Fiona McCade: Over-egging the crash diet

My husband has had his kilt since he was at university. Like all good kilts, the waist fastening allows plenty of room for growth, but not, however, quite as much growth as my husband has undergone in the past few years. This means that whenever a kilt-wearing occasion looms, he invariably goes on some mad, crash diet to remove the offending flab.

In this way – and only in this way – he’s like Charles Saatchi, the millionaire ad-man and art collector, whose wife, Nigella Lawson, has revealed that her husband’s recent massive weight loss is down to a strict diet of nine eggs a day. He ate three for breakfast, three for dinner, three for supper and nothing else for nine months and lost a whopping four stone.
It’s crazy, but I applaud the man’s willpower. How difficult must it be to lose serious amounts of weight when you’ve got Britain’s most famous domestic goddess slinking around the house, licking whipped cream off her fingers and purring about the joys of tiramisu?

Nevertheless, he did it and his new, somewhat gaunt look (scarily like Nigella’s dad, Nigel, who lost several stone on a similarly draconian eating regime a few years ago) is testament to his alpha-male ability to create a new reality for himself, however much that new reality might smell of sulphur and make his wife describe him as "grumpy and crotchety".

Saatchi’s doctor despaired at such unhealthy eating habits, saying: "It’s neck-and-neck whether Charles keels over or loses the weight first," but somehow Saatchi survived the bizarre nine-eggs-a-day diet and now, with the date of a kilt-wearing wedding approaching, I can tell my husband is thinking about trying it too.

Men and women tend to diet very differently. Unless we’re Hollywood stars and need to lose a stone in ten minutes or we’ll never work again, women generally choose boring, eat-less, exercise-more options, which involve meeting other women, drinking Diet Coke and moaning about how difficult it all is.

We compare diets endlessly; we weigh up calories; use points systems; stretch our legs behind our heads, or feel the burn. We worry about whether we’re absorbing enough chromium and painstakingly juggle menus to make sure we’re getting our five a day.

Traditionally, women are supposed to be the weight obsessives, but when it comes to sheer, fanatical, single-minded self-reduction, the boys win almost every time.

All dieters want the quickest fix possible, but men seem to want it even quicker than women, so they’re much happier than we are to risk their long-term health in the quest to achieve a thinner tomorrow, today.

I’ve noticed male dieters are particularly seduced by the stringent, all-or-nothing approach. I know women who’ve tried things like the cabbage soup diet, the maple syrup diet, or nothing-but-cucumber, but these methods are usually employed as short-burst slimming strategies within a wider game plan.

Admittedly, Saatchi’s diet lasted much longer than the average male’s weight-loss regime, but I’m guessing now he’s triumphed, it’s possible he’s already edging towards the kind of eating patterns that got him into trouble in the first place.
A male friend recently ate only soup and water for a month. He did it alone and hardly ventured outside the house, but that was all part of the mastery-of-self battle he was waging. The results are stunning, but typical of the extreme masculine dieting patterns I keep coming across, which never seem to be about making small yet meaningful changes to your lifestyle, or simply eating slightly less.

For example, my husband is currently trying the Stone Age diet. If it’s authentic, then stone-age man took absolutely no exercise and sat around his cave all day bingeing on burgers (without the bun).

So far, the effects on his waistline have been minimal, but he says he likes it because it’s simple and it means he doesn’t have to think about recipes, or anything boring like that.

And that sums it up, really. When men want to lose fat, they want to do it simply, spectacularly quickly, and with no thought for the future of their bodies. Which is why I’m worried by the return of my brother-in-law from Nepal, looking unusually svelte. An attack of Kathmandu colon caused him to lose two stone in as many weeks and my husband is impressed. "It’s perfect!" he enthused. "You go somewhere exotic, eat whatever you like, and lose loads of weight just by sitting down! It’s the perfect diet!"

I can see there’s only one thing that might stop this madness – I’ll have to buy him a new kilt.

Source: The Scotsman

Middle School Freshens Up Students’ Diets With Fruits, Vegetables & Other Healthy Food

Last year, Elvis Cherry, a seventh-grade science teacher at H.G. Hill Middle School, plucked a carrot from the garden he grows outside of his classroom and popped a piece into his mouth.

"Eww" and "Yuck" came the replies as students watched their science teacher chew and swallow the vegetable.

Many of them, who are between the ages of 10 and 13, had never witnessed the growth of the vegetable, while others had never tasted one.

Lack of exposure to fresh fruits and vegetables is something Cherry and others at the school noticed among the middle school students. To help show that there are healthier snack options, the school applied for and was awarded a grant that provides healthy snacks to students.

The school is tucked away in an affluent West Meade neighborhood. But a lot of the students had bad diets, regularly snacking on potato chips, candy and cookies.

At home, eighth-grader Brayden Stewart rarely eats healthy foods.

