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From:	Claudia (conpx05.cms.hhs.gov)
Subject:	Question #1
Date:	September 6, 2007 at 7:49 am PST

In Reply to: Re: Need to keep fat low and calories high posted by Andy on September 6, 2007 at 2:21 am:

Hi Andy,

I've decided it would be easiest to answer your post in parts, one question at a time, so I'll start with question #1.

Examples of starchy vegetables would be root vegetables (such as yams, sweet potatoes, and white potatoes), winter squashes (such as butternut, acorn, delicata, kabocha, and pumpkin), and corn. Technically, I guess you could say that corn is a grain, however, I have somehow always thought of it as a starchy vegetable, and counted it that way.

On Eat to Live, carrots (which are a root vegetable) count as a starchy vegetable when cooked, but as a non-starchy vegetable when eaten raw. The philosophy behind this is more from a weight loss perspective than a nutritional one. Carrots are less calorically dense than most starchy vegetables, so that is why they are less restricted. At the same time, they do have more calories than many of the non-starchy veggies. The thinking here is that it is easier to eat bigger quantities of cooked carrots than raw ones, so people aren't so likely to over-do it and get an excess of calories by eating raw carrots.

You are correct that technically peas are legumes, and that is how I would think of them, however, on the Eat to Live program, Dr. Fuhrman actually treats them differently than any of the other legumes. They are one of those rather nebulous foods like carrots, because peas have a lot less calories than other legumes (namely beans) do, and also have less calories than most starchy vegetables, however, they are a little on the high side compared to most non-starchy vegetables. Dr. Fuhrman has said that it is okay to count them as a non-starchy green vegetable. I still see peas as being more like either a starchy veggie or a bean, but thats just my personal opinion.

Eat to Live is an excellent book which I highly recommend, however, you have to keep in mind when reading it that it is marketed and oriented toward people who need to lose weight (which is a whole lot of people). The book does have menu plans and suggestions, but the primary bent is toward weight loss. At the same time, one can learn a whole lot about optimal nutrition and health by reading the book. Dr. Fuhrman also has another book called 'Disease-Proof Your Child: Feeding Kids Right', which addresses the issue of the relationship between childhood diet and adult disease. This book actually has higher calorie menu suggestions and recipes than Eat to Live, because it is geared toward the greater caloric needs of active growing children. While the recipes are intended to be 'kid friendly' they work just fine for adults as well.

I think its kind of hard to figure out what exact percentage of my diet is coming from vegetables, and like you I have also questioned whether or not it was possible to get the percentages that Dr. Fuhrman recommends. At the same time, however, I think that what is more important than the exact percentage, is simply the concept that we all need to be thinking much bigger than what we are used to when it comes to our consumption of vegetables, because most people, even vegetarians, are too reliant on foods of convenience and don't eat enough vegetables.

In Eat to Live, Dr. Furhman recommends that we aim to eat a couple pounds of non-starchy vegetables (about half cooked and half raw) per day (as a goal to shoot for). I'll make a rough estimate that the non-starchy vegetables would average about 10 calories per ounce. I do recognize that for the very lightweight baby greens an ounce could be a whole cup, so clearly you won't be able to get all of your non-starchy veggies from those. Anyway... if I do get in a couple of pounds of non-starchy vegetables each day, that is going to add up to around 320 calories from just the non-starchy vegetables. These calories can come from raw carrots, cooked or raw tomatoes, celery, mushrooms, peppers, and so on. If I add on a single serving of a starchy vegetable (for example a cup of yams), thats about another 150 calories, for a total of 470 calories from veggies. I think I probably eat around 1400 calories or so a day to maintain my weight (I am very small and have a sedentary job), so 30% of that would only be 420. I imagine that a person eating over 1500 calories could add a second serving of starchy vegetables, and bring the total calories from vegetables up to around 620.

Having said all this, my estimates are just rough ones that may be off, and it is kind of hard to figure out your exact percentage. I also think it can be difficult to figure out exactly how much all your non-starchy veggies weighed! Some of those vegetables weigh a lot more than others, and if you combine the non-starchy veggies in your cooking with other foods (like beans and starchy vegetables), it could be hard to say how much the non-starchy vegetable portion of it actually weighed!

Okay, now that we've probably thought about the accuracy and validity of these percentages way too much, I just want to say that the basic concept that we all need to think big when it comes to our vegetable consumption is really the important message to take away.

Claudia

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