Biology of Bingeing, Part I

If you have seen the documentary "March of the Penguins" then you have seen why gorging on huge quantities of food has historically been a valuable habit for survival.

In the movie we see that each year the Emperor Penguins walk (with very small clumsy steps!) over 70 miles to their breeding ground, where they will court and mate. After laying an egg, the female will walk back 70 miles to the ocean to feed while the male stays behind to incubate the egg, trying to keep himself and the egg warm for 4 months of frigid cold and Antarctic storms. He can't eat during that time and is near starvation by the time the baby penguin hatches. If all goes well, the mother returns with a belly full of food to share with the chick and the male walks back 70 miles (nearly starved) to the ocean to refill his belly. If the mother shows up too late, the chick will starve or the father will be forced to return to the ocean (leaving the chick to die) because he needs to eat or he will die.

Starvation is constantly a threat.

Now try to imagine a penguin who, during her brief feeding opportunity says "Goodness, I think I'm satisfied on a small quantity and I don't want to stuff myself." There probably have been such penguins. And they get weeded out of the gene pool very quickly! Only the ones that stuff themselves silly have enough food to survive the long walks and hard living until they will have their next feeding opportunity.

This is one example of why animals are programmed to overeat. Our ancient biology doesn't know that food is plentiful and life is easy. I like to remind myself that rather than feeling guilty about wanting to overeat, I should feel lucky that my ancestors did so, because that's likely the reason my genes survived this long.

Overeating is natural, so we shouldn't feel guilty--but that doesn't mean we shouldn't use smart strategies for avoiding it. I'll write more about that tomorrow. In the meantime, let your conscience be clear about overeating and blame your biology.

Don't trust the chef

Ever wonder why the food you make at home doesn't taste as good as the same thing at a restaurant? Even just rice. Or oatmeal. Or a turkey sandwich? How is that possible?

Well, there are two potential answers:

1) The restaurant chef has skills or ingredients you don't. This is often true.
or
2) The restaurant chef uses more salt, sugar, oil, butter, lard, cream, etc. than you would ever consider proper. This is more often true.

I have been astounded by how many professional chefs will not hesitate to use 10+ servings of oil/butter/salt/etc. to make a single serving of food. When "Take Home Chef" (a television show where a 3-star chef comes to your home and helps you prepare dinner) came to my house, the chef used...

2.5 sticks of butter
.5 liter olive oil
1.5 pints of cream

That is thousands of calories of added fat for only 2 dinners!

This explains why diners usually underestimate the calories in their restaurant meals by 50%. It also explains why it's usually easier to lose weight dining in.

Eating for Excellent Skin

Diet-related inflammation is a hot topic these days because it affects both health and beauty. It causes tissue to become red and puffy, which isn't healthy OR attractive! Inflammation not only causes a puffy, ruddy, uneven complexion, but also contributes to health problems like joint pain, cardiovascular disease and even Alzheimers.

Here's how to minimize inflammation:

Avoid these Inflammatory Foods:
-white flour
-sugar
-salt
-anything highly processed (even bread and breakfast cereal)
-high-fat beef
-high-fat dairy, like cheese, cream, whole milk
-anything fried
-anything that contains trans fats

Eat more Anti-Inflammatory Foods:
-nuts (especially walnuts)
-seeds (especially flax)
-green, white or red tea
-berries (any kind)
-olive oil
-salmon, tuna, other fatty fish
-all colorful vegetables

This is a healthy way to eat, so long as you don't overdo the healthy fats (remember--a serving of nuts or seeds is only 1/4 cup and about 200 calories!) If you have rosacia, heart disease, arthritis or just want radiant skin, give this a try and see if you look and feel better.

Bowled Over

There is some fascinating research on eating habits and containers! Get this:

--People automatically eat and drink less when they use taller, thinner bowls and glasses. Shorter, wider containers give the illusion of less volume, so people eat more from them.

--People eat less candy or chips out of an opaque bowl than out of one that is transparent. Apparently you are more tempted when you have a better view of the contents.