"Junk food is really all I eat, and maybe sometimes oranges," the 13-year-old said.

And it’s not uncommon for eighth-grader Kiebron Negasi to have a diet of processed foods, his favorite being chocolate chip cookies as a snack after school.

Initiatives are launched

The consumption of processed foods among school-age children is spurring "healthy initiatives" like the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program at H.G. Hill Middle.

With the help of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the school received a grant of nearly $50,000 to provide healthy snacks of cherry tomatoes, blackberries, pears and other foods to the 400-plus students during the school year.

In many areas, there are no grocery stores nearby that offer reasonably priced healthy food options. Many of the students are used to their fruits and vegetables in cans, Cherry said. "The parents don’t have access to those healthy foods, and they’re limited to canned foods that are not fresh," he said.

At first, the students were a little unsure when the carts of blueberries, strawberries and broccoli wheeled into their classrooms, and Cherry has the pictures to prove it.

The teacher’s photos, taken the first day of the new program, show the middle-schoolers hesitating. They stand back from the cart, their hands held protectively close.

"At first I was kind of confused," said eighth-grader Latazia Carter.

"I thought they were going to pass out junk food," Brayden admitted.

But over time, the students got used to seeing the cart with the fresh fruits and vegetables.

Carolyn Dillahay, cafeteria manager at the school, said she has already seen the success of the program among the students.

The offering of healthier food options "opens their eyes and lets them know that there are good snacks out there," Dillahay said, watching as a teacher wheeled into the cafeteria an almost-empty cart that held the fruits and veggies.

The plums seem to be less popular among the students, but strawberries go quickly, as do the peaches and nectarines.

"Seeing how well they’ve accepted it is what does it for me," Dillahay said.

Contact Leah Caudle at 615-259-8066 or lcaudle@tennessean.com.

Source: tennessean.com

Food Writer Defends Goodness of Fat

It takes a contrarian to defend the goodness of fat at a time when obesity has turned into a global epidemic.

In her new cookbook, “Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, With Recipes,” chef, food stylist and writer Jennifer McLagan challenges medical studies that have linked diet to heart disease.

McLagan, whose first book “Bones” won a James Beard Award in 2006, said that up until the last few decades, fat has always had positive connotations, and that the more people deprived themselves of ingredients such as butter, lard and chicken skin, the fatter and sicker they have become.

McLagan insists animal fats are not only essential to cooking delicious food, but – in moderation – are more easily digested than the alternatives and have other health benefits, like boosting the immune system and lowering bad cholesterol.

McLagan, 54, who lives in Toronto but grew up in Melbourne, Australia, spoke to Reuters about debunking fat phobias.

Q: What inspired you to write a book about fat?

A: “After ‘Bones,’ someone said what are you going to write next and I said well I’m going to do the trilogy — skin and fat. So I thought, skin, that’s a little slim, that book. But I thought about fat and I thought about how I’ve never really stopped eating fat.

“I guess I escaped Australia in the ’70s and ended up in France up to my armpits in pork fat and beef fat and duck fat, so I never got that margarine kind of scare thing and it never stopped me. But then when I started thinking about it, I thought, oh, I still had that thing, like I would have that reaction to a well marbled steak or a slice of pork belly thinking, ooh, there’s a lot of fat there. I knew that’s where the flavor was but I wanted to find out more about it.”

Q: Why has fat gotten a bad rap?

A: “I think it was just misassociated. People were trying to find a reason for the increase in heart attacks and heart disease in the middle of the last century and scientists were looking for a reason and certain theories were proposed. And these were always theories and like everybody, they manipulated the facts to fit.

“So they picked out these things and they said animal fat was bad for you and if you ate animal fat you know it will increase your cholesterol, increase your risk of heart attack, but it was never proved. It was only an associated thing. It was never causal. They left out the French, they left out the Inuit, they left out any population that didn’t fit into their plan. That was the first thing. And then when the U.S. Congress (adopted it), we started to believe our government rather than our grandmother about what we should eat.”

Q: How do you hope to change people’s perception of fat?

A: “There’s this association that fat goes from your lips to your hips. And that’s not true. Eating fat does not make you fat. Eating too much, too many calories, too much sugar, too many carbs, makes you fat. I’d like to argue eating fat makes you lose weight because you’re so satisfied eating fat you don’t snack and you don’t eat too much of whatever you’re eating.”

Q: What is your favorite fat to cook with?

A: “I love duck fat to cook potatoes. There is nothing better than, of course if you can get goose fat or foie gras fat, but they’re all the same family. Potatoes cooked in duck fat because duck fat has a rich sweetness. And my new latest favorite fat, well I used to always use suet, which is the kidney fat, from the veal or the beef because I grew up with mincemeat … And one of the things I did when I was doing “Fat,” just for interest, I made what I would call scones or tea biscuits with butter, lard, duck fat, suet, baked them all off and I gave them to people to eat to see which ones they would like and you know the one with suet is just amazingly light.”

