This piece, “Prudent Diet: One Size (Sorta) Fits All" appeared on page 20 of the Fall 2026 issue of Chicago Living Magazine.
Common sense is the ingredient most left out of the torrent of contradictory recipes for healthy eating incessantly served to us. This article aims to correct that deficiency. If you approach eating with these simple guidelines in mind your body will be healthier and your mind less confused.
It can be viewed using this link: Chicago Life Magazine - Prudent Diet
--
You're probably saying to yourself, “Oh no! Not another article about what I really, really should eat and drink. What more can there be to say about the subject?” Over the years, at an ever-accelerating pace, enough contradictory recommendations and sales pitches for diets have appeared in all the media, I fear, to subtract from the sum total of knowledge about human nutrition.
Relax. I promise this injection of nutrition commonsense will not hurt at all. It may even have you feeling better soon. Now is the time to turn away from the never-ending battle between the angel on one shoulder urging you to order a salad with dressing on the side and ice tea, versus the devil on the other whispering that you deserve a double cheeseburger and a chocolate shake.
The success of a book published this year, titled Eat Your Ice Cream, and written by Ezekiel Emanuel, a respected physician (not to mention the brother of Chicago's ex-mayor, Rahm), suggests that the time is right for peddling some simple, chill advice about healthy living. Stop worrying so much about which to follow of those gazillion conflicting pronouncements of health dos and don'ts. Ezekiel lists six broad principles that, when combined with common sense, can lead to a healthier, happier life. He recognizes, as I do, that happiness and health are mightily intertwined.
The need to chill applies especially to dietary advice. I'm sharing here a brief summary of “Doctor Marc Ringel's All-Around Prudent Diet,” a two-page patient handout I developed over many years of family practice. Page one lists general principles. Page two has two side-by-side columns. One column, headed “Eat More,” gives an idea of which foods are better for you in general and the other, headed “Eat Less,” suggests what's less good for you. Neither list is overseen by an angel nor a devil.
The Collins Dictionary of American English defines “prudent” as sensible or careful. These instructions are careful in that they do their best to follow the scientific literature on nutrition, and sensible in recognizing how unclear and contradictory so much of that evidence is, thereby leaving ample room for guidelines, not rules. The guidelines are meant to fit your life, not to fit your life around. I call them all-around because it turns out they are good rules-of-thumb for most everybody. Sometimes, of course, it takes the expertise of a dietician or other health professional to match a patient, their food culture and their disease with a diet.
So here are my prudent diet principles, edited to fit within the space the editor gave me.
- Eat a wide variety of foods. It's better to get nutrients from real food than from supplements.
- Fresh fruits and vegetables are better than frozen, which are better than canned.
- Complex carbohydrates, like whole grain products (e.g. whole wheat and brown rice) are more healthful than foods made from simple starches and sugars (e.g. white flour and fructose).
- Eat more fiber, another reason to choose fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains.
- Choose monounsaturated fats (e.g. olive and canola oil) over saturated fats (e.g. animal fat, cream, peanut oil). Buy leaner cuts of meat. Polyunsaturates (e.g. corn and safflower) have fallen out of favor.
- Read and compare food labels, keeping an eye on fat, simple sugars, fiber, salt and calories. All else being equal, pick the brand with fewer chemical names on its ingredient list.
- Drink enough fluids to keep your urine pale. The old 8-8 oz. glasses of water a day is passe.
- Moderate salt intake. Get used to not adding much salt when you cook or eat. Consume less of prepared foods that contain a lot of salt, like potato chips, cold cuts, ketchup or canned soup.
- Exercise. Everything counts, including strolling, yard and housework.
- Watch your alcohol intake. The latest word is that less is better. I won't tell you not to drink at all.
- No food is completely forbidden. If you totally deny yourself things you crave, you're likely to fall off the wagon.
- Aim to sleep at least 7 hours out of 24. Adequate sleep goes a long way toward keeping weight in check, as well as maintaining most body systems in running order.
- Share leisurely meals with people you care about.
- Change gradually how you eat, think and live. That way your gains are more likely to stick. Avoid crash or ultra-strict diets. They don't work in the long run.
You've probably noticed that this discussion of diet is about more than what you put in your mouth. Exercise, sleep and setting figure in. When it comes to real people, everything affects everything. And that's whom these guidelines are for, real people.
