The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene have done it again...
Remember the Drinking Yourself Fat campaign that told us that "drinking 1 can of soda a day can make you 10 pounds fatter"?
Their new ad asks:
Would you eat 16 packs of sugar?
Thomas Farley, New York City Health Commissioner, hopes “that this campaign will encourage people to consider healthier alternatives to sugary drinks... Even small changes can have real health benefits.”
Just wanted to say Hi! It's been a while! I recently moved and started a new internship and am having trouble finding some free time! I miss reading your blogs, and miss blogging... but I hope to find some balance soon! Hope you're enjoying your summers!!
It lasts three weeks, covers over 3500km, and is arguably the world's most physiologically demanding sporting event....
The 172 cyclists (including one Canadian!) that participated in the 97th Tour de France this year traveled through 3 countries, rode an average of 182km (114 miles) a day over the 20 'stages' at an average of 40km (25 miles) an hour,while climbing 10 mountains or racing against the clock in individual time trials.
This effort has been described as roughly the equivalent of running a marathon almost every day for 3 weeks. In the mountains, they climb a vertical distance equal to three Mount Everests!
Below, Robbie Ventura, a professional US cyclists, describes nutrition during the 7 hour, 140mile Stage 6 of the Tour:
Cyclists will burn over 5000 calories. Each hour, they'll aim to eat about 400 calories and drink 3 water bottles!
A 1988 study found that cyclists met half their caloric needs for the day while on the bike... Pretty impressive! A good chunk of their calorie and carbohydrate intake came from liquids.
Cyclists are given feed bags at the start and middle of each stage. These bags contain easy-to-eat foods- sports bars and gels, fruit, small sandwiches, Coke cans.
Here's sport physiologist (currently with team RadioShack) Dr. Allen Lam with his recipe for a 'real-food' addition to the riders' feedbags: Rice Cakes?!
The cyclists in the study mentioned above were also pretty good and meeting their total daily caloric needs- while they spent about 6100 calories a day, they were able to eat about 6000 a day- not a small feat given that they're on they bikes 7-8 hours a day, and then have to deal with a lack of hunger that results from strenuous activity. The average Tour rider loses about 10lbs from an already small frame.
One easier way to take in those calories after a day on the bike is to drink them. Dr. Allen Lim explains the cyclists' recovery routine, which includes drinking 700-800 calories!
According to Brian Wansink, author of Mindless Eating: Why we eat more than we think, studies have shown that it takes about 20 minutes for our brain to tell us we're full.
The problem?
We eat way too fast... and can pack in a lot of calories before those 20 minutes are up. Most of us rarely even feel full-and, as a result, have lost the ability to recognize when we've eaten enough.
Wansink refers to a study that found it takes us, on average, 11 minutes to eat a fast-food lunch, if we're eating alone (13 minutes at a workplace cafeteria).
This gadget, developed by researchers in England, is basically a scale, connected to a computer, on which you put your plate. Throughout the meal, the user is asked to input how full they feel, re-educating them to become aware of these fullness cues, and measures the speed at which the plate is emptying. It compares eating speed with a "normal" speed, and will nag the user to slow down if they're eating too fast.
The Mandometer has been successfully used in eating disorder clinics, usually instructing anorexic or bulimic patients to eat more quickly.
The only problem I can see with this gadget (apart from it getting kind of annoying!) is that it doesn't know what's on your plate- mostly vegetables, or all junk food...
But interesting idea- I wonder if it'll ever become mainstream in helping people struggling with weight loss...
Check out this short video to see the Mandometer in action.
We learn that the more we exercise, the skinnier we'll be... so we go to the gym- 45 million Americans have a gym membership- or try to get out and do something... and feel guilty if we don't. The media and shows like the Biggest Loser focus on exercise for weight loss... and it seems to work, right? Not quite.
Time magazine published a great article this past summer: Why Exercise Won't Make you Thin.
The article quotes the Chair in Diabetes and Metabolism at Louisiana State University, Eric Ravussin, as saying: "In general, for weight loss, exercise is pretty useless."
Pretty shocking statement, eh?
The article outlines a study that found that children that were more active ate more- 100 calories more than they had burned.
