klinked,
Take a look at Joel Fuhrman, MD's book
Eat to Live.
http://www.drfuhrman.com/
Eating as a lifestyle, not a diet. Lots of good nutrition info. Also discussed is The China Diet and others.
He does advocate giving up ALL processed, dairy and animal foods - at least for 6 weeks - and then the life plan where a little animal or processed food can be added in. Unlimited fresh raw vegetables and fruits, cooked green vegetables, beans, legumes, bean sprouts, tofu, etc.
For the life plan he recommends the 90% rule. 90% unrefined plant based food. 10% processed or animal foods (constituting no more than 10% of the total caloric intake).
Dr. Fuhrman's key formula is H=N/C, Health = Nutrients divided by Caloric intake. He ranks foods by nutrient density. Food supplies us with nutrients and calories (energy). All calories come from only three elements-carbohydrates, fats and proteins. Nutrients are derived from noncaloric food factors-including vitamins, minerals, fibers and phytochemicals. The noncaloric nutrients are vital to health.
He states
" Your key to permanent weight loss is to eat predominantly those foods that have a high nutrient density, a high proportion of nutrients (noncaloric food factors) to calories (carbohydrates, fats and proteins)."
Foods with the highest nutrient density (based on identified phytochemicals, antioxidant activity & vitamin & mineral content-in descending order) are raw leafy green vegetables (dark green has more nutrients), solid green vegetables (raw steamed, frozen), non-green, non-starchy vegetables, beans & legumes (cooked, canned, sprouted), fresh fruit, starchy vegetables, whole grains, raw nuts & seeds, fish, fat-free dairy, wild meats & fowl, eggs, red meats, full fat dairy, cheese, refined grains (flour) refined oils, refined sweets.
Nutrient dense foods provide the bulk (quantity) while being low calorie.
I still have my steak, chicken, steak, egg, yogurt and cheese. But very small portions.
The combo of fat and refined carbohydrates has an extreme effect on driving signals that promote fat storage. Refined foods cause a rapid and extreme rise in blood sugar (blood glucose), which triggers insulin surges to drive the sugar out of the blood and into the cells. As your blood sugar decreases, appetite increases. Insulin also promotes storage of fat. More body fat results in higher insulin levels. As more fat is stored it interferes with insulin uptake into the muscle tissues, The pancreas senses the high blood glucose level and produces more insulin. A vicious cycle.
Fat is an appetite stimulant. The body converts food fat into body fat quickly and easily, it can be stored on the body within minutes, without using much calories to do so. It's just packed away into storage, unchanged. Biopsied waist fat viewed under the microscope, can actually be identified by source...it's stored as pig fat, dairy fat, olive oil fat...just as it was in the original food. Researchers can analyze body-fat deposits and accurately discern what foods were eaten.
An individual's (BMR) Basal Metabolic Rate plays a role as well. A couple of the (training) articles on the forum, mention ways to boost it with exercise (i.e. intervals, HIIT, etc.) And of course, increasing our lean muscle mass, since muscle burns more calories at rest than does adipose tissue.
