The never-too-late nutrition plan: you can rebuild yourself—no matter how badly you've trashed your body

Men's Fitness, Jan, 2002 by Myatt Murphy

** Beta-carotene: carrots, cantaloupe, dark-green leafy vegetables

** Vitamin C: citrus fruits and juices, green peppers, kiwi

** Vitamin E: nuts, seeds, polyunsaturated oils, fish

** Selenium: bran cereal, whole grains, chicken

** Copper: shellfish, eggs, beans

** Zinc: oysters, mushrooms, whole grains

** Manganese: grains, egg yokes or beans

* If eating all these foods is too much work, taking the recommended daily allowance of each vitamin and mineral is fine, but add an additional 400 to 800 IU of vitamin E, especially if you're on a low-fat diet that doesn't include nuts and oils on the menu.

* Finally, "Staying well-hydrated will keep all your cells and organs nourished so that protein metabolism and tissue maintenance and repair can all function at peak levels," says Kleiner. Drinking at least eight to 10 glasses of water each day should do the trick.

THE SODA SWILLER

The Bad News

* It may be cool, refreshing and the real thing, but "soda is essentially liquid candy," says Kleiner. If you haven't been good about brushing your pearly whites on a regular basis, you can probably expect to make your dentist a very rich man in the future.

* A diet high in sugar can deplete your body's supply of chromium, a trace element responsible for helping insulin transport glucose into cells and for aiding the cellular uptake of amino acids into your system. If you've been pounding one too many two-liters all your life, you've disrupted the way your body metabolizes carbohydrates and proteins, a chemical imbalance that can lead to less energy due to poor blood-sugar control, and less muscle tissue due to a lack of amino acids.

* "Drinking all those empty calories from sugar also automatically limits the amount of other nutrient-dense foods you could be eating," says Kleiner. Your diet is likely to be devoid of many minerals, along with many other important materials such as fiber and phytochemicals. "The high levels of acid pH in soda, plus its high phosphorus content, may cause leaching of calcium from bone tissue as well," says Kleiner.

How to fix yourself

* Simply switching to water, low-fat or nonfat milk, or fiber-loaded juices that are 100 percent natural (no sugar added) will provide your body with the nutrients it's been lacking while giving your chompers a reprieve.

* Avoid sugar and other sweets in order to bring your body's blood-sugar levels back within a normal range.

* Finally, begin taking a chromium supplement of 35 micrograms (the recommended daily allowance) for the first few months into your new diet. "That should raise your chromium levels high enough so your systems can run efficiently once again," says Kleiner. By keeping your insulin levels stable, chromium helps control your appetite while enabling your body to burn more fat as energy, instead of storing it. Letting chromium do its job of regulating insulin also prevents your body from breaking down your hard-earned muscle tissue for protein, which is why the mineral is so important for men trying to lose weight and maintain muscle.