It mentions another study that found that overweight people burned more calories a day than 'normal'-weight people.
Hmm. Can that be right?
Just a few days ago, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published its report. They found that obesity rates in the States have plateaued in the last decade. That said, we know that we're bigger now than we ever were- 68% of Americans are overweight and 34% are obese! We've been led to believe this is happening because we're lazy and sedentary. But maybe that's not it at all.
A 2008 study found that the number of calories we spend a day hasn't changes since the 1980s! But we're fatter than we were in the 80s.... hmmmm. What's crazier is that the same study found that our caloric expenditure is not significantly different that people in the "Third World"! But we know we're bigger than people in developing countries!
Another study looked at the effect of exercise on weight: 464 post-menopausal women exercised under supervision for 72, 136 or 192 minutes per week, at moderate intensity, on a treadmill or bike, for 6 months.
While fitness improved for those that exercised longer, weight was a different story:
The 72mins/week group lost about 1.3kg, The 136mins/week group lost about 1.9kg, and the 192 mins/week group? Same as the 72mins/wk group- they only lost 1.3kg!
Why?!
Most likely, they were compensating for the extra exercise by eating more.
The Time article points to different studies showing that when we exercise more, we tend to eat more... too much more.
Remember that picture of Bill Clinton stopping in at McDonald's after a jog?
What's surprising is how fast those calories add on.
Let's say you go for a 6km (3.75 mile) run at a decent 5.5 min/km (9 min/mile) pace (and you weigh 140lbs). You burn about 430 calories.
It's a hot day.. you rehydrate by drinking half your Gatorade bottle (500 mL). On the way home, you stop by Starbucks and grab a medium cafe latte with skim and a low-fat muffin... you earned it, right?
You've already consumed 570 calories- 140 calories MORE than you spent! And, chances are, you'll eat more when you go home and you'll probably be more sedentary the rest of the day.
But Doesn't Muscle Burn More Calories Than Fat?
We've learned that exercise builds muscle and that the more muscle you have, the more calories you'll burn. True... but it's not as much as we thought. 1 lbs fat burns 2 calories ; 1 lbs muscle burns 6 calories. So if you work out like crazy and manage to convert 10lbs of fat to muscle (most of us will never achieve this, btw), you'll only burn an extra 40 calories a day- that's only 4 jelly beans- worth of calories. Not much.
Is it better to stay at home and not exercise? Is exercise making us fat?
Well... exercise is still good for us. It's good for our bones, it's good for our heart, our lungs, our circulatory system. Exercise increases our good cholesterol, protecting us from strokes and heart attacks. It can help prevent certain types of cancers. It's a mood-elevator, makes us feel better, more alert.
If weight loss is a goal, exercise can be the instigator to eating better... and, in that way can help with weight loss. However, it's the calories we consume (or don't) that will make a difference in our weight... not the exercise.
Excercise won't cause you to gain weight, per se....but the extra calories you eat as a result of exercise will. We need to be very aware that exercise isn't an excuse to eat foods we normally wouldn't eat (or in quantities we normally wouldn't). It's also not an excuse to be lazy the rest of the day.
Diet Vs. Exercise
If you need more evidence, check out the clip below: Diet vs. Exercise. What he says is true: "You can't out-train a bad diet" (btw- I don't agree at all with his statement that "cardio is a joke"- as mentioned above, there are many benefit to all kinds of exercise).
Controversial... According to this obesity economist (since when is this a profession?!), Americans' expanding waistlines are helping boost the economy- in the short-term anyway.
Population: 293,027,571 Percent of population overweight, male/female: 72/70% Percent of population obese, male/female: 32/38% Percent of population over the age of 20 with diabetes: 8.8% Percent of dieting men/women on any given day: 25/45% Percent of all dieters who will regain their lost weight within 1-5 years: 95% Caloric intake available daily per person: 3,774 calories Annual alcohol consumption per person (alcohol content only): 9.6 quarts (~9 liters) Cigarette consumption per person per year: 2,255 Sugar and sweetener available per person per year: 158 lbs Soft drink consumption per person per year: 54.8 gallons (~207 liters) Meat consumption per person per year: 275 lbs McDonald's restaurants: 13,491 Liposuction surgeries per year: 400,000 Gastric bypass surgeries per year: 150,000 Percent paid by taxpayers for obesity-related medical costs: 50% Annual spending on dieting and diet-related products: $40 billion
In Canada, we're awaiting Health Canada's decision to allow the food industry to fortify packaged and processed foods with vitamins and minerals. The decision was supposed to be made end of March but because of division within Health Canada on the merits of fortification, it's been delayed.