Q: How much fat do you eat?

A: “Probably more than a lot of people but not an obscene amount, because it’s not like I’m pouring it on absolutely everything that I eat. But I’m definitely not scared of it. I’m quite happy to have it on things, but like I said, two slices of pork belly and, uncle, I can’t eat anymore. Whereas I could probably eat five or six slices of pork tenderloin if I let myself.”

Bacon Mayonnaise

Author’s note: Is it possible to improve upon a classic BLT? I think so, by adding another layer of flavor with my bacon mayonnaise. The recipe makes about enough for four sandwiches. It’s best to use it all up as the bacon fat will turn it solid in the refrigerator.

Makes about 1/2 cup/125 ml

1 egg yolk

3/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup/125 ml liquid bacon

Combine the egg yolk, mustard, and lemon juice in the small bowl of a food processor or in a blender and process to mix. Season with salt and pepper. Have the bacon fat liquid, but not hot. With the machine running, gradually add the bacon fat until the mixture starts to stiffen and emulsify, about two minutes. Once it starts to emulsify, you can add the fat more quickly. If the mayonnaise is too thick, just blend in one teaspoon of boiling water to thin it. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Source: abs-cbnnews.com

Low-Salt Diet May Lower Blood Pressure

Salt is essential not only to life, but to good health. The body’s salt:water ratio is critical to metabolism, and salt maintains the electrolyte balance inside and outside of cells. Even human blood contains salt, 0.9 percent — the same concentration as found in sodium chloride irrigant commonly used to cleanse wounds. Most of our salt comes from food, some from water. However, for people who are “salt sensitive,” too much salt in the daily diet can contribute to resistant high blood pressure, or hypertension — a type that doesn’t respond to medications. In a recent study, these patients were able to achieve significant reduction in blood pressure just by reducing their salt intake.

For the study, a team of researchers from the University of Alabama enrolled 13 patients with resistant high blood pressure who were taking at least three blood-pressure-lowing medications. The participants were randomly assigned to a high- or low-salt diet and then monitored using a recorder worn continuously for 24 hours. Researchers found that those on the low-salt diet saw a 22.6 mmHg drop in the systolic (top number representing pressure while the heart contracts) blood pressure, along with a 9.2 mmHg drop in their diastolic blood pressure (bottom number representing the pressure when the heart relaxes between beats), as compared to patients on the high-salt diet. The amount of sodium excreted in their urine was also markedly reduced. Overall, the patients on the low-salt diet reported a better health state than the others, with appropriate body weight and levels of thoracic fluid and brain natriuretic peptide, which are two parameters that indicate fluid retention in the body.

The study team concludes that these findings clearly demonstrate the harmful effects of a high-salt diet in people with stubborn hypertension, as well as the benefits of a low-salt diet. “The blood pressure reduction achieved with low-salt diet was higher than some antihypertensive drugs,” said lead researcher Dr. Eduardo Pimenta, now at the Department of Hypertension and Nephrology at the Dante Pazzanese Institute of Cardiology in Sao Paulo, Brazil. “We were expecting blood pressure reduction with low-salt diet but the reduction was larger than we expected.”

Dr. Gregg C. Fonarow, professor of cardiology at the University of California, Los Angeles, called the study “small, but interesting” and agreed that salt reduction could have a substantial impact on lowering blood pressure for patients with medication-resistant high blood pressure. “Excess sodium intake, above 2,300 milligrams daily, should be avoided in all patients with hypertension, and among those patients with medically resistant hypertension, a closely monitored low-salt diet (1,500 milligrams daily) should be considered,” he advised.

The American Heart Association (AHA) says simple dietary changes to reduce salt consumption will only help in averting high blood pressure, but also its adverse effects like heart disease. The AHA recommends 2,300 milligrams (mg) of salt per day (which equates to about one teaspoon), or 2,000 mg for people suffering from high blood pressure or congestive heart failure. Recent studies have also shown that blood pressure can be lowered by following the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) eating plan, which offer a week of menus as well as recipes for two levels of daily sodium consumption—2,300 and 1,500 milligrams per day. Twenty-three hundred milligrams is the highest level considered acceptable by the National High Blood Pressure Education Program and also the highest amount recommended for healthy Americans by the 2005 “U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans.”

High blood pressure is clearly a major public health problem. According to recent estimates, approximately one in three adults in the United States as well as two million American teens and children has high blood pressure, but because there are often no symptoms, nearly one-third of people are unaware they have it. The only certain way to tell if you have high blood pressure is to have your pressure checked. Most people can control high blood pressure if they maintain a healthy weight, be moderately physically active on most days of the week, follow a healthy eating plan that includes foods lower in sodium, avoid alcoholic beverages or consume then in moderation, and take blood-pressure-lowering medications as directed.

