To eat meat or not to eat meat? Thats a question many people ask when trying to follow a healthy diet. For some, its a simple answerthose strictly vegan or vegetarian say no, and those who love steak, burgers, and more say yes. But for those who eat meat sometimes, the answer is a little more complicated. Enter: the flexitarian diet, a semi-vegetarian eating style, in which you eat plant-based most of the time and meat occasionally.

This diet can be a game changer for runners looking to enjoy the best of both worlds: eating meat and following a plant-based dieta pretty welcoming way of eating. To find out what works best and to help you master this approach, we sifted through the research and spoke with two registered dietitians including the one who coined the term.

This eating style imitates a vegetarian diet but allows for more flexibility, hence the name flexitarian (a combination of the words flexible and vegetarian). The diet encourages individuals to eat more plant foods while occasionally eating meat a few times a week. It was introduced in 2010 by Dawn Jackson Blatner, R.D.N, author of The Flexitarian Diet, who says she wrote her book because she wanted to eat a healthy diet similar to a vegetarian, but with a little more meat and a lot more flexibility.

I call it positive nutrition. Its more focused on what youre supposed to eat more of, and not so much about what youre cutting out, so thats the heartbeat of it. Its a pro-plant diet, not anti-meat, says Blatner.

As a flexitarian, the main goal is to eat more plant foods, so this means adding more fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains, lentils, and beans to your diet while still enjoying eggs, fish, red meat, pork, and poultry in moderation.

There are no hard and fast rules to practicing a flexitarian diet. Ultimately how you practice this diet will depend on how much meat you want to keep eating. But if youre looking for a few pointers on how to keep up with this eating style, heres how Blatner suggests you approach it:

First, as we mentioned before, think about eating more plant foods, and less animal meats. Also, consider cutting back on faux meats, sugary foods, and processed foods. Ultra processed foods, including plant-based meat alternatives, dont have as many natural nutrients as whole foods, Blatner says, so for flexitarians to maximize nutrition, its best to eat more whole foods.

To start the flexitarian diet, you dont have to cut any animal protein from your diet if you dont want to. Beginners can eat about 26 ounces of meat or poultry a week, which is the same amount recommended by The Dietary Guidelines for Americans for those who eat 2,000 calories a day and follow the Mediterranean diet. Its actually not saying eat any less than what everybodys supposed to eat, Blatner says.

Kicking up your plant intake (the goal of the diet), can be as easy as having fruit with your breakfast or as a snack throughout the day, Blatner says. And when making some of your favorite meals, consider swapping out animal protein for plant protein. Once in a while instead of putting chicken on your salad, maybe you put chickpeas. Instead of making a steak stir fry or chicken stir fry, maybe you do edamame or tofu, she recommends.

Once you get the hang of that, then advance to the next level and cut back even more on eating animal proteins. Advanced flexitarians eat about 18 ounces of animal protein each week, which is about six servings of a chicken breast (about the size of a deck of cards) or three 6-ounce filet mignons. Those Blatner considers to be flexitarian experts eat about 9 ounces of animal protein, which is about three pieces of chicken breast per week. But the key is to supplement animal protein with protein-rich plant foods to maintain a balanced energizing diet.

It never goes to zero because this is flexitarian vibes. But you can again, go up and down depending on what youre doing, Blatner says. Remember there arent any strict rules, so you can eat 26 ounces of animal protein one week and less the next. Its all about how flexible youre willing to be.

By now its clear the biggest benefit this diet has to offer is flexibility, but it isnt the only advantage. There are health and social advantages to practicing this diet, too.

Many people prefer this style of eating as opposed to vegan or vegetarian because it means theyll have more options to choose from when dining out or attending a catered event. This diet really molds to your lifestyle, so if you want to eat meat at a barbecue or baseball game you have the flexibility to do so, Blatner says.

Also, the flexitarian diet is a great starting point for someone whos transitioning to a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle. I like to encourage clients to start with the flexitarian eating pattern before making a 100% shift to a vegan diet to see what works, what doesnt and to make it more individualized to their lifestyle and nutritional needs, says Yasi Ansari, M.S., R.D.N., C.S.S.D., sports dietitian and national media spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

In terms of health benefits, flexitarians can reap the same ones as vegetarians and vegans. When you add more plants to your dietwhether or not you decrease animal protein intakeyou can still benefit from eating a variety of fruits, veggies, and plant proteins, says Ansari.