Health experts are understandably worried that the proposal will pass and allow junk food manufacturers to add nutrients and market their products as healthy, exacerbating unhealthy eating habits and cause confusion about nutritional benefits of certain foods. Packaged and processed foods are generally high in calories, sugar, fat, salt, negating any benefit derived from adding some vitamins or minerals to them.
Health Canada stated that its tests on focus groups demonstrated that people are not likely to choose fortified junk food over healthy food... but health experts are skeptical.
The industry group Food and Consumer Products of Canada, representing the majority of packaged foods on the supermarket shelves, argues that fortificaion would allow consumers to more easily meet daily nutritional requriements. That's great but we're not a nation that is nutritonally deficient... given our over-abundance of food. In fact, another concerns is that adding all these vitamins and minerals could lead to an overconsumption of nutients. In order to avoid this, Health Canada claims that the propsed policy will limit the amount of nutrients that can be added to food and won't be left to the the discretion of food manufacturers.
Canada's food industry also argues that the out-of-date and strict fortification policies in Canada make it difficult for them to keep up with other countries and develop innovative food products. Moreover, given the fact that the US allows more products to be fortified, harmonization would cut production costs. Maybe, but doesn't make it right.
The Americans are also more liberal in their labeling laws, something that's finally getting a bit more scrutiny. The FDA has taken action against General Mills for its misleading claims that Cheerios can reduce "bad" cholesterol levels by 4% in 6 weeks and ward off heart disease and cancers of the colon and stomach. (These claims don't appear on Canadian boxes because we're more strict with our labeling laws).
In its letter to General Mills, the FDA states that if the cereal does as indicated, it's acting like a cholesterol-lowering drug and should therefore be treated like a drug- and can't legally be marketed with the claim without an approved new drug application.
Hopefully Health Canada will make the right decsion and not allow fortification of packaged and processed foods... fingers crossed!
A review of the research indicates that eating late dinners or snacking at night will not lead you to gain weight faster. Rather, it's the total number of calories you eat in a day that matters... it makes no difference when those calories are eaten.
A 2006 study published in Obesity Research observed rhesus monkeys (supposedly an excellent model for humans) fed a typical North American diet for a year. The monkeys' eating patterns varied greatly- they ate between 6-64% of their calories at night. The monkeys that ate the majority of their calories at night did not gain more weight than those that ate more during the day. Human studies have found the same thing.
That said, we do recommend you spread your calories throughout the day: Eat breakfast to rev up your metabolism and break that fast and eat every 4-6 hours to keep your body and brain fueled and to regulate your appetite. If you do get hungry at night, stick with portion-controlled snacks of less than 200 calories- ie. small bowl of cereal, fruit, air-popped popcorn, yogourt, whole grain toast with peanut butter etc.
If you find yourself restricting your food intake all day and eating the majority of your calories at night, talk to your doctor. Night-Eating Syndrome, although not officially defined as an eating disorder yet, is a form of binge eating and is becoming more understood by the medical community. Symptoms include:
Little or no appetite for breakfast.
Eating more than half of one's daily food intake after dinner. This behaviour continues over a period of at least three months.
Feeling tense, anxious, upset or guilty while eating.
Having difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep.
Eating continually in the evening rather than bingeing in relatively short episodes.
Experiencing guilt and shame from eating rather than enjoyment.
I just received the Mindless Eater newsletter put out by the Cornell Food and Brand Lab Team (founded by Brian Wansink, author of the great eye-opening book Mindless Eating) in which they report a study they did published in the Feb 09 edition of the Annals of Internal Medicine. The group looked at 14 of the 18 recipes that appear in each edition of the very popular cookbook The Joy of Cooking throughout its 70 year history and found that the caloric content of the recipes increased by about 43.7% ! Furthermore, 17 of the 18 recipes showed an average of 63% increase in caloric content per suggested serving.
