Bladder-Friendly Foods | Urinary Tract Health

Urinary Tract Infection

Low-Grain, Low-Sugar Diet

Urinary Tract-Friendly Food Choices

Did you know that many people at risk, or with serious health issues, are still reluctant to change their old, unhealthy eating habits?

“It’s not so easy!,” they cry. Well, old habits die hard…

At first, all dietary recommendations (read: restrictions) seem hard. However, it is heartening to realize that you can independently achieve a significant improvement of your health - if you put your mind to it.

It is a well-known fact, although not everybody agrees, that most our health conditions can resolve - if we quit feeding our bodies with the meat-, dairy-, and sugar-based Western Diet, also known as the S.A.D. (Standard American Diet).

This diet has all the factors that increase our risk of just about any illness. Sad, but true.

So, by deciding to get well and/or stay healthy, you must change your eating habits (and preferences). In other words, you have to pay more attention to the foods you eat, namely their:

type (right foods, such as vegetables, beans, nuts, fish),
amount (portions that are proper serving sizes), and
quality (taking into consideration nutrient density, production process and packaging: quality foods do not come in a bag or a box).

First of all, in your new eating habits you need to:

eliminate or, at least, limit to a great degree all sugars, alcohol, and red meat;
add more dark green leafy vegetables.

Did you know that dark green leafy veggies contain compounds (known as thylakoids) that trigger satiety signals to help you:

regulate food intake,
prevent weight gain, and
promote weight loss?

And also remember that the efficacy of any dietary supplements, both nutritional and herbal, can be very limited by an unhealthy lifestyle. So make sure you try to live the healthiest lifestyle possible which includes:

your eating habits (or food habits ), that is when and how you eat, what you eat, and with whom you eat; also how you obtain, store, use, and discard your food;
the quality of water you drink (spring, purified, mineral, artesian, or alkaline), and
the amount of physical activity integrated into your daily life (work or occupational, travel or transportation, care of self or others, home or domestic, active recreation, sports, exercise).

Plant-Based Proteins

The unspoken cultural assumption, still persisting today, is that a plant-based diet is inferior and deficient in protein and contributes to a weakened body. The nutritional research, however, has made clear the fallacy of this cultural myth.

All plants contain proteins. And at least 14 percent of the total calories of every plant are proteins. For example, broccoli contains more proteins per calorie than steak. Also, per calorie, spinach is about equal to chicken and fish!

Of course, you will have to eat a lot more broccoli and spinach to get the same amount of calories that you do from the meat.

Multiple studies, however, have shown that if you are meeting your caloric needs through plant-based nutrition, you will satisfy your body's protein requirements. Why? Because plant-based proteins from a wide variety of sources adequately supply all the essential amino acids required for a healthy body.

Also, it is not necessary to consume a "complete" protein at every meal. The body’s innate intelligence utilizes the protein from multiple meals to provide the necessary building blocks. In addition, every bite of plant-based protein offers the extra health benefits of fiber, antioxidants, phytochemicals, vitamins and minerals.

How can you add more plant-based protein to your diet?

By simply eating more plants. Beans (27% protein), lentils (36%), chickpeas (33%), peas (30%), and kale (22%) provide the greatest opportunity to acquire micronutrients packaged with clean protein.

Practically speaking, add more of these to your salads, stews and soups. In each meal or recipe, use higher protein vegetables like spinach, kale, lentils, broccoli, beans and peas.

Having more plant-based protein in your daily meals is as simple as that.

Bad Sugars

Although sugar is harmful to human health, many people are actually addicted to it. This common phenomenon is referred to as an “intense desire to consume simple sugars”, or a “carbohydrate craving.”

Ironically, sugar cravings occur as a result of rapid rises and subsequent rapid falls in blood sugar level which are caused by -- high consumption of carbohydrates.

In the typical Western Diet, the major contributing factors in sugar cravings include:

Soft drinks – responsible for 33 percent of the total content of added (free) simple sugars.
Sweetened grains (primarily breakfast cereals) – responsible for 19 percent of the total content of added (free) simple sugars.
Sweets/candy – responsible for 17 percent of the total content of added (free) simple sugars.
Fruit drinks – responsible for 10 percent of the total content of added (free) simple sugars.
Milk products – responsible for 9 percent of the total content of added (free) simple sugars.

In order to free yourself of the physical addiction, complete avoidance of all sugar is necessary. Only total abstinence can resolve the biochemical addiction. Eating this way for several days (up to several weeks) is absolutely necessary!

During this transition, however, it is very important to eat every two-three hours to avoid symptoms of hypoglycemia. Otherwise, if you do not do that, your blood sugar may "crash" and you will feel horrible.

And one more thing to remember, one of the simplest and most profound health improvements you can make is to eliminate soda from your diet. If you are a "popaholic," or if you are in the habit of drinking soft drinks, you jeopardize your health. Period!

Right Fats

Blind dietary fat reduction can be harmful to your body. The key lies in selecting the right source of fat, followed by the proper preparation.

As an important macronutrient, fat is absolutely necessary for optimum health. Vegetarians will not have much difficulty as fat in its natural state is found in abundance in seeds and nuts.

Non-vegetarians face a more challenging task. Also, during the commercialization process, the chemical structure of the macronutrients within the meat is altered significantly.

Since most food comes with a combination of both, it is impractical to eat only the "good" and avoid all the "bad" fat. Balance is the key.

