The Eat Real Food Diet

BY MIKE GUSTAFSON//CORRESPONDENT

Every week I answer questions from swimmers around the country. If you have a question, please email me at swimmingstories@gmail.com.

Dear Mike,

Just 2 years ago, I started swimming competitive at a club. Since then, I've improved vastly. Now, entering my third year, I have one concern: Can you give some advice on ideal eating? What I want to know are good foods and correct size portions. This way, I can cut out unneeded food.

-Foodie Swimmer
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Hey Foodie Swimmer,

Two weeks ago, I “cleansed” myself. I had a strict list of “Do Not Eat” items: white flour, coffee/tea, sugar, alcohol, processed foods, processed oils, red meats, pasta, cereal, white rice, candy, pizza. This was literally my worst nightmare. At Day Four of the No Fun Diet, I was dizzy, light-headed, grumpy, angry, irritable, agitated, spending the majority of my time on the toilet, hungry, and confused. “Why am I doing this?” I asked my Cleanse Comrade. “Because,” she said. “It will make you feel better.”

My sophomore year in college, I ate five pizzas a week. Not all at once – just here and there. Three slices at lunch. Two slices before practice. A slice before bed. When you dine daily at an all-you-can-eat cafeteria, you push yourself.

During this Five-Pizzas-A-Week swim season, I swam slower than I had in high school. Nutritionists call this a “correlation.” Five pizzas a week, at 2500 calories a pizza (pepperoni), equates to 12,500 calories. There are good calories, bad calories, and then there are Pizza Calories.  Pizza Calories are like garbage yardage: They do nothing for your body but cause long-term harm. I gained ten pounds. I was thicker, fatter, and slower.

Later, I experimented: What happened if I ate foods that were, you know, foods? It wasn’t extreme, like the No Fun Diet. For breakfast, I ate egg whites, oatmeal, berries, and juice. For lunch, I ate a Veggie-A-Thon salad with turkey. Snacks were cottage cheese and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. For dinner, I ate a burrito with rice, beans, and shredded chicken. I eliminated cheese, sugar, white flour, alcohol, caffeine, and deserts. I dropped fifteen pounds, swam best times, and scored points at the Big Ten Championships.

When you’re a kid, you learn life rules: Share. Be kind. Be patient. Work hard. You also learn nutrition rules: Eat your veggies. Candy rots your teeth. Don’t stuff your face with potato chips, pizza slices, or pop before dinner. Chew slowly.

As we grow up, we forget these rules. Sometimes, purposefully.

Before you eat, question what you’re eating. I don’t mean: “I’m eating a bowl of cereal.” Look at the ingredients. Dissect the nutrition label. Can you pronounce each ingredient? Do you know what these ingredients are? Are any ingredients longer than eight letters long?

I generally stick to ingredients spelled with seven letters or less. Tomato. Corn. Pork. Chicken. Spinach. (It’s a weird rule, but it works for me. It also helps me avoid “broccoli.”) I don’t eat things like, “Hydrochloricatedsulfuricinated acididated sulfate.” (I made that up. But if you didn’t know that I made that up, what does that say about ingredients these days?)

My doctor told me about a science experiment: Mice willingly shocked themselves to eat white flour and sugar. In other words, they put themselves through pain to eat sugar. She told me, after these mice died, scientists analyzed their brains and found similar attributes as drug addicts. 
I’ve stopped the No Fun Diet; namely, it was no fun. I enjoy a cup of coffee, or a steak, or a bowl of pasta sometimes. However, I try to follow this basic concept: Can I pronounce the ingredients? Do I know what they are? Could this ingredient be in a backyard garden? Then, I remember what my parents told me when I was a kid: No candy. No junk food. No pop. (I’m from Michigan.) Chew slowly (this will control size portions). And, most importantly, eat your veggies.

This is the “Feel Better Now” cleanse. There’s no dizziness. There are no juice-fad blender recipes. No grumpiness. No anger. No spending all day on the toilet. Instead, you eat foods found in the produce section, lean meats, whole grains, beans, and nuts. Then, you chew these foods slowly. Simple. Basic.

After all, generations of humans consumed vegetables, lean meats, fish, eggs, beans, nuts, and whole grains for thousands and thousands of years.

Why change now?

Reposted from usaswimming.org