--People eat less candy or snacks out of a bowl when it is less full. The more snacks in the bowl, the more people eat.

--People eat less food off of dark-colored plates than off of white plates. Without realizing it!

So if you tend to overeat, get yourself to Pottery Barn and get the darkest, tallest skinniest opaquest bowls, cups and plates you can find!

Power of prevention

As I sit here with a raging case of Poison Oak, I'm reminded of how some problems are much easier to prevent (scratch, scratch) than to cure!

This is surprisingly true in the case of weight gain. You might think that losing a pound of fat involves simply burning off the excess calories that you overate in the first place. Not so, unfortunately. Burning off a pound of fat is much more work than preventing it.

Recent research is showing that once new fat is stored on your body, it can be reluctant to leave. It may release hormones that increase your appetite and destabilize blood sugar, making it tougher to eat right. In addition, when you burn off the extra fat you are likely to lose some lean tissue along with it, which lowers your metabolism.

This is not to say that weight loss is futile! Everybody backslides sometimes, but you'll save yourself some work if you minimize the number of times you let yourself pig out today with plans to burn it off tomorrow.

Leapin' Leptin

Here's a useful new research finding: Calories from saturated fats don't raise leptin levels as much as calories from other foods. Leptin is the hormone that makes you feel full and satisfied, so you want the foods you eat to release more, not less.

Alcohol also tends not to release it.

Interesting! This is one more reason to lay off the cheeseburgers and fries.

Afternoon Energy Boosters

If you are like most people, you sometimes suffer from an afternoon energy slump that leaves you wishing for a siesta. Many people turn to foods full of sugar or caffeine for a quick energy boost, but those are short-term fixes that leave you worse off in the long run. Luckily there are some healthy alternatives.

Spices like ginger, red cayenne pepper and peppermint can raise your metabolism and give you a natural, healthy lift. You can find ginger and peppermint in herbal teas, chewing gums or hard candies. You can also add these spices to your afternoon snack--try adding red pepper to your cottage cheese or hummus (to eat with veggies) and sprinkle ginger on your apple slices. It works!

Ideal after-dinner drink

Here's a simple way to burn a few more calories, according to a recent study: Follow your meals with a tall glass of ice water.

In a small study, men and women who drank 2 cups of cold water after a meal temporarily experienced a 30 percent increase in the rate at which their bodies burned calories. The increased calorie burning was attributed to thermogenesis, a process by which the body burns calories for digestion purposes. It has been estimated that you can burn about 60 extra calories per day this way. That doesn't sound like much, but as a daily habit that adds up to 21,900 calories (or 6 pounds of fat lost) per year!

Buffet Brunch Beware

With Easter & Mother's Day coming, it's time to discuss strategies for surviving buffet brunches. They tend to embody everything you don't want to do if you are watching your weight, so the #1 strategy is to avoid them when possible! If that's not an option:

• Don't starve yourself beforehand. Low blood sugar leads to overeating and bad will-power.
• Be the slowest eater there. Chew thoroughly and set down your fork between bites.
• Fill your first plate with veggies, fruits, lean proteins and salad. Fill up on those things.
• Let your second plate be small servings of the less healthy foods that really appeal to you.
• Plan a good walk or exercise session for later in the day.

Finally, in case you were wondering, you won't do well by stuffing yourself at brunch, and then not eating the rest of the day. Your metabolism, blood sugar, cholesterol and intestines much prefer a few smaller meals.

If you have an Easter egg hunt, don't forget that toys and coins are better egg stuffers than candy!

All my best,

Jill

Diet for Health will be closed this Friday and Saturday for the Easter weekend. Have a good one!

