Work It In

photo: Linda Roth

Original Content, The Washington Post

You risk losing many of the benefits of calorie restriction once you stop dieting. But I’m convinced you can incorporate many of the discoveries of calorie-restricted diets into your life in a more moderate and sustainable way so that your health benefits can last:

• Exercise. It naturally clears glucose from your bloodstream and that keeps insulin levels low. It creates a condition physiologically similar to calorie restriction. People who are more active have less disease and live longer. Reducing refined sugar and flour may also help reduce blood sugar and insulin.

• Eat more foods high in antioxidants such as green tea and deeply colored vegetables and fruits: Berries, spinach, kale, cabbage and broccoli, pumpkin and carrots are some examples.

• To reduce inflammation, eat more foods high in omega-3 fatty acids — fatty fish such as salmon, herring and sardines, or vegetarian sources such as walnuts and flax seeds. Also, reduce saturated fats, found mostly in animal fats

• Lose weight. It will reduce metabolism, hormones, growth factors and cell proliferation.

• To keep calories at low but healthy levels while still feeling full, increase consumption of high- fiber, high-water- containing, nutrient- dense, low-calorie foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes. Reduce consumption of nutrient-poor, calorie- dense processed and refined foods such as chips, crackers and sweets.

— Katherine Tallmadge