The details of the study were presented at the American Heart Association’s Fall Conference of the Council for High Blood Pressure Research.

Source: healthnews.com

How to keep your blood pressure in check

Question: Can I ever stop taking medicine for high blood pressure to see if diet and lifestyle changes have brought my blood pressure back to normal?

Answer: Hypertension (high blood pressure) is the most common form of cardiovascular disease in North America, affecting nearly one in three adults. High blood pressure is a threat because it makes the heart work harder, increasing its oxygen demands and contributing to angina (chest pain related to heart disease).

Unchecked, high blood pressure increases the risk of heart attacks, stroke and kidney disease. Some people can lower and control their blood pressure with healthy lifestyle measures — losing weight if necessary (even a 10 per cent weight loss might do the trick), quitting smoking if that’s an issue, limiting intake of caffeine and alcohol, as well as cutting back on salt (processed foods are the biggest sources of sodium in today’s western diet) and practising relaxation methods.

The last of these may be the most important, yet doctors often fail to emphasize the importance of learning how to relax the involuntary nervous system, which controls the tone of blood vessels. Meditation, yoga, breathing exercises and biofeedback training can all help. I recommend that you also check out a simple device called RESPeRATE (resperate.com) that teaches you to lower your blood pressure by changing your breathing patterns.

If you’ve made and are maintaining these lifestyle changes, you might then try to cut down on your blood pressure medication. Do so gradually, and be sure to monitor your pressure at home — at least two to three times a day, both when you are calm and when you are not — to make sure that it doesn’t start to rise. If it does, you’ll have to return to the usual dosage of your medication. It would be best to make these changes under the supervision of your physician so you will not be alone in your efforts.

A large study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published in the May 4, 2007, issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report found while most Americans who have high blood pressure are trying to bring it under control, 70 per cent of them have failed.

The CDC researchers collected information on more than 101,000 people and found that of the nearly 25,000 who had high blood pressure, 98.1 per cent, said they were doing at least one thing to lower it. Nearly 71 per cent said they had changed their eating habits, 79.5 per cent said they had reduced or eliminated the salt in their diets, 79.2 per cent either didn’t drink or had cut back on alcoholic beverages, 68.6 per cent exercised and 73.4 per cent were taking medication. But the study showed that those efforts paid off in only 30 per cent of all cases.

If you have a family history of hypertension, lifestyle measures may not be enough to keep your blood pressure under control — you probably will need some medication. But no one should depend on drugs alone. A healthy lifestyle, including relaxation practise, is also key to keeping blood pressure in the safe range.

Dr. Andrew Weil is director of the program of Integrative Medicine of the College of Medicine, University of Arizona. He is an internationally recognized expert on medicinal plants, alternative medicine and the reform of medical education.

Source: The Calgary Herald

Older People Who Diet Without Exercising Lose Valuable Muscle Mass

A group of sedentary and overweight older people placed on a four-month exercise program not only became more fit, but burned off more fat, compared to older sedentary people who were placed on a diet but did not exercise.

The new study also showed that when older people diet without exercising, they lose more lean muscle compared to those who exercise, said senior researcher Bret H. Goodpaster. When they combined weight loss with exercise, it nearly completely prevented the loss of lean muscle mass. The results are important because older people tend to lose muscle mass as they age and too much muscle loss may interfere with activities of daily living.

The study, “Separate and combined effects of exercise training and weight loss on exercise efficiency and substrate oxidation,” appears in the current issue of the Journal of Applied Physiology, published by The American Physiological Society. Francesca Amati, John J. Dube, Chris Shay and Goodpaster, all of the University of Pittsburgh, carried out the study.

Study looks at exercise efficiency

The researchers wanted to know the best way to get better (more efficient) at completing a defined exercise task. In particular, they wanted to know if greater fitness could be achieved through exercise training, weight loss (through dieting), or both. In addition, they wanted to know which fuel source the body would draw upon, carbohydrates or fats, under these different conditions.

The 64 participants were 60-75 years of age and were either overweight or obese. All of the participants were sedentary at the outset of the study. The researchers divided the participants into three groups:

• exercise only
• diet only
• exercise plus diet

Those who exercised could either walk on a treadmill or ride a stationary bicycle, although most chose to walk. The dieters reduced their caloric intake to achieve a 10% weight loss by the end of the four-month study period. The final group combined both the daily exercise and the diet.

Exercise increases efficiency, burns more fat

The researchers measured how many calories the participants expended during a set work load on a stationary bicycle at the beginning and at the end of the experiment. They found that the:

• Exercise group expended fewer calories (became more efficient) on the exercise task at the end of the study compared to the beginning.
• Exercise group drew more on fat stores as the source of their body’s fuel.
• Diet-only group did not gain efficiency in performing the exercise task, even though they weighed less at the end of the experiment.
• Diet-only group’s weight loss resulted from a loss of both muscle and fat.
• Exercise plus diet group was the most efficient at the exercise task at the end of the experiment. This shows an additive effect of both dieting and exercise, but most of that benefit was due to exercise.
• Exercise plus diet group, like the exercise-only group, drew more on fat stores as an energy source.

