The Baby Boomer Diet

Think about this.

What did you have for breakfast this morning?  Did you eat a healthful well-balanced diet or did you eat that McDonald's Egg McMuffin, breakfast burrito, hashbrowns and a Coke?  Well baby boomer you are what you eat. Don't think you can get away with these kinds of treats when the old calendar clicks over 40 years.

You are what you eat.  The standard American diet today can be described as fast food, greasy, fatty, high in sugar and loaded with salt.  We eat what tastes good. What we eat and drink will play the largest single part in determining how long the next half of our life will be.

As baby boomers, we just turned the corner of life and to continue to live that life with health and vitality is time to make some changes.  These changes do not have to be complicated or painful and the resulting gains in energy and longevity are worth the inconvenience.  The choice is yours.  You can regain your youth and live a long vigorous life were spent the next 30, 40 or even 50 years in a nursing home.

What diet should I follow?

If the prospect above scares you, which it should, maybe you should consider making a few simple changes.  Forget the fad diets, what is needed here is a change in our attitude toward food and drink for that matter.

Diets that go from one extreme to the next are on the page of every magazine, newspaper or television show you see.  Keep it workable, simple and easy to follow. Extreme fad diets rarely work long-term and can even cause more health problems.

Enter The Baby Boomer's Perfect Diet

Now, instead of thinking of this as a diet, think of it as a better way to eat.  It is not something you'll ever come off of.  This diet will become a way of life, still, it is one of the easiest diets to follow.  You can eat anything, just follow these simple Baby Boomer Diet rules.

1. Cut out the salt. Use salt sparingly, if at all - Step away from that salt shaker!  Always read labels on any food products and watch out for added salt, usually if salt is in the first few ingredients listed, that's too much salt. Use a salt substitute, if you need to, such as Mrs. Dash or lemon juice, pepper, vinegar or other spices to wean yourself off the salt.  Use sea salt not table salt (less sodium) if you must. 

2. Cut out the sugar. Do not add sugar to anything, use an artificial sweetener if you need to.  Use Stevia or saccharine as alternatives to added sugar.  Again, get accustomed to reading the labels on any food products you buy and remember the ingredients will be listed relative to their amounts in the product, so if sugar is in the first couple of ingredients that food is loaded with sugar.  As a side note, saccharine has been removed from the government's list of carcinogenic or possibly cancer-causing ingredients as the original studies with rats were proven not to be applicable to humans.  Saccharine is very cheap, use the store brand and not the name brands.

3. Cut the Fat. Eat only lean cuts of meat, poultry and fish.  Avoid frying.  Use cold pressed virgin olive oil, whenever possible for cooking and salads.  Use real butter very sparingly.  Again, watch the ingredient list of any processed food and watch for bad fats, the saturated kind.

4. Eat All the Vegetables You Want.  Go wild - release your inner rabbit!  Eat vegetables, especially green vegetables as much as you wish, anytime you wish.  If you must pig out - pig out on vegetables.  Use a low-calorie reduced fat salad dressing for your salads and as a dip.  Keep a stash of veggies prepared for snacking in the fridge so you can grab'em when that cookie craving hits.

5. Avoid Processed Foods. If it didn't come from the farmer's field or barn like that don't eat it.  The way God made the food is the way God made us to eat the food, with as little processing as is safely possible.

6. Eat As Much As You Can Raw.  If you can eat the food raw, do it.  If you must cook the food such as meats and poultry and fish cook it as little as possible.

7. Tame Your Vices. If you smoke, stop.  Do whatever you have to do to make that happen. 

If you drink, drink in moderation or stop.

If you don't exercise every day, start. It could be just walking for 30 minutes, but do something.  Your weight will stabilize.

If you do the above and exercise.  You will feel better your health will improve and you will surely "live long and prosper"

The bottom line.

Youth is wonderful and wasted on the young, but keep in mind that in our stage of life we can no longer depend on youth to keep us healthy.  Being a baby boomer, you've probably already done some risky, crazy stuff.  Just try our seven step baby boomer diet and make that next 50 years, an adventure.

Stingram.