For Chocoholics

If I had 3 wishes from a magic genie, I'd probably use 1 of them to invent guilt-free chocolate! Until that happens, here are the best alternatives I know:

1. Canfield's Diet Chocolate Fudge Soda
2. No Sugar Added Fudgesicles
3. Powdered cocoa (no sugar) + Stevia sprinkled on everything from sliced fruit to oatmeal to cottage cheese
4. Small quantities of dark chocolate
5. Fresh fruit dipped in small quantities of melted chocolate
6. Diet hot cocoa
7. Carbo-Lite Frozen Yogurt
8. Cocoa Spice Tea (by Yogi Teas)
9. 3 savored bites of anything you want...after you have thrown away the rest of it!

Please let me know if you have other chocolatey ideas or if you know where I can find that magic genie!

Tune in or tone up

A recent Harvard study found that the risk of becoming obese rises by 23% for every 2 hours of daily television viewing...and the average American watches 5 hours! Yikes!

Why not make a deal with yourself? If you must watch tv, don't just sit there. Do sit-ups, leg lifts, and other exercises while you watch. Or chop veggies to have on hand as a healthy snack. Incidently, tv watching is also correlated with dissatisfaction with one's own appearance, even before you've gained any weight! Apparently watching those starlets makes us want to be unrealistically thin, even as it makes us fat! How about a good book instead?

How to gain fat on 1000 calories per day

Everybody knows it's healthier to spread out your caloric intake over the entire day with frequent small meals, but many people still prefer to save up most of their calories for a big indulgence once a day. Here's why that makes you gain weight:

An average body can handle at the very most 800 calories at once and every calorie above that gets turned to fat (it varies by body size, exercise, etc.) So no matter how much you starve yourself before that big dinner, you'll still store fat if you eat (and/or drink!) more than 800 calories. Unfortunately it's extremely easy to reach 800 calories at a restaurant or any time you consume alcohol or dessert with a meal. The good news is that if you are eating frequent, small meals throughout the day you won't want to overindulge so much at dinner. Happy light eating!

Strategic Snacking

There's a dangerous threat to your healthy diet lurking out there and you may not even realize it: Arriving home at the end of a tiring day with an empty stomach and low blood sugar. It sounds so harmless, but it's not!

This is the evil monster that leads people to overeat at night. It happens for a simple physiological reason--low blood sugar and a tiring day make your will-power weak, so you give in to the powerful pleas of your empty stomach.

Here's a solution: Have a snack 20-30 minutes before you arrive home. It should be a fruit, yogurt, healthy crackers, or something with some complex carbohydrate to get your blood sugar up. Now when you arrive home, your brain and your stomach are in a better position to help you eat right.

Training Prevents Complaining

This week I want to remind you that your time is precious, so don't be one of the many poor souls who wastes their time exercising ineffectively! For cardiovascular exercise, effective training means getting in your proper heart rate zone. For weight training, it gets a little more complicated and this is where lots of exercisers waste their time with improper methods. I recommend having at least a few sessions with a Certified Personal Fitness Trainer. It's a bit expensive, but well worth it, since you'll forevermore get better results for every minute of your workout.

Healthy Mother's Day Ideas

Your mom, wife (or YOU, if you are a mother) deserves the gift of great health this Mother's Day, so instead of a big old brunch, where the whole family stuffs themselves and then feels guilty, how about one of these healthy ideas:

1. Have a Mother's Day picnic with mom's favorite healthy foods and a frisbee to get everyone active.

2. Go for a Mother's Day fat-burning activity like hiking, bowling or mini-golf.

3. Give (or ask for) healthy Mother's Day gifts, like exercise gadgets or gift certificates for a personal training session or massage. And don't forget that some of the best healthy gifts are free--foot massages, back massages or just the promise of some time alone, without any parental duties.

Remember--Holidays don't have to be about food! Finding other forms of celebration--games, activities, outings, etc.--will be fun and healthy.

Just Say No

Happy Holidays! If you are getting more holiday stress than holiday cheer this year (and I know many of you are!) try just saying no to non-essential holiday obligations. By reducing stress you will also have a much easier time watching your weight over the holidays because stress tends to:
1. increase your appetite.
2. exaggerate cravings for sweets and starches.
3. interfere with sleep (better sleep means easier weight loss.)
4. make your blood sugar levels less stable (making it harder to lose weight.)