“The take-home message is that, even among older people and during a fairly short period of time, exercise produces metabolic changes that require the expenditure of fewer calories during physical activity,” Goodpaster said. Exercise also allowed older people to more preferentially burn fat, which may be healthier metabolically.”

Source: sciencedaily.com

5 Essential Weight Loss Foods

There are many fad diets that promise to help you lose weight in almost no time at all. After two or three weeks on the diet you find yourself losing enough to be able to brag to your family and friends about it, and you’re so optimistic that this new lifestyle will be your ticket to a smaller waistline that you start to browse the stores for new clothes.

You continue to lose weight for another couple of weeks, and then something happens: you start to feel sluggish, you begin craving something that your diet absolutely forbids you to have, or the general sense of optimism begins to transform itself into a feeling of constriction, frustration, and even dietary imprisonment.

You decide to have just one snack, or spend just one day eating whatever you want with the intention of going back to the diet the following day. What happens then, is that you feel such satisfaction from that treat that the entire effort falls apart and you put the weight back on in practically no time at all.

Does this scenario sound at all familiar?

Diets are very hard, as is the feeling of being overweight. Many of these fad diets may promise instant and significant weight loss results, but most of them rely on depriving your body of certain nutrients and disrupting the natural function of your body’s metabolism. Chinese medicine considers obesity to be partly the result of declining function of the metabolic fire of the kidney network and a diet that provides a well-balanced array of nutrients is the key to losing weight in a healthy way. What follows are five foods that will help you restore your body’s ability to use energy and help you become your healthy weight.

• Millet: A well-balanced diet should consist of whole grains instead of refined grains like white rice and pasta, and millet is a beneficial and delicious staple of this category of food. This non-glutinous grain is over 10-percent protein, has high amounts of fiber and B-complex vitamins, and because it isn’t an acid forming food, is easy to digest.
• Asparagus: When losing weight, it’s important to favor chlorophyll-rich foods, including asparagus. Asparagus is a nutrient-rich vegetable packed with folate, vitamins A, C, and K, and fiber. Asparagus also contains a carbohydrate known as inulin (not to be confused with insulin) that promotes healthy bacteria in the large intestine – which in turn promotes a healthier digestive function.
• Pomegranates: Eating a balanced diet to lose weight should include eating fresh fruits, and pomegranates are a wonderful example of a healthy, nutritious fruit that has antioxidant properties and will help prevent cancer. While the benefits of drinking pomegranate juice have gained a lot of attention recently, you will be more likely to lose weight by eating the fruit fresh to increase your fiber intake and keep the calories down.
• Pine Nuts: Pine nuts are the edible seeds of pine trees and are considered an essential ingredient in the tasty Italian mixture pesto. Chinese medicine uses pine nuts to improve gastrointestinal tract and digestive functions, and pine nut oil is even used for appetite suppression. Pine nuts and other nuts are a tasty part of a well-balanced diet intended for weight loss.
• Green Tea: It has been found that consuming large amounts of coffee and caffeine can lead to food cravings, increase one’s appetite, and induce stress-related eating. Green tea is a wonderful alternative to coffee in that it does provide a little caffeine but also contains beneficial antioxidants. So drink up!

A healthy diet also includes lean proteins like chicken breast, legumes such as lentils, and other whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. While fad diets may promise a large amount of weight loss in a short period of time, there’s almost a guarantee that you will put that weight back on-and then some!

Eat five smaller meals a day, avoid processed foods, chew more slowly, and incorporate more healthy foods into your diet-starting with these five. Also, click here to learn more about the Tao of Wellness B-Slim dietary supplement, which will help you lose weight naturally.

I hope this article helps you find foods that can aid in your weight loss goals! I invite you to visit often and share your own personal health and longevity tips with me.

May you live long, live strong, and live happy!

Source: myjoyonline.com

Want Looonger life? Eat a good diet and exercise

It seems all too simple, doesn’t it? Eat a healthy diet and exercise for a longer life. Although it may seem like textbook advice, a new report by the San Francisco Chronicle tells of an entirely new level to that form of thinking.

In the report, a pioneer study of 30 prostate cancer patients conducted by scientists and doctors at UCSF and a Sausalito research institute show for the first time that major lifestyle changes including a change in diet and a regular exercise routine may prevent early cell death and lengthen life.

