremely Important. It’s not that cholesterol is insignificant, but, again, if you follow the priorities outlined above, you’ll have already taken care of it. Those polled felt that excessive concern about this issue to the exclusion of all others could lead you [...]
If you’ve never been able to keep straight the difference between saturated, unsaturated, monounsaturated and poly-unsaturated fats, here’s good news: You don’t have to. The trendy notion that you should trade saturated fats for heart-smarter monounsaturated and polyunsaturated ones is “putting the cart before the horse,” according to Dr.Blackburn. Most of the foods that are [...]
You’ve heard the old nutritionists’ creed: Balance your diet among the four food groups, and make sure you get the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of vitamins and minerals. These concepts are certainly not passé; roughly 90 percent of those surveyed said they’re still high priority. Yet those notions now clearly take a backseat to cutting [...]