So take time for yourself this season, even if you have to let a few things slide. Just say no to holiday obligations that will be more trouble than they are worth. One of the best gifts you can give your friends and family is a happier, healthier, more relaxed you!

Too much of a good thing

With all the recent news about how green tea aids weight loss, prevents cancer and protects health, some of us are bound to overdo it sometimes. If you get nauseous or dizzy from your green tea, you may be drinking too much too fast. Try less gulping and more sipping and you'll probably feel fine.

Nutrition Bar Blues

I know you don't want to hear this because they are so convenient, but nutrition bars get a big thumbs-down.

Here's why:

1. According to an independent testing laboratory, over half of the 46 bars tested were lying about their nutrition information. They tended to have more sugar, carbs and calories than listed on the nutrition label.

2. Nutrition bars are not filling enough for the calories they provide. For example, you could eat a large salad or a few cups of fruit for the calories of a Luna Bar. This makes many people eat more at their next meal.

If you regularly eat nutrition bars and aren't getting the results you think you deserve, try replacing them with "real food snacks" like fruit, veggies, cottage cheese, etc. That usually makes a big difference!

Going Anti-Antioxidant

Throw out your antioxidant supplements of beta-carotene and vitamins A and E. A very large examination of 86 studies recently found--to the surprise of many--that folks taking large doses of these antioxidants had shortened lifespans. This is counter-intuitive because antioxidants are thought to protect cells from free radicals (a normal by-product of metabolism.) Antioxidants in fruits and veggies are known to help prevent cancer and premature aging.

What happened?

This is one more demonstration of man-made nutrition supplements gone wrong. Whereas naturally-occurring antioxidants in fruits and veggies are known to protect cells, the man-made versions in high doses don't have the same effect. It isn't yet known why or how man-made antioxidants affect the body, but for now you are better off without them.

Eating and depression

I've always wondered how people could enjoy fishing so much and this might explain it. Get this:

The higher the ratio of omega-6 fatty acids compared to omega-3s in your blood, the more likely you are to suffer from depression.

Omega-6 fatty acids are found in vegetable oils used in margarine, baked goods and snack foods. In the western world, consumption of omega-6 oils is 15 to 17 times that of omega-3s, which are found in fish, flaxseed and walnuts.

Ohio State University College of Medicine researchers found that participants suffering from major depression had blood levels of omega-6 that were nearly 18 times as high as their levels of omega-3. Those who didn’t have major depression had blood levels of omega-6 that were about 13 times their levels of omega-3s. The study was published online in Psychosomatic Medicine last month.

For a healthier omega-6/omega-3 balance, eat more flax, walnuts and fatty fish including salmon, mackerel or sardines and eat fewer processed foods made with vegetable oil. Fish oil supplements are also thought to help correct an imbalance.

Earth Day Diet Tip

“Do you want climate change with that?”

Imagine the voice at the drive-thru asking you this question when you order your cheeseburger. Sounds crazy, right? Not according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Their 2006 report warns us that our increasing consumption of animal foods (meat and dairy) is taking a heavy toll on the planet.

The problem is that livestock—while delicious—is tough on the environment in at least three different ways. First, they pollute our water, air and soil with manure and methane (a greenhouse gas that is 23 times more potent at trapping heat than carbon dioxide.) Second, the corn, soybeans and hay grown for livestock feed requires huge amounts of fertilizer, which generates large amounts of nitrous oxide. Finally, trees and rainforest lands are being sacrificed to create more land for livestock pasture. One extreme example is Brazil, where about 70 percent of onetime forest land is being used as pasture and to grow animal feed.

The UN report concludes that eating less meat and dairy foods is one step we could all take to help reduce global warming and other environmental damage.

Here’s the great news: what’s good for the planet is also great for your health. Replacing animal foods with plant foods—like fruits, veggies, grains, beans, nuts, seeds, legumes—prevents obesity, heart disease, diabetes, stroke and cancer. That’s one powerful habit!