The study was directed by Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, the UCSF biochemist who is renowned for discovering the ellusive proteins called telomeres that cap the ends of chromosomes and control the longevity of dividing cells. In addition, Blackburn’s colleague, Dr. Dean Ornish, is a leading San Francisco cardiologist and known advocate of a controlled diet, regular exercise and stress reduction to prevent heart disease that can lead to death.

In the study released on Tuesday in the British journal Lancet Oncology, Blackburn and Ornish warn that even though the results are a cause for more attention, it is important to remember that there was a limited number of patients involved in the study and a bigger and more controlled research study is in order. However, the researchers note that if their results are positively confirmed, “this might be a powerful motivator for many people to beneficially change their diet and lifestyle.”

During the research, a team of scientists examined the enzyme levels, specifically called telomerase, in the prostate tissue of the thirty cancer patients who volunteered to go on a strict, a low-fat diet, exercise moderately and reduce their stress levels. “After only three months, 24 patients showed a highly significant increase in their telomerase levels – an indication that the cell-protecting telomeres in their cells were being restored.”

Overall, it was shown that the correlation between the test subject’s increasingly healthy habits after a prolonged about of time and the increased amount of telomerase proved highly significant and beneficial to overall health and lifespan. It is highly advisable for men at risk of prostate cancer as well as all humans to combine the powers of eating a healthy diet, exercise regularly and practice yoga and/or medication for a longer life and better well being.

Source: caymanmama.com

Instead of Eating to Diet, They’re Eating to Enjoy

After decades of obsessing about fat, calories and carbs, many dieters have made the unorthodox decision to simply enjoy food again.

That doesn’t mean they’re giving up on health or even weight loss. Instead, consumers and nutritionists say they are seeing a shift toward «positive eating» — shunning deprivation diets and instead focusing on adding seasonal vegetables, nuts, berries and other healthful foods to their plates.

For 32-year-old Rina Gonzalez-Echandi of Los Angeles, giving up calorie counting and packaged foods and adding real food back into her diet has helped her maintain her weight and even be happier. She used to watch fat and calories so obsessively she would sometimes avoid socializing.

«You forget how wonderful it is to have a meal with friends and family,» said Ms. Gonzalez-Echandi, a special-education aide and mother of a 10-year-old daughter. «I realize I had taken that joy away from myself.»

Now she focuses on the pleasure of eating fresh, home-cooked food. She has started cooking with olive oil and occasionally butter, and has increased her consumption of nuts and peanut butter. She even got to know her grocer to find out which fruits and vegetables are in season and grown locally.

The market research firm NPD Group gets a glimpse of national eating habits through the food diaries it has collected from 5,000 consumers since 1980. The percentage of those consumers who are on a diet is lower than at any time since information on dieting was first collected in 1985. At the peak in 1990, 39 percent of the women and 29 percent of the men were dieting. Today, that number has dropped to 26 percent of women and 16 percent of men.

The diarists also report eating more organic foods and whole grains, said Harry Balzer, an NPD vice president.

«Instead of trying to avoid things, they’ve started adding things,» Mr. Balzer said.

Even the Calorie Control Council, which represents makers of commercial diet foods, notes the percentage of people who are dieting has declined — to 29 percent in 2007 from 33 percent in 2004.

And there are other indicators of a shift in eating habits. In May, the market research firm Information Resources reported that 53 percent of consumers say they are cooking from scratch more than they did just six months ago, in part, no doubt, because of the rising cost of prepared foods.

Sales of organic foods have surged, and the number of farmers’ markets has more than doubled since the mid-1990s.

Nutrition experts and consumers say positive eating trends are being fueled in part by the failures of the past. A national epidemic of obesity suggests that the spread of diet foods, sugar-free soft drinks and low-fat snacks hasn’t helped people manage their weight.

Cynthia Sass, a New York dietitian and author who was a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association from 2001 to 2007, said many clients embrace positive eating after years of failed dieting. “They would much rather focus on what to eat instead of what not to eat,” Ms. Sass said. “Most people I have encountered have a track record of trying different things that didn’t work for them.”

Meanwhile, books like Gary Taubes’s «Good Calories, Bad Calories» (Alfred A. Knopf, 2007) and Michael Pollan’s «In Defense of Food» (Penguin, 2008) have prompted a rethinking of Americans’ eating habits and dependence on processed and refined foods.

Martha McClintock, 46, of Riverdale, in the Bronx, said she was more focused these days on adding healthful foods like avocados, blueberries and walnuts to her plate. She said she tries to improve the quality of food she eats, such as switching to blue corn chips as a snack rather than potato chips.

«If something is high in calories, I try to look at the big picture,» said Ms. McClintock, a photo service account executive. “If you’re going to indulge in something, just try and walk it off or limit it to once a week.”

Some former dieters say they’ve been influenced by the international Slow Food movement, a 10-year-old group that encourages locally grown, unprocessed food. Over the Labor Day weekend an estimated 60,000 people attended the Slow Food Nation festival in San Francisco.

