Definitions of Categories

There are thousands, if not tens of thousands of kinds of food. How do you put them in 6 categories?

Grains

This category includes any grain-based food. Rice, noodles, bread, cereal, quinoa, couscous, etc., all count as grains.

Vegetable

Botanically, peppers and tomatoes are fruits. Carrots and beets are roots. Artichokes and cauliflowers are immature flowers. For our purposes, any edible part of a plant is considered a vegetable

An interesting question is: are French Fries vegetables? They are according to the USDA. They have plenty of fiber. One hundred grams of McDonald’s fries have more than twice as much fiber as 100 grams of baby spinach. The problem with fries is not that they’re not a vegetable, but that they have too much fat. Since the Positive Eating Plan has no limit on fat intake, you can technically count fries against your vegetable quota.

In 2010, the U.S. Department of Agriculture excluded potatoes from its list of subsidized foods in low-income programs. Chris Voigt, the executive director of the Washington Potato Commission, went on a potato-only diet for 60 days. He ended up losing 21 pounds even though he was consuming 2,200 calories a day. And his cholesterol level fell 67 points! It shows there is still a lot we don’t know about the interaction between food and the body.

By the way, of the dozen or so news stories I found about Mr. Voigt’s protest, none mentioned if he succeeded in changing the USDA’s policy. Compared to what food leads to weight loss, who gets government handouts is just not important.

Nuts, fruit, cheese and yogurt

Milk is not included. Only fermented dairy products are included. Kefir counts too.

Always go for the full-fat version of yogurt. Fat is a critical and necessary nutrient in moderation. It’s also integral to the taste and texture of food. To make reduced-fat products palatable, artificial ingredients, most likely something containing sugar, have to be added.

Nuts contain a lot of fat too. But they are mostly healthy mono- and polyunsaturated fats. What kind of fat is saturated? The kind your body makes when it has to convert excessive sugar to fat.

Poultry/Seafood/Egg/Pulses

Technically, a pulse is the edible seed from a legume plant. All beans are pulses: peas, lentils, chickpeas, kidney beans, etc. By extension, this category also includes tofu and its various incarnations.

Other

Beef, pork, and other red meats are in this category, along with ice cream. Other food is not necessarily unhealthy food. Actually, in the interest of diversity, you should always have some “other” food every day.

Water

Any unsweetened, non-alcoholic drink counts as water. The first rule of weight control is: never drink your calories. Sugar water of any kind (soda, macchiato, boba tea, etc.) is the purest mechanism to deliver excess calories to your system. Diet soda is not a good alternative; it messes with your body’s release of insulin, and there is credible evidence that some zero-calorie sweeteners may be carcinogens.

Worst of all, diet soda sustains your preference for sweet drinks. You can train yourself to enjoy non-sweet flavors, as evidenced by the people who prefer to drink black coffee.

From a weight control perspective, unsweetened lemonade and sparkling water are fine, but they leave your mouth slightly acidic, which is not good for your teeth.