The authors found that in 1936, the average calories per recipe was 2124 and about 268 calories/serving. In 2006, the average calories per recipe rose to 3052 and about 436 calories per serving!
The recipes the team look at included macaroni & cheese, beef stroganoff, brownies, sugar cookies and apple pie. The caloric content increase is due to:
Changes in serving sizes. What served 7 in 1936 served only 4 people in 1986! In 1997, the basic waffle recipe made 12 six-inch waffles The same recipe in 2006 make 6 waffles.
The use of higher calorie ingredients. For example, in the 1997 edition, the beef stroganoff recipe called for 2 Tbsp sour cream. The 2006 edition called for 1 cup!
Wansink points out that people often blame eating out for weight gain, but what we eat and do at home may be equally bad.
What can you do? Rather than adhering to the cookbook's serving size suggestions, use your judgement. A recipe that claims to serve 4 can probably easily serve 6 or more. Make those brownies or cookies smaller. That cake recipe can be cut into 18 slices insted of 12 etc.
Don't feel that you need to follow a recipe to the letter. Use lower fat ingredients, ie. skim milk instead of 2% milk, low fat sour cream, lean meats. I always cut the sugar they ask for in half. Don't pack down the brown sugar. I replace at least 1/2 of the all-purpose flour (usually all of it) with whole wheat flour. I always use less fat. You can replace some of the oil they ask for in baked good with applesauce. Use less chocolate chips. Use less meat and add more vegetables. etc.
Beth Wareham, editor of the 2006 edition of the Joy of Cooking, even states that " in putting together the latest edition, writers and recipe-testers used their common sense in terms of ingredients and serving sizes, and they figured readers have some common sense of their own. "
I recently finished the book the '100 Mile Diet: A year of local eating' and I highly recommend it- it will change the way you think about what you eat. The book has spurred a phenomenon (I actually blogged about the movement this time last year!), enticing many to move towards a local-based diet and even inspiring a TV show- The Canadian Food Network hosts the 100 Mile Challenge in which the Canadian authors of the book, partners Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon, challenge 6 families from Mission, British Columbia, to follow a 100-Mile Diet for 100 Days.
Not long ago, I blogged about another book that had a similar effect on me: The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. (As I mentioned in that blog, if you don't have the time to read the book but have a free hour, check out Pollan's great lecture in which he covers the main point of his book by clicking Here). Equally inspiring but written in a completely different format, the authors of The 100 Mile Diet take turns writing the chapters of their memoir, sharing their experience of eating only foods within a 100 mile radius of their apartment in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Alisa and James bring us through their very personal journey over their year: their daunting realization of what they wouldn't be able to eat (sugar, coffee, chocolate, chips, peanut butter, orange juice, Cola, canned soup, oreos, Ben & Jerry's, beer, Cheerios, all-purpose flour...), dealing with the monotony of eating a lot of potatoes during their first winter and their relationship troubles to discovering the joys of making a great meal from scratch using ingredients of known origin, learning how different and wonderful fresh food tastes, developing relationships with local growers (and with their food) and finally becoming completely self-sufficient on local foods... All while making their readers feel that they if they could do it, so can we.
Why should we aim to eat locally? The authors explain that we're so separated from our food and value it so little, even ignoring the huge impact eating factory-produced foods and foods shipped from across the country (or the world) has on our environment and our health:
A few facts from the book:
The food we eat typically travels 1500-3000 miles before landing on our plate.
A regional diet consumes 17 times less oil and gas than a typical diet based on food shipped across the country.
The United States has lost 2/3 of its farms since 1920.
Soft drinks, sweets and alcoholic beverages account for 25% of all calories consumed in America. Meanwhile, Americans eat half as many servings of vegetables recommended- 50% of the vegetables eaten include just 3: iceberg lettuce, potatoes and canned tomatoes.
The group Food & Water Watch just posted a great Virtual Grocer that allows you to find out where the food you buy comes from. Try it! It's so interesting. For example, did you know that if you buy a kiwi in the States, there's a 4 in 5 chance it's imported- most likely from Chile or New Zealand. Asparagus? 57% of the asparagus sold in the States comes from Peru.