For example, a recent study published by in American Heart Association-backed journal, Circulation linked eating more fruits and vegetables with lower mortality rates. Another study published in the International Journal of Cancer associated eating more fruits and vegetables with lower risk for breast cancer after studying the dietary patterns of a group of women for 30 years.

When it comes to comparing the flexitarian diet to plant-based diets, a study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that flexitarians have the best gut bacteria. Researchers attributed this to the fact that a flexitarian diet is rich in fruits and vegetables containing dietary fibers and resistant starch that promote microbial diversity. Blatner says this can be very beneficial because gut bacteria helps improve regularity, digestive health, and immunity.

Also, practicing a flexitarian diet can be more environmentally friendly. A report published in the journal Nutrients found that replacing meat twice a week with fiber-rich pulses (or legumes) can have a moderate effect on the environmental sustainability of a diet. Researchers say this is because the more plant foods you eat, the greater the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions associated with food production.

While there are many ways you can benefit from swapping out animal protein for plant protein, there are limits. Due to this diets flexible nature, its important to note that all benefits will vary depending on how much meat, fruits, and vegetables you eat, not to mention other lifestyle factors that play a role in overall well-being like sleep and stress management.

The flexitarian diet is a great combination of two things every runner needs, Blatner says: carbohydrates and protein. That is much of what the flexitarian diet isits this great balance of carbs for fuel, and protein for strength that runners need, she says. So naturally runners can follow this diet while training.

Practicing this eating style, as opposed to a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle, can help runners met all their nutrition needsincluding necessary vitamins and minerals thanks to the uptick in plant eating and protein thanks to animal productswithout worry about taking any supplements.

By continuing to eat foods like dairy, poultry, fish, or red meat in conjunction with fruits and vegetables throughout the week, Ansari says, runners get nutrients like vitamin B12 and zinc, which are nutrients plant-based diets sometimes lack. Plus, this eating style can help runners eat more nutrients that both non-meat eaters and meat eaters alike lack. This includes iron, vitamin C, and magnesium.

The flexitarian diet can be a great way to eat healthy without giving up foods you enjoy, particularly if you like to have meat occasionally. Just be mindful and take into consideration how this diet will impact the foods you eat before, during, and after runs to avoid any pitfall like bonking or fatigue.

As with any diet, consider consulting with a registered dietitian to ensure that youre making the right nutrition decisions that will help you successfully fuel your training and daily activities.

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Guide to the Flexitarian Diet: What Is It, Benefits, and More - runnersworld.com

Rules around dieting can be confusing. Is fat good, or bad? Are carbs? Youll find some people promoting diets only as a way to discover if you have a food intolerance. Others advocate for dieting as a means to achieve some sort of mental clarity or tap into more energy to get through the workday. Still others say to avoid dieting altogether, cautioning that diets are often temporary fixes. You get results because youre cutting out things, as registered dietitian Wesley McWhorter has told GQ. But diets are dichotomous: We lose weight in the short-term and gain weight in the long-term.

Yet for all the seeming confusion over how to diet, or whether to go on a diet at all, American adults continue to try following one specific eating regimen or another. According to data from the National Center for Health Statistics, about one-half of all adults in the U.S. try to lose weight every year.

But there is another way to go when it comes to changing up what youre eating in order to be, and feel, healthierone that doesnt require tapping into diet culture, constantly counting macros, measuring grams of protein, or checking your food against its score on the glycemic index. Its called intuitive eating.

Its OK To Be Hungry

As a term, intuitive eating comes from the title of a book published in 1995 by dietitians Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch. Its most basic tenet is this: Eat when youre hungry, and stop when youre full. Following a diet can sometimes lead people to stop trusting their bodys natural cues. Intuitive eating is intended as a counterbalance to that feeling.

The goal is to break free from cycles of chronic binging and deprivation, as well as the emotional consequences of those behaviors, and heal your relationship with food, as Ali Francis, an editor at Bon Appetit, wrote earlier this year.

Predicated on following your bodys biological intuition, rather than focusing on militant adherence to a strict diet, the intuitive approach is meant more as a long-term solution to how you eat, and why, instead of a regimen whose end goal is weight loss. And it seems to be on the rise among younger people: A survey from 2019 published by the nonprofit International Food Information Council showed that 49% of 18-to-34-year-olds already knew about intuitive eating.