Alice Waters, of the restaurant Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif., and a prominent supporter of the Slow Food movement, said food habits change when a person begins to cook at home more. Her efforts to encourage home cooking include a new campaign of Internet cooking videos from the Slow Food Nation event, such as one from the chef Bryant Terry, who showed how to strip corn from the cob and saute it with chili.

«We need to demystify cooking,» Ms. Waters said. «It creates feelings about food that make you feel cared for, and that’s the kind of food that really changes habits.»

The cookbook author and television personality Rachael Ray has attracted both loyal followers and harsh critics for creating food that doesn’t focus on calories, fat, carbohydrates or even portion control. She intentionally doesn’t include calorie information with her cookbook recipes.

«I think that puts your head into science and away from what I think the experience of food should be,» Ms. Ray said. «If you take the time to cook and provide yourself with a balanced diet, you can cook freely and eat pretty freely and in pretty large amounts without worrying so much about the nutritional intake or the calories or your pant size.»

Some nutritionists aren’t convinced that the positive eating trend will catch on with time-strapped families. Others worry that people will wrongly interpret positive eating as over-indulging, rather than adding moderate amounts of healthful foods into the diet.

«If everyone ate more plant-based and more whole foods and unprocessed foods, that would be major,» said Arlene Spark, associate professor of nutrition at Hunter College in New York. «But that would mean people going back to cooking, and what we’ve lost is people’s ability and knowledge of how to cook.»

The real question, is whether better eating can translate into weight loss.

Last year, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reported on a study of 97 obese women, all of whom were avoiding high-fat foods. Half the women were instructed to increase their consumption of fruits and vegetables. By the end of a year, the women who were focused on adding vegetables lost an average of 17 pounds, 20 percent more than the women who were just paying attention to fat consumption.

Also, the more time people spend on tasks like food shopping, cooking and kitchen cleanup, the more likely they are to be of average weight. The Economic Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture found that people of normal weight spend more time on meal-related tasks than people who are overweight or underweight.

Marion Nestle, the New York University nutritionist whose book «What To Eat» (North Point Press, 2006) focuses on sensible eating, said she thinks people view food as the enemy, when the real problem is that they have forgotten how to enjoy food in a healthful way.

«If you’re eating something you really like, maybe you won’t feel like you need to eat so much of it,» she said. «If you want a muffin, then eat a gorgeous muffin with marvelous blueberries that’s moist and crispy on the outside with a little sugar on it. Yum.»

Source: New York Times

6 Food Mistakes Parents Make

HARRIET WOROBEY, a childhood nutrition instructor, knows firsthand that children can be picky eaters, but even she was surprised by a preschooler last year who ate a mostly chocolate diet.

«Chocolate milk, chocolate chip muffins, chocolate chip pancakes — it was unbelievable,» said Ms. Worobey, director of the Rutgers University Nutritional Sciences Preschool in New Brunswick, N.J. «His mother just thought, ‘That’s what he wants, so that’s what I’m going to do.’ «

While most parents haven’t resorted to the chocolate diet, they can relate to the daily challenge of finding foods that children will eat. Although obesity dominates the national discussion on childhood health, many parents are also worried that their child’s preferred diet of nuggets and noodles could lead to a nutritional deficit.

Fussiness about food is a normal part of a child’s development. Young children are naturally neophobic — they have a distrust of the new. Even the most determined parents can be cowed by a child’s resolve to eat nothing rather than try something new. As a result, parents often give in, deciding that a bowl of Cocoa Puffs or a Pop-Tart, while not ideal, must be better than no food at all.

«I think parents feel like it’s their job to just make their children eat something,» Ms. Worobey said. «But it’s really their job to serve a variety of healthy foods and get their children exposed to foods.»

A series of simple meal-time strategies can help even the pickiest eater learn to like a more varied diet. Here’s a look at six common mistakes parents make when feeding their children.

Sending children out of the kitchen With hot stoves, boiling water and sharp knives at hand, it is understandable that parents don’t want children in the kitchen when they’re making dinner. But studies suggest that involving children in meal preparation is an important first step in getting them to try new foods.

Researchers at Teachers College at Columbia University studied how cooking with a child affects the child’s eating habits. In one study, nearly 600 children from kindergarten to sixth grade took part in a nutrition curriculum intended to get them to eat more vegetables and whole grains. Some children, in addition to having lessons about healthful eating, took part in cooking workshops. The researchers found that children who had cooked their own foods were more likely to eat those foods in the cafeteria, and even ask for seconds, than children who had not had the cooking class.

When children are involved in meal preparation, «they come to at least try the food,» said Isobel Contento, professor of nutrition education at Teachers College and a co-author of the study. «Kids don’t usually like radishes, but we found that if kids cut up radishes and put them in the salad, they love the radishes.»

