Diets-Metabolism   [back to the Category]

"Ideal" weight   [read the french version]

Author :   Dr Paule Nathan

Dietetics of weight stability. Balanced nutrition

Nutrition must fulfil long established criteria in order that our organism can function harmoniously. As we have seen, regardless of the way we eat (usual, vegetarian or other), we need a suitable quantitative intake level together with the more important qualitative intake level, balanced between the various nutriments.


Nutrition, whether you are omnivore, vegetarian or a follower of Taoism, is only balanced when it is assimilated, in accordance with the total calorific value of the food intake level, in the following ratios:
- 55% of the calories as carbohydrates (glucides), essentially complex carbohydrates, as we are unable to tolerate more than 10% sweet products.
- 30% as fats (lipids), with 1/3 saturated fats, 1/3 unsaturated fats, 1/3 fish oils.
- 15% as proteins (protides), half animal protein and half vegetable protein.
And one millilitre of water per calorie of the intake level.
These figures have been established as a means of controlling our calorie intake levels so that our organism can function under optimum conditions. They are acknowledged world-wide. Of course, they are but recommendations, do not tie yourself to a rigid system of calculation.
If you have a normal occupation, you can balance your food intake level with an intake level of 1gr or even 1.5gr of protein per kilo of body weight per day, 1gr of fats, and 5 to 7gr of carbohydrates. This equates, for a weight of 65 kg, to a daily intake of 70 to 97gr of protein, 65gr of fats and 390gr of carbohydrates. These figures can seem off-putting, and yet, nutrition can be balanced perfectly by following simple, sensible rules.

2 Follow nutritional rhythms.
Apply Doctor Kousmine's rule for good daily apportionment:
A king's breakfast,
A prince's lunch,
A poor man's supper.
Thus, calorie intake levels are balanced against energy expenditure throughout the day. Storage is avoided, food is only used at the moment of energy expenditure and the organism is able to regenerate itself at night.
Unfortunately, we do the exact opposite and this, in time, leads to weight gain and illness resulting from excess weight.

3 Differentiate between the pleasure of eating and the need to eat.
Nowadays, we tend to forget the rudiments of reality (need to eat, acquire and maintain good health) in the pursuit of pleasure at all costs, especially where our plate is concerned. Awareness of what we are really eating has been lost in our search for foods that are sweet, fatty, grilled, served with a sauce or are salty, to the detriment of the true taste of the food.
The need to eat is the provision of fuel for our organism with a simple, healthy diet that contains no excess. It is important to eat food for what it is and not, for the way in which it has been prepared.
On the other hand, the pleasure of eating, is conviviality. A well-presented, fancy meal is often all part of week-end family fun.

4 A good breakfast, sets you up for the rest of the day!
It determines your level of attentiveness and alertness throughout the day besides regulating the amount you eat for the rest of the day. It should represent 25% of your total calorie intake level. But 6% of adults and 4 to 10% of children do not eat breakfast. 13% of adults and 15% of children and teenagers do not eat enough breakfast, having only a drink or one piece of food.
Breakfast should be eaten slowly, peacefully and quietly. The parental role is vital.
Children follow the example of their parents who do not eat or eat quickly in the morning. Watch out for a drop in attentiveness, for a lack of attention and concentration or inattentiveness at the end of the morning. When an organism has not eaten since the day before, it has no resistance, this leads to tiredness at 11 o' clock in the morning. The brain needs fuel. Make sure schoolchildren leave home with full stomachs rather than telling them off!
Traditional, French breakfast is too high in carbohydrates and fats and too low in protein. Avoid the classical bread-butter-jam-fruit juice, or small chocolate-filled pastry, fruit juice.
Learn to balance breakfast as you would a proper meal with:
- a cereal product; preferably unprocessed bread, rusks or cereals. Children prefer cereals, learn to vary them and make sure that you read the labels to ensure that they do not contain too much sugar.
Rusks have the advantage of needing to be chewed, they are therefore more easily digestible for those who have digestion problems, but they have more calories than bread, so restrict them.
- a dairy product. Some people have trouble digesting coffee, tea or chocolate mixed with milk. Chicory with milk is easier to digest. Those who cannot tolerate milk could eat a yoghurt, fromage frais or a piece of cheese. Depending on your appetite eat an egg, some ham, or some white meat.
- fruit or fresh fruit juice or stewed fruit, eaten for their vitamin C and sugar intake levels, gets the morning off to a good start.

5 Balance and vary your meals using the 6 food groups:
-fish, eggs, meat, ham, chicken, shellfish
-milk products.
-vegetables and fruit.
-starchy foods, pulses.
-sweet products.
-fat.