Forget the Rules

All intuitive eating begins with a set of 10 principles, starting with Reject the Diet Mentality. At first glance these seem like the typical rules one might expect from a certain diet, although Tribole and Resch maintain these principles should be viewed more as general guidelines. The point is for people to read through them and pick out a few principles that might help them the most.

Its no surprise that the very first guideline counsels you to reject diet culture. Undoubtedly youve seen or heard foods labeled as either good for you or bad for you. (Of course, no one who practices intuitive eating is saying go load up a shopping cart full of processed foods.) Intuitive eating looks to flip the script. Diet culture might tell you a slice of pizza is only allowed on a cheat day; eating intuitively means that a slice of pizza isnt a cheat or a failure. There is some research out there, including one paper from 2015 that Francis cited, demonstrating that intuitive eating leads to lower psychological distress among people who try it out instead of going on a diet.

Should You Try It?

Other data that out there seems to show that eating this way can also lead to lower body mass index, as well as weight maintenance and possibly improved physical health indicators other than BMI, including improved blood pressure and eating behaviors. Still, research on intuitive eatings overall benefits compared to various diets is pending.

And, no doubt, for people with certain medical conditions, eating more strictly might be the way you have to go. For example, for those with diabetes, checking foods against the glycemic index can help keep your blood sugar under control.

But the other guidelines of intuitive eating that are included ought to sound familiar to readers of this columnand, indeed, come across as good, general ways to approach your meals. The second guideline tells you to honor your hunger: Eat when youre hungry, and eat until youre sated; by doing so, youll eat much more conscientiously and wont feel the need to binge. As Tribole and Resch write: Its what you eat consistently over time that matters.

Read more:
Intuitive Eating Is Not a Dietand Here's How to Do It - GQ

Do you think you have a healthy diet? You might be surprised to learn that most adults overestimate the quality of their diet.

According to a new study from the U.S. Department of Agricultures Agricultural Research Service, only a small percentage of adults can accurately assess their diet. In fact, its mostly those who evaluate their diet as poor who are the most accurate.

While previous studies have found that self-rated health is a strong predictor of mortality, there isnt much research on whether self-rated diet quality is predictive of the actual quality of diet. So researchers wanted to determine whether a single question could be used as a screening tool for nutrition studies. If it was able to do so, it would replace a detailed dietary questionnaire thats commonly used in nutrition research.

For the study, data was used from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a nationally representative survey of U.S. adults conducted every two years. All participants were required to complete 24-hour detailed dietary questionnaires and rate their diet as excellent, very good, good, fair, or poor.

Researchers used the questionnaires to score each participants diet quality. Foods ranked as healthier included fruits and vegetables, whole grains, healthy fats, lower-fat dairy products, seafood, and plant proteins. Foods considered less healthy included refined grains and foods high in sodium, added sugars, or saturated fats.

Significant disconnects were found between the calculated scores and how participants ranked their own diets. Almost 99 percent of them overrated the healthfulness of their diets.

Its difficult for us to say whether U.S. adults lack an accurate understanding of the components of a healthful versus unhealthful diet or whether adults perceive the healthfulness of their diet as they wish it to bethat is, higher in quality than it actually is, said lead author Jessica Thomson.

Until we have a better understanding of what individuals consider when assessing the healthfulness of their diet, it will be difficult to determine what knowledge and skills are necessary to improve self-assessment or perception of ones diet quality.

Sarah Cownley has a diploma in Nutritional Therapy from Health Sciences Academy in London and enjoys helping others by teaching healthy lifestyle changes through her personal consultations and with her regular contributions to the Doctors Health Press. This article was first published on BelMarraHealth.com.

