.png)
THIS IS BAD FOR YOU!
Today I highlight the cruelly wrong advice that is otherwise known as the USDA food pyramid, promoted by the US Department of Agriculture since 1992. For nearly 20 years, the US government effectively promoted a diet that asked people to eat more carbohydrates, including bread, rice, cereals and pastas.
During this time, I was personally a victim of this diet. My body fat percentage was around 23% for this entire 20-year period because I followed the advice given in this food pyramid above! Chances are, you are also a victim of this food pyramid, and your body fat percentage is also well above 20%.
In 2011, the USDA replaced this awful pyramid with something called ChooseMyPlate, which looks like this.
THIS IS ALSO BAD FOR YOU!
These people simply don’t get it. If this choosemyplate looks exactly like it was put together by lobbyists for the dairy industry, the fruit industry and the cereals industry, that’s because it was! It is astonishing that health and diet recommendations are put together by vested food industry interests, but it is true. So what should we do instead as consumers?
Harvard School of Public Health has somewhat better advice, which looks like this.
.png)
STILL BAD BECAUSE IT WILL NOT LOWER YOUR BODY FAT!
But here is the problem. For the 95% of the population who have body fat of over 20% (men) and 25% (women), we need radical action to first bring the body fat percentages down to below 18% (men) and 25% (women). The Harvard plate above is more of a maintenance diet, but it will not get you to those body fat percentages.
I present to you, the RAVIONHEALTH food chart, which is actually two charts. The first one below is applicable for Sunday through Friday, and the second one is a special one for Saturdays only.
. +
What exactly is the Ravionhealth lifestyle? It is nothing new or unique. It is simply a set of eating habits that worked for me, and if you follow it, it will work for you.
This is why I do not call it a diet, I call it a lifestyle and a paradigm shift. Once you start this lifestyle, you will never feel the desire to stop it. It is not something you follow for a few weeks or months and then go back to your old habits, because this new set of eating habits will be satisfying, healthy, and most of all the results will show very quickly.
The Ravionhealth eating lifestyle is an outcome-based approach to lowering your body fat to below 15% if you are a man, and below 20% if you are a woman. If you are interested in lowering your body fat to below these numbers, you should seriously consider following it.
When you get closer to these numbers, you can actually choose to be more relaxed about what you eat. But the point is that when you get to these levels of body fat over the next several months, your food habits would have permanently changed and you will also lose the majority of your sugar cravings. So it gets easier and easier to follow this lifestyle as you drop more fat, and this is why you will not only drop the fat but keep it off your whole life!
Here are the principles of the Ravionhealth guide to healthy eating.
1. Eat more food than you normally do if you start following my approach. This is very important because if you don’t increase the quantity of the food you eat, you will have a big calorie deficit, you will feel tired and cranky, and you will go back to eating junk comfort carbs.
2. If you get hungry while you are following my approach, eat! Do not starve yourself. Following my lifestyle is fun and easy and delicious. Do not deprive yourself of food.
3. You must change the composition of what you eat, while at the same time increasing your quantity of food.
4. These foods are prohibited. Rice and rice products, wheat and wheat products, cereals grains of any kind, bread and flour products, potatoes, sugar and sugar products, sugary fruits, fruit juices. This is not an exhaustive list, but nothing sweet must pass your lips six days a week.
5. The only fruits you are allowed are fruits that are not sweet. These are called “vegetables”. Fruits like tomato, avocado, eggplant, etc. are allowed in unlimited quantities.
6. Eat fish, meat, whole eggs, slow carb vegetables like broccoli, beetroot, carrot, cabbage, cauliflower, all in unlimited quantities. Eat lentils if you are a vegetarian.
7. Nuts are allowed but no more than half a dozen almonds or equivalent for a snack.
8. Beer is not allowed, and white wine is not allowed. Red wine and whisky and other spirits are fine, in moderation.
9. Milk products including cheese are allowed. Switch to whole fat milk, not 2% milk. Remember, there is nothing wrong with eating fat under my approach!
10. Now for the even more fun part! Take a day off, each week. This is very important! That’s right, one and only one fixed day a week, say Saturday, eat whatever you like! But only one day a week. This is because the whole point of my diet is to make it fun. If you want ice-cream or pasta or rice or noodles, have it all on this day. Doing this means that you are not depriving yourself of anything, and that is psychologically important. Eat whatever you like, without guilt, one day a week.
That’s it! Do write in the comments how this is working for you, and when it does work, as it surely will, share it and pass it on please!
.png)
.png)
