staying
THIN
Surefire way to stay thin without dieting.

As a University of Hawaii law student in the 1970s, Terry Shintani found himself constantly wary and too physically sluggish to meet school demands. A friend suggested he change his junk food-based diet to one centered on natural, unprocessed foods. So Shintani exchanged french fries for potatoes and corn chips for corn on the cob.

"I went from eating just about all junk food to eating 100% natural whole food," Shintani says.

Spectacular results followed. He lost 35 pounds, buzzed with vitality and achieved his collegiate goal of publishing an article in the prestigious university law review.

Most amazing was that he now ate more than in his junk-food days. The natural foods contained less fat, so his caloric intake actually dropped.


Now a medical doctor and Harvard trained nutritionist, Shintani has butressed that simple dietary concept with original research and written a book, The Eat More, Weigh Less Diet. Its premise: Lose weight without suffering hunger pangs by consuming low-fat, unprocessed foods. True, the book's title smells of diet gimmickry, but Shintani offers a solid program backed with explanations. Here you won't find another fraudulent addition to America's crowded library of weight-loss literature. Plus most of the recipes are Asian palette friendly.

Chuck the hotdogs and frozen burritos. Indulge in the leafy greens and grains your pre-historic ancestors relished.

The quantity of food intake, he argues, does not necessarily determine the amount of fat that collects on the thighs and belly. Rather, it's the kind of food that does.

Shintani divides foods into two categories: Fit Food and Other Foods. Broccoli falls into the fit food category, while meat belongs to the other foods category. It contains between 5 to 6 calories per gram, while broccoli contains 0.3 calories per gram, and oil contains 9 calories per gram.

An average, healthy woman should ingest about 2,500 calories a day. An order of two hamburgers, two medium fries and two milkshakes fulfills that requirement. So does 17.2 pounds of broccoli.

One quarter pound hamburger with cheese, for example, contains about the same amount of calories as eating all of the following: 2 baked potatoes, 2 ears of corn, 1 apple, 1 cup of broccoli, 1 cup steamed kale with dijon dip.

Granted, not even a pre-historic glutton could consume that much broccoli in a day, but the point is by eating more fit foods than other foods you can consume less calories while eating more.

Shintani recommends eating an abundance of starches (potatoes, rice, wheat), vegetables, fruits and legumes (beans and peas), while decreasing intake of fatty foods like oil, butter, meat, and dairy products.

Typically, diets that quickly reduce overall food intake cause the body to react as if the food supply is scarce and starvation is a threat. The body's defenses trigger slowing of the metabolism rate, causing it to burn fewer calories and allow fat to accumulate. That's fine if you're a member of the Donner Party, but not if you're trying to lose weight.



Since Shintani's diet maintains the normal amount of food intake, the metabolism runs at a desired rate. Furthermore, the diet can also stimulate the metabolism to operate more rapidly.

Shintani patterns his program on the dietary habits of traditional cultures. They were based on starches, unprocessed fresh fruits and vegetables. When our ancestors did eat meat, the game was wild and lean, the fat content hovering around 15%. Today's domesticated cattle, Shintani says, produce meat with a whopping 65% fat content.

His program is simple. Starches should constitute 50% of your diet. Fruits and vegetables should form 25%. The remaining quarter should include high-calcium, non-dairy foods, like broccoli, seaweed and kale, and low-fat proteins like beans and peas.

Since Shintani's diet stimulates metabolism, you burn more calories when active and inactive.

The consumption of starches increases metabolism. Eating regularly scheduled meals quicken metabolism too. As does regular bouts of aerobic exercise. Shintani recommends 30 to 40 minutes of aerobic exercise four times a week.

With dreams of a law practice long gone, Shintani's mission is to improve people's health. He is Director of Preventative Medicine at the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center and heads its preventive medicine program for Native Hawaiians. He's also written two other books.