“Count Blessings, Not Calories” by Bracha Goetz
Recently JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association) published the results of a long, extensive, and expensive study conducted by a team of researchers at Stanford University. A New York Times article that was entitled, “The Key to Weight Loss Is Diet Quality, Not Quantity, a New Study Finds” had this to say about the study:
It found that people who cut back on added sugar, refined grains and
highly processed foods while concentrating on eating plenty of
vegetables and whole foods — without worrying about counting calories
or limiting portion sizes — lost significant amounts of weight over the
course of a year.
The strategy worked for people whether they followed diets that were
mostly low in fat or mostly low in carbohydrates. And their success did
not appear to be influenced by their genetics or their insulin-response to
carbohydrates, a finding that casts doubt on the increasingly popular
idea that different diets should be recommended to people based on
their DNA makeup or on their tolerance for carbs or fat.
The research lends strong support to the notion that diet quality, not
quantity, is what helps people lose and manage their weight most easily in
the long run. It also suggests that health authorities should shift away
from telling the public to obsess over calories and instead encourage
Americans to avoid processed foods that are made with refined starches
and added sugar, like bagels, white bread, refined flour and sugary
snacks and beverages, said Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and
dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts
University.
So basically it’s saying: back to basics.
Profuse research went into determining that the proliferation of
complex diet plans to deal with the myriad ways we have complicated
simple food is not really helpful. We can unravel the entire mess by just eating the nutritious and delicious food available on our planet in as close
to its natural form as possible.
There is such a great variety of natural food to nourish our bodies and to
provide us with pleasure. Manipulating these natural gifts extensively
often makes them unrecognizable so it tends to decrease our
appreciation of them. And it also seems to distance us somehow from
the Source of all this goodness.
Not only that, but it’s kind of hard to overeat lima beans or oranges.
They fill a person up. The things that people usually overeat are the
food items that are more far removed from their original state.
Another myth that this study is debunking is that it is arduous for
people who are overweight to lose weight. The simple truth that this
study is helping to reveal is that it can be a very joyful process, getting
back to basics and recognizing the bounty with which we have been
abundantly gifted.
When considering the next item to overeat, we can ask ourselves the
clarifying question, “Is it my body that is hungry or my soul?” If it is the
body, a bright and juicy apple could hit the spot. But if it is the soul that
is actually hungry, then spiritual nourishment can fill that empty hole.
The sense of scarcity dissolves as the abundance of spiritual possibilities
becomes clear. And one of the greatest and most pleasurable choices,
always available on the spiritual menu is counting our blessings, starting
with our eyes, our breath, our arms, our brains. How ‘bout our turnips?
As we eat more healthfully, our bodies and our souls gradually become
more in sync. Then we can more readily appreciate again the greatness
of the many blessings in each of our lives.
I guess sometimes new and sophisticated “cutting edge” studies have to
be conducted to help us return to the simple pleasures we once knew long
ago.
Meet Our Contributor
Bracha Goetz is a Harvard-educated wellness expert and the author of 41
children’s books plus a candid memoir for adults about overcoming overeating joyfully, Nourish the Soul. Her books can be found on Amazon
and at www.goetzbookshop.com.