Pressuring them to take a bite Demanding that a child eat at least one bite of everything seems reasonable, but it’s likely to backfire.

Studies show that children react negatively when parents pressure them to eat foods, even if the pressure offers a reward. In one study at Pennsylvania State University, researchers asked children to eat vegetables and drink milk, offering them stickers and television time if they did. Later in the study, the children expressed dislike for the foods they had been rewarded for eating.

«Parents say things like ‘eat your vegetables and you can watch TV,’ but we know that kind of thing doesn’t work either,» said Leann L. Birch, director of Penn State’s childhood obesity research center and a co-author of the study. «In the short run, you might be able to coerce a child to eat, but in the long run, they will be less likely to eat those foods.»

The better approach is to put the food on the table and encourage a child to try it. But don’t complain if she refuses, and don’t offer praise if she tastes it. Just ask her if she wants some more or take seconds yourself, but try to stay neutral.

Keeping ‘good stuff’ out of reach Parents worry that children will binge on treats, so they often put them out of sight or on a high shelf. But a large body of research shows that if a parent restricts a food, children just want it more.

In another Penn State study, researchers experimented to determine whether forbidden foods were more desirable. Children were seated at tables and given unlimited access to plates of apple or peach cookie bars — two foods the youngsters had rated as «just O.K.» in earlier taste tests. With another group, some bars were served on plates, while some were placed in a clear cookie jar in the middle of the table. The children were told that after 10 minutes, they could snack on cookies from the jar.

The researchers found that restricting the cookies had a profound effect: consumption more than tripled compared with when the cookies were served on plates.

Other studies show that children whose food is highly restricted at home are far more likely to binge when they have access to forbidden foods.

The lesson for parents? Don’t bring foods that you feel the need to restrict into the house. Instead, buy healthful snacks and give children free access to the food cabinets.

Dieting in front of your children

Kids are tuned into their parents’ eating preferences and are far more likely to try foods if they see their mother or father eating them. A Rutgers study of parent and child food preferences found that preschoolers tended to like or reject the same fruits and vegetables their parents liked or didn’t like. And other research has shown girls are more likely to be picky eaters if their mothers don’t like vegetables.

Given this powerful effect, parents who are trying to lose weight should be aware of how their dieting habits can influence a child’s perceptions about food and healthful eating. In one study of 5-year-old girls, one child noted that dieting involved drinking chocolate milkshakes — her mother was using Slim-Fast drinks. Another child said dieting meant «you fix food but you don’t eat it.»

A 2005 report in the journal Health Psychology found that mothers who were preoccupied with their weight and eating were more likely to restrict foods for their daughters or encourage them to lose weight. Daughters of dieters were also more likely to try diets as well. The problem is, restrictive diets don’t work for most people and often lead to binge eating and weight gain. By exposing young children to erratic dieting habits, parents may be putting them at risk for eating disorders or a lifetime of chronic dieting. «Most mothers don’t think their kids are soaking up this information, but they are,» Dr. Birch said. «They’re teaching it to their daughters even though it doesn’t work for them.»

Serving boring vegetables Calorie-counting parents often serve plain steamed vegetables, so it’s no wonder children are reluctant to eat them. Nutritionists say parents shouldn’t be afraid to dress up the vegetables. Adding a little butter, ranch dressing, cheese sauce or brown sugar to a vegetable dish can significantly improve its kid appeal. And adding a little fat to vegetables helps unlock their fat-soluble nutrients. The few extra calories you’re adding are a worthwhile tradeoff for the nutritional boost and the chance to introduce a child to a vegetable.

Giving up too soon Ms. Worobey said she has often heard parents say, «My kid would never eat that.» While it may be true right now, she noted that eating preferences often change. So parents should keep preparing a variety of healthful foods and putting them on the table, even if a child refuses to take a bite. In young children, it may take 10 or more attempts over several months to introduce a food.

Sibling dynamics and friendships can also change a child’s eating habits. Dr. Birch of Penn State noted that her first child was always willing to try new foods, but that her second child was not. «Part of it was just him defining his place in the family,» she said. By the age of 10 or 11, he didn’t want to be outdone by his sister and was far more willing to try new foods.

Susan B. Roberts, a Tufts University nutritionist and co-author of the book «Feeding Your Child for Lifelong Health,» suggested a «rule of 15» — putting a food on the table at least 15 times to see if a child will accept it. Once a food is accepted, parents should use «food bridges,» finding similarly colored or flavored foods to expand the variety of foods a child will eat. If a child likes pumpkin pie, for instance, try mashed sweet potatoes and then mashed carrots. If a child loves corn, try mixing in a few peas or carrots. Even if a child picks them out, the exposure to the new food is what counts.

«As parents, you’re going to make decisions as to what you want to serve,» Ms. Worobey said. «But then you just have to relax and realize children are different from day to day.»

Source: New York Times

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