Start small- aim to try making one local meal a week, for example. Find the farmer's market nearest to you and make it part of your weekly food shopping. Consider joining a CSA- Community Supported Agriculture- allowing you to support a specific local farm by paying a lump sum at the beginning of the growing season and then receiving that farm's food products (whatever is in season) year-round. If you're in the States, Local Harvest is a great resource to find a local CSA; In Canada, click Here. Buy local produce in bulk and learn how to preserve it. Click Here for more info on preservation. Try planting a small vegetable garden!
There are two schools of thought when it comes to counting calories for weight loss:
1. Don't waste your time and focus on the quality of your diet.
2. It's an essential tool for weight loss. As one doctor specializing in weight loss I worked for put it: "before you buy something it's a good idea to know how much is in your bank account, how much you make a month and how much it costs. As far as weight goes, it's currency is Calories and therefore it's a good idea to know how many Calories you burn in a daytime, how many you've had and how many you want".
I go back and forth on this one. However, if you agree with the latter school of thought, the following will help you:
How to determine how many calories you consume?
1. Measure your serving size using measuring cups and spoons.
2. Read the label: look at the serving size and the calories for that serving size.
3. Calculate and write down the calories in your serving.
For example: If you ate 4 cookies and the label on the cookie bag indicates that there are 100 calories for 2 cookies, you ate (2 x 100 calories) 200 calories.
You can use the online program Calorie King to determine calories in foods without labels (ie. produce).
How to determine how many calories you need?
Of course, caloric needs vary widely, depending on factors like gender, age, height, weight and physical activity. Dietitians use various equations to calculate caloric needs and in 2005, the Journal of the American Dietetics Association published a review of the various equations used (Harris-Benedict, Mifflin-St Jeor, Owen, WHO/FAO/UNU). The Mifflin -St Jeor equation was found to be the best (for both obese and non-obese individuals), predicting Resting Metabolic Rate within 10% of the measured value.
The Mifflin-St Jeor equation below estimates your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR: the minimum number of calories your body needs to maintain your weight at complete rest). You must multiply the value obtained by an Activity Factor.
Remember that this equation is an estimate only of your caloric needs since many factors affect metabolic rate. It is meant only for healthy, non-pregnant adults. BMR = Male: 10×weight + 6.25×height - 5×age + 5 Female: 10×weight + 6.25×height - 5×age - 161
Weight: in kilograms. If you know your weight in pounds, divide by 2.2 to obtain to get your weight in kilograms.
Height: in centimeters; if you know your height in inches, multiply by 2.54 to get your height in centimeters. Click here for an online BMR calculator that uses the Miffline-St Jeor equation. You must multiply your BMR with the appropriate Activity Factor to determine your daily caloric needs for weight maintenance:
Activity factor:
If you are sedentary (little or no exercise) : 1.2
If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week): 1.375
If you are moderately active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week): 1.55
If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week): 1.725
If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports and physical job or intense training, ie. twice a day): 1.9
Is weight loss a goal for you?
For a reasonable and healthy weight loss of 1lbs a week, subtract your total daily caloric needs measured above by 500 calories:
Daily caloric recommendation for weight loss: (BMR x Activity Factor) - 500
Remember that a woman should never consume less than 1200 calories a day and a man should never consume less than 1500 calories a day.
Gwyneth Paltrow does it. So does Angelina Jolie, Oprah, Liv Tyler, Ben Affleck and Christy Turlington (to name a few). Beyonce did it to lose 20lbs quickly for DreamGirls. I’m talking about “detox” or “cleansing” diets.
What are detox/cleansing diets?
There are different variations of detox diets but all claim to clean out our bodies of chemicals and dietary toxins. The supposed result: weight loss, increased energy, better digestion. Another claim is that by allowing the cells in the gut to rest, they are able to grow stronger, resulting in a healthier gut.
