The No-Diet Diet: Your New Healthy-Eating Plan
Nearly two dozen food and nutrition experts weigh in on foods (and strategies) you need to feel healthier.
Hans Gissinger
Always have fresh—and long-lasting—stuff in your refrigerator. “I get nervous if I don’t have a vegetable available to put on my plate,” says Martha Rose Shulman, author of The Very Best of Recipes for Health ($35, amazon.com). “So I make sure to keep the sturdiest produce on hand: Carrots, red cabbage, bell peppers, and romaine lettuce all last
for up to a week.”
Got to have steak? Save it for dinner. If reducing the amount of meat you eat is your goal, treat the protein like a side dish. Or, says Mark Bittman, author of
The Food Matters Cookbook ($35, amazon.com), skip the bacon at breakfast and chicken salad at lunch in order to enjoy a juicy fillet at night—guilt-free. “I eat a vegan
diet until 6 p.m. and then whatever I want for dinner,” says Bittman. “That can be an elaborate restaurant feast or a simple
meal at home. There’s nothing wrong with eating steak or other rich dishes, as long as you’re eating plants most of the time.”
Always eat dessert. (Tough advice, we know.) Marlene Schwartz, the deputy director of the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, in New
Haven, Connecticut, says it’s a rule in her family. “My kids can have one dessert every day,” she says. “This is how we teach
balance and moderation.” So go ahead and have that (small) dish of ice cream. Everyone needs a little decadence now and then.