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Study Shows Adults Commonly Overestimate the Quality of Their Diet - The Epoch Times

Here is what a weeks worth of meals on the Nordic diet might look like:

Breakfast: Oatmeal with blueberries

Lunch: Barley and Brussels sprouts grain bowl

Dinner: Shrimp with pasta and a side salad

Breakfast: Avocado and egg on whole-grain toast

Lunch: Tuna sandwich on whole-wheat bread with berries

Dinner: Salmon with roasted vegetables and a spinach salad

Breakfast: Whole-wheat pancakes with Icelandic yogurt and fruit

Lunch: Beef and barley soup

Dinner: Stir-fry chicken and vegetables over brown rice

Breakfast: Whole-grain bagel with gravlax and cream cheese

Lunch: Beet salad with almonds, lemon, and parsley

Dinner: Baked fish with potatoes and mixed vegetables

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs and spinach with whole-grain toast

Lunch: Turkey sandwich on rye with an apple

Dinner: Peppers stuffed with beans and mushrooms

Breakfast: Berry and almond butter smoothie

Lunch: Smoked salmon sandwich on whole-grain bread with cherry tomatoes

Dinner: Roasted lamb with sweet potatoes and peas

Breakfast: Yogurt with berries and almonds

Lunch: Quinoa with shrimp and vegetables

Dinner: Halibut with roasted cherry tomatoes and barley

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What Is the Nordic Diet? Research, Weight Loss, Food List, and More - Everyday Health

Your health as a person with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) may be impacted by your hormonal imbalance and metabolism issues. Although PCOS can be a very frustrating condition that affects your menstrual cycle, fertility, weight, and appearance, the majority of those who are affected by it can also lead healthy, normal lives owing to treatment from their doctors or modifications to their lifestyles which also includes adopting a suitable healthy diet.Symptoms of PCOS and how to overcome thoseThe symptoms and potential difficulties brought on by hormonal imbalances, insulin resistance, and inflammation can be avoided with the help of a healthy diet.Dr Archana Batra, dietitian, nutritionist, physiotherapist, and certified diabetes educator says, The main hormonal disturbance associated with PCOS is the elevated levels of androgens like testosterone in females. These abnormalities are what cause the typical PCOS symptoms, such as abnormal hair growth, acne, infertility, and weight gain.Your weight and the amount of insulin your body is producing both have some effect on this. Additionally, PCOS alters the control and synthesis of insulin as well as metabolic processes involved in preserving a healthy weight. Hormonal abnormalities that are left untreated can make you more susceptible to heart problems, high blood pressure, and some types of cancer.Heres how a diet modification can be helpfulAs shared by Dr Batra, here are some things that may be helpful for those who suffer from PCOS:

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PCOS and Nutrition: Modify your diet to control your symptoms - Times of India

Dear Doctors: Whenever I hear about how were supposed to eat better, theres always something about healthy fats. What are these healthy fats, and what makes them so great?

Dear Reader: A robust body of research has revealed the wide-ranging benefits of healthy fats in the diet. These include lowering the risk of developing heart disease, improving cholesterol levels, helping with blood-sugar control and reducing inflammation.

Healthful fats also have a beneficial effect on blood pressure and have been shown to support gut health.

Fats are a type of lipid, which are molecules that do not dissolve in water. Healthy fats are lipids that, due to the specific chemical bonds that hold them together, remain liquid at room temperature what we commonly know as unsaturated fats.

These types of fats are divided into two subcategories monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats. The distinction arises from their chemical bonds. Polyunsaturated fats offer the same benefits as monounsaturated fats and also contain health-supporting omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, which play important roles in brain function, skin and hair growth, bone health and metabolism.

Healthy fats are found in plant-based foods like walnuts, flax seeds, chia seeds, soybeans, avocados and olives. They are present in vegetable oils, too, such as olive, safflower, corn, sesame, canola, walnut and soybean oils.

Theyre also found in fatty fish, which are an excellent source of a certain form of omega-3 fatty acid. Fatty fish, sometimes referred to as oily fish, include tuna, salmon, mackerel, whitefish, herring and sardines.

Oysters, mussels and some types of fish roe also are good sources.

A recent analysis of several large studies found that having two or more servings of fatty fish a week can help prevent cardiovascular disease in people who are at high risk.

Lovers of dark chocolate will be happy to know it contains monounsaturated fats, though only in small amounts. But dark chocolate, beside being rich in disease-fighting antioxidants, usually also contains sugar and should be eaten in moderation.

Many of us dont get adequate amounts of healthy fats in our diets.

You can help make sure that you do by cooking with vegetable oils, limiting saturated fats, avoiding trans fats and eating at least one good source of omega-3 fats each day.

Dr. Eve Glazier and Dr. Elizabeth Ko are internists at UCLA Health.

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Eating healthy fats health benefits, how to add them to your diet - Chicago Sun-Times