The 8-Hour Diet (13 page)

The 8-Hour Powerfoods are, quite simply, the best foods I know. Allow me to introduce you to them. You’ll see that they fall into two main categories—the Fat Busters and the Health Boosters. Each category has four food groups under it, and each of those groups contains a groaning banquet table of options, bursting with amazing flavors, textures, aromas, colors, and nutrients. At the end of each day, if you can say “I ate my 8!” then you’ll have no question about whether you’re fueling your body with the absolute best mix of foods on the planet—no matter what else you ate that day.

I’ve divided the 8-Hour Powerfoods into two categories. One set is made up of rich, delicious foods high in protein, fiber, and healthy fats (the Fat Busters); they’ll help your body build and maintain lean muscle, burn off flab, and fend off hunger. Those are complemented by foods high in vitamins and minerals (the Health Boosters) that can help you fight the most common causes of disease and death and sharpen your mind at the same time they help you preserve cherished memories.

(To make it even easier to say “I ate my 8,” chef and James Beard Award–nominated food journalist Matt Goulding, my coauthor on the Cook This, Not That! series, has created a bounty of simple and delicious recipes that incorporate the 8-Hour Powerfoods; they’re collected in
Chapter 8
. And you don’t need to be Anthony Bourdain or Gordon Ramsay to make these recipes sing—they’re as easy as lighting a match, and many can be pulled together in just 8 minutes!)

In fact, you don’t have to cook—or even know where your kitchen is—to make every day an 8-Hour Powerfood day. You can grab most of these foods and eat on the run, order them over the counter at your local deli, or even snack on them while you’re at the bar watching the game.

To hit the road to maximum health and weight loss as quickly as possible, try to eat at least one or two of the 8-Hour Powerfoods with each snack or meal. By virtue of your 8-Hour eating schedule, your body will already be selectively burning belly fat for calories. These foods will turbocharge that effect as they help you firm up lean muscle mass (which burns more calories) and avoid storing fat in the first place. (Select your new swimsuit now: You’ll need it for your coming beach vacation—the one you’ll pay for with the money you save on this plan.)

More ways to put the Powerfood jolt in your life:

FIND WAYS TO COMBINE THEM.
The recipes in
Chapter 8
are a start, but once you become familiar with the groups and find favorites within
them, you’ll stop making a distinction between “what tastes good” and “what’s good for you.” Both can be true. Dig in, times eight!

BE THE WARREN BUFFETT OF THE BUFFET.
Consider each meal and snack to be an investment in your body. You want to create a balanced portfolio of investments that are going to perform well, and try to cut down on “junk” bonds—investments that aren’t a good value. Eating a variety of proteins, complex carbohydrates, and good fats is the best way to satisfy hunger without bingeing, and you’ll fulfill all your nutritional requirements at the same time.

EAT ALL THE COLORS OF THE RAINBOW.
Nature created fruits and vegetables with their own color-coded branding system. Red fruits and vegetables, for example, are rich in lycopene, which fights heart disease and protects against sun damage. Orange and yellow foods pack lots of vitamin A; greens are high in folate and vitamin K; and blue and purple hues mean the food is high in other nutrients and antioxidants. So if you mix colors, you’ll max out on health benefits.

The first criterion I applied when picking the Powerfoods was that they be flat-out delicious. (And if they aren’t amazing to begin with, the recipes in
Chapter 8
will
make
them delicious!) If foods don’t taste great, I don’t eat them, and I know you won’t either. So consider this a smorgasbord of earthly delights to include in your 8-Hour feast.

But there are other benefits aside from the tickle on the tongue, which is why I call them Powerfoods. All of them have that
Fantastic Voyage
–like ability to travel through the byways of your body and fix what’s wrong, or even,
Terminator
-like, to stop an impending future disaster in its tracks, today. Keep clear a crucial artery here, hook up a new brain synapse there, ignite a sexual spark down there, all the while priming your metabolism to burn through belly fat the way John Mayer
burns through girlfriends. Isn’t it great knowing that just by eating these foods, you’re setting up your body for a lifetime of health?

I’ve arranged a panel of handy icons to you tell exactly where and how eating these foods will help you. Keep in mind that the very fact that you’re on the 8-Hour Diet touches off profound biological changes in your body, so you’ll be experiencing all of the benefits enumerated below, and more. But now, as you eat your way through the excellent eight, you’ll be amplifying and multiplying those benefits.

Eat by the icons
and
by the clock, and you’ll enjoy the healthiest heights of your lifetime. Take the 8-Hour Powerfoods home for dinner. Tomorrow morning, you’ll want to spend the rest of your life with them.

BUILDS MUSCLE.
The 8-Hour Diet will send your blood levels of human growth hormone soaring, so you’re already primed to build muscle. Plant and animal proteins—plus certain minerals, such as magnesium—are muscle-building essentials, so they’ll give your muscle-building hormones plenty of raw material to work with. And the 8-Minute Workouts will be jacking you up, as well. So much the better if you do frequent drinking-glass curls and fork presses with these muscular foods and libations.

HELPS PROMOTE WEIGHT LOSS.
The belly-shrinking benefits of eating for 8 hours a day are already significant. Pack those hours with foods high in calcium and fiber (both of which protect against obesity), plus foods that help build fat-busting muscle tissue, and you’re on your way to a lean belly.

STRENGTHENS BONE.
Calcium and vitamin D are the most important bone builders, and they protect the body against osteoporosis. But beware: High levels of sodium can leach calcium out of bone tissue. Fortunately, all of the great eight Powerfoods are naturally low in sodium.

LOWERS BLOOD PRESSURE.
A 2001 study published in the
Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapy
(hey, it’s on
my
coffee table) showed an
average
blood-pressure drop of 37/13 mm Hg in hypertensive patients who fasted regularly. And now you’ll be eating food that’s low in sodium
and
has beneficial amounts of potassium, magnesium, or calcium. Your jackrabbit pulse just might slow to tortoise speed—and you’ll win the longevity race.

FIGHTS CANCER.
The tumor-taming result of intermittent fasting is among its most remarkable effects. Now you’ll also be a living test subject for the abundant research showing a lower cancer risk among those people who maintain low-fat, high-fiber diets. (I’d recommend that you donate your body to science, but perhaps it’ll be so sexy you’ll want to keep using it yourself.) You can also help foil cancer by eating foods that are high in calcium, beta-carotene, or vitamin C. In addition, all cruciferous (cabbage-type) and allium (onion-type) vegetables can help prevent various types of cancer. They’re all here, in the eight Powerfoods.

IMPROVES IMMUNE FUNCTION.
We could have called the 8-Hour Diet the “Immune-System Max-Out Diet” if we’d wanted to. The effect is amazing. Add a healing dose of vitamins A, E, B
₆
, and C; folate; and the mineral zinc, and you’ll redouble the body’s immunity to certain diseases. This icon will lead you to Powerfoods with high levels of one or more of these nutrients.

FIGHTS HEART DISEASE.
When it comes to heart health, the 8-Hour Powerfoods are like nutritional Navy SEALs, targeting and destroying artery-clogging cholesterol by limiting saturated and trans fats and maxing out on foods that are high in monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fats.