The Greenprint. Marco Borges
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however: ‘I’m Cuban, like you are, and I love Cuban foods.’ I reminded him that a lot of Cuban food is plant-based: black beans, rice, corn, yuca, potatoes, tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers and plantains. In fact, the original Cuban diet was mostly vegetarian until the Spaniards, who ruled Cuba until the turn of the century, imported beef and pork and put meat into the cuisine. My friend was sold.
After a full day of eating plant-based, he called me.
‘Bro, you do know that I’m trying to lose weight, right?’
‘Yes, I know, why?’
‘Dude, if I eat all the food you recommended, I’m definitely going to gain weight.’ I started to laugh, then explained to him that plant foods are much denser in nutrients but lighter in calories – the essence of Law #2. For example, a 450-gram bag of spinach may be around 100 calories, while 450 grams of animal protein might be ten times that (around 1,000 calories) with zero fibre! You’ll wind up eating more but taking in fewer calories and getting a lot more fibre.
My friend sighed loudly. ‘I get to eat, I won’t be hungry, and I’m going to lose weight? I’m all in.’
Only a few months later, he had dropped more than 36 kilos, without feeling hungry at all.
Plain and simple: Plant-based eating gets results for every person I have ever worked with.
Why? What’s the secret?
Well, one of the big secrets is fibre.
Fibre is funny stuff. We eat it, but we can’t digest it, so it passes through the digestive tract, doing a bunch of amazing things for weight control and overall health along the way. As I mentioned earlier, 97 per cent of Americans are deficient in fibre. In fact, we are so deficient in fibre that it has been listed as a nutrient of concern in the USDA’s Dietary Guidelines. That’s a problem we really need to work on!
THE MORE YOU KNOW:
FIBRE AND YOUR HEALTH
Fibre is a health saver! It appears to reduce the risk of many illnesses:
ACNE AND RASHES. Fibre may help usher yeasts and fungi from your body, preventing them from being eliminated through your skin, where they could trigger acne or rashes.
BOWEL DISEASES. Fibre may ease irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and other inflammatory conditions in the bowel.
BRAIN HEALTH. Fibre improves mood, cognition and alertness.
CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE. There is evidence that fibre helps prevent heart attacks, and research shows that people who eat a high-fibre diet have a 40 per cent lower risk of heart disease.
CHRONIC INFLAMMATION. Dietary fibre appears to be anti-inflammatory, decreasing inflammation-associated markers, including C-reactive protein (CRP).
COLON CANCER. Fibre whisks toxins and cancer-causing agents from your digestive tract, which helps prevent cancer.
DIVERTICULAR DISEASE. Fibre (especially insoluble fibre) may reduce your risk of diverticulitis – an inflammation of the colon – by 40 per cent.
GALLSTONES. A high-fibre diet may reduce the risk of gallstones because of fibre’s ability to help regulate blood sugar.
HAEMORRHOIDS. A high-fibre diet may lower your risk of haemorrhoids, which can be painful and cause blockages and bleeding.
INFECTIONS. Fibre improves the population of healthy bacteria in your gut – which means it can help prevent infections, including colds and flu.
INSULIN RESISTANCE. Fibre makes your cells more receptive to insulin. Insulin can thus do a better job of getting glucose into cells for energy.
KIDNEY STONES. A high-fibre diet may reduce the risk of kidney stones, likely because of its ability to help regulate blood sugar.
OBESITY AND OVERWEIGHT. Fibre has been shown to enhance weight loss among obese and overweight people, likely because it increases feelings of fullness.
STROKE. Researchers have found that for every 7 grams more fibre you consume on a daily basis, your risk of stroke decreases by 7 per cent.
TYPE 2 DIABETES. Soluble fibre may help to slow the breakdown of carbohydrates and the absorption of sugar in the body, helping to control blood sugar.
HERE’S THE IMPORTANT POINT FOR ALL OF US: Eat more fibre from plant foods to enjoy all of its amazing health benefits.
WHERE’S THE FIBRE?
By definition, fibre is found only in plant foods, and nowhere else. But one of the problems behind our collective fibre deficiency is that most people have no idea what is in their food. In fact, more than half of Americans think steak is a source of fibre.
There are two categories of fibre: soluble and insoluble. Soluble fibre acts like a sponge; it soaks up excess cholesterol, fats and toxins. Insoluble fibre is like a scrub brush; it ‘scours’ the digestive tract as it passes through. We need both the sponge and the scrub brush to keep our systems clean.
Foods high in soluble fibre include oats and oat bran, barley, beans and legumes, apples, pears and citrus fruits (but not fruit juices). Insoluble fibre is found mostly in the skins and husks of plant foods, whereas soluble fibre dwells in the fleshy part inside the fruit. For instance, apple peels are largely insoluble fibre, while the flesh of an apple is mostly soluble fibre.
Both categories of fibre do four powerful things to promote weight loss: NUMBER 1: Fibre tames your appetite so you don’t overeat. There’s a powerful hormone in your body called cholecystokinin (CCK) that helps control satiety, the feeling of fullness that stops hunger. Fibre increases the production and prolongs the activity of CCK. As a result, you’ll feel fuller for longer, and your cravings for fattening stuff will diminish. NUMBER 2: Fibre helps prevent the absorption of excess calories from the fat you eat. Because the body can’t break down fibre, fibre exits the body in the same form it entered. As it moves through your body, it snatches up fat and whisks it all the way through to your colon, where the fat and fibre are packaged together into stool and eliminated from the body.
In a study by the USDA, researchers set a certain limit on calories for volunteers and altered the fibre content in their diets. They found that fewer calories were absorbed with increased fibre intake. People who took in up to 36 grams of fibre a day absorbed 130 fewer calories daily – automatically. Over a year, that adds up to around 47,000 calories. Because every 900 grams of body fat is equal to 3,500 calories, you could lose nearly 6 kilos in a year – effortlessly – by increasing your daily fibre intake. NUMBER 3: Fibre slows down the conversion of carbohydrates to glucose (blood sugar) in your body. This helps prevent weight gain, because excess glucose not used for energy converts to triglycerides that are either stored as unwanted body fat or accumulate in the blood, where they cause artery-clogging plaque. Fibre also increases insulin sensitivity, which means that cells respond well to insulin when it brings glucose to their doors (receptors) as fuel. Over time, eating more fibre will help your body use glucose more efficiently; in other words, your body will become more of a natural ‘fat-burning’ machine. NUMBER 4: Fibre helps populate the levels of beneficial bugs (probiotics) in your gut – a factor that can improve your shape. Your body hosts trillions of these tiny critters, most of whom hang out in your intestines. They break down food, help you absorb certain nutrients, and keep your immune system running at peak efficiency.
But here’s the hitch: there’s now surprising evidence that the wrong gut bugs may make you prone to put on weight. In one study, researchers discovered that a virus called adenovirus-36 (Ad-36) – a bug known to make chickens fatter – was three times more prevalent in the guts of obese