You can ‘detox’ by eliminating certain foods from your diet- Oprah recently followed a 21-d detox diet in which she eliminated animal products, sugar, alcohol, caffeine and gluten. The stricter versions are liquid diets- lemonade (followed by Beyonce and others) or juice fasts where followers will drink anywhere from 32 to 90 oz juice/24 hours, and even water fasts. Many of these diets also suggest enemas. These diets vary in time- from 1 day to a few weeks.
Do they work?
There is no scientific evidence available to support any of the claims these diets make- only people’s testimonials. Most health professionals, myself included, will tell you that our body is able to “detoxify” itself naturally. Abstaining from food will not help you be healthier. In fact, fibre’s role is to help clean out the gut- so a diet that’s rich in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans and lentils and other lean proteins and water would be the perfect detox diet!
With summer coming up, you may be tempted by this supposed “quick fix” to weight loss. However, for the most part, these diets and fasts are an ineffective weight loss solution. If you do lose weight, it’ll mostly be water weight and you’ll most likely regain it... quickly. Any diet that eliminates major food groups (or food, for that matter!) is not sustainable- definitely not a long-term solution. Moreover, many of these diets are extremely low in calories. As a result, your body goes into ‘starvation mode’- your metabolic rate will decrease so you’re burning less calories at rest. Moreover, your body will hold on to its fat stores (because it’s more energy-efficient) and burn lean muscle... something you obviously want to avoid. When you start eating again, your body will more easily store those calories as fat and, as a result, you’ll regain the weight faster.
You need to eat to lose weight!
These diets also lack major nutrients: protein, an essential nutrient in helping you maintain lean muscle mass during weight loss, as well as fat, an essential nutrient that, among other things, is essential in helping you feel full after a meal. As a result, people claim to always feel hungry on these diets... something that is not only uncomfortable but can cause irritability and lead you to eat irrationally afterwards. Beyonce was quoted as saying: “I was hungry, therefore I was evil. When we wrapped the movies, I was so excited... I ate a whole dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts”. It was also reported that she quickly regained the weight she had lost on the diet... a fact that’s ignored by followers of the same diets!
A dietitian calculated that the Master Cleanse diet (a well-known detox diet that consists of drinking 96 oz of lemonade with maple syrup and cayenne pepper a day) is 1300 calories. A woman should never eat less than 1200 calories and a man, never less than 1500 calories. So, for a woman, 1300 calories isn’t drastically restrictive. However, it lacks major nutrients. Why not eat 1300 calories of fibre-rich vegetables, fruits, whole grains, lean proteins and drink water?! You’re more likely to stick to a meal plan that includes real healthy foods, you’ll lose weight, and you’ll also have more energy to exercise- an important key to long-term weight loss!
Oftentimes, these diets are used to “jump start” weight loss, ie. They start with a strict “detox” diet for a few days and follow it with a weight loss program. Maybe. A diet (under the supervision or guidance of a Registered Dietitian or doctor) that restricts certain foods, ie. alcohol, sugar, animal products (if replaced by vegetable protein), can be useful in motivating someone to kick-start a weight loss program and perhaps feel ‘cleansed’. As long as the diet is not overly calorically-restrictive and includes all the major nutrients, it can be an effective motivational tool to start a healthy weight loss program... although, not necessary.
What are the risks?
Evidently, the extreme diets, (fasting- no food) are extremely dangerous. However, even restrictive diets can be dangerous if you’re not replacing the nutrients you’re eliminating. As a result, speak to your doctor and/or a Registered Dietitian before embarking on any diet.
Many of these detox diets will rightfully warn pregnant and breastfeeding women and women trying to become pregnant against trying them. Children should not be put on these diets. These diets can widely affect blood sugar levels so people with diabetes and low blood sugar (hypoglycaemia) should avoid them as well.
If you’re recovering from an illness or injury, suffer from anemia, have weakened immunity (ie. elderly), have heart problems, psychological problems (depression, bipolar disorder, prone to eating disorders), are underweight and/or suffer from migraines, you should not embark on these diets- they can exacerbate existing illnesses or delay healing/recovery.
Apart from irritability, side effects of liquid diets and fasts can include GI problems, ie. diarrhea and/or constipation, dizziness, difficulty concentrating, fatigue, depression, headaches, fainting, irregular heart beats, dehydration and even death.
