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08/28/11
Heath Tip: Combating Creeping Weight Gain
When it comes to losing weight, Americans are pretty much clueless.
Looking to processed diet foods and pharmaceuticals still leave us gaining
one to three pounds per year. The term “creeping obesity” comes to mind.
As discussed in Dr. Anne Barnard’s July article, we cannot continue to do
what worked in years past when it comes to diet and exercise and expect to
maintain our physical fitness. (Please
see Metabolism and the Pre- and Post- Menopausal Body.)
August 3, 2011 NPR’s Here and Now reported on a study conducted by
the Harvard School of Public Health finding that eating more of certain
foods, and less of others could help combat slow and steady weight gain
because, according to Dr. Dariush Mozzafarian who led the study, there are
“certain types of calories that make us more full and make us eat less.”
And what are these foods? Nuts, fruits, non-starchy veggies and whole
grains. Increasing these foods, because of how they influence our bodies
biologically, increases weight loss. We took pause here at the of
mentioned nuts. Yes, we know nuts are full of nutrients and good fats but
considering them a diet food? In the interview Dr. Mozzafarian told an
anecdote of a person who ate several ounces of high-calorie nuts midday
but later in the day consumed fewer calories overall. This person
maintained steady weight loss over the year. Even high calorie nuts,
because they are nutrient dense and because they contain healthy fats and
calories, help you consume fewer calories, especially empty ones found in
white breads, crackers and other sweets later in the day. Using ourselves
as test cases, we realized we can eat a lot of nuts and feel satiated
longer. So if nuts are what you love, go for it. And if it’s nut butters
look for pure ingredients such as the nut and salt only, and serve it up
on a fruit, veggie or whole grain cracker.
But back to the study. The next weight loss food they found was yogurt.
And not just from a single study, but three separate studies found that
the bacteria in yogurt alters the bacteria in your gut in a favorable way
to combat long term weight gain. It is the bacteria in yogurt that is so
beneficial, not the degree of fat content as neither whole fat, low fat or
no-fat yogurt made a difference in the results.
And onto the dark side: there are certain foods that foster weight gain
and they are called: Refined Carbohydrates. Corn flakes, white rice,
non-whole grain bread or pasta, crackers, some types of health bars,
chips, cakes, mashed potatoes—these are just the same as sugar and should
be treated as such, Dr. Mozzafarian said. Just as you wouldn’t base your
meal around a box of Mike and Ikes (at least we hope not), nor should you
base your dish around these refined carbohydrates; they should be saved as
occasional treats.
The new Healthy Eating Food Pyramid published by the Harvard School of
Public Health puts refined carbohydrates in the small top point of the
food pyramid along with red meat:
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/files/Healthy-Eating-Pyramid-handout.pdf
For more on the study, please visit
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21696306 and more on the new
Healthy Eating Food Pyramid, please visit
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/pyramid/
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08/14/11
Health Tip: Curb Your Cravings for Crap
This week one of our favorite blogs,
Healthy Bitch
Daily, was back with some savvy information and techniques on how to
stop craving junk food and recondition our bodies to crave healthy meals.
HBD’s Food Psychologist suggests that while we are hard-wired to crave
calorie-dense foods, we are also conditioned to crave what we eat in large
quantities. So while adding in fruits and veggies into our diet and
deleting the crap (i.e. white sugar, white flour, white, white, white!)
might not be easy at first, over time (just 2 weeks!) our body will
acclimate to its new diet composition and we’ll quit craving the crap…
alleluia!
Please click here for full article (it’s the second one when you scroll
down),
http://www.healthybitchdaily.com/cat/food
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