Mono-unsaturated fats are found in olive oil, seeds, nuts, and cold-water fish. They are relatively neutral with a small tendency to raise HDL-"good" cholesterol and lower LDL-"bad" cholesterol.

Saturated fats are derived both from plants (like coconut oil) and from animals, preferably free-range.

However, fats to be absolutely avoided are found in processed poly-unsaturated oils, such as corn oil, safflower oil, sunflower oil, or canola oil.

The worse kind fat, so-called trans fats are found in margarine, shortenings, fried and deep-fried foods.

If Red Meats, Lean Only

You can include in your diet lean red meats - only if they are properly selected, trimmed, and cooked. It means, without frying them in refined and overly processed oils. Why? Because exposing oils to heat and oxygen results in the worse possible combination of unhealthy fatty acids.

When deep-fried, even white meat, poultry and fish (low-fat choices) can be higher in fat than commercial beef!

As you can see, what makes the real difference is:

WHAT food you buy (either at the supermarket or at the health food store) and
HOW you prepare and cook it.

Foods to Avoid

The following foods are so bad for your body that there is no any reason to eat them. Not only do they have zero nutritional value, but they also give your body quite a dose of unwanted toxins.

Doughnuts: fried in vegetable oils, high in sugar, and full of white flour (in most varieties).

Eating a doughnut is one of the worst ways to start off your day. It will throw off your blood sugar and won’t stay with you, so you’ll be hungry again soon. You are better off eating no breakfast at all.

Soda (both regular and "diet"): high in sugar, high in caffeine, loaded with artificial food colors and sulfites, and filled with harmful artificial sweeteners.

French fries (and nearly all commercially fried foods): high in trans fats, high in harmful free radicals, high in acrylamide (a potent cancer-causing chemical, formed as a result of unknown chemical reactions during high-temperature frying or baking).

Chips (corn, potato, tortilla, etc.): high in carcinogenic acrylamide.

Fried non-fish seafood (shrimp, clams, oysters, lobsters, etc.): high in trans fats, carcinogenic acrylamide, mercury; also contaminated with parasites and resistant viruses which may not even be killed with high heat.

Foods to Favor

Healthy living can reduce your chance of illness by over 80 percent! As a matter of fact, in your journey to a better health, there are quite a few food types to favor:

As for beverages, drink mainly water (spring, purified, mineral, artesian, or alkaline).

Among meats, fish is best, especially "safe fish," such as summer flounder, wild Alaskan salmon, Arctic char, croaker, sardines, haddock, and tilapia.

As for vegetables, have mostly dark green ones. Foods to be favored are the cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, collard greens, kale, mustard greens, turnip greens, and Brussels sprouts.

The other, so-called "cooking greens" - i. e. not cruciferous - include beet greens, dandelion greens, spinach, and Swiss chard.

Raw or Cooked?

Are raw foods more nutritious than cooked foods? In general, yes, and moderately so, as far as vitamins are concerned. However, the distinction between raw and (preferably) steamed or cooked (but not overcooked) foods is probably not worth making.

The goal is to devise each day's food intake so as to optimize nutrition and minimize calories from carbohydrates - grains, legumes, starches and, of course, sugars.

There can be "off" days when you eat something from your old habits, but these should gradually be decreased until only about every tenth day is an "off" day at home.

"Off" Days

Eating out should not be a major problem. Simply, do as you like. No fancy desserts, however, except - if you must - on the "off" day, or when dining out.

In general, if you eat out often, you must be somewhat restrictive:

Concentrate mainly on the quality of the food. For example, don't eat the white bread and butter most restaurants put on the table for you to nibble while you await the main course. Either don't choose a high-fat meat (roast duck, pork, or the like).

Look on the menu for items prepared without added fat. Steamed, cooked in own juice, broiled, roasted, or poached would be okay.

Avoid items sautéed, fried, braised, creamed, escalloped, pickled, or smoked.

In other words, concentrate on switching toward the highest possible quality of food. You will find it far easier to limit your calories if the quality is high - until you will become accustomed to a better quality diet.

Try your best to adapt to such a diet, or something like it. And don't give up too easily.

Our Customers Write to Us

(Testimonials)

Learned more, than anywhere else

I am so glad you have this site.

My doctor just told me to lose weight, but he didn't tell me how to do it. I am so grateful to you for this information.

I have learned more on your site, than anywhere else. Thank you very much.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Debra Ruth

Your diet is working

I'm 53 years old.

After 4 months on your diet with 30 minutes on the treadmill 5 days a week (1,300 calories a day), 2-5 grams of omega 3 per day in fish (salmon, albacore, sardines, trout, etc.) and fish oil capsules.

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Mike W.

Arizona, USA

An update on my continued success

Almost 12 months on your diet now and I thought I should give an update on my continued success.

I had my blood tested for my annual physical. The results were amazing, including the blood lipids, liver enzymes (they had been slightly elevated for the past 3 years), thyroid, blood pressure and weight (177 Lbs.).

Having reached my goal weight, I continue to keep my daily “sugar” intake to the minimum, avoiding all candy and other sweets.

Also, I keep potatoes, bread, rice, corn chips, etc. to the minimum…

I try to drink at least 3 quarts of purified, lukewarm water every day. Suffice it to say, I am continuing with your diet.

Thank you once again!

Mike W.

Arizona, USA