A meal can be made up of
- animal protein
Vary their intake levels because their qualities differ. Eat fish, chicken, white meat, red meat, eggs and ham alternately and, in this way, red meat will only appear one time in five; though it is very often eaten once a day. Fish is part of two or three meals in a week which corresponds to the prevention guidelines used against cardiovascular illnesses. Count on 100 to 120gr of protein per meal for a medium-sized adult's normal intake level.
By following vegetarian rules, you can include vegetarian meals adding pulses and cereals to the same meal.
- vegetables
#Cooked.
Either eat cooked green vegetables for one meal and a portion of starchy food, such as cereals or pulses, for the other meal. Pulses are recommended two or three times a week for their intake levels of vegetable protein, magnesium, fibre and B complex vitamins. Eat bread with cooked green vegetables for its complex carbohydrates. If there is already starchy food, restrict the meal's bread ration so that you do not give your organism an excess of starchy food.
Or make up your meal with a portion of starchy food coupled with cooked green vegetables.
# Raw.
Eat one or two raw vegetables per day. Use small plates because too many raw vegetables can cause bloating. If you have weak intestines or diarrhoea this intake level should be restricted.
- a milk product.
A 30gr ration, the equivalent of a camembert cheese portion, of cheese once a day. Enjoy 30gr of cheese. Eat real cheese, not low fat cheese which puts us off the taste of real food under the pretext that we can eat more processed cheese. Choose a yoghurt, fromage frais, some milk or a milky dessert at other meals.
My advice:
Get into the habit of:
- only buying one piece of cheese at a time and making it last the week. Avoid cheese platters when entertaining. It is preferable to buy one good cheese or, even better, to prepare a small warm goat's cheese on a bed of salad so that you do not have to finish the platter.
- eating natural milk products and adding sugar, fruit and cereal to suit your taste. Commercial milk products sustain a craving for excessively sweet things because they contain too much flavouring and sweetening.
- eating fruit either during a meal or, if you suffer from bloating, in between meals. There is no reason why fruit should systematically be eaten between meals. People with symptoms of colopathy, eat quickly and swallow without chewing their food. Badly chewed fruit at the end of a meal which is often large and eaten quickly, can cause bloating, wind and an upset stomach. It is better to eat and chew slowly and avoid eating fruit between meals because the vitamin C, contained in the fruit, allows for a better absorption of the iron contained in the food. Lastly, making yourself eat fruit between meals means that it is very easy to forget to partake of these foods which are so rich in fibre, vitamins and minerals. Some people prefer to eat them at the beginning of a meal as an aperitif. Eat two or three pieces of fruit a day, one of which should be vitamin C rich such as citrus fruit, kiwis or tart berries. Fruit can be eaten in many ways, cut in pieces, as juice, stewed or baked.
- taking two or three soup spoons of oil a day for an optimal intake level of essential fatty acids. Cook with oil rather than butter and use fat free methods of cooking wherever possible because fat has an extremely high calorie level (one gram of fat is equal to 9 calories, a soup spoon of oil to 90 Calories)
-10 to 15 grams of butter per day is plenty for an adult. Use it on your bread of a morning or add it to your vegetables after cooking. Avoid cooking butter as it only becomes more indigestible.

6 Take pleasure in eating.
The way in which our organism receives food is most influenced by the way in which we eat it. The most beautiful fruit in the world, like the most beautiful painting in the world, no longer has the same worth in relation to our senses, nor to our conscious and subconscious, if we fail to see it, if we have no real contact. Get into the habit of appreciating small quantities and the beauty of natural, simple uncooked food. Appreciate food for what it is and not its appearance. You will find it more pleasurable when you come across it in a fancy dish, recognition is sharpened and your senses appreciate the cooking.

7 Take care with food and its presentation.
The way in which we cook is also important. Like a baker who makes his bread with loving care, he cares about making good bread for the person who will receive it. You should do the same with your meals. Even simple meals, lovingly prepared, will taste better.


8 Do not forget that the word dietetics comes from the Greek "Diaita" as used by Hippocrates (Greek physician, 460-377bc, considered to be the father of medicine) as well as the Latin "diéta" as used by Ambroise Paré (French surgeon, 1509-1590, considered to be the father of modern surgery).
"It is hygiene in the widest sense of the word. Not only eating habits – dietetics – but also physical exercise – physical education – work practises, mental health, sexual behaviour, sleep patterns, body hygiene". A. F. Creff. This approach to man is still valid and true nowadays because sexual behaviour is pertinent to healthy reproduction. This leads us to believe that our elders could foresee the coming of reproduction by cloning!
When we put Hippocrates' maxim into practice, we harmonise little by little our lives, our senses, our relationships with others and the world. But "There is nothing that man likes to conserve better and that he takes care of less than his health" (La Bruyère, French moralist writer, 1645-1696)